UAE/GCC
Say Goodbye to Hard-Sell Ads, Drive Growth With Consultative, Human-Centred Conversations.
On RED (Xiaohongshu), users are no longer just traffic figures. They’re real people — and many are willing to have meaningful, two-way conversations with brands.
Traffic is getting more expensive, leads are getting harder to come by, and users are increasingly… measured.
The old playbook of mass reach and aggressive selling is losing its impact. RED’s 2025 Lead Management White Paper offers a new route to growth: shifting from robotic replies to warm, consultative service. This “human-feel consultation” approach is becoming the key for brands to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and build long-term growth on RED.
Here are the white paper's key insights and how RED helps merchants convert conversations into growth.
1) Market Shifts: In an Age of Rational Spending, Users Expect Consultative Engagement and want warmer consultation
The market is going through a major transition:
- The traffic dividend is fading: As internet growth slows, customer acquisition costs continue to rise — pushing up marketing spend ratios year after year.
- More cautious decision-making: Consumers are prioritising value for money and personal satisfaction. Decisions take longer, and people rely on comparison shopping and deeper consultation before committing.
- Traditional marketing is losing impact: With attention spans as short as 45 seconds, and 70% of younger consumers prioritise interaction and emotional resonance, one-way “hard ads” struggle to build trust.
Merchants are caught in a low-conversion trap. The white paper reports that more than half of merchants say lead acquisition costs are rising, while lead quality falls.
2) The Breakthrough: Consultative Engagement Rebuilds Relationships
RED’s answer is clear: make consultation the core of the commercial connection, and build warmer, more trust-based relationships.
Why consultation?
- For industries like education, home improvement, medical aesthetics, and travel, which typically offer non-standardised services, high average order value, and long decision cycles, trust is everything. Effective pre-sales consultation can lift the share of users who move into a “high intent” stage by nearly 50%.
- DMs are the primary battleground:
- In 2024, RED’s DM consultation volume reportedly grew 77% year-on-year.
- 98% of local-life service merchants use DMs to collect leads.
- DMs have become the primary space for building deeper brand relationships
RED community advantages
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High spending power: average monthly household income reportedly reaches RMB 26,000.
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Users research deeply: before sending a DM, users read an average of 17.2 related posts.
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Users like to ask directly: powered by a real UGC (user-generated content) ecosystem, people are more willing to reach out for authentic advice.
3) Practical Execution: A Three-Part Model for Sustainable Lead Growth
RED proposes a “Content – DMs – Paid Media” integrated growth model:
1. Content: Build a Multi-Account Matrix Beyond the Official Brand Account
- Professional Brand Account: your official presence, and the foundation for credibility and expertise.
- KOS employee accounts (Key Opinion Sales): a major focus of the white paper. Real employees share practical know-how and behind-the-scenes insights as “professional consultants”, enabling lower-cost, efficient reach and authentic end-to-end service.
- The white paper states that 8,000+ companies are already operating KOS, generating 2 million+ lead submissions per month on average.
- KOL collaborations (Key Opinion Leaders): leverage trusted third-party experiences to spark word-of-mouth and break out beyond your existing audience.
The key shift: move from a single official output to a three-dimensional network Brand Account + KOS + KOL — connecting with users across multiple touchpoints more humanly.
2. DM Conversion: Use the Right Tools to Turn Every Consultation Into Action
Consultation quality directly determines your lead capture rate. RED provides a full toolkit:
- DM Hub (私信通): centralises messages across multiple accounts, supports routing to different service reps, auto-replies and quick menus helping you respond quickly, 24/7, and improve handling efficiency.
- DM lead-capture components: native tools such as lead cards and merchant profile cards that make the “leave details” process smoother and more natural while protecting user privacy and improving conversions (e.g. adding WeChat or submitting contact details).
- Consultation scoring system: a newly launched service quality rating based on response speed, reply effectiveness, and user experience. Higher-scoring merchants receive additional platform traffic support.
3. Paid media amplification: invest scientifically and feed high-quality consultation with precise traffic
- Juguang (聚光) advertising platform: supports deep conversion goals, from “DM enquiry” through to “DM lead submission”, helping align brand impact with performance outcomes.
- Smart optimisation tools: automated delivery, first-party data support, and one-click scaling — designed to overcome volume bottlenecks and reach high-potential audiences.
- Combined strategies:
- For high-intent users, use form-based journeys to convert quickly.
- For cautious decision-makers, use DM-based journeys to nurture through consultation. A balanced mix helps maximise ROI (return on investment).
4) Case Studies: How Brands Are Driving Incremental Growth Through Consultative Selling
The white paper highlights several industry examples that validate the “human-feel consultation” model:
- Education (New Oriental Online): built a star KOS matrix, delivered professional IELTS consultation, paired with automated media buying, delivering 4x business growth.
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Automotive (AITO / 问界): mobilised nationwide store staff as KOS to create localised content; used lead-card components to increase the “first-message to lead” rate by 50%.
- Home renovation (Shangceng Villas / 尚层别墅): used first-party data to target audiences precisely, layered content outreach, and combined DM + form ads achieving 560% year-on-year growth in leads.
- Finance (GF Securities / 广发证券): used playful content to reach younger users; leveraged DM tools for efficient consultation handling, reducing lead costs by 64% versus the category benchmark.
5) Embrace Consultative Lead Management and Unlock a New Growth Chapter on RED
In 2025, RED’s lead growth logic is clear:
- It’s no longer about cold traffic harvesting; it’s about warm relationship management.
- It’s no longer reliant on one-off exposure; it’s about building long-term trust through deeper consultation.
When customer service evolves from “scripted responses” into “professional advisors”, and marketing shifts from “spray and pray” into “high-quality conversations”, the growth flywheel starts turning for real.
This white paper isn’t just a tool upgrade; it signals a broader change towards user-centred growth. With its community ecosystem and improving product capabilities, RED is emerging as one of the few platforms where authentic conversation directly drives commercial growth.
Ready to Rebuild Your Lead-Generation Model on RED?
With new trends and complex platform tactics, trial-and-error can be costly. We’ve studied RED’s commercial ecosystem in depth and have helped multiple brands achieve step-change improvements in lead conversion efficiency.
If any of the following apply to your business:
- High acquisition costs and low-quality leads
- Uncertainty about building a RED content and account matrix
- Unfamiliarity with RED ads and DM conversion workflows
Contact us for a 1-to-1 consultation. We'll build a tailored RED marketing plan, help you capitalise on the consultative engagement opportunity, and chart a new growth trajectory for your business.
Data source: 2025 RED (Xiaohongshu) Lead Management White Paper
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