The 5 Mistakes to Avoid on WeChat

This post is sponsored by CuriosityChina. WeChat’s launch in 2011 opened an unprecedented door to one-to-one communication with consumers. Marketers have been quick to recognize the potential of this platform and today, WeChat boasts more than 12 million official brand accounts frequented by an impressive 800 million monthly active users . In just five short years, WeChat has evolved from a simple instant messaging application to a veritable “daily life” tool. Over 61 percent of users consult the platform more than 10 times per day to do everything from chat with friends and family, to pay bills and purchase products from their favorite brands. Despite its prominence, WeChat is still a mystifying platform for many. We have no Western equivalent (although Facebook and Apple are trying hard to change that), and the closed nature of the platform coupled with the language barrier add to the challenge. So while the way in which consumers interact with the platform has rapidly evolved, many brands have yet to optimize their strategy to respond to these changing consumer tendencies. Below are the five most common mistakes marketers are making on WeChat: 1. Zero targeting China is a vast market with a consumer base that varies dramatically from province to province. Brands that enter the China market with a one-size-fits-all approach will see far fewer conversions than brands that make the effort to craft content tailored to specific user groups. In fact, one of the keys to WeChat’s continued domination is that Tencent has always prioritized the user experience. Limiting the number of daily pushes from brands maintains the integrity of this instant messaging platform. So strive for quality not quantity and make each communication count by implementing a targeted content strategy based on thoughtful customer segmentation. 2. Not leveraging owned influencers Thanks to today’s advanced social CRM solutions we can now identify the most active and influential members on an account. In a market where top KOLs can charge thousands of dollars for one post and consumers are heavily swayed by peer recommendations, this information is worth its weight in gold. Brands that make the effort to identify and reward the most active members will reap rewards in the form customer loyalty. 3. No mobile commerce By the end of 2015, Tencent reported that over 200 million users had bound a credit card to their WeChat wallet, a wallet they generously reached into at Chinese New Year. During the holiday, the number of transactions on WeChat hit 8 billion CNY in a mere 4-day period. To put that in perspective, that is more mobile transactions than PayPal generated in all of 2015. If that isn’t reason enough to explore WeChat payment, remember that this is the same wallet that customers will be virtually reaching into when they shop in your (e)store. 4. Not investing in digital tech Many marketers are still channeling their budget into digital advertising as opposed to digital tech. For brands that make the jump from using WeChat simply as another passive push messaging platform, to exploiting it as the Social CRM tool it has evolved into, there is a real opportunity to win customers and, hopefully, influence purchases. 5. Not monitoring the competition Keeping an eye on the competition is crucial to gaining a more holistic understanding of account performance. Marketers are often so focused on our own performance that we lose sight of the big picture, which is key to understanding the market at large and identifying threats and opportunities. WeChat’s closed nature makes competitor monitoring even more challenging. An official accounts monitoring solution like CURIO EYE allows marketers to monitor their own accounts, benchmark the competitors and track trends all from one bilingual dashboard. Avoid these mistakes by investing in an official accounts monitoring solution today and never lose sight of the industry trends or competition again. Available for both desktop and mobile, CURIO EYE enables marketers to measure account performance compared to leading industry accounts using “My Monitor,” determine their e-reputation by tracking “Keywords,” and consult the top 5 brands per industry under the “Industry Monitor.” Currently, over 1,000 accounts from 15 diverse industries including Fashion, Lifestyle, Hospitality, Media, Key Opinion Leaders, and Finance are referenced. Receive 5 percent off of your CURIO EYE package today using this limited time code: 1234567

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The 5 Mistakes to Avoid on WeChat