A 9,000-word article analyzing the design methodology of fission posters!

There are already many design methods for fission posters on the market. But many people will find that even if there is more and more information in the favorites, they still can’t design a fission poster. Or, even though you have seen hundreds of thousands of posters, you still can't tell which ones are good and which ones are bad.

Why?

The answer is simple, because you may only know part of it, but not understand the ins and outs of fission poster design . In fact, we cannot design the fission poster just as a poster, but should put it in a larger framework to observe and think about it, and finally consider many design routines.

Next, I plan to use an article that may be a bit long to systematically share my fission poster design method. Each operator may have a different summary of methods and experiences, and my sharing will inevitably be limited by experience, but the essence of fission poster design remains unchanged. So I hope that it can help you know how to approach a problem, what processes there are, what details you need to pay attention to, and what effective techniques you can use when you have no ideas.

The fundamentals of fission posters

The fundamentals of fission poster design are not the fission bait, the fission plan, or the wireframe, but our understanding of the industry, products, business, users/customers, and channels. This is one of the things that makes operations and growth roles different from design roles.

How can we gain a deeper understanding of our industry, products, business, users/customers and channels?

First of all, we conduct in-depth research on the "single point". At this time, the most challenging part of the operation is the ability to search, acquire, screen and integrate information. We need to learn quickly by refining the information based on a large amount of information.

For example, if we want to understand a certain industry, we need to check the latest industry reports, familiarize ourselves with the basic ratios and industry development trends, so as to establish a preliminary understanding; then, we need to focus on the details, study the companies in this industry, analyze their models, and it would be best if we could infiltrate the circle of this industry, communicate with people in the circle, understand their views, and learn from their experiences.

For example, if you want to understand a product, the fastest way is to experience it yourself, not only your own products, but also your competitors' products. While experiencing the product, we need to sort out the product's functional architecture and information architecture, and also focus on the product's interaction process, functional stability and visual experience.

Then, based on the above research, the information from each single point is recombined to make it structured. The benefit of structuring is that it can expand our perspective, allowing us to see more, without repeating or missing anything, and without losing sight of the big picture due to narrow thinking.

How to structure it?

Use positioning thinking to structure the structure, which is divided into three levels: user positioning, product positioning and communication positioning. Then define the content and boundaries of these three and see how they evolve.

User positioning

User positioning corresponds to user circles, user portraits and user insights.

The most superficial level of user positioning is the user circle. As the saying goes, "Birds of a feather flock together." To use a not very rigorous analogy, the so-called circles mean that people are divided into groups.

As you know, the user relationship chain in the Internet world is network-like, and the circle effect is very obvious. A screen-sweeping event in one circle may be unknown to anyone in another circle. The non-open friend relationship of WeChat makes the circle effect even more obvious. Positioning user circles means choosing our target population. The selection criteria can be labels such as general interests, occupations, industries and regions. The clearer our goals are, the finer the granularity of the labels will be. The finer the granularity of the labels, the easier it will be to explode.

The second level of user positioning is user portrait, which includes the user's age range (or the number and proportion of users in each age range), gender, terminal distribution, region, occupation, interests and active time period. You may find that these characteristics of users are relatively "static" demographic characteristics. They are easy to obtain and relatively fixed, and it is easy to find patterns and commonalities. But the problem is that our perception of users is still cold numbers and rough labels with a slight "stereotype", so that we cannot truly understand users based on them.

Therefore, if we want to continue to understand our users more deeply, we need to use user insights.

What are user insights?

User insight is a discipline that studies the deep motivations behind user behavior based on observation of user behavior. It pays more attention to users' value orientation, behavioral preferences, and interests and hobbies, and then discovers common points that can arouse universal resonance. For example, the sad culture advocated by Sangcha is an insight into young users, David Ogilvy’s discovery that “the number of people who read ad headlines is five times that of those who read the ad body” is an insight, and loss aversion is also a user insight. In user insights, psychology and behavioral science are the basis of research.

So, how to gain user insights?

One way is to establish information channels with users and maintain interaction. When we understand users as we understand our friends, we will know what makes them laugh, what they care about most, and so on. Another method that is more scientific is qualitative research. The method of conducting the interview can be one-on-one user interviews (online or offline) or multi-person user interviews. As for how to conduct user interviews, I will not elaborate here.

Product Positioning

Product positioning determines the product form and service model, and also determines the value of the product to users - what problems it can help users solve and what needs it can meet. Therefore, product positioning includes three levels: product form, product value and service model.

What type of product is our product? Is it standardized software, a customized system, or some kind of service? Services can also be standardized services or personalized services... This is the problem that the product form needs to solve.

The value of a product can be summarized in one sentence, that is, what kind of value it can help users create.

Finally, whether it is product form or product value, it all comes down to service. The product itself is a service, and the service itself is also a service. But we also have to consider: whether it is ToB, ToC, or ToG, what is the most suitable way to present these functions or services, whether it is charged monthly, quarterly or annually, how to solve problems encountered by users during use, and how to ensure user renewal.

