Children’s activity business owners wear a lot of hats (and not just baseball caps when it’s sunny out!). Building schedules, writing curricula and lesson plans, hiring teachers and staff, making connections with schools and community members, and so much more. Oftentimes, marketing falls by the wayside, but it is actually one of the most important parts of the job!

There are a variety of different marketing tactics that children’s activity providers can utilize to find new customers. Email marketing, Google advertising, and social media marketing are some of the most common types. Each type of marketing has its benefits, but social media marketing is becoming more and more popular these days. 

Within social media marketing, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are the most commonly used platforms. In this guide, we will outline general best practices around social media marketing and then dive more deeply into TikTok. Specifically, we will cover TikTok marketing tips for children’s activity businesses so you can grow your customer base.

• What is social media marketing?
• ~Why is social media marketing important?
• Is TikTok marketing beneficial for children’s activity businesses?
• TikTok marketing tips

What is social media marketing?

Before going into the specifics of TikTok marketing, it is best to take a step back and get an understanding of social media marketing in general. Social media marketing is exactly as it sounds: Creating content and marketing materials to release on social media with the aim of getting your business’ name out there and finding more customers.

Social media marketing includes:

• Creating and posting images, videos, and text on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter/X, TikTok, and other social media platforms
• Interacting with prospective and current customers on social media platforms
• Re-posting and sourcing user-generated content from current customers
• Working with influencers to create marketing assets and content
• Receiving and sharing reviews on social media

Why is social media marketing important?

As a children’s activity business, your marketing should be directed at parents, since they make the buying decisions for their children. In 2023, the CDC did a study to determine the social media habits of parents. They found “social media use to be higher among US parents than US adults generally, likely due to greater use among younger adults. For example, while 69% of US adults use Facebook, 79% of US parents and 87% of US mothers use this platform.”

Is TikTok marketing beneficial for children’s activity businesses?

While Facebook is the most popular social media platform for parents, they also use Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok. As millennials take over as the parenting generation, more and more are turning to TikTok to make and find content that relates to their new lives. 

In 2023, TikTok launched a #ParentsofTikTok campaign to entice more parents to join the platform. According to TikTok, over 50% of the parents (majority moms) who use TikTok use the app more than once a day. Parents on TikTok make purchases from the app within 90 days.

If you are looking to reach parents to get more customers for your activities or camps, TikTok is a great place to start. With more and more parents turning to TikTok to make purchasing decisions for their families, you can increase your customer base with TikTok videos from your team, current customers, influencers, and more. You can even repost your TikTok videos on Instagram and Facebook to further increase reach.

TikTok marketing tips

Now that you have some background on the benefits of TikTok marketing for millennial parents, you can start planning and creating your TikTok marketing assets. Use these tips and tricks to find success with TikTok marketing.

Use a business account

The first step towards success in TikTok marketing is to use a TikTok business account, rather than a creator one. With a business account, you will have access to tools that can help prospective customers make purchases. 

With a business account you get access to:

• Ads and analytics
• Your own e-commerce storefront
• Third-party tools to schedule and manage content
• A link in profile section for your website

One downside of the business account is limited access to sound clips, but that is ok! You can still create content with the sounds and music available. It is more important to get access to the tools offered to business accounts than the full range of sound clips.

Optimize your account

Once you have created your business account, you need to set it up and optimize it for success. Be sure to use a high quality image or animated video of your logo for your profile picture, your business name as your name and username, and succinct bio, which explains what your business does. Then, add your company’s email address, category, and links to other social media profiles like Instagram. 

Find your audience

TikTok is such a great marketing tool because their algorithm is scarily accurate. However, you need to make sure that you help the algorithm get your content into the right hands. Start by exploring your For You page and finding your audience. 

As a children’s activity provider, you are likely looking to target parents on TikTok. Once you’ve found the “parent side of TikTok,” take note of the style, influencers, hashtags, sound clips, and more. Your goal should be to create content that appeals to this audience so they engage with it and continue to be served your content.

Create great content

The time has come! Once you have discovered your audience, it is time to create TikTok content that appeals to them and convinces them to purchase your activities and/or camps. You likely will need to create a variety of different styles of content and publish a fair number of videos before you see ROI. Don’t be discouraged! Keep working and iterating on your videos until you find what really resonates with your audience.

TikTok content creation tips

• Lean into variety: Some videos should show you and your staff, some should show your classes/camps in action, and some can even be advice or funny stories for parents. 
• Don’t be afraid to get silly: The most successful TikTok videos are fun and engaging. Of course you want to remain professional on your website and in your conversations with prospective customers. However, creating silly TikTok videos and jumping onto trends, as long as they are appropriate, can be a great way to get your name out to more customers.
• Get help from customers and influencers: User-generated content is a great way to sell your products organically. Adweek found that 47% of millennials and 36% of baby boomers say that they trust UGC whereas 25% of both demographics say that they trust branded content.
• Utilize duet and stitches: You might feel like you are running out of ideas for original content. Don’t worry! With TikTok, you can duet other creators or stitch with other videos to create new content that requires less planning or originality. 
• Keep your videos short: People love TikTok because the videos are quick and easy to consume. According to their data, the optimal length of a TikTok video is 21-34 seconds, so try to stay at 30 seconds and under for your videos.
• Post consistently: The most successful content creators on TikTok post 1-4x per day, according to TikTok. We totally understand that is a lot! Start by posting once or twice a week and try to increase that if you can. But definitely post at least twice a week while you build up your content.

Promote your strongest videos

Once you have a strong arsenal of TikTok videos on your account, you can create ads using your best videos. Just like Facebook and Instagram ads, TikTok ads are priced by bid. Choose your target audience, then promote your video for a specific amount of time or until the budget has run out.

We hope this article has helped answer all of your burning questions about TikTok marketing and how TikTok can help increase enrollment and grow your business. If you are looking for more guidance on digital marketing for your children’s activity business, the resources offered by Sawyer can help.

Learn more about how Sawyer for Business can help your business succeed by scheduling a demo of our software or signing up for a free trial.