Advertising is everywhere. People use branded items from the time they wake up to the time their head hits the (branded) pillow. It is estimated that the average American is exposed to anywhere between four and 10 thousand ads in a single day. With competitive markets in almost every industry, advertising and solidifying brand presence is increasingly important. Working with advertising agencies Los Angeles can aid business promotion through well-crafted and poignant branding narratives. But what exactly makes advertising so powerful in todays modern age, and why is it vital for business success?

Getting the Word Out

First and foremost, advertising pushes a business into the public realm. For a business to be successful in the rapidly changing consumer-driven market, it needs time in the consumer spotlight and the best way to the limelight is through memorable advertising. Businesses in California looking to promote themselves are wise to seek the aid of advertising agencies in Los Angeles who are already well versed in navigating today’s marketing environment.

With an emphasis on digital platforms, significant business promotion is now being performed through virtual billboards popping up on a timeline rather than on the side of the road. While traditional advertising is still a contender in the marketing world today, a business wanting to promote themselves to a global audience must plug in to digital advertising. Remember: no one is going to go out and look for a product they have never heard of. Advertisements, and advertising agencies in Los Angeles, help get the word out and establish a brand in the market.

Building a Brand

Building a brand is a common phrase tossed around marketing meetings, but what is it really about? Having a strong brand presence means crafting recognition for a product, and that means positive recognition. A strong band is easily distinguishable when put up beside other brands competing in the same market. Consistent messaging – but not so consistent it gets boring – is key to solidifying a brand. With a strong brand comes greater recognition of the business behind it. Working with advertising agencies in Los Angeles can put a business ahead of the game when it comes to curating strong branding material.

Connecting with Audiences in the Digital Age

One of the main roles of advertising agencies in Los Angeles is to build a connection between a brand and its audience. In the age of digital overload, connection is at the fingertips of almost every consumer – and the expectation is that brands are ready to engage. Long gone are the days of success being simply selling a product. To compete in today’s market, a business must sell a positive customer experience that keeps people coming back for more. In today’s market, brands are expected to be personable, approachable, and transparent. Understanding the needs of the modern consumer and crafting a great ad campaign can not only reinvigorate existing clients, it can further expand a business’ audience scope and reach.

Promoting a business through advertising has many benefits and is arguably a necessity to thriving in today’s business world. Building up a brand takes time and many advertising agencies in Los Angeles are kept busy with business promotion. For business to boom, companies need strong ad campaigns supported by well-crafted and timely brands.

Digital Marketing – Vital to Attract the Modern-day Consumers

The never-ending evolution of science has brought in novel methods in all spheres of human actions. For instance, you can see this shift in the contemporary shopping method; people seldom use traditional means. Besides, a sizeable section of the population uses online methods even for buying the daily grocery needs. Precisely in tune with this development, one can see a significant change in the marketing methods also. Because of this change of gear, a traceable online presence has become vital for all businesses for successful survival. More to the point, the website and the related advertorial matters must directly reach the targeted customer segment. Clear-cut planning of the ad campaign and flawless implementation are the base factors that one should make certain for accomplishing a perfect result.

Baidu PPC – Best for China Market

In short, digital marketing has become unavoidable in our time. That said, companies must hire experienced digital marketing agencies that have adequate experience in related tasks. Besides, the company must have a comprehensive awareness as regards the marketing strategies that will fill the bill for the country where one does the marketing campaign. To be brief, if the promotional campaign is for the China market, then it is definite that one put into operation a pre-planned Baidu PPC (adstochina.westwin.com/baidu-ppc) scheme. This promotional strategy is the best bet to achieve the desired result at an early date.

How to Use Baidu PPC to Build Your Business

Paid per Click (PPC) is the best advertisement method, which will provide you a practical and beneficial result, and which will not require unnecessary money spending. You will have to pay only for the clicks delivered. Baidu PPC is practically the most profitable advertisement method in China. Because of the high reliability-factor, Chinese people are sure to click your Baidu PPC advertisement. Rest assured, by opting for this method, you can certainly set your business strategy right in China, as Baidu is the top search engine as far as the Chinese market is concerned.

