When consumers reach a certain level of purchasing power, one of the best ways to crack open the Chinese market for a brand is through consistent and effective content marketing. This is particularly true in first and second-tier cities in China. Whether consumers are out shopping, spending money, or just relaxing at home, it’s clear that they’re looking for more than just material goods – they want to be entertained, informed and emotionally engaged. As Chinese consumers’ demands continue to evolve, it’s important for companies to stay ahead of the curve.
To succeed in this market, brands need to focus on more than just improving the quality and features of their products. They also need to invest in building a strong brand image and tone that resonates with Chinese consumers. Content marketing is a powerful tool for achieving this. For one, it can drive huge amounts of traffic to your brand at a relatively low cost. And for another, it’s a more subtle way to convert consumers compared to traditional hard-selling tactics. By using content to create an online sales environment, you can build trust with your audience and make it more likely that they’ll convert into paying customers.
Intensive content from Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book)
How to start with content marketing? First, identify your goals.
The most important thing to consider when it comes to content marketing is how to create truly great content. Brands shouldn’t just create content for the sake of it. Once you have great content, you need to think about how to get it seen by your target audience. But it’s not just about getting seen, you also need to figure out how to convert that engagement into meaningful growth for your business.
How do you create great content? Before you start creating any content, it’s important to be clear about your goals. Every industry and target audience is different, so you need to have a tailored strategy for your specific needs.
Unlike advertising, which heavily relies on data feedback, content marketing is a strategy that takes a longer period of time to affect the market. One common problem with digital advertising is that advertisers want outstanding exposure, click-through rates, and conversion rates for their targeted customers, regardless of the type of content they are delivering. However, because of this, digital advertising planning and execution is often constrained by the strict numbers and ultimately leads to mediocre results.
Content marketing, on the other hand, is vastly different. On most Chinese social media platforms, the quality of content directly determines how many people will see it. The exposure and engagement with the content is fundamentally different. For example, if you’re publishing a content marketing video on Douyin, a good piece of content may have 100 million views while “average” content may only have 10,000 views.
Professional filming for Douyin video content
Secondly, there are significant differences in the content marketing strategies between B2B and B2C brands. For B2B companies, almost any form of content can be considered content marketing. This is because the decision-making cycle for B2B products is very long, and a lot of relevant content is needed for long-term and multiple touchpoints to gradually meet customer needs and ultimately achieve sales conversions.
For B2C brands, whether it’s live streaming, text or video, they are just one of the means of reaching customers. For B2C content marketing, it’s important to closely coordinate with other forms of advertising such as traditional ads for a more effective approach.
In recent years, the popular live streaming with product shopping in the Chinese market is a marketing model that combines content marketing before live streaming and sales rhetoric during live streaming in a good way. But for international brands, it’s important to consider different styles and types of live streaming strategies for the local market.
Live streaming has become increasingly popular in China
Live streaming with product promotion typically doesn’t involve a lot of in-depth content dissemination. For instance, in the live streams of New Oriental and Luoyonghao, the anchors themselves act as online salespeople. Leading anchors in the market have their own content strategies, but their popularity often has little to do with content marketing and more to do with the anchor’s own sales abilities.
For example, the recent successful live streaming of Dongfangzhenxuan, their sales techniques and strategies during live streaming differ from other live streams. While others introduce products during live streaming, they introduce culture. Some Douyin users come with an information appeal, looking for interesting content and in the process, they might end up buying something.
There are some live streams that place more emphasis on content, such as game streaming, entertainment streaming, and talent streaming. They have great content to watch, but this type of live stream is relatively weak in sales conversion.
Popular Live Streaming for e-commerce: Dong Fang Zhen Xuan
In live streaming with product promotion, the language used is essentially a sales pitch, and the main goal is to increase conversion rates, which is the key difference between marketing and sales. Typically, live streams are preceded by supplementary materials, such as content that piques the viewer’s interest in the product. This is why content marketing is often prioritized before live streaming, and plays a crucial role in many industries.
For C-end brands, it’s important to note that in their content marketing strategy, they should focus on two key areas.
First, most C-end brands are too focused on KPIs, to the point of neglecting the overall strategy. Content marketing and information flow advertising are fundamentally different. For C-end companies, the normal process for CPC advertising on platforms like JD and Tmall is to quickly generate data, optimize, and expect to see a return on investment in the short term. However, content marketing is about creating a scenario that influences the purchasing decisions of potential users, and this process takes time to develop. If content marketing is done using an advertising approach and placing too much emphasis on short-term data, it will not have much significance for the brand and often fails to form a healthy content marketing strategy.
For example, many brands blindly pursue exposure. In reality, the current top exposure influencers are mostly entertainment-focused, and their fan base does not match the brand’s core users. This type of fast and large exposure flow does not have much significance for the brand and results in a significant deviation from the actual business goals.
The second point is the cost issue of investment, cost has always been a challenge for brands, in terms of cost investment, the core point is whether the brand’s conversion metrics are related to content or time.
