On WeChat, marketing opportunities come along via shared articles on Moments; however, since it’s only possible to share articles from official accounts, businesses on WeChat need to have an official account. On WeChat, content is paramount; the best strategy for marketing content on WeChat is to produce high quality content, as opposed to aggressively promoting it.
Subscription Account vs Service Account
On WeChat, there are two different types of accounts for businesses: subscription and service. They are both valuable for different purposes. With proper documentation, it would be ideal to have both types of accounts when conducting business on WeChat.
Subscription Account
A subscription account doesn’t show up on the user’s menu unless that user is ‘following’ the account; even then, they only appear in a “subscription account” tab under the user’s chats. For subscription accounts, the business owner can push one content per day, which is significantly more than that of a service account. With a verified subscription account, a business owner can link their WeChat account to any website. Overall, subscription accounts are ideal for distributing content over a long period of time.
Service Account
A service account, in comparison, has more features than a subscription account; additionally, they appear in many places in a follower’s WeChat rather than just the subscription tab of their chats. Service account notifications show up just like a regular chat for a follower, and said follower has real-time push notifications – a notification about updates appears immediately on their home screen. Unlike a subscription account, a service account only allows for business owners to push four contents per month. On the other hand, service account owners are allowed multiple tiers of menus on their WeChat page, are able to send recorded messages for customers, are able to create templated (auto-reply) messages that are specific to a customer’s message, and can open an e-commerce store where WeChat handles all business payment processing. As a whole, service accounts are good for promotions.
Moments Advertising
Moments advertising is now available for foreign businesses. Benefits of Moments advertising includes the ability to target by demographics, such as age and gender. Moments advertisements link to a hosted page on Tencent’s server; for users of Moments advertising, restrictions include a maximum 40-character ad description and a maximum of six pictures. Additionally, Moments advertisements are only displayed one time every 48 hours and only to users with more than 500 friends. Businesses that advertise on Moments must have a brand name and a profile picture. Business owners pay by impression, which averages a minimum of 50,000 RMB.
Banner Advertising
Banner advertisements appear on the articles of official accounts; before the advertisements are placed on articles, however, the business owner must reach an agreement with the article owner. Banner advertisers have a performance-based cost.
Key Influencers (Celebrities)
One final way to provide more traction for one’s business is to use key influencers to spread the word.
