Strategy & Audit · Senior team, Shanghai

Before you build, decide what to build.

Strategy and Audit is the engagement that comes before the build. We audit what you have today, map what your audience actually needs, and write the roadmap that gets you to a real China presence in the right order. A written roadmap your team can act on.

15
Years in Shanghai
50
Brands launched
3-4w
To delivery
Start with Strategy How the engagement runs
Audit only scoped narrow
Misses brand, WeChat, search
Full roadmap china-strategy-roadmap.pdf
Phase 1 · Launch readiness Wk 1-12
Phase 2 · Growth & search Mo 4-9
Phase 3 · AI search & scale Yr 2+
ICP
Parallel
HQ pack
2 pages
Pages
25-40
4 months

Wasted on a rebuild before the team realised their hosting provider couldn't even support ICP filing. We have watched it happen.

Why it matters

The decision before all the others.

You can pick the right hosting, the right framework, the right ICP filing path. If the strategy underneath is wrong, none of it matters. The site launches and HQ asks why no one bought.

We treat strategy as the upstream decision. Before content, before design, before development, we figure out what your China presence should actually be.

Strategy Content Design Build
The questions · 我们要回答的

What we actually figure out.

5 strategic questions feed one written roadmap. The answers shape every decision in phases 1, 2, and 3.

No. 01 / 05
品牌
Brand positioning

Does your brand land in China?

We look at how your brand reads to Chinese audiences. Chinese consumers respond to trust signals foreign brands routinely under-index on: founder credibility, certifications, partnership logos, government-aligned language, awards, third-party validation. We benchmark your current messaging against your category competitors in China and call out the specific places your translated copy goes flat.

What we map
Founder credibilityCertificationsPartner logosAwardsMedia
No. 02 / 05
搜索
Discovery surfaces

Where do Chinese users actually find you?

Baidu still drives roughly half of Chinese search. AI assistants like Doubao, Kimi, DeepSeek, and Wenxin are now the first stop for many Chinese consumers, especially under 35. WeChat search is its own ecosystem with its own ranking logic. We map your current visibility across each surface, and we name the gaps you can close in 3 months and the ones that take 18.

What we map
BaiduDoubaoKimiDeepSeekWenxinWeChat search
No. 03 / 05
技术
Technology stack

What technology is right for you?

WordPress, Astro, headless setups, WeChat Mini Programs, H5, native apps, all serve different needs. Most foreign brands end up running two or three of these together. We look at your editorial workflow, your team, your traffic patterns, your e-commerce ambitions, and we tell you what to build on what stack. Honestly. Even when the answer points away from a project we would otherwise be running ourselves.

What we map
WordPressAstroHeadlessMini ProgramH5Native
No. 04 / 05
微信
WeChat ecosystem

What's your WeChat strategy?

Almost every foreign brand needs to be inside WeChat. Almost no foreign brand has thought through whether that's a Mini Program, an Official Account, a WeCom-driven sales motion, a Channels (视频号) livestream presence, or some combination. We map the right WeChat footprint to your business model and audience: which surfaces matter, what you can ship in phase one, what you grow into. Including the question most foreign brands forget to ask, which is whether you should also be running the SaaS ecosystem (有赞, 微店, Meituan, 客如云, Aliyun) instead of building custom from zero.

What we map
Mini ProgramOfficial AccountWeCom视频号SaaS ecosystem
No. 05 / 05
合规
Regulatory

What's actually compliant?

ICP, MIIT, PIPL, the Cybersecurity Law, the Data Security Law, the WeChat Mini Program filing requirements. Every layer of Chinese regulation that touches a foreign brand operating digitally. We assess where you stand, where the risks sit, and what you need to file and when.

What we map
ICPMIITPIPLCSLDSLMini Program
Deliverables · 交付物

What you walk away with.

One written document. Usually 25 to 40 pages. Structured around your specific situation. Yours to keep, portable to any agency.

ChinaWebFoundry · 2026
China Strategy
& Roadmap
Prepared for · ACME Brand
Contents
China-readiness diagnostic p.04
Strategic positioning recommendation p.10
Technology architecture p.16
Sequenced roadmap p.22
Compliance map p.30
HQ-ready advocacy package p.36
Yours to keep · Portable
01

China-readiness diagnostic

p.04

A clear read on where your brand and your existing assets stand today. Content, UX, search visibility (Baidu and AI engines), technical performance, compliance, WeChat presence. What works, what doesn't, what has to be rebuilt rather than carried over.

