Xiaohongshu Marketing in 2024 – the ultimate guide
In the bustling landscape of Chinese social media and e-commerce platforms, Xiaohongshu is emerging as an unmissable opportunity for international brands. This article is a guide to help international brands succeed on Xiaohongshu. From understanding users to SEO optimization to developing powerful storytelling, we explore the crucial steps to thrive on this dynamic platform. Welcome to a world where each interaction on Xiaohongshu represents a strategic opportunity to conquer the constantly evolving Chinese market.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE PLATFORM – XIAOHONGSHU
Understanding Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu)
Xiaohongshu is a Chinese social commerce platform combining the functionalities of social media and e-commerce. Also known as Little Red Book or RED, Xiaohongshu is often compared to Instagram. Created in 2013, the platform was initially an online guide for Chinese consumers, to help them discover and purchase foreign products.
Today, RED users interact with the app by sharing content and discovering foreign brands they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Xiaohongshu is renowned for its user-generated content (UGC), making it one of the platform’s main strengths and a great opportunity for brands to become better known. RED fosters connections between people, forming communities around common consumer interests.
As of 2023, the platform had more than 140,000 brands and a community of almost 200 million active users each month.
Xiaohongshu: The Preferred Platform for Gen Z
Image source: Dragon Trail International
Understanding Xiaohongshu users and their habits is crucial for foreign brands wishing to make a name for themselves in China and promote their products (Xiaohongshu/RED user trends and statistics in 2022). RED stands out with an audience that’s 72% Gen Z, and mainly made up of women, representing 88.8% of users. These users mainly come from 1st and 2nd tier Chinese cities and are actively engaged in sharing and discovering foreign products. These users explore and purchase lifestyle, cosmetics and fashion products.
Another key element is the age of the users. The majority (80%) of the audience is under 30. They are “digital natives” who are very active on social media, regularly creating content, actively participating in discussions on the platform, and thus forming communities around shared interests. Finally, complementary traits characterize these users. They enjoy high incomes, consume regularly, and have a solid education. Their lifestyle is tinged with positivity and steeped in ritual, guiding their purchasing choices through emotions. They combine a rational approach with consumption focused on personal pleasure. Lately, they have been attaching great importance to branding and brand image, which has also had a significant influence on their decisions.
Unique Features of Xiaohongshu Compared to Other Chinese Social Media
Xiaohongshu has several key features that set it apart from other Chinese platforms such as Douyin, giving brands an excellent opportunity to enter the Chinese market.
- A strong social commerce community: Xiaohongshu stands out for its community aspect centered around products. Members interact with each other, and share their thoughts and experiences of products and brands.
- The combination of a social media and e-commerce platform – RED Mall: RED shares classic social media features like content creation tools, personalized recommendations, and engagement features such as likes, comments, and share buttons. However, one key factor that sets RED apart is the integration of e-commerce directly into the application. This allows users to explore and purchase products while browsing through the content of other users, brands and influencers. On Xiaohongshu it is also possible to open online stores to sell products directly. This is known as RED Mall.
Image source: AsiaPac
- User Generated Content (UGC): UGC is a key strength of Xiaohongshu, as users intensively share their experiences, reviews and recommendations more than on any other platform. In 2020, there were almost 3 billion pieces of content created.
- KOL / Influencer Marketing: Xiaohongshu is also known for having a large community of influencers, also known as Key Opinion Leaders KOLs) who often exert great influence on consumer purchase decisions in China.
- Product Tag: Users and brands can tag products directly in posts, linking the content to the product’s e-commerce page embedded in RED.
How to set up a Store on Xiaohongshu ? Step by Step Guide here.
XIAOHONGSHU STATISTICS FOR 2024
CRAFTING A WINNING SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY ON XIAOHONGSHU
Using Distinctive Storytelling to Differentiate Your Brand
Storytelling is powerful tool for building the reputation of your brand on Xiaohongshu. The essential first step to a successful marketing strategy is to develop a coherent and impactful narrative, highlighting your brand’s values, mission and story in a way that aligns with the aspirations of your Chinese audience.
This approach allows you to build deep emotional connections, leaving a memorable imprint on your target audience. Additionally, an authentic story builds user trust, helping to increase your credibility and drive more engagement. Xiaohongshu users are particularly inclined to share their experiences with brands that adopt a distinctive and enriched message.
Therefore, investing in the development of captivating and authentic storytelling is essential, so as to firmly anchor your brand on the platform, and increase it visibility and reach.
Creating Authentic and Engaging Content on Xiaohongshu
As isthe case on many social media platforms, the secret to a successful content strategy on Xiaohongshu lies in authenticity, avoiding excessively slick promotional content. The content must be informative, entertaining, and in harmony with your brand image and its values. With more than 450,000 pieces of content published daily on the platform, it is becoming crucial to’embrace the platform and the expectations of its users in order to stand out. The Xiaohongshu algorithm determines the visibility of your content based on the engagement it generates among users. The more engagement your posts generate, the more likely your content will go viral. In addition to following content trends, they must take into account several parameters to emerge on the platform:
- Image: the brand’s image must above all be authentic, unique, of good quality, and consistent. Xiaohongshu users are more receptive to authentic lifestyle images than to clichés disconnected from reality.
- Content hook: this must arouse emotions in users and capture their interest from the first moment.
- Description: this must be concise, informative, attractive, and above all resonate with your audience, thus establishing a relevant connection.
- Emojis: these will improve the readability of posts by correctly breaking the text down into paragraphs.
- Hashtags: Using relevant hashtags ensures that your content reaches the target audience and therefore increases visibility.
