How should brands advertise on Xiaohongshu?

Today, no one will deny the importance of online content marketing.

Whether it is new consumer products such as Wonderlab, Wang Baobao, and Canban that have emerged through content marketing on the Xiaohongshu platform, or mature brands such as L'Oreal, Bear Electric Appliances, and Midea that have switched from offline and traditional e-commerce to Xiaohongshu to achieve market growth, they have all demonstrated with practical actions the importance of content marketing and content marketing on Xiaohongshu.

But! As Double 12 has just passed and the marketing wars of major brands are about to come to an end, and everyone is just thinking of sitting back and waiting for the end of the year, I have to remind you not to relax!

The time to overtake is now!

As an emotional sustenance for every Chinese, the Spring Festival naturally carries positive economic and cultural significance, which fundamentally determines that it is completely different from daily marketing.

I don’t know if you have ever heard this saying - the money spent during the Chinese New Year is not money, but a reward for yourself for being ravaged by life throughout the year and a full of love for your family.

The words are quite simple, but it is indeed true when you think about it.

Just like “since we’re already here”, “it’s the New Year” is also a perfect reason and excuse.

It’s the same money, but the mentality of spending it before the Spring Festival is completely different from that on weekdays.

On normal days, I feel painful when I spend 30 yuan on takeout, but now I spend thousands of yuan casually.

Why is this?

We can explain it using "mental accounting".

Mental accounting means that people classify their money and store it in different accounts in their hearts . In the psychological accounts, people do not treat every dollar equally, but take different attitudes depending on the different sources, destinations and returns of the money.

Therefore , people's sensitivity to prices varies in different psychological accounts.

Due to the existence of mental accounts, people often violate simple economic rules when making decisions, resulting in irrational consumption behaviors.

For example, we may be reluctant to buy ourselves a down jacket, but when we are shopping on Christmas, we accidentally see a jacket that is very suitable for our girlfriend. Even if the price is double that of the down jacket we want, we still think it is worth it and buy it without saying a word.

This is because the money spent on buying a down jacket for yourself is placed in the psychological account of daily necessities, while the money spent on buying clothes for your girlfriend is placed in the psychological account of maintaining emotional ties.

Therefore, when the same amount of money is placed in different psychological accounts of consumers, their willingness to pay will be completely different.

Before the Spring Festival, almost all consumption will be invisibly pushed into the emotional account, which can be used to reward oneself, care for family, contact relatives and friends, etc.

"I won't accept any gifts this year, the only gift I will accept is Melatonin", "If you love him/her, take him/her to eat Haagen-Dazs", "Bring the joy home", "Wahaha gift pack, the gift brings prosperity and the intention brings prosperity", "Cha Cha, the taste of happiness" are all successful examples of directing simple product payments towards the psychological account of emotional maintenance.

Therefore, we can cleverly use the trend of changes in consumers' mental accounts to make them pay for products that they are usually unwilling to pay for.

Therefore, the eve of the Spring Festival is the "golden period for planting grass and harvesting" where you can achieve twice the result with half the effort. It is the time of the year when planting grass is the easiest and deals are easiest to close, and it can play a multiplying effect with little effort.

As long as brands focus on scene consumption, they can re-activate the consumption potential of different types of users.

What are brands waiting for if they don’t plant seeds and reap the rewards at this time?

2. You have to buy it anyway, so let’s see which one to buy

When consumer demand surges, product substitution effects are most likely to occur .

Purchasing behavior during the Spring Festival is urgent, necessary, and semi-compulsory, which means that the path from generating an idea to placing an order is much shorter than usual.

However, many products do not have obvious labels. Unlike milk candy, which makes people think of White Rabbit and Jia Jia, wedding candy, which makes people think of Xu Fuji, and melon seeds, which makes people think of Cha Cha. They do not have absolute uniqueness. When consumers buy them, they often choose one from multiple homogeneous products.

At this time, the brand that has received a lot of exposure and jumped in front of consumers will naturally become his choice.

