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In this episode of Daxue Talks Olivier Verot, a digital marketing specialist, answers to the question of what are the trends for B2B marketing in China.

Full transcript below:

Have you witnessed any B2B O2O strategies that connect both offline and online?

Yes, for that there is WeChat. Basically, with a QR code, you can link people that you meet offline to your WeChat account or your CRM. Let me explain to you how it works. So, you’re going to a far, and instead of distributing brochures with all the information, you can give them your QR code that is linked to an online brochure on WeChat. The second thing you can do is that when you distribute your name card with the QR code on it. People will directly receive a link to your WeChat account, and they will receive an introduction to your company. So, it connects the offline world to the online world. There is another way to use it as advertising in some special events. If people want to know more, they can simply scan the QR code. Also, if you participate in a conference and you are the speaker. There might be a lot of people that would want to ask you for information. What you can do is to display your QR code and people can simply scan it and learn about your company, your experience in the industry or your case studies. So, it is efficient. 

The question that most companies need to ask themselves about O2O strategies, is, why should we do that? The real reason is to connect the online world to the offline world and to keep contact with these people that ask for information. You can then try to meet them, promote your services or products, or put these contacts in a special CRAM so, basically keep track. It is a way to keep connected with the people you have met. They will receive more information and have the opportunity to have a second thought. For B2B transactions, you need several meetings and touchpoints. So, in the end, it is not really offline to online but more to multiply the touchpoint with your target.

Is KOL marketing big in B2B businesses?

It can be, but it is not popular. Most of the time there is not really KOL because B2B happens in niche sectors most of the time. If the market is big, there can be some KOLs. For instance, there are some in e-commerce because the market is large. In general, you use KOL so that they speak about your company and then you can gain some traffic. For B2B, this strategy does not work. What works it to have the credibility through a KOL. If you are doing e-commerce and a specialist talk about your company, then you will receive a credential and you will be able to use it later for potential leads. Imagine that Jack Ma says that your company is doing a good job. This would maybe bring a bit more customers on your website but that would not be significant. But, if you reuse what it says about your company to create marketing content, then it will have a great impact. So, KOLs can be useful to gain credibility.

What kind of formats need to be developed by B2B companies to enter the Chinese market by format we would like to investigate. Is it a video, a text, an image, KOLs, a sponsorship or something else?

The videos are taking more and more space in the B2B industry because they are more engaging. Pictures are also good. In marketing with say that a picture is equal to 1000 words and a video is equal to 1000 images. So, we recommend using pictures to show your product, to show what you are doing. Visuals are often better and after this, you can use texts. If you want to use banners, I would not recommend using it too much. Chinese people do not trust ads except if they already know the company. So, banners or ads can be used in the retargeting strategy. So, people go to your website, look up for information, you then put a cookie and you can track the leads for 15 days to 6 months. During all this time, people will see banners of your company so it will remind them who you are and what you provide.

Daxue Talks is a show powered by daxue consulting, a china-based strategic market research company founded in 2010! With Daxue Talks, you will stay up to date with all the latest business updates in China.