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WeChat Open Class Pro: A Look at What’s in Store for Businesses in 2023

March 2, 2023

WeChat Open Class PRO is a hyped and highly-anticipated annual conference organized by Tencent and aimed at creators.

In addition to showcasing exciting new developments and plans that WeChat has in store, the event aims to offer insightful information about how medium and small businesses can use the platform to spur growth and raise brand awareness.

Let’s see how this can impact brands and businesses that use WeChat to reach their customer base…

Why is WeChat Class PRO important for businesses?

Weixin Open Class PRO also referred to as WeChat Open Class PRO, is a yearly conference organized for developers, companies, and marketers to learn about the most recent features, updates, and best practices for the largest social media platform in China. We covered the event last year – WeChat Weixin Open Class PRO 2022.

Here are some reasons why Weixin Open Class PRO is important for businesses:

Keep up with the newest features

Businesses can learn more about the most recent features and updates, including Mini Programs, WeChat Pay, and WeChat Work, thanks to Weixin Open Class PRO.
By using new features to improve their marketing and customer engagement strategies, businesses can benefit from this information and stay one step ahead of the competition.

Find out the best practices

Businesses have the chance to learn how to use WeChat to grow their operations from successful case studies and industry experts through Weixin Open Class PRO.
This can help businesses maximize their marketing efforts, improve customer engagement, and raise brand awareness.

Access to Tencent resources

Businesses can access resources from Tencent, including its developer tools and APIs, through Weixin Open Class PRO.
In order to better serve their customers, this can assist businesses in developing customized WeChat solutions, such as Mini Programs.
In general, Weixin Open Class PRO is crucial for companies looking to stay competitive and use WeChat to promote business expansion in China.

📹 Watch the whole recording of the WeChat PRO 2023 conference here

What can we expect for 2023?

Based on the Open Class PRO and our own observations, we can tell that:

WeChat Channels:

After a year of new features including adding customer service integrations, WeChat Channels will continue to grow. Check out WeChat Channels Stats 2023 & Growth Plan to find out more.
Moreover, Tencent made a commitment to help creators. Their team stated that they would offer in a total of 5 billion free views in traffic, as well as richer and more comprehensive monetization tools and incentive policies, in order to assist anyone who is serious about broadcasting, growing, and earning money.

Backstreet Boys WeChat Channels

New Formats:

WeChat appears to be introducing new ad formats and improved integrations.
There is certain format fatigue as the article format has been the same for years. This year, Tencent tests to implement new formats like:
- Images will be stacked and horizontally viewable in a 3:4 aspect ratio.
- Up to 300 characters will be allowed in the description section.
- Optimized services related to image display to gain traction.

WeChat Image Message New Format

WeChat Search:

The WeChat search engine continued to expand, reaching 800 million monthly users:
- Earlier this month, WeChat released a small program called Search data assistant.
- Wechat’s backend has been updated with new features to help brands better track it.

🔍 A Quick Guide to WeChat Search As a Marketing Tool

WeCom:

Undoubtedly, WeCom will expand as well. WeCom, Weixin’s product specifically designed for businesses, offers practical office automation and communication tools. It is also being adopted by the education sector more and more.
According to the Industry Resilience and Recovery Potential Report 2023 that Weixin released at the Weixin Open Class PRO, SME businesses with fewer than 500 employees saw a 35% increase in the number of daily active WeCom enterprise users in the manufacturing sector year over year.

AI development:

Lastly, it’s worth noting the advancements made by the WeChat AI team. In 2022, the AI team made improvements to the WeChat dialogue open platform called co-enterprise WeChat.
They also introduced a new service called “dialogue robot” for corporate WeChat. It will allow for more seamless integration between robots and artificial customer service in the customer service scene. This natural integration enabled companies to serve their users more efficiently.

Conclusion

Firstly, WeChat’s annual Open Class Pro conference is a crucial event for businesses seeking to stay ahead of the competition and expand their customer base in China. Moreover, we can expect continued growth and innovation from WeChat in 2023, with the 2022 conference focusing on mini-programs, payment, and search functions, and advancements in the app’s short video service, Channels.

Furthermore, with Tencent’s commitment to investing in traffic and monetization tools, as well as advancements in ad formats and WeChat AI, businesses can anticipate new opportunities for engagement and growth on the platform.

Meanwhile, if you want to know more about WeChat, please contact our team. We use our knowledge and expertise to help businesses build meaningful partnerships and develop their networks among Chinese customers. For additional information, please contact us at contact@thewechatagency.com.

What’s new happening in China?

August 29, 2022

WeChat Channels and WeCom – Perfect Partners

Utilizing short videos and live streaming can be difficult. WeChat Channels introduce fresh approaches to improve interactions with fans and viewers thanks to WeCom solutions:

Buttons for adding the chat to the customer service account
Pushing business cards during a live broadcast
Employees at WeCom can have up to 50 profiles connected to a single WeChat Channels account.
Users can share the stream directly with their moments or groups.

