What is Baidu Zhidao

Baidu Zhidao (百度知道) literally means Baidu Knows is a Chinese language collaborative Web-based collective intelligence by question and answer which is built and run by Baidu. Like Baidu itself, it relies on self-censorship in order to keep in line with government regulations. It uses user-generated content and is moderated by platform administrators. Any content related to pornography, commercial advertisements, or direct personal attacks are routinely removed.

The test version was launched on June 21, 2005, and turned into release version on November 8, 2005. In essence, Baidu Zhidao is a question-and-answer-based platform, similar to Quora or it’s ugly cousin – Yahoo answers.

A registered user asks a question in which other members are promoted to give answers using credits as a reward. In the meantime, these answers focus on the search result of the same or relevant questions. That is how knowledge is collected and shared.

Question and answer together with the search engine makes it possible for a member to be a producer and a consumer of knowledge, which is often referred to collective intelligence.

Unlike Baidu Baike, the entries in Baidu Zhidao can be manipulated much easier. Large number of entries are questions and answers often created by the same person using multiple accounts. The platform also often turns to a battleground between brands. It is often too easy to damage competitors’ reputation by posting negative content about their specific brand or product.

Baidu Zhidao Marketing Options

First step in marketing with Baidu Zhidao is to research what type questions, that are relevant to your company, have already been asked or answered on the platform. Then you should try to provide the most objective and informative answer with the goal to get upvoted and ranked higher.

Needless to say, it is never a good idea to disclose the fact that the answerer may be associated with that particular company. Obviously, answers from non-biased participants would enjoy greater degree of trust compared to “corporate” ones.

Just like with Baidu Baike, marketing with Baidu Zhidao can also involve Baidu display ads. While there is no guarantee that your ad will show up for relevant search terms, it is still important to update the setting in Baidu Tuiguang (Baidu Adwords) account and adjust the bidding to maximize those chances.

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As China’s largest search engine, Baidu handles approximately 3.3 billion queries per day. In comparison, Google is only slightly ahead with 3.5 billion queries per day globally. Unlike Google, vast majority of Baidu searches come from China.

While Google’s top search results often feature links to Wikipedia, the top results of Baidu searches are very likely to show links to Chinese equivalents of Wikipedia – Baidu Baike along with another high authority site, Baidu Zhidao. Both of them also happen to be Baidu properties.

Considering how the search results on Baidu are structured, it becomes important for brands to have content published on those platforms. If relevant, such content has a good chance of getting some exposure in Baidu top search results.

Let’s have a closer look on those platforms and marketing opportunities with Baidu Baike.

What is Baidu Baike

Baidu Baike (百度百科), which literally means “Baidu Encyclopedia” is a Chinese language, collaboratively-built, web-based encyclopedia that is owned and produced by the Chinese search engine Baidu. The test version was released on April 20, 2006 and within three weeks the encyclopedia had grown to more than 90,000 articles and surpassed the number in Chinese Wikipedia. From January 2018 Baidu Baike has more than 15.1 million articles.

Baidu Baike also contains food recipes, film products, internet programs and video games, as well as their encyclopedic content. However, unlike Chinese Wikipedia, Baidu Baike never gives a strict definition of the difference between an encyclopedia entry and a dictionary entry, which is why there are many explanations about diction and common phrases.

When it comes to locally registered companies, a lot of information is generated by Baidu automatically. There are some data that can be updated manually but the company must first claim the ownership of that page in order to edit it. All updates are subject to approval by platform’s administrators.

All editors need to register an account before editing, and administrators filter all but the simplest edits before they go public. A phone number registered in mainland China is needed to register a new account.

Baidu Baike Marketing Options

There are two main routes for marketing with Baidu Baike. First, the company should claim their page to get editor access to it. This will offer an opportunity to make such page more informative. However, the editor must first register with the real name and local phone number and provide company’s authorization to the platform.

The second method of Baidu Baike marketing involves using Baidu display advertising to increase chances that the company ad would be shown with the relevant search entry. This route requires a company to register Baidu advertiser’s account.

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Here are some of the examples of the most common questions:

• When it comes to China B2B marketing, what tools are the most effective?
• Is it critical to establish B2B company’s presence on Chinese social media and if so, which platforms are the must have?
• How can companies re-purpose their existing campaigns on traditional Western platforms for Chinese market?

