Summer is almost here! It's time to take another look at your marketing strategies and tweak them to match the needs of the most exciting season of the year. What better way to do this than through TikTok?

In just a few years, TikTok has quickly become the hub for a wide range of users with varying interests and continues to pull in a strong global audience from different demographics. Many brands that once overlooked TikTok trends are now reassessing their marketing strategies and learn how to leverage the app for their benefit.

Here are some of the best, most targeted TikTok marketing strategies that can help get you in front of the right folks this summer.

These numbers show that you need to take advantage of TikTok marketing now for your summer sales and beyond. Many viral moments on TikTok are accidental. If you are lucky to get one, you can create a strong and lasting brand presence off it. Here's how to do it:

You shouldn’t approach TikTok marketing the same way you do Facebook, Instagram or other social media channels. TikTok is uniquely spontaneous. Take some time to get sucked into the platform and try to learn what the craze is about. Learn about the different filters and effects, the trending sounds, duets, challenges (especially those with branded hashtags), and see how users interact with all the features.

Getting to know the app and becoming obsessed with it will teach you the platform's language and give you insight into how the TikTok algorithm works and what users want to see.

TikTok can also help humanize your brand. Crocs, Chipotle, Louis Vutton, Omsom and Sweetgreen, for example, give their brands a visual personality that the audience can feel and connect with.

Whether you manage a lifestyle or body positive fashion brand, the right TikTok content can bring your audience closer to you. Audiences can tell when a brand is just trying to get away with badly produced content, even on TikTok. One of our favorite brands, Summersalt, launched a great campaign using the tagline "every body is a Summersalt body." It shows a diverse range of models showing off their swimwear. It feels real yet polished. The lighting is great, and there's thoughtful attention to color.

Pay attention and truly immerse yourself in the app – this will give you an authentic voice that your audience will recognize and trust.

Like almost every social media channel, creating a TikTok account for your business when you don't have in-depth knowledge of your audience is like shooting blanks. It can be a recipe for disaster and wasted resources. The only way to truly get results from TikTok marketing – like this one from Sweetgreen amassing nearly 28K views – is to know and understand your audience. Get to know their needs, goals, what they want to see, and what they don't resonate with.

While many folks assume TikTok is all GenZ users, the age range of TikTok users keeps increasing, making it advantageous for a wide demographic. Make sure not to limit yourself with any preconceptions. Even if your desired audience is hardly on TikTok, keep an eye out for new and unexpected audiences.

Various TikTok #subcultures focus on specific niches in different industries. Find the community that relates to your brand and leverage the audience for your summer marketing strategies. Subculture marketing, for example, gives your strategy the personal touch it needs to make a lasting impact on your audience.

Financial literacy brands like Ellevest are doing a great job engaging younger demographics and connecting with pressing issues like supporting Black women owned businesses.

Try different kinds of content and see what your audience connects with. Take note of the comments and see what questions they ask and the kind of content they want to see. This will help you zero in on their needs and grow your account. Now, you can brainstorm ideas and plan a content strategy around the audience's needs.

OK, back to the original purpose of this story: what to do on TikTok this summer! While we obviously work year-round, people associate summer with fun, relaxation, and even time off work and school. Your TikTok content should reflect this.

Start by using hashtags that get people excited for what your brand has in store for the season. If you're giving out 20% off discounts on all products, your video hashtags should look like #Summer2022sales or #SummerSales20%. It should always include your brand name.

We mentioned Crocs earlier – this post is a great example. Since TikTok allows only 100 characters for captions, strong hashtags like these are a great way to concisely capture your message.

With TikTok, it can be a numbers game. It's easy for videos to get very few views and not even make it on your feed. Make a lot of videos that get your audience excited about your brand's summer offers. This TikTok posting calendar for summer is a great starting point to help generate ideas. Don't forget to use trending sounds and great captions that highlight your summer offers and keep it lighthearted and fun.

The TikTok audience is extremely vocal. They will share their satisfaction or concerns about any product or service with multiple videos until they feel seen and heard. As a brand, you can take advantage of this for the summer. Look out for users making videos about your brand and duet them – like this post from Nandos – or reach out to them for a collaboration.

You should also take the time to reply to comments about products or services and insert your upcoming summer discounts into the conversation. But make sure to do it in a way that feels authentic so it doesn't come across as spammy or insincere. TikTok also lets you respond to comments with a video as a way to increase visibility, so you should take advantage of this to create more helpful content.

You can also make TikTok #POV videos to drive a conversation. A POV video is an imaginary scenario that you create and let your audience partake in. For example, your summer marketing POV video caption could be something like "POV, you use our Summer2022 discount just before the clock strikes 12." Your video could then be someone dancing or rejoicing, preferably to a trending sound. Your audience will immediately feel like they are living that experience, increasing their interest in your sales.

Last summer, TikTok started testing a stories feature similar to that of Instagram and Snapchat. Users could post stories that would appear on the ForYou page and disappear after 24hours. This is a feature can help you boost engagement with your audience.

Another smart marketing strategy is when business owners use the live feature on TikTok to engage their audience deeply. You can start a live feed and let your audience see you package their orders, navigate your website, take inventory, or anything else you think they want to see. You can also communicate with them and answer their questions about your upcoming summer sales in an easy, laid-back manner.

One awesome fact about live videos is that they show up on the ForYou feed, so it is seen by a wide range of people, whether they follow you or not. Audiences love feeling seen and heard by brands, and this is a great way to really connect with them.

You can also get the word out by collaborating with popular TikTok influencers to reach a wider audience. Most TikTok influencers have a large (or hyper-targeted "micro-influencer") audience who trust their recommendations and opinions. You can leverage this to spotlight your brand for the summer. Do your research and find influencers in your niche, so the campaigns feel natural and not out of place. You can also use a TikTok calculator to get an idea of how much you may be spending on influencer collaboration.

On the other hand, influencer collaborations may not be an option for many small businesses. If this is your reality, you can take some time to explore the popular influencers in your niche. Take note of the kind of content they post that drives engagement and see how you can adjust it to fit your summer marketing goals.

One important thing to consider when working with influencers is the quality of video and photography. If you’re looking for high quality visual content, make sure the influencer is capable and savvy. If not, collaborate with a platform of professional photographers and videographers like The Luupe to ensure that your visual content shines.

This is an underrated but very effective TikTok marketing strategy. Tutorial videos are vital when pushing a product or service to an audience. It provides more information about the product in a concise, step-by-step manner.

If you have a website for your brand, you can make a tutorial video showing your audience how to choose a product, apply the summer discount codes and check out easily. If you’re selling a product like skincare or kids furniture, tutorial videos on how to use or assemble your products will boost your TikTok marketing campaign.

Your audience will trust you when they see you go through the same journey they take while on your website or while using your products. Tutorials like this one from Fenty and simple hacks help them connect with you and build great rapport.

Reposting your reviews using duets or the green screen feature on TikTok shows your audience real proof that your products/services are legitimate. It also gives them the extra push and confidence they need to make a purchase decision. You can also use reviews from your last summer sale to build up hype and excitement for the upcoming one.

There are so many tips and tricks for a great TikTok marketing strategy, and all brands are hoping to make at least one viral video about their products and services this summer. While this isn't wrong, there are more effective and specific steps that will take your strategy to the next level and yield lasting results. So, take advantage of these tips and remember to stick to your brand voice, be creative and have fun with your content; trust us, the audience can tell when you are authentic.