10 Digital tips for market your brand in China (2025 update)

In order to market a brand in China, companies have to know plenty of information. In this article you will learn 10 Digital tips to reach your goal in 2025

By Philip GMA– No Fluff, Just Actionable Insights

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1️⃣ Forget Websites, Own Social Media!

📌 Chinese consumers don’t Google your brand—they search on Douyin, RED, and WeChat.
📌 Your social media presence = your credibility. No WeChat? No business.

👉 Action: Build an active presence on WeChat, Douyin, RED, and Weibo before anything else.

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2️⃣ Douyin Ads Are Not Optional – They’re a Cheat Code 🎯

📌 Douyin’s AI knows your audience better than you do—it finds high-intent buyers automatically.
📌 The best ads? They don’t look like ads. They feel like viral videos.

👉 Action: Run native-style video ads that blend with trending content. Make them feel organic!

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3️⃣ RED (Xiaohongshu) = Word of Mouth on Steroids 📝

📌 80% of Gen Z in China checks RED before buying. If you’re not there, you don’t exist.
📌 RED’s trust-driven ecosystem means peer reviews > celebrity endorsements.

👉 Action: Partner with KOCs (micro-influencers) for authentic reviews, NOT just big KOLs.

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4️⃣ WeChat = Your Private Traffic Empire 🏯

📌 Stop relying on paid ads—WeChat Groups & Mini Programs = free, repeatable traffic.
📌 VIP WeChat communities = direct customer relationships, higher retention.

👉 Action: Create exclusive WeChat groups for loyal customers & drive long-term engagement.

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5️⃣ Livestream Shopping = Sales on Demand 🎥

📌 Brands doing daily livestreams on Douyin see 3-5x higher conversions.
📌 It’s not about perfection—it’s about interaction! Answer questions, demo products, build FOMO.

👉 Action: Set up weekly live selling sessions, use flash deals & limited-time offers to drive urgency.

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6️⃣ Influencers Don’t Just Promote, They Sell 💰

📌 Chinese consumers don’t trust ads, but they trust influencers (KOLs & KOCs).
📌 The right influencer = instant credibility, instant traffic, instant sales.

👉 Action: Find niche KOLs in your industry who actually engage with their followers.

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7️⃣ Personalization = More Conversions 🎯

📌 AI-powered recommendations = 70% higher conversion rates.
📌 If your ads & promotions aren’t customized, you’re wasting money.

👉 Action: Use WeChat CRM & Douyin AI targeting to personalize promotions & offers.

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8️⃣ Flash sales Marketing Works Every Time ⏳

📌 Limited-edition drops, flash sales, and countdown timers drive impulse buying.
📌 If something feels exclusive, it feels more valuable.

👉 Action: Run Douyin-only exclusive drops, use RED to leak “secret” upcoming products.

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9️⃣ Content First, Sales Second 📢

📌 Hard-selling doesn’t work in China. Storytelling, lifestyle content, and brand heritage do.
📌 Give value first—entertain, educate, then sell.

👉 Action: Create mini-documentaries, behind-the-scenes videos, and trend-driven content.

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🔟 Adapt Fast or Get Left Behind 🚀

📌 China’s digital landscape changes monthly—what worked last year is dead now.
📌 Test, optimize, and move fast—brands that wait, lose.

👉 Action: Be agile, test multiple ad formats, and adjust your strategy every 3 months.

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🚀 Final Thought: In China, marketing is a battlefield. You either move fast, or you disappear.
💡 Apply these 10 tips, adapt quickly, and dominate the market. Let’s go!

Full Explanation Digital Strategy 2025 in China

Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu) The lifestyle APP :

Little Red Book, also known as Xiaohongshu, is a unique social media and e-commerce platform in China, primarily targeting the younger demographic. It combines lifestyle sharing, product reviews, and shopping in one integrated experience. Users can post and view content about a wide range of topics, including fashion, beauty, food, and travel. With its emphasis on user-generated content and authenticity, Little Red Book has become a trusted source for lifestyle inspiration and product recommendations, making it an invaluable platform for brands looking to engage with the Chinese market.

