The Chinese market is looking more attractive than ever to Western brands, with healthy patterns of growth, a strong recovery after the pandemic and a burgeoning middle class that wants to buy quality Western goods.

But it can be difficult to break into this vast and complex market, which is digital led – but which uses different platforms to the West. Competition is also high with plenty of strong existing brands from across the globe, and the Chinese culture is so nuanced and complex in its own right that campaigns require careful navigation in order to successfully appeal to the target audience.

Read on to find out how working with a Chinese digital marketing agency can help you to achieve marketing success and to boost your bottom line.

1. Access to native language skills

There’s no getting away from the fact that Chinese language skills are key to success for marketing in China! Not only do you need to be able to engage with KOLs and potential customers, but you also need to be able to analyse data from Chinese social media platforms and place online marketing campaigns – all in Chinese! By using a Chinese digital marketing agency, you instantly gain access to these native language skills.

2. Chinese digital marketing expertise

The digital marketing landscape is very different in China to the West. For one thing, there is no Google, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter – and instead, there is a vast range of social media platforms used heavily by different Chinese audiences (who absolutely love their smartphones and who carry out many of their daily activities online.) Tech in China is far ahead of the game, and these platforms aren’t just numerous, they are also complex, diverse in their offerings and hugely powerful. The better you can understand these platforms, the easier it becomes to deliver quality campaigns. Again, a Chinese digital marketing agency possesses this knowledge and can make it quicker and easier to use the right channels, in the right way – saving you time and money and boosting your conversions.

3. Knowledge of the Chinese market and culture

Cultural norms in China are incredibly powerful, but Western brands often get it wrong by adopting ‘clunky’ Chinese symbolism that either doesn’t hit the mark or, at worst, offends completely. It simply won’t work to splash red and gold over marketing campaigns or to use dragon symbols to make products and visuals relevant. Chinese culture is nuanced and these consumers are extremely sophisticated. It’s vital to really know your target market, your target customer, and the images, language, symbols and concepts that will meet their needs. Chinese marketing experts make this easier.

4. More efficient campaigns

Many campaigns become wasteful because they haven’t been properly targeted or placed. For example, it’s very easy to incorrectly target an online marketing campaign in China if you don’t read Chinese! A Chinese digital marketing agency can take this type of routine work off your hands and take it forward for you, evidencing the results and ROI at every stage for transparency.

5. Strategic planning support

For Western brands, whether new to China or with an existing presence, it can be challenging to know where to start with the next campaign. A Chinese digital marketing agency can support your in-house experts with strategic consultancy on topics such as brand development, localisation, content and channel planning, so that you get it the right first time, and enjoy better results.

6. KOL relationships

Most Western brands will want to work with a KOL, or Key Opinion Leader. These influencers are hugely powerful and often have tightly niche markets which help brands to get better returns for their campaigns. A Chinese digital marketing agency can help you to navigate commercial relationships with KOLs and to find the right influencer for your target audience and product offer.

7. Digital asset development

It can be challenging to develop your digital ecosystem in China. Chinese websites need to be localised (or, ideally, created bespoke for your Chinese audience), hosted correctly, built with Chinese user journeys in mind, and integrated with the right local payment platforms, social media accounts, apps and other digital assets. Your Chinese digital marketing agency can optimise this process so that everything flows, and so your demanding Chinese customers have a seamless, rewarding journey that takes them to the desired endpoint with ease – whether that’s to register, to enquire or simply to purchase online.

8. Flexible marketing resource

A Chinese digital marketing agency also provides access to specialist and expert resources on a flexible basis and when you need them. It can be expensive to hire and develop in-house staff and to ramp your internal team up and down with your changing business demands. With agency resources, you instantly gain access to the expertise and delivery resources that you need, in the way that you need them.

9. An end-to-end service

Similarly, many businesses prefer to focus on their operation, strategy and delivery. By using an expert Chinese digital marketing agency, these business leaders can focus on their core business and outsource campaign development and delivery if they choose – with an end-to-end service that self-manages. At Market Me China, many of our clients choose to entrust their full digital marketing campaigns to us for an integrated service and we provide the analytics, reporting and analysis to evidence the ROI.

10. Less waste, less time – better results!

At Market Me China we know the Chinese digital market and we are constantly learning and evolving along with this fascinating, tech-led and vast market, for the benefit of our customers. We pride ourselves on offering a highly targeted, efficient service that strips out waste and unnecessary costs for our clients. We provide expert advice on the right channels and activities that will bring a healthy ROI so that clients do not waste their precious budget on activities that will not yield the right results. We work holistically and in an integrated fashion with your business, focusing on results and going above and beyond to deliver. Our clients’ successes are our own and we pride ourselves on a high degree of service – as well as those bottom-line results!

Find out more

Please contact us in the first instance to find out more about how we can assist you to grow your brand and business in China.