ONE BILLION CUSTOMERS CAN'T BE WRONG: WHY WECHAT SHOULD BE A PART OF YOUR OMNICHANNEL STRATEGY - EMARSYS
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One Billion Customers Can’t be Wrong: Why WeChat Should Be A Part Of Your Omnichannel Strategy
Contents
WeChat in China WeChat – WeChat should be part of your Final Thoughts
Multichannel or Omnichannel Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
04 06 09 14
Introduction
WeChat is one platform that has absolutely imploded in popularity in
Asia-Pacific. Developed by Tencent in 2011, the Chinese-based app
has grown tremendously over the years with over 1 billion daily active
users (10% YoY increase sending 38 billion messages per day.
Commonly referred to as the ‘app for everything’, users on WeChat is
recorded to spend more time on the app than Facebook, Twitter,
1 Billion
Instagram, and Snapchat put together.
daily active users
If you’re a marketer or business owner hoping to enter this lucrative
and increasingly accessible market - WeChat may be the best and
most direct way to reach, build a relationship, and/or sell to a large
customer/market pool.
One of the greatest attributes to WeChat’s immense success is its
foundation of convenience and user-friendliness in terms of social
communication, content sharing, and mobile payments. Given this
realisation, this super app presents a fertile ground for you - be it as a
local or global brand marketer - to extend brand awareness to an
increasingly lucrative Chinese market.
Yet, WeChat is a crowded marketplace with over 14 million official
10%
accounts (corporate WeChat accounts and exclusive lifestyle YoY increase
partners. Its closed platform nature spells limited opportunities
for businesses to make it work with a user – if you’re not providing
sufficient or quality value to your followers, they will simply choose to
opt out.
To maximise marketing efforts on the app, WeChat should be treated
as part of an omnichannel strategy rather than as a silo channel –
allowing your marketing team a more consistent and seamless way
to engage with the Chinese market.
38 Billion
messages per day
One Billion Customers Can’t be Wrong: Why WeChat Should Be A Part Of Your Omnichannel Strategy | 3
WeChat in China
WeChat in China
Known as a “super app” for good reason, WeChat has massively spun out
from its humble beginnings as a personal messaging app. Since its launch,
WeChat’s functional capabilities have absolutely imploded from strength to
strength, and is today, an indispensable part of modern life in China.
Just look at these striking numbers: 64% of its users open the e-commerce consumers, have paved the way to a myriad of
app over 10 times a day, and 17% of them spend over 4 hours of opportunities for organic marketing on a surprisingly personal
their day on the app. WeChat’s pioneering business model has level. In-app functions such as the WeChat Wallet and WeChat
completely transformed mobile technology and social media Shop further support these opportunities for mobile e-commerce,
in China – becoming the society’s norm for a mobile lifestyle. especially with a cashless society actively choosing e-payments for
In China’s Tier 1 cities, user penetration rate is as high as 93%. both online and offline transactions.
Overseas businesses eager to capture a portion of this lucrative
It is now easier than ever for foreign companies to accelerate the
market may find it crucial to have a solid WeChat marketing
brand engagement and the customer purchase process via this
strategy to elevate their brand presence – in particular, the luxury,
medium. In the next chapter, we will explore how you can optimise
retail and lifestyle brands targeting the mid to top percentile of
your marketing efforts on this super app with omnichannel
Chinese consumers.
management.
The popularity of social selling within the WeChat ‘centric’
society, and increased accessibility to billions of Chinese mobile
4 | One Billion Customers Can’t be Wrong: Why WeChat Should Be A Part Of Your Omnichannel Strategy
One Billion Customers Can’t be Wrong: Why WeChat Should Be A Part Of Your Omnichannel Strategy | 5
WeChat – Multichannel or Omnichannel
WeChat –
Multichannel or Omnichannel
With the advance of technology and the evolution of strategies in today’s
marketing landscape, comes a new wave of terminology with which
marketers need to become well-acquainted with. Two new-age definitions
that immediately come to mind are multichannel marketing and
omnichannel marketing.
What’s the difference between omnichannel and multichannel? anything from a print ad, a retail store, a website, a promotional
Omnichannel and multichannel marketing are two very distinct and event, a product package, or word-of-mouth communication.
separate marketing strategies - even if both does focus on the use
of multiple channels to reach both current and potential
consumers. The lines are blurred here, and the debate ever so Omnichannel Marketing
frequent.
