Today, WeChat has 1.299 billion monthly active users in China, making it the most powerful social tool in the country. It has almost everything: social, payment, reading, search, shopping, entertainment and more. Brands have also built their marketing systems here, seeing it as an important platform for digital marketing in China.
In addition to setting up a brand’s official WeChat public account and WeChat video channel, building your own brand’s WeChat mini-program is also a very useful marketing method at the moment.
What is a WeChat mini-program?
While Chinese users are very resistant to downloading new apps, WeChat mini-program are apps that can be used without having to download or install or even leave WeChat. They are essentially a miniature app embedded in WeChat.
They are easy for operation but able to perform functions required for a real app. In China, for example, when making an order of KFC or McDonald’s, users no longer need to download their apps, but simply use the mini-program in WeChat to place an order.
Whether it’s shopping reservations, administrative procedures, banking, search queries, playing games or reading and watching videos, users can accomplish all tasks all within the WeChat ecosystem by using mini-programs. This brings users great convenience and offers brands a powerful customer service solution .
Now that WeChat owns more than one million mini-programs online, mini-programs are demonstrating an explosive power of connecting everything and changing business, and various brands have started to explore this feature to add a new competitive edge to brand marketing.
An expansion project in China? We can help you!
WeChat mini-programs’ marketing advantages
Low cost
Mini-programs are equivalent to a mini-app, but with much lower development costs than that of an app. It can be created within a few hours.
Multiple entrances
WeChat mini-program are attached to the huge platform of WeChat, which has the unique advantage of traffic. In order to support the app, WeChat has given it quite a lot of entrances. Users can directly enter the app through various methods such as scanning the QR code, inviting friends, sharing with WeChat groups, searching nearby apps etc. It can also be connected to WeChat official account and WeChat video channel, allowing the app to be combined with a brand’s marketing content and to lead traffic to each other.
Easy operation
It only takes a few seconds to open mini-programs, rather than having to search, to download and to install, saving a lot of time for both businesses and customers. For those who are afraid of overloading their phone’s stockage or just lazy to exit WeChat to switch to other apps, mini-programs improve users’ experience and help retain customers and potential customers for brands.
Customer service
The official backend of the mini-program can be directly embedded into a user’s WeChat account, enabling brands to communicate and answer users’ questions within WeChat. Besides improving the user experience, companies can also get timely information feedback, facilitating customer management and adjusting the next marketing methods for accurate marketing, improving marketing efficiency and increasing customer stickiness.
E-commerce
Companies can directly use mini-program to build their own store, allowing customers to purchase directly from the app.
Convenient to launch activities
Mini-programs are able to perform a variety of activities such as: live streaming, accumulate credits, issuing coupons, registration, invitations, and offline promotion activities to attract traffic.
How to use WeChat small programs
Develop a plan
Any marketing process needs a systematic and detailed plan to ensure subsequent marketing practices are clear and can follow the right direction.
Design
Wechat mini-programs should be functionally-efficient and present users with a professional brand image. Therefore, the content creation, aesthetic design and functional framework should be designed by professionals to ensure its originality and efficiency.
Promotion in multiple channels
After Wechat mini-program’s creation and set-up, the next task is to let more people know about it and use it. Companies can write content on WeChat official accounts and WeChat video channels to attract traffic, and implement a reward system to encourage users’ participation and sharing. In addition to promoting within the WeChat ecosystem, mini-programs can also go beyond WeChat and link up with other social platforms such as RED (Xiaohongshu), Zhihu (Chinese Quara) and Baidu to support each other.
Optimisation based on user experience
Once mini-programs are put into use, operators are able to keep abreast of data and user feedback, which gives brands a good opportunity to optimize and improve its functions. Operators need to keep abreast of the latest operating habits of Chinese users and promote/introduce mini-programs to wider potential users, helping brands to increase conversion rates.
Many brands are already actively developing their own mini-program on Wechat. These brands/products include:
- 1products exclusively-used within a certain industry
- 2 Products are with social- features
- 3 Products that are frequently-used.
- 4 Products that hope to accumulate users quickly.
The development and operation of the mini-program requires professional analysis. a pre-assessment of the brand or a certain product is necessary to avoid improper usage or deviate from marketing objectives.
If you are considering setting up a wechat mini-program for your business or want to know more about the Chinese market, contact STAiiRS!
We will provide you with the most professional advice according to your specific needs.
Recent Comments