A roundup of Chinese B2B Marketing stats for 2024
Kawo – a social media management tool in China, has released it’s latest B2B marketing survey across a range of the industries where the UK has a strong position in the China market.
This is a rapid roundup of the stats that are most useful for UK-based B2B businesses selling to China…
Most important channels:
Social media is now the dominant channel for B2B marketing. Interestingly, offline events still hold out against all other digital channels in B2B, so a strategy that combines the two is going to be a powerful one.
Platforms
WeChat absolutely holds the power here, firstly with it’s best known messaging app, then Channels, its video platform.
Douyin, the Chinese TikTok which wasn’t on the radar of B2B a year ago, but now stands out as a viable leadgen platform for B2B.
Weibo has now slid down to the levels of other niche platforms and isn’t a strategic level for most businesses.
What are your social goals?
B2B businesses are being realistic in their goals to create top-of-funnel awareness and not expect too much in the way of direct sales. Social is not seen as a driver of retention & loyalty.
Key Metrics
The prominence of measuring leads shows us how B2B businesses are demanding lead gen results ahead of engagement numbers on social, but tracking through to revenue is still a challenge with long sales cycles.
Post frequency
Most businesses are posting once a week.
Interestingly there are more that post more often, then less often. The more frequent posters tie their content to a consumer end product which has wider appear and more examples of the product in action. (E.g. flavours used in food, fragrances used in perfumes, fabrics used in clothing)
Impact of social media
For all the pressure on social to show a return, one of its biggest impacts is the direct connection with the customer that social channels creaete, and a better understanding of how to serve the market. A solid social strategy is as much about listening as broadcasting content.
Summary
Chinese B2B has adopted a lot of the social practices of the more innovative B2C channels and is learning how to make more engaging content, particularly video, for its emerging millenial and GenZ audiences.
WeChat is the dominant player for it’s messaging and article distribution, but more B2C oriented platforms are making headway, particularly for businesses that serve B2C businesses and can piggy-back on their content topics.
These are trends that we’ve seen play out even pre-2019 and are only set to keep moving as digital natives progress through the workforce.
