Note: In the practice of statistical work in China, legal entities that reach a certain scale, qualification, or quota are referred to as “‘Four Up’ enterprises.”

Regarding the above announcement, JINGdigital expressed that it is an honor and gratitude to receive a certain level of recognition and support from the government. As one of the “Four Up” high-tech enterprises, JINGdigital will forge ahead in the coming years and achieve further success.

JINGdigital: Starting with Products, Dedicated to Service

JINGdigital is a marketing technology company that helps B2B enterprises acquire leads, nurture prospects, empower sales, and build an integrated marketing technology platform, along with the long-term companionship of a customer success team to achieve substantial revenue growth.

From a product perspective, JINGdigital is committed to creating an integrated SaaS platform that spans from “marketing” to “sales” across all channels, freeing traditional B2B enterprise marketers from tedious manual tasks. To better accompany customers’ growth, JINGdigital has also formed a “customer success team” that responds to customers’ business needs in real-time, providing professional solutions from the perspectives of platform operation, industry characteristics, business goals, and digital marketing.

As of March 2023, JINGdigital has provided products and services to over 600 large and medium-sized, growing B2B enterprises, covering but not limited to high-tech, industrial manufacturing, healthcare, and corporate services industries. JINGdigital’s clients are spread across first and second-tier cities in China, including a large number of outstanding domestic enterprises and multinational companies that require localized marketing tools.

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JINGDigital from Jingshuo Technology has been selected

WISE 2022 New Economy King Annual Enterprise Service Ranking

As one of the largest and most influential annual new economy conferences initiated by 36Kr, the “WISE2022 King of the New Economy Annual Enterprise” marked its 10th anniversary in 2022. Looking back on 2022, the business services track became more pragmatic amidst calm.

In the release, 36Kr mentioned: “2022 is the calmest year in the primary market since the first year of enterprise services in 2014. The total financing events in the enterprise services track this year are lower than any year in the past eight years. The calm in various dimensions: customers reducing budgets, VC/PE waiting and watching, enterprises barely surviving.” Despite the industry winter, JINGdigital still completed two rounds of financing totaling 130 million RMB in July 2022, noteworthy that JINGdigital received intensive capital support twice within a year.

With over 15 years of experience in strategy, market, management, and entrepreneurship, Hong Kai, Chairman & CEO of JINGdigital, with his background in Siemens, Bain Consulting, and Cisco (as the Senior Vice President of China), has a deeper understanding of MarTech in China: “I believe now is an ideal time for the development of MarTech in China, fundamentally because of the government and enterprises’ deepening recognition of digital transformation.

On one hand, digitalization has become a national strategy, greatly benefiting the development of this track. On the other hand, B2B enterprises in dire need of transformation and innovation also require MarTech technologies to help them improve sales lead conversion rates while better managing and operating their marketing data assets, thereby enhancing the lifetime value of each customer.”

2022 was also the most pragmatic year for the enterprise services track. Enhancing product strength, finding market niches, exploring growth methods… Thinking and transforming, breaking through and transitioning became the common theme for every actively innovating enterprise service company.

Adhering to “long-termism,” Mr. Hong steadfastly believes in the future of the enterprise services track: “In 2022, my mindset is mixed. The joyous aspect is that many companies have accelerated their thinking about marketing digital transformation, especially now under the pandemic, when traditional enterprise To B marketing methods have changed, offline activities cannot be conducted, how can we move marketing scenarios online?

At the same time, addressing these specific scenarios to complete the construction of internal transformation facilities and operational capabilities has been scheduled by many companies. The worrying aspect is that although many companies want to do this, they are still hit by the pandemic, so they hesitate a bit when making actual decisions regarding budgets and decision points, so it’s a mix of joy and worry. The overall environment for the digital marketing industry, we believe, is very optimistic, but there will be some micro challenges.”

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Image: JING at Four Seasons | 2023 Jingshuo Technology Brand Open Day Event

01 | What are the possibilities for a ToB Marketer’s career?

