However, when marketing a Western education offer to China, the situation is very different, and parents become a key audience. In this article, we’ll look at the reasons behind this and consider some effective approaches.

Why do Chinese parents matter in education marketing?

In China, parents are heavily committed to securing the best university education for their children, and the preparation for higher-level education usually takes place over a period of years, meaning that the final decision is made with great care and involvement.

Not only are Chinese parents dedicated to finding the best choices for their children, but they will tend to finance it, with many Chinese parents having dedicated savings plans for their child’s further education.

Interestingly, Chinese parents are also increasingly behind the decision to study abroad. This means that they will influence the final choice of university and also guide the destination as a whole; recognising that an international career requires first-hand experience of Western life. These parents know that they need to invest heavily in their children’s future careers, and this means paying for a quality Western education and cultural experience that will provide later success, influence and useful networks for career opportunities.

Let’s not forget too that a good Western education is a fantastic mark of success for Chinese families and a source of great pride and prestige within their wider families and communities. All of these factors should be considered when formulating a Chinese digital marketing campaign for your education offer.

How to market your Western education offer to Chinese parents

The first thing to know is that your marketing campaign should include Chinese parents as a distinct target audience, alongside prospective Chinese students. Parents will need different messaging and information, although there will be a high degree of convergence and overlap at times on the content itself. It’s important to target messages in different ways and respond to the different needs of each audience so that each has the information needed to collaboratively make a decision.

Changing needs of Chinese parents

Previously, many Western institutions focused on simply highlighting their performance rankings in a bid to sell their offer to Chinese parents. But this approach has evolved and doesn’t take into account the years of preparation that families will make before sending their children abroad. Chinese parents now look for a broad spectrum of relevant data before making a decision, and the information they seek will go far beyond simple rankings (although these are still important.)

Chinese parents want to assess a potential institution against a range of criteria. These include:

– Opportunities for positive exposure to the local culture
– Future employability
– Personal development opportunities
– Safety and welfare
– Access to networks

For some Chinese families, particularly high-net-worth families, the ultimate selection may also include factors that relate to property, investment decisions and immigration.

How Western universities can market to Chinese parents

Western educational establishments can market their offer successfully by taking the time to craft a well-structured, targeted marketing campaign that makes use of a range of channels, answers the variety of questions that Chinese parents have, and demonstrates the quality and breadth of their offer. Here are some tips for success:

1. Treat parents as a standalone target audience and market to them differently from prospective Chinese students.
2. For the parent audience, begin with hard data such as institution rankings, grades, employment destinations and general performance statistics, but seek to go beyond this with a rich storytelling approach.
3. Talk about the local culture, history of your establishment, local employment prospects, links with employers and commercial opportunities within the geographic footprint. Explain the cultural and development opportunities on offer for Chinese students and the safety and welfare that will be provided.
4. Consider potential pain points for Chinese parents. Safety and welfare are big issues – so highlight the services that you offer to incoming Chinese students to help them settle. These might include access to Chinese language services (including medical services), English language lessons, Chinese-language orientation, Chinese student services and on-site accommodation.
5. Invest in virtual tours of your establishment and the surrounding geography to show the depth and ‘feel’ of the cultural experience. 3D tours and videos can really bring the feel of a campus to life.
6. Promote plenty of case studies from Chinese graduates and alumni, promoting their positive experiences and talking about their employment destinations.
7. Talk about the opportunities for onward travel; using the education institution as a base for broader cultural experience and Western travel. This a key requirement for many Chinese families, so it can be helpful to adopt a tourist mindset!
8. Use a variety of digital channels to engage with Chinese parents, including Baidu PPC, ePR, Chinese social media, localised Chinese websites, but focus on providing the chance for them to chat directly with representatives from the university – in Chinese. Parents will want to discuss their queries and make a considered decision, so this level of care and consideration towards their needs will go a long way,
9. Provide information about business enterprise opportunities for Chinese families who may be considering property and business investment in the local area, with the university course acting as a springboard for further family opportunities, including immigration.
10. Pick out rich and interesting bits of information that bring your academic institution to life. For example, you might have a particular professor who is well-known in the Chinese professional community or a particular link with a large and interesting local employer. You might have department specialisms that offer enhanced employment opportunities to graduates or you may be particularly well known for your legacy and history – offering a strong sense of ‘face’ to graduates.

Expert help with Chinese digital marketing

At Market Me China, we help Western universities, schools and other types of educational establishments to successfully market their offer to Chinese parents and students alike. Our team of native language speakers has the digital marketing skills needed to operate effectively in this vast, complex and lucrative market, and we work flexibly around our clients’ needs; whether you simply need a strategy and support with content, or require a full Chinese digital marketing management service. Please contact us in the first instance for a no-obligation chat and we will be delighted to discuss how we might help you succeed in this exciting growth area.

The post Why Chinese parents matter when marketing your education offer appeared first on Market Me China®.

What matters to Chinese students and their parents?

To maximise those all-important student signups from the China market, you must know what your audience wants. This varies between families, but there are common factors which are vital across the board. Chinese students and their families want to know that your university has a strong reputation, and is welcoming to them, with an emphasis on safety. This means:

a) That your educational institution has a strong reputation, with high-quality teaching, a good university ranking and relevant courses that can be progressed to the highest qualification levels. In China, many larger employers are now screening graduate job applicants based on which university they graduated from, and its ranking. So look at league tables and your position in it.

b) That your university will offer a welcoming environment to Chinese students and plenty of support. Chinese students want to feel safe and welcome, with access to language support, alumni, campus tours and a warm culture. This includes the experience on campus and the surrounding area. Safety is a key priority here too; Chinese students must feel safe in their new environment. On a practical level, this is likely to include access to high-quality accommodation services, buddy systems and language support. Orientation should include areas such as signing up to the local doctor and access to medical facilities.

What marketers should focus on for Chinese student sign-ups

When it comes to successfully marketing your Western institution to Chinese students, there is no quick route to success. To maximise those signups you must have clear insight (based on sound primary research), a strong marketing and communication strategy and the resources needed to deliver everything in a high-quality, timely fashion, adjusting your approach as you go. These are some of the areas to focus on for the best results:

1. Your Chinese language website

Whether it is a microsite or a full website, ensure you have a locally hosted Chinese-language website for your prospective Chinese students. Invest in targeted, localised content with plenty of case studies, results, ranking information and access to user-generated content, with topics such as campus tours, alumni interviews and graduate destination case studies to show the quality of your offer and the potential outcomes for successful graduates in terms of career choices.

Remember too that a mobile app can be very useful in this country of 1+ billion mobile internet users! HE marketers often use dedicated apps that are built to meet segmented demographics. These can contain prospectus information, key data, student services chat, case studies and so forth.

2. Translate marketing materials into Mandarin

Ensure your prospectus, student guides and supporting content are all fully and accurately translated, with careful localisation to avoid any inadvertent errors with nuance and cultural awareness. The Chinese language is highly contextual so native language skills are key!

3. Build your university presence on the right social media sites

University-branded WeChat and Weibo sites are very helpful and you may find that other social media sites are important to your target audience too, especially for certain geographies and Chinese-tier cities. For example, YouKu can be very useful for promoting branded video content that shows the cultural and pastoral offerings at your university. Chinese social media is also far more advanced than in the West, so it offers plenty of interesting opportunities to marketers if they know how to fully use its features. For example, you can run group conversion campaigns with WeChat, where prospective students in China can engage with existing Chinese students from your university in a private digital space of up to 500 users. This helps to build peer-to-peer interaction opportunities and builds enrolment prospects.

