June 2017 - The WeChat Agency

5,000 followers on WeChat in 48h with no media nor influencers, how Groz-Beckert & KRDS did it?

June 29, 2017

Launching a new brand on WeChat is serious challenge. Specially when your client is strong B2B player but with little awareness in the general public eye.

So on June 6th, Groz-Beckert launched its official account. 48 hours later, they recruited over 5,000 followers without using any media, KOL, events or third-parties promotion.

How KRDS helped Groz-Beckert achieve such results?

Identify and rely on your strength

The short answer to this question is that Groz-Beckert was able to achieve this feat by relying on the people they trust best – Groz-Beckert staff and sales teams.

Before looking outwards for KOL or media solutions, brands must remember that WeChat is a customer servicing platform first that can be turn into an excellent and effective marketing tool. Therefore, to be successful on WeChat, you must ensure you are actually recruiting your clients first. The rest will come much easier, as your clients have the most authority spreading your brand message among their community.

So, the questions is, who better than your on-site sales people and staff that can successfully interact with your clients and welcome them on WeChat? No one.

Will they do it out of the blue? No. Sales people are busy and if you do not create the right tool and incentive to push them to promote your company they will not do it. Period.

Build the right tool and campaign

To answer this challenge, we created a WeChat connected APP where every Groz-Beckert staff could log in easily to generate a unique personal QR code.

This unique QR code was connected with each staff which enabled us to live-track how many followers they recruited individually making sure they are unique users.

To spice up the competition, a penalty was also given if the user unfollowed the account later.

Using this simple mechanism, the staff were able to recruit followers and the competitive spirit made them want to recruit more number of followers.

To aid this, a leaderboard was created that displayed the individual performance, and the top staff on the leaderboard will walk away with big rewards and recognition from Groz-Beckert.

Segment and collect data about your community

Furthermore, the structure allowed us to understand how followers were recruited through different staff departments and provided us more insight into the client’s interests,

This mecanism helped Groz-Beckert and KRDS to compartment and target specific audience to push relevant content to them in the future.

If you have been following KRDS closely, you would know that we shared the same success story with BNP Paribas a few months ago with a similar approach.

So the only question pending is when you will get in touch with us to help you implement a similar winning strategy for your brand on WeChat!

ABOUT GROZ-BECKERT

Groz-Beckert is the world’s leading provider of industrial machine needles, precision parts and fine tools, as well as systems and services for the production and joining of textile fabrics. All around the world, the products and services support the textile processes of knitting and warp knitting, weaving, felting, tufting, carding and sewing.

The company, founded in 1852, employs around 7,700 people and turned over about 665 million euro in 2016.

All of the threads come together at the headquarters in Albstadt, Germany. The family-owned company also disposes of other production sites in Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Portugal, USA, India, China and Vietnam. Scores of sales affiliates and sales partners top off the international presence.

Groz-Beckert offers its customers a comprehensive partnership – without boundaries and on site in over 150 countries.

ABOUT KRDS

Incorporated in 2013, KRDS Shanghai, the social and mobile agency has been ideating and producing digital content and social media campaigns, on Weibo and WeChat, for many local and international clients, to name few Club Med, Louis Vuitton, Air France, BNP Paribas, Biotherm …

ABOUT AURELIEN FERRIE:

In China since 2010, Aurelien FERRIE joined KRDS in 2013 as General Manager – Greater China.

With KRDS, he is helping international clients (Air France, Club Med, Louis Vuitton) to grow their visibility on Chinese social media platforms.

With a strong experience in sales and marketing, Aurelien quickly became an expert of Chinese social media platforms, especially WeChat, that he consider to be one of the most innovative platform in the world. His ambition is to keep growing his digital expertise and experience to keep offering the most innovative online solutions to brands in China and in the world.

How the TOP 500 Official WeChat Accounts are performing ?

June 16, 2017

WeChat is fast growing as one of the biggest social platforms and is an essential part of the daily life in the Chinese market. Brands are increasingly using this platform as a way to leverage their goods and services in China. The market being highly competitive, for brands to make it to the top 500 WeChat accounts is a great feat!