In this post we have attempted to consolidate our answers to those questions in an easily digestible Q&A format.

China B2B Marketing Q&A

Q1: What is the significance of digital marketing in the China B2B (Business-to-Business) market?

Chinese workforce is very well connected digitally, hence reaching it via those channels is an effective way to engage with the decision makers at all company levels. A lot of communication is taking place within WeChat, both on one-to-one basis as well as in the groups. Taping into that space can prove extremely beneficial for brands selling products to other companies.

Q2: Are there any differences between B2B and B2C?

Yes, some digital platforms are less suitable for B2B, however that would also depend on the type of business you are in. B2B sales process is generally longer and involves more than a single decision maker while this is usually not the case for B2C. Since there is practically no impulse buying in B2B, the marketing should focus on stressing product’s benefits and establish trust rather than relying on the emotional appeal.

Q3: Should companies manufacturing and distributing industrial goods invest in digital marketing activities – in general and especially in the Chinese market?

Yes but, perhaps, not to the same extend as B2C companies. Depending on the niche, B2B companies should invest in quality content that can be distributed to the target audience via WeChat or company blog.

On the other hand, digital marketing helps to establish brand reputation which goes a long way in developing trust, a critical component in B2B sales.

Q4: What are the most important instruments of digital marketing in China in relation to industrial goods?

In our experience, the most effective tools for such companies are WeChat official accounts, search engine marketing and email marketing. They can target potential buyers at different levels of the sales funnel and, if done correctly, will complement and leverage each other.

Q5: Should all these instruments be used in parallel or does their use depend on product group and target group?

Depending on the niche, some channels can be more of less effective. It also depends on where the potential customer is in the sales funnel: SEM is best for finding new business while WeChat and EDM are best for getting repeated business and strengthening brand image and reputation.

Q6: What hurdles do B2B companies have to overcome if they want to start digital marketing activities in China to reach their target group?

It is unrealistic to only rely on digital tools to grow business in China B2B marketing context. Direct marketing and trade shows should be used in the combination with online platforms.

Both digital and offline methods should ideally complement each other and be a part of coordinated strategy. For example, a sales person meeting with a client should have that client’s email recorded in the email database that will be later used for targeted email marketing campaign (with their permission of course). At the same time, that same sales person should also encourage a client to follow company’s official WeChat account, so he or she will be included in a more extensive long term WeChat based marketing effort in the future.

Q7: What is your opinion on data protection with regard to the collection of personal data using digital marketing tools?

Chinese are generally less concerned with privacy compared to Westerners but there are relevant laws and regulations that must be followed. Cybersecurity law that was adopted about 1.5 years ago is very detailed and fairly complex. Companies who collect and store personal data must make sure to stay in compliance with the law or face heavy penalties.

Q8: Which digital marketing instruments should be part of a strategy for the Chinese market and why?

The big ones are WeChat, Weibo and search engines like Baidu and 360Search. WeChat presence is a must for most brands, but Weibo is more suitable for brands that have a social element in their marketing approach. Baidu and 360Search are used to target potential customers early on in their search or discovery stages.

Q9: Is there a need for a different digital marketing strategy for the Chinese market than, for example, for the European or American market?

There is no direct equivalent to WeChat in the Western markets, and there are no direct parallels with Twitter or Facebook in China. Each Chinese platform is a combination of some of those features. Therefore, copy and paste of Facebook/Twitter marketing to those channels would probably not work.

Brands should familiarize themselves with pros and cons of each platform and adjust their strategies accordingly. For example, the requirements for content size, style and formatting are different among those services and may be suitable for different purposes.

Q10: What approach do you recommend to newcomers to creating a digital marketing strategy in B2B for the Chinese market?

Newcomers should start off investing in SEM and WeChat marketing in combination with traditional direct marketing which is aimed at building networks of business contacts at traditional offline events such as trade shows.

If a foreign company is at the beginning of their journey in Chinese market, they will be better advised to outsource such efforts to professionals.

Q11: How important are defining the target group, analysis and selection of suitable measures and instruments for the creation of a suitable digital marketing strategy?

B2B companies usually have a good idea of who their customers are and what they are interested in. Therefore, detailed definition of target audience like it is common in B2C (psychographics, behaviors, interests etc.) is often less relevant when applied to China B2B marketing context.