4. Get your Baidu SEO and PPC in place

A well-structured Baidu PPC campaign will bring in those clicks to your digital eco-system and Baidu SEO will build your organic search presence over time. Baidu PPC can be very effective in China, although Baidu can be complex to administer. The platform does offer plenty of options for customised advertising, including the CPT auction BrandZone which can offer up to 80% conversions.

5. Invest in ePR

A good online PR strategy will help to enhance your digital marketing, advertising and engagement tactics by placing your university in the publications that your target audience will read. Look for outlets and channels with a respective, authoritative voice in China, and invest in great content filled with reputational pieces, thought leadership, success data and case studies, designed to appeal to Chinese students and their parents alike.

6. Measure, measure, measure… and then refine!

The success of any integrated digital marketing strategy relies on consistent execution, a quality focus and a commitment to ongoing measurement and adjustment of the work you do. To ensure you are getting a clear flow of student sign-ups, really invest in your campaign data to see what is working and what can be tweaked. Use approaches such as A/B testing to refine your approaches and don’t be afraid to adjust campaigns that aren’t quite working. With this attention to robust marketing management, you will see your enquiries and conversions grow.

Find out more

Market Me China is here to help your academic institution to enjoy success in the China market. We can help you identify your target market, build rich insight data to better target your campaigns and then help you craft an integrated, multi-channel Chinese digital marketing campaign that supports your offline efforts (such as events in China) to achieve the best possible results. Our highly experienced digital marketing professionals have the native language skills and expertise needed to help your university attract this exciting, lucrative market, and we work on a flexible basis with our clients as an extension of their team. Please contact us to find out more and discuss your needs.

The post Quick routes to student sign-ups when marketing Education in China appeared first on Market Me China®.

So what does this mean for Western education brands, particularly in terms of communicating the key values and attributes that matter to Chinese students? Here’s what Chinese students – and their parents – want to know before they choose their preferred Western university.

1. What value will your institution provide to my CV?

First and foremost, in common with most Western students, prospective Chinese students want to know what value your institution and their course of interest will provide. This is measured in terms of likely employment outcomes.

Takeaway: Promote your university brand reputation and rankings, your students’ successes and offer a mix of case studies and hard data that demonstrates the quality and relevance of your programmes to future career paths. Really promote results of all kinds with a mix of content across your marketing channels. This could include advertising in target Chinese media and attending educational events in China to promote your offer.

2. What is the history of your university?

Chinese students, and their parents, value the status of a respected, historic university with a powerful reputation. Parents will fight hard to get their ambitious children into the best institutions as it gives them social cachet.

Takeaway: Work your messaging carefully to showcase your institution’s key success factors. This might be its ancient history, or it might be the reputation that the institution has built within a certain professional sector.

3. What courses do you offer?

Chinese students tend to want ‘hard’ subjects that will fast-track them towards careers in business and industry. They want the option to study at higher levels to further their career prospects and give themselves the best possible start.

Takeaway: Offer courses that go up to PhD level and consider offering an MBA as well. Really invest in the quality of your tutors and lecturers – a well-known lecturer with a presence in the Chinese market industry can be a selling point alone. Create detailed prospectuses and websites in Chinese and offer Chinese-speaking advisors to answer questions. This shows respect for your Chinese customers.

4. What are the networking opportunities?

Networks are a powerful business tool, and they are particularly important to Chinese culture. Prospective Chinese students will be very interested in the types of formal and informal networks that exist at your institution and the value these could provide to their professional futures.

Takeaway: Share details of formal and informal networks, clubs, secondments, work opportunities and other types of relevant networks. Include details of focused networks for Chinese students, especially as they navigate life in a new country.

5. What kind of support is there?

Moving from China to study in the West is a huge transition and it can be daunting, particularly for concerned parents! So it’s important to reassure Chinese families that their students will be well supported and looked after when they are away from home. This means putting the right support mechanisms in place, from Chinese-speaking administrators at the university to orientation sessions, Chinese social groups and Chinese language welcome packs.

Takeaway: Work through the process a new Chinese student would experience and ensure the right support is in place to help them navigate accommodation, register with health services, access information and translation and meet new friends. Then communicate this with rich, user-generated content, such as videos shared on the institution’s Chinese social media channels, created by other Chinese students. Informal schemes such as mentoring and pairing can also be a great source of support and reassurance.

6. What will the cultural experience be like?

Chinese students are excited by the prospect of experiencing life in the West, and to gain their independence. So long as this type of freedom is backed up with necessary support, Western universities have a powerful selling point when it comes to their culture.

Takeaway: Invest in rich, varied content that showcases the breadth and variety of campus life to Chinese students. Create videos that show the campus, the social opportunities, the food and the opportunities for local travel. Share student videos and content and offer orientation sessions to newcomers that include guided tours and support with cultural norms and differences. It is also helpful to showcase the language lessons and support you offer to newly arrived Chinese students, who may need a little time and assistance to navigate their new host environment with ease and confidence.

7. Could I live and work in this country after I graduate?

Chinese students may well want the opportunity to work in a Western country after they graduate, so it’s important to share details on likely relocation opportunities. This will demonstrate how your institution could act as a springboard to a rewarding career in a relevant industry, setting them up for the valuable career that Chinese students, and their ambitious parents, desire.

Takeaway: Case studies are a great way to bring this kind of information to life and to show the progression pathways that other Chinese students have taken, from study to graduation and beyond into the Western workplace. Promote ties with local employers, links with local technology, business and science hubs and structured opportunities with partner employers, for example.

8. What is the ROI?

Chinese families see Western education as offering high-value qualifications, cultural experience, language skills and employment opportunities for their children. A high-cachet Western university can be an incredible source of pride for Chinese families, who expect to understand what the return on their investment will look like. Many of these families have significant financial resources at their disposal; it is the job of the institution’s marketing department to clarify the value and leverage that this investment will bring.

Takeaway: Beyond a carefully-delivered, nuanced and multi-channel marketing and communications plan, tailored to the specific needs of Chinese students, the message is to really focus and show care and attention to this particular group of customers. By demonstrating this type of respect and consideration for their needs, you can demonstrate to Chinese students and their families that your institution is the right one for them and that their children will be safe and supported, whilst achieving their goals and ambitions for an exciting future career.

Find out more

Market Me China works with Western higher education institutions to help them develop effective Chinese digital marketing strategies that engage and convert potential students. Our team of native Chinese-speaking digital marketing professionals works with HE institutions flexibly to provide the insight, skills and hands-on marketing support they need to experience success with this exciting, growing and lucrative market of customers. Please contact us to find out more.

The post What Chinese students want to know about Western education brands appeared first on Market Me China®.

This is because Chinese parents take a key role in the decision-making process for their children’s higher education; far more so than they may do in the West. They are extremely dedicated to their children’s education and financially committed to ensuring they receive the best possible results. Studies suggest that around 71% of Chinese parents guide university choices, and 43% have education savings plans in place for their children (compared to 5% of UK parents).

Interestingly, Chinese parents tend to drive the choice of overseas study as well as the eventual choice of institution. This is because they are keen to see their children develop international careers, or to learn from experiences abroad in order to do better in a domestic business environment and to strengthen their CVs. They also hope that overseas study will help their children to create useful networks and to become comfortable with western culture and lifestyles.

