Precision marketing in China is an effective strategy for global brands to enter the Chinese market or expand in it. China-precision allows marketers to reach a specific, ready-to-buy audience that is already interested in your niche.
Connecting with consumers on a personal level is one avenue for success in a highly competitive market like China. By leveraging data analytics and creating tailored content, the unique needs and preferences of your target group can be addressed.
Whether you are in the B2B or B2C sector, precision marketing is a powerful tool to drive sales, increase brand awareness, improve customer experience, and build lasting brand loyalty – all while ensuring a high return on investment. Focus on social media and search engine strategies to maximize the effectiveness of precision marketing in China.
Table of Contents
- What is Precision Marketing?
- Precision Marketing in China
- Creating a Precision Strategy for China: 9 Tips
- Considerations
- The Takeaway – Precision Marketing in China
Let’s get started!
What is Precision Marketing?
Precision marketing is a highly targeted marketing strategy, also known as personalized marketing. It uses data analysis to create personalized content for consumers in general or specific segments.
The goal is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of B2B and B2C marketing efforts. This is achieved by focusing on the specific needs, behaviors, and preferences of individual customers or customer groups.
Precision Marketing vs. Targeted Marketing
Precision and targeted marketing aim at reaching audiences, but differ in their approach
- Targeted marketing: identifying broad segments, less personalized, e.g. company targeting women aged 25-35 who live in urban areas and are interested in fitness
- Precision marketing: advanced data analytics, micro-segments, highly individualized, e.g. fitness app offering promotions for gyms near the individual’s location
Overall, precision marketing is a more detailed and data-driven version of target marketing, using advanced analytics and insights
Why Use Precision Marketing Strategies
To sum it up, these are the key benefits of applying precision marketing strategies:
- Driving sales and conversion rates
- Increased brand awareness and visibility
- Improved customer experience
- Brand loyalty and customer retention
- Cost-efficient marketing with high ROI
So what does this marketing strategy look like in real life?
Examples of Precision Marketing
- E-commerce Personalization: Product recommendations based on browsing history, past purchases, and preferences.
- Email Campaigns: Targeted promotions, seasonal offers, and the likes.
- Retargeting Ads: Targeted advertising based on the user’s previous interactions with a brand’s website or social media channels.
- Loyalty Programs: This helps to better understand customer behavior and deliver personalized offers, discounts, and more to encourage repeat purchases.
Next, let’s examine the individual steps of precision marketing.
Key Components of Precision Marketing
Overall, precision marketing relies heavily on data, including customer demographics, purchase history, online behavior, social media activity, and more.
- Data Collection and Analysis: Data is collected through websites, mobile apps, loyalty programs, and so on. This data is then analyzed, often using machine learning and AI tools.
- Audience Profiling: With the collected data, customers are broken down into smaller, more specific groups based on shared characteristics or behaviors. For example, age, location, purchase history, interests, lifestyle, and more (micro-targeting marketing).
- Personalization: With all the above information, marketers create personalized content in response to the needs and preferences of the identified audience (behavioral targeting marketing). This includes newsletters, ads, promotions, and product recommendations.
- Multichannel Integration: The developed campaigns are typically displayed across multiple channels, including email, social media, websites, mobile apps, search engines, and in-store.
So, what type of businesses can benefit from precision marketing?
B2B Precision Marketing
Reach specific businesses or decision-makers within those companies. This is typically a longer-term strategy.
- Higher value transactions compared to B2C
- Longer decision-making processes
- Close alignment with account-based marketing (ABM)
- Data-driven insights, including company buying behavior, company size, and past purchases
- Warming up leads
Now, we will take a look at precision marketing in the B2C segment.
B2C Precision Marketing
Larger scale, real-time data, and automation are used to reach diverse customers, ultimately driving sales and brand loyalty.
- High volume and diversity of customers
- Personalization and reach of ready-to-buy netizens
- Geotargeting marketing based on location and in real time
- Customer loyalty and retention
So, what about the Chinese market? A precision strategy for China requires specific knowledge, tools, channels, and more. Let’s find out!
Precision Marketing in China
As you may know, China is the largest ecommerce economy in the world with an online retail sales volume of more than 2.2 trillion USD in 2023.
This makes it basically a must for brands to have a presence in the Chinese market or at least consider it. High purchasing power, technological advancement, and interest in Western brands provide an enormous opportunity for international companies.
Effective Cross-Cultural Marketing in China
These factors are crucial to being successful in the “Middle Kingdom”
- Understanding the Chinese market and consumer behavior
- Localization of website, social platforms, and brand messages
Let’s take a closer look at what drives shoppers in China.
