Marketing Advice That Matters
Ecommerce in China is extremely competitive. Which is why you need to hire the right China eCommerce agency if you are looking to sell your products and services in China.
Hiring the right eCommerce agency in China is not easy. Tieing up with the wrong agency will not only mean that there will be a wastage of money but also a waste of precious time. Your competitors may use this time to move ahead and establish themselves firmly in China.
Here are five things to consider while hiring an eCommerce agency in China:
1. The Agency’s Portfolio
While choosing an eCommerce agency, you should look carefully at their portfolio. How do the websites work? Are the web designs attractive enough? Are they experienced in your industry?
An agency’s portfolio usually speaks for itself. It will give you a fair idea of whether you should work with that agency. While looking at their portfolio, try to determine their skill level and expertise. Make sure if they are qualified for the task at hand.
Find out what kind of success have they achieved for the businesses they have worked with. Look for concrete results-business has increased this much in this period of time. What are the various strategies that have been used?
The most important thing to look for is whether the agency has tried something out of the ordinary. eCommerce agencies often get into the grind of using the same set of strategies that had some measure of success in the past. Does their work suggest that there is at least an attempt at innovative thinking?
By choosing a China eCommerce agency with a strong portfolio, you can evaluate their strengths and how these strengths will help you succeed in the business of eCommerce in China.
2. Proof of Satisfied Clients
Look for an eCommerce agency that has satisfied clients. One way of knowing about customer satisfaction is to go through customer testimonials. They will give you a perspective about how the agency has been able to add value to their clients.
Online reviews and social media posts are another way of knowing about an eCommerce agency. Every business will get some negative reviews. Some are legitimate, some are fake and some are from competitors.
Good reviews are much harder to get for a business than bad reviews. So, keep that in mind when you do your due diligence. Look for common themes within the good reviews. Do the customers mention particular services or challenges that the agency overcame for them?
3. Culture and Personal Fit
The chemistry you share with the eCommerce agency is important. As a client, you would want to make sure that your voice is heard and your opinions are given importance. You would want to partner with an agency that is emphatic to your needs.
If you get along with people in the eCommerce agency it will help you to work together to achieve success. Speak to the experts in the agency, ideally those people who will be working on your project should you hire the agency. See if you can gel.
It is important to analyze the nature of the communication between you and those at the agency. Is it authentic? Also, do they give importance to business ethics and values? Do you think it would be possible to respect each other culturally and personally?
4. Remembering Faster isn’t Always Better
Almost all businesses are looking for fast results. This prompts many eCommerce agencies to make false promises to stay competitive. The problem with this tactic is that it hurts both the agency and the businesses that hired them.
The agency you hire should show you some value for your time but you must also give them sufficient scope to come out with an appropriate plan that would work for your eCommerce business.
5. Your Budget
You should have a minimum and maximum budget for your eCommerce agency. Most agencies accommodate a wide range of budgets. So, it doesn’t necessarily mean that if you have a low budget, you won’t get a good eCommerce agency.
However, you should know where your money is going. It is important to be able to measure the return on investment.
So do you’ve any questions about hiring a China eCommerce agency?
Marketing is a massive industry worldwide, and there are a lot of options when it comes to places and media types to market through. If you’re a brand that wants to be noticed in some of the latest trending places, and it is appropriate for the products and services that you offer, then eSport is such a huge marketplace that it’s going to be a huge benefit if you can find a way to market your brand through it. As of 2020, the Newzoo Global Esports Market Report states that global esports revenues are going to grow up to $1.1 billion, which results in a lot of opportunities for visibility of your brand globally. However, eSports isn’t just as simple as buying ads space, or sponsoring teams or competitions on a whim; there are a lot of nuances that, if not done right, could see your brand booed out quickly, putting up blockades for further marketing in that sector. With the help of the right eSports agency, you can use their professional experience to help make a splash with the millions of fans watching eSports monthly.
