As digital marketers, we’re already familiar with the concept of UX, or user experience, when it comes to websites, apps and any other kind of digital asset.

However, for Chinese digital marketing, successful UX strategies look slightly different from those in the West. Let’s consider what you need to know!

Mobile-First UX

We often talk about the fact that Chinese customers are true digital natives, and they prefer to access the internet via their smartphones. This means your UX must always focus on smartphone optimisation first. Without this, the experience will never be as good for your target customers, and you risk losing them to competitors.

Translation Issues

A direct translation from English to Chinese will never be effective. Chinese language is highly contextual so it’s important to translate existing content sensitively and expertly so that it resonates with your Chinese audience.

For many brands, it makes sense to go a step further and create targeted Chinese content from the beginning. This ensures everything from the brand to the messaging is completely and accurately localised.

Design Considerations

Generally speaking, Chinese customers prefer busier design interfaces than Westerners. They like to be shown lots of information, appreciate plenty of social proof and integration, and aren’t put off by ‘dense’ high-context websites, packed with visuals.

It’s interesting to note though, that some Chinese target audiences are also now responding to more ‘Western’ digital designs; cleaner templates, less information and fewer images, for example.

The secret to success here is to research your target audience carefully and test concepts as part of your market research, before committing to a design.

In a rapidly changing world with increasing internationalisation, and a Chinese audience that loves trends and innovation, assumptions can quickly become outdated!

Chinese SEO

The Chinese SEO landscape is always changing and its algorithms don’t necessarily mirror Google’s searchbots!

As in Western markets, it’s important to design your website to a ‘customer first’ strategy and then seek to meet SEO needs with careful ongoing optimisation. Carefully research those requirements before you put time and resources into this activity.

And remember that Google is banned in China, along with other Western websites, so your focus and efforts will need to be targeted to Baidu’s algorithm.
Imagery

We’ve touched on language and Chinese UX and the same thought and care applies to images. It’s important to choose colours, images and symbols that resonate with Chinese customers, rather than missing the mark or being perceived as offensive.

Font Readability

Chinese is an ideographical writing system, which means that the entire meaning of a word can be adjusted with a stroke! So use a font size of at least 12, to make it fully legible. This will affect the way that you translate content and utilise space on each visible page, and it requires thought and expertise.

Social Proof

In the West, social media integration and social proof are growing topics. But in China, they are fully adopted and expected by customers.

It’s important to incorporate a full range of social integration features, such as social sharing buttons for relevant platforms (not all of them, but the ones that make sense for your brand), online chat, and customer reviews (vital for building trust.)

Hosting and Speed

Chinese customers expect to access their digital content quickly, smoothly and without any issues. So be sure to choose a Chinese hosting solution that keeps your website operating without glitches, downtime or slow loads.

Nothing will turn a Chinese customer off faster than a website that struggles to keep up with its own design and functionality! A smooth, slick and fast website also looks far more trustworthy and professional. In a country where piracy and fake websites are still a problem, this is vitally important.

KOL Marketing

In the West, influencers have a mixed reputation and aren’t always positively associated with brand success. However in China, the role of Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) is far more important, and quality influencers are respected and valued for their opinions and recommendations.

As part of your UX, factor in KOLs who can effectively influence your target demographic and market.

Factor this into your Chinese digital marketing efforts and overall digital ecosystem, so that KOL campaigns translate into relevant traffic to your target landing pages.

QR Codes & Sign Up Protocols

This is another interesting UX difference! QR codes aren’t particularly popular in the West, but in China, they are commonly used to access digital information and payment platforms.

Another difference is that Western customers usually provide their email addresses for online registration and verification purposes, whereas Chinese customers are more familiar with providing their mobile numbers or social media log-ins (again, as part of China’s mobile-first Chinese digital marketing approach.)

Interestingly, Chinese customers are generally less concerned about privacy than Western customers, so this is a helpful factor when planning your Chinese digital hub.

Key insights like these can be surprisingly important, so it’s vital to have access to this kind of local expertise.

Gamification and Super Apps

These two points link, and demonstrate how Chinese customers expect slightly different things from Western customers.

Gamification in China

The Chinese love gamification and gaming is a huge part of Chinese culture. Online competitions, ‘spins’, or challenges can greatly enhance user engagement in China (whereas it can turn some Western customers off entirely.)

Chinese Super-Apps

Chinese customers are also very used to so-called ‘supper apps’ like WeChat, which offer a multitude of online functions, far beyond anything found in the West.

So it’s important to look at how you can integrate these things into your own digital ecosystem to support your brand and objectives and your audience’s needs.

Get Expert Help

Integrating these UX elements under a cohesive Chinese digital marketing strategy can be challenging!

But with expert help from a Chinese marketing agency, everything gets easier! Our skilled team of Chinese digital marketing professionals has the native language skills and expertise you need to succeed with your UX efforts, and your integrated marketing strategy as a whole.

Why not contact us for an informal chat about how we can help you?