How to create a private traffic pool?

Today I would like to share with you how traditional enterprises build private traffic pools. When it comes to private domain traffic, you may have already heard of it. You may be thinking, isn’t it simple to generate private domain traffic? Is it that important?

Is private domain traffic important? important! But we still have many misunderstandings about private domain traffic.

If you still have the following ideas about private domain traffic:
Private domain traffic = adding friends crazily, creating groups every day, and advertising in group messages;
Private domain traffic = WeChat business, swiping advertisements on WeChat Moments every day;
Private domain traffic = users are imported from channel a to channel b;
Private domain traffic = something that only small companies do, and has nothing to do with medium and large companies;
Private domain traffic = all traffic, no need for public domain traffic.

If you have any of the above ideas, then this article is worth reading. You will benefit a lot from it and it may even refresh some of your cognition.

First, let’s go to the directory. I will share below:
5 common misunderstandings about private domain traffic. What exactly is private domain traffic?
Why is private domain traffic important?
How do traditional companies create private domain traffic? These 4 steps are crucial!
What are the opportunities and risks of private domain traffic?

Okay, I won’t brag anymore, let me start sharing.

1. Five major misunderstandings about private domain traffic

First, I would like to briefly explain five common misunderstandings about private domain traffic.

The first misunderstanding: Private domain traffic = adding friends crazily? Bulk advertising?

This understanding is very one-sided.

Why?

What do you think is the purpose of establishing private domain traffic?

Isn’t it just to serve users better and let them buy more of our products or services? Can you just pull the users over? If I ask you, what do you think is the most difficult thing in the Internet age?

Establish a reliable and trusting relationship with users.

Adding friends is just a small action. There is still a lot of work to be done in the future. As for what specifically needs to be done, I will talk about it in more detail later.

The second misunderstanding: Private domain traffic = micro-business, mass advertising?

First of all, it is logically wrong. If this is done, private domain traffic will not be able to be generated at all.

I would like to ask you first, in your understanding, what do you think micro-business is about? What is its logic?

In fact, the logic of micro-business is the logic of harvesting.

What's the meaning? As long as they successfully find an agent and the agent pays the money, that’s it. They can then look for another agent again. In other words, they basically don't have to worry about after-sales service, customer maintenance and other work, it's more of a one-time harvest.

The logic of private domain traffic is business logic.

You can understand it this way:

We need to cultivate users for a long time to make them very interested in our products. In the user's impression, we are not just a company that sells products and services, we also have a personal image that can provide you with value.

The relationship between us and our users is more like that of "expert + friend", and this is a continuous cycle.

The third misunderstanding: Private domain traffic = users from channel a and channel b?

This understanding is also wrong and is a relatively basic cognition.

For example.

You sell things on Taobao, Tmall, and JD.com, and direct Tmall users to WeChat, and then think that these users are your private traffic.

In fact, this is just selling things under the guise of e-commerce using social tools, and it is not private traffic in the true sense.

To further understand private domain traffic, the first step is to acquire new traffic, that is, we need to attract some users; the second step is to increase the value of traffic; the third step is to think about how to split more traffic, etc.

Most of us understand private domain traffic as "directing users from channel a to channel b." In fact, this is just a small part of traffic diversion.

The fourth misunderstanding: Private domain traffic = something only small companies do?

This understanding is also very narrow.

You see, some medium and large companies, such as China Mobile and Didi Chuxing, actually have a lot of private domain traffic.

For example, China Mobile’s official account has already exceeded 100 million followers. Just imagine, if it imports these users into personal WeChat accounts and randomly sends a promotional message to their friends, the effect will be quite amazing.

(Pictures from the Internet)

The fifth misunderstanding: Private domain traffic = all traffic, and public domain traffic is not needed?

Maybe you think that all I need to do is to manage private domain traffic?

This is also a big misunderstanding.

If you think this way, there will probably be problems in building private domain traffic.

Private domain traffic does not mean that we can survive by harvesting this traffic, but we must have new traffic coming in.

At the same time, new traffic can provide fresh blood and more data samples, which can enable operators to discover more possibilities and then iterate products or services.

Okay, the above roughly discusses five misunderstandings about private domain traffic. What exactly is private domain traffic? Let’s take a look at it together, it may refresh your knowledge.

2. What exactly is private domain traffic?

Before talking about private domain traffic, I would like to ask everyone, what do you think traffic is?

2.1 What is traffic?

You might say that traffic refers to concepts such as number of readings, number of fans, number of likes, number of views, 100,000+, popular articles, etc.

So, are these definitely traffic?

Not really. Why?

Because what I just talked about is actually general traffic, not precise traffic.

