From big to small, most companies are realizing the true potential of WeChat in marketing and branding. Over 300 million users populate WeChat’s diverse userbase, providing a large potential market to be tapped with well placed and tasteful marketing campaigns promoting your brand. Here are five tips to help you market your brand on WeChat:

Invest in High-Quality Content

Many brands have large social media presence on WeChat. These brands, with their verified WeChat accounts, post high-quality, original content regularly, generating a large following of people sharing and liking their content, thereby promoting their brand. When a brand’s account is verified, it can attract audiences by posting high-quality media content with audio messages, videos, photos and text for their fans and followers. This creates a feedback loop, making sure the brand remains in the public consciousness for much longer.

Offer Incentives and Loyalty Programs for WeChat Users

WeChat marketing (https://adstochina.westwin.com/WeChat-Marketing) has the capability of allowing a company or brand to change all of its followers into members. This allows the business to use the marketing tactic of offering incentives and loyalty programs using geo-location services to locate the member and offer him nearby promotions. Thus, the user has the incentive to return to the brand’s page, creating a feedback mechanism that retains many loyal customers.

There are three ways to market to consumers on WeChat:

a) Promote a VIP card through the app

b) Send promotion notifications

c) Market e-coupons that they can exchange in physical stores

Targeting specific communities is also a good strategy. You could advertise, for example, your selection of vintage wines to a wine-enthusiast community, or your range of pet products to a pet-care community, and so on. All of this creates a direct brand attachment with your consumers, ensuring they will return to your brand for their purchasing needs.

Offer 020 (Online to Offline) to users via QR Codes

Brands that are looking to bring more of their fans and consumers onto WeChat can embed a QR Code linked to their accounts in as many locations as they can. This way, the instant a user scans the QR Code, they become a member and follow the brand’s shared content and marketing.

To take advantage of this, brands put their QR codes on the physical products they sell, and they coerce customers to scan it with offers, discounts, lucky draws or souvenirs. They also feature their QR code on their Weibo Page, to grab the attention of users. This way, they generate a large userbase and fan following very quickly and inexpensively.

Be Entrepreneurial on WeChat

WeChat is unique in its large and well-networked userbase, and it provides opportunities to reach a large audience very quickly. This has been made possible largely by cooperation with Tencent, the parent company behind WeChat, who has provided a large assortment to tools to create WeChat-based solutions. This way, the user does not have to deal with the clutter of too many apps and can enjoy the convenience of meeting all his/her needs directly off WeChat. For example, a hotel may develop a WeChat app-based booking system for their clientele, or a travel agency may allow users to book tickets directly off WeChat, and so on, all in partnership with Tencent, who provide you with excellent support and tech guidance.

Create Websites inside WeChat

Yet another WeChat tool allows brands to create webpages within WeChat that market their products to consumers directly. This gives followers a better brand experience, while also providing the brand with a sleek and streamlined set of interaction menus to interact with their fans. Many brands have already used these tools to generate large userbases who can enjoy direct interaction with the brand and its content. For example, McDonald’s ran several viral marketing campaigns, including the widely-popular ‘Big Mac Rap’ contest. Contests and promotions like these generate large followings because they are free and easy to participate in. In this fashion, direct interaction with the consumers helps to improve the brand’s image and its e-reputation.

Thus, WeChat could prove to be an incredibly lucrative marketing platform, with its wide array of functions and tools. Brands and companies could take advantage of this unique platform and geo-localized potential consumers, categorize them, and target them effectively, thereby successfully marketing their brand on a massive scale.