It’s no secret that video is taking over and has been for a long time. People connect with videos more than they do with pictures because videos are, well, more “real.” However, learning how to record and edit quality videos is daunting and has kept a lot of handmade sellers from producing videos for their audience.
This is where Musical.ly and the legacy that stemmed from it come into play. By eliminating all of the disadvantages that came with YouTube marketing and adding all of the advantages that came with apps like Instagram and Snapchat, we now have an easier and quicker way to share short, relevant videos with our audience.
The Unique Advantage of Short-Form Video Marketing
As a handmade seller, being able to market yourself and your products is crucial to success. We’ve discussed this topic many times before on the Handmade Seller blog and in our magazine, but despite understanding the importance of effective marketing, it can still be difficult to find ways to market that suit your schedule and style.
From posting ‘how it’s made’ videos to personal stories and daily life vlogs, being able to communicate to your audience in a minute or less each day is a great way to promote yourself and your brand without boring your target audience or bombarding them.
According to a recent study by Microsoft Corp., the average adult attention span for marketing purposes is precisely eight seconds. This means that being able to grab a viewer’s attention for a ten-minute YouTube video or wordy blog is highly unlikely. Instead, by sticking to short-form, engaging content, you can keep your customers on the hook for longer and attract new ones.
This doesn’t even account for the sheer amount of viewers on both Reels and TikTok that are already there and looking for interesting people to follow. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, TikTok not only has 689 million daily users in the United States but also the highest social media engagement rates per post in the world.
Similarly, because Reels is part of Instagram, you can expect to have the 1.074 billion Instagram users at your reach when posting Reels content. Furthermore, according to information provided by Billion Dollar Boy, “When calculated in the standard way for Instagram (likes and comments over followers), Reels see an average engagement rate of 2.7%, vs 2.2% for main feed videos.” This makes its efficacy for marketing even as an addition to your current posting practices very high.
TikTok and Reels Success Stories
One of the first success stories you might find when looking on the TikTok business page is the Slate & Tell story. As an independent jewelry store started by an artist, finding a devoted following on any social media platform can be difficult. However, as TikTok reveals, “By leveraging TikTok For Business’s easy-to-use Smart Video Creative tool and optimizing campaigns to events, they created fun and engaging videos that reached 4M TikTok users and resulted in 1,000 sales, helping them achieve their goal of 2X return-on-ad-spend within just 6 months.”
Similarly, although Chipotle may not be a part of the handmade industry, Chipotle’s #GuacDance challenge holds the title of highest-performing branded challenge in TikTok history to date. The restaurant sold over 802,000 sides of guac as a result—the most in its history. As NCR puts it, “The popular platform has an impressive 52.1 percent engagement rate and saw $78 million in in-app purchases during global lockdowns alone, signaling high buyer intent within the platform.
Also, according to SportsPro Media, “Instagram Reels has gotten NBA franchises 22% higher engagement than the average engagements they’ve had from standard Instagram posts or Instagram Stories.”
The 5 Principles of Effective TikTok and Reels Marketing Campaigns
1. Follow the Trends
Both TikTok and Instagram have clear and definitive trends that change each and every day. By paying attention to these trends and using them to your benefit as a brand, you’ll get more views and potentially end up with a viral video that can lead to more publicity for your brand. As the National Retail Federation states, “Some business owners, such as @CeoLiv or @KyloSquash, have reported a large increase in sales as a result of TikTok. They have been able to increase production, pay off bills, provide for their families and even help others by offering tips and consulting on how to start a small business.”
2. Be Vulnerable and Personable
From sharing your company’s story to simply responding to every comment on your posts, being yourself goes a long way on both of these video platforms. The main reason for this is the demographic found on these apps and what they look for in the companies they support.
As Emmanuel Faber, chief executive of Danone, France’s biggest food group, said in his speech at the CAGNY industry conference, “Consumers are looking to ‘pierce the corporate veil’ in our industry and to look at what’s behind the brand. The guys responsible for this are the millennials. Millennials have a completely new set of values. They want committed brands with authentic products. Natural, simpler, more local and if possible small, as small as you can.”
With this said, being authentic in your branding on these video platforms is the key to not just marketing yourself and your business but proving your value as a brand to ‘trust’ as the market shifts in favor of small business owners.
3. Share Tutorials and ‘How It’s Made’ Videos of Your Products
Some of the most popular videos on TikTok and Reels are videos showing how to make DIY items at home and how handmade products such as jewelry, candles, candy mixes, and resin products are made. Using this information to your benefit, you can start posting content that falls into this category.
A great example of a video that falls into this category and received over 5.6 million views because of it can be seen below courtesy of GG’s Candles, a handmade seller on TikTok:
By showing exactly how her Lemon Tea Candle was made in her video, she gained millions of views and so many followers with simply a few minutes of her time to show for it.
4. Use the Right Hashtags
Every handmade seller on TikTok and Reels should look up the right hashtags for their industry and for small business owners in general before starting to post. Using the right hashtags could quite literally lead to thousands of more views on each video.
Some of the current most popular hashtags for small businesses and handmade sellers on TikTok and Reels are:
- #SmallBusinessCheck
- #business
- #hustlecheck
- #businesschallenge
- #supportme
- #motivation
- #entrepreneur
- #etsyshop
- #handmade
- #supportsmallbusiness
- #shoplocal
- #localbusiness
Tip: Use hashtags for your city and state as well!
5. Share Your Videos on all Your Social Media Accounts
The final principle of a great marketing campaign on Reels and Tiktok is to share your content on your other social media accounts as well. TikTok makes it easy to export videos and upload them to Instagram. However, there have been rumors going around that Instagram won’t send traffic to videos uploaded from TikTok. So here’s what you can do: download the video from TikTok to your phone, then use a “TikTok logo remover too.” Then upload that video to Instagram.
Best of luck with your video marketing!!