Omnichannel refers to the multichannel sales approach that
provides the customer with an integrated shopping experience. The
Multichannel Marketing
customer can be shopping online from a desktop or mobile device,
via phone, or in a brick-and-mortar store, and the experience will still
Multichannel marketing refers to the ability to interact with be seamless.
potential customers on more than one platform. These channels
could be
6 | One Billion Customers Can’t be Wrong: Why WeChat Should Be A Part Of Your Omnichannel StrategyWeChat – Multichannel or Omnichannel
Regardless of which channel the customer prefers to use, they Since multichannel marketing is about casting the widest possible
typically demand a smooth, consistent, relevant and personalised net to get the most customer engagements, WeChat might not be
experience with your brand. Omnichannel marketing strategies take an appropriate channel for this purpose.
that expectation into consideration, and build on the understanding
Conversely, the omnichannel approach interrelates every channel to
that a customer may begin their journey on one platform, only
engage with customers as a whole, to ensure they have a wonderful
to jump to another, and finally convert by way of the third. This
overall experience with the brand through each and every channel.
approach is about creating a truly unified brand experience,
The messages sent across channels should be consistent, as
regardless of the number of channels or the type of channel.
well as personalised. Companies with well-defined omnichannel
The multichannel approach looks to blast messaging out via the customer experience strategies in place achieve a 91% higher year-
maximum possible number of channels. By walking through the on-year increase in customer retention rate on average, as
importance of having WeChat as one of your channels for compared to organisations without omnichannel programs in place.
customer engagement, it is crucial to use it wisely – managing it in
Under omnichannel placement, a brand’s official WeChat account,
silo could significantly lower your efficiency.
mobile app, website and in-store experience, are all reflective of each
Unlike other social media channels, WeChat has a strict control on other. Marketers should be able to see different channels as one. For
the number of messages that can be sent by official accounts. example, in a loyalty program, the membership points in an
WeChat Subscription accounts can send up to 1 push message individual customer’s account is synchronised with their WeChat
per day to their followers, and are grouped together in a dedicated account from the redemption system so that the brand can
folder appearing alongside friends in the “chat” section of WeChat. schedule timely and more targeted messages to this individual.
WeChat Service accounts appear as friends in the “chat” section of
WeChat. They allow up to 4 broadcast messages per month.
SINGLE CHANNEL MULTICHANNEL OMNICHANNEL
One Billion Customers Can’t be Wrong: Why WeChat Should Be A Part Of Your Omnichannel Strategy | 7WeChat – Multichannel or Omnichannel
Subscription Account or Service Account?
Subscription Account Service Account
Content-centric user activation and interaction. Capabilities that allow for full user experience.
Limited features, but best for content reach Best for post-sales interaction and sophisticated
activation
▸ Fewer than 4 articles published per month ▸ 4 push notifications per month
▸ Daily push, but notifications are placed in the ▸ Follower segmentation
“Subscription folder”
▸ QR code tracking
▸ Content is searchable on Sogou search engine ▸ In-app e-commerce and e-payments
▸ Original content can be certified and re- ▸ Capability to store coupons and integrate loyalty
shared by other accounts with mention to the programs
original publisher
▸ Ability to connect to a customer service team (multiway
▸ Gain revenue from reader “tips” chat)
▸ Gain revenue from displaying third-party ▸ API access for follower input processing
advertisements on owned articles
▸ Ability to advertise on WeChat
▸ Content not searchable on search engine
8 | One Billion Customers Can’t be Wrong: Why WeChat Should Be A Part Of Your Omnichannel StrategyWeChat should be part of Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
WeChat should be part of Your
Omnichannel Marketing
Strategy
86% of shoppers are regularly channel-hopping across at least two channels,
f
maximise your customer engagement and revenue on investment.
With 1 billion daily active users, the linear path of brand With an omnichannel approach, when you match a user’s WeChat
communications is no longer valid. You need to start treating each user
as an unique individual based on information derived from their digital in-store frequency data, location, national ID, phone number etc.), you
ID. get a fuller picture of the person behind each user. This allows you to
In this chapter, we will look at how to implement WeChat in the
channels.
omnichannel marketing strategy to accelerate personalised
communications as a seamless customer journey on a single platform. If you have more than just an official account in WeChat, such as a
mini program, or you have linked a mobile or web-based app to your
WeChat account, you are then able to retrieve deeper user data
Unified Customer Profile
within WeChat. For this, you have to know a little bit about OpenID,
and UnionID.
Identification is possibly the most valuable data that comes with an
omnichannel marketing strategy. Thankfully, each WeChat user has
a WeChat ID, that gives you some idea of who your leads are through
this digital verification.WeChat should be part of Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
OpenID
Personalisation
Once you are able to identify and match your WeChat followers with
greater
or
UnionID
or
Segmentation
Segment followers based on lifecycle stages or consumption
based promotion and more accurate customer
segmentation and
may set up triggers with automatic replies to a user reaching
robotic
responses are more of an annoyance then a welcomed
communication in our need for interaction especially
Contact Section Registration and BindingWeChat should be part of Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
a To make all these happen, you have to know your leads, which
re
the
t
service o
the
to produce personalis
often their content posts fail to strike a chord with
Loyalty Program
your
your
sation
would save consumers much time to download an
additional app
much unnecessary
hassle on their
Use Case Example:
First Time Buyer Campaign
Marketers place tremendous effort in acquiring new customers.
