Double 11 is coming, how to rely on private domain traffic for marketing?

In the article shared today, we combined the content of the two classmates and focused on private domain traffic . There are many discussions about private domains on the market. In this article, we hope to provide you with criteria for judgment in actual operations, discuss how to avoid vanity indicators, how to optimize private domain operation efficiency at every stage, and how to find the real focus and amplification levers through deconstruction.

It is expected that practitioners will usher in a wave of overtime work during Double 11. Enjoy:

“The easiest things have been done in the first half, avoiding the wheel of vanity growth”

△Photo courtesy of Zhang Ximeng (Founder of GrowingIO/ Yiwan Class 2 classmate)

A major consensus today is that the idea of ​​simply and crudely grabbing traffic dividends in the external environment is no longer effective: traffic is becoming more and more expensive; budgets are becoming smaller and smaller; users are becoming more and more complex; competition is becoming more and more fierce - this has led to changes in the growth model.

The classic growth hacking system "Pirate's Rule (AARRR)" consists of acquisition, activation, retention, monetization and recommendation. Most startups are also growing according to this model. In this model, what people are most concerned about is "customer acquisition". But all too often, this leads to the “wheel of vanity growth”.

Most startups make adding new users their sole goal, publicizing it externally and celebrating it internally, attracting new users regardless of cost. Data shows that 70% of companies that do this die. Blindly pursuing vanity indicators, such as downloads and registrations, and spending a lot of time and budget on this kind of false growth, at a certain point, the company can easily collapse completely.

So today the growth model can be redefined as RARRA, that is, the linear logic is retention, activation, recommendation, revenue, and customer acquisition. The core value of a product must be reflected in user retention. Users will come back to use your product repeatedly and even form a habit, which can verify the value of your product.

The second is to focus on the new user’s first exposure to the core value, because the better the user activation is, the higher the subsequent retention rate of the product. We shouldn’t monetize users quickly after they are activated. Why? Because many startups already have many problems with their early financial models, it is very likely that the more they sell, the more they lose. This is the time to focus on user recommendations.

What is the purpose of private domain traffic? “There is no panacea, find out the conditions that satisfy the growth levers”

Let’s get back to the question of “whether to do private domain traffic and how to do it”. The first question we should think about is: What is the purpose of private domain traffic?

Most people’s answer is that they want to attract new customers or increase sales. But this is impossible. There is no panacea in today's market that can definitely attract new customers or increase GMV - before you start working on private domain traffic, you must be mentally prepared for this.

To generate private domain traffic, three prerequisites and two understandings need to be met. The three prerequisites are: it cannot be a large-scale standard product; it has a brand or hopes to build a brand; and it is willing and able to build an operating system. Two things to understand are: don’t expect a universal solution; and have the ability to reverse engineer the platform’s traffic operation rules.

△Photo courtesy of Lai Gangbin (founder of Jingli Technology/classmate of Yiwan second batch)

When breaking down GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) growth, we can pull out the formula shown above. From this formula, we can see that as long as we find one of the conditions that meets the needs and can be optimized to satisfy the growth lever, the result of this formula will be significantly improved.

For example, if we look closely at the company's operating data, some companies have very high efficiency in front-end reach, but the rate of new customer conversion is very low. Increasing the speed of attracting new customers cannot effectively increase GMV, so the core issue for this type of company is how to increase conversion at the step of "new customer conversion".

Finding leverage for private domain operations: "The basis of fission lies in trust, not interests"

△Photo courtesy of Lai Gangbin (founder of Jingli Technology/classmate of Yiwan second batch)

In the field of private domain traffic, it is recommended that you find the optimization link after setting the goal. Depending on the product and industry, we look for different levers and enhancements (Note: this is very important). The figure above shows a relatively common linear logic.

diversion

Including offline store shopping guides/online e-commerce pre-sales, mid-sales and after-sales, Kuaishou, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, WeChat, e-commerce package orders/text messages/customer service, special attention should be paid to the diversion rate.

• Conduct multiple traffic diversion tests on loyal customers, and don’t just focus on attracting new customers.
• Don’t be afraid of having too many touch points. Our tests show that as long as they are within the range that users can accept, multiple touch points are very effective.
• Detailed operations must be polished repeatedly.

Here are some details, such as the design of the package card (cashback/product), the time of SMS sending, and the first 20 words of the SMS are all very important. Today, many people believe that SMS push notifications are only opened at a rate of 0.03%, and are not worth doing. However, a good operator can increase the conversion rate to a few percent.

