As a new brand looking to gain a foothold in China, it’s essential to get to grips with WeChat as part of your Chinese digital marketing strategy. WeChat is one of the biggest apps in China, and it’s a true ‘super app’, going far beyond instant messaging, and any equivalent platform in the West. Here are the main things you need to know:

Key things to know about WeChat

WeChat is truly dominant in China, with over 1.26 billion users in this country of sophisticated netizens. For brands, WeChat marketing can attract customers, build brand awareness, convert sales and create loyal customers over time.

WeChat offers different types of official accounts to brands. Western brands can choose the service account, which enhances visibility with four posts maximum a month.

How to use WeChat for Marketing

Firstly, it’s important to know that WedChat is delivered and managed entirely in Chinese, so you will need access to native language skills as well as Chinese digital marketing expertise. But once you have gained access to these skills and resources, your brand will discover an incredible amount of scope for its WeChat marketing. For example:

• Content – typical articles, Little Red Book-style posts, and short-form video content.
• Paid advertising – including banner advertisements, and ads on WeChat Moments.
• KOL partnerships – for paid sponsorship partnerships
• WeChat Mini-Programs, to create mini websites within the platform for an immersive brand experience.
• VIP and Membership coupons – to engage followers and convert them into members,
• WeChat Channels – to create and share video content to reach your target audience.
• WeChat CRM – for customer engagement and communication tools that go far beyond traditional email marketing.

As you can see, there is a huge amount of scope for using WeChat as part of your Chinese digital marketing strategy! In fact, the platform can feel overwhelming when you begin to use it for your brand. The key to success lies in starting with the basics and then building up your presence and confidence with WeChat over time.

WeChat Marketing: 10 Steps to Success

These are the focus areas to begin with as you get to grips with this powerful super-app for your Chinese digital marketing:

1. Register your WeChat Official Account

Register your brand with a WeChat Official account to attract potential customers, build brand awareness and loyalty over time, send push notifications to followers and redirect users to your website and broader Chinese digital assets.

The official account gives you credibility and visibility, and it is also your platform for creating advertising campaigns. Many Western brands focus on WeChat for their online advertising strategies, so it’s vital to get this step right.

2. Create your Content

Consider these elements for your content:

• Tone of voice, considering your target Chinese audience, their values and needs and key factors such as cultural context, translation and localisation.
• Layout and design, remembering that Chinese users love videos and images, rather than text-heavy posts.
• Graphics, which need to be aesthetically pleasing, on-brand and carefully curated for consistency.
• A ‘bonus’! The best WeChat marketing posts tend to include bonuses, such as VIP visual cards, e-coupons or promotional offers of some kind.

3. Engage

WeChat lets you engage individually with followers, so you can set up your account with pre-defined responses that link to defined keywords. You can also automate video and audio content to begin onboarding your followers with your brand and building awareness, engagement and loyalty.

4. Use KOLs

Key Opinion Leader (KOL) relationships are hugely powerful for brands building effective Chinese digital marketing strategies. Remember that bigger isn’t necessarily better with KOLs; what you need is an influencer with an audience that maps closely to your own for follower relevance.

There are thousands of KOLs and each offer their own unique personality and ability to share branded content in a way that can bring you new followers and potential customers.

5. Use QR codes

QR codes are more popular in China than they are in the West. They are great for getting new followers on WeChat, and you can associate one with your WeChat accounts, plus other off-platform assets. When a user scans the QR code, they join your WeChat branded community and begin to receive your content.

You can invite users to scan your code by using discounts, promotions, and competitions, and by sharing them on your other social media accounts. For products with physical delivery and any offline marketing assets, print the QR code in a visible place.

6. Create a WeChat Group

WeChat groups are great as a forum and they allow you to quickly and easily share content with your followers to build engagement. You can create a group to build and nurture over time.

7. Set up your in-app WeChat CRM

This is a fantastic tool for communicating with followers and customers, and for creating newsletters. People in China don’t read emails, so this is your alternative! Set up the CRM to deliver automated replies to common questions for a positive brand experience.

8. Look at WeChat Mini Programs

These mini apps are used by 95% of brands on the platform and they allow you to create a full mini branded program. Your mini program needs to be beautiful, social, multi-channel and completely integrated with your branded digital ecosystem.

9. Use WeChat Advertising

You can choose banner adverts, Moment Ads and KOL promotions and they each offer their own particular benefits and features. Traditional banner-type ads are based on the PPC or CPC model, and KOL promotions are delivered as part of a sponsorship arrangement and typically delivered via video or graphic content.

It’s important to be creative with your WeChat advertising, as there is so much competition. Do quizzes, games and competitions in this country that loves gamification and ask people to vote. Digital shareables are also very popular such as filters, stickers or games.

10. Make the most of WeChat channels

This new system focuses on short video content, in a style similar to Douyin (TikTok). Brands can create their own video content and distribute them through the scrolling feed, to followers and browsers.

Get the help you need

Of course, once you begin these activities on WeChat, it’s vital to measure your progress so that you can continue to refine your approaches and build success.

Market Me China is here to help your brand build a successful WeChat marketing presence as part of a broader Chinese digital marketing strategy. Our Chinese digital marketing experts have the native language skills and professional know-how to deliver measurable results, and we work with brands across all industries, and at all stages of their journey into this exciting, lucrative market. Please contact us today to find out more!