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The number of Chinese students going to study abroad continues to grow. In 2018, about 662,100 Chinese students left China to continue their studies abroad and receive a bachelor's, master's or doctorate degree there. China is the first country in the world in terms of the number of students receiving higher education abroad, which means universities should know how to attract Chinese applicants.
What the university gets by ordering a service:
A ready-made promotion strategy
Budget optimization
Dedicated Project Manager
Transparent reporting
The Chinese often go abroad to study to avoid difficult Gaokao national exam (高考) and have a better chance of joining a good university. Foreign universities attract Chinese people with the opportunity to plunge into the international academic environment and live in another country while you are young. In addition, it is believed in China that foreign education is very prestigious, and those who studied abroad most likely speak English better, which means they have a better chance of finding a good high-paying job.
Number of Chinese students going to study abroad (Statista)
Why should you attract Chinese students?
The larger the number of international students, the higher the university ranking. But it's not just about prestige, there are also more practical goals – foreign students are a good source of additional funding.
Tools for attracting Chinese students
The first step is to adapt your university's website to a Chinese user, that includes translating it into Chinese and adapting the visual design. You also need to check the operability of the site. Due to censorship, many foreign sites are blocked, even if the content of your site does not directly violate any laws of the country. Therefore, it is better to have your website added to Chinese hosting.
The next step is to establish communication. In order for Chinese students to get to know your educational institution better, it is necessary to have a presence in Chinese social networks. Facebook and Instagram are blocked, so the equivalents will be:
WeChat – the main social network and messenger of the country. First of all, the Chinese are looking for information here, and not in Baidu. Opening an official account will increase your credibility and show that you are serious. It is possible to configure targeted advertising.
Weibo is a microblogging service, an equivalent of Twitter and Instagram. The platforms allows sharing short photo and video posts. Unlike WeChat, Weibo is a less closed social network and it is easier to find your account not directly by nickname in the search, but through friends and recommendations. It is also possible to set up targeted advertising.
Douyin is the Chinese version of the popular TikTok short video service. Unlike its Western counterpart, Douyin has gone far ahead and has become a mixture of an e-commerce platform and a social network. Almost 60% of users are aged 20-29, which makes Douyin an ideal platform for targeting students.
After you have adapted the site, you can run contextual advertising in China's main search service Baidu. Baidu Ads is an ideal tool for promoting educational programs, because it allows you to accurately target the audience you are interested in. For example, those who are considering only a bachelor's degree, or those who are only interested in a master's degree.
Learn more about advertising in Baidu
After you have set up the entire infrastructure, you can start working with forums and blogs. Buzz marketing works better in China than in any other country. It is important that people themselves talk about your university or conference and advise others. We recommend using:
Zhihu is the most popular question and answer service. Not only users ask and answer questions here, but brands themselves can ask questions and open discussions.
Baidu Zhidao, Baidu Tieba are popular services from Baidu. The first is a question-and-answer service. The second is a keyword-based discussion forum. Publications in these services are ranked higher in the search results and will allow those who interested to find information about you faster.
Toutiao is a news and information platform from the creators of TikTok. Its’ feauture is in algorithms that analyze user data and their interaction with content, which makes it easy to target the necessary audience.
FAQ
We don't have specialists with Chinese, what should we do?
Our team has native Chinese translators, as well as content managers with Chinese. We will help you at all stages of communication with your potential Chinese client.
How will our joint work be organized?
We conduct a team brief on your project, and after that we draw up a media plan in which we define all the options and promotion tools you are interested in. All project reports are available to you online – you can track the results at any time.
Which promotion tool for attracting customers from China is worth trying first?
We have an individual approach to each customer, so we determine the promotion tools after the team brief in the media planning process
Is it necessary to launch Chinese social networks, or just a website is enough?
We always stand for a comprehensive approach. If your site is at least translated into Chinese, this is already a big advantage, because the Chinese do not understand English well. But if you also have social networks, you will be immediately singled out among other universities.