In other words, you haven't seen the essence of traffic yet.

So what is the essence of traffic?

Let’s review first, what do we generally do when doing business in traditional industries? You need to find people and clients, right? So, putting it on the Internet is actually just replacing traffic with customers, the essence remains unchanged.

Therefore, the essence of traffic is flesh-and-blood users. In other words, behind every piece of traffic, it actually corresponds to a person, a real person, and this is the traffic.

Once you understand the nature of traffic, it is easy to understand private domain traffic...

2.2 What is private domain traffic?

Next, let’s talk about what private domain traffic is?

Last year, there was a very popular term called growth hacker . Basically, when you communicate with others and mention how to grow, there is a 90% chance that they will talk about the term growth hacker, followed by the traffic AARRR funnel model that you have heard countless times.

However, this year, especially in the second half of this year, a new term has become extremely popular, called private domain traffic.

You can look at the picture below. It is obvious that the search index of the term "private domain traffic" has exceeded that of "growth hacker", especially since June 2019.

(Image source: Baidu Index)

In terms of information attention, especially since 2019, the frequency of private domain traffic has far exceeded the growth hacker search keywords.

(Image source: Baidu Index)

So what is private domain traffic?

Most explanations go something like this:

Private domain traffic refers to traffic resources that enterprises can operate independently, use freely and repeatedly without paying, and can access directly at any time. It is a private asset of traffic.

In simple terms, we can repeatedly reach out to, "harass", communicate with, and get feedback from these users. We call this group of users private domain traffic.

Just give an example.

For example, if you want to open a store, you will do a survey first. If there are 50,000 people around the store, then these 50,000 people are public domain traffic.

Theoretically, these 50,000 people may become users of your store, but is it realistic? Not very realistic.

If 1,000 of these 50,000 people come to your store, 500 of them will actively/passively add you on WeChat. Then we can say that these 500 people are your private domain traffic. Because you can communicate and interact with users repeatedly through WeChat.

Is private domain traffic a new concept? Actually, it’s not…

2.3 How do you view private domain traffic?

So let’s think about it, why does the concept of private domain traffic come into being?

First of all, it is because we are extremely dependent on traffic. Without traffic, there will be no conversion.

We often say: Where the traffic is, there are the users!

Corresponding to private domain traffic is public domain traffic.

What is public domain traffic?

Public domain traffic is traffic that can be used by everyone. For example, Baidu, Taobao, Vipshop, and Toutiao all belong to public domain traffic, and are often referred to as platform traffic.

In today's Internet era, user attention is highly dispersed. Traffic platforms such as Douyin, WeChat, Kuaishou, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu are emerging in an endless stream, shifting from offline traffic to PC traffic, and then to the mobile Internet traffic era.

Dispersed traffic means that it becomes more difficult to obtain traffic, and if there is no traffic, it means there is no conversion.

Another reason is that the era where traffic is king is almost over.

In the past, you could invest in advertising with some money, which would bring in a large amount of traffic. Moreover, this traffic was of relatively high quality, so conversion was easier. In other words, the ROI (return on investment) was relatively high.

Later on, we discovered a problem: the more money we invested, the more picky users became, the conversion rate became lower and lower, and the cost of acquiring customers became higher and higher.

However, it is difficult for these small and medium-sized enterprises to bear such costs. So, they started to build this private domain traffic.

Is private domain traffic a very new concept?

No, it is not a new concept.

For example.

For example, before the Internet became popular, sales staff would generally record some of your contact information, such as your phone number, email address, home address, etc.

When they need to contact you, they can just call or text you, or come find you at your home address. What is the purpose of this? The purpose is to be able to contact you more frequently.

So, at that time , private domain traffic was roughly equal to the address book.

Let me give you another example.

Joe Girard is familiar to everyone. He is recognized as the most successful salesman in the world. The world sales record he holds is: selling an average of 6 cars a day for 12 consecutive years! Think about it, what kind of concept is this?

Generally speaking, it would be good if an ordinary salesman could sell one or two cars a day, but he could sell an average of 6 cars a day! This is simply an unattainable state! Are you curious how he did it?

He first explored some user needs and understood what those who bought cars wanted. Then he will treat the customers as friends. When customers consult about buying a car here, he will register their contact information and contact those customers frequently. Therefore, customers can not only buy suitable cars through him, but also get some discounts.

From this perspective, he already knows how to create private domain traffic.

Of course, this is the Internet age, so where will all this traffic go?

Now we understand that traffic is not just data, but real people, so the source of traffic must be where there are many people.

There is a very core idea: where the users are, there is the private domain traffic; where the people are, there is the business.

