Get On Board With B2B TikTok Marketing: 8 Content Ideas to Inspire You

Once considered a platform pretty much exclusively for people under the age of 25, the audience of TikTok is evolving. Turns out about 49% of the 150 million users in the U.S. are between the ages of 25 and 54. But what does this mean for B2B brands? Well, it means that TikTok might be a good opportunity for those brands to connect with their target audience.

Nearly four years have passed since a global lockdown launched TikTok into the social media stratosphere. Individual users and brands alike are well aware of the value the app offers, but plenty of B2B brands still remain wary as TikTok operates in a primarily B2C space. While there are tons of tips out there for how to create a TikTok strategy for B2C brands, there aren't as many specific content suggestions for B2B brands. But hope is not lost. There are plenty of ways for B2B brands to reach their target audience on TikTok, and understanding how to appeal to that audience will help them figure out what type of content to create. 

In this article, we will show you what B2B-specific TikTok looks like and share information to help you understand the TikTok platform and its effectiveness. We'll also highlight some current examples of B2B Marketing on TikTok to inspire your marketing efforts. 

Key Article Takeaways

1. TikTok will help your B2B brand broaden its audience and find new leads and sales.
2. Some of the challenges of B2B marketing on TikTok are creating witty and creative content and measuring ROI (return on investment) on important metrics like brand awareness.
3. Understanding your audience's content needs and focusing on bonding with them is the key to creating content that shows results on TikTok.
4. Consistently analyzing content and keeping up with the trends will keep your business relevant on TikTok.
5. Some types of content that will help you do well on TikTok include product tutorials, posts that highlight your company, employees, customers, brand value, and products, "how it's done" posts, and posts about the latest TikTok trends or challenges. 

Benefits of TikTok for B2B Brands

TikTok is currently one of the most popular and influential social media platforms and it comes with several benefits for your B2B brand. Here are the four major ones: 

1. Helps you build your audience - You need to go to where your audience is to get those eyeballs on your brand and business traffic that will eventually grow your business. TikTok, with its millions of monthly active users, is a gold mine of potential clients. 
2. Gives your audience a closer view of your brand - Gone are the days of uptight content and faceless corporations. Today's audience wants you to connect with them and show that you understand their needs. TikTok is a (mostly) fun, light-hearted platform that pushes you to humanize your content by creating authentic stories with engaging visuals.
3. Strengthens your brand voice - With TikTok, you get to refine your brand's voice to a tone that your audience can relate to, which helps you build a stronger brand personality.   
4. Increases your leads and sales - You need a TikTok content strategy that includes simple ways to win leads and sales on TikTok. Build a data-driven strategy by analyzing the performance of your videos so you can determine who is engaging with your videos and when for more successful marketing. When you're starting to use TikTok for B2B, begin by doing awareness campaigns to reach more users within your target audience and build a community.  

TikTok for B2B vs B2C

Most of the TikTok marketing tips in the market focus on how B2C marketers can thrive on TikTok, with little information that caters to B2B businesses. Some B2B businesses have become weary of giving TikTok a go as it can be tough to get a jump-start on the platform. 

Why is TikTok Easier for B2C Brands?

B2C brands often have an easier time marketing on TikTok compared to B2B brands for several reasons including:

• A wider audience - From the start, TikTok was geared towards the younger demographic thanks to predecessors, like Vine. Members of Generation Z have especially dominated the platform, a market that happens to be large and influential for B2C content. 
• A casual approach to advertising - TikTok's casual and entertainment marketing format is easier for B2C brands to navigate, compared to B2B brands that are used to more “professional” marketing tactics. B2B brands may find it difficult to promote and entertain at the same time. 
• The platform is mostly made of consumers - Most of TikTok's audience are there for fun or educational content and to discover something entertaining at the end of the day. That's why most B2B creators struggle to stand out among the crowd as they must keep up with cultural trends, social changes, and everything that impacts a consumer's day-to-day life.

Challenges That B2B Brands Have To Overcome

• Difficulty connecting with your audience - TikTok users expect fresh and witty content. A sponsored ad or simple post might not give the required result. Put your creative hat on and experiment with new formats to create exciting content. 
• Difficulties measuring success or Return on Investment (ROI) - According to a survey of 100 B2B marketing professionals conducted by Brafton, 60% of B2B marketers use TikTok primarily for brand reach and awareness, metrics that are tough to measure. Start by going for metrics like video impressions, likes, and shares at first. Be patient as you wait for your marketing efforts to begin generating more measurable indicators like leads and sales.

How To Create Content For B2B Tiktok

Strive to make your TikTok visible from the start so that your content picks up within three weeks or so. Otherwise, the TikTok algorithm might mistake your account as irrelevant. You have to get everything right from the start. Here's how to create content that finds its way to your users:

1. Understand the Audience: What Do They Want To See From B2B Brands?

If your content fails to match with a specific niche or TikTok audience from the start, it will evade the TikTok algorithm. Start by understanding who your audience is and their content needs to create posts that resonate with your target audience.

You can find your audience by:

• Listing the problems your company solves and how they fit into TikTok categories.
• Using hashtags. People who are looking for niche content have similar passions and interests. Using hashtags will work when you want to find similar audiences. 
• Researching your competitors on TikTok.

B2B audiences probably want to see content about your people, processes, and products. Create the type of content they will interact with by:

• Asking your followers on other social media platforms like Facebook about their TikTok content experiences and what they'd love to see in the future.
• Running a poll to find out the type of content your audience prefers, for instance, between trending songs and story videos.
• Researching or asking for recommendations on successful niche B2B TikTokers you can follow.

