Branding and Marketing Strategy & implementationThe creation of your online store and the setting up of your social media accounts are merely the first steps we can assist you with. Our holistic services also include long-term, ongoing management of your social media and marketing avenues – both online and offline.
Engaging with existing customers is just as important as attracting new ones. The goal of marketing management is to continuously engage with prospective and existing customers by maintaining your social media accounts and actively producing content.
Our service involves planning and implementing marketing strategies in a frequency of your choice with the goal of driving traffic to your offline and/or online stores and increasing your brand awareness. We will provide a full and detailed report on a schedule of your choice on marketing objectives, plans as well as measurements and ROIs of prior campaigns.
As mentioned above, continuous interaction and engagement with your audience is important to leave a lasting impression of your brand. Our social media team will work towards engaging with potential and existing customers or followers of your brand and identify the media and trends that will help boost your brand awareness and image.
Exposure and reputation are crucial to grow your business. Our ongoing marketing management also focus on increasing traffic and conversation through positive exposure and online reputation.
To achieve these goals, WKI will support and assist in your content strategy and work towards ongoing positioning. Moreover, we can actively maintain your online reputation by responding to internet crises, comments and private messages.
As e-commerce becomes more social-oriented in China, KOL marketing has come to the forefront as an effective marketing strategy for brands breaking into Chinese market.
Key opinion leaders (KOLs) are individuals who provide opinions and perspectives toward a product or brand to the public. KOLs have a strong following on social media platforms and a significant influence on their followers.
Considering how many Chinese consumers go on social media to get information and reviews about certain product or brand, a recommendation or a positive review from an influential KOL can be a real game changer.
KOL marketing has become an effective strategy for brands because of KOLs high quality engagement and connection with their followers. When brand information delivered by traditional ads may be viewed as biased and untrustworthy, the same information shared with KOLs can be received more positively. As there is a belief that the KOLs would not risk recommending a product or brand that is not good that may later lead to damaging their image or reputation.
Thus, collaborating with KOLs can be a good strategy to market your brand. Each KOL appeals to a specific demographic and lifestyle group as each individual typically have their niche (e.g. women for beauty KOLs, young men for gaming KOLs), which makes it easier for brands to engage with a target audience.
Research is important when it comes to selecting KOLs to work with. Your products and brands need to align with the image of the KOL, as well as the audience you want to target. Maintaining a good relationship with a KOL is important as well, so that both parties are on the same page in delivering the right message to the audience.
Cost might be a major concern as many truly influential KOLs can be quite expensive. However, in the complex ecosystem of KOLs and celebrities, there are various tiers and quite a few offer free endorsement as good brands and products reviews help them grow as well. Off course in most cases, more investment generates more sales. If your budget is flexible, chasing the leaders in the KOLs can almost guarantee a good result. However for those with limited budget and risk averse rational businessmen, WKI provides comprehensive service regarding selection and negotiation with KOLs to maximize your investment.
The case of WeChat
One platform that KOLs commonly use to endorse a brand or a product is WeChat. WeChat has evolved into a platform that is optimal for social commerce – especially with the release of WeChat’s mini programs, which can be used to feature an online store to facilitate e-commerce. These e-commerce mini programs can be seamlessly linked to the KOLs’ subscription account.
WeChat users typically subscribe to KOL accounts to access to content published by the KOL. If a KOL is endorsing a product, for instance, his/her audience can simply click into the KOL’s WeChat mini program that is linked to the content they are reading, to browse and purchase products or to share them with friends. All of this can be done without leaving the app.
Live-streaming
OAnother tool that KOLs famously use to endorse a brand is live-streaming. The live streaming industry has blown up in recent years, with the number of live-streaming users reaching 560 million as early as in March 2020, which is more than half of China’s total internet population of 896 million. According to iResearch, the market size of China’s streaming industry reached 433.8 billion RMB in 2019, and will double by the end of 2020, including hosting platforms, video production and other support services. This incredible phenomenon has given rise to live-streamer KOLs.
Most live streamers broadcast their daily lives, share activities like playing games, telling jokes, putting on makeup or giving away fashion tips. For KOLs working with brands, they would typically talk about or use a product while doing something related during the live-stream. For instance, a beauty KOL may be showing her audience her makeup routine and she may recommend a makeup brand or product that she likes. KOLs can also redirect their audience to a purchase link or talk about how their audience can get the product that is endorsed.
Media buying solutions focus on optimizing your ads to drive traffic, boost growth and to increase brand awareness. Strategic planning and management of advertisement are key steps to successful marketing in China.
In simple terms, media buy or media buying is the buying of advertising space for the purpose of advertising from a company operating media properties. The cost of the media buy would typically depend on the specific media property you and your brand would like to be advertised. Cost would vary based on the size of the ad space, the specific location and times you want the ad to be shown and other specific features of the ad campaign (e.g. technical features).
Target audience
Before you plan a media buy, you need to identify your target. Who are you trying to reach, who is your target market, what is the age group you are targeting, are they male or female, are they the rural or urban population – these are questions you should know your answer to.
The following step after identifying your target market is knowing your target market. At this stage, a market research is paramount to understand the consumer behaviour of your target group. Conducting a comprehensive market research can help place a media buy that is effective in achieving marketing objectives.
Our media buying service includes a market research aiming to understand target audience and their behaviour, competitors and their strategy.
Objectives and strategies planning
After identifying and understanding your target audience, the following step would be to plan your marketing objectives and execution of strategies. Knowing what you want to achieve with your ads is important to measuring the success of your marketing campaign. For each campaign, the goals you may want to think about include awareness, leads, click through rate, sign ups etc.
With objectives set up, strategies should be decided according to budget and timeline. Next step should be identifying the media channels and outlets to advertise on. WKI team can help negotiate your media buy rates and achieve the best deal according to your budget. We will also assist in your campaign schedule and keep track of deadlines as there may be several ad campaigns running simultaneously on different channels.
Content
The media landscape in China is complex and unique. Cultural understanding is vital to communicate and resonate with the local audience. WKI expert will adjust right language, tone and calls to action while reserve the essence of the brands. We will customise the ads according to the target demographic to ensure the brand information reach the right people at the right time.
Digital media buying involves channels such as social media, websites, KOLs as well as formats such as video ads, banner ads and more. According to your marketing goals, needs and budgets, WKI will provide comprehensive advise on which channels to invest. Our goal is to maximise your digital presence in the Chinese market while taking care of campaign planning and buying. We will facilitate the direct online media buying with the relevant media publishers as well as reach out to the right KOLs for your marketing campaigns.
While digital media is the forefront in marketing for many brands, traditional media buying can have a strong positive marketing reach as well – especially if you are trying to reach out to a demographic that are less digitally savvy. WKI also provide service to connect to TV, print, radio and outdoor campaigns. We also manage event services and roadshows to promotion.
Think of us as your one-stop service team – we help you manage all your marketing needs (be it online or offline) and you do not have to go back and forth between multiple vendors to coordinate the execution of your marketing plans. We got you covered.
