Marketing Advice That Matters
The challenge of marketing has always been how rapidly technology has shifted around it, causing marketing strategies to become obsolete quickly (or if not obsolete, then at least very limited in the range and demographic that marketing strategy will reach). It’s a full-time job keeping up with the shifts in technological trends and in mastering the algorithms needed to fully profit off of those trends—that’s why there are marketing agencies available to your company. It is also important, however, that you remain aware of the growing trends so you can ensure you are working with the best marketing agency. Right now, there is a new trend on the horizon. More and more people are using AI assistants (like Google Home Mini), and this shift to audio automation is driving visual marketing towards obsoletion. You don’t just need to ensure you are working with a good marketing agency anymore; now you need to modernize your ad campaigns with the help of a voice marketing agency.
What is voice marketing?
Voice marketing is all about translating your current marketing strategies into an algorithmic language that will be compatible with artificial intelligence platforms. This will ensure you don’t miss your target audience, and it isn’t something you should hesitate on for long. Investing in a good voice marketing agency now will ensure your marketing campaign isn’t leaving any gaps that will interfere with your company’s goal achievement.
Why is voice marketing different?
Voice marketing has to appeal to AI platforms, which means it needs to meet a whole new set of algorithms if it’s going to stay relevant to voice marketing trends. This isn’t a big stretch from the way other marketing trends work, but what is different is the format. Voice marketing does completely change the way your marketing campaigns are presented. Now they need to meet voice search algorithms, and they need to be formatted in such a way that they can sound appealing to your consumers when voiced through the AI assistant. That AI assistant is going to become the voice for your company and your brand, and that means your marketing strategy will need to shape itself to remain appealing through the AI voice while still enabling optimisation. These are the complexities your voice marketing agency will need to embrace.
How to find the right voice marketing agency
You don’t just need to find a voice marketing agency; you need to find a voice marketing agency that understands the implications of the shift from digital and visual to AI platforms. Looking for these six features during a consultation will help ensure you’ve found the right one.
1) They can explain voice marketing to you.
Voice marketing is still relatively new, and it carries a lot more potential for future change. You want your voice marketing agency to be able to inform you of the changes implicit in a shift to voice marketing, the challenges and issues of getting there, and you want them to have the foresight to be able to anticipate future changes so they can incorporate room for that into the voice marketing campaign they create for you.
2) They can strategize.
You want your voice marketing agency to be able to formulate a strategy for converting your current marketing campaign into a voice marketing campaign.
3) Qualifications and credentials.
A good voice marketing agency will have the proper certifications and experience working with voice marketing algorithms—and they should be able to pitch to you a trajectory for how those algorithms will shift as AI marketing becomes more advanced.
4) They have an understanding of your company’s true voice—its brand.
It’s okay to walk away from a voice marketing agency that has good qualifications and credentials if you don’t feel they understand or comply with the image or brand of your company. Visual or not, you still want your company’s brand to be able to speak through the AI interface so it can continue to appeal to your clients.
5) Contact is key.
A good voice marketing agency is easy to get in touch with and will present a plan for keeping you in the loop.
6) Don’t undervalue the importance of price This may not be the most important factor, but a good voice marketing agency will be able to meet all of these requirements while still remaining within your marketing budget.
The digital marketing landscape in China is different from that in the rest of the world. Search engines and social media platforms that reign supreme elsewhere aren’t really the toppers in the country. Instead, China’s homegrown search engine, Baidu, is the king of all online searches. Hence it becomes important that any brand making to look a mark and woo Chinese audience have an appropriate presence on Baidu and make use of its Pay Per Click (PPC) program appropriately. Understanding the search engine and how it functions paves for a successful recipe. Read on to know more.
What makes Baidu PPC different from that on Western search engines
Advertising on Baidu is very different from the typical process encountered when marketing your brand on a Western search engine. The latter is often simple and requires you to open an account, enter credit card details, type in keywords that you want to bid for (or choose from a list), write simple ad texts and publish them. This attracts potential customers to see the ad when they search for something similar to your product or service.
