Recently, WeChat is vigorously promoting its new content platform ‘WeChat Channels’. It displays as a strategic product to compete with Douyin (Tik Tok in China). As WeChat has more than 1.1 billion Monthly Active Users, WeChat Channels have a super large scale of traffic, so most of the major brands that operate in China have been setting up accounts on WeChat Channels to seize the opportunity at the very beginning. Along with that, even Chinese marketing agency are set to design marketing plans that involve this feature of WeChat.
What are WeChat Channels? What content can be posted on WeChat Channels?
As a competitor of Douyin, WeChat Channels is a short video platform. It is located inside WeChat and you can access it from the ‘Discover’ option. It falls right below WeChat Moments, and is very convenient for users to click into.
Content on WeChat Channels are mainly short videos, shorter than 5 mins. You can even find pictures under it. Users can click on “Like”, leave comments, or share to Moments or their friends via chatting, and even put it in the article page of WeChat Official Account.
How can overseas brands use WeChat Channels in Chinese market?
For overseas brands entering Chinese market, the most important function of WeChat Channels is to bring more traffic to the brand and reach more target groups. On this basis, overseas brands can use Channels to advance their business in China from the following three points —
1. Increase brand exposure with great content and lead traffic to the products and service
By outputting high quality content, WeChat Channels recommendation mechanism can help brands reach the target audience who haven’t subscribe the account, to increase the effect of brand exposure. At present, Channels’ recommendation mechanisms are mainly social recommendation and personalized recommendation based. Let’s understand what they are:
a) Social recommendation: If user A has engaged with, such as click “Like” on certain content, that particular content will be recommended to user A’s WeChat friends, so high-quality content can help brands to reach more potential target audiences.
b) Personalized recommendation: If user A often watches certain types of content, or even engages with the videos, the platform will recommend other similar high-quality content to user A.
Therefore, overseas brands can combine the highlights of products and services with the content preferences of the target audience to publish high quality short videos on Channels, thus triggering communication and gain more traffic. Many luxury brands, such as Gucci, Prada and Louis Vuitton, have released series of videos featuring their own brands on Channels already.
2. Combine WeChat Channels with Official Account and Mini Program to create Closed Loop Marketing
WeChat Channels, WeChat Official Account and WeChat Mini Program can be connected to each other: the link of Official Account’s article can be added to Channels’ content, the video on Channels can be inserted in the Official Account’s article, while the Mini Program can be added in Official Account, it can be a trading platform to complete the conversion.
Many Chinese marketing agency recommends using all three features for maximizing promotion via the Closed Loop Marketing technique.
3. Deepen the target audience’s understanding of products and services through live streaming
For overseas brands, especially those new brands entering Chinese market, we as a leading China marketing company, recommend live interaction to help the target groups better understand company products and services, thereby increasing the trust of the brand, and ultimately finish the deal.
CONTACT A CHINESE MARKETING COMPANY
If you want to know how to apply for a brand WeChat Channels account, or more tips and details on using Channels for promotion in Chinese market, please contact Digital Crew and we will help you open the door to Chinese market with personalized promotional solutions.
