The TikTok platform has instantly won the hearts of people from all over the world. If you are a marketer or run your own business, you can no longer ignore its advertising potential. The situation in Poland is no different – TikTok is visited by 13 million Poles a month, which places it just behind Instagram (15.7 million) in terms of the number of visits. Users, however, stay here longer – on average, we spend as much as 18 hours a month on the platform. It probably comes as no surprise that, with such statistics, TikTok has become one of the most important digital marketing channels. Some industries particularly stand to gain much from a presence there. One of these is the fashion sector.
How do you harness the potential of TikTok to promote your fashion brand? We’ll give you a hint!
Table of contents:
- Explore the tools the platform offers
- Bet on influencer marketing
- Take advantage of current trends
- Break down barriers
- Take care of the hashtags
Explore the tools the platform offers
Let’s start with the basics. TikTok, just like other social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram, offers businesses a wide range of ready-made tools that can support the promotion of brands. Just a few years ago, when writing about the TikTok phenomenon, we complained about the lack of interesting advertising formats available to business users. In recent years, the situation has changed dramatically – the options for creative promotion (paid and free) and measuring the effects of advertising activities (TikTok Analytics) are quite numerous.
In the garment industry in Poland, the following work particularly well:
- TopView – i.e. the adverts that are displayed to users as soon as the TikTok app is turned on full screen.
- Brand Takeovers – adverts lasting a maximum of 5 seconds (highly engaging without being intrusive and forcing the user to switch off the ad material).
- Branded Effects – allows a brand to create a branded 2D or 3D filter. It increases brand reach fantastically and is a very engaging format.
- Hashtag Challenge – the ability to create a personalised challenge for app users, such as a dance challenge. Great for increasing reach and recognition, and has huge viral potential.
- Duets – the option to create a duet with a selected user (e.g. an influencer or potential customer), i.e. a video that consists of two videos arranged on the screen side by side.
Bet on influencer marketing
TikTok has not only ‘created’ many characters who are now widely recognisable on the Polish Internet (it was here, for example, that Jeleniewska, Filip Zabielski and Ewa Zawada started out), but is constantly attracting more influencers from other platforms. Thus, it is becoming an increasingly popular platform for carrying out influencer marketing campaigns – mainly due to the growing number of users, as well as plenty of opportunities for creative collaborations. In the marketing of the fashion industry, creativity is particularly valued. Often, it is the memorable campaign that is the main factor influencing the purchasing decisions of Poles.
Influencer marketing on TikTok has another huge advantage. Polish users of this platform (most of whom are representatives of generation Z) are not interested in business accounts of brands. Young Poles tend to skip those classic, lengthy adverts, but instead are happy to suggest recommendations from their favourite online creators. They are happy to watch to the end, material where they see a well-known face.
It is worth testing different forms of influencer collaboration, for example:
- Ambassador programme (i.e. long-term collaboration between a brand and an influencer)
- A sponsored video or series of videos on the influencer’s own channel.
- Video campaign, i.e. paid advertising with an influencer (in various formats).
The potential of influencer marketing on TikTok is used today by most fashion brands operating on the Polish market, such as CCC or Mohito:
Take advantage of current trends
The most popular content on TikTok is all about trends. And these change like a kaleidoscope (the peak time is sometimes only a few days!). Therefore, in order to thoughtfully enrich the content published by a brand, it is necessary to stay up-to-date. There are, however, plenty of pitfalls: the trends used must be popular with the target group, the videos created by the brand must respond to the trends relatively quickly, and the video itself should be done well (according to the principle: if you don’t have time to create a script and produce a video, it’s better not to undertake the task at all).
Where to look for trends? The answer is obvious – on… TikTok. It is mandatory to follow popular hashtags. Pay particular attention to two types of trends: comedy trends (here you can show the company’s crew, office life, the specifics of working in the fashion industry, but also stories from the customers’ lives and their adventures in shopping for clothes) and trends related to the fashion industry itself. TikTok is full of fashion trends. At one time, for example, the trends #strawberrydress, #cottagecore and #cleangirl reigned supreme here.
Don’t bore your audience
TikTok demands brilliance and speed from its creators. The average user of this platform does not have time for long, boring content – videos of several seconds dominate. Your audience expects content that evokes some emotion (e.g. amusement, emotion or curiosity), inspires them to do something or provides them with knowledge.
In the Polish fashion industry, these work quite well:
Tutorials
An absolute must-have on every fashion brand’s Polish TikTok account. Fashion tutorials, styling suggestions, OOTD (Outfit Of The Day), GRWM (Get Ready With Me), tutorials, fashion tips, lifehacks and clothing trends – we guarantee that this is what people will be looking for on your brand profile. You only have to look at the dominant hashtags to see how many of them are specifically about fashion.
Behind-the-scenes films
TikTok is the ideal place for fashion brands to show their ‘human’ face – who works on it, what office day-to-day life is like, new collection launches or photo shoots. So it’s a good idea to treat this platform as a space for showing a peek into the behind-the-scenes life of the brand.
Creative editing
The brutal truth is that on TikTok, even the most valuable content will disappear into the shadows of others if it is not packaged properly. What do we mean? Creative editing – dynamic editing, interesting transitions and catchy, popular music (preferably that trending on TikTok).
Break down barriers
Communication on TikTok is governed by its own rules and often forces brands to make a small revolution in their marketing strategy – so that their profile starts to fulfill certain goals. Why? Because the platform is driven by young users who are more resistant to advertising messages than older generations and are primarily looking for entertainment online. Regardless of how ‘serious’ your brand looks on Instagram or Facebook – on TikTok it will be necessary to shed the ‘snobbery’ and give it a human face. Preferably the face of a young person.
How do you do this? The key is to treat your TikTok audience like an entirely new target group. It may be necessary to develop a new communication strategy, create new advertising slogans, do new photo shoots and come up with new content ideas. Look for modern methods of reaching young customers – embedded in their culture full of trends, memes, emoji and pop culture references. If you don’t have any experience in the Polish market, it’s worth enlisting the help of an experienced advertising agency to support you in building your communications to young Polish customers.
Take care of the hashtags
Hashtags are a must for communication on all social media platforms. On TikTok, however, they play an even more important role in positioning a profile and reaching a target audience. Why? Because most users don’t just view videos from the accounts they follow. A more popular way of using the platform is to watch videos from “For You” – which is a space where it is the algorithm that drops off suggested content to users.
Analyse what hashtags your competitors are using and what hashtags are currently popular and have potential with your target audience. It is also worth creating a company hashtag by which customers can search for your content or content related to your brand. A profile that makes great use of the power of relevant hashtags in its communication is the Polish fashion brand Sinsay.
Hashtags used: #sinsay #sinsayoutfit #ootd #fashiontiktok #outfitideas #weekendfashion and #allwhiteeverything.
TikTok, despite its rapidly growing popularity, still remains a puzzle platform for many Polish marketers. Indeed, understanding the mechanisms of algorithms and the specifics of TikTok users is not a simple task. If you are looking for a social media agency from Poland that has experience in implementing complex campaigns on TikTok, write to us.