If you find that the search traffic and store visits to your product drop significantly within a month before the Spring Festival, don’t blame it on the weak market after the big promotion. In fact, it is likely that users have shifted their attention to other products.

3. The huge crowds during the Spring Festival travel rush can help brands spread naturally and gain more publicity

If a product starts to overtake others, it must be when the large-scale crowd effect begins to take effect. The Spring Festival is definitely the period when the crowd effect is most efficiently transmitted. This is the period when most people come into contact with people most frequently throughout the year. The people they come into contact with also have extremely strong relationship attributes (that is, they are the most trustworthy), so the effectiveness of communication will be further enhanced.

Whether we admit it or not, many times, our perception and acceptance of a brand or product are determined by the people around us.

People around me are saying that Cha Yan Yue Se is delicious. Even if you are not a fan of milk tea on weekdays, you will inevitably be eager to try it, thinking, "Is it really that good?"

When people around you are saying that XX star lacks artistic ethics, even if you had a mediocre impression of him before, you will unconsciously develop negative cognition and emotions towards him.

When we see a new product and don’t know whether it is good or not, our first reaction is to ask our friends what this product is like. If friends give positive advice, conversion will be a natural outcome. If negative advice is given, the result can be imagined.

The Spring Festival is definitely the period when the crowd effect is most efficient. During this period, everyone will come into contact with different groups of people at a high frequency, and the relationships with the people they come into contact with also have a strong sense of trust.

This is your best opportunity to break out of your circle and influence new users.

How strong is the breaking power of the flow of “human tides”? Let me give you an example.

Everyone is familiar with the mobile game Honor of Kings, right?

It was still tepid in 2016, far from reaching the level of a phenomenon. It was not until the Spring Festival of 2017 that the first batch of players from first-tier cities returned to third- and fourth-tier cities and introduced the game to local friends of all ages through their own actions. From then on, Honor of Kings opened the door to primary and secondary school students and users in third- and fourth-tier cities, and established its status as the king of mobile games.

4. Provide a volume foundation for the subsequent Queen’s Day and 618 promotions

We all know that the same recommendation note has different effects on different people.

For those who already have basic knowledge of the product or have been attracted to it, they can reap the benefits directly, while for those who have never known about it, it will be a brand new exposure.

The traffic and exposure gained from this wave of advertising launched before the Spring Festival also bear these two functions.

For users who are eager to make decisions, we provide them with the "last push" before placing an order and reap the benefits directly. The resulting voice and brand exposure will, to a certain extent, affect another group of people who were not previously reached.

This group of people requires long-term influence and careful crafting. This wave of promotion before the Spring Festival can lay the foundation for subsequent content marketing and lay the foundation for the Queen's Day and 618 promotions.

Even though it is a huge trend, I personally think that there is still a certain degree of selectivity in products and categories.

Based on the purchasing demand trends of consumers before the Spring Festival and the logic of promoting products on the Xiaohongshu platform, I have summarized the categories that are suitable for layout during this period and provide a reference for various brands.

1. First Tier

①Gifts/New Year's goods related

As the Spring Festival approaches, every household is preparing New Year's goods and gifts.

The popularity of notes about the New Year and gifts on the Xiaohongshu platform has also continued to rise recently.

When it comes to the selection of New Year gifts and goods, people's consumption tendencies are also changing.

The older generation's demand for products has gradually shifted from focusing only on cheap and practical "price-performance ratio" to high-end and good-looking products, while the younger generation pays more attention to the expression and delivery of the core meaning.

Products that take both into account, such as functional health products, New Year gift boxes, smart small appliances, etc. are popular choices during this period.

* New Year gifts are popular at a certain stage

Window paper-cuts, couplets, red envelopes, calendars and other essential items are also very popular during this period.

②High-value consumer goods

Whether it is a projector, game console, camera, etc. for yourself, or a sweeping robot, new mobile phone, etc. to make life more convenient for your parents, you have made the determination to buy them during this period.

Making full use of "gift giving" to extend scenes and topics can achieve good conversion effects.

