Five Reasons Why You Should Sell Online in China and How Best to Do It
In our time, when human life flows based on the ‘think global’ theory, business activities are not limited to one or two countries. It’s a reality that businesses try through all possible ways to enter all possible global-markets, especially all the potential business centers. These days, considering the giant market potential of China, almost all companies try all out to sell to China online, as online shopping has become all the rage.
Hire an Experienced SEO Agency
If your goal is to sell to China online, the prime thing that you will have to do is to hire an experienced SEO agency, which is highly proficient in cross-border e-commerce services. Remember, comprehensive knowledge regarding the promotional procedures that are par for the course in China and the connected global marketing strategies will make the efforts easy and your proposed marketing plans successful. The SEO agency must be capable of giving proper and professional guidance regarding all the related tasks. You must get precise advice as regards the market place entry, competitors’ plans, and marketing strategies.
The SEO Company that you select to sell to China online must be able to provide you all-in-one solutions that will help you to grow your business in China. In the first place, the agency must be capable of building a localized e-commerce website, and this should be in the local language, Mandarin, which will help the customers for shopping and payment. It is always wise to hire an SEO agency that has offices in China, as well as in the USA and UK. Such a top SEO company will be highly experienced and will have a thorough awareness as regards the SEO operations in China and the other prominent global locations. Besides, the SEO agency must be familiar with the related tasks such as developing the right e-commerce strategy, e-commerce store setup & operation, and e-commerce marketing promotional activities.
Five Reasons You Should Sell Online in China and How Best to Do It
1. China, the world’s largest populated country, opens up a huge market potential for all businesses. Sell to China online is another fabulous opportunity now that online businesses are part and parcel of present-day human life. If all the related tasks are perfect, then for sure, you will be able to gain the due share as far as the Chinese market is concerned. However, for this, meticulous planning and precise execution of the proposed plans are imperative.
2. The overall effectiveness of digital marketing in China is another prime thing why you should sell to china online. Digital marketing in China is quite different from other countries, and here, the major search engines and microblogging sites Chinese-based. The principal search engines in China are Baidu, Sogou, and Qihoo360, and the key micro-blogging sites are Weibo and WeChat. Chinese people believe these sites, and if you can have your promotional activities through these online platforms, you are sure to succeed in augmenting your sales revenue.
3. E-commerce activities are growing fast in the country, and a sizable population always prefers to have online shopping. As elsewhere, the easiness of the process and the affordable nature of the transactions are the base things that prompt the Chinese population for online shopping.
4. Yet another point worth mentioning is that many people here like to purchase western products whenever possible. This predilection is precisely in line with the natural human instinct; in general, people across the globe tend to go for foreign products.
5. Chinese people like all other people elsewhere in the world like to get original products. They know that when they buy from places like the TMall, the Chinese language website that is highly popular for its B2C activities, they are sure to get original products. This factor supports the possibility of sales augmentation.
Hence, get in touch with a top SEO company, which has thorough knowledge as regards digital marketing in China. In general, top SEO companies that are competent to sell to China online will give you three options for getting in touch with them. You can contact the sales team by phone, mail, or chat through the window provided on the website.
How to Know When You Need a New Advertising Agency
Do you need to start looking for a new advertising agency in Los Angeles? It can be difficult to know when it’s time to make a change, but that shouldn’t stop you from making it. The quality of your advertising agency will determine the quality of your advertising campaigns, and you can’t stay with an agency that doesn’t allow your company to thrive. Here are some signs to look out for that indicate that you need a new advertising agency.
Little to No Measurable Impact
Any of the top advertising agencies Los Angeles should be able to provide you with concrete data and analysis about the impact of your marketing. If you can’t see what the advertising agency is doing for you in a quantifiable way, how do you know anything is working? It’s a big red flag if an advertising agency won’t provide you with detailed reports of your marketing and sales; it can indicate either a scam or a lack of professionalism.
Marketing Goals Unmet
If you’ve been working with an advertising agency for a while and the goals you set aren’t being reached, there’s definitely a problem. Maybe they didn’t help you set reasonable goals, or the marketing methods they are using aren’t helping your business, but you can’t keep investing in an advertising agency that doesn’t allow your business to thrive. There are plenty of advertising agencies in Los Angeles that know how to help you develop your brand and create a solid strategy for advertising campaigns, so you’re better off doing some research and finding a quality agency to work with.
Inability to Adapt Tactics
An advertising agency in Los Angeles should not be relying on one or two advertisement techniques or approaches without the ability to adjust based on consumer culture, behavior, and trends. Do you want to stick with a company that tries to use memes from 2012 to advertise your product? Consumer behavior and culture is constantly changing, and any good advertising agency in Los Angeles knows how to shift and best target advertising for the situation. If your advertising agency isn’t able to adapt, it’s only a matter of time before all of your marketing campaigns become irrelevant and ineffective.