5 Marketing Tips for Brands on Little Red Book:

1. Leverage KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders): Collaborate with popular influencers on Little Red Book who align with your brand’s image. KOLs can create authentic content that resonates with their followers and drives engagement for your products.
2. Focus on High-Quality, Authentic Content: Create content that is both visually appealing and genuine. Little Red Book users value authenticity, so sharing real user experiences and behind-the-scenes stories can be more effective than overt advertising.
3. User-Generated Content: Encourage Red users to post their experiences with your brand. Reposting and interacting with user-generated content can increase your brand’s visibility and credibility.
4. Brand Hashtags : Create branded hashtags or challenges to encourage participation and increase visibility. Engaging challenges or themes can quickly gain traction and virality on the platform.
5. Tailor Campaigns for Chinese Consumers: Understand cultural nuances and preferences. Tailoring your content and campaigns to reflect local tastes and trends can significantly improve your brand’s relevance and appeal in the Chinese market.
6. Advertising to maximize the Power, the audience…

Douyin Marketing:

Douyin, known internationally as TikTok, is a leading short-video platform in China, immensely popular among the younger generation. It is more advanced than Tiktok

this addicted app allows Chinese people to create, share, and discover short videos ranging from entertaining clips to educational content. Douyin stands out for its highly engaging format, sophisticated algorithm, and diverse range of user-generated content. It’s not just an entertainment platform but also a powerful tool for digital marketing, offering immense potential for brands to connect with a large and active user base in China.

5 Marketing Tips for Brands on Douyin:

1. Create Engaging and Original Content: Focus on producing short, captivating videos that align with your brand identity. The content should be creative enough to catch the viewer’s attention within the first few seconds.
2. Leverage Influencer Partnerships: Collaborate with popular Douyin creators who resonate with your target audience. Influencers can help in reaching a broader audience by creating authentic and relatable content that promotes your brand.
3. Utilize Hashtag Challenges: Participate in or create your own hashtag challenges. These challenges can go viral and significantly increase brand visibility and user engagement.
4. Incorporate Interactive Features: Use Douyin’s interactive features like polls, quizzes, and augmented reality (AR) filters. These features can enhance user engagement and make your content more interactive and fun.
5. Optimize for Douyin’s Algorithm: Post content regularly and at optimal times to ensure higher visibility. Understanding and leveraging the algorithm can help in maximizing your content’s reach.

By integrating these strategies, brands can effectively utilize Douyin to engage with a wide audience, enhance brand visibility, and foster a deeper connection with the Chinese market.

Baidu Brand SEO- Problem of user

When you open your website in China, which needs to be hosted in China and be adapted in term of design, you have to promote it on local search engine. If there is one you have to focus on, it is Baidu, which represent 70% of the market. In order to be well seen by the customers it’s necessary to lead a good SEO campaign.

For more information click here and read our article about SEO on Baidu.

Online Reputation

To be appreciated among Chinese internet users, you need to build a strong image. If you are not really famous consumers will reject you and will be mistrustful. It’s the reason why big brands are loved in China, they bring people confidence. So in order to build a good image from nothing, firstly you will have to adapt to the culture creating a Chinese website and having a certified Baidu account. It’q the first path to the long way to have consumers confidence.

Zhihu Q&A :

Zhihu is a popular Chinese question-and-answer website similar to Quora. It’s a platform where users can ask questions and get answers from the community. Over time, Zhihu has evolved into a comprehensive knowledge-sharing platform, hosting a wide array of content from user-generated Q&A sessions to articles, columns, and professional analyses. The platform is known for its educated and relatively affluent user base, making it an ideal space for brands looking to engage with a sophisticated and discerning audience. It’s particularly well-suited for thought leadership and brand credibility building in the Chinese market.

