Many Chinese consumers buy products through cross-border eCommerce. Not all foreign brands are big enough to open a physical store in China. The growth in cross-border eCommerce has offered an alternative way for these brands to sell their products in China.

Even for the brands that are looking to launch full-size stores in China, cross-border eCommerce is a great way to test the market and establish their presence.

WeChat Shop 

The easiest way to start selling products in China is through a WeChat shop or store, which is an eCommerce platform that exits within the WeChat app.

WeChat stores allow access to a wide range of products. Merchants with verified accounts can open a WeChat store.

WeChat stores are linked to official accounts. Brands can identify customers directly from official accounts and focus on specific target groups and also retarget users based on WeChat store behavior. 

Through WeChat stores, companies can sell their products directly to millions of WeChat users. Users don’t need to go to any external platforms. Instead, they can use the WeChat integrated payments systems to pay for products bought. These WeChat stores can be shared easily and can lead to viral campaigns for group buying.

How to open a WeChat Shop?

Opening a WeChat shop or store is much easier than opening up an account for other social media services in China. Foreign businesses can sell their products to Chinese consumers without having a Chinese business license.

As a foreign business wishing to sell products in China through WeChat, you need to first open a WeChat service account. There are two options.

1. Borrow the business license from a business partner or use a third-party agent in order to register an account

Through this process, it generally takes 7 business days to register a Chinese WeChat account. The account will have to be verified annually in order to access features like WeChat payments or advanced API. A western payment solution like PayPal will have to be used.

2. Apply for an account with a foreign business license through Tencent  

Since this is not the standard process, it can even take two months to get an account. Companies need to prove to Tencent that they want to indulge in eCommerce in China. They also need to have a foreign eCommerce website. Tencent usually charges a fee to open this type of account.

Once you have an official WeChat account, the next step is to apply for a WeChat cross border payment account. Foreign businesses don’t need to have a Chinese bank account. Chinese customers can pay in RMB. WeChat automatically handles currency conversions and foreign companies will collect payments in major currencies.

Now comes the time to create a WeChat shop or store. Brands can create and design their own WeChat stores. However, it is a good idea to take the help of WeChat store providers. Next upload products to your WeChat store.

Ways to drive traffic to your WeChat Shop

Driving traffic to your WeChat shop or store will be hard, especially if your brand is new to the Chinese market. You will have to get your customers to know you.

Create Great Content

WeChat stores themselves cannot gain followers but official accounts can. Your official account will be your official brand page on WeChat. You can use it to create long term relationships with your customers. Create useful and interesting content that users can share with friends and family.

KOL Marketing

One way of increasing online followers and drawing traffic to your WeChat store is to hire key opinion leaders (KOLs) and influencers who have pre-existing fan bases. They can help you raise brand awareness. Also, endorsements from influencers are especially beneficial for new companies entering China.

WeChat Paid Advertising (PPC)

You can drive traffic to your shop using paid advertising within the WeChat platform. You can do this through ‘Moments ads’ which can be video or multimedia ads right inside target customers’ WeChat Moments. Another option is to use post ads on third party accounts.  

Conclusion

A WeChat shop supplemented by fast and high-quality customer service and multichannel marketing can help you successfully tap into the Chinese cross-border eCommerce market. For best results, take the help of a Chinese digital marketing agency.

WeChat conferences are designed for decision-makers from marketing, advertising, media backgrounds to discuss the latest trends in WeChat marketing, eCommerce, customer support, and how to implement them.

A WeChat conference in London gets to see the most dynamic WeChat experts, consultants, technology vendors, digital marketers, and other dignitaries from across UK and China.

The event empowers you with China’s marketing and eCommerce expertise and paves the way for executing digital marketing campaigns in China efficiently.

Read on to find out in detail why attending a WeChat conference is important for your business. 

You get to listen to some outstanding speakers

A WeChat conference in London is attended by company founders, chief marketing officers, managers, chief brand officers, marketing strategists, social media managers, developers, creative directors, representatives of local, regional, and national brands. These people speak on diverse topics and share their success stories with you.

When they focus on WeChat marketing, eCommerce, and cross-border business, their insights can help you activate your business in the Chinese market without difficulties.

You may get to hear Allen Zhang speak, Tencent’s low-key executive who built WeChat. You will get a first-hand experience of how successful people speak and carry themselves. The oratory skills of the speakers will be on display.