Poor Content Quality
You want quality content that consumers will remember and enjoy, right? If an advertising agency isn’t giving you content consumers can love, how are you supposed to forge a positive and memorable identity for your brand? Poor content quality can kill a marketing campaign, whereas some high-quality pieces of content can be widely shared and enjoyed, so it’s vital to have an advertising agency in Los Angeles that makes top-notch, Hollywood-worthy content for your business. The content your company produces creates the image and impression in the eyes of consumers, making it probably the most important aspect of any marketing campaign.
Limited Consumer Engagement
Your business needs to engage with your consumers. This is how you foster loyalty, brand recognition, and positive reactions to your company. If an advertising agency in Los Angeles isn’t giving you the consumer engagement you need, they aren’t the right fit for your company. Without engaged consumers, you don’t have a market–it’s as simple as that. If you want to turn viewers into buyers, you need to find a new advertising agency that can deliver on audience engagement. All of those likes, shares, and recommendations add up to a much more wide-spread audience that cares about your company, and you can’t stick around for an advertising agency that neglects to use these advantages.
Lack of Personalization
Too many advertising agencies in Los Angeles try to use a One-Size-Fits-All approach to marketing campaigns, and it just doesn’t work. Your business has specific advertising needs, and its own distinct audience to market to. If your advertising agency in Los Angeles isn’t at all customized and tailored to your company’s needs, then you aren’t getting the optimal marketing tactics which could help your business thrive.
Overall, it’s vital to look closely at your advertising agency and determine whether you need to look for something new. If an advertising agency isn’t delivering on goals, engagement, or quality, or is lacking in areas like analysis and adaptability, you owe it to your company to find a new advertising agency in Los Angeles that can ensure you have the ideal marketing strategies and implementation.
Tips for Successful Baidu SEM
Baidu is the most popular search engine in China with a whopping 80% market share. So it is no wonder that most foreign companies looking to set a footing in the Chinese market use Baidu for marketing. However, because of established local and global brands, competition is tough and so it is advisable to tie up with a China SEM Agency. Below are some tips on successful Baidu SEM to help you get started.
Get an Internet Content Provider (ICP) License
To use Baidu SEM for the purpose of driving traffic to your site, you will first need to get an Internet Content Provider (ICP) license from the Chinese government. Without it, Baidu will completely ignore your site and won’t even allow you to open an ad account. The process may take one month or longer. For getting this license and also to set up a Baidu ad account, you should take the help of a China SEM Agency.
Create Compelling Ads
Your ads have to be compelling enough to attract visitors. Users go through numerous ads and so your message and creatives need to be unique to stand out. Ideally, follow the AIDA model while creating an ad, i.e, it should create awareness about your product or service, develop an interest in the minds of your potential customers, build a desire to own it and induce them to take action. Remember in this regard that the best ideas for ads are often the most simple. Also, back up your ad content with appropriate keywords which need to be well-researched.
Localization is Key
Most Baidu users are native Chinese speakers. So, your website content and ads need to be in Chinese. Just translating foreign language content into Chinese won’t do. Make sure that you rely on people who know the nuances of the Chinese language-people who can address the cultural and social needs of users while creating an effective Baidu SEM strategy.
Also, Baidu’s account management interface is in Chinese and to talk to Baidu Support you need someone who can speak in Chinese.
Host your Website in China
Baidu is not too comfortable sending users to foreign websites that are beyond the control of the Chinese government. So, for a successful SEM campaign, it is crucial that you host your website in China itself. If Baidu recognizes that your website is hosted locally, it will rank you higher in search engine results and you would be able to reach more people.
Also, it would speed up your website which would benefit your ranking as well.
Ad Real-Time Support
Chinese users expect real-time customer support, often via chatbox. If you surf through Chinese websites, you will come across these chat boxes. Adding real-time support to your campaigns will increase your conversion manifold.
Baidu Provides an excellent chat tool that integrates with its SEM platform and is very easy to use. It is called Baidu Shangqiao. Using this tool, you can find out the locations of users and the keywords that they have used.
Earn Special Baidu Approval
Baidu awards a ranking of ‘V’ 1, 2, or 3 to websites depending on how much it trusts them. ‘V3’ ranking for an ad means that Baidu considers the source extremely trustworthy. This will help you get a higher ranking in search results, all other aspects being equal.
It will take time but by taking the help of a China SEM agency and following Baidu best practices, you can achieve a V3 ranking faster.