What does this mean for Western HE marketers?

HE marketers must recognise the influence of Chinese parents and ensure their marketing efforts go beyond the basic promotion of academic grades and course content. They must also take steps to communicate to Chinese parents in a direct and targeted way, rather than hoping their general marketing will appeal to both audiences.

Why ranking performance isn’t enough

Many HE institutes still focus on their academic results and ranking performance. This has the appeal of being simple, but it ignores the fact that preparations for overseas study are made within families for years beforehand.

Chinese parents and students will consider a wide range of selection criteria that go far beyond rankings and course content. These include factors such as:

– Personal development and cultural exposure, leading to a beneficial ‘whole life’ experience
– Future employability
– Welfare and safety
– Immigration considerations for future employment
– And for high net worth Chinese families, factors such as properties and investment and global asset allocation, particularly where accommodation decisions are being made – both immediately during the course, and for later property purchases.

How Western HE institutions can respond

Western university marketers can respond to Chinese information needs by promoting a holistic package of information that includes history, culture, employment, commerce and property factors within their geography. For example, Chinese parents and students alike want to know:

– Whether a certain university location could be a good location for future holidays and for buying property in general
– What the immigration prospects are locally
– What the opportunities are for travel in the area (think of destinations, ease of airport access etc.)
– What services are in place for welfare and safety – such as welfare programmes and support for overseas students.

Key takeaways for Western HE marketers

1. Mentally broaden your remit

When it comes to HE marketing, consider your role to include tourism marketing and business enterprise promotion as well as core HE marketing. Chinese families want to know about the travel opportunities that a university location offers so that students can use it as a base for local and world travel. Push your international travel connections if they are good.

2. Focus heavily on well-being concerns

Chinese families worry about the mental and physical burden that may be placed on their children when they study abroad. Their concerns include the risks of depression, drug or alcohol abuse and threats of terrorism. Universities can address these risks in a subtle but objective way, by providing context and reality. This provides a foil to media headlines and rumours about risks. It is also smart for Western universities to have comprehensive welfare and wellbeing services and support in place for Chinese students, including access to Chinese speaking staff, communications, orientation, and so forth.

3. Prioritise digital for parents as well as students

Chinese parents are highly digital and they visit news portals, social media and information sites daily. Universities can use targeted Baidu PPC advertising, Baidu SEO, social media strategies, KOLs and other digital marketing tactics to share the right messages about their HE institutions and the benefits to potential students. The low-cost acquisition and high click-through rates of online advertising, placed on portals and sites that parents use, often generate a better ROI than direct marketing to the students. Interestingly, many Western universities are not yet following this approach.

Similarly, HE institutions can target parents via social media, and look at ways to speak with them – via message and by person. The investment in Chinese-speaking HE marketing or support staff is a wise one. Provide and promote plenty of opportunities and means for Chinese parents to engage and speak with HE institutions. This might also include offline promotion such as university careers fairs.

4. Get expert support

Market Me China offers highly-targeted and effective Chinese digital marketing services for Western HE institutions. We can help you to create an impactful digital marketing campaign that will complement any offline activity and maximise your results. Chinese customers are digital-first and both parents and students are primed and ready to engage with top-quality, engaging content. This includes the production of university video tours, the creation of social media mini-groups for engagement and conversation, direct communication and discussion, digital prospectus creation, online advertising campaigns, SEO and more.

The key takeaway is to place Chinese parents at the heart of your HE institution’s marketing strategy and to get the expert help you need to impress this influential and sophisticated audience – who will ultimately make the decision about where their children’s education investment is made. Remember that Chinese parents will have been saving for their children’s education for years, will have been planning and considering the right options for this time, and they intend to take a key role in deciding the best institution for their goals. By wooing Chinese parents with the quality of your institution and the holistic nature of its offer, from results to wellbeing support, you have a far better chance of converting your Chinese student prospects into enrolments.

Get in touch

Market Me China is here to help you successfully market your HE institution to Chinese parents and students alike. Our team of experienced digital marketing professionals have the native language skills, experience and technical knowledge needed to craft impactful marketing strategies, with the results you need. Please contact us in the first instance to find out more, and to discuss how we might help you to achieve your goals.

The post Why Higher Education institutions can market to Chinese students and parents alike appeared first on Market Me China®.

With life getting back to normal – particularly so in China where the economic rebound has been impressive – now is the perfect time to assess your offer, your messaging and your marketing mix in order to best appeal to Chinese students. So let’s take a look at some of the angles you can promote to build engagement with prospective Chinese students, and work towards bringing them on board.

1. Your history

The cachet of a respected, time-served university is extremely powerful for status-hungry Chinese families. The better the university, the better their sense of pride – in common with Western families who all want their children to get a place at the best universities!

Respond by: Tailoring your messaging! If your HE institution has a history that is noteworthy in some way – or, for a modern institution, a position in industry or a specific sector that is particularly impressive for prospective students – promote it! Remember that a Western degree is expensive for Chinese families so you must be able to communicate elements of value to make a compelling case.

2. Your employment outcomes

Ultimately, students of all nationalities attend university to better their employment prospects. The greater the successes your graduates achieve in the jobs market, the better.

Respond by: Providing plenty of hard data, plus personal case studies, that explain the variety and attractiveness of future career paths and employability for graduates of your institution. This will show the quality of your degree programmes, and the relevance of your qualifications to certain career paths. Again, tailor your messaging and focus it as tightly as possible to relevant Chinese students.

3. Courses

Make sure you offer plenty of courses of the right quality – potentially up to PhD level in order to attract Chinese students at all levels. Many Chinese students will want to study ‘hard’ subjects that win them careers in industry and business – so ‘soft’ subjects are less likely to appeal. Invest in quality tutors, programmes and courses that offer genuine degrees with real cachet and value in the employment market. This is one investment that absolutely matters to your student base.

Respond by: providing plenty of detail about the courses you offer, noting that Chinese students – and their parents – are likely to have in-depth questions. Invest in Chinese speaking customer services, prospectuses, websites and other marketing channels and fill them with relevant information to pre-empt questions and show how valuable your Chinese audience is.

4. Your results

As well as the courses on offer it goes without saying that your results need to be good in order to win good students!

Respond by: really promoting your wins; from graduate scores through to onward employment outcomes. Really play up the good news stories with relevant case studies in video, text and podcast format – in Chinese as well as English!

5. The network

Chinese people value their networks and really develop them. So Chinese students will want to know that they are building a strong and potentially valuable network for their future career at their new university. Talk about the formal and informal networks that exist, as well as opportunities for work experience, secondments, clubs and other opportunities to make contacts.

Respond by: focus on networks that work well for Chinese students – and offer prospective Chinese students the chance to see and engage with other Chinese graduates for real impact.

6. The pastoral experience

Chinese students – and their parents – want to know that they will be looked after when they are studying away from home. It’s important to promote that this support exists and in a comprehensive, reliable way.

Respond by: providing plenty of detail and examples about the pastoral care on offer, including orientation sessions, accommodation services, translation services, access to health services, student information and more. Bring it to life as much as possible with plenty of user-generated content shared on social media, for authenticity.

7. The independence

Chinese students are attracted by the ability to study what they want, in countries without censorship, and to enjoy independence whilst experiencing life overseas. This freedom, balanced with a strong support system, is hugely appealing and Western HE institutions can really sell the breadth, richness and independence of the student experience on their campus.

