If you don't build user friendly websites with SEO best practices, how can you compete with others that do?
How long can you stay in business if you don't use China Social Media?
Are you paying for professional Digital Marketing services to an agency that outsources them to who knows where?
If you are not using Digital marketing, especially Social Media, China's hottest marketing tool, you are missing out on a large share of the market. Chinese Social Media sites; Weibo, Renren, have thrust China marketing light years ahead to the point where Weibo is now China's default on line marketing tool. China Digital marketing is not just a new channel, it is different, On Line Media in China is evolving along its own lines influenced by Chinese culture and social conditions.
Social Media was made for China's confucianist, relationship culture. Social Media builds close a relationship with customers to your brand, relating to their needs and wants in real time, strengthening your brand and increasing sales.
China Social Media Differences |
China Social Media Development |
China Social Media Advantages
China Social Media Challenges |
Why use Digital Marketing in China? |
Active Digital Services
China Social Media Marketing brings results
Social Media Event Marketing for targeted visitors
Social Media Research targets specific customers
Digital Marketing is INTERACTIVE, vibrant, effective, no longer cold, sterile and impersonal The answer depends on who you talk to.
Digital Marketing, E Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Social Media Marketing, SEO, SEM, so many names and interpretations, it is murky and puzzling, confused by business owners and some marketing agencies.
Digital Marketing in China is, a new, totally separate and dedicated media channel, complex, competitive, confusing.... the 3 C's!
A generally accepted view is that Digital Marketing is the whole, the basket that holds activities such as Social Media, Blogs and SEO. A bit like how MARKETING was thought of as the three P's.
"Everything business does to connect on-line customers to products."
The rules of the game have changed, China Social Media, especially Weibo is now the number one marketing tool in China.
The future is changing and you need to be ready for that change.
When you stop to realise that Confucianism is the corner stone of Chinese culture which stresses social harmony and relationships it is easy to see why Chinese buyers are already predisposed or conditioned to this type of marketing.
What this means for you is that now you can reach customers, prospective customers like never before. Research, promotion are simultaneous, in real time.
In other words, you no longer need to pay a research company to conduct long, expensive market research, surveys, focus groups, panel interviews, and wait ages whilst the results are analysed, tabulated and presented to you, approach another agency to design your marketing campaign around those results, most of which is out of date by then anyway, and hope that things are not too far off. We cover this in more detail in: Advantages and Why
At best it was hit and miss, a lot of good luck and wasted time, effort and money.
Digital marketing, especially Social Media allows us to design your campaign, monitor the results and adjust it according to your customers needs, all at the same time, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute if needed.
No time delay. As your customers provide feed back [research!] we fine tune your campaign, refining the target, sharpening the campaign so that different segments are quickly identified, along with their needs fine tuning it to meet the needs of each target segment.
Active Digital sees China Social Media as an extension of traditional marketing, complimentary to it, not competitive, in fact a combination of off line - on line marketing or LBS [Location Based Services] is a popular trend in China, Starbucks have embraced the concept.
So the basic tenants of Marketing still apply: know your product, customer, competitors, define your target, segment it and distribute your message.
Easy!
Whilst following the same basic format as elsewhere, Chinese Social Media in particular is probably currently less regulated, well suited to China's relationship society, different, evolving along its own lines influenced by Chinese culture and social conditions, a vital tool for any marketer in China.
We shall quickly look at "The Differences of Social Media in China" in the next Chapter.
Ms Everlyne Yu, Active Digital's 
Senior Associate, has built and leads a team of young, enthusiastic and very "Digital Aware" people with such clients as VW, BMW and the Guangdong Development Bank, all keen to embrace Digital Marketing in China. Everlyne has been in China marketing since around 1999.