1. Introduction

In the digital age, social media, with its unique charm and powerful influence, is gradually changing the way people communicate, access to information and consumption habits. TikTok, as a social media platform based on short videos, has risen rapidly in a short period with its innovative content form and efficient communication mechanism, becoming a popular application worldwide. With the continuous expansion of user base and the continuous enhancement of user stickiness, TikTok has become an important position for enterprises to carry out brand publicity and product promotion. To attract and gather consumers, enterprises must use different marketing strategies. Marketing strategy is an important means for enterprises to achieve market objectives, improve competitiveness and obtain profits [1]. It involves many aspects such as enterprise market positioning, target users, product pricing, promotion strategy and channel allocation [1]. The reasonable combination and application of these factors will directly affect the enterprise's market position and sustainable development ability [1].

First of all, marketing strategy helps enterprises to define market positioning and target users. Through in-depth analysis and research of the market, enterprises can understand their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the needs and preferences of target users, to formulate marketing strategies that meet market needs and improve the competitiveness of products or services [2].

Secondly, marketing strategy can help enterprises optimize resource allocation and improve efficiency. Through the planning and execution of marketing activities, enterprises can allocate human, material and financial resources more reasonably, improve resource utilization efficiency, reduce costs and increase profits [2]. Therefore, exploring and studying the marketing strategy of TikTok has great practical significance and theoretical value for modern enterprises. This paper aims to introduce different marketing strategies and successful cases of TikTok platform, and explore effective marketing strategies of TikTok. First of all, the study must classify different marketing strategies and clarify the status and role of TikTok in the current marketing environment. Secondly, the study will deeply analyze the core elements of TikTok‘s marketing strategy from multiple dimensions such as content creativity, user interaction, and data analysis. In addition, the study will also pay attention to the future development trend of TikTok marketing, to provide theoretical support and practical guidance for enterprises to develop more accurate and effective marketing strategies.

2. TikTok’s Marketing Case

2.1. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is usually called the Internet celebrity belt. This is a marketing strategy in which a brand uses well-known individuals (usually influencers or social media influencers who are active on social media) who are influential in the target market to promote their brand or product. These influencers help brands reach their target audiences, build trust, and drive engagement by creating original, engaging, and in-line content [3]. The process of establishing a partnership between a brand and an influencer or celebrity requires a careful strategy.

The first point needs to be clear about the goal of cooperation, such as improving brand awareness, establishing brand authority or increasing product sales. This will help the brand to propose specific marketing methods more effectively.

The second point is to find the right carrier to find influencers related to one’s brand or product based on the target audience and marketing objectives. It can be found through keyword searches, social media recommendations, industry expert recommendations, and competitive product analysis.

Finally, contact selected influencers and discuss how and what to work with. This may include sponsored content, product trials, brand ambassador programs, and more. Make sure the content is aligned with one’s brand values and the needs of one’s target audience and see how that audience responds to facilitate future collaborations.

2.2. Content Marketing

Content Marketing is based on value delivery and customer communication, which aims to attract a part of the audience through valuable content and convert them into loyal customers. This approach emphasizes creating and publishing high quality, highly relevant and valuable content to the brand to attract and gain the attention and trust of the target audience [3]. The core is to build long-term relationships between brands and customers by providing valuable information, helping potential customers solve problems, and providing interesting information and unique perspectives. This relationship not only enhances customer trust in the brand, but also increases brand awareness and loyalty, creating deeper connections and greater business value for the brand.

The common point between content marketing and influencer marketing is that the target audience needs to be clearly defined in the first place. However, the difference lies in the fact that after confirming the target users, content marketing needs to determine the promotion theme according to the interests of the target users, create and publish high-quality articles with popular content to use copywriting to attract users.

2.3. Search Marketing

Search marketing is one of the most important and effective technologies in modern digital marketing. It uses the natural search and paid search channels of search engines as a means of promotion, aiming to attract potential customers, increase brand awareness, and promote sales growth. It does this by spending advertising money to gain paid search exposure and clicks. It allows businesses to buy online advertisement space in search engine results pages to show their ads when potential customers search for relevant keywords. It usually includes steps such as keyword research, advertising creative production, advertising delivery and effect monitoring.

