{"id":37447,"date":"2023-03-07T10:03:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T10:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seoagencychina.com\/?p=37447"},"modified":"2023-03-07T10:04:43","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T10:04:43","slug":"effective-wechat-promotion-strategies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seoagencychina.com\/effective-wechat-promotion-strategies\/","title":{"rendered":"Create the Best WeChat Marketing Strategy for Your Brand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
WeChat, the most popular messaging app in China<\/a><\/strong> with 1.26 billion active users as of 2022, provides great marketing opportunities for foreign brands. Its success relies on the fact that\u00a0Wechat was able to integrate almost all the features that made the success of the world\u2019s most popular networks<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In this blog post, we will show you how to leverage WeChat marketing tools and strategies to make your brand visible to the Chinese audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WeChat is the super-app that almost all Chinese Internet users are registered on, so it’s an excellent tool for any business that wants to enter the Chinese market. The app was originally released in 2011 by the Chinese company Tencent Holdings Ltd. Although it started as a simple messaging app, nowadays it’s a whole ecosystem, that allows its users to take care of almost all activities that they need to do online without leaving the platform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Above you can see some of WeChats’ features. The app allows for voice and video calls and functions like videos posted on WeChat Channels<\/a><\/strong>, a feature similar to Tik Tok. You can also create WeChat official accounts<\/strong>, a Wechat store<\/strong> in something called WeChat mini program<\/strong>, where WeChat users can pay for your products using built-in WeChat Pay<\/strong>, a payment method developed by Tencent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The possibilities of promoting your brand to Chinese users of the app are endless, as, in comparison to other social media platforms in China, WeChat is one of the biggest ecosystems there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the number of features available on the platform, WeChat is the best social media app for business<\/strong>, as it allows its users to reach and engage with the audience in multiple different ways. Here are some of the biggest benefits of using WeChat for business;<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s take a look at some of the best WeChat marketing practices that will help your company build brand awareness in China; <\/p>\n\n\n\n WeChat Official Account<\/a><\/strong> is the first step you should take in the WeChat app, as it’s one of the best WeChat marketing tools<\/strong>. WeChat business account works like a website, allowing brands to publish content in the form of blog posts or newsletters<\/strong>. It’s a great tool to attract potential customers, that will start discovering the brand by checking its WeChat Official account first. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An official Wechat account is also helpful in building customer loyalty and engagement<\/strong>, as it allows it to send push notifications <\/strong>to its followers base, to notify them about new products, new releases, articles, and many more. It’s a great tool for building brand awareness and trust<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are three Wechat official account types; Wechat service account, Wechat subscription account, and Wechat corporate account (also called WeChat Work). When it comes to China WeChat marketing, two of them are great for revenue-generating emails; WeChat<\/strong> service accounts and Wechat subscription accounts<\/strong>. Enterprise accounts are for internal communication in the company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Subscription accounts allow sending one push message to a follower base every day and up to eight articles per month. Notifications will show in a special subscription folder in WeChat, but the downside of this account is that it doesn’t support foreign business entities<\/strong>, so you would need to have a Chinese partner to have subscription accounts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The best option for foreign companies is Wechat service accounts, as they support overseas businesses<\/strong>. Wechat service accounts allow for four pushes per month and up to 8 articles for each push, but those pushes come in a form of something similar to our newsletters, shown in the Wechat users’ messages interface. They also get a predominant place in the chat feed<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are many functions that the Wechat official account can provide to your brand. Thanks to broadcasting messages and sending a customized welcome and reply messages<\/strong>, helps you better engage with your followers and build trust and loyalty between you and them. This feature also allows you to analyze the traffic and engagement on your public page<\/strong>, making it easier to adapt your Wechat marketing strategy to the target audience of your brand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wechat articles are a great marketing tool to engage with your target audience through well-tailored content. You can create Wechat articles with interactive designs<\/strong>, that come as push notifications similar to newsletters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Chinese consumers don’t like content with too much text, they prefer interactive forms with a good layout and a lot of graphics, photos, videos, and other interesting elements. If you follow this trend, you can expect rather high engagement rates that will contribute to bigger sales of your products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n WeChat official accounts platform also has a feature of private messages<\/strong>, which are very helpful in building brand loyalty. This option is a great form of WeChat customer relationship management, allowing you to cater to the needs of each individual interested in your brand. You can also use it to send customized offers, loyalty programs, coupons, virtual VIP cards<\/strong>, and so on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To promote your official account on other sub-platforms of the Wechat ecosystem as well as in any other place online and offline, Wechat generates a special QR code that redirects users to brands’ public accounts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wechat QR codes can be placed everywhere on the internet but you can also use them on printed promotional materials, such as brochures that you’ll use at trade events or in stores. You can place it in paid ads, posters, or name tags. Chinese people are used to entering any website or platform by scanning or clicking on a QR code, so it’s something you can’t miss. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, you can personalize<\/strong> your QR code so that it will best match the style of your brand. You can choose a style for your QR code from a variety of themes. They range from classic themes to more unusual ones. For example, if your business is a bakery, you can choose a food-related style for your code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Checking the WeChat online performance and marketing strategy of other players on the market is a very helpful practice, that will help you create the best Wechat marketing strategy <\/strong>for your brand. You can compare how the giants from your industry engage with Wechat followers and how are their wechat marketing campaigns performing. But it’s also useful to learn from small brands that are successful on Wechat, as it’s easier to compare them at first. