According to a BBC survey last year, there are as many as 1.5 million UK brands on TikTok right now, and that’s hardly surprising when you consider that this unassuming social platform has become one of the best opportunities to tap into younger audiences. From funny videos to day-in-the-life insights, TikTok has it all. Unfortunately, if you aren’t careful, sales might not necessarily follow.
After all, as many businesses have discovered the hard way, TikTok users don’t want outright advertising. Instead, they want useful, consistent content that, over time, could see them buying from a brand they grow to trust. But, before you start having a panic attack, bear in mind that this doesn’t mean you have to court your TikTok followers like reluctant lovers (who could ultimately put you in the friend zone).
In truth, there are some interesting ways to turn TikTok success into sales, even if your marketing strategy is not producing results right now. Simply keep on reading to find out what you can do to turn things around.
# 1 – Tune into TikTok Trends
Just because you shouldn’t openly shout about products on TikTok doesn’t mean you can’t still fan up some product-based fuss. You just need to get creative about how you do that. Notably, brands are discovering that TikTok trends are a great way to stay relevant and attract high viewing numbers while subtly slipping in plenty of smart product placement.
Lucky for you, there’s now plenty of advice about what you should be doing on the TikTok front, and if at all in doubt, don’t hesitate to work with a marketing agency that will know precisely which uploads are drumming up the most interest.
In 2025, TikTok business trends that have particularly soared include –
- Dance Challenges: TikTok pretty much made its name with dance challenges, and this is a trend that brands can easily tap into with ongoing success. Look at UK toilet roll brand, Charmin, who have been making mascot-based dance challenges work for their TikTok page ever since the iconic #charminslide, a trend of seemingly ad-free dance fun that still cemented Charmin brand imagery in the minds of many.
@charminI’m in beary good hands
- Product packing ASMR: ASMR videos centre around the satisfying and calming sounds of everyday processes like packing orders, and they’re pretty hot stuff in business TikTok right now. The main benefit of these videos is that you don’t need to worry about voice overs or other time-consuming stuff – you can simply set up your mic and get down to your daily work of packing up orders. Once again, you won’t even need to mention product benefits, because this is all about product exposure, and sending your goods subtly into the viewer’s psyche.
- Educational content: More viewers look set to seek educational content on TikTok this year, and businesses need to get on top of the trend. Again, this is an upfront ad-free approach that offers real value, but it also provides a direct ability to link your products to the audience through, say, tutorials that ultimately see you using your products. Just remember not to go too heavy on talking about product benefits here – keep your content informative about the broader topic, and let the tutorial do the product talking for you.
# 2 – Use a Mascot
There are few things TikTok users love more than a mascot with its own personality and upload presence, especially if that mascot is a cute little creature that goes on journeys they simply love to follow.
As mentioned, this is something brands like Charmin are doing perfectly through uploads of the dancing Charmin bear. Duolingo’s iconic green owl is another fantastic example of mascot-based TikTok marketing done right, with over 12.1 million followers keenly following his online journey to everything from nightclubs to his own funeral.
@duolingo
RIP DUO
♬ Dixon Dallas Good Lookin – Jake Hill
Mascot-based TikTok marketing is particularly ingenious because it creates immediate intimacy, and untold brand recognition, and can also easily spill out to other marketing areas, from your brand totes to your billboard ads, and even the cute mascot-themed resin domed stickers you include in every online order.
Simply make sure that your mascot is cute, easy enough to recreate across your merch lines, and relevant to your brand through things like the colours used, and even the kind of animal (because, yes, your mascot should probably be an animal!) that you choose (e.g. Duolingo’s owl represents the wisdom users can gain from signing up).
# 3 – Expand Your Skill Set
The more diverse your TikTok uploads, and the more skills you display within those, the more likely you are to get TikTok audiences onboard. As mentioned, things like dance challenges do provide ongoing easy content opportunities, but you’ll never secure sales on this platform if that’s all you ever put out into the world.
Instead, your TikTok grid should be a rich array of dances, funny videos, and more. And, you (or your TikTok team/outsourced agency) should be experts in every single instance. This is a priority that’s showcased particularly well by luxury brands like Dior, Gucci, and Prada, who have significantly increased their MIV (media impact value in recent years) by perfecting a range of crucial skills including short and long-form video editing, music production, and even green screen usage.
That might all sound like a lot, and it is in some ways, but it’s also an investment worth making if you really want your TikTok to take off. This level of skill is even necessary for the ‘lo-fi’ TikTok content that typically performs best, and which brands take far more time over than you’d imagine just from looking. For instance, Burberry used crucial photo editing skills to remix their high-quality prints from last year’s winter campaign into a lo-fi version that earned 14.6 million TikTok views.
In other words, if you want to do TikTok right, you have to know what you’re doing.
Don’t stay stuck with a TikTok following that doesn’t do anything for your sales figures – make true use of this platform with these key techniques.
