How to grow on TikTok as a B2B brand
Watch our hour-long master class with Semrush Social Media Lead, James Keen and Nonsensical’s Head of Growth Melina Lee – focusing on what it really takes to win on TikTok organically as a B2B brand.
Achieving over 18M views on TikTok, Semrush has nailed the balance between entertainment, relatability and brand building, and James has shared his insights on how Semrush has become one of the leading B2B brands on TikTok.
Watch the replay and check out our summary below.
Here are our key takeaways:
Create TikTok-Specific Content
Focus on developing content that is native to TikTok. Avoid simply repurposing videos from other platforms.
Instead, tailor your content to fit TikTok’s unique style and audience preferences to increase engagement and authenticity.
This approach has helped Semrush engage more effectively with their target audience, ensuring that their content feels native and resonates well on TikTok.
Define Your Target Audience
Identify and focus on a specific audience or niche within TikTok.
Develop content that speaks directly to their interests and challenges. This targeted approach will help build a dedicated community and enhance engagement.
Semrush’s success on TikTok is largely due to their strategic focus on the digital marketing niche.
By honing in on ‘Digital Marketing Tok’, they have been able to align their content with business goals and reach the right audience, making it easier to demonstrate the value of their strategy internally.
Prioritise Organic Growth Strategy
Start by building your TikTok presence organically.
Use this time to experiment and learn what content resonates with your audience.
Avoid relying on paid promotions initially, as organic growth will provide more genuine insights into your audience’s preferences.
Semrush has prioritised organic growth over paid promotions on TikTok.
This strategy has allowed them to build a genuine community and engage with their audience in a more meaningful way, leading to valuable insights and authentic interactions.
Balance Entertainment with Brand Integrity
While it’s important to be entertaining on TikTok, ensure your content aligns with your brand’s values and message.
While creating entertaining content is crucial on TikTok, Semrush has managed to maintain their brand credibility and values.
Their content is designed to be engaging without compromising their core message, ensuring it remains relevant and valuable to their audience.
A method Semrush use is asking themselves: “Imagine we post this and it goes viral – 2M views, would you be proud to send the link to the CMO or VP? Would they be happy about this content and feel that it reflects our brand? Because if not maybe we’re not on the right track here.”
Embrace and Learn from Failures
View any unsuccessful attempts as valuable learning experiences.
Use these insights to refine your strategy and improve future content.
Persistence and adaptability are key to finding what works best for your brand on TikTok.
Semrush’s journey on TikTok involved trial and error, with initial attempts not always succeeding.
However, they embraced these challenges as learning opportunities, which ultimately helped them refine their strategy and discover what truly resonates with their audience on the platform.
The impact TikTok has had on Semrush
“The biggest impact is culturally and creatively – we’ve got this character, Chris that people genuinely love. He really resonates with our audience, I think marketers see themselves in him.
You just have to see the comments section. At events people recognise him, they ask for selfies – it’s really special and exciting for us that we’ve created something that contributes to our brand lore but also I think to marketing culture
It’s also shifted our tone slightly on social in general. We started cross-posting top performing TikToks on IG reels and generally if it works on TikTok it works on other channels, so we’ve been increasing the amount of cross-over so its changed how our socials look across the board.” – James Keen, Social Media Lead
Looking for more webinars on the best TikTok insight?
- The Future of TikTok: Is TV The Next Era?
- How To Grow and Keep Growing Your TikTok Community
- How To Drive Sales During Peak Season on TikTok
- How To Be Reactive on TikTok
- How Fashion Brands Win on TikTok Shop
- How To Build A Brand Organically on TikTok
- How To Build An Effective Organic TikTok Strategy
- How To Do TikTok SEO In 2025
- How To Win On TikTok In 2025
- How To Win On TikTok Shop: Best Practices
- How To Create TikTok Ads That Convert
- Mastering TikTok Influencer Partnerships with Semrush
- How To Build Scalable Content Ideas
- How To Find The Right Tok on TikTok
Looking for more insight reports about the best brands on TikTok?
About Nonsensical.
We’re a TikTok agency based in the UK who work across strategy, organic, influencer, paid and TikTok Shop.
You can find more TikTok insight from us in our Substack – The TikTok Sauce.
