New media marketing, why can't you do it?

When we feel that we are not able to carry out marketing and our content is not sincere, it may be that we are still far away from the group.

Most people have encountered the following situations when operating new media :

• “Although we are doing new media promotion, the results are not very ideal”
• “This article is obviously great, why don’t readers feel anything about it?”
• "Our company is going to open accounts on all the mainstream new media platforms!"

When we entered the new media field with excitement, we were expecting to make great achievements. We even couldn't sleep all night because of a good idea. But every time we started with excitement, we ended with disappointment. This has become the "new normal" of new media operations today.

Like a joke that all Internet professionals agree is not a joke: There are more people working in self-media than those who read! This shows how fierce the competition is.

Low conversion rate , low readership, and insufficient activity are the "new problems" encountered by new media marketing.

Even though WeChat and Weibo have become the "hardest hit areas" for inflating followers and traffic, they still cannot stop companies of all sizes from jumping in to "fish in slack". Every day there are still many people operating "zombie accounts", and it seems like they kill 1,000 enemies but lose 800 of their own.

Just like the traditional company that I came into contact with a while ago, which makes essential oil soaps, although it ranks first in the traditional market and is said to be known by everyone in the industry, it still appears very small on the Internet, especially on new media that have huge traffic.

Internet professionals generally agree that 2016 is the last wave of mobile Internet traffic dividends, and the era of casual writing, simple copying, and violent forwarding in the past few years is over.

"Traffic dividend" is a term that has a brainwashing effect (experts often create such terms), and the real dividend cycle is actually very short. When everyone is talking about it, it has become a thing of the past.

However, is it really because the dividends are gone that you have not done a good job in new media and self-media and your products are unsalable? Can you definitely do well during the “so-called” bonus period?

The answer is no. The reality is: even during the peak period of the bonus, 80% of people still don’t do well, and spend more time reading “strategies” than actually exploring.

No matter when, what you compete with is still marketing thinking, operational ideas, and product quality. When the dividends come, they will fly with the trend. Even if the dividends don’t come, they will still move upward step by step.

So, before seeking new marketing methodologies, we should all think carefully about why we didn’t do it in the past?

Hype is a common marketing technique that almost everyone has used to some extent.

For example, Xiaomi first occupied a certain area and attracted people, then promoted it and finally limited the quantity. On the one hand, this method consolidated Xiaomi's position, and on the other hand, it greatly mobilized people's psychology of chasing, following the crowd, hunting for curiosity, and taking sides, so that latecomers quickly imitated Xiaomi.

Another example is the “Chinese middle-aged women speculating in gold” incident in 2013, which is a typical case of marketing , in which herd mentality played a big role.

When many people think it is an opportunity, the time has definitely passed. Why is it that everyone understands the truth, but cannot control themselves?

Just as we enter the new media field, most of the marketing methods and operational ideas are exactly the same. However, when we operate new media according to the "strategy", the time and space have already changed, and the results are bound to be low.

Imitating one thing for a long time can easily make people's consciousness fall into a narrow state and lose creativity and judgment, because imitation is most likely to be in the comfort zone.

For example, everyone starts posting WeChat tweets around 10 pm or 7 am, as if they were holding a Bible. According to the data released by Tencent, this period is indeed the node with the largest reading volume, but when we create our own content, have we considered the crowd? It can be said that few people have considered the characteristics of specific groups of people, such as those who work the night shift at the front desk, night security guards, those who work in two shifts, those who do and watch live broadcasts, those who like to go to bed at 1 o'clock, the rich second generation who drive cars late at night, etc.

Salespeople will define their good customers and bad customers. Good customers are those who identify with them, are easy to communicate with, and are happy to serve them; bad customers are those who beg and plead, but no one responds.

In short, new media marketing, operation, and promotion, homogeneity and lack of characteristics are one of the factors. Although they naturally call for segmentation and niche, only a few people actually do it. No one is willing to give up the market with the most consumers, and that pie looks bigger.

For example, the WeChat copywriting we often see is full of whining, pseudo-originality, and plagiarism. In summary, the failure of new media marketing is related to the following two factors.

