TikTok Guide for Fitness Businesses

Why Fitness Businesses Should Be Leveraging TikTok

« Blog | Written by Kathryn Dressler | | (0) Comments

If you haven’t heard by now—TikTok is a pretty big deal. In fact, a recent report from Cloudflare announced that TikTok has overtaken Google as the world’s most visited online destination. Read that again. Yes, it’s really that popular.

So, if you’ve been wondering whether or not you should be using TikTok to promote your fitness business, read on to learn more about how TikTok works, what makes it so undeniably popular, and how a TikTok marketing plan can be used to grow your fitness business, keep your fitness brand engaging and relevant, and improve your bottomline.  

TikTok: A Brief History & Overview

The TikTok app was launched in 2017 for iOS and Android in most major global markets—and today, the social media platform boasts one billion active users across the world. Comparatively, it took Facebook and Instagram almost a decade to reach a user base that size.

While TikTok’s initial user base was almost entirely Gen Zs (born between 1997 and 2012), the app’s popularity surged worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic and has since captured the attention of users of all ages. 

In the U.S., TikTok’s user base is still dominated by Gen Zs, but it’s been attracting a strong following of millennials, too. As of April 2021, 48% of U.S. adults between 18-29 use TikTok, compared to 20% of adults between 30-49, and 14% of adults between 50–64, according to Pew Research Center.

TikTok’s tremendous growth, which was achieved within just a few short years, make the app one of the fastest-growing ever in terms of the percentage of the market it’s captured since its launch. And with the fitness industry’s transition to digital in the wake of the pandemic, a record-number of consumers are now turning to social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook as their primary sources of online fitness content.

How Does TikTok Work?

TikTok is a free, short-form video and social media app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, and is available for download on both Apple and Android devices. The major difference between TikTok and other social media platforms like YouTube and Vimeo, is that TikTok is based on small, short video clips.

Up until recently, TikTok videos were limited to 60 seconds in length; however, the app recently expanded video length up to 3 minutes long.

How to Create Longer TikTok Videos: A Step-By-Step Guide

If you’re wondering how to create longer TikTok videos to promote your fitness business, just follow this simple step-by-step guide:

  1. Open the TikTok app
  2. Click the plus (+) icon, and select the 3-minutes option. Then press the “Record” button to start creating your 3-minute video.
  3. Once you’re done recording, if you want to upload the video, simply click the “Upload” button.
  4. After recording and uploading your TikTok video, you have the option to add effects, transitions, and other edits as needed. Then, click “Save” to save the changes.
  5. Enter a description for the video, and be sure to include a few relevant hashtags.
  6. Once you’ve modified the output settings and completely finished with your video, click “Post” to share it.

If you encounter any issues recording or uploading your TikTok videos, make sure your app is updated to the latest version.

How Can I Use TikTok to Promote My Fitness Brand?

The impact that TikTok has on consumers’ attitudes about fitness brands, and the influence it has over their purchase decisions, is undeniable. In fact, the social media giant’s influence is so widely acknowledged that the phrase “TikTok made me buy it” has over 4.1 billion views of the hashtag on the app.

When utilized as a part of your larger social media marketing strategy, TikTok is a highly effective way to promote your fitness brand by creating fun video content, building a niche community, and tapping into a younger demographic. 

Here are three TikTok marketing strategies you can utilize to grow your fitness business:

1. Hashtag Challenge

One popular way to use TikTok marketing to promote your fitness business is by launching a hashtag challenge—meaning, you encourage other TikTok users to create, or re-create, fitness content that has your hashtag branded to it.

A hashtag challenge also boosts user interaction and drives engagement in the app, and it gives marketers a look into who’s interacting with their fitness content. By understanding who’s responding to and engaging with your fitness brand’s TikTok videos, you’ll be able to tweak your TikTok marketing strategies as needed to more effectively reach your target audience.

2. Collaborate With TikTok Influencers

Another marketing strategy fitness professionals are using to grow their TikTok user base and build brand credibility is to partner with TikTok influencers. While TikTok influencers may not have the same reach as influencers on other social media platforms (for example, Instagram) just yet, they’re quickly becoming a “thing” given the app’s surge in worldwide popularity.

Partnering with TikTok influencers that your target audience already knows and trusts is a great way to grow your TikTok user base, increase credibility, and drive sales.

3. Advertise on TikTok

While advertising on TikTok is a relatively new paid marketing option, TikTok ads can still help you reach a ton of users given the social media platform’s precise targeting capabilities.

Here are the four main types of advertising on TikTok:

  • Native Content: This type of ad is created to look and feel like a natural piece of the platform, and is found inside a TikTok user’s feed. It’s similar to Snapchat and Instagram story ads, and supports multiple features like app downloads and website clicks.
  • Brand Takeovers: A brand takeover is when other brands can take over a TikTok account for a day. Created for mass awareness, this type of ad guarantees extremely high reach and performance rates because it occupies the entire screen, is fully clickable, and the first thing a TikTok user will see when they log into the app.
  • Hashtag Promotion: A hashtag promotion gives you the ability to pay to promote a branded hashtag, which can help your fitness content go viral on TikTok.
  • Branded Lenses: TikTok’s branded lenses are similar to the AR offered by Snapchat and Instagram, and act like filters for faces and photos.

Conclusion

TikTok continues to surge in popularity, with a growing number of fitness professionals turning to the social media platform to promote their fitness business, increase brand awareness, expand their reach, and drive sales. TikTok is still new enough that it isn’t overly saturated with competing businesses, and it provides a huge opportunity for organic growth.

If you decide to start using TikTok to promote your fitness business—remember to have fun with it, and get creative!

For more fitness marketing tips and industry insight, click here to check out our other blogs.

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