The marketing ecosystem is vastly different in China than in the West, so marketing strategies need to be tailored to fit in with the Chinese market. China is the world’s biggest market in terms of population and comes with a great variety of demographics spreading across a huge geographical area.
Understanding the nuances of marketing in the country is crucial to your business’ success.
Data About The Chinese Market
With more than 780 million people shopping online, China is the world’s largest e-Commerce market. And with the lifting of pandemic restrictions in sight, and a growing middle class population, China will continue to lead in size and volume, and is one of the most lucrative market for foreign brands to sell online.
Most Chinese users interact with e-Commerce sites through their mobile phones and many of them are users of m-Commerce sites as well. A lot of these consumers come through social commerce or social media sites, so a strong social media presence is very important in China. WeChat, the largest social media platform in China has more than a billion active users on its platform and offers very strong e-Commerce and payment features.
Search Engines In China
Since Google is banned in China, the pre-eminent search engine on the market is Baidu and the SEO rules on Baidu are vastly different from Google. However, Chinese people rarely search for a company or brand name directly and usually go through social media mentions to find the products or services they are looking for.
Social Media In China
WeChat is the biggest social media platform in China and is used by almost everyone for its powerful messaging features. But WeChat is also a Super App and contains powerful features like e-Commerce and payment processing abilities, so it is the cornerstone launchpad for marketing, and you may consider working with a China marketing agency like Alarice to turn your business goals into actionable outcomes.
Next in line is Weibo, which is a blogging platform like Twitter. Weibo users log on daily to find out what their fellow netizens in China are talking about. It is the place to find new trends and gather popular opinions. All news stories are shared and commented upon on this platform, which makes it very easy to gauge public reactions and developments.
Douyin which is the big brother of TikTok is also a major social media powerhouse in China, and contains short form videos that can be used by brand marketers.
Best-Practices To Market Your Products In China
Trust is very important here, and positive word of mouth will definitely help you to acquire new customers and keeping the existing ones loyal to your brand. Additionally, the use of KOLs is a great way to build trust, and increase brand awareness in the Chinese market.
Social selling is also a good way to get your products out there. Liked minded people get together in groups on various social media sites and recommend products to each other. This means that customer service is a significant factor to influence their perceptions of your brand, and they may expect you to answer queries and fix the problems as soon as they arise.
Promotions and online-to-offline commerce have also started to gain popularity. Shared coupons allow people to buy online and then convert these sales offline to your stores. Many retailers have used this tactic to move online customers to their brick and mortar stores.
Conclusion
Although internet usage habits vary in China, the touchpoints for digital buyers are largely the same, using social media sites and not search engines for brand information. More emphasis needs to be placed on building trust and brand awareness as there’s a greater uncertainty in the cyberspace. The right mix of social media channels should also be emphasised to make sure you are reaching the target audience where they are as there are many market segments in China.