• User diversity : In the era of niche economy, users are not standing in the most crowded places.
• Lack of content : The content released by most operators is basically the same.

There are many other reasons, such as copywriting level, design style, etc., which are basic skills and will not be discussed here in detail.

Differences among users

User segmentation, niche economy, and fragmentation are concepts and ideas that have not only emerged in the past two years.

In the 1850s, American scholar Wendell Smith proposed the market segmentation theory. With the introduction of the theory, enterprises have widely put it into practice. At that time, people's age, gender, income, family situation, and occupational status were actively applied to actual marketing.

Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which was born in 1903, is bulky, fuel-intensive and noisy. It has maintained its characteristics for more than 100 years, regardless of wars, economic depressions, and strikes. Even though it lacks technological content compared with modern sports cars such as Yamaha and Honda, the people it serves and its loyal fans have never changed.

User differences exist in many areas, and there are many actual cases around us. The most common one is that middle-aged and elderly friends like to watch "anti-Japanese drama".

In our opinion, the immature enemy soldiers in the anti-Japanese drama often blow themselves up, and the plot has "amazing twists" from time to time, such as two people shooting several bullets at each other within 10 meters but failing to hit our people. Although young people cannot understand the presentation of this kind of plot, the actual audience market is very large.

One commentator made a special summary of the characteristics of the elderly watching anti-Japanese dramas: "Young people don't like to watch it because you haven't grown old. When you grow old, you will like to watch it."

In other words, the user's specificity will not change due to our will, and the user will not easily shift his or her habitual thinking.

For example, if we run a WeChat public account , if everyone pushes at the same time, then users will receive a lot of content at the same time. The content that users open must be the public accounts that they have been following for a long time and that have a strong appeal to them. Naturally, other accounts will have no chance.

If it is not an "old brand" that has been operating for a long time and a platform with a large number of fans, even if it is pushed at 10 o'clock, the reading volume will not change qualitatively, because the user specificity is the same, and everyone is competing for the same type of users. Some small platforms and small operating groups will naturally be defeated.

How to define the differences among users?

This question is similar to first figuring out the relationship between the small fish in the big pond and the big fish in the small pond.

The niche economy has gradually become known to everyone in recent years, but judging from the specific marketing targets and methods, there are still not many people who really do this. Everyone wants to seize the big market, and few can really let go of the "big" and "sacrifice".

It is also very simple to figure out this problem, it only requires a numerator and denominator.

We set the probability calculation to 1/10, 1/100, 1/1000, and segment the population into 10 people, 100 people, and 1000 people. Then if you adopt a niche mindset, your market will be among the 10 people, or 100 people, or one of the 1000 people. The final marketing target will also be among them. It will be easier to achieve your goals by marketing that is completely tailored to his preferences and characteristics.

Let's use the commonly said "one in ten thousand" to make an assumption:

Among 10,000 people, there is one of our users, accounting for 1/10,000. This kind of user likes to buy handwritten notebooks (for example, I have a peculiar hobby of buying notebooks). So among the 1.4 billion people, there are a total of 140,000 potential users, who are people who like to buy and collect notebooks. Among the 140,000 enthusiasts, assuming a relatively low conversion rate of 10%, then 14,000 people each buy a Moleskine notebook at a unit price of 219 yuan (this notebook is relatively expensive). In the end, the sales volume of this notebook alone is 3 million, not including subsequent conversions and purchases of other accessories.

The above is a very rough algorithm, but its significance lies in the fact that we can derive a concept: the absolute number of users in a specific group is actually not small , which is enough to allow brands to survive well. In reality, Moleskine notebook sales are much higher than this.

By making such deductions and then creating content and marketing based on such users, the number of competitors will be greatly reduced, and there may even be no direct competitors in some categories.

What does this example illustrate?

• Focus on marketing to 1/N users. The size of N determines the difficulty. The larger N is, the lower the difficulty is, and vice versa.
• Instead of squeezing out the area that has already been occupied by others, it is better to think about who are the “one in a million” users.
• Don’t deny the value and existence of something just because no one around you is fond of it. Sometimes it’s just that our circle is limited.
  

