China Marketing Blog

The Complete List of Ways to Recruit Chinese International Students

In the days before the Internet, student recruitment was done via agents and school-to-school exchange partnerships. When I first studied abroad in Nanjing, I went through an exchange program.

But nowadays, there’s a growing number of options for student recruitment available. From social marketing to live-streaming to study portal websites. I’m going to list them all here!

This is the one and only list you’ll need. As we find and test new methods, we’ll update the list, so bookmark it. If we’re missing something, contact us and we’ll add it.

B2B Social Marketing in China - Beginner's Introduction

Somebody asked me for some general advice on how to use social media for B2B marketing in China.

I’ll answer that here. This is a beginner-level post for marketers with little to no experience with China.

Now for some details about the project. The company in question provides environmental services to other businesses. It’s a large business, but has a small online presence in China. Let's call them “AB Envirobots”. (Just “Envirobots” is taken already!)

Where do Chinese Students Study English Online?

Ten years ago, Chinese students learned English in traditional ways like reading books, listening to tapes and going to English corner. It’s the digital era now! The way that Chinese students learn English has changed greatly! They are now much more inclined to learn English online.

In addition to the cheap price, the most important advantage of online learning is convenience. With a computer or mobile phone, everyone is ready to learn English, and the quality of learning isn’t much different from offline learning.

China Marketing - Agency or In-House?

So you’re entering the China market soon. Should you hire an in-house team to do the marketing or hire an agency?

I’m interested in your opinion, please leave it in the comments. First I’ll share my own.

I’ll share some of the pros and cons of each method, including a few hidden risks you might now have considered. Finally, I’ll talk about hybrid approaches.

2017 WeChat Official Account Verification Policies for Foreign Universities

This blog post is written by our lead social marketer Estrella Yang.

“Can we promote our university with WeChat in China?”

This is a very common question from clients. Yes, everyone can promote their brand with China’s most popular social media marketing tool - WeChat. But using a verified WeChat official account will help you stand out.

WeChat's New Pay-to-Read Feature: What Is It and How Can Brands Use It?

Recently, a well-known technology blogger Keso posted a WeChat moment, saying "the WeChat official accounts pay-to-read feature is a little bit late, but it's finally coming".

His post attracted everybody's attention and then he said, the specific launch time still remains unknown, but Pony Ma (the president of Tencent) said it would be ready right away.

Chinese & Western Marketing Channels Don’t Match Up (or Why You Need a Chinese Marketing Manager)

I’ve had the chance to see a lot of different organizations expand their marketing reach to China, and I’ve carefully watched the different organizational structures they use.

The two most common structures I see are functional and geographical.

By “functional”, I mean that the organization is broken down by marketing channel. The organizational chart may look something like this:

Weibo Advertising: 10 Tips to Maximize Results

Weibo's "Fan Connect" advertising platform is one of our favourite promotional channels nowadays. It's quite powerful, but only when used properly.

The reason Weibo advertising is so powerful is that you can target users based on a variety of factors, and then spread your message via their social connections. When a Weibo user's friend likes, shares or comments on a Weibo Fan Connect ad, they'll see the ad too. Chinese Internet users respond very strongly to brands that their friends like.

4 Canadian Brands That Should Expand to China

As a consumer in both Canada & China, sometimes I come across Canadian brands that seem like they could be very successful in China. But why aren't the trying harder?

Tim Horton's

Perhaps the most iconic Canadian-style brand to Canadians, Tim Horton's seems like an easy match for China.

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Chinese Marketing - 5 Keys to Success Learned From 200+ Campaigns

We’ve been involved in over 200 Chinese-language marketing projects for foreign companies. There’s definitely a pattern behind the successful campaigns, and that pattern has shifted a bit in the 8 years I’ve been specializing in Chinese-language marketing.

For our updated 2016 model, we break it down into 5 “keys” to implementing a successful marketing campaign in China. I’ll start with the 3 keys that most of the Western marketers that contact us tend to agree with, then move on to the less obvious, but still very important, final 2.

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“Can we promote our university with WeChat in China?”

Tim Horton's