Marketing in Chinese 市场营销
shìchǎng yíngxiāo
Marketing in Chinese is 营销 (yíng xiāo).
Also searched for as: marketing, advertising, branding, digital marketing, promotion, influencer marketing.
Getting your brand noticed in a crowded market. 15 essential marketing words in Mandarin Chinese, with pinyin and English. Open it in the app to hear each word, tick off the ones you know and turn them into flashcards.
Marketing in Chinese is 营销 (yíng xiāo), and its vocabulary has grown fast alongside China's social media platforms. Beyond familiar ideas like 品牌 (pǐn pái), brand, you'll meet terms that don't translate neatly: 引流 (yǐn liú) means driving traffic to your shop or account, and 种草 (zhòng cǎo), literally 'planting grass', means making people want a product. Expect to hear all of them in any marketing meeting.
| Chinese | Pinyin | English |
|---|---|---|
| 营销 | yíng xiāo | marketing |
| 市场部 | shì chǎng bù | marketing department |
| 品牌 | pǐn pái | brand |
| 推广 | tuī guǎng | to promote; promotion |
| 广告 | guǎng gào | advertisement |
| 投放 | tóu fàng | to place (ads) |
| 目标客户 | mù biāo kè hù | target customers |
| 引流 | yǐn liú | to drive traffic |
| 流量 | liú liàng | traffic; views |
| 曝光 | bào guāng | exposure |
| 转化率 | zhuǎn huà lǜ | conversion rate |
| 网红 | wǎng hóng | influencer |
| 种草 | zhòng cǎo | to make people want a product |
| 私域 | sī yù | private traffic (a brand's own customer channels) |
| 营销活动 | yíng xiāo huó dòng | marketing campaign |
Usage tips
- 种草 (zhòng cǎo) has an opposite, 拔草 (bá cǎo), 'pulling up the grass', which can mean either finally buying the thing you wanted or losing interest in it.
- 流量 (liú liàng) means mobile data in daily life but traffic or views in marketing, and a 流量明星 (liú liàng míng xīng) is a celebrity valued for the online attention they attract.
- 私域 (sī yù), 'private domain', means customers you can reach directly, such as WeChat groups and followers, as opposed to 公域 (gōng yù), the platform traffic you have to pay for.
Common mistakes
- Using 曝光 (bào guāng) carelessly: besides 'exposure', it means exposing a scandal, so 我们被曝光了 (wǒ men bèi bào guāng le) sounds like bad news rather than good publicity.
- Translating 'campaign' with a military word like 战役 (zhàn yì); the everyday term is 活动 (huó dòng), as in 营销活动 (yíng xiāo huó dòng).
Mini dialogue
- A新品下个月上市，推广方案做好了吗？Xīn pǐn xià ge yuè shàng shì, tuī guǎng fāng àn zuò hǎo le ma?The new product launches next month. Is the promotion plan ready?
- B差不多了。我们打算先在小红书上找网红种草。Chà bu duō le. Wǒ men dǎ suàn xiān zài Xiǎo hóng shū shàng zhǎo wǎng hóng zhòng cǎo.Almost. We're planning to start by getting influencers on Xiaohongshu to build interest.
- A目标客户是谁？Mù biāo kè hù shì shéi?Who are the target customers?
- B二十五到三十五岁的女性。Èr shí wǔ dào sān shí wǔ suì de nǚ xìng.Women aged twenty-five to thirty-five.
- A好，记得每周看一下转化率。Hǎo, jì de měi zhōu kàn yī xià zhuǎn huà lǜ.Good. Remember to check the conversion rate every week.
Example sentences
- 我们今年要加大营销投入。We're putting more into marketing this year.
- 我在市场部工作。I work in the marketing department.
- 我们想打造自己的品牌。We want to build our own brand.
- 新品上市需要好好推广。A new product needs proper promotion at launch.
- 这个广告花了多少钱？How much did this ad cost?
- 我们在抖音上投放了广告。We ran ads on Douyin.
- 我们的目标客户是年轻人。Our target customers are young people.
- 我们先用小红书引流。We'll use Xiaohongshu to drive traffic first.
- 这条视频流量很大。This video got a lot of traffic.
- 这次活动带来了很多曝光。This campaign got us a lot of exposure.
- 流量很高，但是转化率很低。Lots of traffic, but the conversion rate is low.
- 我们找了几个网红合作。We've teamed up with a few influencers.
- 这篇笔记种草效果特别好。This post was great at getting people to want the product.
- 很多品牌都在做私域。Lots of brands are building their own private traffic.
- 双十一的营销活动要开始准备了。We need to start preparing the Singles' Day campaign.
Practise speaking
Ready to use these words? The Marketing speaking island has 8 everyday questions about marketing to prepare your own answers to.