What I’ve learned about how to succeed on WeChat from (personally) making over 2,000 WeChat Posts

I published a similar post about a year and a half ago, when this number hovered around 1,200. Since then, after opening my own boutique social media marketing agency, we’ve helped nearly 20 clients over the course of 18+ months plan and execute their WeChat marketing.

Much of what I wrote in that first post is still relevant, however, if you deal with China in any way, you’ll know that things here move at warp speed. A China year seems equal to five, or even ten years in the West, so I feel it's appropriate to share an updated version of the most important factors that my team and I have noticed over the past year which significantly impact a brand’s performance in China when it comes to their WeChat marketing strategy. 

Who is this advice for

While the principals below can be applied to any brand, industry and budget, I’ll approach them from the POV of an SME in the lifestyle/beauty/fashion industry as the majority of the accounts we manage fit into this category. 

But first…

Before I can begin to give you advice about how to execute an effective WeChat marketing strategy, you must understand what the platform should be used for, the limitations, and how to actually measure success. 

What WeChat is and is not

WeChat is NOT: 

A lead generating platform 

You should not be thinking of your WeChat account as the main channel to attract new customers.

WeChat is an incredibly closed platform — although there are some ways it is becoming more open (Channels, hashtags), it is still very difficult to attract new users outside of the ones who are already following you. 

WeChat IS: 

A great lead nurturing platform 

Once people have heard of your brand, either through offline activities, brand collaborations, influencers or other social media platforms, they’ll search for you on WeChat, and if your WeChat account is consistent with your branding, they’ll hopefully become a follower! 

Now is it is up to you to provide consistent, relevant content to that follower and present the opportunity for them to convert (purchase your product or service) in the most convenient, seamless manner (ideally via a WeChat mini program).

How to measure the success of your WeChat content 

Keyword here: WeChat Content.

The success of your WeChat marketing strategy as a whole is largely dependent on the lead generating activities (offline events, brand collaborations, influencers, other social media platforms) that you are doing which drive people TO your WeChat account. 

One of the biggest mistakes I see brands making is approaching WeChat with the mindset of “publishing WeChat content = more followers = more sales.” 

Publishing content alone will not attract enough followers to make an impact in your bottom line. Which is why measuring the success your WeChat content against the number of followers, is a poor KPI. 

Instead, focus on: 

• Number of reads ( from Moments, chat groups, Top Stories)
• Number of shares ( on Moments, within chat groups) 
• Number of people who unfollowed the day an article was published 
• Open Rate 
• How much of the article is being read

Now, let’s get into the juicy tips… 

A title isn’t just a description, it’s a personal invitation 

When you’re sending a WeChat article out to your followers, they’ll be receiving a message alongside messages from family, friends, colleagues — think carefully about the tone of voice. You may need to let go of that corporate-sounding messaging and opt for something more personal, more friendly. 

Think about if you were sending this article to your friend, what would you write to them? 

*Extra Tip

Be considerate of length here as well. Remember that long titles (especially if you’re using two languages) will get cut off — this can either be used for, or against your advantage. If you have a long title, test it out on several different phones before publishing to see what will show up. 

Invest in QUALITY visual content 

The first most important factor to get someone to click open your article is your title, and the second most important factor is the design and layout. 

You might have written a beautiful article, but if the pictures are shoddy and the layout is a mess - you've wasted your time. 

Users on all platforms are inundated with content every.single.minute. People simply don’t have the time to read everything — which is why being able to SHOW your products or services has become much more impactful.

Great visuals not only have the power to communicate your products or services better, but they can help to create a strong visual identity for your brand, encouraging loyal and engaged readers every time you publish a post. 

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I cannot stress how important this one is. 

Two of the most common reasons people unfollow a WeChat account: 

• Account posts too much 
• Account posts too little 

Inconsistency in your publishing causes a whole host of problems, and it’s something we feel so strongly impacts the success of your content, we ask our clients to commit to a certain number of posts per month over an extended period of time if they want to improve their metrics. 

Keep in mind; when you publish a WeChat post, a user gets a notification among their personal messages. Don’t be; 

• that annoying friend who ghosts you for 3 months and then shows up wanting to borrow money
• that annoying friend who messages you ALL THE TIME asking to go out

Neither will get you results. 

Consistency also implies time. 

You’re not going to get real results after just two or three months of sticking to a schedule. It should take you a period of 6-8 months of posting regularly and monitoring your data to understand what type of content gets the results you’re looking for, then replicating that to build up impactful results over a long period of time. 

Remember - good content is a long-term investment in your brand.