So which platforms have more people gathered?

As everyone knows, most users are now settled on the WeChat system, such as WeChat personal accounts, WeChat public accounts, service accounts, mini-programs, etc.

In addition, WeChat has launched WeChat Pay, forming a closed business loop, so WeChat is a very important private traffic pool.

Therefore, in the future, personal WeChat accounts will be the most valuable assets of enterprises.

So, how should we view the concept of private domain traffic?

Let’s talk about the conclusion first. Let’s not get bogged down in concepts, we still have to look at the final effect.

So what is the final effect?

For example, can the conversion rate be improved through private domain traffic? Increase repurchase rate through private domain traffic? Being able to increase the average order value of the product, etc., this is what we should consider most, rather than always worrying about the concept of private domain traffic.

Because the concept is not important, what is important is whether we can help companies make profits in this way, that is, make money, which is our ultimate goal.

Okay, now we come to the next step. Is private domain traffic so important? important! The reason is...

3. Why is private domain traffic important?

Above I shared with you how to view private domain traffic. Now I would like to share the benefits of private domain traffic from the following four aspects.

3.1 Private domain traffic can reduce marketing costs and obtain user feedback more quickly.

Why do you say that?

Let me ask you a question first, do you want users to give feedback on your product?

If you want, then keep reading.

Before, we only connected users through our products. There was a very simple buyer-seller relationship. The relationship between us and users was: I sell things to you, you buy things from me, and then the transaction is over.

However, if we have our own private traffic, we can use this social relationship to do some research and further understand what customers want and what their real needs are.

Their feedback can help us iterate our products/services. In this way, our products or services will become better and better.

3.2 Private domain traffic can solve the problem of how to retain traffic.

If our products or services attract a large amount of traffic, but we don’t know what methods or carriers to use to retain the traffic, then we will waste so much traffic and also consume so much cost, time and energy.

Private domain traffic can solve this retention problem. Through refined user operations, we can retain traffic and pave the way for the next conversion.

3.3 Improving user lifetime value (LTV) through private domain traffic

What is Customer Lifetime Value?

A more official explanation is the total amount of benefits that the buyer may bring to the company in the future.

In simple terms, it means that it can encourage users to buy more things from us, which means increasing the repurchase rate.

Why is repeat purchase important?

We know what are the three major factors that affect our business?

It is the average order value, number of customers and number of purchases. Let’s take a look at the following figure:

To be realistic, if we want to turn around our performance, there are three ways based on the above factors.

For example, is it difficult to double the number of users ?

It is still a bit difficult. After all, the cost of acquiring customers is getting higher and higher, and it is becoming more and more difficult to obtain traffic.

For example, if we want to double the average order value, do you think this is difficult?

It is still quite difficult because the average order value is basically fixed and difficult to change, and once the product or service is doubled, it will definitely affect the number of user customers.

But if we want customers to buy again, is it difficult?

Compared with the previous two methods, the repeat purchase method is the easiest. As long as you get a customer to repurchase once, your performance will double. Suppose a customer repurchases n times, wouldn’t your performance increase n times, right?

3.4 Private domain traffic can bring word-of-mouth communication and bring more referrals.

You think that you can indirectly influence users' evaluation of your product by repeatedly reaching out to them. If your product makes these users feel particularly good, for example, if the users are already fans of your product and have a high degree of recognition of your product, then they may refer your product and promote it spontaneously.

And these users are generally called super users. Of course, the general form of management is membership, also called super membership.

For users brought in through referrals, this cost actually does not exist in the marketing process. In other words, the cost of referral is almost zero, but the benefits it brings are actually huge.

To sum it up in one sentence: the closer you are to users, the lower the cost of exposure. Every exposure and interaction increases user trust. The deeper the trust, the more repeat purchases, referrals, and consumption.

Okay, having said this, I believe you have a deeper understanding of private domain traffic. Now the next point is, how should traditional companies build their own private domain traffic? Read on...

4. If you don’t do these 4 steps = 0, these are the core steps to building a private traffic pool!

Next, I will share some very useful information that is rarely shared in articles. If you master this new media business model diagram, you can save yourself at least 5 years of detours.

Without further ado, let's take a look at this new media business model diagram:

If you have mastered this new media business model diagram, then you have basically solved the problem of how traditional companies can build private domain traffic.

Why do you say that?

Continue reading…

This business model diagram is divided into four steps, namely, traffic generation, transaction, repeat purchase and referral, among which fission runs through each link. Next, I will share with you how to do it step by step.

4.1 Traffic diversion

First of all, let’s talk about drainage. What is drainage? What is the purpose of drainage?