• The primary thing that companies must do is to search and locate a marketing company that has a definite idea about the online promotional activities that are part and parcel of the Chinese marketing system.

• You must make sure that the company staff is well-versed in the local language, Mandarin. This point is vital, as you will have to provide all the details that pertain to your products and service in this language.

• Localization of the website and all the related promotional activities is a must for reaching the targeted audience. In China, almost the whole of the population is highly emotional about their vernacular, and hence, the use of Mandarin is a high requisite.

• Opening a Baidu PPC account is the next thing for which you can count the help of the SEO agency that you have hired. Abiding by the guidelines set by Baidu is a must here; remember, companies must change the marketing campaign strategy, whenever Baidu updates its condition.

• Create the landing page, and you must make sure to optimize the page in sync with the Baidu guidelines. The web page content must be informative. The visitors of the page must get a basic idea about the products and services that you offer.

• Once your Baidu PPC ad material is ready, you can straightaway kick start the proposed campaign. You must bear in mind that the process will be somewhat long-winded because of the checking process by Baidu.

Seek Professional Help

For getting the maximum possible benefits for every cent you spend, you must seek help from a specialized SEO agency, which has ground knowledge as far as the Chinese market is concerned. This factor is imperative and will finally decide the result of your ad campaign. It’s rather easy to find out such an experienced SEO company. You can find numerous companies that specialize in Baidu PPC by searching through Google. However, you must compare the quality of service, entailed charges, and the customer service of the companies and choose the best option.

When in China, you need to do as the Chinese do. Any brand or business that wants to tap into the customer market in the country needs to integrate Baidu search engine marketing into its strategy. Here is everything you need to know about the same, including search engine optimization and Baidu advertising (adstochina.westwin.com/baidu-advertising).

Begin with a Chinese domain

For your webpage to be shown in the search results, Baidu prefers that the site be hosted from China. Some .com or .net results may be shown, but those having a ‘.cn’ or even a ‘. com.cn’ receive better preference from the search engine giant.

Obtain certificates

The internet laws of the land are pretty strict, and as a result, any website hosted on China servers must possess an Internet Content Publishing License. Without the same, it is almost impossible for your website to show up anywhere on Baidu search engine result pages. The license can be obtained from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in China. However, the permit needs a physical presence within the country, and if you don’t have one, you can choose to partner with a local internet company to get the license on your behalf.

Optimize content for the Chinese audience

Baidu displays its results in the Chinese language. So, for your website to show up, it is absolutely necessary that all copy, SEO resources, and meta tags be in Mandarin or simplified Chinese characters. For businesses who have little or no knowledge about the language, translation is an option, but remember to not rely heavily on machine translations as poorly translated copies may be penalized by Baidu. The best way out is to have professional translators or local digital marketing agencies do the job on your behalf. This also helps ensure that the text, images, and video are aligned to the preferences of the Chinese audience in a manner that it reads well and connects with them.

Utilize keywords properly

Unlike other search engines, Baidu prefers websites with a higher keyword density, typically of about 8% to 12%. However, the company is also against spamming and keyword stuffing, which places keywords randomly to make it seems like the website has a higher density. It requires that the keywords be relevant to the content and be used qualitatively. The Baidu keyword planner tool can be used to do a basic volume search for the keywords that apply to your brand or business. It can also be used for a slightly deeper drill down on metrics like average daily search volumes including those for mobile searches, competition level for a keyword, estimated bid costs for top page, and so on.

Use Baidu advertising

Organic search results through good SEO practices are one part of the game on Baidu search engine marketing. The other is paid to advertise through the Baidu Pay Per Click program. This allows you to bid for keywords related to your brand or business, and displays your ads on the top or bottom of the page anytime a user searches for the keyword. Baidu advertising is customizable with budget limits and choice of time, duration, and customer demographics, and is especially helpful for brands that are just beginning out or want to have a quicker wider reach.

