Unless you’ve lived under a rock, you’ve probably heard much about the world’s fastest-growing social media app, TikTok. While it’s known for viral dance and silly challenges, the app has also become a cultural powerhouse, driving trends in shopping and commerce. Much of that is done by way of TikTok product reviews.
This guide will discuss using TikTok product reviews to increase sales. We’ll show you some examples of reviews that went viral on TikTok — you won’t believe the effect that had on the brand! And we’ll show you how to use any TikTok reviews you get outside of the app for even more exposure.
How TikTok rose to popularity
When TikTok was launched in its current format in 2018, it experienced a meteoric rise, quickly outranking Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as the fastest-growing social media app in the world. Some of the reasons TikTok grew so fast include the following:
- Celebrity Endorsements: in its early days, celebrities like Jimmy Fallon adopted the app and encouraged users to join in.
- Micro-influencers: The app had paid partnerships with local celebrities in key geographical areas around the world to promote the app on their other social channels
- Localized Content: despite being a global app, they focus heavily on localized content, personalized content, and trending hashtags to keep users engaged
- Easy Content Creation: the app makes it simple to create content and videos continuously play, keeping users watching
- Timing: The app grew rapidly during the COVID Pandemic when millions of people around the world were, in essence, stuck at home bored. It gave them something new and exciting to do — whether it was creating content or learning a new dance.
Now the video-sharing platform is available in over 150 countries and has over a billion users. It’s ideal for brands that target users in their 20s, but that is changing as more and more people adopt the platform. There’s no guarantee TikTok will ever reach the level of popularity that Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have amassed. Only time will tell that. But one thing is sure — TikTok users are willing to spend money on brands they like. This is a lucrative opportunity for you as a business owner.
How can brands leverage TikTok to increase sales?
Due to the massive growth of the app, brands now realize the app’s huge marketing potential in several ways. Here are some ways to promote a product on TikTok:
- leveraging branded hashtags;
- creating shoppable content on the platform;
- asking influencers to review products;
- Using paid advertising;
- Including an e-commerce link in the TikTok bio;
- And more…
The best way to get a boost in sales from TikTok is one that occurs naturally that you (usually) can’t plan for. TikTok users consist mainly of Gen Z’ers and young Millennials who tend to be creative, curious, and love to try new things. In fact, according to a study by The Female Quotient, discovering new products is more important to this generation than brand loyalty. They also noted that they look to social media and/or product reviews when making a buying decision.
Gen Z and Millennials wield about $350 billion dollars in annual spending power in the United States alone.
When they love a new product, they like to tell the world about it, often without being asked and without any incentive. TikTok users share shopping hauls, tutorials, reviews — the good and the bad, recipes, hacks, and trends. And they’re trusted by other app users because they’re genuine, not paid advertisements.
What does that mean for you? If you’re on the receiving end of a positive review — especially one that goes viral — it can result in a massive uptick in sales.
Examples of reviews that went viral on TikTok
Bissell Little Green Machine
TikTok users started sharing videos of themselves cleaning disgusting messes with Bissell Little Green Machine portable carpet spot cleaners. They show various messes, from car seats to dirty mattresses, and often end with the user dumping their disgusting dirty water into a toilet bowl. This isn’t something that Bissell would usually show in their advertising because, let’s face it, it’s gross. But it was highly effective.
Some of the videos got millions of views, which resulted in hundreds of affiliate sales for some of the content creators and doubled the sales of the Little Green Machine for Bissell.(source)
The Pink Stuff
The Pink Stuff is an abrasive cleaning product for hard surfaces. The brand was stagnant for about a decade and a half, sitting at about $2.6 in annual sales. Last year, the Pink Stuff went viral on TikTok. People posted videos of themselves cleaning everything from their bathrooms to the wheels on their cars — some of the videos were serious, some of them were jokes, but all of them had an effect on the company’s bottom line.
What is #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt?
In the past, brands and retailers would set the trends. These days, they look to social media to see trends. One way to see what’s trending is by looking at TikTok’s hashtag, #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt.
TikTok users can show off what they’ve recently bought because they saw someone else post about it on the app by tagging it with this hashtag. At the time of this writing, #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt is sitting at 9.8 billion views, and it will go higher before we have a chance to hit publish.
What does that mean to you as a business owner? It means you should participate in trends like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt because this could influence other people to purchase your products and record their video reviews.
How to start your own viral TikTok trend
If your product could be the next big thing, here are some ways to get in on the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt trend. There’s no guarantee that your product will go viral, but this is your best chance to get seen:
- Find out what audience is noticing your product and buy paid advertising to target that demographic;
- Collaborate with TikTok content creators to build a buzz around your product or brand;
- Create FOMO, or a sense of urgency, which prompts impulse buys with one-day sales;
- Ask your customers to show off their purchases with TikTok haul posts;
- Create video demonstrations, tips & tricks, and helpful hacks posts that showcase your products;
- Introduce yourself and show off your personality so that people see the face behind the company.
Niches that work well on TikTok
Not all products appeal to the Gen Z TikTok crowd, so it’s no surprise that some niches perform better than others. Some of the best-selling products on the app include:
- Cooking and food
- Fitness and fitness fashion
- Pets and animals
- Beauty, hair, and makeup
- Cleaning products
If you have a company in one of the niches listed above, or another niche targeted to Gen Z and Millennials, it will benefit you to get your brand on TikTok.
Why you should embed TikTok reviews on your website
Once you have a presence on TikTok and start getting users to post product reviews, you’ll want to embed them on your website. There are a number of reasons you should do this:
- User-generated testimonials on your website build strong social proof that you have a great product.
- Video reviews are more effective than typed reviews — they are more efficient and persuasive
- Using TikTok feedback shows that you’re a modern brand in touch with the trends.
- Videos on your website mean increased time on the site, lower bounce rate, and higher CTR — these are all good for SEO.
- Embedding the reviews, instead of uploading videos, saves time and space on your web server.
Now that you’re convinced you need to embed your TikTok product reviews on your website, you’re probably wondering the best way to do that. Fortunately, Strong Testimonials has built-in social media integration to add testimonials from YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, and many more.
Instructions on embedding TikTok reviews on your website using Strong Testimonials can be found here.
Summary
TikTok, although wildly popular, is still largely uncharted territory in marketing and advertising. And the app is still relatively new. In fact, they’ve only been offering a paid advertising option since 2019. Keeping the app’s meteoric rise in popularity in mind, along with the wild-west style of content, now is the time to get in on the action, catch the wave, and who knows? Maybe your brand will be the next one to have its TikTok reviews go viral.
