A Quick Guide on How To Optimize Your Chinese Content Marketing
Businesses of all sizes and in nearly every industry have realized that developing a well-thought-out Chinese content marketing strategy can be key to achieving success in China. However, when it comes down to localizing your content, many brands don’t understand or underestimate the value of fine-tuning content. Every platform has its own audience. And each audience has their own expectations for the type of content that they want to see, which can affect how well your social media posts perform.
To truly take your content marketing to the next level and build your brand, your content must be high-quality, strategic, and valuable to your audience. Reaching your target audience with content strategized for each individual platform can work wonders for your business – that is, if you know how to do it effectively. That’s why we’ve come up with a must-know content marketing guide so you can have a better understanding of how to get the most out of your content marketing on social media platforms in China.
The Importance of Localization in Chinese Content Marketing
China has a growing appetite for digital marketing and this trend is only expected to continue. Chinese consumers are very content-driven and brands have to pay more attention to creating localized content that emphasizes their story and unique selling points. They rely on the creation of shareable, viral content that helps them solve different problems through customer interaction. Communicating the right values and creating unique experiences are the best tactics to retain your followers and keep them engaged.
Different Chinese platforms have different features, areas of focus, and, often, geographic priorities. For brands, this increases the complexity of creating their Chinese content marketing strategy and requires significant resources and expertise, including localizing content for tone, style, and platform. Since every platform is different, this must-know guide will cover each of the following 5 major Chinese social media platforms separately – WeChat, Weibo, Zhihu, Xiaohongshu, and Baidu Teiba.
Content marketing on WeChat
What is WeChat?
WeChat has been around for only 8 years and has become the most dominant social network in China. The app now has over 1 billion users with 750 of them checking WeChat moments more than 10 times a day. Wechat was China’s first so-called super app, offering a wide variety of functions covering everything from digital payments and social media to ride-hailing and e-commerce. For a full overview on WeChat check out our blog below!
The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to WeChat Official Accounts for Business
What to Post on WeChat
WeChat is a great platform to raise brand awareness or drive direct customer engagement with Chinese users, but one of the issues that brands face is keeping WeChat up-to-date with content that is consistently good. Brands can create WeChat Official Accounts which allow them to share content with their followers.
Given that WeChat Official Accounts are quite limited in terms of their posting frequency, brands need to be sure to have a strong Chinese content marketing strategy before engaging with the platform. It is quite common for users to unfollow service accounts or stop using subscription accounts due to a lack of user engagement or high-quality content, so ensuring that each piece of content aligns with your strategy can be crucial to success on WeChat.
Dyson is one Western brand consistently recognized for its high-quality WeChat content. The brand has a clear Chinese content strategy that focuses on showcasing its products as well as guides on gift-giving and self-improvement!
WeChat content needs to be informative while creating a valuable and emotional appeal to users. Headlines should always amuse, excite or leave a sense of curiosity. It is good practice to think about WeChat as a platform to post educational content for your products and services. From a strategic standpoint, you should also think about when to post your content; as posting content when the competition is lowest could potentially usher in a larger number of views.
Video content has also grown to be very popular and many brands have begun incorporating it into their Chinese content marketing strategy. While it can be more expensive, it can be a great choice when it comes to getting ahead of your competition.
Tips for WeChat Content
To make the most out of your WeChat marketing strategy, every piece of your content you create should be made with a specific purpose, such as:
- Building an emotional connection with your brand
- Growing brand awareness and building brand loyalty
- Introducing a new product or service
- Generating a lead or selling your brand story
Content marketing on Weibo
What is Weibo?
Sina Weibo is still the second most popular social media platform in China, with 462 million monthly users. The future of Weibo is still looking bright with its user base of young consumes and huge growth potential from millennials. Marketers in Western countries often treat Weibo just like a Chinese Twitter however, Weibo has outgrown Twitter in terms of both numbers of users and features available on the platform. For a full overview on Weibo check out our blog below.
The Ultimate Guide to Sina Weibo: The Largest Micro-Blogging Platform in China
What to post on Weibo
Considering that Weibo has a predominantly younger demographic with most of them being below the age of 30, the content ecosystem on the platform tends to be entertainment-related. Content on Weibo should center on content dealing with lifestyle or trending topics.
Content that includes keywords from Weibo’s top search and hot topic rankings tend to get much more exposure. Brands can take advantage of adding hot topic keywords to their content when creating promotions. Content related to new launches, advertising campaigns, and Chinese festivals is a good way to increase the amount of interaction with users.
Content Examples from Sephora’s Weibo Account
Tips for Weibo Content
With many brands posting interactive marketing-related material every day, it can be hard to create an effective Chinese content marketing strategy that attracts positive attention on Weibo. Here are a few types of content avenues to use to build successful content marketing on Weibo.
