In China, one of the fastest-growing digital tools is mini-programs. In recent years, mini-programs have been a buzzword in China and were widely adopted by the Chinese tech giants including Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu.
Although Tencent, the founder of mini-programs, has the largest number of active users on WeChat, Baidu‘s mini-programs MAU exceeded 5 million last year.
Sometimes, mini-programs are easily regarded as an add-on rather than a primary feature, but the rising prominence of mini-programs in major app ecosystems means that brands who want to grow business in China must take them seriously.
What are mini-programs?
Basically, mini-programs are streamlined applications that run within larger apps and they don’t need to be downloaded.
Mini programs can shorten the journey for users looking for a particular product or service, which can lower the bounce rates and improve conversions.
Why choose Baidu's mini-programs?
Compared to WeChat, the mini-programs on Baidu has their search advantage. Baidu prioritizes mini programs' exposure on its app, and they are easily searchable by both branded and generic keywords.
At the same time, Baidu's mini-programs can be used as a landing page for your Baidu marketing campaigns to engage with your users in a more friendly way.
The Features of Baidu's Mini Programs
01 Baidu Sign-in Support
This feature allows users to sign in with their Baidu accounts instead of registering a new account, which can greatly reduce user churn.
02 User Acquisition
There are various extensions of Baidu marketing campaigns to attract new users to access your mini program.
These extensions allow you to drive new users while you are launching a marketing campaign like lead generation.
03 User Activation
After engaging with users with your mini-program, you can activate some of the users to explore new products/services with Baidu's notifications including Service Notification, Profile Notification, Push Notification, and Integrated Notification.
Making full use of different types of notifications, you can direct users with different to your mini-program at different times.
04 User Communication
Baidu offers a live chat plugin on mini-programs. Communicate with your users online to answer their questions.
05 Content Marketing
Write blogs, publish posts and videos on your mini-program, and distribute them to the Baidu app matrix to drive traffic, boost sales, and generate leads...
06 Product Promotion
You can create special cards for your products and coupons to send to your user groups to encourage users to make purchases.
07 E-commerce Support
Baidu's mini-programs provide professional e-commerce support including payment methods and order address/tracking/notification.
In a word, Baidu's mini-programs are great tools if you are on the hunt for new ways to drive traffic and improve conversions in China because now Baidu is heavily favoring its mini-programs and providing various optimization options to maximize exposure.
*Source: Baidu Marketing