TikTok marketing for Shopify stores: How to get it right

We’ve all heard of TikTok by now and the hype surrounding its potential for Shopify stores. It now has more daily users than Instagram, and those numbers are about to increase even more. So, if you want to move your business forward, you should think about using TikTok.

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TikTok is a great place for brands to advertise their products and services because so many people use it. Even though Facebook is still pretty popular, younger people prefer social media sites like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat, which focus more on visuals than Facebook.

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So, if you want to reach these kinds of people, keep reading 👇. We’re going to talk about leveraging TikTok to get into that market.

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The key to successful TikTok advertising isn't just making an ad; you also need to know how to make it reach and engage as many people as possible. In this article, we'll detail how to use TikTok to market your Shopify store.

How Shopify stores benefit from TikTok marketing

Make more people aware of your brand and product

Instagram came out in 2011, and it reached 1 billion users seven years later. Pretty impressive! TikTok, on the other hand, was able to reach the same milestone in only five years (or four years if you start counting from the time it went international), reaching 1 billion monthly active users in September 2021.

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Its huge growth alone gives brands a lot of room to raise awareness of their brands and products.

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Chances are that if you’re reading this, you’re probably already on TikTok, along with your Boss (and your Boss’ Boss). But if the number of people who use it isn't enough to convince you, think about this: TikTok also paid for a study that found that 52% of its users found new products through its ads. About 61% said they think TikTok ads are different from ads on other top social and video platforms. Lastly, it will give you access to an audience that isn't much like Facebook's. This will help you reach more people overall.

Encourage purchase decisions

TikTok videos help move users further down the sales funnel because they fit right into the platform. Feed ads on TikTok are like any other content on the app: they take up the whole screen and have sound on. Because the ad takes up the whole screen, users are less likely to be distracted compared to Facebook feed ads. Fewer things to distract people means more sales.

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How to Organically Promote your Shopify Store on TikTok

Organic TikTok marketing is about making content that people want to share with their friends and followers.

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With organic TikTok marketing, you don't pay for ads or promotions to get people talking about your brand or business. The idea behind this is that if you build up a big enough audience, they will share your content with their followers. This will make more people aware of and interested in your brand.

Use your profile page to tell your story and show off your products

People usually think of making or watching music videos or comedy sketches when they think of posting on TikTok. But you can also share other kinds of content on TikTok, like reviews of products, recommendations, or a look behind the scenes of your brand.

Make content that is interesting and will stick with your audience

For an organic TikTok campaign to work, you need to start by making good content that people want to watch, comment on, and like. You can do this by making videos that are fun, educational, or both. People are more likely to watch your videos and share them with others if they are interesting.

Create a unique brand identity

Making a unique brand identity should be one of the most important parts of your organic TikTok eCommerce marketing plan. This means that you should make sure your brand is easy to recognize and easy to remember. It also means that you have to make sure your products are different from those of your competitors.

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You need to know how people use TikTok and what they want to see on the platform before you can make content for it. Take some time to watch videos and see what kind of high-performing content is out there.

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Then, try making your own videos that follow these styles and patterns. If your video does well, you know you've found something that people on this platform find interesting.

Join popular trends

When it comes to organic marketing for TikTok, it's important to know what's popular so you can use it to your advantage in your business model and product lines. Trends come and go quickly, so it's important not to get caught up in something that might not be relevant when it's time for sales or holiday shopping.

Use hashtags that relate to your brand and are used by other brands in your niche

Using relevant hashtags in your TikTok posts is one of the easiest ways to get noticed. This will make it easier for people to find your content on the app when they are looking for similar content. Think about the hashtags that go with your brand or product (like "fashion," "beauty," etc.) and use them when you can, but don't use them too much!

Respond to comments

TikTok is a social platform, so it's important to interact with your audience and respond to comments. This can be as simple as saying "Thanks for watching!" or as complicated as answering questions about how to use your product.

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If you want to get people to interact with you on TikTok, add a call to action to the description of your video that asks people to comment on their experience with your brand, product, or just the video you posted.

