In today’s digital era, capturing audience attention amidst China’s competitive landscape is crucial for brands. To stand out effectively, they must harness innovative storytelling and content formats that engage Chinese audiences in compelling ways. This also applies to business-to-business brands which until now were known for a rather conservative approach to digital marketing.
However, in the super-saturated world where attention span is getting shorter, developing high-quality, informative content that addresses the specific needs and interests of the B2B audience is crucial. One of the top goals for B2B companies is to position themselves as an industry authority by sharing valuable insights, expertise, and thought leadership content. Many brands already have an existing library of assets that can be repurposed for the Chinese market. In other circumstances, they can create new localized content. This could involve contributing guest articles to industry publications, participating in webinars or podcasts, and engaging in meaningful conversations on social media.
Brand Storytelling in Manufacturing: Building Connections
One of the most important aspects of the B2B strategies is brand storytelling. Among often niche and complicated industries humanizing the brands is what can truly make an impact. The benefits of brand storytelling is that it differentiates brands and fosters meaningful connections with audiences, enhancing brand awareness and trust. Understanding audience motivations and crafting authentic narratives are key to creating compelling brand stories that resonate with audiences. In the B2B realm where the topics are often complex, structured and smart communication is very important.
Find Formats that Work Best
Producing content that is informative, visually attractive and engaging is the key to grabbing and maintaining your audience’s attention. Visual representations make complex data more accessible to a broader audience and help readers understand the story better. In this case more advanced WeChat articles or infographics can be a good choice to inform about new product launches or to showcase existing products in interesting ways.
On the other hand, more bite-sized content can include carousels, image messages for WeChat or short videos. The latter surely deserves special attention in the Chinese market with outlets such as WeChat Channels which are interconnected with WeChat.
Why not engage the readers even more with interactive quizzes or small contests?
Content that Converts
B2B buyers are often looking for information to help them make informed decisions. Educate your audience through educational content, product demonstrations, and tutorials that showcase the value of your offerings. Social media content can also serve to clarify main pain points and handle clients’ objections.
Behind the scenes from your headquarters or factories can be a great way to reassure potential customers that your product is of top quality. Of course, there are many factors that a B2B audience needs to consider before making a purchase but social media content can be one the final touch in their decision making process. Not to mention, more and more often social media such as WeChat, RED or Zhihu serve as discovery platforms even for relatively niche and specialized industries.
Read more: 10 Ways for a B2B Brand to Generate Leads on WeChat
Leverage Offline Events for Online
Offline events are one of the major marketing channels for B2B brands in China. Since China’s reopening last year, we can observe a significant recovery of offline exhibitions and activities. CIIE, China International Import Expo, being the major one takes place annually in Shanghai. During offline events thanks to the QR code exposition, brands can gain hundreds of new followers.
Most brands however miss on the opportunity to leverage offline events for their social media channels. Companies can produce a significant amount of content that they can then reuse in different formats for their social platforms. Brands like Groz-Beckert chronicle their presence at major industry trade shows and share short but engaging interviews with their brand representatives or clients visiting their booth. More and more often, B2B decide to live-stream their conferences and key events.
Read more: Ignite Your B2B Brand in China with the Power of Live-streaming
New Frontiers for B2B brands
Most B2B brands are already quite familiar with the WeChat ecosystem and some are ready to explore new platforms. One of top choices for brands will be Zhihu.
Zhihu, often dubbed the “Quora of China” is a leading Chinese question-and-answer platform founded in 2010. Zhihu serves as a knowledge-sharing community where users can pose questions, provide answers, and engage in discussions on a wide range of topics. Brands typically open their own official accounts to spread brand awareness and industry knowledge. They can either publish their own articles or respond to questions already asked by the public.
Read more: Establishing Industry Expertise: Unleashing the Power of Zhihu’s Q&A and Brand Sector
Another interesting platform for brands to explore is RED (Xiaohongshu). B2B brands more and more often venture into platforms to increase their brand awareness and generate leads in unexpected places.
If you wish to know more about marketing in China, 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 at contact@thewechatagency.com.
