UK guarantor service Housing Hand approached TONG at the start of 2025 with a brief to build a China market presence from the ground up. Housing Hand had established some B2B partnerships in the market, but had not yet launched a direct strategy to reach customers – with no social channels or localised content.

Housing Hand faced a twofold challenge. First, before marketing their offer, they needed to educate prospective Chinese students and their families on the purpose of a guarantor service, why UK landlords require one, and why Housing Hand was the trusted choice. This education was central to the campaign’s demand generation strategy. Second, because enquiry volume and completed sign-ups were the defining KPIs, optimising every stage of the funnel, from first impression to final conversion, was crucial.

TONG began by building Housing Hand’s China social presence from scratch, launching official channels on RedNote and WeChat, as well as building out the back-end CRM WeCom. This allowed Housing Hand to reach Chinese students and their families on every platform they use, at each stage of their decision-making journey, and communicate with them on the channels they’re already comfortable using.

With channels in place and now managed by TONG, the team took ownership of the full digital marketing engine, where each channel had a specific role against the challenges identified above. Because Chinese students and their families were not aware they needed a guarantor service, RedNote drove the crucial initial awareness and educated audiences on the issue, before introducing the solution. Paid media and influencer partnerships then built the trust and brand credibility essential to a complex financial service. WeChat delivered more in-depth content for audiences further along in their consideration, and WeCom and the Housing Hand website handled customer service and conversion, ensuring nothing stood in the way once a prospect was ready to sign up.

For the final stage, TONG worked closely with Housing Hand to translate the website into Chinese, since it’s the only place the transaction is completed. Localised CN-language content gave customers, and English-limited parents often part of the decision, the confidence to complete their purchase.

The strength of results from the initial campaigns led TONG to run three further influencer campaigns beyond the original scope, building on this momentum.

This education-led, full-funnel approach meant every piece of content, from explainer posts to influencer collaborations, was designed to guide potential customers on a journey – from understanding the service, to trusting Housing Hand, and ultimately to enquiry and conversion.

Housing Hand’s China marketing generated millions of monthly impressions and hundreds of enquiries from Chinese students in its first year working with TONG alone – a fivefold increase in enquiries compared with the year before the partnership began. Completed guarantor sign-ups doubled over the same period. The partnership, now well into its second year, continues to grow beyond its original scope as new campaigns, such as the launch of the guarantor passport, are added to build on this success.