Creative Made Simple:Creative Ideation for SMBs

Welcome to TikTok Made Simple. This is the first blog of a three-part series diving into lots of different tips and products to help your business develop strong creative that will allow you to thrive on TikTok.

Getting started with TikTok advertising as a small-to-medium sized business can seem daunting at first. The shift to video-first content can be challenging if you're new. Fortunately, TikTok offers a vast array of unique opportunities, partnerships, and virtually boundless creative possibilities within the realm of short-form video. This uniqueness allows the TikTok platform, to provide impact for businesses across various numerous industries and sizes.

Creativity starts here

Whatever the size of your following, the scale of your budget, or the specific business objectives you’re reaching for, successful advertising on TikTok is based on three crucial content steps: Ideation, Production, and Optimization.

The first step – ideation – is all about finding the best ways to bring your unique brand identity to life in a way that complements both the platform and the audience you’re seeking to connect with.

During this stage, your goal should be to collaborate with your team, brainstorm, and generate ideas for the content you intend to create and eventually publish. The ideation phase is vital to ensure that your TikTok video is not only engaging and unique, but also capable of capturing your viewers' attention. The good news? There’s no need to worry about trying to tailor content to fit a preexisting mould. TikTok users are known to embrace joyful authenticity, so the best ideation strategy is to dream up content that is truly authentic and representative of your brand!

5 ways to nail TikTok ideation

Building your content and advertising calendar for TikTok is easy and intuitive – here are 5 helpful tips to get you started, and to ensure your creative is primed for engagement:

1. Do your research, know your audience: Having a clear understanding of your audience's preferences and the content that captivates them is the best way to set your marketing strategy up for success. If you know who you’re speaking to and what style of content gets them engaged, your ideation process is sure to be a breeze!

2. Embrace your unique brand voice: Is your brand silly, serious, educational, or somewhere in between? Make sure to bring your brand’s singular tone to your video content – being authentic will help you create impactful content that engages with your audience long-term!

3. Keep up with the trends: Creating content that’s uniquely you is the best strategy for overall brand development on TikTok, but engaging in trends – particularly those that are popular within your target demo – can be a great way to increase reach and ride the wave of trending content!

4. Put your products/services in the spotlight: As a format, video content is a great way to get educational and highlight your offerings in informative and visually stimulating ways. With this in mind, you’ll be able to engage your audience while also increasing their chance of consideration

5. Get collaborative: Having your internal team get involved in content ideation – whether they’re on the creative side of your business or not – can be a great way to unlock fresh ideas and breathe new life into your content strategy. Set regular brainstorming sessions to gather inspiration from the people who know your brand best!

TikTok’s Creative Center: your best resource for content ideation

As an advertiser looking to build strategic content on TikTok, the Creative Center stands out as the ultimate destination for accessing up-to-date trend data and creative insights. This valuable and free resource is a great way to immerse yourself in the TikTok landscape and is the perfect jumping-off point for content planning and ideation.

Through the Creative Center, you’ll have access to things like the ‘Top Ads Dashboard’, where you can get inspired from the highest performing ads on the platform. You’ll be able to mine the ‘Keyword Insights’ database to identify trending keywords for use in your ads and can even access the ‘Creative Tips Finder’ for learning resources that will elevate your TikTok game.

Looking for even more personalized help with content ideation? Use the ‘Creative Assistant’ tool, located within the Creative Center, for instant access to creative inspiration, script generation, best practices, and recommendations tailored to your business and account.

79% of users say that TikTok is a platform where brands can express themselves creatively, turn away from standard advertising practices and showcase their personalities through more authentic content. [1]

The fun starts with content ideation, so don’t wait to dive in!

Ready to get started? Download the “TikTok CreativeMade Simple” Playbook for more in-depth tips, tricks, and tools for turning your content and ad campaigns into future success stories.

Source:

[1] TikTok Marketing Science Global Community and Self-Expression Study, 2021, conducted by Flamingo.