Put Chinese social media to good use

China does not allow social media platforms of the Western world, so when you create a website for Chinese audience and to be ranked in Baidu, ensure that all your social media and video streaming links point to those used in the country. These include WeChat, Sina Weibo, Youku, and so on. If you accept payments, ensure that they are Chinese user-friendly. If you don’t have them set up, consider availing the service of a local digital marketing agency to set them up for you.

Optimize for mobile

Over 95% of netizens connect to the web from their smartphones, and so, it is extremely important that your website be mobile-friendly. When not optimized for mobile-viewing, your site may go down in ranking, not display well with Baidu advertising, and receive a higher bounce rate. If necessary, create an exclusive mobile version of your website that presents users with information with minimal scrolling or link clicks.

With more than 300 million daily active users, Weibo can be a great platform to start your social media marketing activities. To make things simple for you, we have compiled a list of Weibo marketing (adstochina.westwin.com/weibo-marketing) vital steps to initiate social media marketing.

Select a Direction

The first step is defining your business objectives. Before creating a Weibo account, you need to be clear about your target audience, business, and communication objectives. For example, your aim could be increasing your product sales by 30% in Tier 1 cities in China.

Depending on your business objectives, you need to develop a different customer engagement strategy. For example, you need a different customer engagement strategy for gaining new customers and a totally different strategy for loyal customers. This will help you develop a clear and concise Weibo marketing strategy.

Explore Your Company’s Potential

This strategy allows businesses to review the environment and audiences inside and outside your organization. You can create four groups like the target audience, the company’s employees, the company’s direct competitors, and everyone else and analyze their communication and response to your social media marketing campaign.

You can build an online polling system where customers from all groups can register their preferences.  Also, you can hold live events where customers can give their comments and talk about their preferences in real-time. Understanding customers’ preferences would help in meeting communication and marketing goals.  

Set Smart Goals

You should follow a smart goals strategy in Weibo marketing. In simple words, the goals should be specific, time-bound, relevant, and attainable. Your company should set achievable performance metrics.  Though the number of followers can be easily ascertained, you need to define active followers differently.

Activity differs with followers. Some share or comment on content thrice or more in a week while some share once in a month. It is necessary to decide performance metrics at an initial stage for easy comparison. When you set performance indicators, ranking quality should be more important than quantity.

If a Weibo account with 2 million followers gets only one or two comments on a Weibo stream, the relationship between the Weibo stream and its followers is weak. You need to focus on the accumulation of high-quality followers that would help content go viral. However, you should not expect success overnight as building trust and relationships take time.

Build Presence and Design Your Strategy

Building the right brand presence on Weibo is the key to success. You can have multiple Weibo accounts, and it is entirely on your organization how to manage them. Once you have defined communication objectives and determined performance indicators, the next step is designing your social media marketing strategy.

You can adopt a centralized or co-ordinated approach or go for spoke or multiple hub approach. No matter what approach you select, your social media marketing strategy should include the following things.

Follow – The strategy should clearly mention who the Weibo stream should follow and what type of followers it should attract. You can announce a program where brand advocates are rewarded for interactions and engaging with the company’s Weibo content

Content– A strong content strategy needs to be put in place that will ensure the right content is published through Weibo streams at the right time. While developing a Weibo content strategy, you can focus on helpful information, tips for users, and social news and events.

The 1/3 Principle – You should divide the content into three main areas- engagement, value-added, and promotional content.

Posting– Think about the best time to post content on Weibo streams. Depending on your business needs, you can develop a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly posting calendar.

Define Process for Engagement– Clearly define the process for customer engagement in Weibo marketing. The goal of this process is to decide when to respond to the user or re-tweet any content posted by the user. This will ensure your organization is in compliance with legal and marketing rules in China.

Reporting – The company should collect important data through monitoring and analyze data for recommendations and insights. It is necessary to develop a reporting system that is aligned with your performance indicators.

These are the vital steps in Weibo marketing to initiate social media marketing.