Among the five misunderstandings about private domain traffic, we also know that private domain traffic is not everything, and we also need to rely on public domain traffic.

The purpose of traffic diversion is to bring public domain traffic to private domain traffic.

So what are the ways to attract traffic? There are many ways, I will briefly introduce 4 methods here.

The first one is offline traffic diversion.

If it is a traditional enterprise, then it has offline stores, and attracting traffic in the stores is a particularly good way to attract traffic.

Why do you say that?

Because offline stores are a good scenario of trust.

The conventional method is to go through offline stores, add WeChat or follow the official account. Of course, the best way is to add WeChat.

So how can you actively add customers on WeChat?

The method is to make bait. Find out what customers have an urgent need for, or offer a benefit that is particularly attractive to customers. Then if customers need this thing, they will add you on WeChat.

For example, when the weather is hot, you can consider giving away free wet wipes, etc.

Do you understand? That's it.

In addition to offline store traffic diversion, there is also a type of traffic diversion called advertising traffic diversion.

What is traffic generation? That is, you can place advertisements in the information flow on Douyin or Toutiao. By placing advertisements, you can also introduce it to your own official account or WeChat account.

Of course, this costs money.

Another way that doesn’t cost money is to use content to attract traffic.

For example, if you create some content that is very relevant to users on a new media platform, you can also use the content to direct traffic to your official account or WeChat account.

I have shared specific content-driven methods before. If you are interested, you can look for articles I have written before, or communicate with me directly.

Another way is to bring in new traffic through fission activities, which is also to increase the volume of traffic by increasing the existing volume.

What's the meaning?

It is to carry out some fission activities in the existing user community. What is fission activity? To give a simple example, we often see posters posted on WeChat Moments. If we want to participate in this activity, we have to add WeChat or forward it to WeChat Moments.

Next, let’s look at the more important step, how to close a deal…

4.2 Transaction

What is a transaction? A transaction is when a customer buys your products and services. If there is only traffic but no transactions, this is equivalent to =0.

But there is a particularly critical point here, which is easy to overlook. What is the critical point?

Every transaction is about resolving the trust issue. As long as the trust issue is resolved, it will be easy to close the deal.

So, not buying = not trusting.

There are many ways to complete transactions within the WeChat system, such as completing transactions through WeChat Moments, one-on-one private chats, WeChat groups, public account copywriting, etc. There are different methods and techniques for different transaction methods.

Let me just give you an example.

Take WeChat Moments as an example. Do you have the following problems?

• I don’t know what to post on WeChat Moments every day;
• Posted but no customer paid attention, no conversion;
• There is no systematic friend circle matrix yet.

So have you done the following work?

• WeChat nickname: Is it professional and recognizable?
• WeChat background: Does it reflect the team name, company slogan or professional image?
• WeChat avatar: Does it reflect professionalism or reliability?

And so on.

It is difficult to explain how to close a deal without tens of thousands of words. It involves a lot of knowledge in psychology and marketing. If you can flexibly apply the eight elements of marketing, I think closing a deal should not be a big problem.

Due to limited space, I will share the specific steps for completing the transaction in subsequent articles.

Is it enough to make the deal?

No, if you don't take the next step well, it will be very dangerous...

4.3 Repeat Purchase

The third step is repurchase.

The importance of repeat purchases was also mentioned above. For example, just one repeat purchase can double your performance, reduce traffic costs, reduce labor costs, shape your brand image, and so on.

Let’s think about it from another perspective. What would happen if a company’s products only attracted new customers but no repeat purchases?

It is very likely that as fewer and fewer products are sold, the company will decline.

Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that repeat purchases determine life or death.

Then, I want to ask you, why would users buy your products again?

Is your product good? Well, it seems so.

But why do customers only buy from you and not from other competitors?

This hasn't gotten to the point or the essence of the matter.

So the question is, what is the essence of repeat purchase?

The essence of repeat purchase is customer loyalty. Because of loyalty, he will continue to repurchase, refer products to others, and even boycott products from other brands.

So the question is, how can we increase repeat purchases? In other words, how can we get users to do this?

Here, a formula is summarized, which is also a user incentive behavior model, called action = motivation + ability + trigger.

How to understand this formula?

Motivation corresponds to the churn recovery system, trigger corresponds to the after-sales system, and ability corresponds to the membership system. As long as these three systems are done well, the repurchase rate can be greatly increased.

• For example, data labels of the after-sales system, follow-up visit process, expert personality, customer interaction, etc.
• For example, user research in the churn recovery system, activating silent users, etc.
• For example, the level design, membership rights, points design, ceremony design, etc. in the membership system.

