Jimuyu (基木鱼) is a new landing page solution developed by Baidu. So far, companies operating in the field of healthcare, consumer goods, and logistics must already start using Jimuyu landing pages. Many more industries, including enterprise software, and business services, might follow in the upcoming months. To know more about this tool, please watch this video.
Although this policy was met with severe backlash from web developers and businesses alike, hosting your landing page on Jimuyu comes with several benefits:
- Landing pages hosted by Baidu, in China, which means improved loading speed compared to most foreign-hosted websites.
- Getting a page approved takes a lot less time than filing for an ICP licence. (Hours to a few days, as opposed to multiple weeks).
- Mobile-optimized, customizable templates for HTML5, multi-page, mini-program landing pages.
Note: Baidu’s Jimuyu landing page is so new that some of the tips in this article are more speculative than other posts in our China Digital Marketing 101 Guide. We are testing and learning as we go.
Create landing pages using existing templates
Although you may have experience designing well-targeted, high-performing landing pages, it’s very likely that you are not aware of the landing page design trends in China. While the goal of landing pages are somewhat universal, there are certain differences in local UI preferences you need to pay attention to, in order to reach higher conversion rates.
While you can recreate your existing landing page styles on Jimuyu’s drag-and-drop interface, we suggest you start with the existing templates to get a grasp of common landing page practices in China. When we say templates, we are looking at three different starting points:
- Mobile: HTML5 templates that should work well with common phone screen resolutions.
- Baidu Smart Mini-Program: These mini-programs create a closed-loop entrance to your page, offer tabs, and are stickier than simple landing pages.
- Mobile+PC: As of writing, only two templates are available here.
In addition, there are many industry-specific templates for education, medical, and business services. Although using these templates will teach you valuable UX lessons, be sure to set yourself apart as a foreign business and use non-stock images of your brand.
What do you think of these Jimuyu templates?
Keep your forms short
I know it’s tempting to create lengthy forms to learn more about your leads, but don’t do it. Compared to lengthy forms asking for the company name, size, job title, email address, and other info, landing page forms that only have a couple fields will have a higher conversion rate. Also, in China, email isn’t often used outside of work, so you should expect a much lower open rate and response rate for emails sent to your Chinese leads.
Chinese users also tend to use fake contact information in order to obtain a landing page offer. If your landing page offer is something that users can take away with them (like a coupon code or downloadable content), make sure to weed out spam using Jimuyu’s built-in SMS verification.
Be mobile-first
According to China’s internet authority CNNIC, 88.6% of mobile internet users make use of search engines. As a result, Jimuyu landing pages mainly target mobile users. So much so that unless you use one of the two available PC templates on Jimuyu’s site editor, the preview function will only show the mobile view. You should keep a few phones with different screen sizes handy since you won’t be able to dynamically serve content like you would on a custom-built website. Make sure the focal point of wide images is visible across different devices and use framed images where possible.
Use the right offer for the Chinese market
Jimuyu offers various Call to Action (CTA) plugins to suit Chinese consumers. These include “click to download”, “Call now”, “Chat now” (more on that below), contact forms, e-commerce checkout, and “follow on Wechat”.
Choose an offer that is most enticing to your audience, but don’t be afraid to test multiple types of CTAs over time.
However well your email-based lead forms are doing outside of China, you should expect them to perform more poorly in China, because of lower email usage.
Keep an eye on your analytics
Apart from macro analytics, Jimuyu’s basic functionality allows for seeing heatmaps, bounce rates, and other metrics. Be sure to do your A/B testing with different forms of USPs catering to the Chinese market. This should allow you to know what sort of visual style, copy, and CTAs are better at converting your Chinese leads.
Consider using a Baidu mini-program
When you transfer a visitor to your mini-program, you’re effectively locking them in your content. Many popular services, from food delivery to games, use mini-programs to create a seamless landing experience. You also get to be conveniently placed one push of a button away from Baidu’s home screen, and you can also view them as a test ride of your standalone app.
Therefore, if you’re using a mini-program template on Jimuyu, be sure to aim and solve a problem starting from the first words of your copy as well as in your mini-program itself. Users are more likely to bookmark and use your mini-program if they understand what it does at a glance. However, keep in mind that 420,000 others are competing for screen time. If you are not offering a reason for your users to use your mini-program often, you’re more likely to be placed lower down the favorites list.
Another advantage of Jimuyu mini-programs is that it allows for quick access to certain functionalities directly through search results. This way, users looking to complete certain tasks can land directly on the exact page.
This is the featured snippet of an insurance mini-program on Baidu’s search results. It allows marketers to package multiple landing page offers in one.
Offer live chat functionality
By offering live chat on the landing page and/or via WeChat, you can expect your conversion rate to increase by about 3X compared to if you only used a contact form.
The Aifanfan (Baidu’s CRM) plugin offers a variety of functions, such as smart live-chat support on your Jimuyu landing pages. Highly customizable and with AI to determine customer intent, this tool can allow you to quickly service customers coming in for pre or post-sales inquiries. You might consider using this tool as it supports
- setting up pre-determined waiting times for the incoming leads;
- different call-out options;
- an efficient back-end for handling requests, and
- integrates with previously collected data fields about the lead.
These are our tips for a high-performing Jimuyu landing page for a Chinese audience. To learn more about Baidu marketing, check out the China Digital Marketing 101 guide.