Kuaishou’s tips on how to create hits!

As a social method for the younger generation, "planting grass" actually appeared as early as the forum era. It began to spread widely in the mobile Internet era, and brands also began to deploy "KOL planting grass". Whether it is the Taobao live broadcast of Li Jiaqi, the lipstick king, the celebrity promotion of Xiaohongshu, or the popular articles on WeChat, they are constantly breaking records. The considerable conversion rate brought by the planting grass marketing has attracted the attention of a large number of brands, hoping that their products can "fly to the branches and become a hit."

In this article, we were fortunate to interview Yijian Media, a team that managed popular marketing such as Faceu and Snake Battle two years ago and is now focused on content marketing for emerging brands. Its founder, Ms. Bi Xiaoni, shared with everyone some of her experiences behind the management of "planting grass".

Hot sale = quality of “grass” + speed of “planting”

Some people think that "grass planting marketing" is a type of word-of-mouth marketing, some think it is content marketing, and some think it is experiential marketing. But no matter what everyone defines it as, there is one core that has not changed - "grass planting" is to gain consumers' trust in the product.

Because of trust, seeding products can often lead to the birth of hits. Even though the probability of producing a hit product is so small, Yijian Media can push its products to the top of the hit list time and time again. What is the secret?

"Is it lucky?"

——“It’s lucky.” Bi Xiaoni replied.

"Is it strength?"

——"Our company's understanding of the product may indeed be deeper than that of other companies." Bi Xiaoni always faces these outstanding achievements with a humble and sincere attitude.

Bi Xiaoni said that her team is quite strict about the products they cooperate with, and it is a kind of luck to produce a hit product - but "having vision" is the prerequisite for luck.

"It is very important for you to know what kind of products have the genes to become hits and what kind of products have the potential to become popular." Trust comes from word of mouth. If the product is not up to standard, no matter how much you try to promote it, it will be of no avail . When it comes to "planting grass", consumers can be guided, but they have not lost their subjective consciousness. It is not possible to successfully plant grass by simply "liking" it, but they must reach the level of "identification" to truly accept this wave of Amway.

In addition to the quality of the product itself, Bi Xiaoni believes that how to "obtain traffic at a low cost" is also the key point of seed marketing - "You must have a clear understanding of the entire traffic structure and be sensitive to traffic trends, so that you know what kind of people your product should be promoted to."

Doing things at the right time is the reason why the Yijian Media team has high execution efficiency. "Many team founders think that it is not suitable for marketing when the product is not ready. In fact, as far as product development is concerned, it is enough as long as you are 10-20% higher than the market average. That is, when others don't have it, you do it first; when others have it, you are a little better than them, then you can expand the model as quickly as possible." I have what others don't, and I am better than others. These two sentences have a great influence on Bi Xiaoni.

Looking back at the hit cases such as Snake Wars and Faceu that Yijian Media handled two years ago, these two products are actually quite similar. Both belong to the leisure and entertainment category. The products are light, have a wide user base, and are new in category. Previously, there were no similar products operating well in the domestic market. When the product itself is good enough, use precise media, quickly capture hot topics, and create a national event. Creating a hit product is both difficult and not that difficult.

Three changes have given rise to the “grass planting”

So, why is “grass-planting marketing” so popular among brands nowadays?

Bi Xiaoni replied that the reason why the entire brand’s communication form is now moving towards the logic of “planting grass” is because three factors have changed: media, consumers and e-commerce.

The Internet has brought about the fragmentation of media forms, and the overall pattern has undergone earth-shaking changes, from highly concentrated to dispersed. "In the traditional consumption model, the difference in media forms does not seem to be that important. The most important thing is that you have won the leading media - such as CCTV. At that time, as long as you were on this media, you would be able to be 'widely publicized'. The limited channels for expressing your opinions meant that this form must be effective." Bi Xiaoni took us to recall the performance of traditional media advertising forms in the past.

As the media becomes decentralized from being centralized, consumers' attention also becomes decentralized. All platform content begins to enter a period of parallel competition. Film and television variety shows, short videos, and WeChat content are springing up like mushrooms after a rain. These changes have led brands to try other forms of communication.

"The competitors at this time are no longer traditional competitors, but have become competitors competing for users' limited time," Bi Xiaoni lamented.

The second change is that consumers have gradually acquired higher information processing capabilities with inexhaustible information resources, and a qualitative change has taken place in their understanding and learning of the entire information. In other words, the group of consumers who now love the grass-planting model have become different. The maturity of consumers and the rise of self-awareness will make them more confident in themselves in all aspects of product selection. In addition, consumers seem to be more willing to trust the recommendations or recommendations of people around them, and believe in the ingredients and efficacy of the products, rather than brands that advertise extensively.

The third change can be attributed to the entry of e-commerce. China is grateful for the environment created by companies like Alibaba and JD.com in the past 10 years. Our basic e-commerce construction has been done very well, which has shaped the current consumption habits of consumers. The current environment has caused the number of brands and product categories to enter a stage of unprecedented rapid growth.