2. Focus On Creating A Stronger Bond With Your Audience

Authentic and unique content will get your audience's attention. Keep your content aligned with your audience's interests and brand values. You can use short clips to share tips, product demonstrations, or even success stories of your employees and customers. Other strategies include:

• Using industry influencers to market your content, also helps build trust.
• Participating in TikTok challenges to encourage audience participation and engagement. 

Specific B2B Content Ideas (with Examples)

1. Tutorials

You can use TikTok to give product demos, tutorials, and how-to videos to educate and inform potential customers. Here's an example of an interesting tutorial by NoGood Marketing. 

Notion's "how-to" video is also a good example of a B2B TikTok tutorial. Shopify has also built most of its TikTok content around tutorials.

2. Product Highlights

TikTok product highlights include creative tools that allow you to showcase and highlight your products' unique features or benefits to attract potential customers. You can also show the product in action, include testimonials, and add links to your products to drive sales. This HubSpot product highlight is a good example. 

3. Company Highlights

An introductory video about your company highlighting your unique selling point can help viewers learn something about your company. You can also do company highlight posts by:

• Creating a behind-the-scenes of your day-to-day business operations.
• Giving a workplace tour of your most notable facilities. 
• Telling the story behind your company in a humorous way that will make your brand more memorable.  
• Creating a video of some of your company's major achievements for the month, quarter, or year.

Semrush creates “day in the life videos” that show off some of the things that occur behind the scenes while still maintaining their sarcastic tone.

4. Employee Intros

Showcasing your employees and their work culture is a great way to humanize your brand. It creates a positive company image and fosters a connection with your potential customers. Here's a great example of an employee intro video by Load Creatives, a B2B digital marketing firm. 

5. "How It's Made" Posts

"How it's made" videos bring your audience into your world by showcasing the details of how they manufacture or produce their favorite products. This creates customer trust in your products, which is critical when you want to gain a loyal customer base. Check out an example of a "how it's made" video of MIZU perfumes, an all-natural perfume producer. The company services customers directly as well as wholesale sales to retailers. 

6. Customer Highlights 

Customer testimonials and success stories can drive sales for your B2B brand. Videos that showcase the impact your products or services have had on real customers help build trust with potential customers. An example is NEXT, a B2B insurance company that has notoriously used customer highlights to increase their engagement and conversions.

7. Brand Value Spotlights

Showcasing your brand values will build stronger connections with your customers and help you access new partnerships. Share stories that show your brand values in the application. For instance, spotlight employees who represent your company's brand values or your involvement in causes that support your brand values like charitable and environmental causes. Shopify’s TikTok showcasing interviews with business owners show their commitment to helping entrepreneurs achieve their business goals.

8. Participate in Relevant TikTok Trends

TikTok's algorithm promotes trending topics, which makes it a great platform for you to join relevant conversations, share your expertise on industry-related topics, and get those eyeballs on your brand. Cisco, an IT company,  made a witty and customized TikTok post showcasing its products during "World Emoji Day". 

How To Get Started With B2B Marketing On Tiktok

1. Plan Your Content

Earlier, we said that the first step to winning on TikTok is to determine your audience and understand their content needs. The next step is to create a content plan. Here are a few tips to help you create an effective plan:

• Note down as many potential content topics from your audience and competitor research. 
• Note the major industry hashtags and trends.
• Write down the holidays and important days of every month so you can create content around these as well. 
• Have a strategy to keep up with trends and challenges that are outside of your planned content.
• Find out the best times to post on TikTok to get maximum engagement from your audience. 
• Put together a content calendar containing all the content you intend to publish in the year, the exact dates and timelines, and the people responsible for the content.

2. Create A Backlog Of Content

Use your content calendar to start creating a backlog of content that you'll publish in the future. This will give you more time to be creative, brainstorm, and create content that your audience will appreciate.

3. Start Scheduling Content A Few Days per Week (Make Sure You're Posting When Your Audience Is Active)

Once you have a backlog of content, schedule the content for posting on your TikTok page a few days or weeks in advance. Consider posting at the times when your audience is most active. You can learn the best times to post on TikTok in 2024 and experiment to see what works for your brand.  

4. KPIs To Track

Set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to help you track the performance of your content. The baseline KPIs you can measure are the number of views, likes, and shares. Other KPIs include follower growth and click-through rate. More advanced KPIs to measure cost per lead, customer acquisition cost, monthly closed deals, new leads by source, and net profit margin.

5. Analyze And Adapt As You Go

You can use TikTok analytics to measure the performance of your posts as per your set KPIs. TikTok analytics shows the performance of your posts every 7, 28, and 60 days. You can also customize the periods. Once you hit the 7-day mark, the numbers will update constantly so you can receive fresh stats.

Monitor your content performance and adapt as you go to keep up with your audience's changing content needs. 

Start Using TikTok for B2B Marketing Today 

You no longer have to take yourself too seriously to create content that appeals to your audience. Don't miss the chance to reach a broader audience – start promoting your brand on TikTok. The type of content you create will determine your success on TikTok. Understanding the difference between B2B and B2C will help you create content that resonates with your target audience. Be keen on your audience's expectations and content needs. 

Start by creating a content plan, then go on to create a backlog of content that you can schedule for publishing. Analyze the performance of your content by using your set KPIs and find areas of improvement to ensure you are keeping up with the type of content that your audience wants to see.  

If you need help building and implementing a solid TikTok marketing strategy that will grow your B2B brand, our marketing professionals at Steel Croissant are here for you. We are a marketing agency that specializes in web development and marketing strategies for B2B brands. For the past 5 years, we have helped various B2B brands build winning marketing strategies. Contact us today to begin your journey to successful TikTok marketing.