Many social marketers have the same questions while doing data reports: Is our content more popular than competitors? What’s the best way to measure the performance of brands’ own social media accounts? Although there are plenty of studies and data on the overall open rate of WeChat Official Accounts (OA), specific researches on the open rate of brands’ official accounts remain missing. That’s why KAWO extracted 18 month of data from KAWO’s own database to help set a clear open rate benchmark to assist marketers in their future efforts.
1. No correlation between followers size and the open rate
It’s natural to develope open rate benchmark hypothesis like ‘smaller accounts may have higher open rates’ … which was the exact angel that we selected when first conducting our research (as shown below):
Cover Image is the most attention grabbing part of your WeChat post. The harsh reality is that more than 70% of OA have less than 30% of users who read its articles frequently. To boost your post open rate and even convert more loyal users, more care needs to be taken when selecting your cover images. KAWO finds that there are four key points successful WeChat cover images share:
In this article, we will explain each of the point above with demonstrations of good and/or bad examples. Read through and select your next cover image with confidence.
Color Tone
The average open rate for WeChat articles is lower than 2%, which means the competition for attention has never been more intense. To make your article stand out when your users are scrolling through their subscription lists, first and foremost, choosing a right color tone.
There is no point picking a dim or dull color for your WeChat cover image unless it’s your OA’s style and it attracts a specific type of readers. For most readers, it is not the best way to retain their attention.
It’s more likely to grab users’ attention with a bright color tone as they scroll through the articles, which makes it more likely for them to notice the title and even click your article.
Relatability
Cover images should reinforce and expand on your content topic empathetically. Let’s take a look at the post for the flash sale of Haitan Islands Honeymoon package.
It’s hard for your readers to relate this tedious beach photo to a fun honeymoon trip …
Writing the word ‘Love’ on the sand and including them in the pic is definitely straight forward when it comes to expressing the theme , but it’s still lacking some human touches, missing a sense of resonance.
Now his image has a strong implication of couple, seaside and love, which readers are most likely to feel empathetic with. A good cover image should do just that: forecast on your content and impress your users with subtle messages.
Focal Point
Your picture should have a focal point, that effortlessly attracts the eyes. For this post of Christmas theme, we cropped two different parts of the same picture to demonstrate a focal point.
It’s hard to decide where to put your eyes. Remember, your user will not spend a long time staring at the image and figure out that these triangles are meant to represent pine trees.
Same picture, but we include a reindeer to catch your eyes 😉 Because users will look at your cover images for only for a short, few seconds, a single focal point will help them grasp the image better.
Readability
Last and most importantly, make sure that your readers will be able to see both the title and the cover image clearly. Unfortunately, the WeChat visual design brings two major challenges to readability. Let’s see two bad examples:
Title Readability
When you push two or more articles in one post, WeChat overlays the title of the first article onto its cover image. Since there is no shadow behind the title, your readers will probably have a hard time reading the title if your cover image is made with colorful or complicated details, or simply has a light color.
Image Visibility
When your title is long (more than 13 Chinese characters), it starts to block too much image space. To keep the key visual information in the image (case in point, face of the cat) visible, it’s wise to preview your cover image and adjust accordingly everytime before posting.
What’s the easy solution?
In KAWO backend, you can adjust and crop the image into the right size and preview your cover image as exactly how it will look in different article . We provide previews of different title lengths inside a multi-article post, so you don’t have to worry that the cover image will be covered by the long title.
it can also show you what the cropped image looks like in article history, article search and shared article, as illustrated in the left column of the video.
Hope this article helps you understand the WeChat cover image better. Drop us a message if you have any thoughts or questions!
With over 1.25 billion registered users, WeChat, the almighty Chinese super app, provides a unique platform for brands to connect with the masses. (Learn more about WeChat from our Ultimate Guide) Here we take a look at image size specifically for distribution on WeChat.
In this article, we are covering the following image types:
Note:WeChat has lifted the upper size limit to 10MB to accommodate high resolution images. However, it doesn’t mean you should upload images with sizes bigger than necessary as it’ll slow down the loading speed of the article, hampering reading experience.
Profile Picture Size– 383 x 383
Article Preview Header Size– 900 x 383
The article preview header image spans the top of your account post and it’s the first thing the reader sees. Here’s your chance to be creative and make your article captivating.
Article Preview Thumbnail Image Size – 383 x 383
Article Inline Image Size– 400 x Any
Its image size displays at a length of 400 pixels, but higher resolution is also recommended.
How can we help
WeChat backend can help you crop images of any ratios into the suggested sizes above, but there seems to be a delay in updating the article preview header after you crop it differently in a short amount of time.
In KAWObackend, all the updates will be in real time and it can also show you what the cropped image looks like in article history, article search and shared article, as illustrated in the left column of the video.
Using GIF’s is a great way to express yourself and even better when it’s a customized one. But what if you are not familiar with Photoshop, Camtasia Studio, or Adobe Premiere?In this article, KAWO will show you very simple ways that will allow you to create your own customized GIFs for WeChat.