The brand event began with a speech from Mr. Hong Kai, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of JINGdigital (JINGdigital). Following this, Kathy, the Marketing Director at Harnais, delivered an engaging presentation on the topic of “The Career Possibilities of a ToB Marketer.”
Finally, mysterious executives from Fortune 500 companies in the industrial manufacturing and healthcare sectors also extended the discussion on this topic, providing the audience with a comprehensive understanding of the various career development paths available in the B2B market.

Image: Jing Shuo Open Day | Kathy, Marketing Director of Hanna Shi, shares the career development of B2B market professionals

Addressing the current pain points faced by B2B marketers, Kathy summarized 3 key issues: “There are many factors that determine the success of a purchase, sales are deemed more important than marketing, and the process of marketing actions reflecting results is somewhat prolonged,”

From these pain points, Kathy shared several insights for B2B marketers, suggesting that to succeed in this industry, one needs to meet the following requirements:

B2B Marketers:

1. Establish the brand image of the company, the core product or service, and shape the image of a thought leader (the trust generated by the company: success stories, market awards, company background, and the background of key personnel).
2. Identify the core target groups of the enterprise (industry domain, scale, region, market capacity, specifically which departments and individuals to influence, and where these individuals frequently appear).
3. Establish the brand in the minds of the target group through content, events, or communities.

During the interactive session of the ToB Tea Party, the audience and guest speakers engaged in group discussions on six hot topics of interest to B2B marketers:

AIGC Marketers:

In the era of AIGC, how can marketers establish irreplaceable competitive strength?
What applications does ChatGPT have in the B2B marketing domain, and how can such tools empower work?
Where does the anxiety of marketers come from, and how can the sense of value among marketers be enhanced?
Management path vs expert path, how to determine the right path for oneself?
The “mid-life crisis” at 35? How can marketers break through career development bottlenecks?
What are the typical stages or paths of career development for marketers?

After an intense discussion, JINGdigital prepared delicious refreshments for everyone and invited a professional florist to guide the guests and audience in creating their own floral arrangements. Amidst relaxing music, beautiful floral art, and laughter, the “JINGdigital Open Day – ToB Spring Tea Party” event gradually came to a close.

Image: Jingshuo Open Day | On site Flower Arrangement Session

hat surprises will JINGdigital’s Brand Open Day bring in the coming summer, autumn, and winter seasons? Let’s wait and see.

About JINGdigital

JINGdigital is a marketing technology company that helps B2B enterprises acquire prospects, nurture leads, empower sales, and build an integrated marketing technology platform. With the long-term support of the customer success team, JINGdigital aims to achieve substantial revenue growth for its clients.

The post “Seasons of JING” | JINGdigital’s 2023 Brand Open Day and B2B Marketers Spring Tea Party Held appeared first on .

This poem truly resonates with us B2B marketers. The original meaning of the poem reflects the anxious and cautious state of farmers who, despite the prospect of a bountiful harvest, become more worried and careful, fearing both rain and wind. Similarly, for B2B marketers, as 2023 comes to a close and we look forward to 2024 with hope, we also harbor concerns.

Over the past year, we’ve faced many uncertainties, such as economic downturns, budget cuts, and questions like: How exactly should we set our market targets? The “stacking people tactic” no longer works, but what kind of digital marketing talents does B2B really need? In the TOB model, how can AIGC enhance the marketing value of enterprises? … and so on. These issues are not something that can be easily summarized in a few words.

Therefore, after much consideration, we decided to organize an online summit titled “2023 B2B Marketers’ Annual Review and Planning”, kicking off at 09:20 on January 11th! We have invited many big names in the field with practical experience to discuss various topics. They will share the pitfalls they’ve encountered over the past year, the lessons learned, and the achievements gained, all to gather strength for the marketing battles of the coming year.

Below are the main topics and lineup of guests for this online summit. Register now~ (you won’t regret it)

The post Summit Registration | Going All Out! Hosting an Online Summit for the First Time, We’re Playing Big! appeared first on .

Today, “marketing automation” technology has become the standard product for B2B enterprises to improve lead conversion rates, and JINGdigital, a marketing technology company, is showing its prowess.

Recently, Hong Kai, Chairman & CEO of JINGdigital, which has been working in the field of local marketing automation for many years, was invited to the “Innovation Path” program to have a conversation with Zhu Xun, a famous CCTV host, sharing the rise of JINGdigital in the Chinese marketing technology (MarTech) market.

