Those outside of China may never have heard the name but the market dominating social media platform was designed to service traditional chat and sharing options, voice and video calls, online shopping, games features, news sources, ordering cab services, food delivery, bank transfer and investments.
Here’s how to dip a toe into the world of WeChat marketing.
The application offers similar opportunities for marketing as the social media platforms you may be more familiar with. Advertising has highly specific targeting and a range of options including banner ads at the bottom of official articles as well as moment ads. Users can only receive one moment ad every 48 hours at this stage with up to 6 images or 6 to 15 seconds of video content so the audience is super receptive to the right content.
Key Opinion Leaders (KOLS) are influencers with large and highly engaged audiences that can also be a very effective way to spend WeChat advertising budget. These popular account owners can be engaged in multiple ways, much like influencer marketing can be utilised on other platforms. Consider partnering for sponsored posts or campaign collaborations with KOLS from your niche market and increase your brand awareness.
Organic marketing strategies on WeChat are equally as important and effective as paid strategies. We know you’ve heard us say it before, but having strong content on any platform is the only way to grow. When it comes to WeChat, sharing content is incredibly popular, with almost half the users indicating they are likely to share content they find interesting or useful. WeChat users tend to favour content that evokes positive emotions, is visually eye-catching (hello GIFs and videos!) or includes some sort of useful information with ‘how-to’ videos proven to be highly engaging.
Not only can users search by location which offers opportunity for brand exposure, the app can also detect user location which allows brands to target potential customers based on proximity. The app has Tinder like capabilities when singles turn their location on to find people nearby, fingers crossed they swipe right on your business while they’re at it.
This is essentially linking a brief version of your website to your official WeChat account, giving potential clients more information about your company without leaving the app. All you need is compelling images, strong Chinese copy and a WeChat official account to use this feature as a mini-host for your content.
The platform can be overwhelming to the untrained eye and entering into the world of WeChat will take time and a little patience. Think your mum when she first joined Facebook level confusion at the start. Having a Chinese speaking navigator will be invaluable to getting started and ensuring your initial set up is done right will have you on the fast track to mastering one of the worlds largest social media platforms, giving you direct access to one of the biggest markets in the world. With just a little practice hasn’t your mum has been love reacting to everything you comment and sending you stickers and GIFs? Anything is possible.