Advertising or digital marketing on Baidu entails a registration plus a certification process. Additionally, Baidu PPC requires that you localize your website as well as the PPC campaign for the Chinese audience so that your product or service genuinely appeals to the consumers in the country. The platform puts strict protocols into place to ensure that the advertisers do not misuse Baidu to conduct illegal businesses or trade activities in China. The strict bureaucratic processes help the platform to cooperate with the authorities without getting themselves penalized. The laws of the land also, to a certain degree, have contributed to the strict registration and certification process for Baidu PPC. The well-documented and stringent food safety laws and those for sensitive industries make it imperative for foreign business operating in this space to produce necessary documentation before they can start flashing their ads on Baidu search result pages.
Tips for setting up a Baidu PPC account successfully
There is a certain amount of red tape involving the set-up process for Baidu PPC, which worries many new companies who are unaware of the same. However, with specific knowledge and expertise, which often comes with the help of a digital marketer based in China, you can breeze through the process and set up your account with ease. Here are some tips that come in handy in this regard.
• Prepare copies of your business certificates and translate them into Chinese for ease of review by authorities and Baidu officials.
• Maintain copies of your company’s information listed on government websites.
• Obtain a company seal. This has more value and receives better trust in China than official signatures.
• Create a localized Chinese website instead of a simple landing page. Having a dedicated Chinese website that caters to the tastes of the local people in terms of aesthetics, content, helpful information, and so on guarantees better results.
How to make the maximum of the advertising campaign
Since you will be marketing your product or service to a wholly new audience and using a new way, be prepared to learn and execute from scratch. The Baidu PPC campaigns warrant specific knowledge and expertise in the local language and practices. So, it is advisable to build a localized team and follow these guidelines for best results and to maximize returns.
• Optimize your website for Chinese visitors to provide them with better user experience. At the same time, optimize the pages for Baidu.
• Host your site in China and monitor it regularly to see that it functions properly.
• When using payment options and wallets, ensure that they are Chinese-friendly. Alipay and Union Pay are some good choices.
• Have dedicated Chinese-speaking managers to handle PPC and customer care, for you do not want to leave customers confused when they want to seek more information or need help with purchasing or using your product or service.
If all these seem like a herculean task, you can always outsource the program to an experienced and certified advertiser or digital marketing agency, which specializes in Baidu PPC.
Most of the world has Google, but China has Baidu. Google is almost absent in one of the largest countries in the world. And when most Chinese netizens prefer Baidu, the largest search engine in China, then why not businesses will advertise on Baidu.
When you are planning to advertise in China, Baidu SEM is your go-to way for advertising your business online. Baidu search engine marketing (SEM) has a lot of similarities with Google search engine marketing, but never think it is the same. It is quite different. Baidu is not a replica of Google. It has its own function, features, and algorithms which are very different from Google.
For advertising online in mainland China, there is a lot of reason to use Baidu. Let’s have a look at the top five reasons.
Major Market Share
Baidu now accounts for the 66.29% of the search engine market share. In the first quarter of 2018, Baidu market share was 80%. So, unquestionably, Baidu is the king of search engine market. It boasts 5 billion searches per day. Definitely, no company would want to miss the opportunity of advertising on such a platform.
Chinese netizens prefer Baidu over other search engines. Google market share in the Chinese market is just meager 2.7%. So there is no point of looking at Google for advertising in China. Even other Chinese search engines such as 360, Sogou, and Shenma are doing far better than Google, but still, Baidu is the undisputed king of the Chinese search engine market.
Chinese Prefer Baidu
Baidu has 657 million monthly active mobile users. Mobile revenue accounted for the 77% of the total revenue of Baidu. Hence, it clearly shows if you want to reach the mobile audience in China, you have to invest in Baidu SEM.
When it comes to searching for something online, Chinese prefer Baidu over others. You can also say- Baidu is truly Chinese. With the deep understanding of how Chinese behave, Baidu has set its algorithm and shows the most relevant results for queries.