Click to watch the complete interview

As a key program of China Central Television, “Innovation Path” focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises innovating in China’s development over the past two years. The program highlights those engaging in innovative entrepreneurship, telling stories of entrepreneurship in progress, sharing real entrepreneurial experiences, and conveying the positive energy of “new era” entrepreneurs’ ambition, struggle, and innovation.

Image: Zhu Xun’s Exclusive Interview with CEO Hong Kai, Chairman of Jingshuo Technology

Invited to the “Innovation Path” program, Mr. Hong Kai has over 20 years of experience in strategy, marketing, management, and entrepreneurship. He boasts an enviable career history with Siemens, Bain Consulting (as Managing Director), and Cisco (as Senior Vice President for China). JINGdigital is Mr. Hong’s third entrepreneurial venture. Not only shining in his career, Mr. Hong also holds an MBA from Wharton School, a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master’s degree in Engineering from RWTH Aachen University in Germany.

Image: Hong Kai, Chairman and CEO of JINGDigital

During the conversation, the CCTV host asked Mr. Hong to introduce “what is marketing automation,” to which Hong summarized:

“Marketing automation essentially helps the marketing departments of growing businesses use technology and artificial intelligence to accomplish tasks that are difficult for humans, thereby significantly improving the conversion rate of sales leads. Previously, businesses (especially B2B businesses) spent a lot of budget on acquiring sales leads, but many of these leads were wasted, not followed up over the long term. Some sales leads might not become customers immediately, but that doesn’t mean they have no commercial value. Marketing automation software continuously interacts with sales leads through digital touchpoints, thereby stimulating their purchase needs, and this ‘incubation’ process is efficiently completed by the software.”

The CCTV host also expressed her doubts, “I don’t know if I understood correctly, is it like continuous precision (advertising) targeting? Does it have some relation?”

Hong further explained that the similarity between “marketing automation” and “precision targeting” lies in their personalized interaction with thousands of individuals, but the former is conducted across all channels like emails, official accounts, corporate WeChat, online/offline events, and serves the conversion of sales leads by mobilizing multiple functions within the company (such as marketing, telesales, sales departments), whereas the latter is a relatively simple ad reach conducted in the public domain.

Image: JINGDigital’s New Marketing Technology Platform

After a preliminary understanding of JINGdigital, the CCTV host asked, “What other reasons have contributed to the development of the marketing automation industry?”

Hong replied, “First and foremost, the subjective willingness of companies is strengthening. The path to growth driven by traffic has been proven difficult to achieve. The only way out is to continuously optimize each link of the marketing funnel, improve the overall conversion rate, and significantly enhance sales efficiency and the lifetime value of each customer through data empowerment on the sales end. Of course, this is subjective logic. Objectively, marketing automation had already emerged abroad by 2004, but until JINGdigital’s founding in 2015, nearly ten years later, there were no marketing automation companies in China. One reason was the lack of subjective willingness from companies at that time; on the other hand, there was no corresponding private domain carrier in China to help businesses more conveniently reach users.

Abroad, marketing automation is mainly achieved through emails, as there is a habit of reading and writing emails in the foreign business environment, but in China, emails are not a very effective way of reaching out. It wasn’t until after 2014, when companies started to open official accounts en masse, creating a wave, and official accounts replaced emails/SMS and other common private domain carriers abroad. When subjective willingness exists and objective conditions are ripe, marketing automation truly began to emerge in China starting from 2014-2015.”

Beyond technical products, Zhu Xun also expressed curiosity about JINGdigital’s “customer success system”.

Hong Kai explained why this was important, saying, “We are a SaaS (Software as a Service) company, operating on a subscription basis rather than a one-time purchase. Essentially, it’s a type of software that allows customers to use it with very low barriers. The core element of this business model is the renewal rate, i.e., whether enterprises are willing to continue using your software next year and the year after. The standard for continuation is whether enterprises have found value in your software and services, feeling successful or seeing results. When customers onboard our product, it’s just the beginning, an opportunity for interaction between both parties. The real journey requires continuous communication between the customer success team and the client, because the product is static, but the usage scenarios are dynamic. How to achieve results with the product is the question that the customer success team needs to answer for enterprises.”

