1. Know the right tools
Swiss and Liechtenstein SMEs primarily export to China in the watch and precision instrument, pharmaceutical and chemical industries as well as the engineering industry. Having a suitable local business partner in these areas is often useful and sometimes unavoidable. But how do you find the right people in the B2B sector? One way is digital marketing, which works differently in China than in western countries:online tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or even Google are either blocked or not widely used in China. The Chinese have therefore developed their own applications; Swiss and Liechtenstein exporters must be familiar with WeChat and Baidu in particular. First, we’ll focus on Baidu: The company was founded in 2000 and is the search engine with the largest market share in China. Since it is developed and used in China, it accordingly focuses on Chinese factors when ranking websites.
2. Use Baidu carefully
Baidu thus privileges internet sites in its search results that have a top-level .cn domain; it also gives a higher ranking to websites that are hosted in China. This means that Swiss and Liechtenstein SMEs need to think carefully about where and how to set up their website for search engine optimization. In addition to these technical decisions, companies must be aware that all content should be composed using Simplified Chinese characters. The actual content of the website is also decisive for success on Baidu. The government has defined a blacklist of words: as soon as a website displays any of these words, it is no longer displayed on Baidu. However, it is not just search engine optimization that is crucial for Swiss and Liechtenstein SMEs, but also search engine marketing. Baidu offers its own pay-per-click service. Its features enable you to increase the visibility of your ads and strengthen brand awareness among your audience. And this can be worthwhile: with a population of 1.3 billion people and over 700 million internet users, China has enormous potential.
3. Use WeChat as support
WeChat should also not be overlooked for your activities in China. The software was released in 2011 and has since developed into a super app. It is a platform with 700 million users worldwide that has also changed the world of business in China. WeChat offers companies three important functions: e-commerce, brand communication and customer service. In the B2B sector, brand communication and customer service via WeChat could be particularly exciting for Swiss and Liechtenstein companies. They can consolidate their brand through WeChat, take sales support measures, generate leads and maintain customer relationships with after sales services. Businesses need to consider whether and how they can interface with WeChat to capture and implement customer experience and customer information in their own relationship manager systems.
Whether WeChat or Baidu, digital marketing is important in China to be taken seriously a company and make the right contacts. It therefore pays to immerse yourself in the Chinese digital world and acquire the necessary knowledge!