Integrate Google Analytics
Baidu has its own analytics tool known as Baidu Analytics. However, it has certain drawbacks like accuracy issues, is only available in Chinese, and doesn’t allow for highly customizable reports. Therefore it is better to integrate Google Analytics, in which case the Baidu ads will need to have Google custom URL parameters added in order to provide data like keywords used.
Conclusion
To be successful with Baidu SEM, you would need to engage with the right people as well. A China SEM agency that is also a marketing partner of Baidu understands the search engine and the needs of the people using them. So it is better equipped to make your Baidu SEM efforts successful. Do you’ve any questions?
All that You Wanted to Know about Weibo Advertising
Weibo is one of the biggest social media platforms in China. It is like a combination of Twitter and Facebook in the microblogging format. According to DMR, there are 497 million active users on Weibo which is why Weibo advertising (adstochina.westwin.com/weibo-advertising) could do wonders for your business if you are looking to market your products or services in China.
Building a brand and gaining popularity with Chinese users is not easy but Weibo provides great engagement opportunities for your ads. You can build a loyal following, promote your business and engage directly with a large and active community of potential consumers with powerful targeting capabilities based on age, demographics, and interests. Where Weibo scores over its western counterparts like Facebook and Instagram is that users are not unwilling to expose themselves to social media advertising. They are highly engaged and like, comment, and even share your ads with their peers. There are four types of advertising options available on Weibo.
Display Ads
Display ads are traditional but still effective. When a user clicks on your display ad, that person is taken to your website. This method is the best way to enhance website traffic. Moreover, there is a chance that the visitors get converted into customers.
Display ads are optimized both for the web as well as mobile versions which is a good thing because 90% of Weibo traffic comes from mobile users. The price of the display ad in Weibo will depend on the overall size of the ad, the keywords and the page where you want to place the ad.
Display ads are generally placed on the search page in the discover section on the Weibo homepage as well as on the side of a user’s news feeds just like Facebook ads.
Fan Headline
This Weibo advertising method focuses on targeting your existing follower base and their connections. The post or account will appear at the top of their news feed. There is a probability that the content will be re-shared; an activity 65% of Weibo users do on a daily basis.
A fan headline also helps you target your audience based on areas of interest and industries. For example, if you wish to promote a post on sports, then the fan headline will select users who follow sports news.
Fan Tunnel
Fan tunnels are the best forms of Weibo advertising for reaching new consumers and followers. You can use this to promote a specific post or your account. It functions much like a fan headline that appears at the top of a user’s news feed.
Since fan tunnels don’t just focus on existing followers but the entire Weibo community, it is very effective if you are looking to build a large following. With this, you can target users based on age, gender, demographics, interests, and even device types.
Search Engine Promotion
Weibo has a built-in search engine that allows browsing of posts, accounts and fan pages. You can push your account and make it appear in the first part of the search engine result page based on targeted keyword searches from users. To make this possible you will have to tune your account with the algorithms of the search engine. The content created by you will need to have relevant keywords and keyphrases.
Positioning your Brand with Weibo Advertising
● Make an official account designed to promote your brand on the platform
● Come up with the perfect content strategy to engage your new target audience. Work on creating interesting posts and blogs, touching upon various topics to generate engagement. Ensure that it includes rich media content such as videos, pictures, gifs, etc
● Respond to comments, post regularly with fresh, updated content and commit to growing your brand
● Buy an onsite advertising campaign to really boost your brand visibility
Conclusion
One of the major benefits of advertising on Weibo is that it offers high returns on investments. To create the same impact through other marketing efforts, you have to invest a huge amount whereas Weibo advertising can do the same at a very low cost. Also, you can reach out to customers all over China. So, If you are a foreign company looking to find a footing in China, you have to be on Weibo.
What Services You Can Expect From a Reputed Digital Marketing Company?
Online Marketing – Must in Today’s World
Gone are the days of the conventional types of advertisement methods. Digital marketing has become par for the course of the present-day marketing methods, and no company can stay away from this. Today, businesses cannot rely simply on traditional promotional schemes, as all such methods have become almost outdated. A powerful and handy online presence is essential in the changed social scenario, and companies will have to carry out appealing digital ad campaigns to reach their customers.
However, the ways of digital marketing are somewhat different in some countries. For instance, in China, the digital marketer will have to give due stress to the Chinese search engines such as the Baidu, Sogou, etc., and the social networking platforms like WeChat, Weibo, etc. Hence, here, hiring the services of an experienced digital marketing company in China becomes vital. The SEO Company that you plan to hire must have hands-on experience in handling the diverse functions that are common in China.
Services You Can Expect From a Reputed Digital Marketing Company?
