In the third consumption era, with strong consumer demand and fierce competition, brands have been looking for more effective ways to contact Chinese consumers. To continue to penetrate the Chinese market and improve people's brand recognition, the recommendation algorithm of Xiaohongshu provides a marketing idea of "from the clout to transaction volume" for various industries.

Xiaohongshu’s unique marketing methods and product positioning are deeply loved by a new generation of users. Based on the observation of user needs, we will discuss how to help brands build market strategies in this article.

1. The data advantage of Xiaohongshu can quickly help brands capture the market and effectively improve brand recognition

Founded in 2013, Xiaohongshu focuses on sharing UGC (user-generated Content). The main sharing path is that users post notes in text, pictures, videos, etc.  Artificial intelligence and big data will sort out the massive information in the cloud community and accurately match it to interested users.

Several statistics show the popularity of Xiaohongshu. According to "Top 10 Monthly Active Ranking of Communication and Social Apps in China 2022" released by iiMedia Ranking（艾媒金榜）, the Xiaohongshu APP ranked the 4th. By the end of 2022, Xiaohongshu APP had 260 million monthly active users.

It is worth noting that the user quality of the Xiaohongshu platform is also very high. According to the "Juguang Platform Marketing Summary" released by Xiaohongshu Commercial Product Center, half of Xiaohongshu users come from China's first and second-tier cities, with an average monthly disposable consumption of 4,000 +. It means that they not only have the strong consuming capacity but also are willing to pay extra for good quality of life. This has laid the foundation for Xiaohongshu to become a community platform that "better understands users' lifestyle" and "better meets users' needs" in the Chinese market.

From the brand data, the commercial value of Xiaohongshu is highly released. According to the data released by Guoji Qiangua（果集·千瓜） in 2022, more than 15,000 brands are estimated to spend more than 2.5 billion yuan on the Xiaohongshu platform. Among them, the skin care industry is estimated to have the highest investment amount of 874.87 million yuan, followed by makeup and maternal and childcare, 216.53 million yuan and 192.72 million yuan, respectively. The beauty content is the focus of Xiaohongshu.

Investment situation of various industries in the Xiaohongshu platform

According to the incremental data of business notes on the whole platform, during the first half of 2022, the relevant business notes increased by 210,000, and the interactive notes increased by 300 million. The effect of brand investment in Xiaohongshu is quite considerable.

If overseas brands aim to increase their brand awareness in China quickly, they should seize the opportunity to conduct brand marketing on Xiaohongshu and share their brand information with Chinese users.

2. Brands cultivate KOL (Key Opinion Leader) to achieve in-depth dialogue with consumers

Since 2018, Xiaohongshu has transformed from a sharing platform focused on overseas shopping to a diversified content community concentrated on "customer needs". Based on users' demand for more life information sharing and reading, Xiaohongshu has also been comprehensively promoted in the mobile application market by inviting celebrities to join and building a KOL-sharing platform. In the same year, Xiaohongshu launched a brand partner platform to connect the brand with Xiaohongshu bloggers.

Xiaohongshu has been successful, and the transformation has continued to expand its crowd advantage and attract many brands. This effect is particularly evident in the beauty industry. Combining celebrities, KOLs, and beauty brands has enabled Xiaohongshu to achieve explosive user growth (more young users with strong consuming capacity). In this context, some head brands have entered and seized the industry track. Brand content related to beauty, luxury, travel, and so on has quickly gained users' attention.

In this market trend, Perfect Diary seized the opportunity to increase the exposure of products in a short time rapidly. The Perfect Diary's 2020 numbers are already impressive. On the single platform of Xiaohongshu, Perfect Diary has 1.94 million fans and 210,000 + notes, with a total exposure of hundreds of millions, far more than Baique Antelope, L 'Oreal, and other brands.

The combination of KOL's social influence and new media communication mode has quickly led to the recognition and following of consumers. So, like 90% of other brands, Perfect Diary started with KOL. In terms of blogger structure, the strategy of Perfect Diary is very sophisticated. In the pyramid structure below, the top-down placement ratio is 1:1:3:46:100:150.

The blogger segment on the Xiaohongshu platform

The strategy of Perfect Diary is based on psychology. It first collaborates with a few stars or well-known KOLs to build momentum while partnering with niche KOLs. In addition, for "ordinary people," it relies on user-generated content and word-of-mouth marketing. Ultimately, Perfect Diary aims to establish a situation where everyone uses their products, marking another successful collaboration between the brand and Chinese social media.

How can overseas brands effectively leverage Xiaohongshu marketing to reach more potential Chinese buyers? Partnering with a provider who possesses extensive experience in Chinese marketing can significantly amplify a brand's promotional efforts in China. For the past 8 years, QS Search has successfully helped over 500 brands from 23 countries in various industries to enter the Chinese market. QS Search is your preferred digital marketing partner in China. Contact us now to tailor your marketing strategy for Xiaohongshu! We will assist your brand in customizing precise audience strategies based on your business or product highlights, selecting the most suitable KOLs for your brand, and launching marketing campaigns to enhance your Xiaohongshu brand promotion. 

If you're interested in learning more about the latest trends and strategies for social media marketing in China, don't hesitate to contact us at enquiry@so360.hk!