There is a great potential for learning

You can learn a lot from a WeChat conference. If your business is based in the UK and you are planning to explore the Chinese market, the first thing you need is solid information to base your decisions on.

The internet is where you generally look for information. But the problem with some articles on the net is that one or two people who have the know-how write about a topic and other writers base their writings on their articles.

So, you may find that in some cases the same information is being repeated while you are unable to find an answer to a particular question that you have in mind. This problem is particularly acute in the case of articles related to digital marketing in China as it is not an English speaking country.

For example, it can be tempting to jump on the bandwagon of WeChat Mini Programs and KOLs without understanding the basics of WeChat marketing.

A WeChat conference offers brands not yet present in China the opportunity for a back to basics WeChat marketing education and a well-needed refresher for some of the industry’s giants.

You will understand where you are getting stuck and what you need to do to ensure a better ROI. You will know about the scams you need to look out for and clear any misconceptions that you may be having.

You can ask questions in the interactive sessions or speak personally with the speakers and other professionals.

You will get to hear the big announcements first hand

In a WeChat conference, announcements are made regarding changes to the platform, new features, and insights on how users are using the platform.

It was in a conference that WeChat unveiled Mini Programs in 2017.

When a tip war between Apple and WeChat was the talk of the town, it was announced in a conference in 2018 that Tencent had reached an understanding with Apple and that they would reintroduce the ‘tip’ feature for iOS device users in China.

In the same conference, it was also announced that WeChat would become a mobile gaming platform.

In a conference in 2019, Allen Zhang announced that productivity would be WeChat’s holy grail and that he intended to make user sessions ‘short and efficient’.

And in the 2020 conference, WeChat mapped out its plan to step up monetization within WeChat to stimulate more business transactions.

Offers great networking opportunities

A WeChat conference has networking breaks where you can chat with people and can find partners and investors. It will make you feel good interacting with all these professionals over lunch or with a cup of tea in your hand. You will be more motivated than ever before.

Conclusion

With digital advertising expected to overtake traditional advertising by 2022, there will be significant opportunities for overseas companies looking to tap into China’s eCommerce growth. A WeChat conference in London will put you on the right track.

We all know the significant effect a good social media marketing strategy could have on your company. Now, when that market is China, and the target audience is one you’ve never interacted with before, it could get tricky. But fear not, for many have entered and conquered the market using smart social media marketing strategies. While the marketplace is very different from other marketplaces around the world, one thing is for certain. The same rules while creating a brilliant social media marketing strategy remain the same, whether in the United States or in China.

Five Simple Steps To Create A Social Media Marketing Strategy in China

It really is quite straightforward. The strategy summarizes everything you plan to do and hope to achieve using the best social media marketing in China. This acts as your goal tracker by logging your actions and gives you a peek at how you’re doing along the way. The goal is to be as specific as you possibly can be while keeping it concise. You don’t want to overachieve by logging plans that are so lofty and broad, it’s close to impossible to achieve. 

Step 1: Setting Smart Goals

Creating a winning social media marketing strategy in the Chinese market is crucial. You want to define your objectives and goals clearly without making them look unattainable. Goals are always a little far-fetched but that’s how you know you’re making progress. Also without them, there’s no way to measure your progress. Make sure each goal is measurable, specific, attainable, time-bound, and relevant. This will help guide your actions and render business results you’ll be satisfied with. 

Step 2: Gaining A Good Understanding Of Your Audience

Getting to know your target audience is very important, especially if you’re a first-timer in the ever-changing business environment of China. The target audiences vary greatly from country to country, so no amount of experience in other countries will help you here. Get down to the basics, and get to know the ideal customer, and more importantly, what they would like to see on the social media platforms you use to advertise your brand. This is crucial if you wish to turn your followers into customers. A good way to go about this is by creating buyer personas- step into the shoes of your potential followers and customers to help think better about what they’d expect from you. And of course, the second stage of this step is gathering real-world data. Social media analytics can easily provide you data about your followers and their interests. 

Step 3: Do Enough Recon On Your Competitors

If you’re new to the market, one thing that you can use to your advantage is checking out what your competition is doing to get ahead in the game. Social media marketing strategies in China are not as complicated as most people consider it to be. Start off by conducting a competitive analysis, so you can find out who your competition is, and what they’re excelling at (and possibly, what they’re not). This will also help you get a rough idea of what to expect from your customers, which in a way, helps you realize the practicality of your goals and how easily they can be achieved. You’ll further be able to spot opportunities: go for social media platforms where the audience is underserved, rather than fishing in the same pond as your overachieving competitors. 

