In my previous posts, I’ve described how WeChat has moved beyond online marketing and e-commerce to become a cogent element in more conventional marketing areas. This is increasingly the case even in respect to the traditionally face-to-face marketing channel of business meetings, technical conferences, tradeshows, exhibitions. Indeed, recent additions to WeChat’s event-management and -marketing features are helping relatively unknown companies such as startups to get attention and to sell products and also making it much easier for foreign brands to gain exposure and market share among Chinese customers.
This is because WeChat’s events-marketing platform offers a wide array of features that enable companies to leverage the value of their live events by enabling digital marketing tailored to groups and individuals. The benefits of WeChat event-digitalization include streamlined event promotion and extensive registrant and attendee data gathering capability. Moreover, WeChat offers event sponsors and exhibitors the ability to augment attendee’s event-floor experiences by giving them access to related on-line content as well as the means to interact with company representatives through on-line engagement. This holds true both during the show and afterwards, since, rather than use business cards, many China event attendees and exhibition visitors simply exchange WeChat invitations and then join one another’s WeChat networks, which greatly simplifies and enhances the potential of post-show personal and marketing communications.
In addition to enabling targeted marketing promotions, WeChat’s events-marketing platform enables administrative functions such as seat- and floor-map management, attendee registration, visitor ticketing, and general calendaring and scheduling ability, including the capacity to send automated reminders and confirmations.
As a result of its wide-ranging event and other marketing capabilities, companies of all sizes are discovering that WeChat is a cost-saving and highly effective tool for making new business contacts and penetrating diverse industries and market segments in China. For an example of an EMEA-based company’s productive use of WeChat at a Shanghai trade show, see ”Foreign Small and Medium-sized Firms See Opportunities at CIIE [China International Import Exposition],” from a recent edition of the respected China general and business publication China Daily.
Please look for my next post, in which I’ll discuss more APAC (Asia-Pacific) marketing challenges and potential solutions.
Shirley Zhang, Social Media and Asia-Pacific Marketing Practice Director — Gilbért, Flossmann & Zhang Worldwide, Shanghai
Contact GF&Z at solutions@globalmarcomm.com for more information on events marketing and management in APAC, EMEA, and the Americas.