“If you have a question, search on Zhihu,” they say. As Chinese consumers become more sophisticated with higher education and more disposable income, brand’s marketing strategies must evolve to keep up with them. Content, a leading form for targeting consumers, has been shared so abundantly and quickly that it has caused information overload. Cases, It has become a turn-off to consumers and has even blocked by them.
To stand out from competitors, establish reputation, and continue to increase sales, brands must be more innovative than usual and look beyond standard tactics and tools to reach their target audiences. One platform that has been effective in marketing to the savvy Chinese consumers is Zhihu, the popular question-and-answer platform. Zhihu is usually referred to as China’s Quora, It is the country’s largest knowledge platform with a social function. It has more than 101.2 million active users monthly as said in its 2021 Q3 report.
Below is a picture about how the Zhihu users look like. 53.3% male users, 80.1% under graduate or above education degree, 76.0% medium or high income.
Zhihu has already become the “go-to” service for many Chinese consumers seeking expert advice and insight about a wide variety of topics. Simply, users ask questions and receive answers from the database as well as from other users. It also allows users to leave reviews on different products and services. Storing 17 million questions and retaining 63 million answers, Zhihu’s Q&As include 250,000 different topics, covering a range of subject matter, including finance, philosophy, internet, IT, and more.
Marketing with Zhihu
Consumers has become cleverer, they are increasingly using this platform for knowledge and insight. And as they research products and services, they are sharing their information and experiences with other consumers. As a result, Zhihu is highly effective in influencing buying decisions, especially as more and more consumers rely on advice when making purchases.
Much of Zhihu’s popularity is because it has a likeable atmosphere, making its content widely recognized and trusted. With its extensive content, it establishes a long-term connection with consumers. Additionally, its content is long lasting, more so than some hot topics on WeChat and Weibo, which may last for just a few days. This may be because Zhihu excels in SEO. Content from searches appears on the first page regardless of the publishing date, providing effective, long-term promotion.
Besides its Q&A, Zhihu has also developed other useful functions, like Zhihu Column, Zhihu Roundtable, Zhihu Bookstore, and Zhihu Live. Users can write articles, participate in discussions, read e-magazines upcoming to specific industries, or give an online presentation about a particular topic and interact with their audience in real-time.
Brands find success with Zhihu
As a result of Zhihu’s knowledge-sharing platform, brands are practicing new and creative digital marketing techniques. The formula for success is to provide consumers with helpful, applicable knowledge and ensure two-way communication with them thorough exchanging information. For brands, it is much important to deliver brand information online and let target-audience find answers easily while they search for some certain questions. Zhihu is one of the best way to post articles, answer users real questions, and sharing exact feelings about brands’ products, which can be very useful to influence other potential customers. Despite article posts, feed ads format can be chosen to make the impression and traffic even better.
Zhihu’s position as a producer and sharer of valuable content presents a unique offering to brands that have a lot of information and expertise they can share with users. Different from most social platforms where posting regularly is the norm, one piece of high-quality content on Zhihu is enough to yield long-tail results. It can be a powerful tool to establish long-term trust and thought leadership, but the results won’t come overnight.
If you are interested in the methods about how to do online marketing on Zhihu Channel, please just contact DDC. We will provide you with a comprehensive proposal including the analyzing of your brand in China and marketing ideas on China’s top Q&A platform and other related digital media.