Key points:

• Marketing in China is undeniably complex, but the right Chinese digital marketing strategy can bring you results, especially if you take time to understand the market.
• The key lies in blending digital channels such as WeChat MiniPrograms, livestreaming, ePR, Baidu advertising, and website optimisation with carefully segmented audiences, seamless user journeys and the right metrics for measurement.
• The right partnerships are also vital – from KOLs, to agency providers, to bring speciality skills and insights to your marketing.

Important Statistics to Know

• China has over 1.1 billion internet users with a penetration rate of 78%.
• Around 1.04 billion short-form video users watch approximately 150 minutes of short videos daily.
• WeChat alone has over 1.34 billion users.
• Digital channels already represent over a quarter of the total retail marketing in China and are continuing to grow.

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Mastering Chinese Business Culture: A Practical Guide for Success

The Chinese digital ecosystem goes far beyond anything that we have in the West, combining social, chat, commerce, and payments with incredibly high-tech experiences. As a result, Chinese customers expect highly personalised, targeted, high-quality, and frictionless online shopping experiences.

To succeed in this ultra-competitive environment, Western brands must create Chinese digital marketing strategies that are totally attuned to the local market and the needs of each particular target audience, recognising that there will be existing competitors who may already have a solid position within the market.

With this in mind, here are the factors that help you to create a powerful Chinese digital marketing strategy with meaningful ROI:

1. A focus on the right platforms

In China, social platforms are also commerce platforms. Western brands will almost always need a presence on Douyin for short videos, WeChat (especially mini programs), and Taobao Live, for example. Many will need an additional branded presence on other social platforms, such as RedNote.

For success, every campaign should be created specifically for the unique attributes of that platform. For example, on Douyin, the videos should be short and entertaining, and on WeChat, a brand might offer coupons or gamification.

It’s important not to create a single advert and expect it to work across all platforms. Effective campaigns are carefully tailored, and although content can be repurposed, it very often needs to be adjusted.

2. Effective, targeted content

Chinese customers tend to spend a significant amount of time online in chat apps and short-video feeds. Western brands can use this knowledge to create effective content that really resonates with their needs.

For example, short videos help to create awareness and reach, and livestreaming with KOLs is ideal for social proof and for building engaged communities. WeChat mini programs can be used to convert sales and to deliver customer service.

3. Optimised user journeys

In China, customers expect seamless experiences with the smoothest possible payments and logistics. Western brands should utilise familiar Chinese payment platforms, such as AliPay, and remember that Chinese customers are more accustomed to using phone numbers (rather than email addresses) for sign-ups and QR codes, unlike Western customers.

Think about the post-sales process too and make sure you have an excellent service and follow-up function for queries, reviews, and comments (remembering that Chinese customers greatly value peer reviews.) Chatbots are great when they are intelligent – human agents are even better when they speak Chinese!

4. A pipeline of constant, planned content

Chinese digital marketing strategies rely on authentic and engaging targeted content, as well as careful content strategies that cater to different needs.

For example, Chinese customers also greatly value practical content such as project demonstrations, honest reviews from trusted KOLs, comparison content, and unboxing videos. These work very well alongside promotional content.

It helps to think of content in terms of a steady pipeline of needs and plan for it accordingly, with schedules for livestreams, promotional videos, explainers, and clips, rather than viewing individual content pieces as unlinked, one-off pieces.

You can build much of your content pipeline around key Chinese shopping festivals, as these run reliably throughout the year!

5. Careful localisation and context

Localisation is absolutely key to success with your Chinese digital marketing strategy. Invest deeply in your knowledge of cultural nuance or work with a partner that already has this insight.

Localisation goes far beyond using the right fonts, user journeys, and colours on a website. It also means recognising that a product launch designed with a certain celebrity influencer in Shanghai might need a slightly different position, partner, and launch strategy in lower-tier cities.

With this in mind, be strategic and data-driven. It also helps to test your creatives by audiences in different regions to build up your insight as you launch, test, iterate, and continually improve.

6. The right KOL relationships

The right KOL will be a huge asset to your Chinese digital marketing strategy if you find the right partners and co-create an effective strategy. Make use of KOLs’ in-depth knowledge and specific insight and treat them as true partners to unlock the maximum value of your relationship.

A good KOL partnership can drive trust with your audience and those all-important conversions. KOLs are particularly influential in markets such as local services, beauty and wellness, travel, and consumer goods, but even very niche B2B markets will have their own successful KOLs.

7. Creativity and thoughtfulness

Exclusive product drops, joint promotions with strategic partners (including platform channels), co-branded campaigns, and special holiday-special designs, gift-wrapping, freebies, digital stickers, or competitions are all great ways to stand out from the competitive crowd in China. Time-limited coupons can also work very well. See what your competitors are doing, stay abreast of trends, and keep learning and testing!

8. Responsiveness

Marketing in China is much faster than in the West. Chinese marketers are great at rapidly testing new approaches, such as ecommerce features, fresh ad formats, and the newest mini program updates. They take a ready ‘test, confirm and scale’ approach to marketing rather than spending too much time on extended planning.

For western brands, success lies in a blend of essential planning and strong governance to understand the latest platform rules (to avoid being blacklisted), and an agile attitude that allows flex, exploration and discovery.

9. Compliance

Compliance is also key in China. It’s important to stay up to date with the latest rules on advertising, content moderation and data privacy as platforms evolve regularly and actively enforce their policies. If you attempt to share content that goes against platform policies, your account can be delisted.

10. The right Chinese digital marketing agency partner

In this challenging, fast-paced and highly competitive market, the right agency partner can help you accelerate and amplify your results. If you want to minimise errors and smooth your path to Chinese digital marketing success, contact Market Me China for an informal chat. Our team of native-language speaking digital marketing professionals works with Western businesses across all industries to help them succeed. Reach out to learn more!

FAQs

1. Can I repurpose my Western digital marketing strategy for China?

Not if you want it to work! The Chinese digital marketing ecosystem is completely different. Not only are Western platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Google banned, but China’s own sophisticated platforms combine messaging, social media, payments, service and ecommerce into a single experience. With that in mind, smart marketers will build targeted strategies for each Chinese platform.

2. What sort of content do Chinese customers like?

Generally speaking, Chinese customers love content that is authentic, practical, entertaining and engaging. They appreciate short-form videos, product demos or explainers, livestreaming, reviews, unboxing videos and comparisons, for example. Always focus on adding value and solving customers’ problems for maximum results.

3. Which platforms should I focus on?

This will depend on your market and target audience. For most brands, WeChat, Douyin (TikTok) and Tmall for ecommerce / livestreaming will be highly relevant. Baidu is key for search, and many brands (particularly beauty, luxury and wellbeing) benefit from a presence on RedNote.