Q12: Where do you see opportunities but also risks here?

Prevalence of digital tools in China presents a unique opportunity to have a direct access to customers and engage them on a constant and intimate basis as long as the company can offer good value with their content.

The risk is mainly over-reliance on digital tools neglecting traditional “offline” methods that are still the most effective in building business networks and develop brand trust in China B2B marketing environment.

The post China B2B Marketing Success: 12 Most Common Questions first appeared on Sampi.co.

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First of all, in B2B settings, many stages of this cycle run concurrently rather than sequentially: request for a quote can be issued before all the potential suppliers are contacted and shortlisted or the spec is finalized. Back and forth nature of the buying process means that, in many cases, a customer expects its suppliers to be a part of the requirement definition and even writing a spec.

At times, this apparently hectic process, may simply look like lack of professionalism, which in some cases may just be the case. This often causes Western companies to become frustrated and withdraw too early, much to the delight of local competitors. First implication of this situation would be realization that persistence and patience are crucial in dealing with Chinese businesses.

Western companies are often viewed as very professional when it comes to their product but not flexible enough to be willing to modify their offers to solve a specific business problem.

Second implication can be defined as an expectation of partnership type of relationship with a potential supplier. Chinese companies regard their suppliers as subject matter experts, those who probably understand the technical need better than anyone else and are willing to provide the most suitable solution to their customers.

Western companies are often viewed as very professional when it comes to their product but not flexible enough to be willing to modify their offers to solve a specific business problem. They are often seen as the type of supplier that can’t be a true partner or a long term solution provider that goes much beyond the sale itself.

Chinese competitors are typically much more aware of this aspect of a purchase decision and are willing to adapt their offer to precisely fit the needs of their customers. Most importantly, provided a local competitor has the solution, they are much more patient in their approach, willing to listen and understand precisely what is expected from them.

What would I advise to a Western company? Based on my own experience, I’d simply recommend to act local – adopt local ways of doing things, never get frustrated and always project your willingness to become a partner, not just another supplier. When you meet your customer, don’t just talk about how great your product is – take time to understand what exactly the problem, that they are trying to solve, really is and then adjust your offer accordingly.

Another advice I’d give is always be willing to help to your customer with your expert knowledge. For example, you could offer to come or send an expert to analyze their process that may help them to solve a specific problem. In my company, we sometimes offer free audits that result in a professionally prepared report that summarizes our conclusions regarding process improvement and recommends solutions. Unsurprisingly, besides of obvious benefit of building trust, such approach may give you plenty of opportunities to steer your customers in the direction that benefits you as a supplier as well.

Always remember that choosing a supplier is almost always about minimizing the risk, therefore building trust is the sure way to accomplish that.

The post How to Succeed in B2B Sales in China first appeared on Sampi.co.

The post How to Succeed in B2B Sales in China appeared first on Sampi.co.

Information in today’s digital milieu has always been a double edged sword for sales and marketing. It works for you if you can control it. Information comes from your sales team, your website and your press releases. Outside that – it’s a free-for-all.

As we all know, the latter is the reality. What we often have to deal with is a highly-evolved B2B buyer, someone who’ve searched across several online platforms. And, according to The Digital Evolution in B2B Marketing, a 2014 research conducted by the Marketing Leadership Council of CEB (now known as Gartner) in partnership with Google, this person will not face a sales rep until 57 percent of their buyer’s journey is done.

So, it pays to ask: How do B2B buyers search for tech solutions and how can you ensure you’re there, at every stage of their buyer’s journey?

B2B Buyer Behavior

There have been several studies on today’s buyer behavior, and one stand-out commonality is that B2B buyers go online first before reaching out to a sales team (if ever they do).

A 2014 research by the Acquity Group, a digital marketing company under Accenture, pegs the number of B2B buyers who do online research at 94 percent. This is further broken down to the top go-to sites. Business websites lead at 84.3 percent; this is followed closely by 77 percent who turn to Google search. Other notable online resources include third party websites (34%), such as blogs and industry websites, and online user reviews (41%).

Analytics Advocate at Google Adam Singer confirms this at a ClickZ Live conference in San Francisco and adds that a person, on average, checks out 10.4 online resources before reaching out to a sales rep.

