Product Sampling: 3 Waves for WeChat Marketing during the Golden Week
The 5.1 Golden Week holiday presents a significant opportunity for retailers to capitalize on the influx of mainland Chinese tourists visiting Hong Kong, with their spending power increasing by 30% during this period. Distributing product samples is a commonly used marketing tactic. However, without a strategic approach, one-off product sampling can result in wasted resources, with some businesses wasting as much as 20% of their budget on misguided marketing efforts.
Retailers Faced Common Challenges during the 5.1 Holiday:
Missed opportunities for data collection are common in one-off sampling campaigns. Especially with Chinese visitors returning to China, retailers find it difficult to connect with them and collect valuable customer data. According to Forbes, businesses that leverage their data have 23 times more chances to acquire customers. By not collecting customer data in a one-off sampling campaign, this opportunity is lost.
Moreover, one-off sampling limits customer engagement, which a study by Adobe discovered that repeat customers, who engage with a brand over a longer period, purchase 30% more items than first-time shoppers. This highlights the importance of continued engagement, which one-off sampling might not provide.
The Solutions:
Retailers can benefit from WeChat’s marketing strategies to enhance their product sampling initiatives. With 1.33 billion users in China, integrating WeChat with product sampling can cultivate relationships with potential customers and drive more consistent sales. According to McKinsey & Company, 31% of respondents made purchases from a brand because they followed its official WeChat account.
To get started, collect customer information at sample distribution, target your ideal customer profiles, and offer free samples and also coupon incentives for their first-time purchase. After they sign up for your WeChat account, you can set up an automated WeChat journey from educating, engaging, and building trust, to converting them into new customers.
Wave 1: Educate and Engage
Since most of the Chinese visitors getting your samples are very likely new to your product or even your brand when they visit Hong Kong, it is crucial to make a decent first impression by sending personalized thank you messages with an introduction of your brand story and value. Followed with a captivating series of informative articles and interactive content via the WeChat platform, they can be well educated with your product, including how-to videos, user guides, and FAQs, where renowned beauty brands like Kiehl’s and Sephora also proved successful.
For example, automating skincare user guide messages for day and nighttime routines enables efficient delivery of the right content at the right time. The beauty of marketing automation is to pre-set your customer journey in which you can send reminders, just at the right timing to those who haven’t clicked your article or video links yet, while it can automatically trigger the next campaign for those who read your message but are not very engaged yet with a 2nd wave campaign.
Wave 2: Establish Trust with Diverse Testimonial Formats
Getting a good impression of your brand is only the first step. Without trust between prospects and brands, they are less likely to convert into new customers. According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from individuals (even if they don’t know them) over brands.
Building trust with your customers can be achieved through the influential use of testimonials from Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) and your satisfied customers. Whether it’s a heartfelt video recounting a customer’s success story with your beauty product, or a detailed written testimonial from a renowned KOL endorsing your skincare line, these diverse formats of testimonials bring forth genuine experiences and resonate deeply with your audience.
Wave 3: Exclusive Coupons for First-time Purchase
High open rates may be achieved in your first 2-wave campaigns, but it is not enough until they finally make a purchase. A RetailMeNot report found that 80% of consumers make their first purchase with a new brand if offered a discount.
Use enticing coupons to encourage customers to buy your full product online even when they return to China. Set up automated reminders via WeChat, boost coupon redemption rates and ultimately capture extra sales. You can even invite them to share your articles with their WeChat friends via Moments in return for a coupon.
After getting an automated customer journey in place, you set your team free more marketing resources for other campaigns and promotion. And this pre-set and automated WeChat marketing journey will run itself to attract more customers and drive sales during special events such as Golden Week.
Conclusion
Product sampling is not just a one-off campaign. By leveraging the power of WeChat marketing, you can effectively engage the wave of potential customers visiting Hong Kong during the Golden Week. The combination of these strategies can easily build a direct connection with your target audience, enhancing the chance of new customer acquisition and repeated purchases even in China.
With our experienced local teams in China and Hong Kong, RADICA is here to support your WeChat Marketing campaigns by setting up all trending functions, like broadcast messages, recommended articles, and cross-channels with behavioural tagging. Contact RADICA now for more details and case references about launching a successful WeChat Marketing automated journey.
Contact US
Features Articles
Get ready to find a professional email marketing company in Hong kong?
About RADICA
RADICA is a Hong Kong leading email marketing solution provider dedicated to accelerating revenue and maximizing customer connection with customer engagement solution in B2B, B2C and E-commerce industries. With RADICA’s advanced onmichannel marketing automation platform RI+, it is much easier and effective to spread out cross-channel messages with automated and personalised journey, even with high volume within short period of time. Our clients ranging from luxury, banking and insurance to food and beverage like Chanel, BEA, LEVI’s, Chow Sang Sang and Starbucks. Since 2000, RADICA as the leading email marketing and CRM agency in Hong Kong have focused on growing the value of their customer database by making wise use of data analytics in direct marketing. Learn more Radica Systems Limited at www.radicasys.com.
