You can view TikTok as a channel where mostly funny and entertaining videos get popular and reach millions of views. But here is the thing — it can also become a great tool in the hands of a freelancer like you trying to promote their small business.

While many might consider TikTok as a channel dominated mostly by teenagers, it’s not really the case. Over 32% of the TikTok audience is between 25 and 34 years old, which can also be the target audience for your freelance services.

So how can this channel help you find new clients? We’ll explain in this article.

Benefits of using TikTok for a freelancer

TikTok presents many benefits to freelancers who want to reach their potential clients. The benefits add up and help create a stronger brand that directly translates into more leads and clients. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Grow your brand

By creating TikTok videos, you can build awareness about your services and expertise and, as a result, strengthen your personal brand.

Imagine you are a wedding photographer. By sharing behind-the-scenes content on photo making and postproduction, you can showcase your skills and the value you deliver to clients.

Over time, more people will get interested in your content and your channel will grow in size. By becoming more recognizable and trusted as an expert, you can easily attract clients both from TikTok and from outside this social media channel.

Share your expertise

By sharing expert tips on TikTok, you can build an expert image and attract the audience that needs your services.

If you specialize in interior design projects, sharing tips on matching colors like in the video below can get the attention of people who are planning a home refurbishment.

To attract the right audience, you have to carefully think through the tips and video topics that could be useful for the people who have a high buying intent and are actively looking for an interior designer.

While it might not be easy to get them to buy your services right away, a consistent approach to social media management using tools like SocialBee and a pre-planned TikTok publishing schedule can nurture them into clients relatively fast.

Educate your clients

TikTok videos can help educate your audience on the value you can deliver as a freelancer. Here is why it’s important — some of the leads might not be ready to buy or don’t even know that they have a certain problem you can help solve.

By using video content, you can increase their awareness about a problem they have and the solutions you can deliver.

For example, if you are a dietitian working as a freelancer, you can create short videos explaining the negative impact of sugar on people’s health. This way, you would educate your followers on the problem they might have and raise their awareness about it.

Once they are ready for change, they will reach out to you directly to start using your services.

Look more authentic

By recording entertaining videos, you can easily show your personality and build a bond with your online audience. Imagine your fans feel like they have known you for ages despite never meeting you in person.

Video content can better establish rapport than text. That’s because by watching a video people can see your emotions, gestures, and posture, so it might feel like they are getting to know you better over time.

Apart from recording solo videos, you can also share your client’s reviews about your services. Sharing such videos helps establish more trust with your fans and, according to experts like Reputation Rhino, helps with online reputation management. As a result, you can get more projects coming out of your activity on TikTok.

To learn how to create videos with embedded client testimonials, check out this TikTok video.

How to stand out as a freelancer on TikTok?

Video marketing is on the rise and has been an emerging social media trend for a few years in a row. Similar to video popups, videos on TikTok can be used to grab user attention, nurture leads, and convert them into clients. Let’s see how you can start using it to land more clients.

Make your videos engaging

To get people to react to your videos and engage with them, use the wide range of editing options that TikTok offers to its users — basic transitions and jump cuts are among the simplest.

Apart from the editing options, you can also experiment with different creative video formats, among which are social media challenges, a dance, and a makeover video, to name just a few.

Check out this video to get an idea of a makeover video as a popular TikTok video format.

Communicate end results

By showing what results you have helped your clients achieve, you can get your leads’ trust with flying colors. While sharing expert tips and recording entertaining videos help nurture leads, showing case studies with “before” and “after” states help sell your services.

For example, if you are a PPC expert specializing in launching Google Ads campaigns, you can record a video mentioning what issue your client came to you with and the ROI you have managed to achieve for them.

Share expert tips

Sharing expert tips won’t help land dozens of clients right away, but it will help warm up leads that can potentially use your services in the future. For example, if you are a graphic designer, you can share tips on creating social media posts in less than 5 minutes.

To create informative videos with expert tips, you should first start with the strategy for your TikTok video plan — write down the topic ideas, briefly note what each video should contain, and improvise when recording them. This way, your videos will look more authentic and attract a wider audience.

When iterating on your TikTok video plan, you might want to collect feedback from your followers. By treating their opinion seriously, you can improve your videos and make huge progress on video creation and formatting.

You can also ask your audience about what video topics they would prefer to get covered. By recording videos on the suggested topics, you will create engaging content that will hook your audience from the first seconds.

Cooperate with influencers

Using TikTok influencer marketing will help speed up the growth of your channel. Instead of spending years creating a popular TikTok channel, you can cooperate with the influencers in your niche that have already grown their audience.

To start working with influencers, you don’t have to dedicate a huge marketing budget for TikTok activities. You can start small and work with micro-influencers who won’t charge you a fortune for a mini-campaign or might even agree to a barter deal.

Perhaps there are some channels that you find engaging and are currently following with which you can start cooperation right away — just drop them a message and ask if they would be interested in a barter deal.

Use TikTok advertisement

Tiktok advertising can be another way to reach your target audience. It can give your content a significant boost even if you have just started your channel and don’t have a big following.

Remember that starting with TikTok advertisements requires a minimum budget of $500 per campaign, so if you can’t spend this sum, it’s worth considering other ways to promote your brand.

If you have made a decision to test TikTok ads, you can choose among various formats such as TopView ads (ads that appear in TikTok’s feed when a user logs into their account) or InFeed ads (a standard ad format on TikTok).

Summing up

TikTok has gained popularity over the last few years. While many people would associate this channel with funny videos created by the users representing Generation Z, TikTok has also a huge business potential for freelancers. They can use it as a tool to show their talents and skills to followers and, as a result, attract attention to their offerings.

When planning your TikTok strategy, it’s worth testing different approaches step-by-step and implementing different techniques one-by-one, so you can find out which one works the best and makes a positive impact on your channel growth. Hopefully, you can do that better and faster with the tips we have shared in this article.