Respond by: promoting the full experience of campus life to your students – whether digital or in-person. Again, case studies can be a great way to bring this to life and they can be user-generated and shared across your digital ecosystem.

8. Cultural awareness

In common with many students around the world, Chinese students want to enrich their educational experiences by learning about new cultures. This means learning the English language in an immersive way, understanding different cultural contexts and ways of life and generally broadening experiences in order to become global citizens.

Respond by: talking about your rich cultural heritage, on-campus global students, cultural events, tours, cuisines, language support and more. Share plenty of images that bring this topic to life!

9. Future relocation opportunities

Many Chinese students will be hoping to gain experience in the West that allows them to work there in future. Visas can be more easily obtained with a university education within the host country, and this will be appealing for many reasons.

Respond by: sharing case studies of alumni students from China who went on to work in the country of their university.

10. The chance to boost their reputation at home

Chinese students will invariably want to please their parents – who are likely to be footing the bill for their expensive education! Acceptance at a good Western uni will give the parents and families of Chinese students plenty of social standing at home!

Respond by: focusing on the quality attributes of your HE institution overall.

Invest in your channels

As you consider the drivers above, ask yourself whether your HE institution marketing channels are optimised for your Chinese students. Is your content in Chinese? Is it accessible via digital devices in China? Have you invested in Baidu PPC for the right keywords? Have you got a digital PR campaign in place in China – influencers recommending you, digital tours of your campus circulating on social media and other digital strategies in play? Does your app allow prospective students to chat with your representatives in Chinese? Can they download your Chinese language prospectus easily and see images and read content that really resonates with their unique needs, wants and desires – and those of their parents?

The help you need

If you feel that your marketing to Chinese students would benefit from a review and further development, please contact Market Me China. From Chinese website development and online marketing to HE social media management, our team of experts is here to help you grow your standing in the Chinese market. Contact us in the first instance to find out more.

The post What can Western HE brands offer to Chinese students? appeared first on Market Me China®.

Why focus on attracting Chinese students?

China’s economy is set to grow to an impressive degree this year, with its regions targeting a 6% minimum growth rate. From an already powerful, affluent base of motivated consumers with an increasingly international outlook, China is only set to become more powerful and enticing to Western brands.

Chinese students already love to study at Western institutions. In fact, they already represent the largest group of international students in both the UK and USA and these figures have been growing. These students – and their parents – are keen to take advantage of the opportunity to develop their English language skills, to understand Western culture, to develop their business knowledge and to grow their network in order to better position themselves for post-graduate jobs; both in China and abroad.

However, the Covid-19 pandemic has meant that overseas travel and study has been largely curtailed for the past year, especially as the West continues its battle to overcome the virus. As a result, higher education programmes have largely moved online; particularly online MBAs, which can easily be delivered from leading Western institutions to Chinese students using digital infrastructure.

Benefits to Western institutions of offering eMBAs

There are many benefits to Western institutions that offer an online MBA in China. From the university’s perspective, these include:

1. Cost savings: the eMBA cost may be the same as the on-campus version, but with far lower delivery costs – greatly increasing margins.
2. Safety: distance learning avoids all of the current issues with Covid-19 safety (issues which may yet persist beyond 2021.) Of course, you may wish to offer the option for a residency or similar when it is safe to do so.
3.Flexibility: the ability to offer flexible or rolling cohorts to maximise student uptake.
4. Scaleability: your institution isn’t limited to physical campus constraints with an eMBA and your course material, digital lectures and seminars can scale to meet demand; increasing your potential numbers.
5. Tech adoption: the Chinese are amongst the most tech-savvy netizens in the world. This maximises the potential success of your digital programme delivery, removing barriers to technology adoption and providing a sophisticated, ready audience that can easily get to grips with online learning technologies.

Why Western institutions have a superb marketing opportunity in 2021

The benefits that accrue to Western institutions that offer an online MBA is clear. Additionally, as online learning is already extremely popular in China, Western universities can readily create winning marketing campaigns that focus on attributes such as:

– The cachet of your institution and the value of your eMBA offer for a student’s CV (Recognised Western universities offer real prestige and the chance to impress employers and personal networks alike!)
– The cost-effectiveness of the MBA option (no travel, no accommodation etc) – combined with the same quality of tuition that would be offered on campus.
– The networking opportunities that can be facilitated digitally (with cohorts often grouped by interest and aptitude to optimise future career-building.)
– Ability to control the pace of study
– The chance to gain a hugely valuable business qualification from a respected Western university without the need to relocate; convenience, speed and access are optimised.
– … and, crucially, the ability to offer a safe option for learning, which requires no travel to parts of the West which may still be compromised by Covid-19.

Why is now the right time to target Chinese students?

After a disrupted year when the world’s attentions have been largely focused on tackling the Covid-19 epidemic, today’s generation of students is now keener than ever to get their careers on track. The MBA has long been the ultimate business qualification for tomorrow’s industry leaders, and eMBAs from Western universities are hotly in demand.

China’s economy is growing fast and its business students want to work internationally – gaining the cultural insights, language skills and business expertise that they need to forge global careers. For marketing leads at Western Institutions, the opportunity is phenomenal; eMBAs can be offered to far larger numbers of international students than on-campus programmes, and without the same current concerns around health and safety, travel restrictions and so forth.

With pent-up demand for the MBA qualification now looking ready to overspill, the challenge now is for Western institutions to make sure their university is visible to both prospective students and parents in the Chinese market. Demand will be extremely high this year, so you must make sure you are poised to take a slice of the pie!

Why market to Chinese parents?

A really good tip for Western universities that are preparing to market to prospective Chinese students is to create a linked marketing and communications campaign for Chinese parents. The decision-making process in China tends to be far more collaborative amongst families than it is in the West and parents will often need to be convinced as much as the students themselves (especially if they are supporting the funding element!) Ensure your messaging considers the expectations and needs of Chinese parents with high ambitions for their student children, with language, imagery and content which persuades them that your institution’s online MBA will help their children reach their full potential in the business world!

Why market with digital methods to China?

Digital marketing has long been the method of choice amongst this vast, tech-savvy audience, which loves to work, rest, play, shop and learn online. The Chinese are one of the world’s heaviest users of smartphones and other digital devices, and they adore cutting-edge, rich, engaging digital experiences which enhance their lives in some way.

In our recent article, we looked at how you can use digital marketing methods to engage with your prospective Chinese eMBA students. Sometimes it can seem daunting to get to grips with Chinese digital marketing, as our familiar channels – Google, Facebook, Twitter and so forth, simply don’t exist in the country. But Chinese alternatives – from Baidu to WeChat – can be mastered with the right strategy, content development, KOL relationships and optimised advertising, SEO and PR campaigns.

Remember that this process must be ongoing so that you build your brand’s presence, reputation and value in the Chinese market over time using a blend of proactive and reactive marketing activities across the full spectrum of digital channels. A Chinese marketing agency can help you with your eMBA marketing; providing the expertise, native language skills and experience that allows you to create an effective campaign with clear ROI.

Find out more

The team at Market Me China is here to help you create an impactful marketing campaign for your online MBA. With rich experience in the Chinese education marketing field, we work flexibly according to your needs – evidencing our results at every turn. Please contact us in the first instance for a no-obligation chat about your objectives.

The post Why you now need to target Chinese students for your online MBA? appeared first on Market Me China®.