The Digital Age Buyer’s Journey

The fact that a buyer faces a sales rep only at 57 percent into the journey is perhaps not the most disconcerting finding to come out of these recent B2B buyer studies. It also raises a red flag that a lot of people are looking for a self-service buying experience. 31 percent say they prefer an unassisted online purchase, with phone support only as a just-in-case. Another 10 percent say they want zero assistance; while 12.5 percent say they want to be walked through the purchasing process.

You can’t help but wonder where in the digital age buyer’s journey would the sales team figure in?

According to the CEB study, you only get a 12 percent mindshare (public awareness) for each typical buyer who goes through the buyer’s journey. This share spans across a variety of channels.

The Salesforce’s Pardot survey, 2013 State of Demand Generation Report, claims that 71.7 percent of buyers start with a Google search. This is followed by personal networks at 15.6 percent and social networks at 2 percent.

This brings us to a familiar B2B scenario, typical in today’s buyer’s journey: Say that your company is looking for a CTI solution that integrates your phone systems to your CRM. You get on the project and do an online research. This leads you to a variety of business websites, such as Salesforce and Tenfold. You also look into industry forums to see what your peers have to say about the many vendors in the CTI market. You read blogs, reviews and how-to’s to see if the system suits your requirements and has the flexibility that you need. Through your research, you come up with the top 3 vendors, which you then invite to present and bid.

This might sound like a good deal because a sales-ready buyer comes to you. But, consider too that in no part of their buyer’s journey are you able to influence and educate.

Instead, you function only as an order taker. Your buyer already has a preconceived idea of what you offer. It can be hard to sway them otherwise – unless you can overcome the three main hurdles in B2B marketing and sales: ineffective digital integration, unfocused content and an unoptimized mix of online channels.

Know the Modern B2B Buyer

But first, let’s get to know who the modern B2B buyer is.

The Millennial Influence

Forget what you believe in when it comes to the B2B buyer. He or she isn’t middle-aged and working a managerial or executive position. In fact, the B2B buyer is getting younger!

The Pew Research Center has found that millennials are the biggest generation cluster in the American workforce today. There is more than one millennial in every three employees in the job market. And, they are working closer and closer towards positions of influence, when it comes to B2B purchases.

According to a 2014 survey conducted by Google and research company Millward Brown Digital, millenials make up 46 percent of prospective B2B buyers. This data is up from 2012’s 27 percent, which signifies the growing influence of this generation.

Director of Business and Industrial Markets for Google, Mike Miller, says that this represents a “big shift in a two-year time span.” He believes that this is partly due to the retirement of baby boomers. A new powerhouse generation is emerging in the lead.

This requires rehashing old B2B marketing strategies that usually target senior-level executives. While millennials may still not hold positions of power, their influence is clear. They make up 24 percent of non-executives tasked to help in B2B purchasing decisions. This is a generation who grew up at a time when mobile phones and the internet were readily available. You can be sure they will use these access and mobility tools in B2B research and recommendations.

The Multiple-Channel B2B Buyer

The multiple-channel buyer is always connected and researching online through mobile phones, tablets and desktops. They have mobility and access. They read your websites, reviews and blogs; and might have even downloaded one of your demos. They attend conferences and seminars – sometimes online – to learn about industry breakthroughs and innovations. They can cover multiple channels partly because they’ve fully integrated mobility and the internet into their lives.

According to the Google/ Millward Brown Digital study, by 2014, 34 percent of those involved in B2B purchasing decisions use their mobile devices at each stage of their buyer’s journey. This is almost twice the devoted mobile users/ B2B buyers of 2012. Mobile phone usage extends to work places and social gatherings; and includes requests for bids, product comparisons, video viewing and contacting the vendor.

The increase in video viewing is another metric attributed to the multiple-channel buyer. According to YouTube, more than 895,000 hours of videos viewed are those by top B2B brands. In fact, 70 percent of those surveyed by Google say they use videos to learn more about products before making a purchase.

Information Overload

The availability of seemingly limitless information empowers the new B2B buyer. And because they access content at each step of their buyer’s journey, you too must be on this content train.

According to the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs’s 2016 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America, 88 percent of marketers implement content marketing strategies. 76 percent of these say that they will include content marketing allocation by 2015. On average, 28 percent of the marketing budget go to content marketing. However, those who are most effective at it spend around 42 percent.