Many brands focus on hot topics and quickly invest in a certain period of time. When working with influencers, some influencers may have good data on the surface, but in reality, they are not as good in conersion. In this situation, it is difficult for brands to quickly identify this, which can affect the short-term performance of the investment. Wanting to see results in a short period of time with short-term content investment is also a big problem.
Data report dashboard for Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book)
The content marketing of a brand’s WeChat official account and Weibo channels should essentially be a part of the brand. These channels are more like the long-term building blocks of a brand, they are like an organic component of the brand, rather than a short-term solution to boost sales.
For example, on Weibo, most users come to watch various funny and gossipy news, if a brand frequently posts content on Weibo trying to force sales, its effect will naturally be poor.
However, if we switch to the scenario of Little Red Book, as a content promotion platform, its users enter the platform with the need for a refined lifestyle. They are more likely to be converted into actual consumers. Different platforms bring different content scenarios, so there is a big difference in conversion rates between different platforms.
Now, many Chinese consumers’ shopping preferences are cultivated by extremely high-frequency network content consumption, especially video browsing. Users may have originally gone to Little Red Book just to read gossip, but ended up buying a lot of products. In the era of Web 3.0 interest-based shopping, users may not have a clear need, they may just be spending time online, being stimulated by the content of some platform celebrities to develop their own shopping interests while consuming time.
The brand’s presentation to the user should not just be simple information. What influences the user is not just images, videos, and text. A more important and deeper factor is the IP image of the influencer. The influencer system is also a part of Chinese digital content marketing, and this “influencer image” is also a part of the user’s entertainment and lifestyle consumption.
Looking from the perspective of traffic, influencer traffic generally accounts for more than 50% of the main traffic on various social platforms. Therefore, the influencer system and corporate content marketing are actually deeply bound. Influencers themselves are content, because they have shaped their own IP image through long-term content cultivation, and this image itself is a type of content that can be accepted by their followers.
Influencer is a crucial part of the content marketing strategy
How to build a content marketing strategy from scratch?
To be successful in content conversion, the content itself must be good and targeted to the right audience. Many brands fall into the trap of spending too much time and resources trying to perfect their user profile. When faced with a lack of content conversion, they immediately blame it on an incorrect user profile.
In reality, “user profile” doesn’t play a significant role in improving content conversion in the early stages of marketing. In practice, many brands, especially international brands, don’t truly understand their real consumers in the Chinese market, and many user profiles are just presentations that don’t match the real target audience.
The actual product buying users and the “user profile” in the brand’s mind often have differences. For example, we helped a light luxury product aimed at women, and the brand assumed that female white-collar workers would be the right target audience based on their experience in North America. But after a period of operating the content, through data mining, we found that in fact, most buyers were young online “celebrities”, because they were very eager to improve their appearance and temperament to promote their own career or business development.
Real market data and brand imagination can differ, which is not a surprise. This problem is very common during the promotion period of new brands, especially when international brands are just entering the Chinese market. Few brands truly have a deep understanding of their target users before the market matures.
One of the goals of brand marketing is to open up the market. What does it mean to open up the market? In the early stages of brand development, the target audience’s reach should be as wide as possible to quickly identify and verify the brand’s real core users. So, brands should not initially limit themselves to “user profiles”.
In an age of product surplus, most user pain points on the market have already been solved by others. Nowadays, it is difficult to find a truly new pain point on the market. Most successful brands mostly solve users’ “itchy spots.”
China’s female consumers have demonstrated growing purchasing power in recent years.
There are numerous tools and services available to aid in market analysis. However, the most frequently used approach revolves around “keywords.” By utilizing a variety of tools and strategies, we conduct comprehensive market analysis by delving into keywords to uncover the core needs of our target audience.
It is widely recognized that female consumers in the Chinese market represent a significant opportunity. By studying keywords, we can gain a deeper understanding of what young, financially stable women are searching for, such as popular Korean dramas, skincare routines, and home products. This information can then be used to guide brands in developing effective content strategies.
This method of keyword research is often organized into a content map. The main idea is to start with the product’s features and organize words related to its functions, effects, ingredients, etc. Then, based on different words, we plan, test, and optimize the content. For example, if we have a health supplement that has the effects of beautifying and whitening the skin, we would organize the product’s effects such as whitening, reducing wrinkles, and anti-aging. Ingredients might include collagen peptides and nicotinamide. We organize the context and then help customers with refinement and creative content in each direction.
Another approach is to break down the user’s lifestyle habits. For example, if our user is a young working woman, she may have needs for love, dating, and possibly marriage. In the workplace, she may work overtime, have to report to her superiors, and meet with clients. Brands should create a content map based on the user’s life scenarios and choose scenarios that align with the product’s features to target their content marketing efforts.
It can be challenging for companies to balance user experience and user conversion. While these two concepts may seem at odds with each other, it’s important for brands to find a balance. Focusing too much on content spread, for example, may result in a lot of exposure, but a low conversion rate. On the other hand, content with a heavy sales focus may appeal to only a small group of users who are ready to make a purchase, but may not engage a broader audience. Finding a balance between user experience and conversion is an art, and companies should aim to create content that strikes the right balance between the two.