However, increasing customer retention rates by just 5% can
to Harvard Business School.
First engagements with a first time buyer is crucially important (first-impressions
count) as it is a great opportunity to turn that first time buyer into a repeat purchase
customer.
When a first-time buyer has completed the purchase either online or in store, they
will then receive a thank you message via WeChat, together with their relevant
purchase information such as shipping status and invoice.
In addition, since WeChat service accounts can only push up to 4 broadcast messages
per month, it is important for brands to send relevant information to their followers
wisely. For example, based on the first purchase, it is easier for marketing staff to
predict which product categories the consumer might like, and the platform of which
the brand should push subsequent relevant product information to them.WeChat should be part of Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
Use Case Example:
Loyalty Membership Renewal Campaign
With a linked loyalty program, a member can follow their favourite brands via
WeChat, where they can access their profile and keep track of their
membership status. With each following purchase, and newly earned points,
they will also receive a personalised message via a trigger to their WeChat
account with details of their latest membership status – keeping
them constantly engaged.
Same goes for a membership renewal campaign. When a user’s
membership expires, the brand is able to send reminder messages
via WeChat to the respective member, and remind them of their
membership expiry date to keep them within the brand
environment. And at the same time, they can also smartly offer
some membership extension promotions to allow members to
redeem their points and stay within the program to enjoy the
exclusive discounts.
Automation throughout the entire
Customer Journey
capabilities and what you as a marketer can do with them if youWeChat should be part of Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy
Managing the customer journey
your omnichannels.
in a single platform
▸
and receive personalised and relevant social feeds and promotions.
With a single better
▸ truly
invoice and shi personalis se customer
lifetime value based on the acquired lead and customer data
▸ Brands can keep their customers updated on the latest membership
across
status, offers and redemptions.
a single platform also frees your
▸ integrating both online
hands and time up
and offline activities and behaviour.
o helming
▸ for defecting customers can
be time you access theFinal Thoughts
WeChat is one of the few social platforms globally where a brand can manage
the customer journey well throughout all stages and migrate revenue-
generating behaviour offline to online, all while supporting value-added
communications and meaningful interactions. Adding this super app to your
omnichannel marketing strategy could help you retrieve those missing pieces
of data and deeper insights from the WeChat ‘centric’ market.
From the get-go, WeChat has been positioned as a closed social network.
Thus, traditional digital marketing strategies will not work, and is not meant
for the super app. WeChat presents plenty of opportunities for targeted
marketing and access to a pool of high potential leads. Data convenience,
quality personalised content, and social sharing can all be merged into one
platform to pave the way forwards for brands looking to succeed on WeChat.
Make use of WeChat to complete your marketing strategy with a marketing
automation partner like Emarsys, to deliver truly personal and consistent
customer interactions across offline (physical stores, SMS) and online (email,
social, web, and now WeChat), through an innovative and easy-to-use integrated
dashboard. To learn more about how we can help you achieve your marketing
goals, visit Emarsys.com.
How Emarsys can help to achieve your WeChat KPIs:
▸ Contact identification, binding WeChat open ID with identified profile
▸ Multichannel integration – using WeChat as one of your communication channels
to enhance better customer engagement
▸ Allows for a holistic customers behaviour analysis within a single platform
▸ One platform to manage multiple campaigns across channels.
▸ Personalisation of organic WeChat content
▸ Achieve higher efficiency and targeted messaging through contact segmentation
Book a demo
14 | One Billion Customers Can’t be Wrong: Why WeChat Should Be A Part Of Your Omnichannel StrategyResources https://www.statista.com/statistics/255778/number-of-active-wechat-messenger-accounts/ https://technode.com/2018/05/15/wechat-impact-report-2018/ http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-11/10/content_34372396.htm https://www.chinainternetwatch.com/22799/wechat-official-accounts-snu/ https://www.emarsys.com/en-hk/resources/blog/multi-channel-marketing-omnichannel/ https://www.businessinsider.de/wechat-has-hit-1-billion-monthly-active-users-2018-3?r=US&IR=T https://open.wechat.com/cgi-bin/newreadtemplate?t=overseas_open/docs/oa/getting-started/account- types#getting-started_account-types https://chinachannel.co/wechat-official-account-features-whats-possible/
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