- Publish at the right time: Peak times were analyzed on the platform, generally between 7 and 9 a.m., between 12 and 2 p.m., and between 9 and 00 p.m. However, they also vary according to communities (lifestyle, cosmetics, fashion, etc.) and types of users. It is therefore inevitable to test and analyze to determine the niche where your audience is most active and engaged.
Image source: AsiaPac
How to creat your first post on Xiaohongshu ? Our tips here.
Invest in KOLs and Livestreaming
Image source: Cosmetics China Agency
The success of your brand on Xiaohongshu also depends a lot on the collaborations you can establish with Chinese influencers, commonly referred to as Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) and Key Opinion Consumer (KOCs). KOLs create content on a regular basis and are generally a good source of traffic and user attention. By collaborating with the right KOL, one that aligns with your brand DNA and resonates with your target audience, you can reach their followers and gain their trust.
There are several tiers of KOLs depending on the size of their community and which serve different marketing purposes. For example, mega and macro KOLs will be very useful in promoting your brand nationally in China. On the other hand, nano, micro and intermediate KOLs will be much more effective in penetrating specific markets and niches. Also, intermediate and macro KOLs will have a better impact on conversion campaigns than others. It is therefore recommended to define your marketing objectives and associate KOLs with these objectives when planning influencer marketing campaignsonLittle RED Book.
Source : AsiaPac
Another key aspect of influencer marketing on Xiaohongshu is livestreaming by KOLs. These are live broadcast campaigns in which KOLs film themselves in real time on RED and promote brands and products. Users can purchase products directly from livestreams with just one click. These live broadcast campaigns cangreatlyimprove the perception of products, making them more authentic and desirable. Finally, since Chinese consumers highly value KOCs for their purchasing decisions, they also drive sales. Research shows that an average KOL with 7.5k followers will generate around 10,000 RMB in sales over the course ofaa live stream, which more effective than on any other Chinese social media ore-commerce platform
Why is KOLs Marketing so important in China ? Discover Opportunities and Industries.
Promote your Brand with Xiaohongshu Advertising
Promoting your content through paid ads on Xiaohongshu can effectively amplify its visibility and attract a wider audience of potential customers. However, it is important to find a balance between organic and sponsored content, because although paid ads increase the visibility of your content, users pay less attention to them, trust them less and conversely show more interest in non-promotional content. So start by cultivating compelling organic content that resonates with your audience, laying the foundation for authentic connections. Only then can you consider launching advertising campaigns. However, do not limit yourself to native ads but vary your channels by collaborating with KOLs, and setting up live streams. A diverse advertising campaign ensures a more comprehensive reach.
Various advertising formats on Xiaohongshu:
- News Feed Ads: These are native ads seamlessly integrated into the user’s news feed alongside organic content.
- Collaborations with KOLs: These are partnerships with KOLs exploiting their influence and credibility in posts, videos or “moments” (the Little Red Book story format).
- Banner advertisements: These are static or animated advertisements that appear in different sections of the application, such as the home page, search results or specific category pages.
- Xiaohongshu Search Ads (SEA): Similar to search engine advertising, these ads are placed in search results, providing visibility to your brand when users search for specific keywords that you have previously targeted.
- Carousel Ads: These ads show multiple images or videos in a single ad unit, capturing users’ attention with a dynamic and interactive format.
- Pop-up Ads : Pop-up ads take over the entire screen, providing a powerful way to grab users’ attention. These can be static images or engaging videos.
By integrating these different paid advertising options combined with authentic organic content, you can optimize your presence on Xiaohongshu and connect effectively with your target audience.
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Optimize your SEO reference on Xiaohongshu
On Xiaohongshu, the effectiveness of your content relies largely on its search volume as well as the engagement it generates. It is therefore highly recommended to improve the referencing of your content by actively working on your SEO. Here are some specific actions you can take to optimize the performance of your content on Xiaohongshu:
- Keywords: Identify trending keywords in line with your brand and your products, and which correspond to the aspirations of your audience. Integrate these keywords naturally into your titles and descriptions.
- Optimizing your profile: Integrate relevant keywords into your Xiaohongshu profile name, your introduction, and your bio. This will improve the description of your brand and the understanding of your audience.
- Surfing trends and hashtags: Use popular and high-traffic hashtags to increase the visibility of your posts.
- Cross-platform promotion: Connect your Xiaohongshu account to other digital platforms such as your website, WeChat, and Weibo accounts. Also integrate the links from these platforms into your RED profile, thus creating an interconnected digital and social media ecosystem. This strategy increases traffic sources to your Xiaohongshu account.
- Data analysis and performance: Utilize Xiaohongshu’s analysis features to carefully evaluate your content data and its performance. Perform this analysis on a regular basis to adjust your content strategy based on your audience’s preferences, product interests, and engagement levels.
- Active engagement with users: Actively respond to your users’ comments. This interaction is crucial to gaining their engagement and trust, demonstrating that you value their opinion and are not simply representing a generic brand.
IN SUMMARY
Xiaohongshu is emerging as a go-to platform for international brands looking to enter the Chinese market. With more than 140,000 brands and nearly 200 million monthly active users, RED stands out for its user-generated content (UGC) and key features such as social commerce, integrated mall, influencer marketing, and livestreaming. To thrive on this platform, brands must develop strong storytelling, prioritize authenticity in their content, collaborate with KOLs, explore paid advertising in a balanced way, and optimize their SEO. By understanding the nuances of Xiaohongshu and adopting appropriate strategies, brands can create emotional connections, strengthen their visibility, and effectively conquer the Chinese market.
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