In 30 seconds:
- The trouble with going viral on TikTok? Every day, someone else will go viral too. That can make you viral – then forgettable.
- How can you ensure your TikTok marketing hits the right note, and builds a longer lasting relationship with your consumers?
- Our experts discuss how to drive consideration – plus, get more insights in our report.
In our recent Fanbytes LIVE event, we focused on how to maintain momentum and build a long term, consistent Gen Z marketing strategy on TikTok.
The second part of our event was dedicated to using TikTok to promote positive brand consideration and thereby create a stronger brand-consumer relationship.
In a social media world where attention is paramount and attention spans are shortening, brands are often prioritising capturing attention over maintaining it. But this approach runs the risk of higher churn as consumers care less about your brand – and remember it less.
In our panel, we discussed the importance of consideration campaigns, how to create them, and how to measure them. Because while it’s the step that’s least understood in the marketing funnel, it’s the most important element to foster a self-perpetuating, loyal brand community.
Below are some of our top takeouts.
1. Consideration is harder to quantify - but it’s vital
Rarely do consumers buy from a brand instantly upon seeing its products for the first time, and TikTok’s majority Gen Z audience are even more likely to conduct research on products before they buy. How can marketers create TikTok content that not only captures interest, but prompts deeper actions – like research – and in doing so, create a lasting impression? Lauren Gill, Social Media & Communications Manager, Deliveroo explained, “part of our consideration strategy is to shift from functional content to emotional.” Bean Urquhart, Creative Strategist, Fanbytes by Brainlabs agreed; “consideration is where you’ve inspired an emotion amongst the viewer or the consumer. They don’t just know of your brand, but they have connected to your brand.”
2. Utilise TikTok communities
Marketers on TikTok are at an advantage when inspiring emotional connection because the app fosters content communities where users are brought together through their interests, rather than their real-life social connections. Fanbytes’ Bean explained, “there’s more potential for consideration because you can reach people by tapping into their communities – i.e. what they care about.” Jack Francis, Social Media Manager, eBay added, “a huge part of our thinking when creating a brief or TikTok is, how we can make that a little bit more conversational? Trying to get people talking is a big part of what we aim for.”
3. Bring the IRL relationship with your brand online
Common interests are a key hook; another is common experiences. To drive consideration, brands should consider their offline interactions to create a relatable or supportive narrative. Lauren from Deliveroo explained, “tapping into rituals is like a massive thing for us. Most of us have ordered on Deliveroo – what’s that ordering process?” Jack from eBay, meanwhile, discussed how the marketplace connects with different kinds of users. “We have the task of appealing to sellers and getting people buying as well.” He continued, “working with independent sellers to support their businesses is a really nice way of us showing up authentically.”
4. Native content gets the emotional message across
TikTok’s recommendation algorithm means messaging that inspires an emotional response is more likely to succeed, both as an awareness and a consideration ploy. Fanbytes’ Bean explained, “with Instagram, people will find your brand because they actively seek it out. It doesn’t have the same discoverability. Whereas on TikTok it can pop up because of the algorithm. That means you can be a little bit more exploratory with consideration.” She continued, “With Instagram, you are presenting your brand. But on TikTok, you can look for your niche and then reach them much more authentically.” Jack from eBay added, “a lot of people are used to a more stylised and polished social media approach, which when it comes to TikTok, is something you have to strip back.”
5. Influencers are your secret weapon
Brand scepticism is particularly strong amongst TikTok’s majority audience, Gen Z. But where brands may struggle to make an impact, influencers can reinforce it. Fanbytes’ Bean explained, “the genius thing about influencer marketing is that it’s one of the few bridges between brand and consumer. And although we know that they’re being paid, if it’s an influencer we like, we still believe what they’re saying.” Jack from eBay agreed. “They understand your brand, they understand what you want to do and are carrying that forward.” Lauren from Deliveroo added, “brands using influencer content as paid ads come across as really native – and that’s interesting to keep an eye on.”
6. Assessing consideration isn’t simple - but it is possible
Whereas numbers of views or conversions are easy to quantify, the impact of consideration campaigns are harder to assess. How should brands approach this? Fanbytes’ Bean advised “looking at comments is an amazing way to really see how people have engaged with your campaign.” Lauren from Deliveroo added, “when people tag people in comments, it’s a great way to understand if they want to share it.” Meanwhile, Jack from eBay advised, “TikTok offers consumer empathy studies and brand lift studies. […] Run one before you do a paid campaign, then afterwards to monitor how people recognise your content, how they remembered it and how they engage with it to quantify on top of the face value metric.”
7. Think like a creator to build community
We’re always advising brands to “think like creators” to effectively engage TikTok audiences. But where brands still tend to forget this is *after* they’ve posted their content. Influencers don’t switch off after their content is live – and neither should your brand. Lauren from Deliveroo noted, “it’s your duty to keep that conversation going, to increase the level of consideration.” Keep a keen eye on the comments section, not just for sentiment analysis, but for further opportunities to connect and grow your relationship with consumers. For example, Lauren adds, “you can probably see one of the content pieces that we’ve done, in the comments someone wrote, “We need a part two!” So then we created a ‘part two’ and it got amazing results because it shows that we’re listening.”
Get more of our TikTok advice
From generating widespread awareness, to sales conversions and even advocacy, TikTok can revolutionise the way customers experience and interact with your brand.
Our event, ‘My Brand Went Viral on TikTok – Now What?’ covered awareness, consideration, conversion and advocacy, examining how brands can use TikTok to transform their relationships with consumers – and even be part of the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt phenomenon.
Read the full event takeouts by clicking the button below.
Consideration in the TikTok marketing funnel
Ask any marketer to draw you a picture of the sales funnel and you’ll get virtually the same picture. For a few years now, social media has provided definitive means to impact the “consideration” phase – namely by providing information for research, social validation and emotional connection. However, TikTok is transforming this.
Evaluating products, services and brands on TikTok is unlike any other social media platform. This is partly due to the app’s method of content recommendation, which is agnostic of the user’s relationship to the content creator, and is instead based on their interests and interactions in the app. This is providing a new pathway for brands to reach users via the subjects that will naturally increase consideration.
But this isn’t the only way TikTok is changing the consideration game. TikTok’s capabilities as a search engine means users are employing the social media platform to inform their research in entirely new ways; for example, searching a product’s SKU to see videos of their peers giving their ratings and recommendations.
In this way, TikTok fuses research with social validation – and even emotional connection, as users feel more empowered to share their personal perspective. This, in turn, can transform the act of buying into a community experience – furthering consideration and ultimately, leading to increased conversion, then online advocacy – which encourages others to join.
So whilst the traditional marketing diagram may resemble a funnel, on TikTok it’s something altogether different.
TikTok is enabling a new customer journey
Before TikTok, the consideration stage was a lonelier place to be. TikTok’s interactive, community-led focus has transformed this.
It’s therefore vital that brands rescue this element of their campaigns from the ‘forgotten’ pile, and re-examine its importance. Because while it’s harder to quantify, on TikTok in particular, it can make all the difference.
Now what?
Check out our event takeouts from ‘My Brand Went Viral on TikTok – Now What?’ for a fuller picture of our advice from the day.
Alternatively, get in touch to find out more about how Fanbytes by Brainlabs can deliver stand-out TikTok marketing for your brand, from influencer marketing services, to TikTok account growth, content creation and full-funnel TikTok marketing strategies.
Want to read more of our advice for growing your business on TikTok? Check out our articles below:
