ChatGPT and other AI-based tools offer an incredible opportunity for digital marketing agencies – and one that many companies across the world are now taking advantage of to generate high-quality content.

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.