WeChat plays a central role in the daily lives of Chinese netizens. It’s not only a messaging app, but also a platform for content consumption, service interaction, and even transactions. For organisations looking to engage Chinese audiences, personalised messaging on WeChat is a highly effective tool for building trust and fostering long-term relationships.
WeChat messaging is a powerful tool to engage audiences in China, but how do you ensure you get the most out of your WeChat account? This blog will explore how messaging on WeChat works, and how to improve and use it to build stronger connections with your Chinese audience.
Messaging on WeChat
WeChat enables direct communication between an organisation and its followers through WeChat Official Accounts. When a follower sends a message, it opens a 48-hour window during which the organisation can freely respond and engage in two-way conversation.
Unlike email or typical social media DMs, WeChat messaging has unique rules:
- A WeChat Official Account cannot initiate a conversation. Followers must message first.
- Once the follower sends a message, the Official Account has 48 hours to respond.
- If no response is made within 48 hours the conversation cannot continue.
- Even after responding, the message history disappears after 30 days.
This makes WeChat messaging a powerful but time-sensitive, tool for customer engagement and relationship-building in China.
There are a couple of workarounds for organisations to send the first message to followers:
- To send a Welcome Message when a user follows the Official Account.
- Sending broadcast messages like WeChat Articles to followers.
Brands can leverage these to encourage followers to engage and trigger the messaging window.
Turning conversations into conversions
While WeChat is a powerful tool for reaching Chinese consumers, its limitations can make it difficult to scale meaningful engagement. Sinorbis bridges this gap by enhancing what’s possible on WeChat. Our integrated solution enables organisations to deliver consistent, personalised messaging that builds trust, boosts engagement, and streamlines communication through key features such as:
- Message history retention - Unlike native WeChat, which doesn’t retain past conversations, the Sinorbis Profile stores your entire chat history.
- Automation and chatbot flows – Don’t miss a single WeChat message by automating common queries with custom chat flows that provide instant, round-the-clock assistance. This ensures your audience always receives timely responses, without overloading your team.
- Messages to email – Get notified of new WeChat messages directly in your email inbox and respond without logging into the platform, simplifying your workflow and ensuring no message goes unanswered.
- Auto-translation – Enable two-way communication between your team and Chinese-speaking users with real-time message translation, eliminating language barriers to deliver a smoother, more inclusive user experience.
- Contact segmentation – Automatically or manually group contacts based on behaviour, location, demographics, and more, allowing you to send highly targeted and relevant messages that really resonate.
- Contact assignment – Assign new followers to the appropriate contact owner to ensure follow-up is fast, efficient, and handled by the correct department.
Why WeChat messaging delivers better results for brands in China
WeChat’s popularity makes it an invaluable tool for organisations looking to engage their audiences in a personal and direct way. Some key benefits include:
Massive reach and daily relevance
With 1.3 billion monthly active users, WeChat is the most widely used app in China. Messaging through WeChat allows you to connect with your audience on the platform they use every day.
Preferred over email for communication
Email is rarely used in China for day-to-day and even for professional communication. In fact, 9 in 10 Chinese professionals prefer WeChat for business conversations, making it the most effective alternative to email in this market.
Greater efficiency with smart tools
Sinorbis enhances WeChat messaging with automation tools like chatbots, messages to email, and contact assignment. These help ensure fast, accurate responses and allow the right teams to handle enquiries within WeChat’s 48-hour window.
Improved customer experience and engagement
Meeting your audience on the platforms they already use makes interactions feel natural and frictionless. Plus, faster response times and convenient messaging channels also increase satisfaction and encourage deeper engagement.
Higher conversion through actionable insights
With full visibility into messaging history, you can track how enquiries are handled and gain insight into the needs and behaviours of your Chinese audience. This helps you identify patterns, improve your responses, and even automate recurring questions to boost conversion rates.
Ready to take your WeChat engagement to the next level? Request a demo to see how Sinorbis can help you deliver personalised, efficient communication that drives better results.
How can you leverage WeChat messages to effectively engage your followers
Nurturing new followers
WeChat messages can be used to nurture new followers by setting up a Welcome Message that encourages them to start a conversation, where responses can be automated to nurture audiences through their customer journey.
Example engagement flow
- WeChat user follows your Official Account triggering a Welcome Message with three prompts to engage
- The user can respond to the prompt to trigger a chatbot.
- The next automated message can include another prompt to nurture the user further through the customer journey.
Gain valuable insights from WeChat messaging data
WeChat messages are more than just conversations, they're a goldmine for marketing insights.
By analysing message content, you can:
- Gauge sentiment – Identify how customers feel about your brand or products.
- Spot trends – Detect common questions, recurring topics, or seasonal interest.
- Segment users – Group audiences based on their interests or behaviours.
For example, if multiple users express interest in a specific product, you can create a broadcast targeting that segment. Or if sentiment analysis shows excitement around gifting, plan a campaign around upcoming holidays like Singles' Day.
These insights also help shape your content calendar:
- Launch seasonal promotions when demand starts rising (e.g. fans in summer, skincare in winter).
- Schedule broadcasts to align with trending topics or peak interest periods.
Don’t let messages fall through the gaps
Every message is a chance to connect and possibly convert. But if you’re not equipped to respond quickly or personally, you risk losing that opportunity. With Sinorbis, you can ensure no message is missed, no context is lost, and every follower gets the experience they expect.
Whether you're supporting users, nurturing leads or booking appointments, personalised WeChat messaging, backed by the right tools, can make all the difference.
Ready to enhance your WeChat engagement? Request a demo and discover how the Sinorbis Experience Platform can help you transform messages into meaningful engagements.
See Sinorbis in action
Contact our team to learn how we can help bolster your digital experience in Asia.