When you sign a contract with the best digital marketing company in China, you are sure to get all the assistance in making your site rank top as regards the Chinese search engines. Digital marketing involves various tasks, and one will have to do all these chores prudently and efficiently. Hence, the agency with whom you plan to work with must be well-qualified and experienced, and this point is vital. That said, the tasks will differ a bit in a country like China. Here, Google is not the leading search engine. The search engines like Baidu, Sogou, etc., and social sites like Weibo and WeChat are the main ones that will play decisive roles in making your site rank top.
A professional digital marketing company in China will be able to connect your company to Chinese customers, and this is vital as far as the success of your marketing efforts is concerned. They will make your products reach prospective clients, which will be beneficial to you.
The prime services you can expect from an established digital marketing company in China are:
• Strategic Consulting: Strategic guidance is a vital service that you can expect from a reputable and experienced SEO firm. The main task includes Chinese market research, China consumer research, and market entry planning. All these three tasks are highly significant as far as a company that wishes to sell its products or services in China.
• Search Engine Marketing: The SEM is related to the main search engines such as Baidu, Sogou, and Qihoo 360 that are the main search engines in China. There are various ways of doing this task, and a reputed SEO company will be able to guide you properly and successfully.
• Social Media Marketing: Here, the agency will use the most popular sites like WeChat and Weibo, and also use KOL (Key Opinion Leader) Influencer campaigns. As the general participation in WeChat and Weibo is very high, active involvement in these sites will surely yield positive results.
• Website Localization: The job includes content creation, website translation, domain hosting, design, and development, etc.
• Cross Border E-Commerce: The main tasks that come under this title are the E-commerce platform, cross border payments, import logistics, etc.
Contact an Experienced SEO Company
It is of high significance that you must choose a well-established digital marketing company in China for managing your digital marketing operations. This teamwork is imperative to make the Chinese-entry of your business activities a grand success. You will be able to locate various SEO companies that have experience in digital marketing operations in China. However, you must choose the best of the best, and only then, you will get the desired result at an early period. You must check the client list of the SEO agency and make sure that it has serviced numerous top companies. Moreover, the digital marketing company in China with whom you are going to sign a contract must possess official certifications from WeChat, Weibo, Baidu, etc. You can find such a company by searching through the internet. One major plus point of such leading SEO firms is that the pricing will not be exorbitant.
Why is Baidu Advertising Essential for Businesses?
There is a reason why businesses are exceedingly turning their heads towards the Chinese market: the growth for potential is endless. The marketplace is forever expanding and its burgeoning essence can be felt on a global scale. Needless to say, businesses from all across the world are tapping into the Chinese market with hopes to get in. But how easy is it to get a slice of this enormous market? Is it really as easy as it sounds?
Is Baidu Advertising Really the Solution?
Let’s get one thing straightened out: it may not sound easy but entering the Chinese market is not as tough as it sounds. There are various marketing techniques that companies can use to penetrate the market. The difficult part is surviving and appealing to the typical Chinese customer. But before we get to that, what role does Baidu advertising (adstochina.westwin.com/baidu-advertising) play in all of this and how is it relevant?
What iS Baidu?
Let’s get the basics out of the way. Baidu is a Chinese web services company that was first founded in the year 2000 but has since become one of the largest internet companies in all of the world. In simpler terms, it is the Chinese equivalent of Google. Baidu offers a number of services to Chinese customers: a valuable search engine is only one of those things. With an index of 750 million web pages, Baidu easily accounts for over 70% of Chinese internet search queries, with over billions of searches performed on it every month. But this is not the extent of Baidu; advertising to help businesses grow just happens to be another (pay per click ads). Additionally, Baidu offers images, data storage, music streaming services, and maps, but let’s go back to Baidu advertising as it remains the topic at hand.
Why Should One Choose Baidu Advertising?
As mentioned earlier, Baidu controls over 70% of the Chinese market share: if that isn’t reason enough to choose Baidu as a trusted source of advertising, you won’t be convinced of another reason. Even though there are multiple competitors to Baidu in the Chinese and Asian marketplace, there is no comparable match. Much like Google in the Western countries, Baidu’s market share is too large that everyone chooses to focus on it.
But more importantly, the average Chinese customer likes online ads and touring through new websites- they believe that any company willing to promote their products this way is not only reputable but also dignifiable. With over 600,000 webpages splashed with Baidu ads, the marketplace for new and foreign businesses to expand is colossal: the sky is the limit! In China, online advertising has been the largest reach and great success has been received from companies that have imbibed various methods of Baidu advertising into their marketing plans.
Baidu Advertising Ways
To get you better accustomed to Baidu advertising and its ways, here are three of the most commonly used ways of Baidu using their services to promote brands into the Chinese market:
1. Baidu Tuigang
This is essentially the Chinese equivalent of Adsense or Google Adwords. This pay per click advertising platform provides advertisers a way to promote their ads on the search result pages of Baidu’s search engine, ensuring customers have a close-up view of your brand right under their noses. It is perhaps the easiest and most convenient way of reaching your potential customer. The interface is usually in Chinese, which is honestly the most effective, but if you’re a foreign company and insist on having an English version, that can be created as well. Your company must have a registered address for your business in China for you to be eligible for Baidu Tuigang.