So, remember that the modern B2B buyer is swimming in a sea information. Your share shouldn’t just be a forgettable drop.

Influencing the Digital Age Buyer’s Journey

Perhaps there are several strategies you can study and implement in order to influence the new B2B buyer. However, at the core of it will always be the actions you take in dealing with modern B2B marketing and sales’ main hurdles: digital integration, content and channel mix.

Comprehensive Digital Integration

Your effective presence online should cease being treated like an annoying fly buzzing and tweeting about. Traditional marketing campaigns have been rendered obsolete by B2B buyers who are empowered with information. Their product learning can’t coincide with your campaign plans because they go about it on their own, online.

Here are a few steps to take to start a comprehensive digital integration program, according to the Marketing Leadership Council of CEB:

1. Document existing campaign architectures. Make sure to take note of effective strategies and their output.
2. Review marketing practices to see what works and what doesn’t. A dialogue with the sales and marketing team is necessary to get to the real score regarding these practices.
3. Observe and analyze external practices that have worked to get you closer to your goals.
4. Select, codify and implement best practices.
5. Recreate the campaign architecture and refine practices that don’t work as expected.
6. Repeat the process until you reach your ideal.
7. Put together an implementation guideline, as well as an accessible resource center for the guidelines, necessary tools and other information regarding your digital integration.

Purposeful and Focused Content

Many B2B marketers have taken on content marketing like it was the latest must-have trend. This has resulted in content that’s highly unorganized and lacks a consistent and purposeful message. You then get a whole slew of problems, such as prospective buyers swimming in a sea of useless information. This type of information does not really teach them well; and, it does not engage them enough to take the next step in their buyer’s journey with you.

There are several realities that might have factored into this situation. For instance, your web team may have been focused on ranking your website in search results, without being consistent and driving your true message. You might have outsourced your social media management, without providing guidelines on your corporate messaging.

It is important to rectify this, as soon as possible, because your customer engagement is centered on your content. It comes in at all stages of the buyer’s journey. It is at the core of your lead nurturing programs, and online and social media engagements. And, it is everyone’s responsibility – not just your copywriter’s.

This is where the so-called “coverage orientation” comes in. B2B marketers pinpoint topics that interest your target audience, and ensure that you consistently offer fresh content for each topic, through content development and curation. This can be a fruitful content marketing strategy, as long as you have a good understanding of your customers.

Make sure that you cover all your customers’ information requirements. This way, even as they learn about your product on their own, the information that they get still aligns with what you truly offer.

Smart, Targeted Channel Mix

Given several online channels, where should you invest in? Which channels will bring the most qualified leads? Should you invest in creating YouTube videos or simply blogging? Does your target audience need whitepapers or an online archive of manuals, issue reports and resolutions?

There are many ways to develop a targeted channel mix. However, the first step is to recognize your traditionally fragmented approach. The marketing team might be taking care of blogs and other creative text content. Your tech team might have been tasked with putting together your FAQs, whitepapers and other support pages. You might have outsourced your video production to an ad company, and your social media management to an SMM company.

However you’re doing it right now, it is important to account for your efforts, and assess your channel effectiveness. The metrics to use here are often readily available with the team tasked with each channel assignment.

Then, invest more in an expert analytics professional, someone who can accurately assess your channel efforts and audience response. Use your findings to put together a model channel mix, one that suits your target market and gets your messaging right.

Chase Davis is Account Executive – CX Consultant at Tenfold

The post How B2B Buyers Search for Tech Solutions first appeared on Sampi.co.

The post How B2B Buyers Search for Tech Solutions appeared first on Sampi.co.

There are several reasons for this trend:

1. First is the natural growth of businesses is driving the demand for office supplies. More offices, big or small, are being opened, existing offices expanded or moved to larger facilities;
2. Then there is a drive to save cost. Buying online allows making purchases fast and efficient. Products and brands can be easily researched and prices compared finding the best value;
3. Finally, proliferation of Chinese ecommerce and general public’s familiarity with it, is making the transition and acceptance of online procurement a more natural process;

Chinese B2B Ecommerce figures

As noted by China Internet Watch, enterprise online purchases have been growing particularly fast since 2010 when the government first introduced new policies to support ecommerce and e-businesses. As the trend continues, it is predicted that Chinese B2B ecommerce market will increase at the annual growth rate of 30% for the next 3 years.

