June 23, 2023

Xiaohongshu Marketing: Common Misconceptions and Solutions for Advertising on Xiaohongshu (RED)

As a crucial marketing platform for new consumer brands, many companies and businesses have set their sights on Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book). However, due to a lack of understanding about platform rules, community mechanisms, advertising techniques, and other issues, many brands have fallen into misconceptions when it comes to advertising, leading to failed marketing strategies. Violating platform rules could result in the entire brand being penalized, let alone achieving actual conversions.

Therefore, today we will discuss several misconceptions that brands may encounter when advertising on Xiaohongshu and provide solutions to help you navigate them.

1. What kind of products are suitable for advertising on Xiaohongshu?

When promoting a brand, it is important to not only understand the product’s features but also familiarize yourself with the platform’s characteristics. If a product is not suitable for advertising on the platform, the entire strategy is flawed from the beginning, rendering subsequent plans and strategies ineffective.

Alignment between product and platform tone

Xiaohongshu is a lifestyle community primarily targeting urban millennials and Gen Z females in tier-one and tier-two cities. The community’s atmosphere emphasizes diversity and a utopian-like environment where various lifestyles coexist.

While it appears open, diverse, and inclusive, everything revolves around beauty. The community’s ambiance is carefully controlled, and any content that is not positive, proactive, or uplifting is swiftly dealt with. A positive community atmosphere sets the tone for Xiaohongshu.

In other words, regardless of a brand’s nature, it needs to be associated with positivity, whether visually or in expression. It must be connected to something beautiful!

High tolerance for return on investment (ROI)

Seeding takes time. As more brands join Xiaohongshu, users become less receptive to product seeding, and a single seed no longer has a significant impact on consumer decisions.

To reach our target audience, we need to repeatedly engage them through different interest groups, influencers of varying scales, and various types of content. Only after multiple exposures can we start to influence their mindset.

For brands expecting quick conversions, Xiaohongshu advertising does not guarantee immediate sales. It may require several rounds of note seeding, from increasing note volume and generating positive word of mouth to eventual sales conversions. The entire process is lengthy, and conversions are spread out over time. To accurately assess the effectiveness of Xiaohongshu advertising, ROI should be evaluated with a longer perspective.

Many brands stop after the first round of advertising because they fail to see immediate results. Therefore, before advertising on Xiaohongshu, it is important to be prepared for a higher tolerance for ROI in the short term.

2. Clearly define the current goals of Xiaohongshu promotion

After determining that your product is suitable for advertising on Xiaohongshu, you need to consider why you want to advertise your product on Xiaohongshu in the first place. Some may think this is self-evident – the goal of promotion is to sell as much as possible in a short amount of time.

However, each brand is in a different stage, and their advertising actions will vary. Some brands are still in the brand packaging stage, while others focus on building reputation. Some brands aim to create best-selling products, while others want to drive traffic to their Taobao stores.

To succeed in Xiaohongshu promotion, it is crucial to clarify the current promotion objectives. Different objectives require different advertising strategies. Trying to solve all problems at once may lead to strategic errors and ultimately affect the final outcome.

Have the right marketing mindset

No matter which platform you use for brand promotion, it’s important to have a clear product positioning that corresponds to the needs and pain points of Xiaohongshu users.

For example, while price might be a pain point for users on Douyin (TikTok), for Xiaohongshu users, it could be the brand’s aesthetic values.

Understand the platform rules

Even though more and more brands are leveraging Xiaohongshu, many people are not familiar with the platform’s mechanisms. Every platform has its own content rules, and Xiaohongshu is no exception—it has even stricter regulations.

For instance, let’s say a new product is being launched and a brand starts promoting it on Xiaohongshu. If the brand is relatively unknown on the platform with low note volume in the past, and suddenly there is a significant increase in associated notes when they start advertising, it could be perceived as malicious marketing by the platform. As a result, the overall visibility of the brand’s content could be affected. Users might not be able to see or search for the brand’s promoted notes, even if the brand has paid influencers for promotion, rendering the advertising ineffective.

Especially considering the recent increase in content moderation on Xiaohongshu, both note content and influencer accounts that violate platform rules will be dealt with. Those who are new to Xiaohongshu or unfamiliar with the rules are more likely to receive penalties.

Therefore, if you want to advertise your brand on Xiaohongshu, it’s important to either work with a professional agency or at least have a good understanding of Xiaohongshu and its platform rules before creating advertising strategies.

3. Post-advertising follow-up

Advertising on Xiaohongshu is a long-term strategic plan because promoted notes can remain visible as long as they don’t violate platform rules, influencing users who discover them later on.

However, to determine the effectiveness of published notes and their impact on potential consumers, certain actions need to be taken after the advertising campaign:

Volume data: It’s important to track the volume of notes because one of the main reasons for advertising is to increase visibility. This can be done by searching for the brand name on Xiaohongshu and noting how many relevant notes appear. Compare the increase in volume before and after the advertising campaign.
Reading data: Encourage Xiaohongshu influencers to provide actual reading data for their notes. If they are unwilling to share this information, it’s recommended to request it before selecting influencers. Calculate the cost per reading by dividing the advertising cost by the total number of readings.
User interaction data: User interaction data is helpful in assessing the effectiveness of note promotion. Besides tracking the absolute value of user interactions, calculate the cost per user interaction by dividing the advertising cost by the total user interactions. Pay attention to the content of comments as it reflects users’ attitudes towards the product.
Note ranking: Analyze the ranking of notes for different keywords and compare the changes before and after the advertising campaign.
Community effects: After promoting notes, if there is significant search interest, the search dropdown menu may display your brand as a suggestion with just the first few letters. It’s important to track whether this effect occurs. If the product is available on Xiaohongshu, monitor its ranking to see if it improves.
Conversion effects: Although the primary goal of advertising may not be direct conversions, it can still have a positive impact on conversions. Compare the traffic during the advertising period with other times, such as on Tmall or Taobao stores, to see if there is a noticeable increase.

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