Our China Blog
China Email Marketing and Chinese Anti-Spam Laws
China email marketing is still one of the most effective direct marketing channels and it is widely used by marketers. The main appeal of email marketing is in its relative low cost combined with the ability to get your message directly to the recipient’s inbox, or a smartphone as it is increasingly becoming the case. Excellent ROI and enormous reach of email campaigns, provided, of course, that your email manages to bypass spam filters, are what make this channel an important component in the overall marketing strategy. read more…
Targeting Chinese Companies: Part 2: Communication Channels
This post continues on the topic of the most efficient ways to communicate with Chinese businesses. In the first part, we’ve discussed the role of trade shows, exhibitions and conferences.
In the second part we are going to look at each of the remaining communication channels:
Email communication is one of the preferred ways to communicate with your customers in China, also being the most convenient method to maintain contact with your existing clients. read more…
Marketing on Douban, a Unique Chinese Social Network
Douban is one of the lesser known social medial platforms in China which has been around since 2005 and still enjoys widespread popularity. It has about 60 million registered and about 150 million unregistered users. In fact, one of the unique features of the network is the fact that users, who are not registered, can still enjoy 90% of the site’s functionality.
Marketing on Douban offers some unique opportunities for brands targeting niche audiences and could present an interesting opportunity to explore. In this post we are going to have a closer look at the options.
Hosting Website in China: ICP License and Why You May Need It
Did you know that you need a special permit called ICP license in order to host a website in China? Here we explain what it is and whether you need one.
The main benefit of having a website hosted in China is much faster loading time compared to the same site hosted out of the country. There is no question that faster loading speed can benefit your website from both user experience and SEO standpoints. What’s more, there is practically no chance that your site may get blocked in China for simply being unlucky enough to share a server with a blacklisted site (it does happen). read more…
How to Setup Live Support for Chinese Website
Having been spoiled by Taobao, China’s online consumers often expect instant live support for Chinese website. Here is how to do it easily and cheaply.
One of the most critical components for a successful conversion of online consumers is being able to communicate with them in real, or almost real time. In this post we are going to look at how to incorporate and use live support for Chinese website.
Chinese online consumers have already been spoiled by near instant customer support on major ecommerce sites. For example, large percentage of shoppers on Taobao would often initiate online chat session with a seller before taking a decision to make a purchase.
Regardless of whether it is a product sold from a website or an online service, Chinese visitors would expect to be able to ask questions and get answers within minutes. read more…
Checklist for Building your China Web Presence
Getting serious about setting up Chinese website for your business? There are a few important things to keep in mind before investing time and efforts into building your China web presence. Getting it right will enable your Chinese website to rank high with the main search engines. Get it wrong and your website may not show up high enough in searches to be found or, worse, will never be indexed by Baidu.
Here are the top 10 items on your China web presence check list:
#1: Subdomains or multiple domains
WeChat Marketing Checklist: Where Should You Place WeChat QR Code
Promoting brand’s official WeChat account is the trickiest part of WeChat marketing. Scanning WeChat QR code is the primary method for the followers to subscribe to a WeChat account but where should you display it? Companies have been trying hard to make sure that it shows in every place where there is a chance to get a smartphone camera pointed to it and some have become quite innovative.
If your company has a WeChat account, you should go through our checklist to make sure that you have all the bases covered. read more…
Targeting Chinese Companies: Part 1: Trade Shows, Exhibitions & Conferences
What are the most efficient ways to communicate with Chinese companies from the seller’s point of view? The answer to this question depends on what type of product or service you are selling and at what stage of the sales process you are. Making an initial contact, contacting repeated customer or maintaining a relationship require slightly different approaches, one of which is participation in trade shows/exhibitions and conferences.
The following conclusions are primarily based on our B2B marketing experience in China as well as the research by Matthew Harrison and Mark Hedley of B2B International. read more…
Pros and Cons of Hosting a Site in China
Foreign websites that are looking to target Chinese audience are often presented with the dilemma regarding physical location of their server. There is also a lot of conflicting information about whether local hosting is important, as well as to what degree it affects site’s performance and ranking in the search engines.
In this post, we attempt to summarize various pros and cons of having your site hosted in China. read more…
9 Points Checklist for Building Your Chinese Landing Page
Building Chinese landing page that targets visitors in China requires taking into account an additional set of guidelines besides the typical requirements for landing pages.
First, let start with the definition of – a landing page (or LP) is where your potential customer “lands” first after clicking your link in the search results, social media or an email. read more…
Competitive Research in China, Part III: Chinese Social Media Channels
Continuing the series of articles on conducting basic market research in China, in this post I will be explaining how Chinese social media channels can be used for that purpose.
In China, Sina Weibo and WeChat are two most popular platforms. Sina Weibo has evolved around desktop use while WeChat only works with mobile. I have already those platforms in much more details in this blog. For now, suffice it to say that, for the purpose of market research, Weibo is much more suitable and this is what I will be focusing on. read more…
Competitive Research in China, Part II: Chinese Marketplace Sites Search
This post is the second part on conducting basic market research in China and it is about searches on Chinese marketplace sites. In the first part, we have discussed using Baidu for basic market research with search engines.
If you are selling a physical product, one of the best ways to find out what is already available is to research Taobao (Taobao.com), the primary C2C marketplace in China and its B2C equivalent, Tmall (tmall.com). Both platform belong to Alibaba and are similar to Amazon but much bigger. read more…
Competitive Research in China, Part I: Baidu Search
Every proper marketing campaign in any market should first start with market research. Fortunately, it doesn’t always have to be an expensive market study, complete with complex competitive analysis and forecasts. Often times, a simple internet research, such as with Baidu search engine, would do just fine, but, of course, you should first know where and how to look.
This post is the first one in the upcoming three part series covering basic market research in China. read more…
Looking for love in China? The List of 8 Most Popular Chinese Dating Apps
Here is our review of the most popular Chinese dating apps:
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5 Common Misconceptions About WeChat Marketing
In the last couple of years, WeChat marketing has been a hot topic. The app is, by far, the most used one in China and it is estimated to be installed on over 90% of smartphones. The combination of the enormous potential reach and the possibility for brands to connect with their customers in the most intimate way makes WeChat marketing one of the important components of the overall marketing strategy.
On the other hand, many foreign brands, who want to jump in on WeChat, don’t realize that the platform comes with the number of limitations. While in some cases and if done right, WeChat marketing can be incredibly effective, in other cases the results can be quite disappointing. read more…
Chinese Payment Systems Overview: Union Pay
Union Pay is the state run credit and debit card system with the largest reach in China and overseas. Online, it is competing with AliPay and WeChat.
Chinese Payment Systems Overview: WeChat Pay
WeChat Pay is the payment system that grew out of WeChat super app. Nowadays, just like Alipay, it is widely used for both online and offline payments. read more…
Chinese Payment Systems Overview: AliPay
AliPay is the largest Chinese online payment system for both online and offline transactions. It is the primary payment method of China’s ecommerce. read more…
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