Link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/T0LAvsiVkXRLQ_kSzt-sUA

China’s cross-border e-commerce for first-time market entry

The Chinese government has promoted CBeC (cross-border e-commerce) in China over the past ten years by enacting legislative incentives like preferential tax rates and cross-border e-commerce pilot zones.

Cross-border e-commerce has lower regulatory barriers than traditional trade, which requires a significant initial investment, making it a quicker, lower-risk, and more accessible way for foreign brands to begin selling in China.

Link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/0KxWcwmp4piKlS_rLQu4YA

ByteDance quietly launches search app Wukong in China, where Google is banned

Owner of the popular short video app TikTok, ByteDance, has quietly introduced a new search engine that guarantees there will be no ads online. ByteDance and Baidu, the dominant search engine in China, are now more directly competing thanks to Wukong, which is currently offered on the Chinese Apple App Store and various Chinese Android app stores.

According to the new app’s advertising, it offers “quality information and search without ads.” It’s possible to read the phrase as a subtle dig at Baidu, which has long drawn flak for its use of paid listings in search results.

Wukong offers a variety of search categories, including news, images, and video, just like other well-known search engines. Additionally, it offers a feature similar to web browsers’ “incognito mode” that does not save search history and lets users bookmark pages.

Link: https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2022/08/tiktoks-parent-firm-bytedance-quietly.html

ByteDance rival Kuaishou narrows losses, boosts revenue at overseas operations amid gains made in domestic business

After beginning to restructure its international business in March, Kuaishou Technology, owner of the second-largest short video platform in China, narrowed losses at its overseas operations in the three months that ended June 30 while seeing revenue rise by more than 1,000% year over year.

Compared to the 4.4 billion yuan loss experienced during the same period last year, the operating loss at Kuaishou’s overseas operations significantly decreased to 1.6 billion yuan in the second quarter. Revenue increased by 1,328 percent to 103.4 million yuan from 7.2 million yuan a year earlier.

Currently, Kuaishou’s international operations are concentrated in Indonesia with its SnackVideo app and Brazil where it runs the short video app Kwai. In August of last year, the company removed its Zynn short video app from the US after failing to compete with TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance and has more than 1 billion users worldwide.

Link:https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3190023/bytedance-rival-kuaishou-narrows-losses-boosts-revenue-oversea

10 Ways for a B2B Brand to Generate Leads on WeChat

March 29, 2022

Lead generation in China, and especially for the B2B sector, might seem a bit challenging at first but doesn’t have to. In the past, many Western brands relied on LinkedIn when reaching out to new prospects in China, but since the platform transformed itself into CareerIn late last year and removed its social interaction component, it became quite obsolete in terms of lead generation.

If your company has an official WeChat account registered on WeChat (the biggest app in China) then you’re on the right path. WeChat, contrary to Western social apps which are largely used for personal communication, is used for both private and business purposes by Chinese users. This difference can be a big advantage for B2B brands in China (WeChat for B2B sector). Because emails or website are not top of mind for brand communication, Chinese users expect to find detailed information and receive updates from brands on WeChat. Staying within the WeChat ecosystem can actually make it even easier to guide your lead through an exciting and successful brand discovery journey – see our previous post-WeChat Marketing vs Website Marketing.

In the B2B lead generation on WeChat and nurturing funnel, it’s vital to figure out how to grow your visibility as a B2B player, automate the processes while also allowing customer care and sales reps to better identify and close deals. Let us walk you through some of the most relevant tactics depending on the stage of your relationship with your leads on WeChat.

Lead Generation – How to Grow Your Exposure?

Since WeChat is a semi-closed platform, meaning that non-followers don’t receive updates from your brand, it’s not always easy for brands to immediately grow their fanbase. However, depending on your budget or time, you can try different approaches to grow your exposure on WeChat among users who haven’t connected with your brand yet.

Tencent’s WeChat advertising allows businesses to place promotional messages on users’ timelines, WeChat Official Account articles, and even third-party mini-programs. Brands can use WeChat ads to increase the number of followers on their official accounts, boost traffic to their official website or mini-programs. Cost-per-fan for a B2B brand can get quite high with sometimes approx. 70 RMB (USD11) and is not without some industry-specific restrictions but it is still a great way to get exposure and unfollow rate for industry accounts are significantly lower than for B2C brands.

WeChat advertising has 3 major types – How To Promote Your Account On WeChat?

Whitelisting

A great way to gain your visibility is working with your industry hot accounts. We can compare this cooperation to KOL (Key Opinion Leader) influencer marketing but on a B2B level. A bigger account with sizeable exposure and authority reshares your article directly. There are two other whitelisted sharing options:

1. Displaying a link to the original Official Account: At the end of the article, as the original content creator, you can request (or not) to provide a link to your official account (the link will be automatically added).
2. Permission to edit: The original material created may grant permission to edit the article to the partner account (otherwise it will be forwarded exactly as the original version).

