What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is one of the most famous AI tools around at the moment, widely regarded for its ability to create interesting content after receiving a single simple prompt. This is one of the first artificial intelligence platforms to offer completely open access for its users, with more creative users being able to create entire marketing campaigns from ChatGPT. Understanding the platform more thoroughly means that you can implement better solutions sooner than your competitors do, all whilst generating accurate content that informs the reader without taking hours of effort.

What do we mean by value?

There are a few things that increase the value of a marketing campaign, with several metrics to consider and some intangible features. Just a few things that are considered to be parts of the value that a marketing campaign brings to a company include:

Generating views

The first stage in the marketing funnel is generating views. This is the process of attracting people to a website and relies quite heavily on SEO. Generating views and attention for a product brings a lot of value to a marketing campaign as it provides a foundation for potential customers for the future.

Converting leads

Views that you generate on your content are considered leads, and the next stage in the marketing funnel is lead conversion, and completing the sale to the potential customers. Lead conversion is a significant part of creating value for a company, as without converting leads you have a large audience but nobody moving to buy your products.

Customer retention

After completing a sale, retaining that customer for future purchases is a must, with lots of companies choosing to stay in touch with their clients. Customer retention brings value as it is far simpler to keep a customer than to get a completely new customer into the business ecosystem, making the business far more efficient.

How does the Chinese market differ?

Customers in China differ from those throughout the West in a few ways, and knowing all about these can help to benefit your company. The first is that Chinese customers pay more attention to the authenticity of a brand. Businesses that are more consistent in their messaging and branding get more attention from Chinese customers as it means that customers can trust the company. If they know what to expect from the business, then there isn’t a risk of them getting a poor deal from their purchases.

Chinese consumers also depend more heavily on online reviews. Rapid liberalisation of the country over the past few years means that businesses have had less time to become ingrained in the nation’s culture, with the idea of “word of mouth” marketing being relatively new. Customers, therefore, crowdsource their views on some of the more popular products around, with online reviews playing a big part in the process. By focusing on creating an effective online presence that targets customers from this country, there is a much greater chance of a successful marketing strategy.

How to use ChatGPT to increase the value of Chinese marketing?

There are a few steps that you can follow when looking to increase the value of your marketing towards a Chinese audience. Some of the main steps to follow in your marketing strategy in China include:

Keep human intervention

As with everything that AI generates for users, make sure that you retain a level of human intervention in the process. This involves having someone specifically reading over the content and making sure that everything is not only factually correct but suits the tone of the business and the goals that the company has. Artificial intelligence is good, but it is still a developing technology that can be prone to making mistakes. By putting a copywriting expert in your team you eliminate these mistakes and improve the standard of your AI output.

Consider creating a “profile”

Some users create specific “profiles” or “personalities” in their ChatGPT content. This refers to asking the programme to write from the perspective of a specific person with a set backstory, demographic and set of personality traits. Using a specific personality is ideal when working with a Chinese audience, as the audience is looking for consistency and authenticity in the branding. With everything coming from one consistent personality with the same tone of voice, there is a much greater chance of engaging readers and them believing that the content comes from a place of authenticity rather than artificial intelligence.

Don’t be afraid to fail

A lot of artificial intelligence projects either fail or have small speed bumps on the road to a successful campaign. When using ChatGPT you don’t need every single prompt to be successful and you don’t need every piece of marketing content you create to break new ground. By accepting that sometimes your content will be less than perfectly optimised, you can learn from your mistakes and improve the content in coming iterations. Excessively optimised content can also seem inauthentic, making suboptimal content a surprisingly good asset going forwards.

Follow your strategy

Create a coherent strategy and stick to it. This states the content that you are releasing, when you are releasing it and when it gets updated to stay fresh and interesting. By creating a strategy you increase your chances of engaging customers with an interest in your business, and straying from this can make you appear inconsistent. A focus on consistency not only helps to improve the standard of your content but improves your perception in the eyes of the customer.

The post How to extract maximum value from ChatGPT when marketing in China appeared first on Market Me China®.

However, some professionals aren’t sure whether ChatGPT will entirely replace content creators, or simply enhance their work. Learn more about the role of ChatGPT in Chinese digital marketing, including some of the advantages and drawbacks of AI implementation.

Will ChatGPT replace general content strategies?