Insight from an Experienced eSports Agency
Similar to any marketing agency, the biggest benefit you get from hiring an eSports agency is the experience they have in the marketplace. With experience comes knowing what can work in eSports marketing, what doesn’t work, and, most importantly, what eSports your brand would be able to mesh with. Fans of eSports are very passionate—and fickle—when it comes to the advertising and the brands that they see in what they are watching; any wrong move made in a marketing campaign can see your brand bombarded with negative feedback and reviews, and you’ll find it harder to get back into eSports marketing anywhere.
There are many places that an eSports agency can make recommendations that will help you focus your advertising because blanketed advertising everywhere in eSports is not going to be very effective; each game and tournament style has a very different viewer base. An eSports agency will analyze your brand’s appeal, and your businesses atmosphere, and will be able to match you up with the eSport or game genre that will best match your brand to start your eSports marketing campaign on solid ground.
Finding Appropriate Sponsorships for Your Brand
Sponsorship is the most common way that a brand will expand their visibility in the eSports arena; they’ll either choose an event to sponsor, a team in a specific eSport, or a specific player (or set of players) that stream actively and are well respected with a large fanbase in the eSports community. Through an analysis of your brand, an eSports agency will be able to narrow down the best choices for you, and help you in crafting a well thought out and creative way to entice a sponsorship deal that is beneficial to all sides. A majority of the funding for eSports competitions comes from sponsorship deals with brands, so there is a lot of space available to get your brand noticed in competition events.
Creative Thought Processes
Creativity is at the heart of any good and effective marketing campaign; people are going to ignore boring and constantly reused advertising techniques. With the help of an eSports agency you can get the opinions of a creative team with experience, and then, together, you can craft a marketing campaign that will grab the eye and hopefully the hearts of the consumers watching eSports. Trends change quickly, and being able to “read the room” when situations change in the world is something that an eSports agency is going to be able to excel at to ensure your brand is on point.
Cost Effective Marketing in eSports
Any marketing campaign is going to be judged primarily on its success through a return on investment (ROI) metric, ensuring that the amount of business your brand gains outweighs the marketing costs. With an in-house marketing team, you can do many things, but if you are breaking into a new marketing segment, you may not want to spend the extra costs on hiring new employees that are trained and have experience in that area. With an eSports agency at your initial meeting you can give them a budget you want to stay within, and they will be able to give you accurate expectations that will work within your budget, greatly reducing the ballooning marketing costs in-house teams can sometimes have.
An eSports agency gives you the necessary advantage you need when breaking into the eSports marketplace by leveraging the experience, creativity, and cost effective marketing campaigns that ensure that your ROI stays positive, and that consumers are drawn to your brand.
We all know that the game industry is not as it used to be! We are no longer in a time when a developer had an idea, developed a game, and brought it to the market to try to sell it. Today, game marketing and game development must work together to mutual benefit. No matter what, and for better or for worse, these two things are a couple. Game marketing does benefit the game developers, as well as the other way round.
In the early days, perhaps about thirty years ago, this beneficial link was not as obvious. Games were cool, but advertising was not. Just buy the game and play it on your console, and don’t worry about the ads; those were for television. Maybe you bought the game because you saw an ad for it, but for the most part, once you had the game, you had the game. That still exists; people do buy games and play them at will, but that is not the largest part of the industry anymore. Not when compared to game marketing.
Most games are not bought outright by the consumer. Sometimes, the player downloads the game for free and watches an ad to move forward in the game. A player is often willing to watch an ad to get a little extra help, or for a hint. That’s not the largest part of the industry, either. Not when you compare it to game marketing.
Games generate their revenue differently, and so the game developer must be aware of the audience opinion of the game before they even begin. Game marketing is a big benefit here in helping the developer understand how the players will be interacting. Consumers enjoy video games as a spectator sport as much as playing for themselves.
Game developers must know marketing
The good news is that there is a big market for new games and the people—that is the marketers, players, and fans—are always on a constant search for the next great innovative gaming idea. That could be a new marketing strategy, or a new game idea, so developers and marketers need to be together. Game marketing is essential to development for that reason.