You can also reshare articles from other official accounts. Please note that some restrictions for international accounts might apply.

Channels – for brand discovery

WeChat Channels is a video platform within WeChat that allows users to produce and share short video clips and photographs to their own WeChat Channel. It was released for beta testing in early 2020 and two years later it’s becoming one of the most important WeChat components actively improved and promoted by Tencent. Check out our Beginner’s Guide to WeChat Channels.

Thanks to hashtags it’s much easier to discover new content on WeChat than before. Also, because WeChat is the first choice for professional communication it’s only natural that B2B visual content has a much higher chance to gain traction there than for example on Douyin (TikTok).

Only this month, Tencent introduced a new set of features that B2B brands can enjoy right away on WeChat Channels. Brands can now add service menus to the WeChat Channels main page greatly improving user experience and adding new functionalities to the account. WeChat added also new options for WeCom and Channels integration.

WeChat Channels

WeChat SEO-friendly articles

Yes, WeChat has its own search engine (SouYiSou, 搜一搜) and it’s getting more and more precise to index content across the whole Tencent ecosystem. To have your content featured in search results publish articles with a focus on keywords with regularity. Content authority is important too so don’t forget to encourage the right engagements. Leveraging the rest of the Tencent ecosystem like WeChat Channels can further improve your results.

WeChat, like other search engines, prioritizes the most relevant content. It is critical for brands to use keywords in article text and headlines when developing content. The viewer engagement rate is another parameter that WeChat search looks at. This covers impressions, clicks, and post-reactions. A higher interaction rate means a better ranking in the WeChat search results.

QR codes

Not to forget, QR codes are the lifeblood of the platform on WeChat. Ideally place them on your physical product, marketing materials, and online.

When a user scans a code, it can land on your official account directly. A code that also leads to a mini-program or a mini-site within the WeChat ecosystem. These may be readily customized to display your most critical information (much like a landing page). Since it does not require users to install any third-party programs, this direct presentation of information has been able to deliver a smooth customer experience for businesses.

Nurturing Your Prospects – Maintain Meaningful Relationships

WeChat users are already actively interested in your brand and landed on your official WeChat account welcome page. This is a great situation and you can leverage it. With account optimation, regular articles, and other tools you can reach out to your fans and keep in touch. It’s your turn to meet, or ideally exceed their expectations.

Welcome message and menu

When new users start to follow your official account, they are automatically greeted with a welcome message. This micro-moment can help them to understand your brand better and encourage them to take the next steps if your welcome message is optimized to give them the details and information they need – apart from the text you can add links, images, mini-programs, and more in there.
WeChat Channels Menu
The menu is another element brands shouldn’t overlook and you might even decide to allocate more effort to it. Treat menu as always-on content. We talked more about what the menu is and why is it so important and how to optimize it in our previous posts.

Basic segmentation

If your business has many departments and clients are interested in different topics it’s a good idea to segment your followers. This way you can send them articles relevant to their departments. Ask users about their preferred departments in the welcome message and manually label them in the backend. This method works when you have a relatively small fanbase and only if followers reply.

CRM integration

More advanced segmentation and targeting require a proper CRM (Customer Relationship Management). To maximize the impact of the WeChat unified ID, brands must establish a link between WeChat OA and CRM. If you want to run more complicated campaigns, you may need to connect them to a marketing cloud. Take, for example, Salesforce CRM and Marketing Cloud.

💼 Why should brands use CRM Integrations on WeChat and how about Salesforce?

WeCom

Tencent’s (WeChat’s parent company) version of WeChat for businesses, previously known as WeChat Work, is gaining traction among businesses.

WeCom is a business communication and office application that offers the same communication experience as WeChat. At the same time, it offers a broad set of open-source applications connected with the WeChat ecosystem.
It can assist businesses in connecting internally, with ecosystem partners, and with customers. It’s also worth noting that WeCom has an API that allows you to access and combine WeChat’s capabilities with other apps.

WeChat WeCom

Private traffic

The use of private traffic is another element of WeChat B2B lead generation marketing. Setting up, monitoring and activating a WeChat group can take time. It’s a really great way to keep in touch with the followers and clients in real-time and initiate meaningful discussions.
Essentially, this is direct communication with lead segmentation. The scaling effect might convert more deals from a promotion campaign in the private chat group as more leads opt-in.

WeChat – A Great Tool for B2B Brands

As you can see, WeChat is more than just a social media platform. With its multitude of customizable tools, it offers a great approach to engaging with customers and increasing brand awareness. Bridging the gap between online and offline with a segmentation strategy and CRM can truly enhance communication with your prospects.

Though WeChat lead generation has its challenges, it is a worthwhile process. If you want to get into the Chinese market, don’t miss out on this opportunity.

If you require further support with setting up your account or generation on WeChat, please contact our team. We use our knowledge and expertise to help businesses build meaningful partnerships and develop their network among Chinese customers. For additional information, please contact us by phone – Shanghai or Hong Kong.