Insights From TikTok’s Return on Creative Report for Brands and Influencers

Creative content is the best way for brands and influencers to connect with an audience while impacting the bottom line, according to TikTok’s Return on Creative report. 

The 14-page white paper, created with Ipsos, examines how compelling content drives results and what creators must do to achieve it. After all, we live in a scrollable world where consumers can fly right by your content with the flick of a finger. So, how do you stop the scroll? How do you get consumers to notice and engage with your brand when there’s so much competition? 

The report suggests several tips for getting the best “return on creative,” including focusing on empathy and building resonance.

How to focus on empathy

Marketers and influencers must incorporate empathy in their messaging to connect with an audience. What does that mean? You take the time to understand your audience, learn what’s important to them, and let that drive your creatives. By doing so, followers feel you’ve created content just for them. 

Here are ways for marketers to show empathy in their content.

Define your audience

While many brands and influencers can tell you basic audience demographics, fewer can tell you behavioral data. For instance, influencers can tell you their audience is predominantly females over 40, but can’t tell you common hobbies, struggles, or buying habits. 

If you don’t already have one, create a customer persona. Add the demographic details you know and plan to learn what you don’t. You could conduct interviews with followers, for example, or launch a poll on social. Start defining your audience more holistically. 

Focus on diversity

Content creation used to fall to professional production companies and graphic designers, but today, everyone is a content creator. As a result, social channels are filled with diverse voices; something brands and influencers must take note of. 

Empathetic marketing recognizes and embraces the need for diversity. To incorporate multicultural faces and opinions, many brands partner with influencers to encourage authentic content from creators of diverse backgrounds. 

Teaching followers something new

In the report, consumers defined empathy as content that not only represented them but content that taught them something new. Today’s consumers are eager to learn. Think of tutorials, how-tos, and before-and-after snaps. 

Through educational content, you can subtly promote products without selling them. Consumers will take note. They’re more apt to watch your video or read your post description if you have their best interest in mind, instead of your sales quotas. 

Think of ways to educate. Partner with influencers who commonly produce tutorials, for instance, or peep other brands that leverage educational content to draw inspiration from. 

How to build resonance

Over time, brands and influencers build resonance with their followers. Each creative piece of content shared is a building block in a relationship that can inspire consumers to take action. Relationships like this are marketing gold. Here’s how:

Be credible

Be consistent, authentic, and honest whether you’re a brand or influencer. Doing so will build credibility with your audience over time. 

Tell a story

Building resonance is a lot like building a friendship. The best way to make friends is through shared experiences and stories, which is why storytelling is so important for brands and influencers. Stories provide a human connection that elevates friendship. 

Provide variety

While building resonance is about consistency, be sure not to confuse consistency with complacency. Yes, your audience wants to hear a consistent tone and see consistent posts, but that doesn’t mean they want to see the same old thing repeatedly. Don’t fall into a content rut. Instead, embrace different kinds of content.

Generating creative content

Generating creative content is a dynamic process. You can draw inspiration in many ways:

Consider influencer collaborations

Generating creative content is more important than ever, but it does take time and resources. To help offset some of the production requirements, brands prefer to work with influencers who can produce the high-level creatives they’re looking for. In time, your brand might build a team of ambassadors who regularly promote the brand. 

Remix content

Think of ways to repurpose your content to get the most mileage out of your content. Turn an influencer post into a social ad and pull graphics out of a whitepaper and share them on social, for example. For each piece of content you create, try to get several uses out of each. 

Batch production

Consider scheduling a chunk of time to produce several pieces of content to maximize your set-up time. By recording four how-to videos, for example, your gear comes out once and talent gets ready one time. 

Draw inspiration from others

Creative content isn’t created in a vacuum. Spark your creativity by following brands and creators you like. 

When brands and influencers focus on creative content, results improve. For more insights and tips, read the full report.