Social media provides an excellent platform for many small businesses to achieve their dreams, and TikTok is no exception. TikTok allows you to unleash your creativity and grow your business into something sustainable. Many businesses have already crafted their own success stories on TikTok.
Lessons learned from these TikTok business success stories can give you a whole new picture of whether your business is still in the idea phase or has been just operating. Let’s dig into some interesting stories to find inspiration and spark creativity!
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Why is promoting on TikTok good for small businesses?
TikTok is recognized as a game changer in social media marketing. It’s an ideal platform for small businesses to showcase their potential. Thanks to its unique recommendation algorithm, TikTok allows you to go viral and accumulate millions of views, even if you’re an unknown brand.
According to the Global Head of SMB at TikTok, “Five million US businesses are using TikTok to provide an authentic, fun look inside their world. As a result, they’re reaching new customers, expanding their workforce, and growing their businesses”.
Additionally, TikTok has transformed into a platform for creativity that supports e-commerce. This means you can have a chance to find your target audience and reach future customers by using TikTok shopping features for business. For example, TikTok has recently collaborated with Shopify to create TikTok Shopping which allows Shopify merchants to set up a Shopping tab on their profile.
To raise more brand awareness, you can also take advantage of various TikTok Ads solutions depending on your budget, your customer segments, etc. A lot of small brands harnessed the potential of TikTok to make their business boom.
6 inspiring small business TikTok success stories
Now you’ve known TikTok can make a brand from zero to hero. Now, let’s explore 6 compelling TikTok business success stories to see what it takes to thrive on TikTok.
Enchanted Scrunch
When it comes to small business TikTok success stories, Enchanted Scrunch by Dasha Derkach stays in first place. After initially promoting through Instagram, Dasha Derkarch – a young 14-year-old teenage girl chose TikTok as her main marketing channel.
Known as a platform that supports e-commerce, TikTok didn’t disappoint her and helped Dasha Derkarch to achieve her goals. Thanks to TikTok, she has gained approximately 90% of her overall sales compared to 10% coming from Instagram and Pinterest.
Dasha’s scrunchie brand posts regular videos and answers all user questions. As a result, the brand has found success with over 488K followers and nearly 500 weekly orders. Before TikTok, she only got around 2 orders a week. It’s really inspiring to other young boys and girls to start their businesses.
Candeeze co.
Candeeze is a small startup founded by a lovely married American couple. Their very first TikTok video, which showcased their startup story behind the scenes, skyrocketed to fame overnight. They accumulated an impressive 31.4 million views for this debut video, with thousands of comments showing their admiration for the couple and their product! We believe the couple won the hearts of the Internet with their adorable narrative, genuine honesty, and unwavering determination.
Following the video’s success, the demand for their unique candies exploded. The couple has to work tirelessly day and night to fulfill the overwhelming influx of orders. For your information, Candeeze now boasts 651.3K followers. Their later videos consistently achieve impressive engagement, with the most recent one garnering 38.7 million views.
Lala Hijabs
The TikTok case study of Sana and Will Sale is also about a small business that finds success on TikTok. During the pandemic, lots of people from small to big businesses have found their homes on TikTok. Sana and Will Saled were no exception. They started to share their designs of unique tie-dyed hijabs just for fun. However, the reaction from their followers surprised them.
After one viral TikTok video in a single night, the couple gained 100,000 followers and many interested users for their product. They have begun to launch Lala Hijabs relying heavily on TikTok as their primary marketing medium.
To grow their brand awareness, Sana and Will Saleh chose to create behind-the-scenes content, hijab tutorials, and product launches. In the first stage, all of the traffic to their website was organic from TikTok and until now, they received over 144K followers and 4.2 million likes with 60% of sales coming from this platform.
Candy Funhouse
Jamal Hejazi has unlocked the magic of TikTok to foster community and develop his brick-and-mortar store online. TikTok has incredibly boosted brand awareness and driven more organic traffic to the Candy Funhouse website. Since launching and deeply investing in TikTok, the store’s account now receives a huge number of followers: 2.7 million.
Compared to other content strategies, Jamal Hejazi truly focused on his audience. He knew exactly how to create videos that any candy lover would enjoy watching until the end instead of skipping. Candy Funhouse went viral for the first time as a company via a fan’s review.
Before that, its first viral video that recapped a customer’s order being packed up for shipping reached 30K followers. Candy Funhouse has undoubtedly become a leader for all things candy on social media and especially on TikTok.
