August 2020 - The WeChat Agency

A Quick Guide to Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) Marketing

August 28, 2020

Since 2013, Xiaohongshu (also known as Little Red Book or RED) has become one of the fastest-growing platforms in China with over 80 million monthly active users.

But exactly who’s on the platform? And is this a platform you should be devoting resources to?

Xiaohongshu is a curious mix of social media crossed with e-commerce. However, it’s main focus is user-generated content. Users can post their recommendations, demonstrations, and reviews, and they can comment on and save these posts to themed boards.

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How To Market YOUR BRAND On BILIBILI?

August 20, 2020

WHAT IS BILIBILI?

Founded by Xu Yi in 2009, Bilibili is a Chinese video-sharing website based in Shanghai that focuses on gaming culture and anime-related content and is based on the real-time (live) interactive (bullet chatting) video concept.

In 2009, it was initially launched as a prototype website named Mikufans.cn. As the website improved traction, it included the video-sharing feature and was relaunched under the name Bilibili, the nickname of the protagonist in the anime ‘A Certain Scientific Railgun’.

With the growth in popularity, it included a plethora of features including advertising, mobile gaming, and e-commerce and live streaming service where audiences can interact with streamers. Apart from the main themes i.e. anime and gaming, Bilibili also offers videos from various other fields such as science and technology, entertainment, fashion and daily life.

FUTILITY OF THE TRADITIONAL MARKETING METHODS

Because of its unique features and interactive model, traditional marketing models don’t usually work on Bilibili.

User preferences are an essential part of the platform which not a lot of mainstream marketers and brands fail to understand. McDonald’s and KFC both were unable to find success on the platform but Alibaba, Xiaomi and Tencent quickly captured a lot of followers.

BILIBILI AS A MARKETING CHANNEL

Here are 3 ways for marketing your brand on Bilibili:

Feed your audience

Study your audience and user preferences thoroughly. It is important to your viewers that the content they are watching is a balance between what they would expect from the platform as well as the brand. Keep provided relevant content as and when possible, mostly in the form of live streams.

KOL Marketing

With the increase in video marketing over the years, the shift from text content to photo/video content has been quick, mostly because of vloggers or influencers (KOLs). Partnership and cooperation with KOLs is a very wise choice for new brands since KOLs already have a trusted group of followers and they know how to produce user-friendly content.

Live Streaming

The key differentiating point Bilibili has is its loyal and active viewer base. The types of unique content that can be used while live streaming is:

Bullet screen – live commenting that enhances active engagement
Animated content – most animations are available to the users free to use
Autotune – This is the type of content that has the potential to go viral if used correctly
Gaming – Mostly for mobile. Gaming brands (or any brand) can easily launch their game or mini-game and receive a high number of views.

Establishing A Presence on Xiaohongshu, China’s Popular Fashion Platform

August 7, 2020

With e-retailers struggling to win over young Chinese consumers, it seems that Xiaohongshu is standing out. Looking into Xiaohongshu’s business model, it’s evident that it’s a great platform for foreign beauty brands that are targeting young Chinese women.

Xiaohongshu is a social media and e-commerce platform and it’s growing fast. Founded in 2013 as a community for users to find recommendations about foreign fashion and cosmetics, it has garnered more than 70 million subscribers and developed its own cross-border site called Fulishe, China’s cross-border e-commerce platform.

A Promising Future For Fashion

Demographics: Mao Wenchao, Xiaohongshu’s co-founder and CEO, revealed in 2015 that

70 to 80 percent of the site’s users are female
More than 50 percent of Xiaohongshu’s users are students and office ladies
Age – 18-35
Living in first and second-tier cities

Girls are big purchasers of cosmetics and fashion. Xiaohongshu’s conversion rate is as high as eight percent, as compared to only 2.6 percent on Tmall, the biggest e-commerce platform for official Chinese brands. Also, every customer on Xiaohongshu makes three orders per month on average.

How Can Your Brand Establish A Presence On This Site?

Xiaohongshu has two sections: the user community and the e-commerce platform.

In the e-commerce section, qualified brands and retailers can submit an application through the official website.

As Xiaohongshu perceives itself as a first-party distributor, brands only need to sell their products to Xiaohongshu without any worry about the delivery and customer service. All that is handled by the platform.

The high engagement in its user community is what sets Xiaohongshu apart from other e-commerce platforms.

UGC And Micro-influencers

Xiaohongshu is a platform for girls and women to discuss fashion and beauty the same way they would with their friends offline (Peer Influence), making influencers on Xiaohongshu much more powerful than on other social media and e-commerce platforms.

Every single user who’s willing to share their real and comprehensive experiences can become a micro-influencer. On the platform, a lot of established influencers and celebrities share their personal favorites with their fans and their posts generally have high engagement (more than 1,000 likes and 10,000 saves).

Brands that want to try influencer marketing on Xiaohongshu need a translator or Chinese team to help them communicate with an influencer on the site with a decent following and one that fits the brand’s voice, tastes and target group.

In Conclusion

Xiaohongshu is a perfect choice for new overseas brands that want to test out the Chinese fashion market, particularly if they are targeting young Chinese women. Social listening is a major part of the community because the notes and comments are users’ feedback according to their first-hand experience. It becomes easy to understand the actual needs of the young Chinese female community and see whether your products can succeed in China.