Why you should choose Zhihu marketing

With the development of China’s digital economy, more and more overseas clients are thinking of marketing on the major Chinese marketing platforms. China has a huge user base and the users of different platforms have distinctly dissimilar characteristics. Therefore, the choice of marketing platform can sometimes be critical.

Zhihu‘s business model is centered on the content business and the volume of related business has been growing rapidly. This is a reflection of the growing prosperity of content marketing and the fact that many companies’ marketing strategies are indeed tilting towards “content”.

About Zhihu

Zhihu is a community where high-quality information and answers are generated for questions from various fields. It was firstly launched on January 26.2011 as an invitation-only platform for verified experts. And in 2013, It was open to the public for registration, but still with strict personal profile verification so as to maintain its authenticity and accuracy of answers. By adopting this effective method, the content on this platform is still trustworthy.

As of April 2022, Zhihu’s monthly usage has remained at 14 billion minutes to 18 billion minutes.

As of July 2021, Zhihu has over 85 million monthly active users.

Advantages of Zhihu Marketing

Invaluable user base

Zhihu users are concentrated in developed cities in China, mostly white-collar workers, experts, knowledgeable middle-class people. In the meantime, content and answer creators on this platform are mostly real-life experts in their areas. Both of these two groups are characterized by higher incomes and consumption rates.

Moreover, users with ages from 20 to 29 , mostly college students and fresh bloods in the companies, are a major component of Zhihu, which makes it a vibrant platform which can attract the attention of Chinese gen Z.

Lasting life cycle

The answers and content have a long life cycle. Firstly because Zhihu’s content is mainly knowledge-based, and knowledge itself can last a long time, which is still applicable even after years have passed. It is the value of these answers that contributes to the continuous dissemination. Secondly, Zhihu is favored by mainstream search engines, with WeChat, Baidu, Sogou and other major search engines giving high display weight to Zhihu’s content. In consequence, users searching with precise needs are channeled into Zhihu. Thirdly, on account on Zhihu’s algorithm, superior content gets more traffic. Moreover, there is a responsible and professional atmosphere in Zhihu, so quality content is able to receive long-term support.

Natural place for brand marketing

Zhihu covers content useful for all walks of life, such as fashion, beauty, education, medicine, technology, automobiles, psychology, etc. This platform has now converted into a natural place for marketing. Many people have become accustomed to searching in Zhihu before making consumption decisions. If a brand actively engages in discussions with consumers and writes convincing passages, answers and content, it is undoubted that the brand image will be better and brand awareness will also raise.

Which brands need Zhihu marketing？

Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG)

The aim of the promotion of FMCG, such as food, cosmetics, household products, etc, is to attract consumers of different genders, ages and social classes, because these goods can be purchased under the influence of the atmosphere in the internet and the comments by other consumers.

Through recommending high-class products to others, sharing the relevant information of products, such as prices, tips on selection, pitfalls in shopping and so on, FMCG brands can promote themselves by helping users to establish a correct view of consumption, and then quickly form a group of loyal consumers.

Goods purchased with great consideration

These products are also suitable for promotion on Zhihu, such as those of adult education (e.g., language training, consulting on the study abroad, vocational skills), health (e.g., medical cosmetology, hair transplant, oral medicine), insurance, furniture, etc.

For goods purchased with great consideration, brands in these areas can figure out the scenario where the demand comes from, then create great content to gain massive traffic. For example, people generally go to buy a refrigerator with a clear need or budget to pick, and a quality Zhihu article can help customers form a clear image of the product and influence user decisions.

Why Zhihu has such a huge impact on marketing

User-oriented

Zhihu has become a knowledge-based platform where high-quality Q&A and creators gather. For individual users, whether it’s shopping, parenting, skincare, finance or gaming, fitness, romance, etc., people can get trustworthy answers and high-value content on Zhihu, where you can find answers to most of your life’s questions. For creators, if you have the ability to write awesome content, you can take orders to create commercially through the Zhi+ platform or earn commissions by recommending goods, which can totally generate some extra income for yourself. In turn, it can also motivate these creators to continue creating more quality content, and to a certain extent, it can also help enhance the user stickiness of the platform, thus forming a virtuous positive cycle.

Brand-oriented

Although Zhihu users are young on the whole, they are still quite rational, so it is relatively more suitable for branding and then to make a deal. However, from a branding perspective, the quality content of the Zhihu platform can continue to attract consumers and gain the long-tail traffic, which is of great value. Good content is a permanent asset for brands, and can extend the effectiveness of brand communication indefinitely. The brand’s corporate number can be used to answer questions, publish content, and participate in popular discussions, which is essentially a media platform and an important way to get users.

Platform-oriented

Zhihu is the largest and best Chinese community in China, and is one of the largest in terms of content and users, whose commercial and social value cannot be underestimated. For the Zhihu platform, on the one hand, it provides value to users, thus gathering a large number of high-quality people, mainly white-collar workers, programmers and middle-class people, and attracting highly knowledgeable people from developed cities, who like to search for information through Zhihu and also like to share information that is valuable to other users afterwards, so building the platform’s high quality. On the other hand, empowering brands with commercial value also attracts a large number of companies and brands of all types to do marketing and promotion on the Zhihu platform. The result is that the trustworthiness of Zhihu is enhanced more and more, then the value of the Zhihu platform can be brought into play, which is a multi-win situation for Zhihu.