Make filters with your brand name

The best way to use TikTok is to make filters with your brand name that can be used in any video on the app. These filters are great for brand awareness because they let you add your logo or other branding elements to a video without interrupting the user's experience. What do you like best about them? They are free of charge.

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The future of ecommerce will be based on augmented reality. It can make products more interesting and memorable for customers by giving them a sense of life. AR has a lot of potential for ecommerce. It lets you give your customers an immersive experience no matter where they are. By using AR, you can get customers more involved, reach new customers, and cut down on returns.

Hold contests and hand out prizes

Contests on TikTok are a great way to get people interested and involved. Giveaways are a great way to get your audience more involved, build relationships with influential people, and spread the word about your brand.

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You can run a contest by asking people to send in videos or photos that show how they creatively use your product. This will give you important information about how customers interact with your brand and help you improve it over time.

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Running a contest or giving something away is a more engaging way to get people to know about your brand on the platform. If you try this strategy, keep in mind that, like other social media sites, you must follow TikTok's rules and guidelines.

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Still, contests and giveaways can help you reach a large number of people naturally. You won't have to pay for ads, but the products you give away will cost you money.

Ask questions and curate content

The community on TikTok is active, so it makes sense for brands to join in by asking questions in their stories and comments. This lets them interact with customers and gain followers in real-time.

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As we've talked about, TikTok is a unique platform with a large number of users who want to connect with you. The more you talk to people, the more popular you'll become, which will bring more people to your eCommerce store.

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TikTok is a great place for Shopify store owners to start getting more people to follow their stores. The app is also great because it has a wide range of users. Brands are now putting money into this marketing platform because it can be a great way to reach people from different groups.

Best practices for marketing on TikTok

Here are a few ways you can make your TikTok marketing campaigns work better.

Be picky about the influencers you work with

Influencers on TikTok can be either verified or not verified. If you want to make an ad campaign that goes viral, it can be very helpful to have a verified influencer on your side. But even influencers who haven't been checked out can be very helpful if they have a lot of interaction with their followers. Under Users, you can find a list of TikTok influencers in your niche.

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Do some research before starting a partnership with an influencer to see if they're a good fit for your brand. Follow them for a while and watch how they interact with people. You can also look at their old videos.

Use Smart Video for editing

TikTok Smart Video is an AI-powered tool for editing videos. It looks at the videos and chooses clips and music to make them better. Smart Video is the way to go if you want to edit videos easily and save money at the same time.

Remarketing campaigns should be used

Remarketing is a good way to get a better return on investment (ROI) because it keeps your ads in front of your prospects' eyes and encourages them to take action. It's a great way to connect with people who have already shown interest in your brand and get them involved. TikTok lets you do remarketing by making custom audiences based on website traffic, engagement, app activity, and customer data files.

Use UTMs to keep track of success

If you run ads on TikTok to get more people to visit your website, Urchin Tracking Modules (UTMs) can tell you how much traffic TikTok is sending your way. Use the UTMs to track the performance of your campaigns in Google Analytics and figure out which ones need to be improved. It's important to use UTMs to get accurate data because ad platforms tend to overstate how many conversions they get.

How to set up a sales funnel for TikTok

The best way to get all of the above benefits from TikTok is to set up a sales funnel. Now, let's talk about how to build your entire funnel in TikTok, starting at the top and working our way down.

Top of funnel 

"Top of the funnel" strategies help spread the word about a brand or product, in the language of digital marketing. Even though TikTok's algorithm is great for organic reach, there are a few other things you can do to improve your results.

Influencers

TikTok is a great place to do influencer marketing, which is why so many people like to use it. What's the best? For almost anything you can think of, there's a TikTok space and an influencer for it.

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Influencers can help you market your products in a way that makes your brand stand out from the rest. Also, when followers of influencers see them promoting your products, they are more likely to trust you by association. A normal ad won't be able to help you with this.

