When it comes to advertising in China, the first problem international businesses might counter is language barriers. Some small businesses usually make the mistake of thinking that a quality translation or hiring a translator is enough for them to advertise in China. However, it is not far enough to become truly competitive.
The language barrier is actually the difficulty of localization and localization far outweighs translation. Translation is the process of translating words or text from one language into another while localization implies knowledge of the language, habits, preferences, and cultural and social norms of the target market. In the digital marketing context, localization includes at least three aspects: website content, keyword research, and advertising copy.
Chinese Website
A Chinese website is a basis for you to start marketing in China. But creating a Chinese website is not as simple as just having Chinese content. If you want to build a strong online presence in China, an ICP license is necessary.
ICP stands for Internet Content Provider. An ICP license is a state-issued registration that allows a China-based website to legally operate in the country. Having an ICP license lets you host your website on a server in mainland China. It will take some of your time to get an ICP license.
If you want to launch your marketing campaign as soon as possible in China, you can create a Chinese website with Baidu Jimuyu without an ICP license. Baidu Jimuyu is a Chinese web builder by Baidu and it allows you to promote your website built by it on Baidu without ICP.
*However, Baidu Jimuyu is only available in Chinese.
Keyword Research
Whether it's SEO or SEM, keyword research is very important for your business. The power of keyword research lies in better understanding your target market and how they are searching for your content, services, or products.
There are helpful tools for your Chinese keyword research such as Baidu Index. Both of them can provide you with valuable insights to help you find the most suited Chinese keywords for your business.
Baidu index will tell you how often certain words are searched and how those searches have changed over time on Baidu. More importantly, it will also give you insights into what kind of users are searching for these keywords, and what other related words are also searched by them. This can help you find valuable keywords for your business and optimize your marketing strategy.
*Baidu Index is only available in Chinese.
Advertising Copy
Similar to Google Ads, you can easily start a search campaign on Baidu with just several titles and descriptions but remember all should be in Chinese.
In many cases, you can not expect a translator can help you localize your ad copy because sometimes you may find that some of the words in your ad copy don't have an equivalent in Chinese - especially if the words are technical. Therefore, A local marketer is more reliable than a translator when it comes to ad copy localization.
In addition, except for basic search ads, there are so many other products on Baidu and they are all only available in Chinese including the Jimuyu and Baidu Index we mentioned before.
As you can see, if you want to succeed in the Chinese market, then you must first overcome the language barrier. Finding a reliable advertising agency can save you a lot of time and cost compared to hiring local marketers.
As Baidu's official agency, YunShang Tech has professional bilingual marketing specialists and Baidu official guides. Contact us to create your Chinese website, find your keywords, and localize your ad copy.
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