- Weibo content related to festivals and important events
- Content that involves some sort of user reward such as a lucky draw
- Information-oriented Weibo content
- KOL-oriented content
Content marketing on Zhihu
What is Zhihu?
Zhihu is China’s largest Q&A platform and is an essential platform for marketing to the savvier Chinese consumer. It has become the go-to content platform for Chinese users seeking expert advice on a wide range of topics. For a full overview on Zhihu check out our blog below.
What is Zhihu? A Guide To The Largest Q&A Platform in China
What to post on Zhihu
Content marketing on Zhihu benefits a specific type of user. The audience is well-educated and enjoy reading long articles and serious discussions. Success on this platform really depends on the quality of your content. It’s important to stay away from self-advertising or keyword stuffing.
Consumers often get to a Zhihu post from a search engine query. Create content that revolves around the benefits of your brand, which could include answering questions about the price or quality of service.This type of content is very useful in getting your posts ranked higher and getting shared amongst other users.
Overall, any content that builds credibility and dialogue with consumers should be the core tone and style of your posts.
Tips for Zhihu Content
Zhihu offers a lot of potential when it comes to brand discovery and connecting with a group of Chinese consumers who have a large purchasing power. It’s worth taking the time to really interact and answer questions in detail when using the platform.
- Create content that deals with issues your target consumers are likely to face
- Ask questions related to your brand or industry
- Provide high-quality content and consistently engage with the community
- Stay away from trying to push sells to users
Content marketing on Xiaohongshu
What is Xiaohongshu?
Xiaohongshu, which translates to the little red book, has become increasingly popular among Chinese females. The app is expected to continue to grow rapidly and already has more than 60 million registered users since its 2013 launch. We’ve covered exactly what this platform is and what it has to offer in one of our blog posts that you can find below.
The Best Guide to Xiaohongshu: How to Sell to Gen-Z and Millenials
What to post on Xiaohongshu
Xiaohongshu is a good platform to create content that sales and promotes brand awareness. The majority of your content should center on providing rich information about beauty, lifestyle, product offers and price points. In order to truly engage with users and get the most out of your marketing, posts should include the following elements.
- Titles: Highlight any unique selling points when recommending a product and your title should not exceed 15 words.
- Captions: Informative and insightful content is always the way to go on this platform. Top posts using consist of 500-900 words.
- Hashtags: Taking advantage of hashtags helps to categorize your post and makes it easier for users to discover your content.
Tips for Xiaohongshu Content
It’s definitely worth working with a KOL to create content that is authentic and relatable to drive your conversions. This will have a direct influence on your credibility with users on the platform.
- Post content that relates to the daily life of your users or improves well-being
- Share content that includes authentic product insights
- Address any pain points that your followers may have
- Take advantage of trending topics and include them in your posts
Content marketing for Baidu Teiba
What is Baidu Teiba?
Baidu Teiba is a lesser-known online community social media platform in China, but it has been around since 2003 and has quite a large following. It’s a niche platform that offers a lot of opportunities for brands to market their products and services. If it had to be compared to a Western social media platform it most closely resembles Reddit with its forum-like nature. For a full overview on Baidu Tieba, check out the blog below.
What is Baidu Tieba? A Guide to China’s Largest Online Community
What to post on Baidu Teiba
Baidu Teiba has a lot more flexibility when it comes to posting content in comparison to other platforms on our list. Posts tend to vary from a wide range of topics and there isn’t any particular format that you should follow. Content does need to be highly interactive and interesting enough to start a discussion. Overall, it is a great channel to target a very specific community-oriented around a niche theme.
Communities dedicated to Chinese celebrities on Baidu Tieba
Tips for Baidu Teiba Content
Since Baidu Teiba is one of Baidu’s major products, your posts will always have the upper hand when it comes to SEO. It’s important to create content that will last with the times when marketing on here.
- Take advantage of Q&A discussions. You can easily create posts and help users with questions
- Create intriguing content for serial posts, which can be used to tell a series of stories
- Choose catchy titles and make posts as informative as possible
- Creating a couple of quality posts is much better than creating a bunch that come off as spam
Content marketing that is localized to match the audience and platform can really make a difference in how well your brand does in China. With all the different platforms available to market your business, it’s easy to see how fine-tuning your Chinese content marketing is important for businesses of all sizes.
Not only does it help with boosting your visibility, but it can also help with building a stronger relationship with your audience. If you really want to get the most out of your content marketing strategy, contact our team to discuss your Chinese content marketing strategies and see how they can be tailored to each individual platform to achieve success.