Positive Response to Paid Advertisements
When it comes to search engine marketing, we all know the value of organic traffic. But in the Chinese landscape, paid advertising are also performing well. For western companies, some experts even advise only to invest in Baidu PPC ads for Baidu SEM because Baidu paid advertising shows great results. Baidu SERP shows five paid results and ten organic results. So, you have a great opportunity to target your brand in front of the right audience.
Baidu Popularity
Baidu Knows, Baidu Tieba, Baidu Baike, Baidu Wenku, and Baidu Maps are few products launched by the Baidu that has gained a lot of popularity in China. There is a huge audience for each platform. Hence, it simply depicts that Chinese trusts Baidu.
Baidu Baike is a web-based encyclopedia that covers almost every topic. Baidu Baike articles are perceived as the credible source of information. Baidu Knows is the question-answer platform where you can put any query, and find an answer to it. So, there is nothing like Baidu in the Chinese market.
Baidu Marketing Tools
You will never miss Google AdWords or Google Analytics when you invest in Baidu SEM. Baidu has some great marketing tools. Baidu Phoenix Nest is Baidu’s PPC platform. It provides you all the features of Google AdWords. And also, you do not have to worry about Google Analytics, Baidu has Baidu Tongji. These marketing tools are just phenomenal. These tools allow you to plan and run your online advertising campaign. You can easily track your results, take control over your advertising efforts, and implement your Baidu SEM strategy effectively with these tools.
These are the five reasons why you should use Baidu for SEM.
The Bottom Line
SEO and PPC advertising are the two pillars of the search engine marketing. Investing in these marketing strategies can earn you millions of customers for your business. And the majority of the Chinese netizens trust and prefer Baidu. Therefore, investing in Baidu SEM seems to be the best way to advertising your business online in China.
An extremely large volume of searches in China happens through the search engine Baidu, making it one of the country’s biggest. However, the audience in China behaves differently from those in the other parts of the world, making search engine marketing and advertising on Baidu different from that performed elsewhere. Online marketing in China needs a different recipe altogether, and for marketers, brands, and e-commerce players looking to grow brand awareness tap into a new set of customers, or to improve sales through Baidu advertising, here are a few things to know.
# 1 – The audience network is extremely huge
China has the world’s largest population. The country also has one of the largest online population, which gives marketers a compelling reason to advertise their products and services through Baidu. However, the large number of online users also means that your advertising efforts may not meet its target if not monitored or fine-tuned correctly. Therefore, it becomes important to know who in this large pool of audience you want to attract. This avoids dilution of efforts by money being wasted on attracting the wrong set of people towards what you want to sell. It is also good to have realistic budgets in place for all your advertising efforts done through Baidu as capturing potential customers from this large pool can soon exhaust budgets if not monitored carefully.
# 2 – There is a lot of paperwork to be done
The Baidu search engine and its associated marketing and advertising activities are monitored heavily by the Chinese governments. Advertising on Baidu may not be as easy and effortless as creating a campaign account on other search engines. So, as a Western brand or company looking to gather traction in China, you need to be prepared to go through a lot of bureaucracy, paperwork and contract before you can have your Baidu ads up and running. For instance, to open the account, you need a company registration and finance documents to be submitted. If your product or service lies in a highly restricted industry like an airline, finance, or healthcare sectors, you may also need additional documents to get the process done. While this may not be seen in the Western world, such procedures are fairly common when conducting search engine marketing or advertising in China. As someone new to Chinese waters, you may find these processes tiring, but with the help of a marketing or ad agency, you can get your paperwork in place in a breeze.
# 3 – Chinese landing pages can make a world of difference
People are searching for a product or service through Baidu usually do so in Chinese. While these searches can be redirected to a webpage in English, the efficacy of your efforts can be better when the search gets redirected to a landing page in Chinese, as the latter performs better. From the user’s perspective, a person conducting a search in Chinese, when presented an English result page, may not stay for long to discover what you have to offer. This can increase bounce rates, causing you to lose potential leads just because you did not cater to their language needs. It can also result in your Baidu marketing efforts being pushed down the drain.
