9 Best Practice Tips for B2B Marketing on WeChat
Every business in China, whether foreign or domestic, should have digital presence on WeChat. What started as an instant messaging app in 2011 has now become one of the most popular platforms for building brand awareness and generating leads. However, there are a few things to keep in mind when crafting a WeChat strategy, especially for a B2B company. Even B2C companies often have an element of B2B marketing, whether it be reaching partners, distributors or sales channels.
While the main focus in B2B is geared towards a professional audience, it is important to remember that WeChat is oversaturated with information – you need to bring something ’different’ to the table in order to stand out. After setting up your WeChat Official Account, we recommend getting started with these simple but effective strategies below. Since WeChat keeps innovating its ecosystem and rolling out new features like Channels, don’t forget to keep an eye on China Skinny’s blog and newsletter for the latest developments from Tencent.
1. Set realistic goals. What kind of results are you looking for – increased followers and page views, an engaged community, or more traffic on your website? It’s easy to get distracted by the record-breaking numbers dominating the headlines about Chinese social media, so try to narrow down your focus and set clear expectations. Remember, WeChat is a marathon not a sprint.
2. Leverage on all the features. Before publishing any content, make sure your WeChat Official Account has all the relevant elements in place. For example, a proper welcome message – it’s the first touch point between you and the customer. Another section that often gets overlooked is the menu tab. The standard practice is to have three columns covering the essentials - About Us / Products or Services / Contact us with up to five additional sub-menus.
3. Think like a B2C company. ROI, efficiency, and expertise might be your main goals, but publishing WeChat content that’s snackable and entertaining to scroll through tends to perform better. Don’t overwhelm your audience with long and extremely technical copy – chances are no one will read it. The aim is to have a healthy balance between corporate and social.
4. Emphasize visuals. Beautiful graphics and well-designed layouts aren’t reserved for fashion brands only. Try including multimedia in your posts to make the content visually more appealing. This technique will also help to boost shares and wow’s. If there’s a trade show on the calendar, why not design a VR-led digital invitation in the form of H5 and encourage visitors to RSVP before the event.
5. Include a call-to-action. WeChat posts that present a clear CTA to the readers generally get more traction. Instead of being didactic with your content, think about sharing interesting case studies, staff testimonials, how-to’s and other useful industry insights.
6. Be consistent. Publishing content regularly will help you to grow followers organically. If the account stays dormant for too long, people might move on and forget about you eventually.
7. Spread the word. It’s far too common that carefully crafted articles end up with 200+ views, which is disappointing. This is where your China contacts come in handy. Ask your team/network to share the good work that has been produced (look up: content seeding).
8. Build a community. It doesn’t cost anything to create a WeChat group and loop in everyone that might be interested in your brand. All you need to do is to provide value – share relevant information and keep up a lively discussion. It takes some time and effort to manage any chat, but your fans would appreciate you going the extra mile for them.
9. Content is just the beginning. With WeChat Moments advertising, Mini Programs and the newly launched Channels, the possibilities to market your business on WeChat are almost endless. As we’ve witnessed the tremendous rise of Douyin during the coronavirus outbreak, we predict that livestreaming will be the next gold mine for Tencent to tap into.
Hopefully that will get you started and focusing on the right things to build your WeChat account following, engagement, advocacy and ultimately sales. To develop a comprehensive, effective, action-based B2B or B2C marketing strategy for China, please contact China Skinny to discuss how we can assist.