TikTok Ads

TikTok advertising is another low-cost way to get leads at the top of the sales funnel. Since marketers don't trust TikTok as much as they do other platforms, it doesn't have as many ads and isn't as competitive.

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But, like many other platforms, the app has different kinds of ads:

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• TopView Ads: About three seconds after you open the app, these ads show up at the top of the "For You" page.
• Brand Takeover: An ad that takes up the whole page when you open the app (after the loading screen). The brand takeover ad can have a link to an external website, an app store download, or even your TikTok shop (if you've been approved).
• In-feed ads: Standard ads that users see when they scroll through videos in the For You home feed.

Aside from the standard ad placements listed above, brands can also use the ad space in the Discover banner, branded Hashtag challenges, and branded effects.

Middle of funnel

You can start to use your newfound attention in the middle of the sales and marketing funnel. To get people to care more about your brand and products, you need to interact with them in more than one place. Here's the right way to do it:

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Talk to the people who follow you.

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Like it or not, engagement metrics matter. Most, if not all, of the algorithms that run social media sites like content that gets people talking. More people will see your post if it gets a lot of attention.

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So, how can you make sure that your posts start conversations? Like your comments and answer them. When you reply to comments on your posts, you also encourage the person who made the comment to keep going. This helps build a relationship between your business and your customers, so they're more likely to remember you and buy from you.

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Cross-promotion and getting your followers to follow you on other platforms is another important part of any social media marketing plan, including TikTok.

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Your target audience will have a lot to do with which other social media platforms you choose to cross-promote. But (and this is a big deal), you can connect your Instagram account or YouTube channel to TikTok. Both of these will show up on your profile as a separate icon next to the button that lets people follow you.

Bottom of funnel

The magic takes place at the bottom of the funnel. It's the part of the customer journey when people have heard of you, like what you have to offer, and are thinking about buying from you. They just need that little extra push to get people to buy. Use these tips to help you close the deal:

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Link to your Shopify store or talk about it in your content.

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Most of the time, just linking to your store isn't enough to give people that extra push they need to finish. 

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How Cross-Store Selling grows your Shopify store

Do you need content and products to promote on TikTok? Try using Cross-Store Selling. With Cross-Store Selling, your brand can sell products from other stores and vice versa.

Sell your products on other Shopify stores (and vice versa)

With Carro, we have a directory of the biggest brands for you to partner with. But if you can’t decide which brands are the best fit, we have a tailored recommendation service where we introduce you to brands so you can begin working together.

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The best part is you don’t have to pay for products like you would with traditional wholesaling. This gives you the freedom to choose different SKUs to see what complements your existing product catalog.

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"Take my word for it, if you install Carro, you are going to see what I’ve seen. Which is a dramatic increase to average order value, especially on orders that contain Carro products, which for us is over 80% increase to AOV." 

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Ryan Pamplin, Founder & CEO of Blendjet

Virtual inventory makes fulfillment easy

Brand partnerships are not like wholesaling. With Carro, you don’t have to buy products from your partners. Instead, orders are automatically sent to your partner brands so they can handle fulfillment themselves. 

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“Before we joined Carro, we had put our company on the market. We thought we needed capital to expand our traditional wholesaling. Now, we’re able to meet our goals without having any cash come out of pocket. We’re tripling and quadrupling the numbers of units that we move because we have access to so much more inventory.”

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Amy Richardson-Golia, June & January

Find new bundling & upsell opportunities to increase AOV

Perhaps the most exciting reason to leverage Cross-Store Selling is that it’s the best way to grow your Shopify store in the long run. By working collaboratively with other brands, your brand will set itself up for success. Your Shopify store will become THE destination for your niche. 

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One of the best reasons to shop on Amazon is convenience. Being able to buy everything you need in one place is a powerful motivator. Wouldn’t you love it if your Shopify store was the go-to place for your customers’ needs?

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"In addition to a nice contribution to the bottom line, it was also one of the most highly-engaged social posts for the year." 

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David Krimper, Director of Ecommerce, Manduka

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To learn more about how Carro can help your Shopify store grow, check us out on the Shopify App Store.

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