Check your brand

Before launching your digital marketing campaign, check that your HE and MBA brand is designed to appeal to your Chinese audience. This may mean adjusting your brand assets slightly – considering the logo, colour usage and any graphical elements that encapsulate your offer. Remember that what works in the West will not automatically work in China!

Define your offer

Yes, you deliver an online MBA – but so do many institutions. How does yours stand out? Do you have better employment progressions? Do you offer the chance for digital students to come together to network at physical events periodically? Do you offer enhanced services or career-focused content that takes the course further? Do you incorporate the opportunity for work placements and facilitate these? Research what Chinese MBA students really want and seek to deliver it.

Define your USPs

Quality is a key attribute here – Chinese students (and their parents) want to know that they are obtaining an MBA from a well-known institution with an excellent reputation in the field. To support your USPs focus on quality marks, results, alumni, onward employment destinations and other quality indicators which prove your standing in the field.

Specifically for an online MBA, talk about the quality of your technology and digital infrastructure, the experience that students receive, the ways that you create a sense of student community online, and the value of this type of online learning in order to achieve an MBA in a flexible way. A defined set of USPs will also enhance your content and communications plan.

Win over parents!

In the West, many students may choose their preferred course or university independently, but in China, a student’s parents are likely to be involved in the decision-making process. With this in mind, focus on dual messaging which appeals to parental interests as well as student needs. An example of this would include content which demonstrates the ROI of an online MBA (particularly to parents who may be funding the qualification), and which describes the key benefits of studying online (perhaps the ability to study whilst working and likely employment outcomes.) It is also important to show that customer service professionals, student support services, work placement facilitators and other university staff are on hand digitally to help provide that all-important experience – and post-study employment progressions.

Don’t skimp on information

The choice of online MBA isn’t one that Chinese students will take lightly, so provide plenty of information about the course, noting that Chinese consumers appreciate in-depth information and carry out significant research before undertaking a purchase decision. Anticipate questions that your Chinese target audience are likely to have, and provide answers in written and video format – always ensuring that content is optimised for mobile. Provide contact routes too and consider adding features such as chatbots or online agent pop-ups throughout your website to further guide prospects along the funnel.

Work your content!

Use your key messages to create cross-platform and multi-media content – from press releases and static website content, through to videos, online adverts, sharable influencer content and so forth. Repurpose your content where possible for economies of scale and to extend the reach and impact of what you produce.

Focus on your digital hub

Whether your existing website has been localised for China or made bespoke for your audience, now is the time to check that everything works as it should. From local hosting to smartphone optimisation, your website must operate quickly, be SEO optimised, and have the right user journeys for Chinese readers – with clear CTAs and full integration with your social channels. A Chinese digital marketing agency can help you with this, starting with an assessment of your digital assets and helping you to create an impactful, effective digital hub that meets your goals.

Invest in your social media

Most Western HE institutions will want to have WeChat, Weibo and DouYin accounts, but other emerging platforms may also be appropriate, and your research will help to reveal where your target audience are – and how you should reach them. Bespoke customer research can identify factors that go beyond basic age and status demographics and which include city tiers, income and other key criteria that help to define your target audience. With this insight in place, you can engage with the right Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) who can present your MBA offer to their own followers, via sponsorship, placement or direct promotion. Again, the key to success on social media is to create inspiring, meaningful and engaging content which will position the prestige, value and convenience of your online MBA to your target audience and create that all-important feeling of desire and action to find out more.

Leverage your online advertising

Baidu PPC is the key route to rapidly gaining qualified traffic in a short amount of time. Remember that Chinese consumers find online advertising useful and a sign of quality and reputation. To keep a handle on your budget, especially when competing against other Western online MBA providers, work carefully to really pin down targeted keywords and to ensure your offer is highly visible for relevant searches. Equally, ensure that your adverts are converting relevant traffic by measuring their performance throughout the campaign, and check that they are pointing to the correct landing page. As Baidu is a Chinese website, it’s easy to make an error if you don’t have native language skills!

Use ePR

Your online MBA gives Chinese students the chance to enjoy the same quality course, student experience and tutor access as they would studying in-person – but without the time, cost and travel commitments of a physical course. An eMBA is likely to appeal even more in the post-Covid world where travel restrictions may well continue and interrupt physical learning. Online MBAs also represent a modern, digitally-enabled way of learning for a new generation. The right ePR strategy can help you to promote your course in a highly engaging, pre-qualified way through reputable media channels, portals and websites that Chinese audience value. You can build brand recognition, trust and word-of-mouth marketing with this channel.

Provide a taster

Think creatively to provide appealing incentives to your prospective audience. For example, you could offer free trial access to an MBA course module, deliver an interactive lecture with a tutor to a group of prospective sign-ups, follow an alumni member from graduation to that all-important career outcome and so forth.

Get the help that you need

Market Me China has rich experience in the education field and can help Western institutions to effectively market their online MBAs in the Post-Covid, ‘new normal’ world. Our professionals deliver effective, integrated digital marketing strategies that deliver clear results for our clients. Please contact us in the first instance for a no-obligation chat about your needs.

The post How to target Chinese students for your online MBA in the new normal world? appeared first on Market Me China®.

One way that Higher Education institutions are responding to this change is to offer a greater range of online courses. HE institutions across the West are still extremely keen to attract Chinese students, and can now offer many of their programmes online, including eMBA courses.

How how can those colleges and universities promote their online courses, including the prestigious MBA as an eMBA, to Chinese students?

Think about your offer

The delivery may be online – but the quality is still 100% in place. This matters greatly to the Chinese market, which views Western brands as being high-quality. Now is the time to really reinforce the message of prestige and value, and demonstrate that the online qualification is worth just the same to a graduate’s CV.

Remember your dual audience

When you market a university to a Chinese audience, it isn’t just the students you need to get on board; it’s their parents too! With this in mind, choose channels and messages which parents will respond to. For example, a Chinese student may want to know about the course content and how they can enjoy the social experience of being at university without being physically present. A parent may want to know about the likely employment outcomes and the prestige of the institution.

Plan content

With this in mind, create a plan of regular and cross-channel Chinese content which resonates with each audience. For parents, present plenty of high-quality content in Chinese. For students, there will be more flexibility over language presentation as courses will be delivered in English. But it’s still important to present some information in Chinese to show that you are welcoming and culturally sensitive.

Consider other local factors too. Chinese customers love to do their research and value recommendations from their peers. They are also naturally risk-averse. So respond to this with the use of visible trust marks and accreditations, case studies, partner information, alumni stories and recommendations, employment prospects and so forth. Consider being present and active in online forums so that students and parents can ask questions, and allow your trusted alumni to act as ambassadors on your institution’s behalf.

Optimise your digital hub

If you don’t yet have a Chinese localised – or bespoke Chinese – website, then now is the time to take this forward. Ensure your website is smartphone optimised and locally hosted. Check that it is responsive and operates quickly, with correct meta descriptions, tags and keyword-rich language so that Baidu can rank your new online courses correctly for your target audience. Check that the user journeys work for your Chinese users.

Think about social media

Check that you have the right social media accounts in place for your target audience. The obvious ones may be WeChat, Weibo and DouYin, but there are multiple other growing social platforms which are more appropriate to your HE institution and offer. Do your research to see where your potential customers are, and what they are using. Consider not just age, but factors such as regional demographics and city tiers. Look at Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) who might have relevance for your offer, and who may be able to offer an appropriate form of sponsorship and promotion of your e-courses to their own followers. Create engaging, beautiful content which displays the calibre and prestige of your institution, the campus itself, the students, the employment outcomes and so forth. Use beautiful imagery, engaging stories, inspiring facts and a blend of content that brings the university to life. Display the high-tech nature of your courses, the excellent online experience and the value of e-learning to achieve that all-important qualification.