2. Pay 4 Placement
A common Baidu advertising technique used wherein companies reach customers post relevant searches has always proven rather effective. Here, businesses bid on certain keywords, so that their website information and link can be displayed on the search engine result pages. Essentially, you’re buying priority placement for your website within Baidu’s search engine result page, a practice that is not followed by Google, but allowed by Baidu!
3. Baidu TV
Baidu advertising works in close collaboration with a large media corporation called Ads it! which gives businesses access to the Baidu Union member’s websites. This can then be used by companies to decide which sites they want to display their ads on. A rather effective (and relatively new) means of Baidu advertising, indeed.
Benefits of Working with the Best Advertising Agency
As a company grows, its marketing and branding need to grow, too. While in many instances it makes sense to assign projects internally, sometimes hiring an outside agency makes good business sense. When it comes to marketing and brand building, hiring the best full-service advertising agency Austin may be what your company needs to get to that next level.
Why hire an advertising agency?
No On-Boarding or Training
When companies hire a new employee, there are many steps that are involved even before the individual starts working. From onboarding to training, to learning the business, this all takes time! When a company hires a full-service advertising agency, they don’t have to go through all of these steps. By hiring the best advertising agency in Austin, companies get a team of professionals who aim to build their brand. On top of it all, ad agencies do all their work from another office, allowing companies to continue on with all the other important parts of their business.
Access to a Team of Experts
When hiring an advertising agency, companies are hiring a team of experts who know the ins and outs. They’ve dealt with many companies and campaigns; therefore, they know what works and what doesn’t. The best advertising agency in Austin will have people who deal with marketing, social media, and brand development. This means companies are getting more back for their buck!
The Cost-Benefit Factor (You’ll Save Money!)
Companies should calculate the cost-benefit of hiring an ad agency versus hiring internally. Surprisingly, hiring an ad agency will save companies money over time because they don’t have to pay for training, payroll taxes, benefits and healthcare costs, and the expensive tools needed to track a marketing campaign. Often, advertising agencies will offer full-service, which can be charged monthly. Companies can retain the best advertising agency in Austin for as long as they’re needed.
Companies Can’t do Everything
A company may have many skilled workers who can do many things really well. The problem is that they can’t do it all. Even marketing and social media experts will lack some of the skills that are required to get to that next level. That’s where hiring the best advertising agency in Austin comes in. If a company needs, for example, to work on SEO optimization or blog writing, an ad agency can fill those gaps.
Brand Development
Even for the most experienced companies, building a brand can be a difficult and complex task. By hiring the best advertising agency in Austin, companies can develop a logo, brand, and a solid advertising and marketing plan, which aims to build brand awareness. Ad agencies also will track data to provide companies with valuable feedback, which is used to determine the next steps in a marketing campaign.
There is no shortage of advertising agencies out there. In fact, there are so many that it makes it difficult to decide which agency to hire. So how should a company decide? As with most things, experience goes a long way. The best advertising agencies in Austin will have a strong referral base and a solid portfolio of clients. Reputable ad agencies will walk their clients through the entire process from start to end, from discussing growth strategy and cultural and behavioral insights to integrated marketing campaigns, to creating compelling content, to data and analytics.
Hiring the best advertising agency in Austin can help launch a brand to new heights! A full-service advertising agency also can help companies develop a solid marketing and brand development plan, which will allow them to be competitive in the marketplace.
A Step-By-Step Guide for Selecting a Game Marketing Agency
As if making a game wasn’t a hard-enough task on its own, you then need to market your game to the public as well. To avoid making mistakes that could be detrimental to your game, you should work with a qualified game marketing agency. The following steps will help you to choose the right game marketing agency.
Step One: Determine What You Need First
The whole point of working with a game marketing agency is to market YOUR game to the public in the most effective way possible. Therefore, before you start considering any game marketing agencies, you need to know what you want out of the marketing.
For example, while a game marketing agency might suggest a lighthearted tone for your game’s marketing, this might contradict the actual tone of your game. That’s why it’s important for you to know what you want out of the marketing. So, know your game, and know what you want to achieve out of the marketing campaign.
Step Two: Choose an Agency that Markets Games on Your Platform
You want to work with a game marketing agency that not only has experience, but is also good at, marketing games that are on your platform. Therefore, if your game will be released as an indie game exclusively on Steam, then you want to make sure the game marketing agency you decide to work with knows how to market PC games.