Step 4: Take A Step Back To Analyze

This might be the most important part of your social media marketing strategy! Once you’ve invested enough time researching and engaging, you need to take a step back and audit yourself. Find out what’s working and what isn’t. This is your time to improve. Social media marketing strategies in China are constantly developing and evolving, so it’s important for you to keep your eyes on the ball. Engage in social listening if you can, which is another way to keep an eye on the competition. But never skip out on the social media audit, which helps you examine your current efforts and make the necessary improvements. 

Step 5: Set Up Accounts or Improve Existing Ones

Once you’ve done your research, it’s time to put your strategy into action. You do this by setting up accounts on the popular social media platforms across China, like WeChat, Weibo, YouKu, and more, depending on what works best for your company. As you decide the platforms to use, you will also realize each channel requires a different strategy! But at the end of the day, an effective social media marketing strategy in China can do wonders for you and your business if chalked out efficiently and audited regularly. Good luck! 

Businesses that are looking to grow often need to look to advertising and marketing to ensure that they are able to reach an ever-growing audience of consumers. But it can be hard to focus on advertising while also dealing with every other business aspect, and that is where the top advertising agencies Los Angeles come in.

What Does an Advertising Agency Do?

The top advertising agencies in Los Angeles are there to help your business create cohesively, and interesting marketing campaigns to entice consumers into checking out your products and services. They analyze your current business, then perform in-depth research about your products and services as well as competitors to find a way to make a marketing campaign that makes you stand out from the competition. Then they deploy marketing campaigns over various media types, depending on the appropriate audience for your products and services.

The Importance of an Advertising Agency for Your Business

Expertise

Hiring the top advertising agencies in Los Angeles gives you access to teams of marketing experts, which you may not have access to within your own business. With their years of experience, as well as years of education and training, advertising agencies understand how to create effective marketing campaigns for all media types.

Cost-Effective

Advertising and marketing can be an expensive endeavor if you don’t already have a marketing team in place inside your company. When you are looking to expand your marketing efforts, it may be most cost-effective if you hire one of the top advertising agencies in Los Angeles, because they already have in place teams of talented and educated experts with knowledge of what does and doesn’t work, meaning less time and money wasted on failed campaigns.

New Perspectives

Being stuck on certain ideas can cause trouble when it comes to expanding your marketing campaigns to grow your business. With outside perspectives from top advertising agencies in Los Angeles, you can get an infusion of new ideas, or opportunities you are unaware of to further grow your business.

Time Effective

Hiring experts from top advertising agencies in Los Angeles means you are getting the value of their experiences, which helps them be able to craft and deploy marketing campaigns in a more rapid timeframe than your business may be able to do on its own.

Quality Work

Creativity is one of the key aspects of top advertising agencies in Los Angeles. It can be difficult to come up with new and inventive ideas to continuously pique the interest in consumers into a product or service to either bring them to your business or keep them coming back. With the knowledgeable experts in the agency, they can either build a marketing campaign, around your current brand image, or they can even help you create a whole new brand image and deploy it throughout your business, from the website, to social media, to internal communications. As well, their work is going to be backed up with analytics that will analyze your current market and audience and determine how they evolve over time with the new marketing campaigns that they construct and deploy.

Industry Connected

Hiring one of the top advertising agencies in Los Angeles almost always gives you direct or indirect access to more resources, either in your own industry or within the advertising industry. More connections mean more business opportunities and contacts, which are necessary to fuel the growth of a business. Not only that, but you also gain insight into other company’s—your competitor’s—marketing practices, allowing you to compete more effectively.

Work with a Budget in Mind

Budgets can be a huge concern when it comes to dealing with advertising, and the top advertising agencies in Los Angeles understand this. Advertising agencies are used to working with businesses of varying sizes, so they can craft their marketing campaigns to match; making a campaign that focuses where it should, to maximize consumer reach while staying on budget.

Focus On Your Business

Beneficial to you, hiring an advertising agency will allow your business to focus on what it does best, and leave the marketing to experts. You can trust them to handle your new marketing campaigns to build your brand, while you concentrate on growing your business, and handling new customers.

The top advertising agencies in Los Angeles can help your business grow, with teams of experts in advertising and marketing, they give your business a valuable resource it may not already have available. Let them help you, and do what they do best, to give your business the best chance at growth.