As a general rule, ChatGPT won’t replace your content marketing strategies. This is because ChatGPT, whilst a relatively intelligent tool, doesn’t quite have the same flexibility that a human writer does. People are able to actively include references to pop culture and relevant news events, where many artificial intelligence systems are trained on relatively old data. This outdated training information limits the utility of the system, stopping marketers from providing prompts based on the latest data. Whilst some of the most recent systems and AI services can respond to ongoing events, ChatGPT runs on relatively old data.

In response to this, content marketing is at its best when it combines artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT with human inputs in one cohesive system. Whilst the platform can help to provide a basic foundation of content, having an effective copywriter editing the outputs to be more appropriate for your audience is a must. This is especially true when your content needs to be factual, as there are recorded examples of the system inventing academic references that have no real-world basis. ChatGPT needs to be kept in check to keep your company’s copy relying on accurate facts and data.

How does Chinese digital marketing differ?

There are a few ways that Chinese users interact with the digital market in comparison to Western customers. Adapting to these differences can have a big impact on your content’s performance, with some of the main differences between markets including:

Brand image

Brand image and the way that a company establishes itself is one of the first differences between the markets. Western organisations look to use their products and prestige on a global scale when presenting themselves to customers, with Chinese audiences paying more attention to the brand’s image and brand story. Having a cohesive narrative behind a brand can be more important and build interest in Chinese markets, requiring a shift away from the specific copy that you use in the West.

Authenticity

Chinese audiences pay attention to companies that have a high degree of authenticity. Where Western customers look for value and quality in their products, marketing in Chinese sectors introduces a further requirement for a company to be authentic. This means retaining business values across several years of operation, sticking to promises that the company makes to customers and having a greater degree of consistency. If a company’s communications feel inauthentic or artificial, you could risk pushing customers away as they prefer alternative brands.

Hyper-generational

There are significant generation gaps in any market, but those in China are particularly notable due to the country’s political history. The history of the country under the CCP in recent years is one of more liberalisation, with younger generations being increasingly exposed to Western culture by studying internationally. Consider blending Western and Chinese marketing methods for younger age groups as these have been exposed to a greater level of Westernisation, with digital marketing for older generations targeting primarily Chinese principles.

How to adapt your ChatGPT use for Chinese markets

There are a few steps that you can take in your use of ChatGPT to make it more appropriate for Chinese markets, such as:

Increasingly personal prompts

ChatGPT works by providing the platform with a series of prompts before the platform creates content based on those prompts. China’s preference for a more authentic service means that a greater level of personalisation is ideal, prompting more loyal customers that are satisfied with the product. Make your prompts specifically refer to your customer and their history with the company, as this indicates that the company cares about them as a person rather than simply a revenue source.

Use human oversight

Running an artificial intelligence program is all well and good, especially when it creates copy much more quickly than a human alternative, but having some level of oversight over the process is a must. Some AI text is detectably written by software rather than a person, which can make the company appear artificial and inauthentic. This is highly unattractive to a Chinese audience. By using a human proofreader you not only eliminate any factual errors from the piece, but you can adjust the tone and pacing of the message so it comes across as more human. Attracting and retaining Chinese customers is far simpler when you do this as it removes the risk of inauthenticity.

Implement data

Companies have more and more data surrounding their customers in recent years, from information about their past purchases to demographic data. Use this information in your messaging to target the user’s specific preferences. For example, if they bought a product recently, consider recommending some of the accessories that go with the product. The more you target your messaging to someone’s specific circumstances, the more likely they are to interact with your company and continue to buy your products.

Will ChatGPT replace your Chinese digital marketing strategy?

Ultimately, ChatGPT isn’t in the position to completely replace your digital marketing strategy in China. The preference for authentic communication makes complete automation unfeasible, but it can be a useful tool for your team. Trial ChatGPT as an integrated part of your workflows over time to improve the way that you interact with your Chinese audience and secure a foothold in a market that is expected to be growing for years to come.

The post Will ChatGPT replace or enhance your existing content strategy for Chinese digital marketing? appeared first on Market Me China®.

Providing businesses with the chance to streamline and expand their approach, ChatGPT has the potential to boost your Chinese digital marketing efforts if you use it correctly. So, how can you incorporate ChatGPT into your digital marketing strategy for success?

1. Understand the Chinese market

Perhaps the most important advice for any company hoping to enter the Chinese market is to develop a strong understanding of its intricacies. The techniques you use will be very different from the ones you use for a Western audience, due to cultural differences and a number of other factors, like censorship.

