Yes, TikTok Might be a Valuable Medium for Your B2B Business

Marketers in this space aren’t used to hearing this, but yes: TikTok could be a valuable tool for them. In developing a TikTok strategy for B2B brands, it’s especially important to understand how and when users are shopping from platform-to-platform.

But take note — it is definitely a channel worth exploring.

The ‘early bird’ effect

Nicole Penn, President of the EGC Group, says it’s especially important to consider a TikTok strategy if there are no other competitors already on the platform.

“You’re getting the benefit of being the first ones there. The way TikTok works, you build these organic likes, you don’t have to pay for them like you do on like Facebook or Instagram. So if done well, it is possible to build early organic traction.”

Penn agrees that there’s often this attitude in B2B about TikTok and other social media video content that the products — especially those in enterprise tech — might be too niche. But it’s not as if there isn’t a market for niche content.

“Even in my industry, you’ll find people giving digital marketing courses to other businesses because it’s all organic, you don’t have to pay for your communities like you do with the other big guys.”

Breaking TikTok

So how do B2B marketers make the most of something like TikTok, where most users aren’t necessarily using it first to find information about enterprise tech products, software, or services?

If you feel overwhelmed and incapable of producing content on your own, you don’t have to take it all on yourself. Penn recommends starting with an agency and/or an ambassador.

“Companies use us to find the right ambassadors who have a built in organic following, because if you’re just joining the platform, you’re just not going to have the community to talk to,” Penn says.

“We work with a B2B beer brand, and they work with ambassadors in the brewery space. We’ve helped them find that group. And there’s whole conversations about how beer is made and manufactured and shipped. So finding the people that have the following is like number one.”

Usually, that takes the form of a paid relationship, but it’s one which results in content that you don’t just have to use on TikTok alone.

But what do you tell your content creators to make, whether they’re in-house or contracted?

“People really do enjoy ‘how it’s made’ content. So anything you could do like that, even if it’s just code related, how something’s put together, it’s super interesting and does perform really well.”

Related: Technology Buyers’ Social Media Preferences: How Manufacturers Can Best Reach Them

“We are working with a healthcare tech company, and a lot of that content is either from the leadership team, or it’s behind the scenes of how the whole platform is built. And there is an interest in that.”

In the enterprise technology field, this could take the form of dramatized use case, too — as long as there’s some tongue-in-cheek tone to it, something which isn’t afraid to make fun of itself a bit and knows that it is a promotion.