The Double 11 promotion starts from October 20th, 10 days earlier than last year. We expect a good fight between Pinduoduo and Alibaba.
Other than getting ready on Tmall, Pinduoduo, and JD, here are a few WeChat marketing tips for your Double 11 preparation.
Launch a new product 1 month before Double 11
1 month before Double 11 can be the perfect time to launch a new product. You’ve got one month to get customers excited, build anticipation, give out samples, run KOL campaigns, and collect good reviews. When the big day comes, other than the classic bestseller, you now also have a perfect new product to target returning customers.
The most marketing-savvy FMCG brands have already started launching new products. HFP launched 2 new products during September. Perfect Diary launched 3 new products during September. Maia Active launched 2 new lines of products in the last 2 weeks.
Choose an everyday product as the featured product
The spirit of Double 11 purchase is 囤货 (tún huò), stock up for the upcoming year.
This is very different from a regular WeChat KOL campaign, where users make an emotional, one-time, impulsive, purchase after getting “zhongcao” ( 种草 zhòng cao, which means being influenced to buy a product, often by a KOL)
With this mindset, the best product choice is to feature a product that users would use regularly.
For example, Wave Strawberry (浪里小草莓), a cosmetics KOL who runs a profitable cosmetics WeChat store, selected a low-price cotton pad box as her key Double 11 product last year. She sold over 2,000 boxes. Her WeChat store recorded over 30,000 orders with a total GMV of 2 million RMB during Double 11 2018.
“The cotton pads are a perfect product to match the Tun Huo spirit of Double 11”, says Strawberry.
Time it right
This year, the official Tmall Double 11 campaign starts earlier than ever, from October 20th. Between the end of October and November 10th is the best promotion time to encourage customers to add products to their cart.
Brands should avoid social media promotion during the day of the Double 11 when it’s too late and too competitive.
In fact, brands like HomeFacialPro started the promotion in early September! Olay also announced its sales plan on WeChat.
As our account managers say, “the best time to start preparing for Double 11 is right after the 618 mid-year sale.”
Another good time to promote is at the end of November, featuring the best selling products in preparation for another Double 12 sales.
Most of the high-quality KOLs sell their advertising space long before the Double 11 period. It’s essential to sign a contract with KOLs early-on to secure the right promotional time-slot.
Define a smart conversion path
One way to build stronger anticipation is to ask users to make a small monetary commitment before Double 11 with a huge discount incentive.
Small downpayment for a coupon
A typical WeChat user path is to drive traffic to Tmall to make a purchase directly or make a small downpayment to get an exclusive discount during the Double 11 sales.
A gift comes with a second purchase
A textbook case of gifting tactic is HomeFacialPro (HFP), a startup founded in 2014, ranking as the No. 4 largest skincare brand on Tmall (right after L’Oréal, Lancome and Olay).
HFP has announced a new eye cream product at the beginning of September, 2 months before Double 11. Users can make any purchase on the HFP store before November 10th, and receive a full-size eye cream worth 358 RMB if they make another purchase during the Double 11 period.
The gift gives a strong incentive for users to make a purchase before Double 11, instead of waiting for the main promotion day. It also encourages users to make another purchase during the Double 11 sales to be able to claim the gift.
Get your inventory and logistics ready
Successful WeChat KOL campaigns can receive 100% to 500% ROI. Brands, therefore, have to prepare their inventory and logistics to be able to ship products on time. Successful campaigns can backfire on the brand if products run out of stock.
The best way to predict is to ask the KOL for past campaign data and do a gifting campaign to see how well is your product matching with the KOL’s follower.
The return rate during Single’s day is usually higher than average since many customers might buy products that they don’t really need…
Conclusion
The bottom line is, you can never be prepared too much for Single’s Day. After all the marketing budget you’ve spent throughout the year, this is the time to get payback. May the force be with you.