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Check how their official accounts look like, what’s their welcoming message, audit the key content pillars, tone of voice, videos, and pictures they add to the articles, dates of publishing, and how the top performing posts are done. Analyze how they make use of wechat services<\/strong>, which wechat trends they follow if they use Wechat Channels or mini-programs, and so on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re looking for inspiration, you can check our case studies<\/a><\/strong> and enter their Wechat accounts to see how they perform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As WeChat is an app for people of all ages in China, it’s important to identify your target audience, so that you will create a Wechat marketing strategy according to their content preferences. All social media platforms in China differ from one another and all have different target audiences, but WeChat is one of those apps used by everyone, so it’s hard to define who is an average WeChat user<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While choosing a strategy, you need to understand what are the behaviors and preferences of your target audience<\/strong>. If you want to direct your content to older people, it’s better to use written content, with clear visuals and in-depth knowledge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, if your target audience is Gen Z, you can leverage the WeChat Channels video platform, collaborate with influencers and promote products through live streaming or games in mini-programs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When you already define your audience, you can divide it into groups and prepare customized messages<\/strong>, coupons, and offers for each one. As customers like the personal approach, you can learn how to do backend tagging to enrich your customers’ journey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Content strategy is closely linked to your audience type and your brand’s purpose. There are a few things to consider when formulating a content strategy for your WeChat communication; <\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to posts on your Wechat official account, the best strategy is to create quality content<\/strong> that is a mix of well-structured, well-written informative text with images and videos. Do not forget to include your QR code <\/strong>in your content! If your Wechat post impresses or interests the customers, they will share it with others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we mentioned earlier, Wechat offers a lot of features and services to its users, that allow businesses to reach their potential customers with the use of different content formats. When it comes to social media marketing on Wechat, with the use of the right Wechat marketing tools and a strategy well-tailored to your brand and audience, you can get amazing results just from one single app. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some of the content formats that are useful for brands; <\/p>\n\n\n\n WeChat articles are the perfect format for all longer posts or important announcements<\/strong>, as they come with a push notification, similar to our newsletter. You can use it when you want to interest your audience with some topic related to your brand, share some tips or in-depth knowledge or present new releases, for example, new product collections, limited offers, or a WeChat marketing campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WeChat H5 brochures<\/a><\/strong> are developed in WeChat mini-programs<\/strong> and linked to your Official WeChat account. It’s a simple and cost-efficient way to introduce Chinese consumers to your company or products. WeChat brochures work like PDF presentations<\/strong>, but are interactive and within the app, which makes them very shareable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n WeChat Channels<\/strong> are a fairly new feature of Wechat, released by Tencent in 2020. Chinese customers of the platform now can communicate by creating content in form of videos, which threatened the position of a leader of Bytedance and its Douyin (Tiktok). Now businesses have it even easier to reach Wechat users and it’s a great tool to interest audiences outside of our followers base. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With the new WeChat Channels account, you can now share short video content for up to 60 seconds or 9 images<\/strong> (with character limitations) on your channel. Videos will include descriptions that give more information about what’s happening in them as well as allowing users to interact through comments!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wechat mini-programs<\/strong> feature is a game changer for all the brands that want to sell their products in China, but can’t or don’t want to invest the amount of money needed for opening a store on Tmall or JD.com. Mini-programs are mini apps within the Wechat platform<\/strong>, where customers can create virtual spaces that they need for their business. One of the most used function is creating a WeChat Store<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wechat Stores are small shops built-in WeChat social media app<\/strong>, where Chinese customers can buy products and pay for them using WeChat pay. Therefore, the whole process doesn’t require them to leave the app at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Businesses are able to offer their customers a paperless way of interacting with them, and the service is extremely convenient because people can access these shops without having to download anything<\/strong>. Plus they’re highly shareable <\/strong>since users can easily send out an invite via WeChat groups or private messages, they can also post them on WeChat Moments or official accounts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wechat stores also have many customizable options available including cross-border payment solutions at affordable costs which means that even small businesses will find this type of useful for themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wechat stores are also very useful for brands, as product listings from them can be shared directly in articles on public accounts or in Wechat Moments, which makes it very simple to redirect Chinese customers to your online shop. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWechat overview: understand the phenomenon of the super-app<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Benefits of using WeChat for business in China<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Best WeChat marketing strategies for foreign brands that want to win an audience in China<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Setting up brands’ WeChat official account<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Types of WeChat Official Accounts<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Wechat subscription account<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Wechat service account<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Wechat storytelling<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Use the QR code to promote your WeChat business account<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Learn from your competitors<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Correctly identify your target audience: get to know your WeChat users<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Content is the core of your successful WeChat marketing strategy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Content formats on Wechat<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Wechat Account articles\/blog posts<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Wechat H5 brochures<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
WeChat Channels<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
WeChat mini-programs eCommerce: open a WeChat Store!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Wechat ads: find the best WeChat advertising strategy for your brand<\/h3>\n\n\n\n