As a blogger on Xiaohongshu, can I still make money through advertising?

Xiaohongshu has recently seen some changes, with the number of business orders dropping sharply, leaving many bloggers feeling stressed. This article analyzes the reasons for this situation, such as high blogger quotations, unfavorable platform registration mechanism, and a surge in the number of bloggers, and suggests that bloggers with high tonality and the ability to bring goods may have a chance to stand out. This article is suitable for people who are interested in the operation of Xiaohongshu.

Many bloggers have reported that the number of orders from Xiaohongshu has dropped sharply since the beginning of the year, to less than one-third of the peak period. It seems that Xiaohongshu bloggers have encountered a cold winter, and it seems that brands are giving up on the strategy of advertising with bloggers.

Since the platform has been pushing e-commerce and buyers, there are few favorable policies for Xiaohongshu bloggers. It seems that the industry has reached a consensus that the cost-effectiveness of blogger investment is getting lower and lower.

I think there are three reasons why this happens.

1. Xiaohongshu bloggers offer high prices

The price quoted by bloggers on Xiaohongshu is high, 2-3 times higher than other platforms. For example, for a blogger with 10,000 followers, the price is basically between 1,000-2,000 yuan. According to the industry average of 15 yuan per interaction, 1,500 yuan can get about 100 interactions.

These 100 interactions can bring about 10-20 store visitors. In this case, it is indeed not cost-effective for a new brand to spend such a high cost simply to gain exposure.

Bloggers quote high prices because the cost of creating on the platform is high. It takes at least one day to select, shoot and publish a note. The high cost of note creation directly leads to high quotes.

At the same time, have you noticed that the platform’s quotation system basically allows bloggers to quote high prices? This makes bloggers’ quotations higher and higher, and the cost-effectiveness lower and lower.

2. Platform blogger registration mechanism

Most bloggers are unable to monetize through small lists and buyers and can only rely on advertising. Apart from targeted invitations, the platform’s co-creation and recruitment mechanisms are really not working.

First of all, bloggers only have 5 registration opportunities. Compared with Dewu, after reaching 100 followers, there are 200 registration opportunities in the next month. With more registration opportunities, bloggers have more ways to monetize advertising.

More importantly, Xiaohongshu has little control over the number of people recruited by brands.

For example, if Mofei recruits 100 influencers and 1,000 people sign up, if the brand ultimately selects less than 100 people, this will be more difficult than taking the civil service exam, so most bloggers can only run along. The platform registration mechanism makes it difficult for bloggers to monetize.

Figure 1: Comparison of Xiaohongshu bloggers’ backends

3. More and more bloggers

In the era of national self-media, there are more and more bloggers. As long as a new blogger emerges in any track, he or she will immediately have a large number of followers.

Some time ago, many girls launched independent projects, and a large number of similar bloggers emerged on the platform. The large number of homogeneous bloggers also gave brands more choices for advertising.

Figure 2: Girls' Independence Program

In this case, is there no hope on Xiaohongshu? I think there is still a chance if you can do two things;

1. Bloggers with high tone

Blogger advertising is not only a sales function, but also a way to build brand image. For example, if a brand places advertisements at airports, can it really generate sales?

Not many. It is more to inform users that I am very powerful now and I am placing ads at airports. The same is true for brands investing in influencers. There are similar functions for brands to invest in influencers with certain style and appearance.

A well-known sports brand spent 15,000 yuan on advertising for an influencer with less than 500 followers, all because the influencer was an executive of a well-known company and had an account on Xiaohongshu. On the one hand, there were fans, and on the other hand, there was the tone of the notes you produced.

As bloggers, we must try every possible way to improve the quality of our notes, pictures and videos so that brands can see them in a way that is consistent with their brand strength.

2. Bloggers who bring goods

What is the ability to bring goods? It means that users directly ask about the products in your cooperation notes and daily content, rather than just complaining and chatting.

Some popular tracks, such as emotions and personal growth, have a lot of traffic, but are not related to products. This results in users not paying attention when you post products. This requires embedding more products in daily notes so that brands can see them and launch them directly.

For example, the following bloggers focus more on products and are more likely to be advertised:

Figure 3: Example of a product blogger

Author: Jiang He

WeChat public account: Jianghe Chat Marketing