# 4 – Socio-cultural differences need to be addressed
Chinese audience are different from those in the Western world. The socio-cultural differences are evident in how users perceive products and services and respond to marketing and advertising campaigns on a search engine like Baidu. So, when testing the waters in the Chines landscape, be prepared for some surprises. What works for online advertising campaigns elsewhere may not give you many results in the country. So, before you begin your advertising efforts on Baidu, it is good to speak to experts who have experience advertising in this market. Also, trend and consumer needs and preferences are constantly changing, so getting some expert help can be of immense value especially if you are a novice to marketing in China.
Baidu advertising may be tricky when compared to online marketing efforts elsewhere, but with the right approach and efforts, you can meet your targets and see results, with ease.
Marketing is a profession that is difficult to pin down with precise definition. Its scope is too fluid and extensive, and this makes things somewhat problematic when it comes to assessing potential marketing candidates. If you were interviewing someone for a mechanical engineering position, for instance, their engineering skill sets would generally suffice to demonstrate their ability to get the job done. You must take a different approach when it comes to hiring a marketing candidate.
In addition to understanding how marketing works and having enough knowledge of various marketing strategies, the candidate has to have the right kind of attitude to thrive in this industry. A career in marketing, for the most part, is not for the fainthearted. You must have the ability to deal with setbacks, to bounce back from rejections, and to still find the energy to forge ahead and convince people of the feasibility of your marketing strategy.
The following three marketing interview questions can help marketing recruiters identify if a prospective candidate has what it takes to do well in this field.
Why Are You Seeking a Career in Marketing?
It seems like a standard question, but it is a significant one. With this question, the interviewer wants to understand the candidate’s primary motivation for taking this career path and to check if they are here for the long haul. It would be to the company’s disadvantage, after all, if they were to hire someone with no passion for and no serious interest in marketing.
The interviewer also wants to know if the candidate has realistic expectations about a marketing career and if they are aware of the day to day responsibilities they would have to undertake. Also, the question seeks to discover if the candidate is capable of self-reflection and self-assessment, has ambition and intelligence, is articulate, and can get along with diverse people.
What is Your Idea of a Successful Marketing Campaign and Why?
Here is the candidate’s chance to demonstrate their understanding of marketing campaigns, their knowledge of past and/or current marketing campaigns in the real world, their familiarity with different marketing methods such as optimization techniques, A/B testing, lead generation, inbound and outbound marketing, using marketing analytics tools, and their ability to explain what makes a marketing campaign a success. The interviewer wants to understand how the candidate thinks, if they are logical and capable of looking at the bigger picture or if they have the tendency to get bogged down by details.
It is also important to know if the candidate considers the end consumer and cares about customer satisfaction, not just company profit. It is a positive sign if the candidate can show how well they keep up with industry trends and how they take those into account in drawing up their marketing plan.
How Would You Deal with Setbacks and Difficult Clients?
Presenting the candidate with a hypothetical problematic situation and asking them how they would resolve it or asking them to give an example of a real-life difficulty that they dealt with to their satisfaction can give the interviewer an idea about the candidate’s ability to remain calm and rational when things are not going well for them.
Stress and dissatisfied customers are common and regular occurrences in the marketing field, so it is essential that a potential marketing candidate doesn’t fall apart at the first whiff of trouble. It is several points in the candidate’s favor, of course, if they instead display the ability to overcome a charged situation with constructive solutions that can retain and even improve the company’s standing with consumers.
Asking these three questions and noting the answers can help interviewers sift through applicants and select candidates with an aptitude for marketing. There is, of course, no one right answer to any of the questions. The answers will vary according to the personality of the candidate, their background and experience, and the role they are applying for.
What interviewers generally look for, more than just ability and passion for marketing is someone with a broad outlook, who is quick thinking and easy to get along with and will fit in well with the overall company culture.