Marketing Tips for Brands on Zhihu:

1. Establish Thought Leadership: Share expert insights, detailed analyses, and well-researched answers related to your industry. This approach helps in building your brand’s credibility and authority in the field. Regular participation in relevant discussions can position your brand as a knowledgeable and trustworthy source.
2. Engage in Relevant Topics: Actively participate in discussions and topics relevant to your brand or industry. This engagement can include answering questions, contributing to discussions, and even asking insightful questions. Such interactions can increase your brand’s visibility and relevance on the platform.
3. Utilize Content Marketing: Create and share high-quality content that provides value to the Zhihu community. This could include in-depth articles, infographics, or explanatory videos. Content that is informative and adds to the knowledge pool of the community is more likely to be upvoted and shared, thus expanding its reach.

By integrating these strategies, brands can effectively leverage Zhihu’s unique environment to connect with an educated and engaged audience, enhance brand recognition, and establish a strong presence in the Chinese market.

Ads Retargeting

If you are specialized in one domain and nobody knows you in China, it’s important to retarget people to your website. In order to do that you have to promote it on other website, known by your target putting there some adds like banners which can fit perfectly according to the industry where you work. More information here

WeChat strategy update (2025)

The social network created by Tencent, one of the biggest company in China, is something you can not omit if you want to market your brand in China.

WeChat Channels (video):

WeChat Channels is a feature within WeChat, the most popular messaging app in China, which functions similarly to a social media feed. This feature allows users, brands, and businesses to create and share video and photo content with both their followers and potentially a broader WeChat audience. It represents a significant expansion of WeChat’s capabilities, transitioning from a messaging and social networking tool into a more comprehensive platform that includes content discovery and sharing. For brands, this offers an invaluable opportunity to engage with one of the largest user bases in China.

Marketing Tips for Using WeChat Channels:

1. Create Quality Content Regularly: Consistently post engaging, high-quality content that resonates with your audience. Whether it’s informative, entertaining, or promotional, the content should provide value to the viewer to encourage sharing and interaction.
2. Leverage Multimedia Formats: Utilize the variety of formats available on WeChat Channels, such as videos, images, and text, to keep your content dynamic and engaging. Tailoring your content to the preferred format of your audience can increase engagement.
3. Integrate with WeChat Official Accounts: If you have a WeChat Official Account, use it in conjunction with your WeChat Channel. This integration can help in cross-promoting content and driving traffic between the two platforms.
4. Utilize SEO Strategies: Implement Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques for WeChat, like using relevant keywords and hashtags, to increase the visibility of your content in searches within the app.
5. Engage with Your Audience: Actively engage with your audience by responding to comments and messages. Building a community around your brand can foster loyalty and increase the likelihood of content being shared.
6. Track and Analyze Performance: Regularly monitor the performance of your content. WeChat provides analytics tools that can help in understanding what content works best with your audience, allowing you to refine your strategy accordingly.

What are WeChat Channels, and How Fashion Brands Can Use Them for Marketing?

By adopting these strategies, brands can effectively use WeChat Channels to reach and engage with a vast audience, strengthen brand recognition, and build deeper connections with consumers in the Chinese market.

More information about its functionalities here.

Weibo… not a priority in 2025

Weibo which can be refer as the Chinese twitter, has more than 50 million of daily users, in 2024

you have to create your page in this social media and add interesting content in a regular way to attract people to your business.

Media relationship & Influencers

If your target is large you don’t have to be present only in the social medias, but also in the more traditional ones. People are influenced by medias so you have to build a strong image of your company there especially in online medias which are getting bigger and bigger. To give you an idea, the first media in China (Sina news) count 200 million readers…

Soluna Founder speaking to Media for the launch of his brand in China.

Influencers in China (must to have 2025)

Working with influencers in China, where the influencer marketing landscape is quite dynamic and influential, requires a strategic approach. Here are five key tips for successfully collaborating with influencers in this market:

