Joyce Zhu works as the Marketing and Communications Manager for IET China. Based out of Beijing, she looks after internal and external marketing and communications for mainland China.
“China is a critical component of the global engineering industry, but we’re far away for the UK headquarters. Therefore, my role is to get the IET brand well-known across the region, because our engineers can benefit greatly from the organisation,” she says.
“My role is hugely important. We’re a different audience here in China, so my work aims to improve the reach of our messaging as well as gain the most attention possible. My work also includes informing IET UK about what’s happening in the Chinese engineering community, so that the organisation can ensure it promotes the right products and services to the region.”
“Across China there are approximately 42 million – almost the population of the UK – people who have majored in engineering and/or are working in some form of engineering discipline. Professional registration is a big draw for attracting members, and there’s a huge market for us to reach out to and much good to be done.”
Developing localised messaging
To achieve this, Joyce works closely with her marketing and communications colleagues in the UK and most afternoons you’ll find her on calls with different departments there to discuss campaign goals and messaging.
“We use different languages here and so sometimes I have to double check the core message, its meaning and sentiment in order to work out how best to translate that for the local audience.”
Joyce is grateful that IET staff based in the UK check in with their global colleagues when developing campaigns to make sure slogans and the like will be suitable for these local audiences.
“I really appreciate that they value our input and together we can make sure campaigns are developed that can reach the IET’s global audience,” she says. “For me it’s also a great opportunity to better understand the aim of each project in order for me to translate and phrase the message in the right way.”
From here Joyce will then develop localised marketing materials, communication, PR and social media.
Far-reaching work
“I’ll develop content to publish on the IET China website, and we also have local social media channels that I will create bespoke content for. Instagram and Facebook aren’t options in China due to our national firewall, so instead I manage official IET China accounts on the Chinese equivalents WeChat and Weibo.”
For these she publishes weekly and daily updates respectively, which often include news stories from E&T Magazine as well as information about projects or events being run.
This highlights how far-reaching Joyce’s work can be, as the IET China accounts have over 20,000 followers and last year more than 80,000 people viewed its livestreaming and short video content.
Due to Covid Joyce has had to focus on online for the last few years, but she’s hoping to widen that reach even further now that China is opening up again.
“The gates have been opened and I’m looking forward to the return of live events,” she enthuses. “I remember one of our last events pre-Covid saw around 1,000 attendees, and I hope that going forward our events will become bigger and bigger.”
Raising professional registration numbers across China
Joyce’s work is also imperative to raising the number of professionally registered engineers in China – as well as the number of IET members. This will provide them with international recognition of their competence and commitment to engineering, which has been shown to provide improved career prospects, employability and earning potential.
“Across China there are approximately 42 million – almost the population of the UK – people who have majored in engineering and/or are working in some form of engineering discipline. Professional registration is a big draw for attracting members, and there’s a huge market for us to reach out to and much good to be done.”
An employer that values you
Joyce has been with the IET for 10 years now, and continues to feel a sense of achievement from the work she’s doing. For her, the most important aspect of her role is serving the Chinese engineering community and making them feel valued.
Being valued is also part of the reason Joyce continues to be part of the IET family, as she feels supported by her colleagues internationally.
“The staff at our organisation support each other and are always there to offer advice, while our leaders encourage us to think more innovatively. Together this creates a warm, supportive work environment that I’m very grateful for,” she concludes.