Street Brew Coffee
Caitlin Campbell has created a unique TikTok business success story for Street Brew Coffee through short coffee videos. Her video was simply shot yet showed an amazing experience for all coffee lovers around the world. TikTokers could discover basic and advanced knowledge – from how to do an iced Kitkat latte or a perfect cup of pour-over coffee to the best budget coffee setup.
Since launching, Street Brew Coffee has now hit more than 900K followers and 20M video likes. In order to effectively build a TikTok account for business, Caitlin’s only tip is to post daily and show up every day. You shouldn’t start one, disappear after a while, and then come back because this could harm your relationship with your audience.
Nice Shirt. Thanks!
A little bit different from Street Brew Coffee, for Nice Shirt. Thanks!, it takes only one moment to make a brand bloom. Hayden Rankin and Mason Manning have been best friends since grade school and wanted to gather money to buy a school bus for road trips.
In November 2020, Hayden Rankin and Mason Manning posted a TikTok about their business idea: making shirts based on short statements that customers want (a phrase, facts about yourself, etc.). This idea met the demand of TikTokers of different ages and got more than 1.5M views with 370.000 likes.
Two years after launching, Nice Shirt. Thanks! has more than 440,000 TikTok followers with 7,7M likes and 400,000 collaborated designers. This small business success story of two young boys is definitely relatable to TikTok – a perfect platform to turn your small business into a TikTok success story.
Bonus: 5 business success stories using TikTok ads
To boost their success on TikTok, many small and medium businesses invest in TikTok ads. This type of promotion has proven to have a positive impact on both engagement rates and brand awareness. If you’re still unsure about the power of TikTok ads for your business, check out 5 success stories from businesses that have used TikTok ads.
The Wobbles
One of the winning TikTok success stories comes from The Wobbles, a company that sells beginner-friendly crochet amigurumi kits. After gaining popularity from their appearance on Shark Tank in 2022, they focused on strengthening their presence across various social media platforms, particularly TikTok.
In April 2022, The Wobbles proactively planned for their busiest sales periods during the holidays. The founders took a hands-on approach, appearing on camera to genuinely share their story, and they utilized Spark Ads to amplify their top-performing content.
Furthermore, they leverage their ad campaign with multiple solutions from TikTok, from audience targeting (Custom Audiences & Lookalike audiences) to optimization solutions like Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO), Automated Creative Optimization (ACO), and Value-Based Optimization (VBO)
The results? The Woobles succeeded in establishing a powerful full-funnel strategy by using strong creative content as ads. This has resulted in a 25% decrease in CPM and an 18% decrease in CPA.
Even after the holiday season, their TikTok presence continued to engage audiences and positively impact sales, showcasing the effectiveness of combining strong creatives with Value-Based Optimization campaigns.
SeeQ Supply
Another TikTok successful case study that is worth mentioning is SEEQ Supply. They are a protein powder startup that effectively utilizes TikTok’s branded solutions to enhance brand awareness and drive website conversions. While SeeQ has had a strong community on TikTok, they still decided to use TikTok’s branded solutions to further enhance brand awareness and drive website conversions.
SEEQ’s winning creative strategy on TikTok includes product demos, behind-the-scenes content, and highlighting their product’s value compared to competitors. They employed Spark Ads to boost their organic content, effectively transforming it into ads to increase awareness and drive traffic to their website. Utilizing the Shopify Pixel, SEEQ activated Value-Based Optimization to target high-value customers most likely to make substantial purchases.
Needless to mention, thanks to their strategic integration of different TikTok ad solutions, their campaign delivered impressive results. They managed to achieve a 3.6x return on ad spend (ROAS) and a significant 46.4% decrease in cost per click (CPC). With clear call-to-actions in their videos, SEEQ generated over 600 conversions within a month and received more than 2.5 million impressions.
Slate & Tell
Last but not least, take a look at Slate & Tell – a truly small business TikTok success story. It’s a personalized jewelry brand that creates rings, charms, necklaces, and bracelets based on your own story.
With the aim of reaching peak selling moments during the holiday season, the independent jewelry brand intended to increase consumers’ awareness and consideration of their product with the ultimate goal of achieving a 2X return on ad budget within six months.
