Social media platforms have been an indispensable component of modern-day marketing strategies, revolutionizing how businesses reach and engage their customers, as well as improving their service delivery practices from insights derived from the data these applications offer.
Within the social media marketing space, video marketing and social commerce are one of the few trends gaining traction among the predominantly young user base, with effectiveness gauged via a few metrics that include reach, engagement, clicks, and conversions.
According to a study by Sprout Social, the most important metrics for social media marketers are engagement (36%), followed by clicks (35%) and conversions (29%).
As the Philippines approaches the summer season heat, short-form video platform TikTok has released a few insights that will provide businesses an idea on the trends they can leverage on to maximize their customer reach and engagement.
TikTok says that 56% of their platform users say that ads lead them to discover new products or brands, while 48% of TikTok users plan on making a purchase on or from TikTok in the next 3 months.
“There is an opportunity for many different categories. What we see on TikTok is that there is TikTok for everyone. The report highlights travel, food and beverage as well as fashion, as important categories that consumers are looking at,” said TikTok Philippines vertical lead Life Dawn Cervero.
The platform’s in-app shopping feature ‘TikTok Shop’ was initially launched in the United States in November 2020, allowing users to browse and purchase products directly within the app. Since then, it has expanded to providing personalized recommendations, in-app checkout, product discovery, and live shopping.
The TikTok Marketing Science Global Community and Self-Expression study conducted in 2021 revealed that 73% of TikTok audience say they feel deeper connections to brands who have a presence on TikTok versus other sites and apps they use.
“With TikTok, there are infinite opportunities to convert as brand discovery and community content work together to create a loop that amplifies reach, awareness, and participation. This leads to greater conversion as users are inspired to try products, promote them on the platform, and contribute to sales growth,” she added.
Within the TikTok app, there are six primary facets available to businesses as opportunities to convert: enhancing discovery via ad solutions and the ‘For You’ page, boosting purchase intent and willingness to buy, amplifying brand awareness, providing organic content through customer testimonials, facilitating customer participation with the brand’s growth, and further fostering community building.
Last year, TikTok published a report which says that shoppertainment — or formally known as content-driven commerce — has the potential to uncover $1 trillion in market value for brands in the Asia Pacific region alone.
Meanwhile, TikTok’s latest annual trend forecast reminds brands that the most effective messages on TikTok are uplifting, funny and personalized, or entertaining for their audiences.