Engage your readers throughout the post 

One of the reasons I love WeChat is because you can actually do so many cool things within WeChat posts! Readers can tap, swipe, flip their phones, to engage with content in a unique and exciting way. 

In a world where (for better or worse) we’re all fighting to gain as much attention as we can, keeping your reader engaged in a fun way is critical to ensuring 1) they get through the full post you’ve so painstakingly designed and 2) keeps them coming back for more next post. 

Categorize your content & track it religiously 

So much time and energy goes into planning, writing and designing posts, but I often find brands not as concerned with tracking the results. This is basically like driving down a highway with total disregard for all the road signs — you’re going to end up in a ditch, with no idea where you are and no more money for gas. 

For the most part, you should be able to organize most of your content into a few categories, track these over time, monitoring KPIs like open rate, read-to-completion rate, shares, unfollows. 

You’ll find that certain content performs best for certain metrics, for example, perhaps Category X has a very high open and share rate, but poor read-to-completion rate, or Category Y has a very high read to completion rate, but very low open rate and reads. You’ll need to then plan out your content according to what goals you are trying to achieve.

Below is a snapshot from the detailed monthly reporting we provide our clients with. 

WeChat to retain, not to gain 

I know I mentioned this before, but it’s so important and so often overlooked, we need to talk about it again. 

Say it with me: Publishing content alone does not get you WeChat followers. 

WeChat is not like Google — the more blogs you publish the better your SEO and more visitors you’ll attract (although there can be something said for WeChat SEO, but we’ll cover that another time). 

If you’re serious about your China marketing strategy, you need to be thinking of WeChat as part of your funnel, and it is critical to invest resources into offline events, other social media/ecommerce platforms like Xiaohongshu, Taobao/Tmall, Bilibili, Weibo, even Instagram to usher potential customers into that funnel. Then you’ll feed these leads amazing content to keep them engaged with your brand and give them an easy opportunity to purchase your product or service. 

Other useful things to keep in mind: 

People don’t care about what you are selling, they care about how they can get what they desire to make their own lives better. Try not to use WeChat just as a broadcast tool to talk about your brand, but rather use it to build a relationship with your audience through helping them achieve what they’re looking for. 

Don't worry so much about 'the best time to post'. One of the most commonly asked questions we get is, “when is the best time to post?” 

The answer — there really isn’t one.

Generally speaking you'll catch people on their phone during the weekdays from: 

• 8am-10am
• 12pm-2pm
• 8pm-10pm 

But really 'the best time' depends on so many factors; 

• What the objective of your content is (just to get reads, to get people to make a purchase, and how big of a purchase, to get people to share? etc.) 
• The activity of your audience, when is your audience most likely to be browsing WeChat? 
• A large number of luxury brands tend to post on Thursday and Friday nights, should you post at the same time because people will be expecting this, or post during a low-traffic time like Sunday afternoon? 

Plus, once your post is published, you *must* have an aggressive sharing strategy in place, meaning that you and your team are sharing that post in group chats (see the next point) and on Moments.

Figure our the best time for your audience, test posting at different times. Or train your audience to expect your posts at a certain time, every Saturday morning for example. 

Build your WeChat groups. Heard of Private Traffic yet? Basically it’s the concept of building out private chat groups within WeChat. These can be used to engage your most loyal customers, or even new fans on a regular basis, in a much more personal way. We often find that some of the most active users in a brand’s group chat are the best customers, but they’re not following the WeChat official account. Treat WeChat groups as another channel within WeChat, plan and create content for these groups to provide value and build your community. When you do publish content from your WeChat account, be sure to share it here! 

Don’t be afraid to test things out. Posts don’t go viral because someone was playing it safe. Content that inspires people and ignites conversation has to be something unexpected and new. If you keep sticking to the same way of doing things, you’ll miss out on the opportunity to fail so that you can learn how to succeed. 

You made it!  

But seriously, thanks for reading! I hope these tips were useful, and gave you clarity or a wakeup call. As you can tell by the title, I spend A LOT of my time managing WeChat accounts, as well as other social media platforms for our clients. Please let me know what you would like us to cover next! 

Here are some of our thoughts:

A] “How To” Social Media in China 2021 

B] Best WeChat Accounts to follow for inspiration 

C] What’s the Purpose: How to use each of China’s most popular social media platforms 

D] The most effective content from our clients in 2020

E] Where is WeChat headed in 2021

 Drop your choice in the comments below or feel free to suggest something else! 

Olivia Plotnick is the founder of Wai Social, a social media marketing agency based in Shanghai specialized in helping small to medium size purpose-driven brands grow through social media. Visit www.waisocial.com to learn more or reach out at [email protected]