Set up your Baidu PPC campaign

The right online advertising campaign will rapidly give you qualified leads – especially when you remember that online advertising in China is viewed as useful and positive, rather than a distracting irritation, as it is in the West! A Chinese digital marketing agency can help you to create your campaigns on Baidu using the right keywords and parameters, to maximise the return on your budget.

Check your Chinese SEO

Search will take longer to build for your online courses, but work on the existing SEO gains you have made in China for your institution and add in rich keywords for your online courses. This will build over time, as your relevant keywords are incorporated into your content and advertising.

Use ePR

Now is a great time to really promote the benefits of your online courses. For example, when students take your eMBA or other higher institution qualifications, they can access the same high-quality course, tutors, lectures and student experience – without needing to travel to the West. This can be a safer option in the post-Covid world, and a less expensive one too, without the need to move away from home. Promote benefits such as flexibility of learning and the ability to still be part of a vibrant social and educational network via the university’s digital platforms, and promote the level of support and help that students will receive via digital means. This is a fantastic opportunity to really sell the benefits of digital learning to a new generation.

Test the offer

Allow potential students to really get a sense of your online offer. Give demos of the e-course learning experience, allow students to dial into example lectures and 121s with tutors. Display the technologies and platforms on offer. Provide a superb online customer experience at every turn, with online chat, email and phone options to reassure students and parents alike that the online course will offer the same ability to succeed and to gain a valuable qualification, as the physical alternative.

Get help

A Chinese digital marketing agency can greatly help you with your online marketing strategy for Chinese students and parents. At Market Me China, we work with HE institutions across the West to effectively reach the Chinese market and to win new customers. Our team of experts works flexibly with your brand to provide digital marketing services, evidenced at every turn to demonstrate ROI. Now is the perfect time to plan your campaign, before the main summer period. Please contact us to find out more, and to see how we can help you.

The post How to target Chinese students for your online courses in the post Covid-19 world appeared first on Market Me China®.

Preparatory steps

Do your research

It’s important to research the Chinese student market to identify key demographics and market segments which are likely to be a good fit for your institution. For example, in the UK, most Chinese students choose business-related subjects and the largest numbers are found at London universities. Most will typically be doing undergraduate degrees, although a significant proportion will be studying at post-graduate level.

Know what matters

Chinese students choose Western universities because they have connotations of value and prestige. A university degree from a reputable Western institution will be a valuable asset to a Chinese graduate’s CV and position them well for employment in any part of the world. Remember that younger Chinese are increasingly outward-looking and keen to experience the world.

Think about naming

Chinese students and parents alike value names greatly. For this reason, they will look at Ivy League universities in the USA, Oxbridge in the UK most obviously. But other links are also important. Manchester University appeals because of its links with the world’s most famous football teams. The University of Toronto is associated with successful immigrant families, for example. So consider the name and associations with your university. If it has accreditations, awards and other status symbols, be sure to promote them. If it is in a city with a claim to fame, then make the most of it!

Market to parents

Chinese parents see a quality Western education as an investment in their children’s future, so the question of ROI is key for their decision making. Perceptions of value are based on the physical qualification on offer, as well as the prestige and status of the institution itself. Chinese parents will want to see attractive buildings, heritage symbols, quality accommodation and excellent facilities. Ensure your marketing imagery really sells the quality of your physical offering, with strong ‘hero’ images and photographic quality which gives an editorial feel and a strongly aspirational edge.

Practical steps to creating your Chinese student targeted marketing campaign

Digital channels are your obvious best bet here, with your target market in China inevitably active online. Many institutions will also do in-country visits, talks and events, but these are expensive, resource-intensive and will only engage with a tiny proportion of the target audience.

Create your Chinese language website

Website localisation is vital and the best approach is to create a bespoke Chinese language website for your HE institution that is hosted in Mainland China or Hong Kong, which has a .cn domain and which has been built, written and tested specifically for a Chinese audience. Some universities will choose to translate existing content, but it is usually better to re-create content specifically for the needs of this distinct market. Remember that translation is more than simple word replacement; concepts and idioms must be perfectly conveyed for your university to be credible in this market. Consider the practicalities too. Chinese characters tend to take up 25% less space on a screen than Western characters, so the overall screen graphic presentation and UX may need re-working. Ideally, create a bespoke website with the help of an expert Chinese marketing agency, create content that really resonates with your target market (students and parents alike) and integrate all necessary elements such as your Chinese social media accounts, online advertising and other integrated features such as online chat.

Go mobile

Remember that over 98% of Chinese internet users choose mobile devices, so your academic institution also has the opportunity to create targeted campaigns and dedicated apps, featuring valuable information such as study programmes, chat facilities, key facts and success case studies. And of course, your HE institution’s website must be optimised for mobile as an absolute basic!

Use social media

Social media is your friend within this hyper-linked audience. WeChat is the most obvious platform, but others may be appropriate too for your HE brand, including Weibo and YouKu. Your content must be optimised for mobile and be planned strategically. For example, you will want to promote hard facts such has rankings, exam results and employment outcomes. Use learner-generated content that talks about learner experience and pastoral care. Interview successful graduates to explain what support is available for onward careers. A Chinese digital marketing agency can help you to build your brand on Chinese social media and to engage in the right way with your target audience. Remember that WeChat and other Chinese social media platforms also allow you to advertise, using a blend of in-app advertising (such as WeChat moments or banner ads) and KOL partnerships for ‘softer’ promotions, referral marketing and brand building.

Use Baidu PPC and SEO

With 70% of China’s search market, Baidu cannot be ignored. Set up the right Baidu PPC campaigns and you can drive qualified potential students – and parents – to your Chinese language website. It’s worth knowing that Baidu PPC usually offers better returns than Google PPC in the West, and it can accelerate the volume of incoming traffic to your landing pages rapidly, so that you can begin to engage your target audience. Similarly, invest in Baidu SEO for the longer-term, to drive your organic search volumes and accuracy.

Invest in online PR

A sound online PR strategy will amplify the effects of your digital marketing by placing your HE institution in the right publications for your target student and parent audience. Remember that Chinese people respect authority and seek out voices of trust, so your institution needs to be implicitly endorsed by appearing in the right media channels and outlets. A solid strategy will build your reputation across national media, educational publications, sector and vertical portals. It will need to include a rich mix of content, including thought leadership, reputation, case studies and so forth to brand build successfully and to stimulate enquiries.

Find out more

Market Me China works with Higher Education providers in the UK, USA, Europe and beyond to help them to attract Chinese students successfully to their institutions. To find out how our team of expert digital marketers can help you, please contact us today for a no-obligation chat about your needs.

The post How to target Chinese students who want to study in the West? appeared first on Market Me China®.

Why is Baidu so important?