Juggling these differences and the volume of banned topics may seem like a daunting task, but it’s also possible to use this to your advantage. Demonstrating knowledge of the Chinese market and appealing to differences in cultures (instead of shunning them), helps to show that your organisation is respectful of the countries that it conducts business.

With a digital agency partner specialising in China, you can make sure your strategy is consistent and is able to account for cultural nuances.

2. Use ChatGPT for campaign inspiration

A good tip for employing AI in any international market is to use it for inspiration, especially if your team is struggling to develop a clear angle for advertising. This can sometimes be more effective than allowing ChatGPT to write the entire campaign, as it gives you some valuable ideas that you can tap into while still maintaining that human element. In its current state, AI is most useful for generating or repurposing ideas.

ChatGPT and other machine learning tools are constantly discovering more about the world and the right ways to approach it, including by simulating human responses and ingenuity. The exact technique you use depends on the firm (and its available resources) but it might still be better to reserve AI for inspiration. These solutions can determine what would be compelling digital content across each market, granting your advertising team a strong advantage over its competitors.

3. Refine the content for a Chinese audience

Using ChatGPT to translate pre-written English articles can save companies a lot of time, but it could be much less successful than writing articles with the aim of distributing them to Chinese readers. This goes beyond knowing their cultural nuances and ensures they have bespoke marketing content that matches their requirements; just like any other target audience. ChatGPT is able to understand foreign markets and their diverse needs – letting firms generate content that matches this with ease.

One key way companies can write with a Chinese audience in mind is by incorporating phrases, and even slang, specific to China. This might be part of the prompt that ChatGPT uses to create text-based content or may be a manual addition that the marketing team makes while refining this content to fit the firm’s unique voice. It can again be useful to hire a Chinese marketing partner to better understand how to engage with Chinese readers.

4. Verify the copy with a fluent speaker

If you use ChatGPT to generate content in Mandarin, make sure you check this with a fluent (and preferably native) speaker. Mandarin is generally more commonplace and could take priority when generating materials. ChatGPT has native support for various languages, including Standard Chinese – but also lets users translate pre-existing content into other languages with ease and distribute their marketing materials internationally.

Whilst many of these translations can be quite accurate, the only way to make sure is to consult someone who knows this language and can easily identify a mistake. No matter the culture, a poor grasp of the language may prompt people to stop reading your content; they might also realise it’s an AI translation. It can often be faster and cheaper to verify a ChatGPT translation instead of commissioning a full-scale Chinese content conversion.

5. Make use of social media

Around 95% of people who live in major Chinese cities use social media on a regular basis, meaning it can form a significant part of your company’s digital marketing strategy in China. It’s important to be mindful of this AI’s limitations, however – especially as ChatGPT and OpenAI are officially not permitted in China. The business can still use these tools to generate content before posting it online, such as in the form of a WeChat article.

One particularly useful feature of ChatGPT which this conflicts with is its ability to deliver automated customer service. This improves the company’s social media presence further by allowing it to address queries and solve problems without human intervention; the business may need to find an alternative solution. McKinsey Global Surveys discovered that social media content influences Chinese customers and their purchases far more than other countries – integrating this with ChatGPT while still respecting the ban could have tremendous benefits.

Find out more

Artificial intelligence services could pave the way to new markets and even change how your company engages with customers worldwide. Though it’s important to be aware of ChatGPT’s limitations – especially in a country that heavily regulates its use – there are many ways you can apply it to match the Chinese market and develop a thorough strategy.

Market Me China specialises in helping firms reach and appeal to Chinese audiences,. For more on our services and how we can help your brand succeed in China, contact us today.

The post Top tips for success in using ChatGPT for your Chinese digital marketing appeared first on Market Me China®.

Now, we don’t think AI will replace the value of human marketing – at least for now – but this powerful system can certainly help to bolster your Chinese digital marketing efforts if you use it correctly.

How do I use ChatGPT?

It couldn’t be easier. Simply register on the platform, create your account, and type in your question. The powerful AI will generate a response in a matter of seconds. This can provide a useful base for a blog, website copy, a customer Q&A and so forth.

It’s important to note, however, that there are some limitations. For example, ChatGPT warns that it may not generate 100% accurate information and that it can occasionally create biased content. It may also have limited knowledge of current global events, again, because it relies on a solid base of existing content to produce answers.