Following this, the CCTV host asked, “Based on your six years of experience, what is the biggest challenge you face now?”

“Talent shortage,” Hong Kai answered. “Although China is ahead in the field of digital marketing for ToC, in B2B sectors, such as manufacturing and high-tech, there is still a significant lack of operational talent. Especially, the marketing departments of domestic B2B enterprises often have fewer staff. This leads to some enterprises affording the software but lacking the operational capacity to utilize it effectively, to let the technology achieve its intended results.”

Hong Kai also introduced JINGdigital’s approaches and thoughts on these challenges.

“Firstly, making the software product more intelligent and integrated, so that operational staff don’t need too much ‘senior’ knowledge to set up a whole set of industry data tags and corresponding marketing scenarios, turning the methodology into part of the product. Secondly, establishing a customer success system, continuously interacting with customers to explore usage scenarios. Of course, due to the significant differences in application scenarios and measurement standards across industries, the team is also divided according to industry, focusing on industry-specific deep dives.”

Lastly, the CCTV host asked Hong Kai, if he could summarize this entrepreneurial journey with a few keywords, what would they be?

Hong Kai responded, “Firstly, trend. Secondly, persistence. Thirdly, openness, maintaining an open mindset.”

“In any era, there are opportunities given by the era. What we’re in right now is the best time for B2B marketers. First of all, our traditional industries are starting to ‘hurt’; leads are becoming more expensive, and at the same time, companies like JINGdigital have appeared, offering enterprises a way out of dependency on traffic. This is a trend. How do we seize this wave and carve out our own territory in the blue ocean? We believe that China’s B2B enterprises will overtake their foreign counterparts in the next few years, using more diverse digital touchpoints and innovative power to surpass them in the digital marketing field. Persistence is the second point; every founding team has its own DNA, how not to betray one’s original intention, that’s persistence. Thirdly, often the goal is there, but along the way, there will be many contradictions to the initial assumptions, and at that time, it’s necessary to be flexible and open enough to overturn one’s own assumptions.”

At the end of the program, having gained a deeper understanding of marketing automation, the CCTV host also wished that more growth-oriented enterprises could benefit from it.

The post Marketing Automation Featured on CCTV, Famous Host Interviews JINGdigital’s Chairman & CEO Hong Kai appeared first on .

From the perspective of Investor Zheng Can, Managing Director of Linear Capital, “The rapid adoption of the Internet in China has brought a panoply of new channels and tactics for digital marketers. The digital marketing ecosystem is more complex and the pace of change is faster than that of The United States and European countries. It has allowed brands more possibilities and has therefore spawned a lot of start-ups in this field. We believe that JINGdigital’s complete product matrix is able to provide customers with the capacity for lead nurturing along the customer-life-cycle, helping brands significantly increase their final conversion rate.”

In addition to the positive recognition of JINGdigital’s products, investor Yang Tao, Partner at Albatross Ventures, also expressed his praise for JINGdigital’s KPIs and strong market reputation. He mentioned: “JINGdigital was founded by an excellent team who are serial entrepreneurs. The company’s marketing automation products for the B2B market have proven to deliver value to their customers. Additionally, JINGdigital has built a solid reputation in the marketplace and has market-leading metrics. We believe that under the leadership of the founding team, their products and industry experience will continue to create value for more B2B enterprises.”

Since inception in 2016, JINGdigital has been focused on maintaining a SaaS business model instead of custom software solutions.  At the same time, JINGdigital’s growth rate has remained high for five consecutive years with an annual growth rate of over 100%. JINGdigital sees their advantage coming from the depth of research into their customers needs and pain points.  Through customer conversations and multiple iterations of product, the founding team at JINGdigital built a marketing automation platform and related functional modules that are a great fit for B2B marketing teams in the China market.  The products, covering the whole chain of B2B enterprises’ marketing process from “marketing” to “selling”, helping enterprises truly realize ROI through their marketing efforts. JINGdigital’s customers include over 300 domestic and international enterprises such as Merck, Agilent, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Organon, Sartorius, Bosch, Aurora Group, Winner Technologies, etc.