  Lack of content

Not long ago, I pondered a question, "How come a lot of content nowadays has become about playing with spacing, pulling margins, making large GIFs, and trying to make up the word count? If someone has an affair, you also repeatedly make trouble?"

The severe lack of content has become more obvious on many platforms where jokes and funny things are the main content output.

Although the content era has arrived, the output of high-quality content still makes most people feel weak. This is why some "decent" new media platforms can hype up old news from the past few years as if it happened just now, and even readers directly leave messages expressing their dissatisfaction.

It is difficult for a platform that is not responsible for its content to become a sticky brand. For example, on mobile browsers , users switch from one to another, but in the end they feel that there is really no difference between using one or the other because the content is all cut from the same mold.

"Today your family is in the news, tomorrow someone else is in his family", which even drives readers crazy.

It can be said that content famine is rampant on various new media platforms because the demands of various groups are too different to satisfy their appetites. In addition, the platform is purely traffic-oriented and seeks display and click-through rates , so the quality of content is getting worse and worse.

If the definition of users has completed the most accurate upper-level marketing positioning and group segmentation, then content output is the foundation underneath. Each piece of content is like a brick and a tile. High-quality content can show higher value and stand out more during "famine" periods .

In addition to constant reading and thinking, how can we get rid of the state of content scarcity and ensure a continuous output of high-quality content?

I once heard an audio file that mainly described some functions of the human body. It said that people generate 60,000 ideas every day. Most ideas are fleeting and forgotten after a few seconds. Some ideas last a little longer and may last for several minutes. The ones that we remember most and are very tempted to practice may not be the best. However, we don’t know which inspiration can really change ourselves.

We do not lack creativity and inspiration, but what we lack is the way to combine creativity and inspiration, the space to organize creativity and inspiration - the scene.

How to guide users to that scenario through marketing methods and content will lead to subscriptions and purchases, which is also the "user scenario" that everyone often mentions.

In new media marketing, a popular saying is: think about where users are, think about what users are doing, think about what users' needs are, etc. The most commonly used method is the 5W1H method to set users' choices and interests as well as time, place, and people.

This setting is an assumption, or an assumption that may not exist , and it is the watershed that determines whether the content is good or bad .

We have seen some KOLs with poor writing skills, such as those about travel, sports betting, and fitness. First of all, they will never use a formula like 5W1H before publishing content (any plan that uses the formula will ultimately have unsatisfactory execution results). Secondly, they will not analyze from the perspective of "user scenarios." Even so, their content still firmly attracts fans and new fans continue to join.

Why do they have such an effect?

Because they are in this scene, they are part of it, they know what they want, what to play, and where to go.

The most important element in a scene is you. If you are not in the scene, or if you are not deep enough or involved enough, then everything can only be imagined.

Therefore, we can clearly understand that:

• The lack of content is directly related to the definition of users, and no one can satisfy people with different appetites.
• Most of the reasons for not being able to consistently create quality content is that the content creators haven’t become fans.

I have a friend who particularly likes to read a little girl’s self-media. The number of readers of this account is only a few hundred each time, and occasionally it can reach thousands. Whatever the girl sells, these fans will buy it. The fan group is very close, and the content they write is all about expressing their feelings.

Later, I learned that this girl used to work in a factory and became a designer through her own efforts. Why do fans like the content she pushes so much? Because they have the same experience, they have all worked in factories, and the content she describes is also the deepest insights of this group of people. This is the best marketing .

at last

There is an old saying that goes "take an unconventional approach". Nowadays, it is easier to acquire knowledge and skills can be quickly learned from the Internet. However, the marketing and operation of new media requires more unconventional niche thinking. It's like a simple multiple-choice question:

• A large market with a large number of people, great competition, high investment and small opportunities may not be effective;
• A small market with fewer people, less competition, less investment, and greater opportunities may not necessarily be effective.

Between these two options, the latter is obviously the preferred choice and also increases the success rate.

When we feel that we are not able to carry out marketing and our content is not sincere, it may be that we are still far away from the group.

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

This article was compiled and published by @懂号叔叔(Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!