02

Strategic positioning recommendation

p.10

How your brand should show up to Chinese audiences in your category. The trust signals that matter. The voice and tone choices. The content territories worth owning. What's different from your global positioning and why.

03

Technology architecture

p.16

Recommended stack across website, WeChat, content management, and hosting. Includes the WordPress versus Astro decision, the Mini Program versus H5 call, and the dual-stack global/China question.

04

Sequenced roadmap

p.22

What to build in phase one (launch readiness), phase two (growth and search visibility), phase three (scaling and AI search optimisation). Each phase has scope, dependencies, timeline, and budget range. ICP filing slotted in on the critical path so it doesn't block phase one.

05

Compliance map

p.30

ICP, MIIT, PIPL, data residency, WeChat verification, Mini Program filing. What applies, what doesn't, what timeline each one requires, and what we recommend handling first.

06

HQ-ready advocacy package

p.36

The deliverable foreign brand managers tell us they need most. A two-page executive summary, the reasoning paragraphs HQ will ask for, and side-by-side comparisons that explain why China-specific decisions are different from global brand standards.

How we run it · 工作流程

3 to 4 weeks, 5 stages.

Kickoff to written delivery, with a 90-minute walkthrough at the end.

01 Stage 1 of 5

Kickoff

A working session with your team. Goals, audience, current China stack if any, the specific questions you came in with, the political constraints we should know about back at HQ.

Output
Aligned scope
02 Stage 2 of 5

Discovery and testing

We test your current site from inside mainland China, audit your WeChat footprint if any, review your existing content, benchmark visibility on Baidu and the AI engines. Real browsers, real Chinese phones, real network conditions.

Output
Diagnostic findings
03 Stage 3 of 5

Competitive review

We look at 3 to 5 direct competitors operating in China and map what they're doing across website, WeChat, content, and search. We don't copy them. We just calibrate against where the category sits.

Output
Category benchmark
04 Stage 4 of 5

Strategy session

Working session with your team to align on the strategic direction before we write the roadmap. Decisions made together with the client team actually stick. Decisions made for the client tend to unravel within 6 months.

Output
Aligned direction
05 Stage 5 of 5

Written delivery

The roadmap document, plus a 90-minute walkthrough call to review the findings and the recommended next steps.

Output
Roadmap PDF + call
Investment · 投入

Timeline and budget.

Fixed-fee, scoped per engagement. The number depends on whether you're entering China cold or auditing a 5-year-old stack.

Duration
3-4 wks

Kickoff to written delivery, with a 90-minute walkthrough.

Pricing
Fixed

One scoped fee. No hourly billing. No surprises after sign-off.

Quote in
2 days

Tell us the scope. We come back with a real number.

The Strategy and Audit deliverable is yours to take to anyone, including your existing internal team or another agency. We don't lock the work to a follow-on engagement. Most clients continue with us into the build because that's the simplest path, but the document is portable on purpose.

Send us your scope →

Who Is This For?

Who hires us for Strategy and Audit

First-time China entry

International brands launching their first proper China presence and needing to make the foundational decisions correctly the first time.

Underperforming China site or stack

Brands with an existing China presence that isn't delivering, and a leadership team asking why. Usually the answer is a strategic mismatch underneath the technical layer.

Brands consolidating a fragmented setup

Companies that built their China presence one piece at a time, ended up with a website, a Mini Program, a WeCom rollout, and three vendors who don't talk to each other, and now want one coherent plan.

Brands preparing a rebuild or migration

Companies that already know they need to rebuild or migrate, and want a strategic foundation under it before the build phase starts.

Why start here · 为什么先做战略

Why most builds skip this and shouldn't.

Most agencies are happy to start building immediately. They quote the build, they invoice for the build, they ship the build. Whether the build was the right thing to build is your problem.

Skip strategy
4 mo lost

The two failure modes we see repeatedly. The brand that spent 4 months rebuilding for China before discovering their hosting provider couldn't support ICP filing. The brand that launched a site, then a Mini Program, then a Channels presence, and ended up with 3 disconnected systems sharing none of the customer data.