When referring to JINGdigital’s product direction, Kai Hong, the Chairman and CEO, said: “Compared to similar products in the global market, be it the product footprint, the business model or the core values, we think our products are most similar to Adobe Experience Cloud.”

“JINGdigital is accelerating down this path. So far, we have developed core modules including a customer data platform (CDP), marketing automation, and a content management system. There are still many potential areas for growth and our agile development methodology helps us focus on products that actually solve customer issues.  We have an iteration every two weeks, and through our rapidly iterating product we meet the changing demands of our customers.”.

Although, Kai believes that JINGdigital’s product can learn much from existing global providers, to be successful in China any product requires being rooted in the Chinese market. “There is still a large difference in the China digital marketing ecosystem from those overseas. For example, foreign sales tools are difficult to fit into Chinese sales teams workflows. The expectations of sales teams – their relationship with marketing teams, with management systems and with customers– are still quite different.”

As a SaaS market pioneer in China, JINGdigital has become a demonstrably successful SaaS business, with 300+ customers and a solid market reputation for delivering value. In the future, with its open product architecture, strong channel ecosystem, and continuous product development that actual solve customer issues, JINGdigital will be able to rapidly scale its current business and lead the market, as well as continue maintaining a growth of more than 100% in the years to come.

The post Marketing Cloud Platform JINGdigital Secures a Series-A Funding of RMB 80 Million appeared first on .

by Alexander Wei

As the WeChat communities of luxury brands continue to grow, the way in which they are interacting with brands on the platform is evolving. The all-new report released by DLG (Digital Luxury Group) and JINGdigital takes a closer look at key performance indicators on WeChat, and how brands fared on the platform last year.

With the global luxury market clouded in uncertainty, many luxury brands chose to look East in 2020. As the only luxury market in the world functioning at a semi-normal capacity, international brands naturally began to step up their investments in China last year. This, coupled with the ongoing growth and evolution of the Chinese digital landscape, created a robust environment for brands’ online activities in the market to thrive.

A report by Bain estimates that China’s online luxury penetration in 2020 is expected to grow by 153 per cent compared to the previous years, accounting for 23 per cent of total consumption. It is worth noting that unlike in Western markets, Chinese consumers are purchasing luxury goods not only on brand-owned websites and third-party marketplaces such as Tmall and JD.com, but also social channels like WeChat, or Douyin and Weibo which have rolled out their own e-commerce offerings as well.

Social platforms are rapidly evolving and develop more functions that span even more touch points along the consumer journey, causing the digital ecosystem in China to become increasingly fragmented. While WeChat remains the most ubiquitous digital platform, user behaviours on the platform are starting to change and brands are finding it increasingly challenging to engage their communities. The latest 2021 WeChat Luxury Index report by DLG (Digital Luxury Group) and JINGdigital delves into these issues based on an in-depth study of the WeChat Official Accounts of 33 luxury brands from January to December 2020.

Still Growing

According to the report, the overall growth rate of luxury brands’ WeChat communities rose by 44 per cent in 2020, up from 2019’s 37 per cent. This rise likely stems from the influx of brands ramping up their investments in the Chinese market, as well as on local digital platforms. While an increase in media investment has been observed, growth was largely fuelled organically – much like in 2019 – highlighting the continued importance of such channels. This indicates that brands should pay more attention to these channels, instead of banking too much on paid advertising.

Of these organic channels, QR Codes and Search remain the two most pivotal in terms of recruitment, accounting for 63.18 per cent of the total growth. The third most significant channel was WeChat Ads, which brought in 15.07 per cent of new followers acquired. However, it should be noted that followers recruited through paid channels typically demonstrate the lowest retention rate: The unfollow rate of those recruited through WeChat Ads was at 32.07 per cent in 2020, meaning that one in three newly-recruited fans went on to unfollow the brand account. This significantly impacts the returns of investment for brands on this channel, and is something to be taken into consideration.