2.4. Case Study

For example, Coca-Cola, a large international company, used search marketing by launching a challenge on TikTok called "#CokeDance" [4]. The event requires participants to dance to beautiful background music and share their performance pieces [4]. The event generated much interest from young people right from the start and has already completed more than 100,000 challenges [4]. This has led to huge sales for Coca-Cola.

3. Advantages Analysis

3.1. High Conversion Rate

TikTok being the most used social network in China, has a user share of 76% [5]. According to the research conducted by Spearman et al in 2024, 49% of TikTok users belong to the millennial generation, and the income level of TikTok users is higher compared to users of other social networks [5]. This suggests that TikTok users possess a higher level of disposable income and are more inclined to make purchases on the platform, which indicates that TikTok users have greater purchasing power and are more likely to purchase products on TikTok. There was evidence showing that TikTok has a 22% conversion rate which is the highest among other Chinese social media platform, which indicates that the digital marketing strategies adopted by TikTok are effective [6]. Moreover, people have made purchases relying on the endorsements of celebrities or influencers. According to the statistics provided by Parklu in 2021, TikTok has the largest number of impressions per post among top-tier influencers, with 1.2 million impressions [7]. It enables marketers to access a huge consumer base and efficient e-commerce strategies lead to high profitability.

3.2. Better Consumer Relationship

TikTok is a platform for businesses to advertise and interact with their potential customers, especially for small businesses. TikTok users have a greater level of interaction with companies in comparison to users of other social media sites. The gender distribution of TikTok users is somewhat balanced, providing marketers with a significant potential to promote and sell their goods. TikTok offers a platform for companies to effectively engage with customers and get insights into their preferences, therefore fostering stronger relationships. TikTok has multiple marketing strategies, such as influencer marketing, content marketing, DOU+, which help businesses define targeted audiences, increase consumer awareness, target potential consumers more precisely and eventually promote sales. Users can sell products and make money simply by putting the link inside the video content. Marketers invite influencers to do the brand promotion, influencers use creative short video content to advertise the products. One of the advantages of influencer marketing is that users trust the influencers they follow, and they have built an authentic connection with influencers, so they would be more willing to buy the products the influencers recommend [8].

3.3. Precise Placement

Due to the feature of short video content, TikTok enables its users to look at the video in their fragmented time. Users find the short-form video is convenient and they enjoy the algorithm and content curation which provide them with video content that is tailored to their interests and preferences [9]. For example, DOU+ is a tool that allows marketers to distribute their adverts or videos to consumers who are specifically targeted. It gives the marketers more opportunities to be seen by the users and increases the potential sales. Users of TikTok have access to a variety of shopping options, including the ability to go to a store to purchase things, the presence of links inside videos, and the ability to watch live streams in which celebrities or influencers sell products. The short video content is creative and addictive which makes users highly engaged for users and they are willing to spend more time on TikTok. Influencers engagingly present items, showcasing them via innovative and concise video content that aligns well with the products. TikTok helps to build a closer relationship between viewers and influencers or marketers. Which enables marketers to better reach consumers. In other words, users would have to be inclined to take into account the recommendations from the influencers they followed. And TikTok data analytics can give a direct reflection of the effect on the marketers.

4. Disadvantages Analysis

4.1. Inconsistency and Saturation

Taking TikTok’s marketing strategy compared to another form of marketing strategy such as search marketing, search marketing is when individuals are interested in the products or services, and users already have the intention to buy the products. When the influencer and the video content they create do not align with the brand, it might have a negative impact on the brand's image and reputation. For example, one of the top-tier influencers jiaqi Li and a Chinese cosmetic brand called Floraiss Beauty. Because of the inappropriate behaviours of the influencer resulted in a negative reputation for the Florasis Beauty. Users might find the brand inconsistent. Furthermore, there is a possibility that some markets might face influencer and content saturation, which occurs when several influencers promote items or services that are comparable to one another. When this occurs, audiences may feel exhausted by the frequent advertising, and as a result, the effect of influencer marketing might be affected. The overloaded information might affect consumers’ behaviours and purchasing decisions [10]. Although it is relatively easy for marketers to build trust relationships with consumers through influencer marketing, there is still a lack of trust for consumers. As the users and the influencers have never met in real life, it is hard to build trust with someone who has never met [10].

