Knowledge Marketing on Baidu Encyclopedia-An Emerging Marketing Strategy

Baidu Encyclopedia or Baidu Baike, is an open and free online encyclopedia launched by Baidu Inc. As of August 2019, Baidu Encyclopedia has included more than 16 million entries, with more than 6.88 million users participating in the editing of them. Daily average page view overpasses 400 million, because these entries cover almost all known fields of knowledge. Baidu Encyclopedia has cooperated with more than 100 authoritative institutions and more than 15 fields, highlighting the authority of the content.

Miaodong Encyclopedia( which means you can get an instant understanding of what you search after watching the videos provided by Baidu) is an innovative knowledge short video brand released by Baidu Encyclopedia, redefining knowledge with short videos. Through easy and intuitive video expressions, it not only meets the fragmented reading habits of users in the mobile era, but also greatly improves the efficiency of knowledge acquisition, and comprehensively upgrades the browsing experience of Baidu Encyclopedia entries. With an average of 10 million plays per day, covering more than 65% of Baidu’s entries, over 600,000 high-quality video contents win the over 400 million daily average users .

What Is Knowledge Marketing

Knowledge marketing is a marketing method that takes knowledge as the core and deeply influences consumer decisions. In knowledge marketing, the high-value content related to the brand will be delivered to the target audience with effective knowledge dissemination methods, so that the audience can form a deep brand awareness and the consumption decision will be deeply influenced.

Online knowledge marketing platform refers to all online communication platforms that can carry knowledge content and use advertising as the main business model. Among the mainstream knowledge platforms at home and abroad, Baidu Encyclopedia is particularly representative in China.

Why Knowledge Marketing Becomes Such A Hit in China

As a new marketing methodology, the driving force of knowledge marketing comes from the knowledge explosion and knowledge fragmentation under the knowledge anxiety. The public’s knowledge anxiety is increasing day by day, and they feel small in the face of the large amount of knowledge. In the meantime, they are dissatisfied with the fragmented, non-systematic knowledge absorption state.

Nowadays,Chinese people are eager for progress and growth and worried about lagging behind and being eliminated, therefore, they are constantly expanding their knowledge acquisition channels and learning knowledge in a massive and systematic way through online knowledge marketing platforms.

Knowledge marketing takes online knowledge-sharing platforms as the channel, in-depth knowledge as the content and far-reaching dissemination as the guide. The purpose of knowledge marketing is to create knowledge widely spread. In terms of value, knowledge marketing empowers brand value with knowledge, and ultimately promotes the progress and growth of the public through knowledge.

The characteristics of knowledge marketing are mainly manifested in two aspects: firstly, knowledge marketing delivers advertising content in the form of knowledge, so that brand value and information value can generate a win-win situation; secondly, satisfying users’ needs is the fundamental pursuit of knowledge marketing, and it creates value for users while influencing them.

Users of Baidu Knowledge-sharing Platforms

First of all, in terms of education, 83.2% of the users have a bachelor’s degree or above, which shows that the users are generally highly educated. The TGI ( target group index) of Baidu Encyclopedia is 101.1, and the TGI of Miaodong Encyclopedia is 103.3, both of which are higher than 100, which fully indicates that the proportion of highly educated users in both user groups is higher than the industry average.

Second, in terms of occupation, users of professional content service platforms are mainly enterprise and business workers and professional personnel, whose personal ability and achievements are recognized by society and have a more stable social status.

In terms of position, the top 3 positions held by professional content service platform users are general/technical staff, middle management/middle-level technical staff and general management staff; while the percentage of middle and senior management staff (including business owners) reaches 66%.

In terms of income, 61.4% of the users have an average monthly income above RMB 8,000, and 44.1% of the users have an average monthly household income above RMB 20,000, with the TGI of both Baidu Encyclopedia and Miaodong encyclopedia above 100, which means that the users of both platforms have higher income.

Why Baidu Was selected as the mainstream knowledge-sharing platform in China?

First of all, advertisers have a high degree of awareness of Baidu Encyclopedia, and generally recognize its authority. Advertisers’ perception of Baidu Encyclopedia includes the authoritative entrance to knowledge, combination with search to cover users with strong demand, and large user volume, etc.; the perception of Miaodong Encyclopedia includes short video format, large creative space, and high brand authority. Advertisers are generally aware of the commercialization solutions of Baidu Encyclopedia and Miaodong Encyclopedia in the knowledge marketing field.

From another aspect, in terms of the customers, Baidu Encyclopedia has natural traffic advantages. Baidu Encyclopedia and Miaodong Encyclopedia have an inherent user base advantage based on the scale of Baidu search users. At the same time, as one of the official information dissemination channels, Baidu Encyclopedia has a high degree of user trust with its authoritative entrance function. As a multimedia encyclopedia platform, Miaodong Encyclopedia combines knowledge with new forms of communication and upgrades the room for creativity on the basis of authority, which is not only easier to be accepted by users, but also meets the current demand of users for diversified knowledge dissemination channels.

Some insights

Knowledge marketing harnesses knowledge to promote trust and highlight its value. The emergence of knowledge marketing is closely related to the increasingly complex marketing environment: the type and number of online media is growing rapidly, like video sites, social media and mobile APPs, the complexity of the media brings more challenges for marketing.

Specifically, at the level of communication, knowledge marketing links brands, KOL and the public through various media, so that brands are not only exposed, but also achieve real interaction; so that brands are not only more popular, but also achieve scientific promotion. At the cognitive level, knowledge marketing enhances trust and brings far-reaching impact by transferring knowledge, so that brands not only convince users, but also complete the change of users’ cognition. In this way, brands not only sell products, but also complete the transmission of brand value.