Chinese Consumer Behavior
People in China have specific characteristics and preferences, including:
- Digital savvy and frequently online (99% on mobile devices)
- Family and social relationships play a very important role (collectivist culture)
- Heritage and tradition are also highly relevant
- Brand reputation, quality, and trust are important factors in buying decisions
Now, where can you reach these netizens with your international brand?
Chinese Social Media & Search Landscape
With Facebook and the likes blocked in China, there are other relevant social channels in the “Middle Kingdom”.
- WeChat: China’s super app for everything (a mix of Facebook, WhatsApp, PayPal, and Amazon)
- Douyin: The Chinese TikTok
- Xiaohongshu (RED): mix of Instagram and Reddit
- Baidu: China’s Google
So, how can you engage Chinese online users on these platforms?
Leveraging Chinese Digital Platforms
This is how international brands can effectively use WeChat, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Baidu for precision marketing in China.
| Douyin | Xiaohongshu | Baidu | ||
| Audience | – Largest social network in China and among top 10 globally: 1.3 billion monthly active users (MAU), mostly in China – Broad audience: from young to old, white-collar workers and urban residents | – 755 million MAU – Younger users: GenZ and Millennials – Highly engaged audience | – 212 million MAU – Young urban women with middle to high income – Strong focus on lifestyle, fashion, beauty, and wellness | – 676 million MAU – Broad audience – Search engine market share of more than 50% in China – Chinese mobile users – from young to old and across all locations within China |
| Precision Marketing Tools | – Official Accounts – Mini Programs – WeChat Ads (Moment Ads, Banner Ads) – WeChat Pay | – Live streaming – Branded hashtag challenges – Douyin shop – In-feed ads – Influencer/KOL marketing | – Product reviews – User-generated content (UGC) – Ecommerce integration – In-feed ads – Influencer/KOL marketing | – Search engine optimization (SEO) on-page (e.g. Chinese website that is hosted in China) and off-page (e.g. high value backlinks) – Paid search ads (SEA) |
| Ideal for | – Long-term customer relationships – Integrated experience in one platform: from customer service to ecommerce – B2C and B2B – Engage customers through content, community, and direct communication | – Video content (!) – Brands with a young, tech-savvy audience – Consumer brands in fashion, beauty, lifestyle, entertainment, and technology – Viral marketing | – Influencer collaborations and partnerships – Best for brands that benefit from UGC and peer recommendations – Combination of content marketing and direct sales | – Companies that rely on organic (search) traffic – basically every online journey starts with search – Local businesses and services – Brands with complex products or services – Companies seeking broad reach and high visibility across China – Engagement through Baidu Tieba and Zhidao – Ecommerce brands |
Now, with all this in mind, how can global brands get started with precision marketing in China?
Creating a Precision Strategy for China: 9 Tips
Chinese consumer targeting is efficient and effective for international brands if you know how. Here are our favorite tips based on more than ten years of on-the-ground experience:
Our top 9 tips
- Use big data and analytic tools to understand and segment the local market
- Leverage Chinese social media and search platforms for targeted marketing
- Localize your approach (website, app, social)
- Focus on mobile optimization
- Build relationships and trust by collaborating with influencers
- Consider paid ads to reach your target audience
- Jump on current trends and challenges
- Leverage traditional Chinese holidays
- Get help from an expert like China Gravy
All of this sounds great. Are there any challenges or downsides to precision marketing in China?
Considerations
Keep in mind that the Chinese digital landscape is complex, and a significant amount of apps and information is only available in Mandarin (not English). You can use translation services or browser extensions to get a first understanding of online content, but when creating content, it should be done by a native speaker.
Besides, remember to adhere to China’s online regulations and legal requirements. There may also be market entry barriers for foreign brands, some as simple as having a Chinese phone number or more challenging like having a Chinese representative to open some social accounts.
Finally, standing out in a crowded market can be tricky. But understanding your audience and market together with having a China specialist by your side will enable you to stay ahead of your competition.
The Takeaway – Precision Marketing in China
China-precision is a powerful strategy for brands to effectively reach specific audiences using personalized content and data-driven insights.
By focusing on the unique needs and behaviors of different consumer segments, B2B and B2C businesses can:
- Drive Sales and conversion rates
- Increase brand awareness and trust
- Improve the customer experience
- Boost brand loyalty and customer retention
- Achieve cost-efficient China marketing with high ROI
As the largest ecommerce market, data-driven marketing in China is crucial for brands aiming to succeed there. Understanding local consumer behavior, leveraging digital platforms like WeChat, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Baidu as well as adapting to cultural nuances are vital for effective engagement.
Have we sparked your interest? Message the experts at China Gravy to learn more about precision marketing in China and tell us about your project.