“It is important for brands to develop stronger recruitment strategies around their organic channels,” says Mario Juarez, SCRM and Data Strategist at DLG (Digital Luxury Group). He explains that while Search is directly linked to brand equity and harder to impact, QR codes are something that brands can easily leverage. “Beyond adding recruitment QR codes at the end of articles or in offline stores, brands should think about utilising it in other creative scenarios such as in campaigns or surveys, and developing user journeys that will guide customers in discovering the brand,” he adds.

WeChat As an Information Centre

WeChat may be a top instant messaging tool with over 1.225 billion monthly active users, but the bulk of user interactions on brand Official Accounts – over 73 per cent – are centred on menu clicks. This is something that has remained fairly consistent from year to year. This suggests that users tend to only interact with brands when they have a query or are searching for specific types of information. In contrast, post interactions only make up about 10 per cent of all user actions.

So while engagement rates within articles have decreased slightly from 10.89 per cent in 2019 to 9.56 per cent this year, this is not something that brands should be overly concerned with as the bulk of user interactions with the brands do not take place on this front. “This is also why brands need to be less caught up with ‘traditional’ social media engagement metrics and evaluating their success on WeChat based on the comments, shares or WOWs they get in articles. Content is essential, but it is a smaller part of how consumers are interacting with brands on the platform,” elaborates Pablo Mauron, Partner & Managing Director China at DLG (Digital Luxury Group). “Brands should also work on developing their service offering, such as social CRM programmes – where there is clearly still a lot of room for growth – customer service chat options and e-commerce.”

Leveraging Social Commerce

The total gross merchandise value (GMV) generated by WeChat Mini Programs grew by over 100 per cent year-over-year in 2020, and is estimated to surpass 1.6 trillion RMB in 2020, rivalling JD.com and Pinduoduo. However, unlike major marketplaces like Tmall, the way brands operate their e-commerce on WeChat needs to consider WeChat’s primary social function.

As a result, brands do not always follow the model of traditional e-commerce sites or their official sites when building up their e-commerce Mini Program storefronts. While some brands do present their complete product ranges on WeChat, others choose to launch pop-up stores, available for a limited time in tandem with brand campaigns and important marketing milestones (e.g., Chinese Valentine’s Day, Lunar New Year).

There are, of course, many creative ways to go about this – Danish jeweller Pandora’s gifting Mini Program for Chinese Valentine’s Day last year demonstrated just that. During the campaign period, users were able to purchase gifts for their loved ones and customise gift messages accordingly. In addition, to simplify the gifting process, consumers could also share a link with the recipient through the Mini Program and have him or her fill in details such as the delivery address, and size required (without revealing details about the gift).

The commerce opportunity on WeChat is significant, now even more so given the broadening of traffic options to Mini Programs. Weibo and RED now allow traffic redirection from their platforms to WeChat Mini Programs. Another new function that brands can leverage is sending SMS messages containing Mini Program links to redirect customers to WeChat. “By embedding Mini Program links in SMS messages, brands can further enrich their consumer marketing efforts and drive an additional layer of traffic to their WeChat Official Accounts,” says Kai Hong, Chief Executive Officer at JINGdigital. “Through this, they will also be able to better nurture and activate prospects, directing them seamlessly to purchase as well.”

For more data and insights on follower acquisition, engagement and content, as well as case studies and frameworks on new business opportunities on WeChat, watch a replay of the WeChat Luxury Index 2021 livestream session. The full report is also available for download at the link below.

The post WeChat Luxury Index 2021: From Social to Commerce appeared first on .

A: COVID-19

The meme above was widely shared on the internet in China last month. It may have been a joke, but it’s replete with truth.

As COVID-19 has shocked the world, companies that traditionally relied on offline channels for sales and marketing find themselves seriously challenged. But proactive companies that have used this time to successfully implement digital transformation have not only survived but are poised to thrive. Digital transformation has been a buzzword for years, and the pandemic has supercharged the process. As a strategic marketing partner for nearly 200 brands over the past six years, I would like to share some of JINGdigital’s expertise on how brands have navigated this unprecedented crisis.

Part 1：User Behavior Has Changed

While most of our customers have expressed concern over the impact of COVID-19 in China, we are seeing an abundance of resilience from Chinese companies in meeting these challenges. Many firms are implementing updated 2020 plans that heavily shift toward online activities for at least the first half of the year.

