How to use TikTok for business: 4 great examples

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a video-sharing app that allows individuals and businesses to create and share short-form videos on any topic.

Since launching in 2016, TikTok has become a social media giant. As the most downloaded mobile entertainment app in the country in 2022, the platform has 7.38 million Australian users. Add TikTok to your social media marketing strategy, and you can gain hundreds of thousands of followers overnight if your videos go viral.

Not sure where to start? Here’s four TikTok ideas to try based on the success stories of Australian businesses using the platform to reach audiences online. 

Talk to your customers on TikTok like Swim by Elly

Swim by Elly is a sustainable handmade swimwear brand based in Geelong, Victoria. Founder Ellie Wynhoven started the label to combat fashion waste and champion body positivity. She uses her business TikTok account to showcase her fun, eco-friendly swimwear and to engage with customers online.

How Swim by Elly uses TikTok for business

Ellie uses a combination of inexpensive techniques to grow her TikTok following. Her TikTok strategy includes:

• Speaking directly to customers to learn more about them and their purchasing patterns.
• Designing products based on requests made by TikTok followers.
• Posting new content regularly, sometimes multiple times a day, and actively engaging with customers who post comments on her clips.
• Curating TikTok content to reflect her brand’s personality, based on her customers’ needs and interests.

TikTok ideas that have received high engagement for Swim by Elly’s

Some of Swim by Elly’s most popular TikTok videos were created in response to customer questions. A video demonstrating how to get in and out of the businesses most popular style of bathers, for example, generated 1.9 million views alone. This reflects the level of engagement you can potentially achieve when connecting with customers on TikTok.

How TikTok creates sales leads for Swim by Elly

Customers can contact Swim by Elly on TikTok with their questions before they buy. TikTok also allows the business to share sizing and styling tips, helping to create more of an in-store experience online. The business’s TikTok account also links to its eCommerce webstore.

Take your customers behind the scenes on TikTok like Sticky

Sticky is a candy company based in The Rocks, Sydney, that uses traditional techniques transformed for a modern market. Owned by partners David King and Rachel Turner, the family-run business makes lollies for every occasion and uses TikTok to share the candy-making process with their customers online.

How Sticky uses TikTok for business

Sticky’s passionate, consistent approach to social media marketing continues to help their TikTok following grow. Their TikTok strategy includes:

• Interacting with followers regularly and answering customer enquiries online.
  
• Taking requests for new lolly designs via TikTok.
• Speaking to their customers in a clear, well-defined tone of voice that reflects the brand’s self-proclaimed identity as the “world’s most bogan candy-makers”.
• Posting videos of their candy-making process so that customers can experience what it’s like in their candy store, even from afar.
• Using comedy to promote their products.

TikTok ideas that have received high engagement for Sticky

Some of Sticky's most popular TikTok videos show their staff members competing to see who can cut the candy the fastest. This unique content allows customers to connect with the business in a memorable way. It's paying off too, as one of their candy-cutting videos has received over 58 million views.

How TikTok creates sales leads for Sticky

The Sticky business TikTok page connects customers to their eCommerce webstore to help launch sales journeys from the platform. Sticky also include links to their Facebook business page and other social media accounts. By providing a platform for Sticky to share their behind-the-scenes candy-making process, TikTok also helps the business build trust and engagement.

Create quality video content like Dad’s Special Spice Mix

The food eCommerce website Dad’s Special Spice Mix sells a versatile spice mix that’s perfect for adding to a range of dishes. And by leveraging the power of TikTok, the business is selling its spice mix like wildfire.

How Dad’s Special Spice Mix uses TikTok for business

Business founder Priya Sharma invests in high-quality video production and applies a considered, curated approach to her digital marketing to help her attract new customers. Her TikTok strategy includes:

• Sharing her love for food and culture in a way that resonates with her customers.
• Investing in high-quality video production to deliver simple messages in style.
• Using ring lights to achieve optimal lighting and voiceovers for a professional touch. 
• Taking time to edit videos properly so that the finished product is polished.
• Posting new TikTok videos consistently, daily or every other day.
• Using relevant hashtags in moderation, never including more than three per video.

TikTok ideas that have received high engagement for Dad’s Special Spice Mix

Some of the most successful TikTok videos by Dad’s Special Spice Mix are Priya's step-by-step cooking demonstrations. Priya's guide to making seitan, a simple chilli dough, for example, went viral receiving over 7 million views. The video features a simple product placement and while Priya waits for the dough to rise, she films herself packing an order for Dad’s Special Spice Mix.

How TikTok creates sales leads for Dad’s Special Spice Mix

TikTok allows Priya to show new and existing customers how to use her products, which empowers her customers to make more informed purchasing decisions. By sharing her love of food via high-quality TikTok content, Priya is also able to position Dad’s Special Spice Mix as a trusted brand.

Show off your skills like Alchemy Salon

Alchemy Salon is a sustainable hairdresser that specialises in cutting-edge haircuts and vegan hair colouring. Staffed by a small team of hairdressers who work across two studios in Traralgon and Collingwood, this Victoria-based business uses TikTok to share playful and trending content with their clients.

How Alchemy Salon uses TikTok for business

Alchemy Salon know exactly who their audience is and adjust their TikTok presence to reflect it.

Alchemy Salon posts topical and relatable video content that demonstrates how well they know their clients. Their TikTok strategy includes:

• Tailoring content that appeals to their Gen Z, predominantly female, target audience.
• Keeping up to date with trending TikTok content, such as “bold colours” or “shaggy styling” and aligning their video topics accordingly.
• Posting routinely once per week, so that clients have something to look forward to.
• Consistently using the same number of hashtags from the hair industry category, such as #hairinspo and #hairsuggestions, to help content reach a wide audience.

TikTok ideas that have received high engagement for Alchemy Salon

Alchemy Salon’s highest-performing videos show significant hair transformations. Their before-and-after video of a social media influencer dying her hair from bright blue to platinum blonde, for example, received 1.3 million views. This is a great example of how you can use TikTok videos to demonstrate your services to customers online.

How TikTok creates sales leads for Alchemy Salon

The Alchemy Salon business TikTok account links users to the hairdresser’s website, where customers can book appointments and purchase haircare products from their eCommerce webstore. And while followers who live afar won’t be able to visit Alchemy Salon in person, the business can still build its brand reputation by growing a large following online.  

Why you should think about using TikTok for business

When you create a TikTok business account, you can reach a large Australian audience. In fact, according to Forbes, TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms out there. So, if you want to take your digital marketing strategy to the next level, it’s worth exploring how your business might benefit from joining this social media platform.

More than just a new place to broadcast your message, social media can help you to make direct sales. 

Originally published May 2023, updated August 2024.