How to find a breakthrough in the vertical segmentation field on TikTok and achieve overtaking on the curve?

In the super traffic pool of TikTok, where daily active users have surpassed 1.5 billion, vertical niche sectors are ushering in unprecedented opportunities.

While mass consumer goods fiercely compete in the traffic red ocean, those brands focusing on specific groups and addressing precise needs are staging a counterattack legend of "making big business in small tracks" with differentiated and unique content strategies.

So, how can brands find a breakthrough on TikTok and achieve overtaking on the curve?

Image source: from the Internet

Precisely Targeting the Pain Points of Core Users

Precisely targeting the pain points of core users is the primary rule for vertical brands to break through.

Take the American fitness apparel brand Gymshark as an example. Through data analysis, they found that traditional fitness content overly emphasizes professionalism, which creates a sense of distance for ordinary users.

Therefore, they creatively launched the "Imperfect Fitness Challenge," inviting users to post real moments of training mistakes and sweaty, smudged makeup, along with the #gymshark hashtag. In just one month, it attracted over 500,000 creators to participate. This counter-routine content strategy not only pushed the brand account's followers past 5.7 million but also drove a significant increase in sales.

Image source: TikTok

Breaking Through Algorithm Barriers with Visual Effects

Breaking through algorithm barriers with visual effects means optimizing the presentation of visual content to enhance its appeal and communicative power, thereby overcoming the limitations of algorithmic recommendation systems on content exposure.

The counterattack of the British cleaning brand The Pink Stuff proves the iron law that "visuals equal traffic." The brand deeply binds its pink cleaning paste with stress-relieving cleaning scenarios, using a large number of strong visual contents such as before-and-after comparisons and foam expansion close-ups to create the cognitive symbol of "pink = deep cleaning."

Their operations team also created the #PinkStuffChallenge hashtag, encouraging users to film the process of cleaning old stains with the product. As related videos spread widely, the brand's awareness also increased significantly.

Image source: TikTok

Reconstructing Brand Relationship Chains with the Participation Economy

Brands can enhance the emotional connection and interaction between users and the brand by allowing users to participate deeply, thus breaking the traditional one-way relationship between brands and consumers.

Toy brand Jazwares has opened up a new track on TikTok through user co-creation.

When they launched Squishmallows plush toys, they did not use traditional advertising, but instead initiated the #squishmallows creation program, encouraging users to design background stories for each plush toy. This strategy of turning products into carriers of user emotions enabled Jazwares to achieve explosive annual sales growth.

Image source: TikTok

Conclusion

Through the underlying logic revealed by the above three brands, we can see that breaking through in vertical fields is not simply about spreading content widely, but about establishing cognitive monopoly in specific tracks through precise circle penetration, visual symbol occupation, and user relationship reconstruction.

While traditional brands are still busy chasing traffic dividends, pioneers in niche sectors have already successfully built their own business closed loops on TikTok. By deeply exploring and accurately grasping vertical fields, they have achieved a complete business cycle from traffic acquisition to user conversion and then to brand loyalty improvement.

In today's era of fragmented attention, extreme focus can instead break through the barriers of platform algorithms and carve out an exclusive traffic canyon in the minds of users.