Baidu is by far the largest search engine in China, with 70% of the Chinese search market. Furthermore, Chinese buyers aren’t resistant to online advertising in the way that Western audiences are, so it tends to offer a better return. However, online marketing is more heavily regulated than in the West in order to maintain its quality, and the Baidu account set-up can be challenging. To successfully promote your higher education institution to your Chinese audience via Baidu, these are the steps required:

Set up a Baidu advertising account

The Baidu PPC platform has similarities to Google, but the set-up process takes around a month. Many of our clients prefer to outsource the set-up administration entirely to Market Me China to speed things up as far as possible. Broadly speaking, the steps are:

1. Submitting registered website details and company name, along with other required company documents (such as financial information) and a government-issued business licence. (We check this for our clients beforehand, so that all necessary information is gathered and provided in the correct format, and with Chinese language translation included as necessary.)
2. Waiting for Baidu to review all documentation and confirm that it will issue a PPC account.
3. Making your payment to begin PPC advertising. This payment can vary by region and countries, and in some cases, an annual fee is levied.
4. Receiving your login details upon receipt of the Baidu PPC advertising payment, and begin running your campaigns, using Baidu’s PPC tools to target your advertising as far as possible.

– Create your Chinese language website

It isn’t essential to have a Chinese website, but it is highly recommended that you build one before you advertise on Baidu. Without this, the bounce rate will be extremely high. Remember that your audience of Chinese students and their parents will naturally want to learn more about your institution in Chinese.

Depending on the timeframes and resources that you have at your disposal, you could simply translate your existing English language website into Mandarin Chinese. Alternatively, you could invest more and create a dedicated Chinese language website with content, design, user journeys and a payment platform specifically designed for Chinese users – and testing to verify that it hits the mark. This is likely to result in the highest conversions.

– Create your Chinese language adverts

Similarly, Baidu recommends that its advertisers create Chinese language ads. If you use an English language ad, the bounce rate will be high and you’ll be frittering away your precious budget on Chinese readers who can’t understand your content.

– Prepare your hosting

It’s not necessary to host your website in Mainland China, and neither do you need to have a Chinese ICP licence or .cn domain. However, you must be sure that your Chinese audience HE website can operate quickly there. Remember, savvy Chinese consumers are used to browsing online via their smartphones, so speed is of the essence. Baidu also penalises slow-loading websites in search results.

Baidu PPC

As China’s leading search engine, Chinese internet users choose Baidu to find answers to their search queries. With the right PPC campaign, your HE institution can grow its brand awareness, generate instant traffic of pre-qualified Chinese students and deliver conversions. Baidu PPC (Baidu SEM), is the standard approach for paid search advertising. Key things to know here are:

– Baidu offers rich formats such as text, sitelinks and images, which operate seamlessly across desktop and mobile platforms.
– It subtly places natural organic results and paid for advertisements; merging the results for users
– Analytics tools are available that allow daily campaign tracking and adjustment of advertising parameters for best effect.

Baidu display ads

The Baidu display network works holistically with the PPC activity to leverage the results of your campaign. Because 90% of Chinese customers will not immediately deliver the desired conversion/call to action, Baidu display network offers retargeting. These display adverts can be run as a campaign through your Baidu PPC account to supplement this activity and to grow brand exposure and awareness, whilst retargeting lost customers.

Baidu display advertising is open to any brand which has a Baidu PPC account and it sends targeted display ads to over 650,000 partner websites and software providers. Its coverage is vast – making 18,000,000,000 daily impressions across mobile, video and desktop. Again, display ads can be demonstrated in a variety of forms – including flash, images, floating and text to make banners, video ads, news feeds and more.

The real power here is down to the AI that Baidu display ads employs to effectively target each audience – using its ‘Baidu Brain’ database which contains rich data on Chinese consumer behaviour to deliver a range of multi-targeting methods, from demographics to interests and including keyword targeting and retargeting.

Marketing strategy

Careful thought needs to be put into an effective HE marketing strategy in a country of sophisticated middle-class consumers who greatly value education and prestige Western universities. Things to consider include:

– Timing PPC campaigns to time with main academic recruitment periods; typically after exam results are released in China and during holiday periods.
– Producing rich and engaging content that resonates with Chinese students and their parents. Content needs to demonstrate the quality of the institution, the onward employability of graduates, elements of prestige, the student experience and so forth. Trust is very important here, so content which shares the experiences of Chinese alumni and successful graduates is a good way to engage your target audience. Remember too that Chinese parents will be co-decision-makers, so content must meet their interests and answer their questions and concerns. Targeted market research here can be very useful.
– Regularly assessing and monitoring campaigns so that adjustments can be made on the back of analytics.
– Considering engagement and response to the enquires that you receive through your digital campaign. Students and their parents may have different levels of English ability, so if you can use Chinese where necessary to engage, this can build trust and credibility.
– Effectively managing Baidu PPC campaigns with adequate resource from end to end. HE institutions need to research keywords (using the Baidu keyword planner), create search ads, monitor campaign progress, use Baidu Tongji to deliver analytics (only available in Chinese) to assess performance data, produce regular reports with suggestions to further optimise the campaign – and then implement these refinements. Market Me China can deliver this service on a flexible and expert partnership basis.

A note on Baidu SEO

Baidu SEO can be challenging, as around 20% of its traffic is directed to Baidu-owned sites, such as Baidu Zhidao, Baidu Baike and Baidu News. To build a good SEO presence for relevant keywords, excellent content, authority site backlinks, reciprocal linking and other tactics must be used in the right way. Typically, HE institutions will begin with online advertising and grow SEO over time.

Getting to grips with Baidu

Baidu can seem daunting to a Western audience, but its regulated nature does help to safeguard the quality of advertising for the vast audience of Chinese internet users; something that can only be good news to Western HE institutions looking to advertise on the platform. As ever, Market Me China is here to help smooth the process for you and get your PPC marketing up and running as soon as possible.

Find out more

Market Me China works with Western higher education institutions of all sizes to help them to leverage their digital marketing capabilities for greater conversions. To discuss how we might help your HE institution to market more effectively to the Chinese market, please contact us for a no-obligation chat and we will be delighted to assist.

The post Top tips for using Baidu advertising in higher education appeared first on Market Me China®.

These challenges can be met with the right integrated marketing strategy, which will begin with the creation of a Chinese language website, tailored for your target audience (and typically, encompassing both Chinese students and parents alike).

In this blog, we’re going to look at the steps Western universities should take to successfully create a Chinese language website.

Do Western universities really need a separate Chinese language website?

In the past, some universities would simply choose to offer a language translation option on their English language website. This was primarily because of the time and expense involved to create websites a decade ago.

However, a simple translation option misses a trick. Firstly, Western website content is targeted for Western readers and doesn’t take into account the unique content needs of a Chinese audience. Secondly, it tends to offer a poor user experience. Chinese digital users are highly sophisticated and expect to see content that is targeted to their locality, with appropriate storytelling, symbolism, nuance, cultural appreciation and engaging, relevant content – as well as the right language!

The easiest and best way to deliver this is through the creation of a bespoke Chinese website, tailored to the needs of the audience. So what is the process to getting Chinese website design right?

1. Start with research

You already know that your Chinese website design needs to be optimised for mobile, with over 98% of the 772 million internet users in China preferring their smartphones. Did you also know though that Chinese branding for your institution is well worth the investment, to help localise your website and make it more relevant to your audience? Remember that names are highly significant with Chinese consumers, and a carefully chosen Chinese brand and name helps to add value, provide engagement and connection, and supports brand awareness – whilst allowing you to differentiate from the competition. It’s always worth bearing the key principles of close personal relationships (Guanxi) and trust (Xin) in mind when seeking to market to this audience.