As B2B marketers have been forced to move away from offline marketing campaigns such as conferences and seminars, they are laying the groundwork for a full schedule of webinars. In addition, creating high quality content with a strong social strategy, especially through WeChat, is another priority for companies responding to the pandemic.

At the same time, B2C marketers are putting even more weight behind their online efforts, increasing the velocity of online campaigns and supercharging order fulfillment. Many brands are relying on WeChat to communicate critical brand updates during the COVID-19 period. For example, restaurants are using WeChat to notify customers about reopening plans, special online-only offers and partnerships. Brands are also flocking to WeChat Work to generate more sales. Some luxury brands have accelerated their roll-out of online sales and we are seeing brands accelerate the digitalization of the sales process.

One of our clients, a European luxury retailer with over 50 stores in China, has accelerated digitalization for their 300+ sales associates. The associates are now equipped with the JINGsales Wechat Work-based social selling tool. As a result, over 40,000 of their customers are now connected directly with the brand digitally. The click through rate for product recommendation content averages 95%, while the purchase conversion rate is 17%.

Part 2: The New Working Normal

We believe the recent increased focus on digitalization is neither a fad nor a transient buzzword, but a long-term shift that has simply been brought forward. Companies must make strategic plans for digital transformation to ensure future growth.

Digital transformation is a strategic shift across an entire company, not confined to a single department. It brings significant changes to the entire business model in a top-down approach. While there will be winners and losers within the organization as a result, if properly done, the company as a whole will benefit.

One of the major pillars of digital transformation is removing data silos and connecting systems, both laterally within a company and vertically across the company’s global structure. For example, we see many clients seeking secure, reliable ways to connect global CRM to local instances, to create a single source of information that is visible across the entire company. Our JINGconnect tool deploys simple, secure protocols to make robust two-way connections between JINGsocial and global clouds such as Salesforce, Eloqua and Hybris.

Part 3: How Are Brands Using WeChat During the Pandemic?

We have seen some important changes in the WeChat ecosystem over the past few months. In addition to WeChat Official Accounts (the traditional channel to attract private traffic), WeChat Work has become another extremely productive channel for driving consumer growth, due to its exclusive interoperability with WeChat. Beyond that, the addition of WeChat Channels, through which users can publish short video content, has brought brands another important alternative to achieve organic reach. The constantly evolving WeChat platform is still the best way for brands to reach consumers on a broader stage.

The WeChat ecosystem is still the best private traffic pool for brands. Experience shows that brands that identify the stages and corresponding touch points of their customer lifecycles in this social ecosystem are the ones that win market share. As shown in the illustration, there are five key stages in the user journey from Customer Acquisition to Follow-up.

Illustration 1: WeChat-Based Customer Lifecycle Engagement

Seven years since the launch of the Official Accounts feature, most brands still have a limited understanding of their Official Account followers. This may not matter as much for brands in the fast moving consumer goods space, but in luxury, education and B2B, brands with access to the right follower metrics are closing opportunities that their competitors are missing. A simple litmus test of your online readiness is to compare how well you understand your leads and customers from offline touchpoints and interactions, compared to your understanding of them online.

Part 4：How Have Companies Changed Their Use of WeChat During this Period?

The hottest topic during the era of social distancing has been webinars. We have all seen dozens of webinar invitations in our WeChat Moments and various WeChat groups. This trend started to gather momentum – especially in sales and marketing departments – in 2019. All major e-commerce platforms in China have already made major investments in this area. Now, the trend will accelerate. Brands need to consider how they will leverage webinars to drive sales.

Webinars have been a tried and true tactic in the US market for the last decade, but are only just gaining traction in China. This year we expect to see many marketers exploring how they can sell better online through webinars.

Illustration 2: JINGdigital Webinar Product Package Implementation & Delivery Process

Since offline lead acquisition channels will be slow for the next 3-6 months as the legal environment is uncertain and customers remain hesitant to attend large gatherings, webinars will be the only real effective marketing option to replace the power of offline events.