③ Products with a certain user base

The biggest potential explosion of this part of the product layout lies in the secondary sound transmission of "crowds".

After a brand has gained the first wave of users on Xiaohongshu, along with the flow of people during the Spring Festival travel rush and the high-frequency communication and contact, they will inevitably share and recommend their favorite daily necessities. As long as this wave of dividends is utilized well, the "strong trust" of friends and relatives can be used to attract a large number of new users who have not been reached.

It is best to choose daily necessities with strong substitutability and weaker brand awareness, such as cookware, storage, paper towels, wet wipes, laundry detergent, hand soap, etc.

2. Second Tier

① Clothing and beauty

The strong social nature of the Spring Festival causes people to pay special attention to their appearance. Whether it is new clothes and shoes for your own beauty, new clothes for your parents, grandparents, babies and pets, or blush, eye shadow and highlighter that you rarely use on a daily basis, they are all must-buys during this period.

*Hide blessings and good luck in your New Year outfits

*Product placement through New Year makeup tutorials

② Novel, unique and creative products

Interesting and fun things are also most likely to lead to impulse consumption and trend following in a strong social environment.

For example, interesting phone cases, homemade red envelopes, PUBG artifacts that greatly increase the chances of winning PUBG, shaker drinks, etc.

3. The third echelon

① Skin care products

Although skin care and repair cannot be accomplished overnight, due to the need for social interaction, people have become unable to tolerate skin blemishes that they used to accept, because the panic in their hearts will inevitably trigger a wave of orders.

Skin care brands that failed to take advantage of the big sale can make good use of this bonus.

We have also compiled a plan for your reference.

1. 40% holiday themes + 40% daily theme recommendations + 20% long-tail keywords to promote

①40% holiday theme

This is what we often call scenario consumption, which is also what was mentioned above, moving consumption from the user's daily consumption psychological account to the emotional maintenance consumption psychological account. There are many kinds of scenarios , which can be a vertical scenario , such as New Year’s greetings outfits, New Year’s makeup, etc., or it can be a horizontal scenario consumption targeting a certain group of people , such as a must-have list of New Year’s gifts, must-haves for chubby girls in the New Year’s counterattack, etc.

When planning content , it should not only have practical value, but also be able to convey their thoughts.

In terms of keyword layout , it is not necessary to strongly bind it with the words "New Year's goods". It can also be "New Year", "gift giving", "gift list", etc. to increase search exposure.

②40% daily topic recommendations

Even if you are planning for holiday-related marketing events, it is still necessary to share products on a daily basis.

This part of the content can well connect with those who are influenced by the holiday theme but are still hesitant.

③20% long tail word layout

The layout of long-tail words is conducive to the daily retention and exposure of notes, which is indispensable in the layout at any time. The layout can be carried out for category words and hot words.

For example, baby products can be organized into “good products for mother and baby”, home appliances can be organized into “good products for kitchen”, and so on.

2. Timely maintenance of the comment area

Although the content itself has strong conversion guidance, maintenance of the comment area is equally important.

①Questions about product details

If there are questions about the product, such as "Is it easy to use?", "Is it easy to operate?", "Can it be used under XXX circumstances?", bloggers need to be arranged to reply in a timely manner. This will not only increase the authenticity of the product, display the product more comprehensively, but also boost the popularity of the note.

②Order path guidance

Brands can plan ahead for information such as “how to buy” and “where to buy” in order to maximize short-path harvesting.

3. Plan one month in advance

The growth and explosion of popularity requires a certain amount of time. If you want to catch the harvest before the New Year, it is best to plan one month in advance, complete the delivery and accumulation of popularity during the peak period of user searches and orders, and seize the opportunity.

4. Unification of brand image

Although it is a marketing campaign that fits the festival, the brand image also needs to be unified with daily marketing so as to leave brand awareness in the minds of consumers in all dimensions.

The platform's traffic is relatively fixed within a certain period of time. The entry of major brands into the market has made it increasingly difficult to obtain traffic. Only by planning ahead can you seize the opportunity.