Every month, top performing WeChat accounts are tracked and these are the findings. NewRanks tracked the performance of a pool of the most popular accounts between April 2016 and April 2017 and these are the top highlights for this analysis.

1. Average article views have reduced

In a short span of a year, WeChat added over 170 million monthly active users. However, the analysis found that there has been a decrease in the average articles viewed by the users. In fact the number saw a decrease of 5,257 views per article. An important influencer of this number may be the increase in the official accounts on WeChat. This means the users have more options to choose from and the official accounts are becoming increasingly competitive. On the other side, the number of likes to articles has increased by 138 per article.

2. Ranking of the Top 500 Accounts

An analysis of the top accounts from April of last year indicate that 75% of these top accounts have seen a decrease in their ranking compared to last year. Only 21% of these official WeChat accounts moved up in ranking in 2017. The decrease can be attributed to official accounts investing more in creating quality content over quantity of articles. Also, there is the viral paradox where you can’t predict the viral aspect of the platform.

3. Ranking Changed drastically for brands

Among the top 500 WeChat Accounts in April 2016, only 274 accounts managed to retain their position as being in the top 500. Even the most popular accounts have had to revamp their content considerably to keep up with the changing trends in social media.

A brand to note here is, Global Times (环球时报) that went up 428 ranks in a period of a year. Another brand to note is TripAdvisor that lost 15,584 points.

4. The shifting trend from traditional media to WeChat Accounts

Among the top 104 performing accounts 24% of the accounts are media related. This is a huge indicator that Chinese media is shifting the trends from traditional media to the new age media. Media accounts have the advantage to report live and get the information out faster with this platform.

5. Original Content Linked to Increasing Ranks

The percentage of original content increased from 8.7% to 11.2% in a year. The interesting thing to note is accounts that produce more original content have an increase in ranking as compared to accounts with decreasing ranking that produce 9% less original content. The publishing of audio content has also increased 4.8% as compared to 2.1% in 2016.

As the competition gets more intense, marketers have to increasingly develop unique content strategies to match the ever fast pace of the social platform.

Why WeChat Pay is a game changer for brands in China?

June 5, 2017

Mobile payments have shaped the way consumers spend online in the Chinese market. It has opened a new window to seamless and reliable payment methods and the technology improvements have greatly facilitated the consumer’s spending habits online. With the launch of WeChat Pay, there has been significant competition in the world of online payments with Alipay possessing just 54% of the market share as oppossed to a strong 80% share before 2015. By staying ahead of the mobile landscape and social experiences WeChat has emerged as the next big thing in mobile payments with WeChat Pay.

With WeChat’s increasing wins and an exponential rise in user base there are now multiple opportunities for brands to leverage WeChat Pay.

Stay in touch with your customer and collect relevant data

One of the best advantages of opening a mobile payment portal is the connect you establish with customers during a purchase. The user automatically is added as a follower of the WeChat account once the purchase is made and is broadcasted latest news and developments directly. This is also great for brands to establish effective targeting for customers and bring them customized product recommendations. This will be great for the overall brand recall and will boost sales.

Drive recurring purchases directly in WeChat

A simple and effecting user interface is key to driving sales in this era. To heighten the experience of the consumer, brands must be able to provide them the right user experience and flow which will in turn help in seamless online transactions in a matter of a few clicks. A great way would be to integrate the WeChat Pay into it’s WeChat store for better optimisation and convenience for the customers. A customer that is comfortable and happy navigating through the interface, is more likely to make a purchase.

Increase your online revenue

WeChat Pay has opened a new door for brands to enhance their digital presence and offer their consumers a more reliable and simple way to indulge in online transactions in the comfort of their favourite mobile applications that they use every day. WeChat is growing its user base exponentially and the addition of the WeChat Pay and the integration of this in the WeChat stores of the brands is expected to boost sales rapidly for brands.

It is imperative that brands must leverage this opportunity and provide the best consumer experience to their audience in the WeChat application across China.