What is Rednote marketing and advertising?
RedNote has become a mainstream marketing and shopping platform in China. The integrated social commerce app is used by Chinese audiences to post reviews, share shopping hauls, and give real opinions on products. For brands, this is huge because trust is everything in China. RedNote’s UGC content promotes transparency in shopping through word-of-mouth marketing. These features make it a trusted e-commerce channel to inspire purchase intentions and drive conversions.Why is Rednote marketing and advertising effective?
Unlike other social commerce apps in China, including WeChat or Douyin, RedNote is not just about flashy ads. Real people posting their authentic and real-life experiences about products and lifestyle boost credibility and trustworthiness. Moreover, brands can sell directly through the app with live streams and links to Taobao or RedNote’s own store. The audience is also prime, mostly young women with money to spend on fashion and lifestyle-related products. The reasons are endless, and the marketing potential is high, making RedNote an effective app for e-commerce.Rednote marketing and advertising: Types and Formats
In-Feed ads and Search ads
Source: mcnasia
The discovery page’s in-feed ads are like a smart recommendation system. Their main job is to show users content they will actually like, based on their interests. By doing this, they help spread traffic (views and clicks) in the best way possible, making sure the right people see the right posts.
Search ads pop up at the top when users search for something specific in their search bar. Since people searching already have buying intent, these ads help brands reach customers who are ready to purchase.
Splash Screen Ads
Source: catalystagents
These are full-screen ads that appear as soon as users open the app. Having eye-catching visuals and interactive elements, they are hard to miss. They not only catch the user’s attention quickly, but also boost brand exposure and product recall effectively.
Brand Zone
Source: sekkeidigitalgroup
This space lets brands showcase their products through different formats such as Brand Space and Basic Brand Zone. They can market their offerings through live streams, triple card styles, or banners ads. These formats send users to product’s landing pages, where they can buy them directly.
Surprise Box
This is a fun ad format where users get tailored surprises when they open the ad. The freebies or discounts are tied to special occasions like birthdays or specific brand searches. These rewarding interactions lead to UGC and customer loyalty through individualized experiences.
Pugongying (Dandelion Program)
Source: chinesetouristagency
In this ad type, brands partner with RedNote content creators for organic and subtle marketing. They send free products to influencers, who, in return, post honest reviews. This way, they advertise products through authentic word-of-mouth marketing.
Key Marketing Touchpoints on Rednote
Source: linkedin/YOYI TECH
Content Feed
The content feed of the app shows organic stuff and experiences. The content is in all forms such as text, images, or videos. People and brands share bite-sized notes about their experiences and products. Moreover, videos under 15 minutes perform especially well since the platform’s algorithm favors them.
Explore Page and Search Function
The discovery page inspires users to search actively for recommendations. Optimized posts with the right keywords and hashtags have more chances to show up in searches and get more engagement.
High-Quality Notes (Posts)
Notes are actually the posts version of RedNote. The best-performing notes are those with detailed reviews and great visuals. Publishing high-quality notes is a good way to get users’ attention and engage them.
E-Commerce Integration
The ‘’RED Mall’’ feature lets users purchase any products directly. Moreover, brands can also link their e-commerce stores to help users make purchases in an easy and convenient way.
Live Streaming
Live streaming lets brands interact and engage with customers in real time. The live shopping features act as precursors to impulse purchases and help brands sell out in minutes.
Influencer collaborations
Collaborating with influencers to showcase products is a great way to connect with diverse audiences. These social media stars seed product interests to boost brand reach and exposure.
How Does Rednote Reach Consumers?
Source: medium
KOL and KOC Influencers
Brands use key opinion leaders (top-tier influencers) to mid-tier and key opinion consumers (micro-influencers) to build trust and promote products with credibility. They act as a bridge to connect brands with a wider user base and earn active buyers.
PPC (Pay-per-click) ads
Using ads is a quick way to boost your brand presence and drive sales. Brands can run pay-per-click (PPC) ads through their Xiaohongshu Advertising Accounts, too, for free. RedNote offers a higher return on ad spend (ROAS) for PPC ads than WeChat and Baidu. These benefits make RedNote an ideal social commerce app to get engaged users with minimal spendings.
Organic content
Using real user-generated content can effectively boost your visibility and exposure on RedNote. This can be done by participating in ongoing trends and using the right hashtags. This helps users to see relevant content that adds value to their lives. It also inspires them to engage with your brand and create further UGC content for marketing.
What makes Rednote a great marketing and advertising channel?
Source: samaa.tv
Precise user targeting
RedNote’s advertising strategy is algorithm-driven. By analyzing user profiles in detail and checking their search and buying history, it shows relevant ads to people with high purchase intent.
Multiple ad formats
Different brands need different ad formats to showcase their products in an effective manner. RedNote offers various ad formats, such as in-feed, search, and splash ads, to cater to different brand goals.
Niche communities and high engagement
RedNote also offers a number of community features through community discussion groups and comment sections. This builds niche communities with connected users and encourages user engagement through brand interaction.
Successful Rednote marketing and advertising use cases
Florasis
Florasis, an oriental makeup brand, has capitalized the vast user base of RedNote to advertise its makeup products. It caught people’s attention by showing how its modern beauty products create beautiful traditional Chinese makeup looks. They also worked with popular beauty bloggers on RedNote to release honest and detailed product reviews.
To add more fun, the brand started an interactive activity of “Searching for the Most Beautiful Oriental Makeup Look”. This inspired users to create their unique Florasis makeup looks and share them on RedNote with specific topic tags. These smart RedNote marketing and advertising activities helped the brand to get more recognition and conversion in overseas market in just a few months.
Beneunder
Beneunder is a brand that sells sun protection products. The brand created helpful guides about staying safe in the sun by producing a series of “Sun Protection Guides” short videos for its umbrellas and hats. It also collaborated with fashion bloggers and outdoor enthusiasts on RedNote. They showed how users can style these sun protection products and how they actually work in real scenarios. This word-of-mouth marketing method worked greatly and led to the creation of high-quality content from actual users.
Fabrique’s live streaming
Source: walkthechat
Fabrique is an affordable yet highly famous retailer of designer clothes. In March 2024, it used the RedNote live-streaming feature to showcase its clothing creations and interact with users in real time. Live-streaming helped the brand reach sales worth 16% of what it usually made on Tmall, with an average order value of 1100 CNY.
Conclusion
With its rising popularity among Chinese users, RedNote has become an inevitable marketing tool for e-commerce brands due to its credible content. To use RedNote’s marketing and advertising capabilities for your brand’s benefit, you need the help of an expert marketing solution provider. Kivisense is a Sino-French joint venture that creates the latest AR, VR, and AI-based marketing solutions for e-commerce and retail businesses. You can contact us to create a winning social commerce strategy to help you stand out on RedNote.