By launching a holiday season campaign with a series of In-Feed Ads, Slate & Tell has totally achieved its goal with 4M followers and 1,000 single session add-to-carts. Thanks to TikTok Ad, Slate & Tell had a chance to improve its business scale and increase sales revenue.
Bears with Benefits
Bears with Benefits is a business that specializes in providing vitamins and supplements for women’s health and beauty. This brand joined TikTok in 2020; however, it didn’t achieve the desired results due to insufficient content. In 2022, they set a new goal to reach a new audience in Italy and increase sales in this market. And they realized that there was no better place to promote their products and convert sales than TikTok.
In order to succeed on TikTok, Bears with Benefits invested a significant amount of effort into their content, focusing on both quality and quantity. Their objective is to create videos that are simple and authentic to their audience.
Additionally, they have devised strategies to expand the reach of their content to a broader audience. This involves utilizing a combination of Spark Ads, Shopping Ads, and Automatic targeting. This combination ensures that they achieve great visibility at an affordable cost.
And the final results? They witnessed a 10% decrease in CPA and a 4% decrease in CPM. Additionally, their Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) increased by 12% in product sales.
Thank You Lab
Thank You Lab, established in 2022, is a France-based dermo-cosmetic brand specializing in skincare products. Inspired by the founder’s own struggle, Thank You Lab’s mission is to provide safe and effective solutions for people dealing with skin issues. Their approach is all about delivering results without making false claims. With these goals in mind, Thank You Lab is committed to presenting its most authentic and trustworthy image to a wider audience in France.
Their strategy involves creating TikTok content without collaborating with famous influencers, aiming for a genuine and relatable connection with the audience. They focus on producing educational content to provide valuable information. To boost visibility, the brand has launched a TikTok Spark Ads campaign, which helps raise awareness and foster an organic connection with the audience.
Thanks to their high-quality content and effective advertising tactics, the brand has achieved excellent results in increasing awareness and cost-efficiency. The ongoing campaigns have resulted in a 50% decrease in the CPC, which is now around 0.3€. Additionally, Thank You Lab has witnessed a significant increase in revenue, achieving a ROAS of 6.5.
5 TikTok success tips for your business
The case studies above all give us amazing lessons to improve and reiterate our TikTok marketing strategy. To save you time, we’ve got five tips to ensure that your business can gain traction on this platform.
Authentic storytelling is key
Most of the TikTok successful stories above have one thing in common: They are very good storytellers. Indeed, these businesses excel at crafting narratives that instantly captivate viewers, hold their attention, and deliver a satisfying conclusion. Behind-the-scenes glimpses, honest reviews, hauls, and startup stories are examples of the types of compelling stories that often yield high levels of engagement.
Stay up to date with the latest trends
When it comes to TikTok, all the latest trends always stay on top of mind. A TikTok trend is a viral short video created by lots of users with popular sounds, hashtags, or challenges. Using a TikTok trend is an awesome content strategy to connect with your target audience.
The best way to stay updated on the latest TikTok trends is to scroll through the platform regularly. TikTok’s algorithm promotes new trends daily, so you’ll discover viral ideas for your business. If you’re short on time, head to TikTok Creative Center > Trends, where you’ll quickly see the most popular videos, songs, and creators that are going viral.
Hey, and don’t forget to use the trendiest TikTok hashtags! It’s an effective way to connect with an audience who shares your interests.
Interact with your followers and other TikTokers
TikTok is all about connecting with others, so to expand your exposure, don’t forget to interact with your followers or other TikTok creators. By replying to comments you receive on your videos, you can create a sense of community and increase deeper engagement with your audience.
Collaborate with other content creators
Apart from posting videos and interacting with other TikTokers, another way to make your brand viral is to coordinate with famous TikTok content creators. A win-win situation for both is helpful to improve your follower count and increase content visibility.
Create a TikTok ad
If you have found little to no luck with organic content, you may want to seek a more consistent and impactful approach. In such cases, running an advertising campaign on TikTok could be a viable option. TikTok now has provided many ad solutions that can guarantee to boost your performance at every stage of the marketing funnel, from raising awareness and generating interest to driving actual conversions.
If you are a beginner in the TikTok advertising landscape with little clue on how to run a TikTok ad, our app NestAds can be of help. Designed to simplify the TikTok ad creation and management process, NestAds is suitable for businesses of all types and sizes. What’s even more exciting is that you can try out our app for free, and our team of experts is available to provide further guidance and advice.
