How Can My Brand Grow its WeChat Followers in China?
We’ve mentioned many times before how significant WeChat is as a marketing channel in China, with many international brands using it as the foundation of their in-market digital footprint.
But once you’ve invested time and resources in creating a great WeChat account, with a long-term plan for content output, you then face the next challenge – growing your fans and followers and building engagement.
This can be particularly tricky for brands and marketing managers from all sectors because WeChat operates in a way we describe as a ‘walled garden’. What this means is, unlike most international social media platforms that reward well performing content posts with additional traffic (and the opportunity to go viral), when you post something from your WeChat account, only your existing followers will see it. So having a post-account launch strategy in place to acquire followers is hugely important if you are going to get the best return on investment from WeChat marketing.
So here are five things to consider that can help your brand’s WeChat account grow its followers.
1. Create great content – It sounds simple, but creating impactful, creative, and ultimately shareable content will always be an effective way to encourage new followers and build engagement with your brand’s WeChat account. Develop a calendar of output that mixes up repurposed global posts from your other territories with content developed specifically for your Chinese audience. WeChat allows for long-form formats, but you can also incorporate animation, video, infographics, and so on. If you are creating posts that your followers want to share with their network, you will find your account will benefit from significant organic follower growth.
2. Tap into media/KOL partnerships – Working with a trade media partner or relevant KOL, for both B2C and B2B brands, is another effective tool for acquiring followers.
These relationships typically take the form of sponsored or co-created content that is posted via the partners WeChat account with a CTA seeking to drive new viewers to brand account. If your brand has a low number of followers this tactic gives you the opportunity to access the media partner’s follower-base. And when done effectively, it will attract some of their followers to become yours as well.
3. Take advantage of WeChat Channels – This is a fairly recent addition to the WeChat ecosystem, yet it had already amassed 450 million active users by the mid-point of 2022. Basically, it is WeChat’s version of a video streaming platform and includes live streaming functionality too.
One of the major benefits of publishing video content via WeChat Channels is that it is more accessible to non-followers. Any WeChat user can potentially view your WeChat Channels content, and the platform does reward well performing videos with additional traffic which has the potential to turn in to new followers.
4. Don’t waste an offline opportunity - Trade shows, exhibitions and offline events are well and truly back in China, and they are a great chance to grow followers. Anyone visiting your stand at a trade fair should be encouraged to follow your account. Make sure your account’s QR code features prominently and think about adding some fun interactive elements like a lucky draw or quiz. If you are part of the exhibition team, you should be asking the people you meet and chat with to add your WeChat account.
5. Be part of the community – likes and engagement are a two-way thing and by being an active participant in your industry’s digital community, engaging with chat groups and content posted by key industry partners, you can attract more followers to your own account.
In this episode... Steven and Casey discuss: Why genuine connection can be more powerful than transactional B2B marketing How podcasts can build brand, create demand and strengthen customer relationships Why marketing technology and automation should never replace understanding your customer How AI is increasing content noise – and making human connection even more valuable Why global marketers need to keep challenging what they think they know about their customers Do you really know your customer? Technology gives marketers more opportunities than ever to automate, measure and optimise what they do. Casey experienced that transformation first-hand through marketing automation, gaining the ability to demonstrate how marketing activity contributed to leads, customers and revenue. But more technology doesn't automatically mean better marketing. Casey found that many companies were using only a fraction of the capabilities of the technology they had purchased. Worse, marketers could become so focused on platforms, features and automation that they lost sight of the person they were actually trying to reach. The same problem applies to content. Whether a 17-page report has been painstakingly written by an expensive expert or generated in seconds using AI, the fundamental question remains the same: What question does this answer for your buyer? From go to market to connect to market This becomes particularly important for global marketers. Pain and intent may be universal, but the people experiencing them – and the way they choose to solve their problems – can be very different across markets, cultures and generations. A buyer persona created ten years ago may bear little resemblance to the person making the same purchasing decision today. And a persona developed for one market can't simply be assumed to work everywhere else. Casey's answer is deceptively simple: keep talking to people. For him, this is another reason podcasting has become such a powerful marketing tool. It creates a consistent reason for marketers and business leaders to have meaningful conversations with the people they want to understand. It also sits behind his latest concept, Connect to Market . Rather than simply taking a product to a market, Casey argues that businesses should think more deliberately about how they connect with the people within it – through podcasts, communities, partnerships and other human-first approaches. As AI makes it easier to create more content, more quickly, those genuine human connections may become more important rather than less. Because amid all the automation, algorithms and AI-generated noise, great marketing still begins with understanding another person. Resources mentioned in this episode: Casey Cheshire on LinkedIn Ringmaster Ringmaster on LinkedIn Marketing Automation Unleashed The Hard Corps Marketing Show Sponsor for this episode... This episode is brought to you by Brandigo China . We are an independent marketing and communications agency based in Shanghai, China with 20 years of on-the-ground experience in China. At Brandigo China , we work with multinational clients to support their marketing and business growth efforts in China. We are experts in insight strategy, content marketing, marketing-led business growth campaigns and all things China-based marketing. Go to Brandigo China to learn more and contact us with questions at [email protected] .
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