Another interesting fact is that, as of H1 2015,  Jingdong (JD.com) holds the largest market share (39.4%) in this particular segment of Chinese ecommerce. It is followed by Alibaba with 18.1% and Suning at 10.9%. The rest is shared between Amazon China, Gome, Yihaodian, Dangdang and others.

This also shows that Jingdong has definitely been on the rise in 2015, taking even larger share of ecommerce away from Alibaba. They are focusing on their traditional strong areas such as appliances and electronics which, incidentally, are the products that businesses tend to purchase.

According to H1 2015 statistics, computers accounted for almost 40% of all online purchases in Chinese B2B ecommerce segment, followed by basic office supplies at 22.7%, mobile communication devices (16.5%) and other digital products such as electronic appliances and networking equipment (7.7% and 3.4% respectively).

This means that if your company is selling products in any of the above categories, Jingdong could be one of the sales channels to consider setting up. Targeting businesses through advertising within Jingdong is another element that should be incorporated with the overall B2B marketing strategy. Such ads should be tailored specifically to speak to the needs of office based businesses, stressing the overall utility, better service and cost savings.

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In-time Email Delivery

There are several reasons why email delivery can be delayed.

1. The email has faced greylisting, which means the email has been temporarily rejected because the sender does not recognize it. Usually it happens when a campaign for this user is sent for the first time or you haven’t sent campaigns in at least three months. When an email is greylisted, spam filters of the receiver’s server check for the sender’s IP address, sender domain and sender email. If the email is not accepted, it will be returned (in campaign statistics you will see it as soft bounce). Read more about how email bounces can affect deliverability.
2. The ISP has set restrictions on how many email messages the server can receive from one sender IP address per one hour or day.
3. The email has been blocked because it was sent from IP address or domain with a bad reputation.

If in the email content there is a link to the Internet resource with a bad reputation, for example, if the website is blacklisted, it will affect email delivery and email may not land in the inbox folder. There are several online services where you can check if your email domain is blacklisted. One of them is www.spam10.com. Keep in mind however, that the service has limited access to Chinese black lists. The most popular Chinese email blacklist service is this one: http://www.anti-spam.org.cn/

Sender IP Address Reputation

Your sender IP address reputation can be affected by several factors:

• the email campaign has been sent to a spam trap
• the email campaign with spam-like content has been sent to a large email list
• after receiving a campaign, many recipients have reported abuse
• the email campaign has been sent to a large amount of non-existing emails or hard bounces

There are several online services where you can check the sender reputation. One of the most popular is www.senderscore.org. This service, however, may not give you an adequate picture of sender’s reputation in China.

If a sender has a bad reputation, the email delivery rate will be low. Email can be blocked, returned or land in spam folder. If we haven’t received any negative information about your account, don’t worry – your campaigns are sent from IP addresses with a very good reputation.

Mailigen also offers IP addresses with an outstanding reputation or dedicated IP, which is a paid service. This service means you have a unique IP address used only by you. You will be able to take care of the reputation of this IP addresses by yourself or or allow the Mailigen email delivery professionals to do it. If you are interested in this service, please contact the Mailigen support team.

Abuse

If an email recipient marks your campaign as a spam, his email address will be automatically deleted from your list, and in the report section, he will be listed as abuse. If you ignore this and continue to send email campaigns to this address, your messages will automatically land in spam folder or will become blocked bounce. If a campaign receives too many complaints, it affects IP reputation, and as a result, emails from this IP address will be automatically moved into the spam folder even for those users who want to receive your email campaigns.

Because of large number of abuse, delivery may become slower, sending less emails per hour. As a result, emails can get stuck or IP address can even be blocke. This will cause no further email to be sent from you.

For example, Microsoft uses SmartScreen filter. If a large number of email recipients mark your message as spam, your messages will land in the spam folder as long as part of those recipients mark your messages ”this is not spam.”

If your abuse rate is 0.1% or 1 complaint in 1000 email recipients, then you should pay attention to email marketing best practices and try to improve your email content, remind people how they got on your email list or why they should continue to read your emails.

