In the Western World, we’re very quick to point to a select few areas for inspiration when it comes to innovation. Silicon Valley, Berlin and London to name three. But maybe we should be casting our eyes further and over to China.
A recent success story you’ll have heard of is TikTok. In fact, the Telegraph referred to ByteDance – the owner of this mobile app – as “the first Chinese tech giant to break the West”.
The prosperity of many companies in China comes down to various factors. These help them to stay ahead of even foreign household names who try to penetrate the market. And you can take a couple of ideas and implement them to your affiliate marketing strategy, as we’ll discuss now.
Fully understanding the landscape of your target market(s)
It’s not uncommon for Western giants to point to China’s internet censorship regulations when explaining why they aren’t big here. Some of that is true, but it’s also worth noting that not every brand is affected by said laws. Amazon is a prime example – the e-commerce titan was unable to make the same kind of impact here, as it has in places such as the US.
The matter of fact is simple. Chinese brands, such as Alibaba, understand the market. Companies like such are already established here, with sizeable consumer bases. It’s therefore vital that new businesses from abroad have a unique selling point, which Amazon ultimately didn’t.
As an affiliate, you need to identify where you can fill gaps when targeting traffic from new markets. This is especially the case if you’re looking at places where isn’t English isn’t the main language, such as Latin America. One way you could do this is by finding out from operators you partner with what their customers like, as well as what they aren’t so keen on. By doing the background work, you’ll be in a good place to determine what will make audiences turn to you.
Showing your audience what it wants to see
This kind of ties in with the above, but extends to when you actually begin producing your content. A particular feature that has helped TikTok become so popular is its ‘Recommended for You’ tab. This gives users a reason to stay on the app and consume more content, since what they’re likely to enjoy is being pushed right to them.
You can use similar methods with success in affiliate marketing, too. In part, this should be based on their reading history. For example, players who have engaged with special accumulator promotions might not be so interested in betting on the number of corners in a game.
Along with showing them promos that players will care about, you should consider handpicking recommended articles for them. This could be done by sending an email, or with a further reading section on your website. You might also want to use artificial intelligence – something we spoke about in a recent blog post – to curate these for you. Through putting in the effort to personalise your content, audiences will see that you know what they want and come back for more.
Final thoughts
Companies in China are successful because they know their audiences and how to serve them by utilising technology. They have extensive knowledge of the country’s market and what does and doesn’t work, whereas a lot of brands that try to expand here don’t. As an affiliate, you should take note of these and do the necessary background work before expanding elsewhere. Through localisation and personalisation, you’ll be in a great position to grow your influences in new corners of the globe.
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