"More product categories are entering the consumer's field of vision. Among such a rich selection, how consumers should make choices has become a question worth thinking about." Bi Xiaoni said that consumers did not have such strong personalized needs in the past. Until now, with a wide range of products on their mobile phones, consumers will slowly explore the path of screening that suits their own personalized needs. The "grass planting" model has thus entered the consumer's field of vision.

These changes have had a great impact on the brand's entire information communication model, making grass-roots marketing popular on a large scale.

Three advantages tell you why brands choose to "plant grass"

In addition to the general background that gave rise to grass-planting marketing, grass-planting marketing itself also has many advantages, which allows it to continuously evolve into a good and mature model in the market.

The first advantage is that the product startup cost and market cost have been greatly reduced, and the development of e-commerce has made it easier to promote products. The second advantage is that the impact of planting grass is faster and more direct. Because grass-planting marketing involves a large number of online behaviors, the entire conversion process is very fast. "Before a brand sells products, the testing costs will be very high in all aspects. Therefore, the traditional distribution model has a low tolerance rate and cannot accept too many innovative attempts, which is not very realistic. But the grass-planting marketing model can clearly show that the market is becoming more and more responsible for the results." Bi Xiaoni said.

The third advantage is that the logic of promoting products will lead to an increase in product quality, which is a rare virtuous cycle. Since product promotion relies more on the strength of the product itself, companies that are serious about making products will see some good changes in all aspects of product innovation, because brands need to study their consumers and make continuous adjustments based on consumer demand, thereby improving the quality of the entire product.

"Just like many of the domestic brands that are emerging now, their speed in product transformation, observation of consumers, and ability to respond to feedback from the entire market are far ahead of traditional business models, and they have embarked on a healthier path of sustainable development," said Bi Xiaoni.

Bi Xiaoni said that she has been reflecting on which is more important, brand or traffic. In the early days, she always stood on the side of traffic, believing that "there is no brand on the Internet", but as time went on, she found that traffic is just selling goods, while the brand represents the loyalty of the entire customer base. If there is no brand, then it is just making goods and has no premium ability. This method of "planting grass" can not only attract a large amount of effective traffic for the brand, but also bring a more "sustainable" image to the brand. How can a smart brand not love it?

A key link, how important is media matching?

With the development of social media and e-commerce, the process from supply chain to consumers has become increasingly compact. Channels are a critical link in whether grass-roots marketing can achieve good conversion effects.

Bi Xiaoni told us that before choosing a consumption channel, please think about a few small questions:

1. Who are your consumers?

2. Who do you want your consumers to be?

3. What type of content does the media need to carry?

4. What about the depth of communication?

The answers to these questions will directly inform what medium you should use.

For example, for the last answer of "communication depth", Bi Xiaoni divided it into three levels:

The first level is the communication depth of Category A—belief and love, which corresponds to internet celebrity anchors and celebrity media channels. Traffic stars have a high conversion rate. Fans will bring their passion to the product. As long as the star says it’s good, I will buy it and will recommend it crazily.

The second level, category B, is the depth of communication, which is slightly more logical. It corresponds to WeChat articles, Zhihu and Douban, media channels that are mainly based on pictures and texts. The people behind this category are just symbols to consumers, and consumers just like the content they output. The advantage is that it can help brands gain trust endorsement, so that the ingredients, strengths and weaknesses of your brand can be better communicated to consumers;

The third level, Class C communication depth, belongs to entertainment-type traffic, corresponding to the Weibo and Tik Tok channels. Weibo and Tik Tok gather more traffic, and the content is characterized by being highly centralized. The content is larger than that of other media, and quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes.

The right one is the best. Grass-roots marketing does not necessarily mean finding the most popular promotion channels with the largest fan base, but matching the brand tone and product attributes with the attributes of the channel and its fans after analyzing them. The one with the highest match is the best.

Based on interpersonal trust, grass-roots marketing can shorten the path from user cognition to purchase and reduce advertisers' marketing costs. Grass-roots content starts from the consumer's perspective and can also help brands eliminate interfering information, making it easier to create popular products.

But as consumers become more knowledgeable, some brands may feel that it is becoming increasingly difficult to grow grass?

Bi Xiaoni believes that this is only a relative situation. The increase in media costs will inevitably lead to a decrease in conversion rate. What marketing can do is either to tap into new traffic or to tap into better ways to reduce costs. When it comes to the routine of grass-roots marketing, Bi Xiaoni’s attitude is very clear - she believes that learning the routine is only to make people understand the essence of the market and execution, "The path others have taken does not mean that you can take it." For her, going deep into the front line of the market is the biggest "routine."

Brands need to get in front of consumers to guide them, but they must not forget to "look back" and "talk" to consumers. Only by constantly communicating with consumers can they know where the next direction is.

Author: Digital Marketing Micro Magazine

Source: Digital Marketing Micro Magazine