  • · 4 months wasted before the ICP blocker surfaced
  • · 3 disconnected systems, no shared customer data
  • · HQ pushback after launch on decisions never made
Run strategy first
3-4 wks up

The success pattern looks different. Brands that ran Strategy and Audit first launched on schedule, with ICP filing already done in parallel, the right tech stack picked the first time, the WeChat footprint scoped to what their team could maintain, and a roadmap their HQ had already approved.

  • · Launch on schedule, ICP filed in parallel
  • · Right tech stack picked the first time
  • · Roadmap HQ has already approved
FAQ · 常见问题

10 questions we hear about Strategy and Audit

Tap any question to expand. If yours isn't here, ask us directly.

Ask a different question

Yes, it's mandatory. We don't start a build engagement without it, and we won't. The reason is simple: we have watched enough projects fail because they skipped the strategic foundation that we no longer take that risk on either side. Every brand we have launched in China successfully went through Strategy and Audit first, even when they thought they already knew what they wanted. About a third of those clients came in convinced they needed one thing, and walked out with a different plan that worked. The other two thirds had their assumptions confirmed, but with the dependencies sequenced properly, the budget realistic, and the compliance work scoped before it became a blocker.

If a different agency tells you they can skip strategy and go straight to build, you are buying their assumption that your situation matches the last project they did. Sometimes that works. More often it doesn't, and the cost of finding out is months of rework.

No. The audit and roadmap are deliverables you own. Most clients continue with us into the build because that's the simplest path, but the document is yours to share with your internal team, with another agency, or to keep on a shelf for a future project.

We run the engagement remotely from our team in Shanghai. You and your team can be anywhere. Most of our Strategy and Audit clients are based in Europe, the US, or the UK, with a small China team or no China team yet at all.

The China Site Scan is an automated check on your existing site that flags the obvious technical problems. It's useful and it's free, but it's narrow. The Strategy and Audit is a strategic engagement that goes far beyond the site itself: brand positioning, WeChat strategy, content territory, search visibility, sequencing, budget, and the full roadmap your team will actually act on.

Then we are probably not the right fit for this engagement, and we will tell you that on the first call. Strategy and Audit is for brands that want to make sure they're building the right thing. If you've already decided, skip to one of the build engagements directly.

Our senior strategy team in Shanghai, led by a partner-level strategist on every engagement. The strategist is supported by a Chinese researcher running the category and competitive review, and a writer working on the brand positioning recommendation. You aren't getting a junior consultant running templates.

Realistically about 12 to 18 months. The Chinese digital landscape moves quickly. Regulation evolves, AI search is shifting fast, the WeChat ecosystem changes every quarter. The strategic positioning and category insights tend to age more slowly. If you take the roadmap and start building within 6 months, it's all still relevant. If you sit on it for 2 years, we're happy to run a refresh engagement before the build kicks off.

Yes, and some clients do. The roadmap is specific enough about scope, dependencies, timelines, and budget ranges that you can take it to other agencies and ask them to quote against it on equal terms. We are confident enough in the work that we are fine with this. Most clients still continue with us, but the deliverable is portable on purpose.

Yes. About 1 in 10 Strategy and Audit engagements ends with us telling the client their current setup is mostly working and the right move is incremental improvements rather than a rebuild. We don't invent problems to sell solutions. The audit document in those cases ends up being short, with a clear “do these 3 things over the next 6 months” recommendation rather than a multi-phase rebuild plan.

Included: kickoff session, China-side audit, competitive review, strategy session, written roadmap document, walkthrough call. Not included: implementation of any of the recommendations, ICP filing work, content production, design work, or development. Those are separate engagements that follow the audit, priced based on what the audit actually recommends.

策略 · Strategy · 路线图 · Roadmap · 审计 · Audit · ICP filing · WeChat strategy · Baidu visibility · AI search ready · HQ-approved · Phase 1 · 2 · 3 · Compliance map · 策略 · Strategy · 路线图 · Roadmap · 审计 · Audit · ICP filing · WeChat strategy · Baidu visibility · AI search ready · HQ-approved · Phase 1 · 2 · 3 · Compliance map · 策略 · Strategy · 路线图 · Roadmap · 审计 · Audit · ICP filing · WeChat strategy · Baidu visibility · AI search ready · HQ-approved · Phase 1 · 2 · 3 · Compliance map ·
Ready when you are

Ready to start with strategy?

Tell us where you are with your China presence today and what you need it to do for your brand. We come back within two business days with a scoped proposal, a timeline, and a real number.

Start with Strategy Run the free China Site Scan