Getting over the Great Wall: 7 tips for successful B2B Marketing in China - 7 valuable tips to elevate your B2B marketing in China - Brandigo

Getting over the Great Wall:
7 tips for successful B2B
Marketing in China
7 valuable tips to elevate your B2B marketing in China

Tip 1:
Make Sure It's in Chinese
Even educated Chinese will usually prefer to read materials in their own
native language. Don’t make this harder than necessary.

Make sure you have a trademarked Chinese business name – the
combination of Chinese characters as well as the phonetic sounds in
different dialects is important to test.

Do you have a clever tagline that only works in your native language? Do
your research and make sure your message doesn’t get lost in
translation.

All of your collaterals should be in standard Mandarin:
  Brochures
  Namecards
  Website

Tip 2:
Treasure Your Brand
You may hear that you have to completely change or modify your marketing
materials for China. While they should be localized as we mentioned earlier,
this doesn’t mean you have to throw out your visual identity and core
messaging.

Keep your brand values close – the things that make your product a success
are worth keeping hold of. Don’t allow these to be diluted or changed. If you
are a global brand it makes no sense to make changes that lead to a loss of
brand equity.

Listen to feedback from people in China. It’s a balancing act and a tricky one.
Remember for every China success story you hear, there are many others who
have tried and failed by sticking dogmatically to ‘their way’. Learn from their
mistakes. Study what they did wrong.

Tip 3:
Do Your Research
Whether this means a full-blown survey, focus groups, or just trawling
industry websites, do your homework to understand your market.

  Is your product something that is already available? How much do you know
  about your competition?
  Do you know who your target market is and where they are?
  Have you made efforts to understand your customers and what they are
  trying to achieve?
  Have you mapped all the touchpoints your Chinese customers have with
  your brand?
  Do you understand the China buyer journey?

Tip 4:
Website
You may have heard of the Great Wall, but what about the Great Firewall? This
is essentially what restricts internet access in China, and creates an online
environment with different rules.

  Test website usage to make sure that Chinese users can easily find their
  way around your website and understand your offer.
  Websites that have a global feel will also infer that you are a global company
  – very important in a crowded market.
  If your website is hosted outside of China, it may be slow to access.
  If your website has Twitter, Facebook or YouTube APIs built into it, it may
  not load at all.
  Ensure your website is SEO-friendly – in Chinese. Optimizing for a Baidu
  search – the predominant search engine – means:
 o Keyword research & optimization
 o Meta descriptions & page titles
 o Image Alt tags
 o Proper page text hierarchy

Tip 5:
Key Verticals
You need to know where to go in order to penetrate the Chinese market. Find
out what is popular in your industry. Becoming a lighthouse of information,
through different channels, will help attract your target customers.

  Trade fairs and exhibitions are useful for meeting a lot of people – try to host
  an event or give a speech.
  Trade Media – print trade advertisements and advertorial are usually
  not prohibitively expensive.
  Associations – essentially quasi-governmental in nature, many of the laws
  and industry rules come from them.
  Your own website – develop fantastic content to attract target customers,
  whether as downloadable white papers, brochures or videos.

Tip 6:
Social Media
Your perfectly crafted social media campaign on Facebook, Twitter and
YouTube is essentially blocked in China. In China, B2B marketing social media
is constantly evolving and offering great opportunities to lead your industry if
you do it right.

        Weibo

The most popular microblogging platform in China (similar characteristics to
twitter).

        WeChat

The most popular social media platform in China where most city dwellers
spend their online time.

        Douyin (TikTok)

The most popular video-sharing platform in China (known as TikTok oversees).

Where else? This depends on your customers and the way that they use social
media. Understanding your client’s media and social media ecosystem and
behaviors will help you correctly target them.

Tip 7:
Look at Your Network
If a division of your company, or your stakeholders, already has a foothold in
the Chinese market, then exploit this.

  Companies who have already tested the water here will have built up a bank
  of knowledge. Ask them about China, their successes and failures, to make
  sure you are in the strongest position when you start out here.

  Marketing is one of the fastest changing parts of any business. Talk to
  people at the forefront, and keep in touch. In six months time, it might all
  have changed.

  If you don’t have them, find the right people. Whether this means an
  agency, consultant, or full-time staff – the right people can make
  everything happen for you in China!

Brandigo has been at the forefront of strategic marketing in China for
  the last 17 years. Based in Shanghai with a network of contacts across
     the globe, the agency has had a ringside seat to witness China’s
    economic boom. Brandigo works with B2B businesses to develop
 content across digital, print and video, as well as to plan and implement
          clear, effective and value-driven marketing campaigns.

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