There are several types of abuse

1. If the campaign was sent to an old email list and recipients forgot when and where they signed up for your newsletters.
2. The campaign was sent to a single-opt-in email. It means people filled in your sign-up form but they didn’t confirm their email addresses. If you have a single-opt-in form in your webpage, we advise you to change it to a double-opt-in form in order to prevent situations when someone puts crooked emails in your subscription form.
3. People signed up for newsletters once a week but you send them every day.
4. Recipients think your campaign is spam-like.
5. Recipients have no interest in your campaign or they hoped for something different when subscribed to your newsletters.

Email campaigns must always contain an unsubscribe link, however, not all recipients use it to unsubscribe. Instead, disappointed recipients mark message as spam because it’s easier and faster than looking for the unsubscribe link. Anti-spam experts recommend not clicking on any link included in an email message because that will indicate that the email address is active and spammers will continue to send messages.

To reduce the abuse rate, Mailigen recommends:

• seek to improve your email design and content to grow interest in your campaign
• put an unsubscribe link both on the top and on the bottom of email
• put a permission reminder in email content, so recipients can see when, where and how they subscribed for yours newsletters

If you want to find out more about email delivery or want to improve your delivery results, contact Mailigen team and we will help you!

Aleksandrs Vilums is System Analyst & Email Compliance of Mailigen, primary email marketing provider.

The post What Affects Email Delivery in China? Part 2 first appeared on Sampi.co.

The post What Affects Email Delivery in China? Part 2 appeared first on Sampi.co.

At the moment, Tianji has established itself as a leader in China’s online professional networking.Launched in 2005 by France-based Viadeo, it claims 20 million users at the moment, although true figures are hard to verify. With its clean and professional design, Tianji continues to attract business minded individuals across various industries and geographical areas in China.

In contrast with relatively limited advertising opportunities on Ushi, Tianji offers plenty of marketing options to marketers. Most placement models are CPM based but there are options for full continuous 24 hours ad display too. There are close to 50 different types of ads that can be placed with Tianji. Here is an overview of some of the options:

Ads on Tianji homepage

Homepage：www.tianji.com/home

Price: CPM based, RMB120-140

Ads on My Information Channel

Price: CPM based, RMB100-140

Ads on Tianji Company Channel

Price: CPM based, RMB100-140 or 24 hours of continuous display priced from RMB 120 to 3,000 depending on the size and location.

The cheapest option is that section (RMB 120 per 24 hours) would be displaying a company logo as shown on the right:

Ads on Tianji Events Channel

Those are quite similar to homepage style of ads but are displayed in the Events panel of Tianji site

Price: CPM based, RMB100-140

Ads in Tianji Newsletter

Ads can also be placed in Tianji Newsletter that is regularly sent out to users. A single placement would cost RMB 4 and minimum 50,000 mailings must be purchased at once. This means that one such campaign would reach RMB 200,000 for just one minimal mailing. Tianji Newsletter with an ad looks like this:

There are several more ads placement in other sections of the site, such as in Groups (similar to Events), as well as in users Inbox page and Weekly Updates.

In conclusion, while advertising options with Tianji are plentiful, especially compared to Ushi, the required budget for any meaningful marketing campaign can easily reach into hundreds of thousand RMB. Unfortunately, CPC advertising model is not available with Tianji making it harder for advertisers to judge the effectiveness of such campaigns and their ultimate conversion rate.

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One of the most popular sites is called “Ushi” (优士 yōushì) which means “outstanding professionals” in Chinese, with a double meaning of “competitive advantage”. The majority of Ushi’s 1 million plus members are concentrated in Tier 1 cities. While 1 million doesn’t sound like a lot in China, Ushi claims to attract higher quality users compared to other networks.

At the moment, in order to be able to advertise on Ushi, signing of a minimum 3 months contract is required. In general, Ushi’s advertising options are heavily geared toward recruitment: the ads can be linked back to a recruitment pages within Ushi where potential candidates can learn more about available opportunities and HR contact details.