The same rule applies no matter which platform or platforms you plan to release your game on. If the game marketing agency knows how to market mobile games very well, but has no experience marketing PC games, then you will likely run into trouble down the line if your game is released exclusively on PC.
So, make sure the game marketing agency you choose knows how to market not only according to your game’s actual tone and style, but also according to your game’s intended audience.
Step Three: Determine if They Fit Your Budget
This is an obvious point, but an important one. If a game marketing agency wants more money than you can afford, then they are definitely the wrong choice for you. Just like you need to figure out what type of marketing your game needs before selecting a game marketing agency, you also need to know your budget.
Therefore, you should check the books to determine what you can afford. It’s better to know where you stand and what you can afford than to become completely sold on a game marketing agency only to find out that they demand far more money than you can ever afford.
Step Four: Assess the Agency in Full
Before signing a deal with a game marketing agency, the final step you should take is to assess the agency entirely. This means reading reviews and discussion online about the quality of their work, looking into their previous marketing work to see if it looks good or not to you, and discussing contracts and legal terms with them.
Furthermore, the last thing you want is to find out too late that the game marketing agency you choose is actually bad (that’s probably why their services were so affordable) or that their team is unorganized or full of people who do not vibe with your ideas. If possible, try to talk to the people from the agency before signing any deal, so you can determine whether you get along or not.
Step Five: Be Creative!
Did you know that game marketing is a marketing platform on its own? Why not boost your marketing strategy for your new game by marketing it right within its own bleeding-edge industry? Find a game marketing expert to find creative ways to think outside the box for the marketing strategy for your game release.
Things to Consider Before Hiring a Sports Advertising Agency
Looking to promote a sports team or league and don’t know where to start? Or maybe you have already started marketing but are looking to supplement your on-staff marketing team. No matter the reason why you are looking to hire a sports advertising agency, there are a few things you should consider before you go out searching through sports advertising agencies to find the right one for your marketing campaign. Much like trying to find an advertising agency for a product or service, your sports advertising agency needs to be able to supplement your business effectively, bringing outside insight to power the growth of your brand.
Experience in Brand Growth
You should be treating the advertising of a sports team or league just like any brand; you’re looking to push the brand to the consumers to increase revenue in either ticket sales or merchandising. When searching around lists of sports advertising agencies, you need to consider how long they have been in business, and also the current and former clients that they put in their portfolio. If they have been successful in the past, you should already know at least some of the sports brand names they have worked for in the past. Brand growth is more important now than ever when it comes to sports advertising. Depending on the sport or league you are in, there is an expanding amount of teams and players, meaning more effort is needed for growing your brand, and that effort is going to go the furthest when you have hired an experienced and capable sports advertising agency.
You should also consider, when contacting sports advertising agencies, to get information directly from them on the successes they’ve had in the past with marketing campaigns. They may not list every client they have had, and they likely won’t list the exact success rate they had, which is even more important than just having a name in their portfolio. When hiring an advertising agency, it’s important to have proof of their track record, otherwise they could just say anything and you’d have to take them at their word.
Marketing Budget
When you are considering sports advertising agencies, you need to understand the budget you can afford to hire them with for marketing your sports brand. A sports advertising agency isn’t necessarily going to cost more than hiring an in-house team for marketing. An in-house marketing team can often end up getting overzealous with budgeting, whereas an external marketing team will always work within the agreed upon budget at the start of their contract. As well, with their expertise and resources, the budget may go further than with an in-house marketing team. You also have to consider the things that affect the budget cost overall, such as timelines, custom work for marketing, the reach you are expecting, and the length of the agency’s contract.
Cultural Fit with Your Sports Brand
When you are working with external teams of people, like sports advertising agencies, you need to consider how they are going to fit in with the culture of your own company. You may decide to hire a team from far away and never actually interact in person, but you are still going to be communicating and working closely with them, so you need to ensure that they have the same values your company has, and that they can work well with your own employees. This is especially important if you have no in-house marketing team coordinating with the agency; there can be a disconnect that could see your opinions, or their opinions, being ignored.
Looking for Specialized Advertising
Technologies are ever changing, and you may be looking for sports advertising agencies externally for a specific and specialized reason, such as social media. New platforms are always popping up on the digital landscape, and rules are always changing when it comes to advertising platforms. Many small advertising agencies Los Angeles may say they can do it all, but in actuality, they aren’t as well suited for specialized advertising as an agency that focuses exclusively on it, or as larger firms that have a wide range of teams to cover those specialties.
How Much You Offload
When you are choosing sports advertising agencies, you need to consider both your timelines, but also how much work you are going to offload onto their team. If you are splitting tasks between your in-house team and an external team, you may need to consider specifying a specific employee to become their single point of communication, the person that works closest to them and that relays information between the teams appropriately. Having a single person in that position means that information doesn’t get routed to the wrong people when working on a campaign.