1. Choose the Right Influencer: Select influencers who align with your brand’s values and target audience. In China, the fit between the influencer’s followers and your customer profile is crucial. Consider factors like their niche, content style, follower demographics, and engagement rates. There are different types of influencers, from celebrities to KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) and KOCs (Key Opinion Consumers), each with their own reach and impact.
2. Understand Platform Dynamics: Different social media platforms in China have different user demographics and content styles. For instance,  Douyin for viral content, and Little Red Book for lifestyle and luxury goods. Choose the platform that best matches your campaign goals and where your target audience is most active.
3. Build Relationships: Cultivating a good relationship with influencers is key. This involves not just transactional exchanges but also understanding their needs and preferences, providing them with creative freedom, and respecting their audience. A strong relationship can lead to more authentic and effective promotions.
4. Leverage Local Insights: Stay updated with local trends, internet slang, and cultural nuances. Influencer campaigns that resonate with local trends and societal contexts tend to perform better. Influencers, being in tune with these trends, can provide valuable insights into what is currently appealing to the Chinese audience.
5. Measure and Analyze Performance: Set clear KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and use analytics tools to measure the effectiveness of your influencer campaigns. Metrics like engagement rate, conversion rate, and reach can help you understand the ROI (Return on Investment) and refine your strategies for future collaborations.

Understanding these nuances and applying these strategies can greatly enhance the effectiveness of influencer collaborations in the unique and rapidly evolving Chinese market.

Create a strong relationship with the customers

If social networking is such an important thing in China, it’s because to be trusted you have to maintain a good relationship with your customers. In order to get this relationship, you will have to listen the needs of them and be able to help them in every situation concerning your product. The key of the success is to make people feel they are listened and understood. In China companies have to be adaptable.

Play with emotions

Consumers have feelings, and to play with feelings is the best way to attract the consumers. Some companies already understood it like Nike which want to make people feel everybody has talent in a campaign they broadcast during the London Olympics on WeChat. The best way to play with emotions is to show some pictures or videos which can have a huge signification for people who watch that. In 2016, company will have to focus on videos which is the the trend thanks to new apps.

Provide the good message, work on the storytelling

Get into the Chinese market is not the easiest thing for a western company, mainly because China is really different in a cultural way. In order to adapt itself, companies have to be aware of the local trends, the local needs and what the local competitors do.  In general, the message will be different to attract Chinese customers.

Buzz marketing, to get attention of Chinese consumers

In China the buzz is really important and even if it lasts just a short time, if your buzz is positive it can bring you a lot of new customers and there are a lot of companies which try to create the buzz like Apple who shows the picture taken by iPhone, or Lenovo with their campaign: “for those who do”. This kind of buzz appeal the feelings of customers and will have positive effects over the sales.

For further information, advices, or if you want to learn more about our services, you can send an email

Introduction to GMA’s Fashion Division:

Gentlemen Marketing Agency (GMA) is a prominent digital marketing agency with a specialized focus on the Chinese market. The fashion division of GMA specifically caters to the needs of fashion brands looking to establish or expand their presence in China. Leveraging a deep understanding of Chinese consumer behavior and the latest digital trends, GMA’s fashion division offers tailored marketing strategies. These strategies often encompass social media marketing, influencer collaborations, e-commerce optimization, and bespoke advertising campaigns. Their expertise in navigating the unique Chinese digital landscape makes them a go-to choice for fashion brands aiming to capture the attention of China’s vast and diverse audience.

5 Tips to Choose a Marketing Agency:

1. Alignment with Brand Vision: Ensure the agency understands your brand’s core values, target audience, and long-term goals. The right agency should be able to align its strategies with your brand’s vision and identity.
2. Expertise in Relevant Industry: Look for an agency with proven expertise and a successful track record in your specific industry. For fashion brands, an agency that understands fashion trends, consumer behavior, and fashion retail dynamics in your target market is crucial.
3. Understanding of the Chinese changing Market: Particularly for entering a market like China, choose an agency that has deep local insights and understands the cultural differences. This is critical for effective communication and positioning your brand appropriately.
4. Range of Services: Consider agencies that offer a comprehensive range of services that cover all aspects of digital marketing, including social media, SEO, content marketing, e-commerce, and analytics. This integrated approach can provide more cohesive and effective marketing campaigns.
5. Transparency and Communication: Opt for an agency that values transparency in its operations and communications. Regular updates, clear reporting on campaign performance, and an open line of communication are essential for a productive partnership.

Selecting the right marketing agency involves careful consideration of these factors to ensure that the agency can effectively represent your brand and help achieve your marketing objectives.