Post on 27-Mar-2020
Using Wechat for Business
Digital Marketing in China
Thomas Graziani from WalktheChat, 12th of April 2016
A project funded by the European Union
In Partnership With
Get Ready for China!
The EU SME Centre is an EU Commission funded project which helps EU SMEs prepare to do business in China by
providing them with a range of information, advice, training and support services.
The Centre is implemented by a consortium of six partners and was established in October 2010. It successfully
completed its first phase in July 2014 and has now entered its second phase which will run until July 2018.
2
Who am I?
I’m Thomas, the cofounder of the WeChat-
focused development and marketing agency
WalktheChat
What does WalktheChat do?
We help our clients use WeChat for marketing
by:
- Designing their strategies
- Building WeChat APPs
- Driving traffic (KOL, ads, viral campaigns)
Who do we work with?
Big brands (Nestle, NFL, …) and small brands
(Startups, SME’s trying to import to China).
Who am I?
1. OVERVIEW OF THE CHINESE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM
2. HOW TO GET STARTED ON WECHAT
3. HOW TO GROW YOUR WECHAT FOLLOWING
i. GENERATING TRAFFIC
ii. CASE STUDIES FROM LARGE BRANDS
iii. CASE STUDIES OF WECHAT GUERILLA MARKETING
4. CROSS-BORDER E-COMMERCE AND WECHAT
We have a lot to cover, so let’s get started!
What we‘ll talk about
PART 1: OVERVIEW OF THE CHINESE DIGITAL
ECOSYSTEM
MAU Y2Y
growth
Founding
date
Western
equivalent
•Paypal
697M +37% January
2011
•Twitter 198M +38% August
2009
•Forums
•Blogs
75M
registered N.A March 2005
•Tinder 69M +50% August
2011
(but dying) 44M -19%
December
2005
Source: Q2 2015, company reports and official statements
Quick overview
WEST CHINA
Integrated eco-system
OPT-IN
QUOTAS
Protected users
Protected users
Advertising Services
Service-based ecosystem
PART 2: HOW TO GET STARTED ON
#1 WECHAT MARKETING IS
DIFFICULT
≈
≈
A friend
account
Two
company
service
accounts
All company
subscription
accounts
A friend
account
Two types of
accounts
• Subscription
accounts can send
one message each
day and are less
visible
• Service accounts
are more visible,
have advanced
features but can
only send four
messages each
month
Two types of company accounts
Reading rates are decreasing
#2 PICK THE
RIGHT TYPE OF ACCOUNT
Subscription Service
# of messages 1 per day 4 per month
Visibility Inside dedicated folder Same as WeChat friends
Automatic answers Yes Yes
Targeted messaging Yes Yes
WeChat wi-fi Yes Yes
Customer service messages Yes Yes
Connected objects No Yes
WePay No Yes
Voice recognition No Yes
Geo-location No Yes
URL shortening No Yes
Multiple QR code No Yes
OAUTH 2.0 No Yes
Subscription & service accounts
Subscription account Service account
Needs Chinese ID +
WeChat payment
enabled WeChat
account
Needs Chinese ID +
Local company with
bank account (can be
WOFE or Chinese
Company)
Who can create them?
Subscription account Service account
Subscription accounts are a
good choice for companies or
individuals for which content is
the core service provided to
customers: ability to publish
daily is a key feature and
other features provided by the
account are more limited
Service accounts are more
appropriate for companies
aiming at providing a wider set
of services through WeChat:
customer service, e-commerce,
games, or other interactive
feature. Content can be
provided but it is not the core
service
In a few words
#3 PLAY THE SERVICE GAME
#4 DEVELOP AN USER-FOCUSED CONTENT
STRATEGY
50%
40%
10%
Branded Content Unbranded
but Related
Unbranded
& Useful
#5 LEVERAGE EXISTING
PLATFORMS
PART 3: GROWTH
PART 3.1: GENERATING TRAFFIC
“Timeline” ads “Public account” ads
Barrier to
entry
High: around RMB
10M Low: RMB 2,000
User
reaction
Violent negative
reaction Indifference
Quality of
traffic Low Low
Perception by
advertisers
Short-term
branding tool Useless
Visibility High (user timeline) Low (bottom of
other public
accounts)
CPC ads are not the best choice
YOUR CONTENT Sharable content
Action call via link or QR code
Enticing title
KOL are more efficient
Customers can get discounts if they share the brand with their friends
Using social networks as a powerful
way to get visibillity in the
competitive Chinese market
These friends can become new customers from China or during their travels Perpetuating a virtuous loop of customer
acquisition
Customers are encouraged to re-purchase products from China
Our e-commerce solution enables
customers to keep purchasing
from abroad
Customers follow our clients social networks during their trip Stores provide incentives such
as discounts or additional
services to increase followers
Social e-commerce is optimal
WeChat CPC
marketing
WeChat Key
Opinion Leaders
WeChat social
e-commerce
Minimum $20,000
investment
Low quality
traffic
Highly controlled by
Tencent
Minimum $8,000
RMB per message
Medium quality
traffic
High risk High risk
Low oversight
from Tencent
~$2,000 USD per year
for platform license
High quality
traffic
Low risk
Low oversight
from Tencent
Cost
Regulation
Traffic quality
Risk
And most cost-effective
PART 3.2: CASE STUDIES FROM
LARGE BRANDS
Shun Feng delivery tracking
LV WeChat customer service
Shangri-La hotel booking
Zara store locator
C-TRIP flash sales
Sasa cross-border platform
PART 3.3: CASE STUDIES OF WECHAT GUERILLA
MARKETING
Speciality: wine
Background:
studied wine in the
U.S and in France
Format used: video
Shen Han &
Drunk Pinguin Society
The power of videos
• Launched a monthly wine subscription
business
• 1,500 subscribers already
• Diversifying to new types of products
Outstanding results
Speciality: cosmetics
Background: UX designer
for Microsoft
Format used: articles
Jiu Tian & HiBetterMe
The power of Zhihu Wang
• Grew to 50,000 WeChat followers in 4
months
• Launched a shop on her account selling
thousands of items per month
• Now launching her own brand and raised
5,000,000 RMB for it
Outstanding results...
Speciality: everything
Background: journalism
Format used: audio
Luo Yonghao from Luoji Siwei
The power of audio messages
• Grew to 3,500,000 WeChat followers
• Launched very successful e-commerce
campaigns (2,700,000 people participated in
their moon-cake campaign)
• Used innovative strategies in terms of
products and sales model
Outstanding results…
Different growth
strategies
Different types of
content Different products
Zhihu
Videos for
students
Collaboration with
stars
Audio messages
Videos
Subscription
model
Channel for other
brands
Experiences
What’s the common point?
They did everything different
PART 4: CROSS-BORDER E-COMMERCE
WeChat and Alipay boss enable
cross-border payments
Cross-border logistic solutions
already exist
Example:
- Under the previous regulation, the products with tax below 50 RMB
were tax-free.
- New regulation removes this tax benefit. Instead, the VAT and sales tax
will apply to only 70% of the total product price, if the product is under
personal quota (i.e: under 2,000 RMB for a single purchase and bellow
20,000 RMB of purchases per individual and per year)
Cross border taxes
keep evolving
Follow Us on WeChat
Get Ready for China
www.eusmecentre.org.cn
55