With everything considered, sports advertising agencies are there to assist you in expanding your sports brand, whether they take over marketing completely or work with your own marketing teams. Find a sports advertising agency with experience, that understands you, and that you communicate with well; you will see the brand growth you want.
Weibo Marketing: How to Reach Out to Your Audience
Weibo is often dubbed China’s Twitter. The micro-blogging platform, however, provides businesses with the opportunity to connect with potential and existing customers in an engaging and personalized manner. Weibo marketing (adstochina.westwin.com/Weibo-Marketing) needs a bit of expert help, and here is how you can employ the different features on Weibo to make a lasting impression on the audience that matters to your business.
Picking the right format
There are multiple ways to reach out to your audience on Sina Weibo. These include fan headlines, search engine promotions, and display adverts. Fan headlines showcase your post on the top of your followers’ feeds or their connections and can be promoted for a period of maximum seven days, after which Weibo considers the post to be not news-worthy. You can use the format to promote your posts or that of a key opinion leader. These posts are also shown only once to the users, but you have the option to generate multiple posts at the same time for better reach and engagement.
Weibo also has inbuilt search functions, thus listing down results for fan pages, accounts, and posts. The option lets you improve the visibility of your brand page to people who search for keywords related to your business. Display ads on Weibo work much like those on search engine pages. The ads are showcased on web and mobile versions, and the links on them a direct audience to the advertising homepage.
Weibo marketing also has in-built prize campaigns that allow you to give away prizes to more followers. These could be virtual prizes that cost less or bigger prizes that are related to the product or service offered by your brand. Prize campaigns are a great way to attract followers and include multiple formats like lucky roulettes, flash sales, repost campaigns, content collection campaign, and free trial campaigns.
Putting demographic targeting to good use
One of the major benefits of Weibo marketing is that you get to decide the audience who should see your post. Fine-tuning the audience demographics improves your chances of gathering followers who take an interest in your product or service and makes conversions and sales more likely. Weibo provides multiple targeting options, including age, gender and geographic region, interest and hobbies, device, competitor list, follower relationship, and target accounts. There is also the option to choose the time to run these ads – the platform typically sees rush hours, and you can choose to run your ads during the period for a wider reach quickly.
Choosing the payment model appropriately
To run ads, Sina Weibo allows you to pay as CPM or cost per thousand impressions, which applies only to blog promotions. It also offers CPE or cost per engagement, which includes forwards/retweets, clicks, and comments. The best way to choose the right payment method is by conducting an alpha-beta test for the ads you run. It is important to monitor the statistics and fine-tunes your Weibo marketing efforts from time to time for the best results. In order to prevent overspending on your ads, you can choose to set a daily budget, after which the ads automatically stops for the current day.
Analyzing competitor ads
You may be doing things right, but it never hurts to see how others are performing. The key to successful Weibo marketing is to design ads that users connect instantly with. When you plan the ads on Weibo, the system suggests similar accounts, which can be used to analyze the competition in your space, including the follower gender, age, geography, device, interaction patterns, time, and so on. With so much data in hand, it is possible to draw an idea about what keywords the competitors would have bid on and when they are likely to post their ads. By watching them carefully, you can replicate successful strategies, or work on new ones to attract more customers.
All aspects about Sina Weibo marketing and promotions listed above matter to the success of your campaign, but what is equally important is that you invest time and money into building good quality content – text and images – that resonate with your brand image and which speak convincingly to the persona of your audience.
Why Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency is the Right Choice?
With China’s booming economy and upwardly mobile society, the country has become an attractive destination for small and large businesses from around the world. However, for many of these companies, the vast Chinese market can be difficult to tap into due to language and cultural differences. To establish your brand identity in China, you need to create advertising campaigns in Mandarin, Cantonese, or any of the other local languages, and use marketing ideas that will appeal to the domestic audience.
If you’re not up to mark in your language and cultural discernment, you might end up becoming a laughing stock or even offending people. The Chinese, for the most part, are proudly nationalist and will boycott your business if they think you are slighting their culture and their country. You might even find yourself at legal loggerheads with the Chinese authorities. And that could truly knell the doom for your business in China.
Rather than risk that or depend on unreliable translation services, it will help to hire a digital marketing agency in China. With their guidance, you will be better placed to establish your business in the country. Here are some of the advantages of working with them:
They will help you with official registration requirements
The Chinese government requires all foreign businesses to get official permission before they can establish their operations in China and market their products or services to the Chinese people. Along with your application, you will have to submit your business registration documents and pay the requisite registration fee.