Game marketing can tell the game developer what will sell and what is already selling. Maybe the competition has that market cornered. The developer should know these details before moving too far forward, before the game is too close to finished to implement any changes. One way in which game marketing benefits is by showing the developer what needs developing, according to what will sell.
After all, the game marketing pros already know the statistics. They know whether or not there will be audience interest. A game developer may love the game that they are working on, and they may be convinced that selling begins after completion, but it doesn’t. Marketing can provide insight into the age, the demographics, and even player preferences, and this should inform the developer. The marketer knows whether or not the game will be a success before its even ready for launch.
Game marketing makes the game better
When game marketing and a game development work together, there is magic. Games, as we said, are rarely sold any more. They are picked up, shared, talked about by influencers, and the way the consumer spends on the game is not the way it was thirty years ago, and an exceptionally creative marketing campaign matters now more than ever.
Finally, they just can’t work apart from each other. A great game marketing campaign will provide a game with dollars and visibility for as long as the game lasts, but marketers need to have an idea about what the game is about. They need fuel to write a great campaign, to write catch lines, titles, or to tell stories on social media. They need excitement to get those creative juices flowing. Game developers need that, too. They need new ideas, and a steady audience flow to bring in those new ideas and let them flow. All in all, this is a partnership that will bring about new ideas, new creations to appeal to a wider audience.
Don’t forget about that audience! It is the audience that both the game marketing experts and game developers are working for. As a game developer, don’t get too caught up in development. Use a game marketing company to help you bring your game to the world.
While expanding your business overseas to tap the vast Chinese market is an attractive proposition, it comes fraught with the difficulties of navigating complex legalities in a language you may not be entirely familiar with. Further, there is also the crucial issue of marketing your brand to your potential customers. Again, without knowing Cantonese, Mandarin, or any of the other languages spoken in China, it is going to be an uphill task to convince people that your products or services will bring them much-needed benefits.
So, what do you do? Put your business on hold until you develop your multilingual skills? Well, a better idea would be to hire a digital marketing company in China to handle your marketing campaigns for you. Let’s consider some of the major activities that a digital marketing company will perform to help boost your business:
They will steer you around bureaucratic roadblocks
Establishing your business in China involves providing the local authorities with your business registration and various other documents, paying a requisite fee, and then waiting for a few months to get the official permission. Depending on what your business is, you may also need to obtain permission from several civic bodies. You will also need to understand and comply with local codes and legalities.
Such matters can be daunting enough in your own language, but doubly so when you can’t make head or tail of the official documents. However, with a reputable and experienced digital marketing company to guide you through the bureaucratic process, the task will be considerably more manageable.
They will vet your marketing concepts
While you may have certain ideas about how you want to market your products and services, it will be best if you review them again with the digital marketing company in China. This is especially essential if you come from a country that is culturally very different from China. What works abroad may not necessarily be as effective or, even, acceptable in China.
To successfully market to the Chinese, you need to understand their social, economic, and political cultures, and the influence these have on their everyday lives. And the quickest way to understand is by having someone from the same culture guide you and advise you about nuances you might have otherwise missed. The digital marketing company will come up with advertising campaigns that will avoid cultural faux pas and resonate better with the target audience.
They will help set up your social media account
Getting a business account on the leading Chinese social media platforms can be almost as complicated as getting permission to do business in the country. Since the Chinese government wants to make sure that only legitimate and law-abiding businesses can gain access to the Chinese market, they are diligent about vetting businesses before they allow them to use social media in China.
The digital marketing company in China will help you to file the paperwork for opening a social media account. And, after the official approval, they will assist you with setting up the account and formulating an effective social media marketing plan.
They will help you identify potential customers
Targeting the right demographics is one of the essential tenets of successful marketing. So, if you want your brand to become a household name in China, you will need to research your ideal customers. What age group is most likely to use your products and services? Will women be more likely to buy them than men? Are your offerings geared more towards a particular socio-economic class? Where are your ideal customers located?