Here is how a banner ad on Ushi would look like:

Additionally, Ushi development team will create a customized Company Page for you within the Ushi.com site. This page will be searchable by standard search engines, and Ushi members will be able to “follow” the site to receive updates on new opportunities. Ushi website can be integrated into a broader social-media HR strategy if necessary. The company page would look like this:

In case of advertising jobs, the “followed” companies will appear in the user’s  menu for easy access:

In addition, all Ushi members receive a weekly Newsletter from the network, which includes updates on activity within their profile. This will include a prominent advertisement for you within this newsletter:

For brand advertising, Ushi would typically offer a customized campaign aimed at engagement. An example would be a recently completed campaign for Hilton Hotels. The purpose of the Hilton campaign was to drive high-value brand engagement with Ushi members by having them comment on a key discussion topics. To “qualify” as a successful “interaction” in this campaign, Ushi members needed to leave a substantial comment that was publicly-available to other members:

Another example of brand engagement campaign is the one for British Airways which was organized in a form of a quiz on British etiquette. The participants were quizzed on various UK related topics from golf and business to education and real estate. On a completion of the quiz, the participants would be able to enter a lucky draw :

In conclusion, advertising on Ushi does not follow CPM or CPC based model but instead focuses on customization and engagement. While it’s a promising approach, it currently lacks flexibility and doesn’t take advantage of Ushi’s ability to learn about their users in order to target them more accurately. Also, a 3 month contract would cost approximately 100,000 RMB which isn’t exactly an affordable option for smaller budget advertisers.

Next I will review advertising on Tianji.com, the largest online professional network in China.

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So far, professional networking sites in China haven’t reached the same popularity as in the West. LinkedIn has never been a big hit in China and was only able to catch on with English speaking professionals and expats. The reasons for this situation are mainly cultural, as well as technological:

• Chinese are typically less inclined to connect with strangers online in professional settings. They still prefer to get to know a person face to face before connecting online;
• People who have been developing their networks of important connections over the years would be guarding it very carefully and are less inclined to share it with others;
• Once two Chinese professionals get to know each other, they would be much more comfortable to keep in touch via WeChat – a much faster and straightforward way to communicate;
• The additional reason that contributes to the lack of enthusiasm to connect with strangers is proliferation of fake credentials and bogus diplomas;

Despite numerous predictions of “explosion” of professional networking sites in China over the years, the growth has been modest. However, with increasingly westernized ways of connecting with people in China, the growth in professional networking space is no longer a matter of “if” but “when”.

In addition, professional networking site of sufficient size, could be an excellent platform for targeted advertising. What could be more efficient than being able to promote your products or services within a specific industry or have an opportunity to reach the right individuals?

Here is the brief overview of major native Chinese professional networking sites:

Tianji.com

Tianji is emerging as a leader in China’s online professional networking. Launched in 2005 by France-based Viadeo, it claims 20 million users at the moment, although true figures are hard to verify. With its clean and professional design, Tianji continues to attract business minded individuals across various industries and geographical areas in China. In addition, Tianji offers myriad of different advertising options which I’ll be reviewing in subsequent post.

Ushi.cn

Perhaps, the most well known outside of China thanks to its optional English interface, Ushi was founded in Beijing by Dominic Penaloza and Quentin Zhang. In 2012 it claimed to have 1 million users but it’s not clear how much it has grown since then. The design is very similar to LinkedIn, although it lacks many of its competitors features.

Advertising options are somewhat limited, especially compared to Tianji but it still can be an efficient platform to reach specific individuals in various industries. English version, while convenient for foreigners and expats, seems to be much less robust and user friendly compared to the main Chinese one.

Wealink.com

This site has been around for a while but its popularity seems to be declining. Although, Wealink claims to connect 5 million users, it doesn’t come across as professional and neat as Tianji or Ushi. My guess would be that it’s far more popular with job seekers and entry level professionals.

Renhe.com

Renhe has been around for over 9 years but fell behind Tianji. In 2012, it claimed 5 million users which is still impressive. On the features side, it lacks innovation although it still tries to keep up with the more popular sites.

Zhaopin.com

This is a typical Chinese site with lots of flashy banners and loud ads that gives you an instant headache. Advertising on a site like this would probably be quite cheap but just as useless. Surprisingly, designs like this are still fairly popular in China, hopefully not for long. I don’t see much value being on a site like this but listed it anyway for the variety.

There are at least a dozen more professional networking sites that I couldn’t cover: some large ones like Dajie.com claiming a whoping 24 million users (although, highly doubtful figure); Jingwei.com – RenRen’s backed, a hip combination of LinkedIn and Quora; Dragon Business Network (dragonbn.com) that has thousands of members and could be a great place to find consultants, translators and various freelancers (it is also in English) and many more.

In subsequent posts, I will review some advertising options with Ushi and Tianji, which are, in my opinion, still the best platforms out there.

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