In this episode of Daxue Talks Olivier Verot, a digital marketing specialist, talks about mastering B2B online marketing in China.
Full transcript below:
What are the differences between the West and China when it comes to B2B e-marketing?
The main difference for me is the concept of e-reputation. In the West, you look for information, find a potential client and then you send a request. In China, there is one more step. The step that they have is that they will Baidu the name of the company and try to find information to understand if this company is a scam or not. Whether this company is a good one or not, whether they have positive comments or not and fell how the company looks like. In the West, I look for a machine company, I will search on google and send an email with the top 10 companies. I will negotiate with them and look for the best offer. In China, they will just Baidu the top 10 companies and search which are the 5 that have a really good reputation and will only send a request to them. In China, there are a lot of scams, companies that are not professional, a lot of cheaters, and usually, Chinese people like to filter a maximum to avoid these people and the problems they involve.
Which sectors are more suitable for online sales?
All the services industry is very auspicious for online sales. For instance, we are a marketing agency, so, every time you need marketing, service, people will search for an agency for that. It can be all the services that have a very specific requirement and have problems finding specific. So, if you have any problem, for instance, if you need something specific for your office, you will Baidu and find the relevant companies. So, the services are really good for B2B online.
The second category is everything linked to equipment or machinery. All these things where people need to look for information on the internet because the big trades are only taking place once a year. When they have a problem, they will search online for information. So, everything that is linked to industrial production is really good. Also, everything that is niche. It is often really difficult to find a potential supplier that meets your needs. In general, there are only 2 or 3 companies selling the product. So, you need to be visible to companies that may need your product. We believe that online marketing is very good for B2B because it provides leads. In general, you don’t sell online but receive asking. When people have a need, they want to know more and will start to speak to your company. They will save a lot of effort so, it is more efficient for the company.
When doing B2B business, when does it make sense to open WeChat or Tmall stores?
I would say, every company that has spear parts, for example, if you are dealing with a kind of product that is mixed, so products you can sell in a massive quantity. For example, machines or devices. For small equipment that is cheap, it is really good to have an online presence on these accounts. Everything that is a consumer product and can be sold to the company, if you are selling computer devices to a company for instance. So, every time it is a B2B business with a small quantity and small price, it is good to open an account on Tmall or WeChat. If it is more expensive (5000$ usually), you will go through the B2B process. A professional buyer still needs to understand the product, speak with someone and compare the offers
How do you conduct a powerful retargeting campaign for B2B businesses?
The retargeting can only be done with Baidu. Only with the Baidu platform for B2B. It is the only platform that has enough networks. You can connect the Baidu system with your retargeting things. It can retarget what the people search with keywords or binders. It is only Baidu and all the search engines that can do this. Alibaba is retargeting for B2C and most effective for the situation where you are selling your products on Tmall and what to redirect people on another website. So, it is a different target and audience. On the Tencent website, it doesn’t work because they haven’t invested in that at the moment.
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