For example, a renowned science journal used the JINGdigital webinar tool to host its 150^th anniversary event. It was able to collect leads with high interest by creating a webinar landing page, sending out a template message to followers to generate registration and then again as a reminder before the event to optimize participation. The webinar event resulted in over 300% growth of new followers, an 85%+ retention rate and a 95% customer journey completion rate among registered and checked-in followers. The entire process is seamless within WeChat, improving participant acquisition and the viewer experience.

In human history, there has been many global disasters. But with every crisis comes opportunity. Companies with an adaptive mindset will find growth opportunities. Mature online tools are available for smart companies that seize the day.

The post Aaron Chang’s Interview with AmCham: Where There Is Change There Is Opportunity appeared first on .

In July 2018, a pencil-way reporter, Liu Jing Rong interviewed Mr. Kai Hong, the chairman of JINGdigital. Throughout this interview, Mr. Kai Hong shared JINGdigital’s story: beginning as a small start-up to become China’s leading marketing automation platform. JINGdigital is most successful at helping brands “convert followers into customers”.

If you would like to see the full interview, you can find it in the pencil path APP, “Using WeChat marketing automation technology, JINGdigital has helped hundreds of brands convert millions of followers into customers”.

First, JINGdigital can help meet marketing needs for brands that cannot meet these needs by themselves.

The traffic dividend is becoming a thing of the past, while interactive marketing methods are becoming extremely useful to C-side and B-end enterprises.

When the WeChat public account was created in 2014, JINGdigital founder, Aaron Chang seized this opportunity: “WeChat is the only platform that allows companies to interact with their potential customers in real-time, proving that WeChat will become the platform of choice to improve marketing conversion rates.” JINGdigital took advantage of WeChat public accounts by providing real-time interaction with followers and helping brands operate their accounts while converting followers into customers.

Second, what is the purpose of having brand followers?

At the time of JINGdigital’s founding, many companies were faced with a similar problem: the brand had spent a lot of money and effort to acquire tens of thousands or even millions of followers, but how is the commercial value of these followers quantified?

At that time, no one had the answer.

Now, JINGdigital has the answer; Kai Hong said that JINGdigital can help brands turn followers into customers using WeChat marketing automation technology.

JINGdigital uses automated marketing technology to help brands track follower behavior. By acquiring follower data partnered with WeChat’s public data with brand EC, CRM, and other platforms, a 360-degree follower portrait can be developed to divide these followers into groups and pursuing personalized marketing. While this follower portrait is being created, the auxiliary brand discovers the “golden window period” (the period that followers are interested in the brand) and allows the brand to interact with followers in real-time using their WeChat public account, improving the marketing conversion rate.

“We have converted thousands of companies from web marketing to WeChat marketing.” Kai Hong said that JINGdigital not only helps brands conserve manpower, but also helps them understand individual follower data.  JINGdigital also has the capability to allow real-time interaction between brands and potential customers on an enormous scale (millions of interactions at the same time).

Third, the ultimate goal of JINGdigital is to convert followers into customers.

“Helping brands turn followers into customers is the ultimate goal of JINGdigital.” Kai Hong said that the key to achieving this goal is to interact with large-volume customers in real-time, taking no more than 5 seconds to complete the dialogue.

With the help of JINGdigital, a brand can interact with 10 million followers in real-time without increasing labor costs, showing the immense benefit of automation technology. To achieve large-scale real-time interactions, the platform requires computing capabilities, processing power, and business experience.

 JINGdigital’s confidence in turning brand followers into customers stems from the marketing strategies that it has acquired after having experience working with nearly 100 brands. JINGdigital not only sells a technical product but a product + corresponding marketing strategy.

After successfully serving medium and large-sized enterprises for many years, JINGdigital will continue to bring its marketing techniques to assist many companies and enter the SME market with a simpler, more cost-effective product line.

 About JINGdigital:

JINGdigital, founded in 2014, is a part of Shanghai Zhuosuo Network Technology Co., Ltd. and is China’s leading WeChat marketing automation platform. JINGdigital is committed to helping brands turn their followers into customers, deepening brand influence, improving marketing transformation, and helping these brands achieve a better understanding of each individual follower.

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