4.2. Negative Publicity

In addition, TikTok allows users to generate their content, and marketers can do advertisements, which might lower the quality of the content. Moreover, since everything is relatively transparent in digital marketing, comments and feedback can hurt the brand's reputation [10]. Based on the research, 31.35% of users perceive the quality of the advertisements as poor. This leads to a poor customer retention rate, since users are unwilling to invest significant time in TikTok. Some users might have a negative attitude towards advertisements and doubt the quality of the products.

5. Suggestions

The main problem of TikTok's marketing strategy is to improve the authenticity of the advertisement information. It is just like Wang X has written about how many users would trust their favored influencers in TikTok, so they will buy or go with whatever products the influencers are selling or the place the influencers’ recommend [11]. However, some products or places the influencers recommend are harmful. For example, an influencer is selling a makeup product as a pro in this area, so those users who trust them will buy the product. However, the product does not have the objective function that the influencer recommends, or the product is not suitable for the skin; thus, their face may get destroyed after the users use it. Therefore, as Michael Haenlein mentioned in his article, influencer marketing can cause harm if not executed properly, such as the fake function for facial care products could disfigure other’s skin [12].

TikTok can improve this by exposing the product's ingredients, showing genuine customer reviews, and actively communicating users' feedback. Firstly, exposing the product's ingredients not only helps enhance users' trust but also helps users make informed decisions. Especially when the influencers promote skincare, food items, or health supplements, if TikTok makes a standard for the product that influencers will promote, it will be much safer for customers to make choices. It will bring a lot of trust.

Furthermore, showing the actual customer review will enhance user's trust in TikTok. The practice of fabricating reviews undermines consumer trust and distorts the perceived value of products. Many brands will buy a lot of fake customer reviews when there are negative reviews, and sometimes the influencer will even delete the actual customer review, only remaining fake reviews to deceive the TikTok users into buying their product. If TikTok could prohibit this behavior, it would help enhance the trust in TikTok.

Finally, actively communicating users' feedback not only enhances the trust of TikTok but also builds a credentialed and transparent platform on TikTok. If TikTok can actively communicate with the users, it will also bring more users to TikTok. After the users’ problem has been solved, they will think the TikTok is credible. Then, they may tell their friends or family that TikTok is trustworthy. Thus, more users will come to TikTok, and more brands will want to collaborate with TikTok.

Therefore, these three methods not only benefit consumers by providing honest and reliable information but also improve the overall effectiveness of influencer marketing strategies on the platform. As Muhammad Haroon Shoukat’s article mentioned, the authenticity of the information is a key driver of consumer engagement [13].

6. Conclusion

This paper shows the evaluation of TikTok, a social media platform based on short videos. The platform became popular through its innovative video content and efficient propagation. TikTok's marketing strategies are mainly through Influencer marketing and content marketing. The research evaluates TikTok's marketing strategies within digital marketing in China. The paper shows insight into TikTok's advantages and disadvantages. The researcher analyzed TikTok's achievements in creating a high conversion rate, building a better consumer relationship, and precise placement in short-form video content. All the advantages helped strengthen TikTok's position in digital marketing, especially nowadays; it took full advantage of the innovation potential of short-form video advertising and influencer collaboration.

However, it also shows that TikTok still faces challenges like inconsistency, saturation content, and negative publicity. This could undermine the efficiency of the marketing strategy and impact the platform's reputation. In that case, the paper has given some plausible suggestions to strengthen the authenticity of advertising. The recommendations are product information that has to be transparent, showing actual customers' reviews, and actively communicating with user feedback. These suggestions will help reduce the challenges and enhance users' trust in TikTok.

Ultimately, it emphasizes the importance of this strategy that could help keep and expand TikTok's market dominance. The platform could be a priority in digital marketing by improving customers' trust and TikTok's authenticity. The suggestion also shows valuable insight into digital marketing, which is constantly evolving.

In the future, researchers could still explore several studies. The researchers may try to compare TikTok's digital marketing strategy with TikTok's to check how culture will differentiate the efficiency of marketing strategy—also, continuous study about the value of the impact of TikTok's marketing strategy on consumer behavior. The researcher will continuously study the digital marketing strategy to check how to ensure a brand's growth and success in competitive digital marketing.

Authors Contribution

All the authors contributed equally and their names were listed in alphabetical order.