2. Plan your localised Chinese website

This means considering content, design, coding and user journeys. Every aspect should be considered with in-depth knowledge of your market. For example, when planning your content you must ensure that it is:

– accurately translated, both in terms of concept and idiom as well as vocabulary
– of the right length, as Chinese characters can lead to a 25% text length shrinkage from English and have a knock-on effect on graphics, tables and more.
– correctly formatted, with simplified Chinese characters and traditional Chinese characters being preferred in different parts of China.

It is also important to remember that the Chinese like to carry out plenty of research as consumers. They also value the recommendations of their peer networks, are naturally risk-averse and value quality Western universities. Case studies, trust marks and accreditations, employment prospects, university partners, trusted recommendations from Chinese alumni… all of these are examples of content that can be leveraged effectively for a Chinese audience.

3. Register the .cn domain

Register your Chinese domain extension (.cn or .com.cn). This will support your digital marketing efforts and give your website credibility. There is a fairly complex administration process required to do this, but Market Me China can assist with the registration certificate, ID requirements and other documentation needed by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), and manage the process end to end for you.

4. Organise hosting in Mainland China or Hong Kong

Again, this takes some administration, as universities with a business licence in China can host their websites within the country to get around the Chinese firewall, but they must get a corporate ICP licence from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. This takes around 20 days if the process is followed accurately. If your institution doesn’t have a Chinese business licence, it is best to maximise accessibility by hosting your Chinese website in Hong Kong.

5. Build and test on your audience

User journeys in China differ from the West. For example, Chinese users like to be able to access important information from the homepage and appreciate long-form content. They expect to see social media integrated at all turns and value symbols of trust. Tailoring of content is essential, any translation must be done carefully and expertly, and – of course – content remains king! Chinese users love useful, engaging, trustable content that adds genuine value. Additionally, if you need to integrate a payment platform for any kind of booking or purchase, then you should also ensure that your Chinese website is integrated with AliPay, WeChatPay or UnionPay.

6. Integrate with social platforms and online advertising

Successful Chinese websites will invariably have links to social platforms such as Weibo and WeChat, allowing brands to maximise the reach and shareability of their content, and to extract the maximum value of content repurposing across channels. You should also ensure that your landing pages are correctly linked with any online advertising campaigns you are planning in China.

7. Assess and improve

At Market Me China, we use a three-tier benchmark to assess Chinese websites. This weighs up cultural customisation, Chinese UX and translation quality. By combining this approach with analytics and user feedback, we can help our clients to continually improve and refine their Chinese marketing efforts for the best possible results.

Find out more

Market Me China works on a partnership basis with Western academic institutions to deliver the Chinese-focused marketing strategies they need. From the creation of an impactful website that meets the unique needs of the Chinese audience, through to delivering effective content marketing and Baidu PPC campaigns, our team have the skillsets and knowledge that you require. We also make the process easy by taking on the hard work for you – translating your needs into actions and measurable results. Please contact us for a no obligation chat and to find out more about how we can help you.

The post What Western universities should know about Chinese website design appeared first on Market Me China®.

Mastering marketing to Chinese students on WeChat

WeChat is called Weixin in China and it is the No.1 social media platform in the country with a billion monthly users. This makes it a hugely powerful potential marketing platform for Western HE institutions wishing to engage with both Chinese students and their parents. Social media in China is already particularly sophisticated and popular and WeChat offers far more functionality now than it did upon launch in 2011 where it was largely akin to WhatsApp in the West. Key things for Western HE institutions to know about the platform are:

1. WeChat is the biggest social media platform in China and the biggest mobile content provider.
2. WeChat is more than ‘just’ a social platform. For example, it allows its users to shop online and even to make restaurant reservations and book taxis through its WeChat Pay system – and new, rich functionalities are being added all of the time.
3. Although WeChat is the fifth largest social media platform in the world after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, its users spend the most time on WeChat – more time, in fact, than on Facebook, Twitter Instagram and Snapchat combined. A third of WeChat users spend four hours a day on the platform.
4. With access to the necessary knowledge, Western brands can now set up their own WeChat official account in order to make use of WeChat to market to Chinese students.

Top tips to engage Chinese students & their parents on WeChat

1. Arrange your WeChat official account setup

Until recently it was extremely challenging for a Western brand to set up a WeChat official account. Happily, in July this year, WeChat updated its policy to allow over 100 non-Chinese countries (including the UK, the US, European countries, Canada etc.) to open branded WeChat official accounts via an overseas business licensing scheme. The administration involved in the process is still more complex than many Western organisations are used to and more onerous than with Western social media equivalents, but a specialist Chinese marketing agency can make the process far easy by applying their local knowledge and expertise to facilitate the set-up. After all, for most Western HE institutions wanting to recruit Chinese students around their application calendar, time is of the essence and time must not be wasted on administrative delays!

2. Craft your WeChat marketing strategy

WeChat is valuable for brand building, campaign delivery, advertising, PR and engagement – but it can be complex for Western HE institutions to immediately understand the diverse needs, wants and aspirations of a vast potential Chinese audience with varied customer segments. Sensitivity towards local customs is vital, with consideration made towards factors such as language, localised customs and values, social norms and so forth. Professional Chinese marketing expertise from a specialist agency can be a wise investment in this regard, firstly in order to navigate complex requirements for Western brands to market on Chinese social media (often acting as barriers), and secondly to ensure that subsequent marketing campaigns are well-received, appropriate and effective.

3. Devise your WeChat content plan

Content is key to social media in China, and a successful HE marketing campaign to Chinese students and their parents will require a carefully crafted WeChat content plan with a schedule of weekly posts. Different types of media should be used – such as video, podcasts and text, in order to build followers, engage your audience and to generate quality application leads. All content must be optimised for mobile and content types must be well thought out and have specific purposes. For example, universities will want to promote the rankings, quality and calibre of their institution, the employment outcomes, exam results and prestige of having their institution’s name on the student’s CV. They will want to include content that talks about the rankings,  learner experience, the pastoral care and the support for onward career paths. Remember that Chinese students and their parents are interested in courses at prestigious, highly-reputable institutes which lead to excellent employment outcomes.

4. Set up WeChat advertising campaigns

Three types of advertising are available on WeChat – WeChat banner advertising, Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) promotion and WeChat moments advertising. Banner ads are displayed at the bottom of article pages and they are performance-based, allowing for mid-campaign adjustment for optimum results. HE bands can direct users to follow their page, sign up to a customised recruitment page, download an app or request a brochure, for example. Moments are video or display based and like the Facebook newsfeed, blend with user content. These can work well for showing off beautiful campuses! KOLs use celebrities or influencers to provide trusted endorsements and they can be utilised by HE institutions if a well-known Chinese personality is a former alumnus or working to support the brand. Remember that regardless of the advertising approach you use, your institution will need a strong Chinese language website that is built around Chinese student and parent user personas. In all circumstances, a Chinese marketing agency can offer expert guidance and advice to optimise your campaign results and conversions in a timely, results-driven fashion.

Master marketing on WeChat with the experts

To find out more about how marketing on WeChat and other types of social media in China can help you to effectively recruit Chinese students to your higher education institution, contact the experts at MarketMe China. Our expert team have a rich pool of local knowledge and experience in the field and can help you to effectively optimise your marketing recruitment strategy for desired conversions and an attractive ROI.

The post How to use social media in China to recruit Chinese students: Marketing on WeChat appeared first on Market Me China®.