What can I use ChatGPT for?

Here are some ideas for using ChatGPT to support your Chinese digital marketing efforts:

1. For inspiration

It can get tricky to think of endless catchy titles, engaging introductions and fresh new ways of phrasing those key marketing messages. But ChatGPT can offer ideas for new phrasing by interrogating vast bodies of conversational data in seconds. If your marketing team is spending too much time trying to brainstorm exciting new angles for social media posts, ChatGPT can help you jump ahead and save time.

2. For content generation

ChatGPT can help you to generate content for blog posts, news articles, social media posts and email templates. This can be very useful when you need body content to develop to your own branded needs, especially for those longer pieces.

3. For better customer service

ChatGPT can also be incorporated into chatbot technology for your website, building its machine-learning capabilities to provide ready and tailored answers to your Chinese customers at any time of day. This helps you to deliver a fuller customer experience, without the difficulty of resourcing a team of customer service advisors around the clock.

4. To grow your website

ChatGPT can help you to shape your Chinese website by thinking about ideas for content, and by creating a shape and structure for content pages. For example, the system can offer answers to FAQs, which can help your content to rank more highly. It can also help you to research possible keywords.

One word of caution, however – Chinese customers engage with Chinese-language websites differently than in the West. This means that your Chinese website UX needs to be optimised accordingly. So use ChatGPT as a way of beginning your website work and to help generate content sections, and then work with your Chinese digital marketing agency partner to localise your site for your Chinese audience.

5. To generally free up time

Give ChatGPT a keyword or topic and it automatically generates high-quality content that can form the basis of any written marketing. This can help your marketing team to springboard past the basics and move towards the more creative, engaging and innovative aspects of your Chinese digital marketing campaigns, working with your Chinese digital marketing agency partner to unlock maximum benefits.

5. For translation

ChatGPT can also translate English content into Chinese. Again, this can be quick and helpful when dealing with large volumes of content requirements, but it’s essential that the finished result is checked and verified by a native Chinese language speaker, especially in China where censorship, cultural context and other subtle localisation factors come into play. Nothing would turn off a Chinese customer quicker than a bad (or even worse, insulting) translation.

So, should you use ChatGPT for your Chinese digital marketing?

In short, when used correctly, ChatGPT can be highly valuable for your brand. The tool isn’t going anywhere and as a machine-learning software, it will continually evolve and improve to sound as human as possible. It can be a great way to save time (and budget) by outsourcing some of your basic marketing legwork, and it can help to meet the sizeable content requirements that all modern brands have when operating commercially online.

How should you NOT use ChatGPT?

This type of AI can save time, money and stress, but it’s important to remember that it has key limitations. For example, it cannot write in a brand tone of voice, it may draw on controversial data sources that don’t pass Chinese censorship guidelines, and it may not always be accurate, particularly when relating to cutting-edge or emerging topics.

We also recommend that brands only use ChatGPT to augment their human content. Google has already said it will penalise rankings that solely rely on AI generation, and we expect to see Baidu take a similar stance (or potentially find a way of prioritising content generated by its own Ernie-bot system.)

Perhaps more fundamentally, people want to read content that other, human, people write. And when you’ve invested in a brand tone of voice that is values-driven and imbued with human values (warm, authoritative, helpful, fun, etc), it’s vital to commit to it. Without that investment – in accuracy and brand TOV – you risk eroding your brand and turning customers off.

In conclusion

We recommend two primary takeaways:

1. To use ChatGPT as a starting point for your content and then personalise it to your brand, with your target Chinese audience always in mind.

2. To work closely with a Chinese digital marketing agency to plan the best way to integrate ChatGPT and other AI and machine-learning tools into your Chinese digital marketing strategy.

By taking an intelligent, planned approach, you can define the instances in which ChatGPT (or alternative tools) can be used to add value to your Chinese digital marketing activity and unlock maximum value without any risk of switching off your demanding, intelligent Chinese customers. As ever, the fundamentals ring true. Marketing tools can save time, money and hassle, but they must sit within a successful marketing strategy, rather than becoming the strategy itself.

Find out more

To learn more about ChatGPT and how it can help to grow your brand’s success in the Chinese market, please contact Market Me China. Our team of Chinese digital marketing professionals are all Chinese language natives with years of experience in the market, working in industries that include education, e-Commerce, B2B and travel.

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