Communication positioning

Communication positioning is to solve the problem of fission promotion, including channel research, promotion strategy and trigger design.

Different platforms have different attributes, and different segmented channels on the same platform also have different attributes. Therefore, the way and emphasis of communication need to be adjusted accordingly. This is channel research, which requires a comprehensive understanding of the attributes, rules, users, basic data, etc. of each large and small channel. And combined with the feedback from subsequent promotion data, we continue to screen channels and optimize channel selection criteria.

Next, formulate corresponding promotion strategies based on the attributes of different channels:

Which groups of people do you want to reach?

What type of promotional material should I choose?

When will the promotion take place?

How to evaluate the promotion effect?

For most advertising and fission promotions, the work is usually completed at this step. But in fact, there is another point that can greatly improve the communication effect - trigger design.

Fission is different from brand advertising. It does not care so much about brand exposure, but hopes that the spread can be like molecular diffusion, and the more levels of penetration, the better. Therefore, we must find ways to make our promotional materials more easily attract users' attention, stimulate their interest, make them want to click, and enter into the process we designed.

This involves trigger design.

Trigger design is divided into internal trigger design and external trigger design. Internal trigger design usually starts with human emotions and needs, such as curiosity, desire, and anxiety.

Since internal trigger design is closely related to user emotions, it is also necessary to know some common characteristics of human emotions. I think the most important one is to learn to distinguish between high-arousal emotions and low-arousal emotions.

Awe, amusement, excitement, and humor are high-arousal emotions, as are anxiety and anger. High-arousal emotions are more likely to be shared.

Sadness is a low-arousal emotion, and low-arousal emotions inhibit people's desire to share.

External trigger design requires the reminder of external signals. Text messages, WeChat template messages, various replies to public accounts, reminders in WeChat groups, and APP PUSH push notifications have already provided us with the tools. We only need to sort out the user experience process first, and then give users a reminder at key nodes without any violation.

However, it should also be noted that external trigger design is a systematic project. The reminder method, reminder frequency, reminder time, and reminder text for users at each process node will be different, and there are many details.

summary

User positioning includes user circles, user portraits and user insights

Product positioning includes product form, product value and service model

Communication positioning includes channel research, promotion strategy and trigger design

Fission poster design principles

Before talking about the methods, I think it is necessary to clarify the design principles of fission posters. Principles themselves are a kind of value orientation and are the basis for our decision-making when we face dilemmas.

Precisely because the principle itself is a value orientation, it is not fixed and has no unified norms. The values ​​of every company and even every individual are not exactly the same, and the design principles I share below are just based on my personal experience and are for your reference only.

Principle 1. Business-oriented

The design of fission posters should be business-oriented. Operations and designers need to consider how to increase the click-through rate of posters from a business perspective and guide users to take immediate action.

Principle 2: User perception is more important than facts

There is a case about charity fundraising. It is about a charity organization in the United States that launched a fundraising campaign to help children in poor areas of Africa. When the charity organization showed people data representing the facts - that tens of millions of African children do not have enough food to eat and are malnourished every year, people's willingness to donate was relatively low. When charities show people a photo of a starving little girl, people are more likely to empathize with the charity and more likely to open their wallets.

This little girl is obviously only one in tens of millions, so why is she more contagious than tens of millions of poor children themselves? Because human perception outweighs reality, for those who have never been to Africa, tens of millions are just an abstract number, nothing more. A real and vivid photo can quickly penetrate into people's minds and arouse sympathy.

Principle 3. Consider user scenarios

When designing a fission poster, you need to consider the user usage scenario. In what scenarios do users see the posters? What actions might he take?

Principle 4. Arouse feelings and take action

Before the poster design is finalized, we need to think about: How can we reduce the user’s thinking and arouse his feelings when the poster reaches him? If we accurately hit the user's needs, pain points, and desires and arouse his feelings, we are halfway to success. All that's left is to add a sense of urgency so that he can take immediate action.

Fission poster design method

Although the sparrow is small, it has all the organs. Although the content structure of the fission poster is simple and the design is not complicated, it tests the operator's information integration ability, user thinking and product thinking. It also requires the operator to have a certain aesthetic ability and understand psychology and behavior. In the process of doing it, there will be a lot of details and points worth considering.

Six elements of fission poster

When doing information structuring, the most important principle is mutual independence and complete exhaustiveness, which is the MECE principle summarized in the "Pyramid Principle".

What is mutually independent and completely exhaustive?

Mutual independence means that there is no cross-relationship between sub-modules, and complete exhaustion means that all necessary sub-modules should be listed to avoid omissions.

Based on the above principles, plus a lot of research and practice, I have summarized the six elements of fission posters: main title, subtitle, content outline, user guidance, trust endorsement and conversion entrance.

Element 1. Main Title

The main title is the biggest selling point of a fission poster. Whether users are interested and willing to participate is largely determined by the main title. The key to the success of the main title is to attract users' attention and arouse their feelings. Therefore, we must start with the users, love what they love, and feel pain for them.