Taking SMS copy as an example, what is the most important thing? The first 20 words are the most important, so a lot of tests can be done on the "effectiveness of the first 20 words". Simplicity and directness are the prerequisites. If there are coupons, talk about coupons; if there are gifts, talk about gifts; if there are activities, talk about activities; if there are services, talk about services - from design to categories, constantly pursue streamlining and optimization.

Content IP creation and service operation

Good private domain operations require branding, and we recommend that 70% of the content be centered around the brand. The focus in this link is on content interaction rate and content opening rate.

• Customer service ≠ private domain operation, after-sales service will be directed back to the store customer service for resolution.
• To establish the brand's tone, content, and service attributes, 70% depends on SOP and 30% depends on employee performance.
• Circle of friends, groups, and one-to-one service, the trinity.
• Regularly update fixed types of content to cultivate user expectations and habits. For example, from Monday to Sunday, you can launch some fixed columns (such as consultation, service, discount, new products, etc.) at fixed time periods every day, and then combine them with flexible services to enhance customer interaction.

recommend

Cultivate consumers' awareness of the brand, especially loyal users' core awareness of the brand - this is the basis for strong fission. The basis of fission is trust, not interests. It’s not that interests are useless, but interests will not form a sustainable foundation.

Therefore, we say that we should pay attention to the difference between the "ARPU value of newly added users (Average Revenue Per User)" and the "ARPU value of the original private domain pool". Why? Because of the cost. Private domains need to be operated by people, and as long as there are people, there will be real costs. If the ARPU value is too low, it cannot support the underlying operating costs.

Conversion

The indicators of concern here include single order rate, proportion of old customers, repurchase rate, cross-selling ratio, gross profit, and GMV. Here we take group operation as an example: Generally speaking, it is recommended to adopt a combination of long-term groups and short-term groups. Long-term groups are suitable for content publishing, activity and interaction, while short-term groups (flash groups/special sales) are better for boosting sales conversions.

But not everyone can do a good job of "flash group", why? Shanqun converts users through repurchase by old users and attracting new users. It also requires short-term operation and maintenance, such as warm-up in the first two days, content service on the third day, sales on the fourth day, and after-sales service on the fifth day.

All the above analysis and examples actually just want to illustrate one point. Don’t be confused by superficial data such as GMV. If you want to know clearly which indicator is the most important for operating over a period of time. Today, many brands are not only focusing on GMV, but are trying to increase ARPU or repeat purchases through private domains.

Make good use of repurchase and dynamic leverage

So, whether you are doing private domain or not, as long as you are considering doing it or are doing it, the first thing you need to do is to go through all the data carefully. For example, the number of orders per day, average repurchase, repurchase cycle and repurchase rate of old customers, basic gross profit, the current SKU volume increase speed, etc.

Combined with the data, we can break down which link should be given priority. Suppose you are selling durable products for mothers and babies. It is difficult to increase repeat purchases of durable products. So the solution is, first, don’t count on using durable goods to boost repeat purchases; second, try to expand the product line.

So, for this company: First, what needs to be done is to spread word of mouth to increase new customer growth. You can try to make word of mouth explicit in the private domain and let customers actively recommend your products to acquire new customers more efficiently. Second, use the supplies line to increase gross profit in the existing private domain, and then leverage the store's placement on the e-commerce platform.

The old customers attracted by durable goods are relatively accurate, and new customers can be obtained by offering discounts for both recommendations. It can also be done through service-oriented content. For example, high-income new mothers in second- and third-tier cities usually attach great importance to the resonance of parenting concepts. By running through a certain operational tone, more mothers can be attracted to join in and create a social circle for them.

Finally, it is about dynamic thinking: cooperating with platform delivery, and using private domain as a financial lever/behavioral lever to amplify potential energy.

Financial leverage, that is, strong reach to stimulate the purchasing motivations and scenarios of users in the pool, amplify the ARPU value and gross profit in the pool, and feed back to the front-end investment. Behavioral levers: In-depth services/benefits increase loyalty, and actions guide customers back to the platform to increase account/store weight, indirectly increasing platform-side traffic such as add-to-cart, ordering, favorites, and length of stay.

For example, new products should try to follow the logic of blockbuster products. Promote new product coupons in the private domain to encourage old customers to try new products. When a certain number of new products have accumulated, a hot product effect will be generated, gaining more traffic weight. In addition, you can also consider using gross profit, high repurchase and other cross-selling and up-selling to generate various gross profits to leverage front-end investment.

Author: Matrix Partners

Source: Matrix Partners