Why Hiring A China Digital Marketing Agency Is The Best Move For You

Hiring a digital marketing agency is one of the smartest moves a small or medium business can make. We all know that digital marketing is the corner stone of any marketing strategy. Everyone is online now, and not taking advantage of this is will guarantee failure. However, many companies make the mistake of trying to be a jack of all trades.

Many companies know that when they’re moving into a new market in a different country they need a new marketing strategy. However, they also make the mistake of trying to do it themselves.

There are many benefits of keeping marketing in-house. Keeping it in-house means that you already have a team that really understands both your product and your team.

It’s also great for streamlining. When you are immediately able to access to your marketing team, you are able to keep all campaigns in line with changes in your companies strategy.

So this all sounds great, right? Why then do people need Chinese digital marketing agencies? While I will go into the benefits of outsourcing your marketing, there are also several problems with keeping them in-house.

When you keep your marketing strategy in-house, you may be wasting precious resources. If you are a small or medium sized company, this is an especially wasteful move.

Keeping it in-house also means that you take time away from existing projects. Moving into a new market, such as China, can be incredibly stressful and time-consuming, to begin with, and taking time away from your existing projects could be a big mistake.

Digital Marketing In China-

Digital marketing in China is very different from other countries. While places like the US and the UK have a range of different platforms for business to advertise on. China on the other hand, really only has two platforms, WeChat and Weibo.

While some companies prefer to keep their marketing team in-house, some companies are smarter and understand that they might not have the experience, especially when moving into China.

Some firms have a tendency to only use a few elements of the necessary digital marketing strategy. Either they neglect to use platforms such as Weibo and only focus on WeChat, or they spread themselves too thin.

So Why Should You Hire An Agency-

There are lots of reasons why hiring an agency is the best way forward. Over the next few paragraphs, I will explain why outsourcing, especially when moving into China, is the best way to maximise your sales.

1. Access to the best resources-

When keeping your marketing strategy in-house, you often lose out on resources. Moving into China can be very difficult, to begin with, without access to the resources you will be putting yourself at a massive disadvantage.

Key resources include having access to services like WeChat, Baidu, Weibo and many others. While this may seem simple, they differ massively from other platforms.

Equally, you need access to business licence if you want to sell online, either on WeChat or any other e-commerce site. This can be time-consuming, wasting precious resources.

2. Expert advice-

Companies moving into China often do research, but they often tend to take blanket advice. When researching, companies only tend to put the most basic advice out there, in order to lure new leads in.

Outsourcing can be a way around this problem. Instead of marketing teams using basic advice, outsourcing means that you don’t have to second-guess the advice you are getting.

Companies who outsource will often benefit from seasoned and effective advice. For example, if you are a real estate company who wants to start selling to Chinese investors. When you outsource your marketing, they will give you advice on how to attract the most qualified investors.

If, however, you chose not to outsource, you may end up wasting time on ineffective campaigns that are targeting the wrong demographic, on platforms that may not be effective.

3. Experience-

We all know that experience is key. Inexperience leads to mistakes and wasting money, the opposite of what you want to be doing when moving into a new market.

While some adjustment is obviously necessary, outsourcing reduces this to a bare minimum. Outsourcing allows you to focus on your own domestic marketing strategy as well as giving you the opportunity to sit back and enjoy the benefits.

Experience also means trust. Trust is incredibly important in China, and outsourcing means that you will be able to benefit from an established companies trust level.

Experience also means that the company you choose to outsource with will probably have made mistakes in the past. Outsourcing means you will learn from these mistakes, and you will benefit from the lessons they have learnt.

4. Understanding of the market-

Moving into a new country can be incredibly difficult, especially a country like China. Chinese consumers make decisions differently to other countries, they focus on research more than other markets.

Equally, different strategy’s that may work in your own domestic market, may not work in China. For instance, say you are a health and wellness company, and you want to sell your new supplement in China.

In your domestic market, you may focus on sending promotional emails or maybe courting existing clients to your new product. In China, however, this may not work, and a better campaign would be using a KOL.

Outsourcing also means you don’t have to worry about spending a lot of money on research. We’ve already discussed how some companies don’t do enough research or research the wrong things.

When you outsource, you benefit from a marketing company who has already done the research for you. Good digital marketing companies will have already researched the market. They will know what campaigns will work best for you, as well as what your budget can get you.

5. Saves you time-

Everyone knows that time is the most valuable possession that we all have. Wasting time on ineffective marketing campaigns or research that won’t benefit you is very frustrating!

By outsourcing your marketing strategy to another company, you will save an immense amount of time. You won’t have to waste time thinking of new strategies, and you will able to focus primarily on your domestic marketing.

Saving you time will also be saving you money. Even though there will be an initial and probably monthly cost, you will be saving yourself a lot of money. You will not be wasting money on ineffective campaigns, and you will be saving your employees time, thus saving and making you money.

6. Maximisation of your resources-

Resources are finite. Even if you are a small or medium sized company, you will have lots of different campaigns and projects on the go.

By outsourcing, you will be maximizing your resources as you will be reinvesting back into your company, as well as saving employees time. Why would you waste resources on a job that you know someone else can do better?

Tips For Finding A Digital Marketing Agency-

So, you’ve decided to invest in a digital marketing agency, but you don’t know what to do now. There are so many options out there and it may feel like you are drowning.

There are a few things you should be looking at when searching for a digital marketing agency.

1. Reliability-

This is a really important decision, and when you look at a digital marketing agency you should make sure they are reliable. They should have other clients who are in your field, thus demonstrating that they have knowledge on how to market your product.

2. A Range Of Platforms-

One mistake that so many people make, is relying on one platform to do all their marketing. When researching a digital marketing agency, make sure that they use a range of different platforms in order to market your product.

3. Openness-

It’s always difficult to pick a company when you aren’t in the country to properly vet them. When you are looking for an agency make sure that they are up front and open about their costs as well as their product.

So Who Are We?

Here at Dragon Social, we specialise in companies who are looking to move into China. No matter what type of company you are, we can tailor make a package for you that will be effective. We have several different clients over a range of different markets.

While we offer different packages for different platforms, we can also create a package that is unique to you. If you want to create a unique programme or you simply want to focus on one platform, like WeChat, but still want to use other sites like Weibo or Zhihu, then this is something we can do!

Dragon Social also benefits from having a partner in China. While some companies may produce their content themselves, we benefit from using content that is designed by Chinese consumers for Chinese consumers.

If you would like to know more about our packages and the services we offer, head to our website to see what we can do for you.