Faced with specific, clear needs such as “which LED lights are suitable for Chinese-style decoration,” we will help the brand make the content more direct and emphasize the product’s strengths and selling points. In contrast, for more general, lifestyle-related content with less defined needs, such as a visually appealing product showcase or software that increases sales, a softer approach to incorporating the product is more effective.
Some brands that excel in content marketing have a commonality, which is their content has a wide coverage. Brands such as makeup and skincare, spend billions of RMB annually on content marketing. By searching on Little Red Book, you can see their presence everywhere.
Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) is the best marketing channel for makeup and skincare brands.
Differentiation in content marketing across different channels
For C-end brands, the acquisition methods for different channel directions need to be differentiated according to the product category.
For example, on the WeChat platform, the brand’s private domain traffic is currently only suitable for high repurchasing products, such as retail products, masks, fresh products, snacks, etc. Because the main channel for WeChat to reach users is the friend circle or WeChat group, it is necessary to make users pay in social scenes. The unit price of this product must not be too high, if the unit price is too high, it will increase the user’s decision-making cost, in this case, it is difficult to make a deal in the WeChat group or friend circle. We can also see that early viral activities were basically priced at 9.9 yuan.
Another channel we are currently observing is WeChat video accounts. While their commercial potential is currently low, they have shown good performance for B2B brands.
For many brands, Douyin is a key platform for reaching C-end consumers. With a large user base and a concentrated consumer demographic, the main strategy for acquiring customers on Douyin is through video content, such as information flow ads and live streaming. We expect to see more marketing opportunities on this platform in the future.
On the other hand, Little Red Book platform has a different focus. The platform has a greater emphasis on text and images content. It is particularly effective for certain categories such as beauty, travel, and home goods. These categories have a greater influence on Little Red Book than other channels.
The Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) platform encourages the creation and dissemination of small and medium-sized influencers, so brands can build a comprehensive dissemination matrix. However, on the Douyin platform, traffic and resources are more inclined towards top-tier influencers. In this sense, Douyin is more similar to traditional media channels. On the Douyin platform, the cost-benefit of targeting lower-tier influencers is currently not high.
Zhihu has a high proportion of male users, so consumers on the platform tend to be more rational. This means that most C-end products do not have a high conversion rate on the platform. However, there are some categories that are particularly well-suited for Zhihu, such as overseas education, educational credentials, and language and professional skills education. These categories have a large amount of advertising on Zhihu every year. This is closely related to Zhihu’s strong question-and-answer feature.
For B2B brands, Zhihu is a highly valuable channel. By consistently implementing a content strategy on Zhihu, which is closely tied to Baidu, brands can effectively build their SEO and visibility on the Chinese internet. In our experience working with several world-class B2B manufacturers, the use of Zhihu as a content strategy is of the utmost importance.
Zhihu is one of the best channels for B2B brands
Some tricks for doing content marketing in the algorithm world
Brands have always been creating content on social platforms, but the algorithms that govern these platforms can’t be overlooked. With 50 million people asking questions on Chinese social media platforms every day, it’s a challenge to provide the content that each individual user wants. Social platforms and data marketers are constantly trying to find ways to solve this problem.
Artificial intelligence can be used to analyze text and video content on the platform, and then target it to users who are likely to be interested. This is the foundation of how these platforms operate. As marketers, we can also use this information to our advantage by tailoring our content to match the interests of our target audience.
When it comes to content marketing, brands must consider not just the content they want to present to users but also how the platform’s algorithm will view that content. Platforms like Little Red Book and Douyin are content-rich environments, and users visiting these platforms are looking for interesting content. Giving users what they are interested in is the core value of these platforms. By understanding the logic behind the algorithm, brands can create high-quality content that not only appeals to users’ interests but also aligns with their needs. By weaving their own messaging into this content, brands can effectively reach a wider audience.
For example, we assisted a French hair oil brand with their content marketing efforts. We began by analyzing the interests of Chinese girls, such as hairstyles, hair care, hair maintenance, and how to deal with split ends. These are all common concerns, and by providing valuable information through strategy articles, we were able to help these girls find the information they were looking for. As a result, the Little Red Book platform naturally promoted this content to more users interested in hair care. By seamlessly integrating the brand’s products into the content, we were able to achieve great results. This approach to content marketing doesn’t rely heavily on celebrity endorsements and instead focuses on accurate analysis and high-quality content.
When doing content marketing on platforms, brands don’t necessarily need to rely solely on celebrities to spread their message. The prices for Little Red Book and Douyin celebrities are comparable to those of Instagram celebrities. By using high-quality content from smaller accounts, brands can effectively engage users and this strategy is more practical and efficient for small and medium-sized brands.
In this article, we have combined our experience at Bexel Creative of working with clients from various industries to provide strategies and recommendations for international brands on how to effectively execute content marketing in the Chinese market. It’s important to remember that like other forms of marketing, content marketing is constantly evolving. Social media platform rules, traffic sources, and popular topics and formats change, but the underlying needs of the users, the fundamental principles of marketing, and the underlying logic remain the same.
