According to the national bureau of statistics in China in 2016 sales online reached 701 billion in 2016. China is the biggest e-commerce market in the world. Indeed, the online eco-system appears as the top one in the world. This phenomenon stems from the fact that Chinese people are very connected. We can count 900 000 million Chinese connected people online to Tech giants and domestic platforms. Let’s not forget that China takes benefit from its numerous inhabitants which are approximately 1,3bilion and the presence of e-commerce leaders such as Alibaba or JD.Com. The service industry has a significant weight in the Chinese economy because it corresponds to 52,8 % of the total GDP.
The evolution of the tertiary branch online
Over the last years, there has been an important shift in the way some branches are doing business. Fields such as Commercial, Finance, Real Estate education took a new direction by following the IT path. This shift was facilitated by the pattern of the Chinese market. Indeed, Chinese consumers use a lot the internet to interact with others more than western consumers for example. Therefore, online solutions transform marketing and communication strategy. The more and more C to C strategy tend to overpass B to C strategy.
China has its own digital bubble
While doing business in China, it’s really important to be familiar with the Chinese ecosystem. You need to be aware that China has a particular digital platform and code. Forget about google, Facebook and Twitter because there are not accessible in China. You should absolutely learn how to use Baidu, Weibo and We chat. It’s essential to create content in Chinese even if you can write in English. It’s a way to make a step toward your consumer and to prove to them that you can understand them and their needs. Having a name in Chinese will also help you to be more visible even if you are already a famous brand in the rest of the world.
Getting clients by leads
The idea behind inbound Marketing is to promote your company in order to drain new customers to your website and at the same time to increase the number of leads. This kind of marketing may be understood as a strategy to bring new customers to you. It does not aim at searching for new customers without really know them. Create connection is the key to making your business success. As a consequence, you have to connect with specific communities. Internet in China allows you to choose criteria like age, hobbies, interest etc. Analyze, characterize your target online require the same precision than offline. There are several tools you can use to get leads.
Branding
Your brand needs to be noticeable, reliable and popular. You have to keep in mind that Chinese consumers have rapid access to information and will always choose the most trendy one. This starts with good visibility on Baidu. Don’t forget that Baidu is the Chinese google. Consequently, for every service, the customer who needs service will first ask Baidu to know what are the available options. Once again we can only highlight the necessity to optimize the research in Mandarin Chinese because people look at solutions in Chinese before sometimes looking at English results.
Good location for your website
Your website is like your physical shop. This means that you have to make your website attractive and to adjust it to Chinese costumers. In other words, you need to use an accurate tone in your message, a specific design etc. Obviously, the content must be in Chinese and done by a Chinese speaker. The content must be a qualitative one in order to maintain good credit. While having an online service company, you must care about your e-reputation. This is the reason why it could be interesting to use listening to tools to keep an eye on your image. You might be very careful about the comments made by people. Don’t forget can people ‘s opinions really matter. One bad comment can ruin your e-reputation because of viral effect. However, having strong loyalty can be useful in this situation because costumer as ambassadors can defend your brand.
Tools to improve your visibility
If you want to appear amid the first result of research, it is highly recommended to have good SEO. This is a method that implies the use of backlinks and key words. Having links towards your social media accounts is also a must have. Indeed, they provide great opportunities to chat with consumers, share content and promote your brand. Social media are a good place to make an advertisement in several ways. For example, you can insert banner ads. If you do so, you should measure the impacts meaning of these ads to see the real interest for your business.
To sum up, online service business requires excellent knowledge about Chinese digital sphere and especially about generation lead. GMA can help you with your project.
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