Bear in mind that what might sell in Tier-1 cities in China may not fly off the online shelves in Tier-3 or Tier-4 cities. Also, you won’t have much luck if you advertise super-luxury items to a young audience without much spending power.
They will help you market to the right demographics
That can include connecting with regular people and influencers on social media, setting up PPC advertising, creating advertising banners, writing advertisement copy, making marketing videos, organizing promotional events, and more.
As you see, teaming up with a digital marketing company in China will be distinctly advantageous in establishing a strong business foothold in the country.
When looking for marketing ideas for your company, there are several different methods that can be chosen. One of the most successful current strategies for marketing your company, however, uses both proactive and reactive methods to bring in new customers and keep your current customers coming back: lifecycle marketing. You need to know what you are looking for in a lifecycle marketing agency to effectively choose one that will help your company grow.
What is Lifecycle Marketing?
Lifecycle marketing is making sure that your customer, whether they are a current, future, or former customer, receives the appropriate marketing message in order to inform them of your products or services and encourage them to purchase from you. A lifecycle marketing agency will use all the marketing formats available in a proactive and reactive manner to achieve this.
Buying Process Cycle
Using a lifecycle marketing agency, you will gain access to a means of engaging with your customers in all stages of their buying process—not just at the decision-making stage. By giving your potential customers information during earlier stages of the buying process, it will nurture a relationship with the customer early on, increasing the chances that they will choose your products. But also, lifecycle marketing includes marketing to those that have already purchased from you because, as studies have shown, you have a 60% to 70% chance of selling to an existing customer versus the 5% to 20% chance of selling to a new one. All of these different stages will be treated differently, allowing the customer to receive the right type of message for the stage of the buying process they are in. Using a mix of direct communication, social media, sponsorships, advertising, articles, etc. will give you all the tools you need to get the message out.
Choosing a Lifestyle Marketing Agency
Choosing the right lifestyle marketing agency for you is similar to choosing a business to partner with. There are several criteria you should look for in a marketing agency, and there are a few that you don’t need to focus on as much.
Expertise
Expertise is a big one when it comes to a service like those offered by a lifestyle marketing agency. You want to hire a company that actually has the expertise they claim to have because there are many companies out there that know how to sell themselves, but that don’t actually have the knowledge and expertise to back it up. Always research the agencies you are considering; find out who they have worked with before. References are great resources to ensure they are as knowledgeable as they claim to be.
Chemistry
You’re going to be working with your lifestyle marketing agency for a long time, so chemistry is very important, even if it doesn’t seem like it. Hiring a company that understands your business goals and atmosphere will allow them to market more effectively, amplifying your company ideals in your marketing campaign. Respect works both ways, as well; if you respect your agency, and they respect you, then the creativity between you can flow freely and more effectively.
Creativity
The most effective marketing campaigns are creative ones, so you want to look through the lifestyle marketing agency portfolio to get a glance at what they are capable of. When they pitch their marketing campaign ideas to you, you will get to see how creative they can be when marketing your company. Try to find an agency that isn’t just using the same ideas for every client. Your business is unique, and it needs a unique campaign to make you stand out.
Resources
When hiring a lifestyle marketing agency, ensure that they have the ability to take you on as a client. You want an agency that is going to have a team available to work with you, and the means they need to be able to do what they claim and they need to be financially secure so they don’t disappear, causing you to have to choose a different agency mid-campaign.
Cost
Cost is a less important aspect when hiring a lifestyle marketing agency. You want to hire an agency that is within your budget, of course, but you don’t want to just hire the cheapest one—they may be cheap for a reason. Quality is most often going to be worth the extra costs in the return on investment for a marketing campaign.
When you choose a lifecycle marketing agency, it’s important to find one that is the right fit for your company—one that can produce a creative marketing strategy that encompasses the entirety of the buying process cycle for your customers. This agency will be an extension of your own marketing team, so ensure you choose one that will work with your company’s atmosphere. Good chemistry will make for a great relationship and will improve the quality of marketing that is produced.
