If you are planning to do business in China in 2019, you need to get your head around digital marketing. It is the fastest, most cost-effective and broadest reaching form of marketing in the county, with almost every single person in the country accessing the internet in one way or another. They are possibly the most connected consumers in the world, so it is vital to tap into that if you want to be successful. China DR Solutions are experts in digital marketing, but here, we are going to briefly cover what we think you should know about the Chinese digital marketing world.
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Let’s take a look at some facts and figures:
770 million internet users
97.5% of internet users are on a mobile phone
Home to more than 4 million websites
Most extensive 4g network in the world
Baidu is the most used search engine
WeChat and Weibo are the most popular social networking tools
China’s online retail transaction volume reached 3.1 trillion yuan in the first half of 2017
Chinese spend an average of three hours a day on their smartphones
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is a form of advertising delivered through the internet. Compared to the more traditional forms of advertising – newspaper and magazine print, television and radio – it reaches more people a lot faster. Types of digital marketing include blog posts, banner ads, PPC/CPC (pay per click/cost per click) ads, pop-ups, direct email and through mobile ads. It also includes video and social media advertising.
Social Media
While the majority of the Western world is familiar with platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, Chinese social media focuses on WeChat and Weibo. Weibo is a micro-blogging site, not all that unlike Twitter in that you can share pictures, videos, links and text – as long as it does not exceed 140 characters. There are four different types of advertising with Weibo: banner adverts, Weibo search engine, fan headlines and fan tunnels.
WeChat is a multi-purpose message platform with more than one billion monthly users. Not only can you use it in a similar way to Facebook to chat with friends and associates, but there is also gaming, shopping, mapping, dating and payment services. In fact, you could pretty much manage your whole life through this particular app!
If you can research and get your brand or business visible on these apps, you are opening yourself up to a vast audience who will literally have you at their fingertips all day long.
Baidu
Baidu is the biggest and most popular search engine in China, with more than 148 million daily active users on its app. It works very much in the same way as Google, so if you understand search engine optimisation there, you should be able to get to grips with Baidu.
It has the same two-column structure as Google – a combination of paid and organic results on the left and paid and related ones on the right of the screen. As you would expect, it does heavily promote its own products – it’s version of Wikipedia, for example, or Zhidao – it’s equivalent to Yahoo Answers or Reddit. This shows how Chinese users often opt to rely on a trusted, dominant brand to find what they’re looking for and it is essential that you see a way to utilise this.
As we mentioned above, it does work very much like Google regarding SEO. Keywords and title tags are relevant and feature highly in its algorithm, but it does not favour Flash or JavaScript, and its crawl feature is not as developed as Googles. It prefers content which is accessible in as few clicks as possible. It also places great importance of link building, but quality is key rather than quantity.
Influencers
Influencers or key opinion leaders (KOL) are a huge part of the digital marketing landscape China, and like the rest of the world, we think that is a trend that isn’t going to burn out any time soon. If anything, key opinion leaders have even more influence in China than anywhere else.
This is down to the bond that KOLs can create between themselves, a brand and potential customers. It’s a soft advertisement, promoting the product as you would recommend products between friends. The products appear in natural lifestyle photos or gently eased into blog posts, giving it credibility.
Live Streaming
A trend that is growing in popularity across the world, live streaming has exploded in China. It is expected to reach over $7 billion in revenue in 2019, making it a key player in digital marketing. This is often used in conjunction with a key opinion leader. Victoria’s Secret is one brand who really used live streaming to their advantage, streaming its annual runway show in Shanghai. While users were watching the show online, they were able to purchase the featured products in real-time by clicking the links to the brand’s e-commerce sites.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is very popular in China, and the trend is expected to continue to grow. However, it is essential that brands do not just translate their Western content and hope that it has the same impact, but should concentrate on creating new content specifically aimed at the Chinese consumer market.
Things to consider
China is a very unique country concerning its culture and the content that works well. While a leader in modern technology, the values of the country are still very much traditional, with a big focus on family and respect for one’s elders. It is imperative to bear that in mind when creating content or putting together your marketing campaign.
It is also crucial to remember that censorship is something that may affect your campaign. It’s censorship rules can vary depending on a range of factors, such as the time of year. What works one week may be banned the next. While average day to day content shouldn’t generally be an issue, it is worth noting that Google, Facebook, YouTube, Bloomberg, Instagram, THe BBC and Pinterest are among just some of the 10, 000 domains blocked in China.