Introduction Singles’ Day, held annually on November 11, began as a festival of young Chinese people celebrating their pride in being single. Alibaba started promoting the day as a shopping festival in 2009 and officially named it the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival. Last year, the festival recorded gross merchandise volume (GMV) of $30.8 billion on Alibaba’s platforms. This event is so important that merchants on Tmall, Alibaba’s B2C e-commerce platform, can sell as much in one day as they normally would in a month. We looked at last year’s results on Tmall and Tmall Global in two separate reports. In this report, we continue our countdown to 2019’s Singles’ Day to help merchants prepare for and make the most of the huge opportunity. We discuss how brands can implement a content marketing strategy on Taobao and Tmall. What Are the Content Marketing Channels? Content marketing is an integral part of Alibaba’s e-commerce operations: Content and information helps sustain traffic for Taobao and Tmall. Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall have a robust content ecosystem. There are over five million merchants providing actively marketed content and over 1.6 million content creators within the sites’ ecosystem. There are over 800 million daily content views, and consumers watch live stream videos for 20 minutes a day on average. The following are the tools and functions merchants can use to use content marketing on Taobao and Tmall. 1. Taobao Headlines Taobao Headlines is a consumer information platform that features stories and articles that are related to products and lifestyle. The section appears on the main page of both mobile and desktop versions of Taobao. The platform features content in popular categories Chinese consumers bought including smartphones, beauty, fashion, mom, baby and electronics. The content is produced and published by “Taobao Daren” (Taobao talent), which refers to a group of content creators, writers and KOLs who contribute to production for Alibaba. Each content publisher has his/her own account, followers and serves as a specialist in a specific field. Merchants can look for the content publishers who can cover topics relevant to their brands or which reach their target market. Brands’ products often appear built into the articles, but content publishers charge a fee to promote products. [caption id="attachment_92663" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Articles appear as a series of blog posts under the Mom and Baby section of Taobao Headlines
Source: Headline.taobao.com[/caption]   2. Weitao Weitao is a fan operation system for merchants and social influencers to interact with followers. It is also a content section on the Taobao app, featured prominently as a function tab on the app’s interface, for users to view various product information. Merchants can announce promotions, place new product pictures and post updates on new arrivals through Weitao, visible to all its followers. If a customer bookmarks a product on a Weitao page, the customer is automatically enrolled as a store follower. And, the next time the customer searches for a product similar to the one bookmarked, the site will direct the user to that same merchant’s products first. Merchants can push notifications to customers through Weitao, making it a valuable engagement tool during promotion events such as Singles’ Day. [caption id="attachment_92664" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Weitao is on the second tab of the Taobao app. The nine-image visual arrangement coupled with descriptive text on top is a common way to present content
Source: Taobao app[/caption]   Merchants are classified into different Weitao levels (L0-L6), depending on factors that include content value, interactions with users and number of followers. Merchants at L0 and L1 can release only 10 posts every day. Merchants are encouraged to publish as many Weitao posts as possible before and on Singles’ Day to advance to a higher level that allows more content publication and user interaction. Merchants at higher Weitao levels can push posts to more prominent display positions for their followers (at L2) and even push posts to non-followers (at L4). 3. Live Streaming Live streaming on Taobao fuels online sales. Merchants with more than 30,000 Weitao followers automatically gain the right to live stream. Merchants can log into the Alimama or V Task platforms, Alibaba’s digital marketing platforms, to look for live-streaming talent (social influencers) to collaborate on marketing and promotion activities. The social influencers normally charge service fees based on the number of clicks and sales. Merchants can also consult professional KOL agencies to identify suitable influencers. To earn the right to live stream promotions on Singles’ Day, merchants on Taobao and Tmall have to compete for numbers of new followers, average length of viewers watching the live streaming and conversion rate during the competition. From that, the platforms will determine a list of top merchants qualified to live stream during Singles’ Day and gain better resources to draw users to virtual live streaming rooms. 4. Short Videos Short videos have become a popular content format in China and even globally. Taobao and Tmall allow merchants to use this format to interact with online shoppers. Short videos are helpful to:

• Highlight product features in a more dynamic and visible way.
• Secure KOL endorsement as they share Singles’ Day shopping lists and recommend products in the short videos.
• Invite users to answer simple questions to win discounts/

Merchants need to submit short videos plans for Singles’ Day around mid-September to be launched from the pre-sale period up to November 11. 5. High-Quality Goods Section “High-quality goods” is a dedicated section on Taobao targeting customers who look for quality and novel products. The section features products that come with a style or a strong sense of craftsmanship. To focus the attention on the products themselves, Taobao adopts a minimalistic approach for the page so merchants can highlight only the key features in the description text and promotional wordings such as “special offers” are restricted. This section is suitable for merchants who have novel and niche products. 6. Must-Buy List Section “Must-buy list” is a content marketing section in Taobao that relies on write-ups to drive conversion. The articles feature product characteristics with punchy headlines to attract users. The content usually follows in-season trends. When Do Merchants Launch Content Marketing Activities? To make the most of the various content tools for Singles’ Day, planning is key, adding specific activities at different stages to draw awareness, build relationships and convert traffic to sales.

• Late September to mid-October: Adopt diversified content marketing activities to draw awareness to stores and products. These include short videos promotions, live streaming and Weitao articles with flattering images. The goal is to attract store followers and bookmark items on Weitao to accumulate a potential customer base for Singles’ Day. This will also deliver better live streaming resources and display positions on Singles’ Day.
• Late October: The pre-sale period and time to interact with store followers to collect information about what they want on Singles’ Day. Merchants can interact with followers through Weitao by pushing posts such as “What do you want for Singles’ Day?” or “Perks for you this Singles’ Day.”
• November 1-11: Singles’ Day is around the corner and most customers are planning what to buy. Keep customers engaged and aware through videos promoting specific products or discounts.

Key Insights Content marketing has been integral for Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms to sustain traffic and drive sales. Merchants on Taobao and Tmall can use a variety of content marketing tools including marketing write-ups, images, videos, live streaming and fan operation systems to drive shopper awareness, turn them into store followers and ultimately convert them.