4 entry points to teach you how to operate vertical products!

Today we are going to talk about vertical product operations . Compared with other mass products, vertical products have a more precise user base, but it also means that those who are rooted in this field are all elite professionals with deep expertise, and the competition is also fierce. So how should vertical products be operated ? Here are four experiences I’ve summarized.

1. Accurately position the product and find the right entry point

First of all, it should be clear that no matter what product, the entry point will be discussed before starting operations. What is the entry point? It is about what kind of users your product can solve and what problems it can solve in what scenarios. The reason why the entry point is critical is that it is closely related to the following factors:

• User attributes: Who are the target users of the product?
• User needs: In what scenarios will users use your product?
• User reach: Where can you find these users?
• User acquisition: How do you get potential users to use your product?
• User activity: How to improve user retention and usage frequency?
• User payment: How to get users to pay for the product?

Users of vertical products are generally typical social users. What is a social user? They are often groups with a shared identity. Taking the most typical group of programmers in the Internet industry as an example, this type of users have consistent social attributes, behavioral attributes, and value attributes. They have a stronger sense of identity. At present, there are many products targeting the programmer group.

However, vertical products are also divided into functional categories. Currently, there are four categories of products that are the best in the market for programmers:

1. The first is tool service products, such as Github, whose entry point is to host code;
2. Second, vertical recruitment products
3. The third is question-and-answer community products, such as Stackoverflow, which aims to provide programmers with a communication platform for in-depth discussions;
4. The fourth is remote work products under the sharing economy model, such as Programmer Inn, which aims to provide remote work opportunities for Freelancers.

As mentioned above, although the products also serve the programmer group, they can be subdivided into so many products with different fields and functions. So when entrepreneurs come up with what they think is a great idea, they might as well do some subtraction to see if their product can be further subdivided even if it has already entered a vertical field? The so-called entry point is to take a sharp blade, aim at the target, and stab it quickly, accurately and fiercely. Now think about it, what is the entry point of your product?

2. Don’t waste money and avoid bringing in worthless users

Now that you have a product entry point, the next step is to find potential users. Let’s first look at the picture below.

The above figure shows the huge curve gap between user registration and monthly retention. This curve is falling very quickly. This user data curve has been verified in many products.

• 1000 users visited the website
• 20% of those users registered on your website
• 40% of users return the next day after registration
• 20% of users return in the second week after registration
• 10% of users return one month after registration
• After 30 days, only 20 users (out of 1,000 users) became Daily Active Users

This curve is very typical. Why is the product data so ugly? This is closely related to operations. And I believe this is not the worst data curve. I have previously seen a company that runs a pet community doing local promotions, offering a bottle of drink or a box of tissues to every passing user who downloaded the app. In fact, the users acquired in this way are completely worthless. They come purely for a box of tissues or a bottle of drink. So, you can imagine how low your user retention rate will be.

Only by finding accurate users can vertical products have the possibility of high retention and high activity. Many vertical products reflect professionalism. People who are not in the technical circle will not speak on Stackoverflow, and users who are not in the product industry will probably not submit their resumes to Miaopin.com.

Therefore, before spending money on user operations, think about who your users are and where they are, and think about how to spend the least money to maximize the benefits of your product. Don’t waste money on worthless users. Apart from providing a bunch of invalid data for investors to see, such worthless users are of no benefit to the development of the product.

3. Guide users and give them a clear understanding of the product

• New users have no trust in a newly downloaded product, and don’t even have any knowledge of it. What you need to do is to instill the core functions of the product into them. Because users of vertical products are generally social users, you can get better results by providing appropriate guidance.
• Keeping users’ perception of the product clear is the most important operational action besides data. This is what users remember about the product.

Let users remember what your product does and what problems it can solve for them from the initial impression. Therefore, before users have a clear understanding of your product and have sufficient trust in it, do not add functions blindly, as that will only be a burden. If you can't even do your main core functions well, users will have no reason to stay on your platform, and there is no guarantee that you can retain users with just a few auxiliary functions. For users, the cost of downloading an App is so low that it only takes a few minutes to download and uninstall it.

Therefore, the process operation of the product requires great skill. Guiding users and allowing them to have a clear understanding of the product, especially its core functions, is an important part that operations must work hard on.

4. Let users spread the word spontaneously

No matter how many operations staff a company has or how wide its publicity channels are, they will not be as effective as the spontaneous publicity from tens of thousands of users on your platform. Nowadays, almost every product has a sharing mechanism. How to guide users to share is a very important part of the operation process.

How to get users to share?

• Material incentives and profit-driven. For example, Uber’s shared discount code.
• The content is valuable. I am afraid that if I don’t repost or collect it, I will miss out on a martial arts secret book.
• Arouse user emotions. Either positive or negative news.
• User engagement. For example, various rankings.

In terms of sharing mechanism, Uber and Airbnb are the leaders. The sharing of these two products adopts User Referral, which can be understood as the "introducer mechanism". A one-to-many approach is used to allow users to introduce the products they use and recommend them to their friends. Once the recommendation is successful and the friend starts using the product, both the recommender and the recommended person will receive rewards.

If you are a vertical product (especially tool/paid service type), can you also learn from the User Referral mechanism? By bringing in new users through old ones, providing users with benefits such as point accumulation or fee reductions, etc.?

From the perspective of cost control, User Referral is a cost-controllable operational method that can fully tap into the user's own relationship chain and serve the goal of user growth of the product. It can achieve explosive results in a short period of time. Of course, the prerequisite is that you must operate in conjunction with your own product form, and your product must be really good.

Summarize

• Find the right entry point based on product positioning. Moreover, when the product is first launched, its functions should not be too complicated. Otherwise it will be too time-consuming and costly, and the effect may not be very good.
• Be precise when looking for users. The churn rate of worthless users is very high, which will only increase your operating costs and will not bring activity to your products.
• Guide users so that they have a clear understanding of the core functions of the product. You can iterate the product afterwards, but you must understand that what users remember about your product basically lies in the core functions of your product.
• If you want to maximize the promotional effect of your product, you cannot do without the spontaneous dissemination of users. It is necessary to establish an effective sharing mechanism.

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