Wechat Official Account
Lorin Cupples
The average WeChat users spend around 82 minutes on the app every day, making it an unmissable social platform for international brands who hope to tap into the mass Chinese market. Not only is it one of the most popular messaging apps, but it also provides a number of other popular features and services including Moments, WeChat Pay, WeChat Mini Program, and WeChat Official Account.
For companies looking to set foot into the Chinese market, WeChat Official Account is a good place to start introducing your brand to a Chinese audience. Through this channel, you can engage with your audience and establish influence among key consumers.
So, what exactly is WeChat Official Account and how can brands set one up? This article will be the first of a three-part blog series, exploring WeChat Official Accounts and how marketers can leverage this to enter the Chinese market.
A WeChat Official Account is also known as a WeChat public account, which translates to 微信公众号 in Chinese. Similar to a Facebook Page, it is a public profile which allows individuals or organisations to publish content, attract followers, and sell their products and services. It serves as a communication channel for account owners to influence and engage with their followers. With over 25 million WeChat Official Accounts existing across the platform, its popularity and effectiveness is undeniable.
There are three types of WeChat Official Accounts users can choose from - Service Accounts, Subscription Accounts and Enterprise Accounts (there are also Mini Programmes which we will discuss in a separate blog post). Companies looking to build their brand presence and reach their target audience tend to use Service and Subscription Accounts. On the other hand, Enterprise Accounts are typically used when business are looking to manage and communicate with staff internally. For both Service account and Subscription Accounts, the annual verification will unlock more features and functions.
For a business with an established Chinese entity, setting up an account is relatively simple. Here are some of the required documents and details that you should prepare before registering the account:
WeChat has recently began allowing foreign businesses without Chinese entities to register for an Official Account using its local entity, also known as WeChat Official Account overseas. To do so, you will need to have the essential documents, payment and other information at hand:
Although the application cost is cheaper, using a third-party Chinese business license means the account verification name is not your own, which shows less credibility to your followers. WeChat has a strict rule for business accounts, which requires every official account owner to apply for account verification to validate their entity document. Relying on a third-party comes with more risk and less flexibility.
For more content on WeChat Official Accounts, check out part two and part three of this blog series. If you'd like to learn more about WeChat marketing or speak with someone from our team, please get in touch!
In order to avoid spammy activity which can be seen unfriendly for users, WeChat Business accounts have some rules about how frequently they are allowed to message their followers. This restrictions are different depending on the WeChat Brand Account type.
As a foreign entity without business licence in China, you can also register a WeChat official account. Learn more about how to set up an Official Account from overseas here: + Opening a WeChat Official Account under an Overseas Business Entity: application process, requirements, fees and rules
Learn more about WeChat Official Account platform features here: + WeChat Subscription vs. Service AccountWelcome messageWhen following the official account, a customised welcome message can be sent automatically depending on the follower acquisition source.
Using WeChat is easy for the Chinese. It was designed to avoid typing in Chinese (which is really hard), so it is super easy to send voice messages. This is one un-noticed factor. WeChat made speaking via message so easy that it just felt normal very quickly. Communication in China became really easy and efficient and the app snowballed from there.
WeChat service accounts are the e-commerce home of your WeChat campaign. These have the power to deal with e-commerce, customer service, API integrations and even CRM. This is the hub of the of your WeChat business..
With a WeChat Service account you can set up a WeChat shop and take payments. Content for service accounts is a little different. You can broadcast 4 times a month to your audience with up to 6 articles per broadcast.
Service accounts are great for businesses looking to develop repeat buyers by making the most of an ongoing relationship with your brand. The fact that you can do customer service in a WeChat service account is extremely convenient for your customers. Speed of reaction in China is a much bigger deal than in most other countries.
For e-commerce they can be create leads and conversions. In 2019 1.1 billion daily transactions were carried out on mini-programs alone. Because they are small, you can easily push out these apps to WeChat users to drive engaged interest in your brand as well as test out new ideas without commitment.
It is important to note, that to create and publish a mini-program, you will also need to open an Official WeChat Service Account, to gain access to the API, have website hosting in China, including an ICP license.
WeChat official accounts and WeChat mini-programs are both useful tools to promote and sell online in China today. Both large and small brands and already taking advantage of this. If you combine using a mini-program with all the e-commerce benefits of an official account then you are in a strong position to build an audience as well as convert your visitors into customers.
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The most common way of acquiring new followers on WeChat is through WeChat Moments (the WeChat equivalent of the Facebook timeline). Upon clicking on your article, users can access your account page by clicking the name of your account at the top of the article.
QR codes are perfect for any offline use: they can be added inside your stores, on your products, during your events. They are also ideal for online conversion, for instance at the bottom of an article written about your brand by a Key Opinion Leader (KOL)
As Enterprise Accounts are mostly used for internal management, and WeChat mini-programs are struggling to find relevant use-cases, most companies will usually gravitate around either Subscription or Service account.
Choose the type of Official Account that you want to create. The general rule is, if the content is the core of your business, choose Subscription, otherwise, choose a service account. See the section above for more detail.
Tencent will make a transfer to your bank account, and you will need to check in your bank account to find a verification number in the note of the transaction. In this case, you will need to verify your Official Account within 30 days in order to keep your official account.
Depending on what you choose in Step 9, you will either need to send a specific amount to Tencent to verify your bank account (option 1), or you can continue with the Official Account verification steps.
Developed by Chinese conglomerate Tencent, Weixin (微信) was launched in China in January 2011. By 2012, its number of users reached 100 million. In the same year, Weixin was renamed WeChat for the international market. Nowadays, the platform is available in 17 languages.
WeChat has four main tabs. Chats and Contacts are what you would expect, containing your conversations and friends on WeChat. Interestingly, the Contacts tab has rather advanced organizational features including folders and tags.
WeChat is the most popular chat app in China. Over the past few years, the app has seen tremendous growth in the number of global users. In 2012, WeChat had 50 million monthly active users; that number has skyrocketed to 1.31 billion in 2022.
To enable in-store payments, customers scan or display their QR codes. The simplicity and cost-effectiveness for businesses to use QR codes rather than expensive payment terminals have made WeChat Pay wildly popular in physical stores and online.
Subscription Accounts are only available for companies registered in China and are designed for media, influencers and organizations. Because their focus is on information and brand communication, subscription accounts are allowed to send one WeChat push message per day to their followers.
The WeChat Official Account inbox is free and supports up to 100 agents with customizable profiles. However, there are no tools to assign inbound conversations to agents, who must pick them manually as they come in.
To create a WeChat Service Account, head to the WeChat Official Account Platform on your desktop and click Register now at the top. We recommend doing it from a desktop since the website is not optimized for mobile use.
2. Create a user account. Provide a secure email address as this will be used to access the admin panel. The email must not be linked to an existing WeChat Business Account. Enter the verification code sent to your email.
Setting up a WeChat Official Account is free, but official account verification costs money. Businesses also need to provide documentation. The process is rather cumbersome. Thankfully, we are here to guide you every step of the way.
3. Upload supporting documents. Provide supporting documentation for all the information you have submitted. Make sure to scan the documents in color before uploading them. The documents needed are:
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