Business Uses for WeChat

A new trend that will dominate digital media is mobile instant messaging or MIM. The tricky part will be how marketers use this to interact with their clients. With the help of WeChat, that was launched back in 2011, small companies are able to compete with the big dogs.

Here are some ways you can take advantage of using WeChat for your business:

Use Verified Accounts: Individuals can follow verified brand accounts by either getting a member of their WeChat network to share their account or scanning a QR Code. High quality creative content is key to attract audiences. The verified account allows a brand to post rich media content including audio messages, videos, photos and text to followers of their WeChat stream.

Use Membership Functions to Convert Followers: WeChat membership functions can actually convert your followers into members. The functions create loyalty programs where individuals can use their geo-localized membership cards to pair up with users by their WeChat ID or phone number. This allows brands to adapt their marketing content and highlight sales promotions to a certain section of consumers.

There are three typical ways to apply WeChat into your marketing activities:

Issuing a virtual VIP card.

Sending promotional offer notifications.

Delivering e-coupons.

To initiate business interactions with your customers a welcome message is a crucial step, especially for newbies. You can also ask questions to convert inquiries to several sets of prescribed answers. To respond correctly to your customers, you can use five types of content including text, audio, visual, video and text+visual. In addition, you can also choose to respond with a URL of a mobile-friendly site. Most importantly, the conversation remains confidential between you and your fans unless you or your fans wish to spread it out.

Use WeChat QR Codes to Promote Your Brand: You can actively convert fans through various means. One such means is to make your brand’s QR Code featured in all point of purchase materials. Always give your consumers a reason to scan your QR code. A few inducements, such as top up promotion for a purchase, discounts, lucky draws, souvenirs or a free WiFi pass code are always appreciated.

Incentivize to Entice Followers: WeChat’s API allows you to integrate the services into mobile apps to entice followers. However, consumers who follow a business on WeChat should be given a motivation to sign up. Offer prizes, POS promotions, pictures or entertainment to optimize your conversion rate.