How to Use WeChat Marketing for Business: A Quick Guide for Marketers

Did you know that China, a country with a population of over 1.4 billion people doesn’t have access to the popular social media sites we have in North America? So online sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. don’t exist there. So, what do they do to communicate with friends, pay bills, and play games online? They use WeChat. If you’re a marketer, now is an exciting time to learn about WeChat marketing.

In this post, we’ve created a quick guide for WeChat marketing for business.

When you consider that over half of China’s population are mobile users, and their only connection to the internet is with one app it’s like combining all we have access to, into one. This makes the WeChat marketing app immensely powerful because it simplifies the process. In fact, according to Statista, there were around 1.08 billion active monthly users in the third quarter of 2018.

WeChat Marketing is Powerful Around the World

WeChat for marketing isn’t just for online marketers who sell products or services in China. Chinese descents live all around the world, and 1st to 5th generations use WeChat to communicate with their relatives.

3 WeChat Account Options

1. Subscription accounts: You can broadcast one message per day to subscribers.

2. Service accounts: You’re allowed up to four broadcast messages each month.

3. Enterprise accounts: Offers messaging and business tools in Mainland China only.

Setting up Your WeChat Account

There are two platforms available for WeChat marketing. One is the International-Market Platform, and the other is Mainland China-Market Platform. The following four steps are for the International platform.

1. Gather all required information, including your business license and personal ID.

2. Go to the Official Account registration page and send your application.

3. It takes two weeks to have your account reviewed.

4. Once you’re approved, you can access the official account admin platform to interact with WeChat users, run marketing campaigns and track your results.

How to Use WeChat for Marketing

With the WeChat marketing app, you have several functions to interact and engage with potential customers. Below are some examples of how you can take advantage of WeChat’s functionality.

• Location Marketing: WeChat marketing service accounts can detect user location

• Content Marketing and Creation: Large publications use this function to get their content to WeChat subscribers daily. BuzzFeed uses WeChat’s marketing chat feature to let readers choose the content they want to receive along with broadcasting one daily item. They use the chat function so users can access content based on a list of keywords that trigger auto-replies.

• Other WeChat Marketing Ideas: Other companies such as Yoox, an online design store uses the chat functionality to let users access other types of content such as recipes, gift guides, exclusive products, and videos.

• Customer Engagement: For WeChat marketing campaigns you can use animated GIFs for users to share on their feeds to amplify your brand across their networks.

We hope our WeChat marketing for a business quick guide for marketers helped you. If you’re ready to use this powerful social media marketing app to connect your brand to Chinese customers, we can help. Ads to China is a social media marketing service. To find out more about how we can help you increase brand awareness you can visit our website.