Due to space constraints, specific repurchase techniques and methods will be shared later.

Next, the final step involves whether the cost can be greatly reduced...

4.4 Referral

Step 4: Referral.

So, what is a referral?

Simply put, referral means that after a user uses your product or service and feels particularly good, he will recommend it to other users, thereby bringing some other users to use or purchase your product. That is what I mentioned in the previous article, creating super members.

One very obvious feature is that many people will talk about your product frequently.

Let me first talk about the benefits of referrals:

• Can bring in a lot of customers;
• Referrals are free advertising and can reduce traffic costs;
• If the referral is good, then the advertising effect will be better.

Then the question arises again, how to do a good referral?

In fact, it is necessary to do a good job in these four systems: referral, communication design, mechanism work, and control and evaluation optimization.

What's the meaning?

Due to limited space, I will briefly explain:

• Referrer: Who will make the referral for you? You need to find this person. Not everyone is suitable to be a referral, so you need to screen these people.
• Communication design: We need to help users think of topics for the product, actively create topics, and give users something to talk about.
• Mechanism tools: We need to provide communication tools, such as communication materials, copywriting, customer stories, etc.
• Review control optimization: By monitoring the reviews of products on various self-media platforms, we can actively expose product stories. We should further expand the reviews that are favorable to us, and analyze and find the reasons for the comments that are harmful to us.

Okay, the four steps have been basically introduced. There is an underlying idea that I hope you can also be inspired by: use repeat purchases and referrals to replace traditional advertising and channels.

Speaking of this, another thing we need to note is that we need to shift our mindset from traffic to conversion to a user operation mindset centered on user lifetime value.

In other words, our service to users is not a one-time thing, but rather long-term maintenance, so that we can obtain the maximum value from users.

After discussing the four steps to build Civic traffic, let’s talk about risks and opportunities. This is also very important. The sooner you understand it, the more benefits you will get…

5. What are the risks of private domain traffic?

In this section, let’s talk a little more about some of the opportunities and risks of private domain traffic.

Needless to say, there are opportunities. Currently, it is the bonus period for private domain traffic. Being able to be in the bonus period is like standing at the forefront of the times, and being able to develop rapidly.

It goes without saying that the sooner a company builds private domain traffic, the sooner it can reduce costs, increase repeat purchases, and bring about word-of-mouth communication.

I will just post a picture and not say much else. People who understand will naturally be excited.

I would like to talk more about the risks of private domain traffic?

The first risk is that competition will become increasingly fierce, which comes with opportunities.

That is, the earlier we enter the market, the more we can enjoy the early dividends. The later we enter the market, the less this dividend will be and the more difficult it will be.

For example.

For example, the past was a bonus period for public account launches. The investment cost was small, but the benefits brought were huge. Many companies even achieved sales of tens of millions through launches.

But up to now, although there are still benefits from public accounts, the cost of advertising has increased several times, and with more and more competitors, the effect is not as good as in the early days.

The essence of the so-called bonus period is: a short-term imbalance between supply and demand, which brings about excellent cost-effectiveness.

So, eventually it will definitely return to normal, which means the costs will be greater.

The second risk is that the platform’s rules will become increasingly strict.

What does this mean?

For example, if you want to divert users to the WeChat system from some traffic platforms, such as Baidu, Taobao, Toutiao, etc., then these platforms will definitely become more and more strict on the methods and forms of diversion.

In addition to the fact that the rules of traffic platforms will become increasingly strict, the rules of social platforms will also become stricter.

For example, WeChat has been cracking down on induced sharing and external links violations on WeChat, with each crackdown becoming more and more severe. It has even gone so far as to target its own products, including “WeChat Reading” and “Weishi”.

So, again, the earlier you enter the market, the better!

VI. Conclusion

Okay, now let’s summarize:

• The essence of traffic is not the traffic, but the users behind the traffic. Where the traffic is, the business is there.
• The essence of private domain traffic is to do a good job of refined operation of users. Although it can save traffic costs and obtain stable customers, the corresponding content, services, and user relationships must be better and more refined;
• Don’t get hung up on the concept of private domain traffic, we still need to look at the final effect;
• Private domain traffic has four benefits: reducing marketing costs, solving user retention, increasing user lifetime value, and word-of-mouth effect;
• New media business model diagram: traffic generation, transaction, repeat purchase, referral, fission runs through every link.
• Now is the bonus period for private domain traffic. In the future, the rules of traffic platforms and social platforms will become more and more stringent, and the earlier you enter the market, the more advantageous it will be.

Have you learned all the above methods?

Author: Advertising Idle People

Source: Advertising Idler