How to promote on Chinese Douyin to drive store traffic and acquire customers?

Case Study: How Laika Image Design Leveraged Douyin Ads to Break Growth Barriers

The hair salon market in China is intensely competitive. While large, well-known brands command a significant market share, small and medium-sized salons often struggle to compete and grow. In this challenging environment, innovative businesses are turning to Douyin (China's TikTok). The platform offers a cost-effective way to generate buzz ("grass-planting") with impressive results, making it a crucial channel for business growth. Laika Image Design is a prime example of a brand that seized this opportunity.

Operating three chain stores in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, Laika enjoyed a strong local reputation. However, its growth potential was limited by its small number of outlets and a finite local customer base. To break through this bottleneck, Laika needed to expand its market reach and significantly increase offline store visits.

Laika turned to professional Douyin Advertising solutions to achieve this goal. They utilized Juliang Local Push's high-quality creative assets for precise targeting, employing immersive in-store experience videos to effectively "plant grass" and attract customers. By strategically planning their content, product offerings, and ad placements, Laika achieved highly efficient conversions. After implementing tools like "Order Boost", Laika's monthly GMV increased by over 130,000 RMB, and overall ad-driven GMV surged by approximately 50%, enabling rapid breakthrough in their sector.

Optimizing Content and Products for Higher Conversion

From the start, Laika focused on short videos as its primary communication channel, prioritizing high-value content marketing. Firstly, for key marketing periods and new store openings, they created content showcasing the new store's ambiance, service quality, and transformative results. This content was tagged with relevant topics, including video themes, service categories, promotional offers, target demographics, and location details, ensuring precise traffic distribution through effective Douyin marketing strategies.

Secondly, to drive online purchases and offline visits, Laika restructured its product offerings on the platform. They launched different group-buying packages tailored for male and female audiences:

• For men: A 97.8 RMB ["Fan Special"] offer for a perm or dye service.

• For women: Primary recommended packages at 147.9 RMB or 198 RMB for perm, dye, or straightening services.

They also introduced universal packages like a 58 RMB ["Director Special"] wash, cut, and blow-dry and a 29.8 RMB ["Fan Exclusive"] wash, cut, and blow-dry to attract broader traffic and boost in-store footfall.

Leveraging "Order Boost" and "Store Steady投" to Enhance Efficiency

With quality content and products in place, Laika utilized Juliang Local Push's "Order Boost" (成单宝) and "Store Steady placement" (门店稳投) to maximize their Chinese social media marketing efficiency. They tested multiple ad creatives for performance, used "Order Boost" to compare ROI, and then quickly scaled the high-performing, high-ROI素材. This data-driven approach, managed by a skilled China advertising agency or team, continuously improved the ad creatives' selling power.

Ahead of key sales periods, Laika used "Order Boost" to promote their popular in-store group-buy products, highlighting the attractive pricing and content advantages. This straightforward "grass-planting" method effectively increased offline conversion rates. Implementing "Order Boost" contributed significantly to the 4W+ RMB single-month GMV increase and the 50% overall growth in ad-driven GMV.

Future Outlook

With the power of strategic Douyin Ads, Laika Image Design successfully drove offline business growth and strengthened its position in the local market, paving the way for potential expansion. Building on the success of short-video marketing, Laika plans to shift more focus to live streaming sales. They intend to utilize Juliang Local Push's ["Full Journey ROI 2.0"] (全域ROI2) for comprehensive promotion. By combining short videos and live streams, Laika is poised for another significant business boom. The future looks promising.