With the reopening of China's borders and the return to normality of consumption and tourism, brands and companies in the retail sector from all over the world seek to interact with consumers in the second largest economy in the world. Many of these companies work on marketing campaigns with Alibaba Group aimed at identifying the needs of China's more than 1 billion digital consumers. After analyzing more than 100 digital marketing campaigns carried out in the last year on different online platforms of Alibaba Group in China such as Tmall Global, Ele.me, etc., five digital strategies that help foreign brands to succeed in the market were identified. Chinese.

Reach the target audience. Before reaching potential customers, marketers must identify their target audience from a wide variety of niche consumer segments. This is not easy, as older consumers, for example, with lower internet usage, can be hard to reach. To overcome this digital divide, a campaign from the B2C Tmall marketplace invited members of Generation Z to take photos with older relatives who like to go shopping.
Interactive campaigns. With the rise of social media, customers can become brand ambassadors and co-creators. Taking this approach, Alibaba's order delivery platform Ele.me launched an interactive marketing campaign, encouraging consumers to take part in a quiz to win free food and drinks. In six months, 100 million people joined the game and thousands of merchants took advantage of the campaign to promote their businesses and increase the visibility of their brands.
Empathic marketing. In times of crisis, marketing campaigns are better perceived when they show empathy. Thus, Tmall, in collaboration with nine brands, launched its "Thank You Neighbor" campaign to document how Shanghainese sent gift packages to their neighbors as thanks for their help during lockdown.

Tangible B2B campaigns. Traditionally, business-to-business marketing targets the people who make the buying decisions. However, increasingly, B2B companies are targeting consumers first to build brand awareness before generating demand for their products. For example, Alibaba.com, a B2B marketplace, invited influencers to sell products from its platform in iconic locations in New York.
Leverage the power of marketplaces. To obtain a truly differential advantage, brands must rely on partners with sufficient knowledge and insight into the Chinese market. An example of this is the marketing campaigns carried out during the two main shopping festivals in China: Tmall Global's marketing campaign during the 6.18 Mid-Year Shopping Festival, which takes place in June, and the one carried out during 11.11. Global Shopping Festival, which takes place in November.
The 2022 editions of these shopping festivals promoted new products from international brands designed specifically for the Chinese market, such as a Ruyi necklace from Swarovski or a box from Swiss chocolatier Lindt. The marketing done at Tmall Global helped the total sales value of both products exceed RMB400 million.

Taken from: https://ecommerce-news.es/cinco-estrategias-digitales-para-tener-exito-en-el-mercado-chino/