Since all this work requires a good knowledge of Chinese, it can be a tricky process for many foreign companies. You will have an easier time of it if you hire an experienced digital marketing agency in China and have them assist you in getting the registration done.
They will help you to ford the language barrier
Chinese is not an easy language to master, and many foreign companies may not have business executives who are fluent enough in it. In this situation, it is convenient to hire a digital marketing agency in China to handle all local language matters for you and to help you draft and publish your advertising campaigns.
Since the agency has fluent Chinese speakers, you will have a better business experience working with them than relying on online translators. They will also check your marketing copy thoroughly.
They will help you to better understand local trends
A lack of knowledge of the Chinese language and culture can make it difficult for foreign businesses to grasp and take advantage of social trending topics. When you work with a digital marketing agency, you will work with fluent Chinese speakers who are immersed in the local culture and, therefore, understand the social intricacies very well.
They can advise you on the social etiquette that you will need to follow to interact with people and do business in China. Moreover, they will inform you about what will work and what won’t as regards to your business advertising campaigns. They will also help to leverage local social trends and incorporate those in your marketing to get more traffic to your business website.
They will help you to establish connections with local businesses
To conduct business successfully in China, you may need to use the services of various local Chinese companies. For this, you will need to comprehend the language. If you are not fluent in Chinese, you should hire a digital marketing agency in China, and they will help you to find the right people to grow your business. Furthermore, the agency will assist you with all the necessary business formalities, negotiations, and contracts.
As you see, hiring a digital marketing agency in China is the right choice for foreign businesses without adequate language proficiency and cultural knowledge. Even if you are a China expert, using a local agency will be useful in establishing the brand identity of your business in the country. With a competent agency to help you to navigate your way around, you can expand your business and run successful marketing campaigns. You will be able to build up a strong consumer following and make profitable in-roads in the fast-developing Chinese market.
Tips to Choose Reliable WeChat Marketing Agency
WeChat – Practically Significant
The crucial part of the digital marketing efforts in China is social media marketing, and devoid of this, the online marketing methods will not yield full results. WeChat is the most prominent social media platform in China. According to a rough estimate, millions and millions of the Chinese population visit the site daily, and the bulk of the users are active participants. Here comes the significance as regards the overall effectiveness of using the platform for successful marketing. Nevertheless, it is also vital to hire an experienced WeChat marketing agency for making your attempt fruitful.
Tips to Choose Reliable WeChat Marketing Agency
Consult Your Friends: You can check within your business circles to find out a competent digital marketing agency, which will make your business endeavor in China winning. Maybe, some of them might be able to help you with their personal experiences.
Search through the Internet: This method is the most commonly followed one, as there will be so many options. In this way, you can find out various leading online marketing firms that have practical experience in marketing various products and services in China. However, you must make sure that you are selecting the best one from the available list. You must enter the website of such companies and check the credentials. If a company has rich experience and has rendered its services to various companies, you can deem it as a capable and reliable company.
Experience: You must make sure that the WeChat marketing agency that you are about to hire for performing digital marketing of our company is well-experienced. The team must have a thorough knowledge as regards the Chinese search engines and the main social sites like the WeChat. Besides, the agency must have a successful track record for planning precise winning strategies by performing market research, consumer research, and market entry planning.
Awareness: The agency must be familiar with the overall functioning of the WeChat platform. WeChat is the foremost social networking platform in China, and millions of users visit the site per day. This social networking platform remains vital as regards online marketing, and one cannot neglect it as far as digital marketing is concerned. Hence, only when the digital marketing company is well-versed with the various functional methods of the site, the marketing efforts will become winning.
Technical and Tactical Perfection: The WeChat marketing agency must have the required technical and tactical perfection in presenting promotional materials. These factors are highly significant, and only when the promotional presentation is right, you will be able to utilize the potential of this social networking platform properly.
Satisfied Customers: The list of satisfied clientele is the authentic report of the professional capability of the company. Only when the digital marketing process is perfect, the related marketing agency will be able to gather the support of numerous clients. Hence, you must check the present client-list of the company, and if possible, you can talk personally to some of them for further clarification.
Talk to the Management: Once you shortlist some companies, you must talk to the management in detail. You must ensure that they have understood your practical requirements and the targeted audience. They must be familiar with the various customer segments, which will make them geared up for planning the promotional campaign.
Ask for Sample: Of course, you can verify the merit of the social media post they would provide by asking for some sample postings, stating a precise context. By perusing these sample postings, you will be able to assess the professional capacity of the agency. Even if they ask a price for the sample, it is worth trying this way. You will only lose the cost of the sample if something goes wrong. Otherwise, you can use the sample for posting in the WeChat.
Check the Pricing: Pricing is another factor that you must take into account while selecting a WeChat marketing agency. The agency must not charge you exorbitantly.