Be close to what is close to you: based on user needs

The path to achieving this type of title is short, and all you need to do is discover and meet user needs. For example, "Master PM core skills in 5 lessons" is based on the user's demand for product skill learning, and "May reading plan" is based on the user's demand for reading.

Love what you love: based on user desires

People have many desires, such as the desire for possession, the desire for control, the desire for knowledge... and in fission activities, the two most commonly used ones are the desire for possession and the desire for knowledge.

The most common example of possessiveness is book giveaways, such as "Get a book for free", "Get a book for free", "Get a book for free for free", etc. Of course, you can give away other things as well, as long as you control the customer acquisition cost. The most common examples of curiosity are in the field of paid knowledge, such as "NetEase's front-line editor reviews internal experience", "Decoding the scientific lesson of human exploration of the truth of life", "Five compulsory courses for new parents"... Curiosity is not the most basic motivation of human beings. The purpose of seeking knowledge varies from person to person and from time to time.

Pain point: based on user pain points

Main titles based on user pain points are most likely to attract users' attention, so they are often the most effective. First, operations should uncover user pain points; then, focus on the details of the pain points and magnify them; finally, provide your solutions.

For example: the problem of baby sleeping is a difficult problem that troubles new parents. How many parents want to sleep but cannot, how many parents have to get up from a deep sleep to comfort their children, change diapers, prepare milk powder, and some even have to play with their children.

User pain point: Baby’s sleeping problem affects mom and dad’s sleep

Zoom in on the details: How long has it been since you had a good night's sleep?

Solution: Baby sleep training class

Element 2. Subtitle

The subtitle corresponds to the main title and is an explanation or supplement to the main title. So in terms of content, the subtitle will make the main title more accurate and specific. In addition, in terms of design, the existence of subtitles will make the design of the main and subtitles more hierarchical.

Element 3. Content outline

If there is too much content on the poster, it will not only affect the layout design, but also make the content appear disordered, messy, and illogical, which will inevitably affect the user's reading and comprehension efficiency, thereby affecting the poster conversion rate.

One way to avoid too much content is to create an outline of the content. Content extraction is essentially the reintegration of information. When faced with a large amount of content, first classify it, then extract keywords or key phrases according to categories, and finally present the outline content in the form of keywords plus keyword descriptions.

Element 4. User Guidance

The purpose of user guidance is to facilitate users to make quick decisions, preferably taking immediate action. Common user guidance strategies include the following:

1) Contrast strategy

Is an English learning product that costs 199 yuan expensive? If there is only one price anchor point of 199 yuan, then users' judgment criteria may vary greatly. Students may think it is expensive, white-collar workers in the workplace will consider its cost-effectiveness, and aristocratic users are not sensitive to price. How to make it look “cheap” to help users make purchasing decisions? One of the strategies is comparison - setting a higher "virtual price" next to the actual price, such as 399 yuan, to make the 199 yuan product look more cost-effective.

By the same token, if the actual price of a course with an original price of 99 yuan (virtual price) is set to 0 yuan, the contrast effect will be stronger.

Common routines:

Original price: 399 yuan, limited time discount price: 199 yuan

Original price 99 yuan, limited time 0 yuan

2) Added value

Many people think that the more added value there is, the easier it is for users to buy. In fact, added value is a double-edged sword.

Why do you say that?

Because when the added value is relatively small, users will not feel that they are getting a bargain. Instead, they will think that our products or services are not worth the price, so we balance it out through added value.

Only when the added value is large enough can users truly feel its value, and only in this case can users be encouraged to make the decision you want them to make.

Therefore, the selection and allocation of added value requires some effort. For example, if there is an extra 1,000 yuan budget, should it be distributed equally to each user as a subsidy, or should a small amount of high-value benefits be provided? Obviously the latter is more effective.

In fission poster design, the usual added value is virtual information packages, notes, third-party tool memberships, coupons, etc.

Common routines:

The first 500 people will receive 2,000 fission posters

Sign up and get the most complete font collection in history

3) Scarcity

The scarcer something is, the more people want it. Therefore, a short and simple copy can be added to the user guidance copy to promote a sense of scarcity, such as "Only 95 free places left", "Limited to 500 copies", "Free for a limited time, valid before X month X day", etc.

Common routines:

Only 95 free places left

Limited to 500 copies

Free for a limited time, valid before X month X day

4) Herd mentality

No one wants to admit that they follow the crowd, but everyone subconsciously follows the behavior of the majority, because millions of years of human evolutionary experience tells us that following the crowd is safe, and being different is dangerous.

Common routines:

XX people have received/purchased it for free

I am XX, and I invite you to study with me.

5) Time-limited strategy

The time limit strategy is one way to create a sense of urgency. Because it is widely used, it is discussed separately.

The event poster sets a time limit, and users will not be able to participate after this time, thus creating a sense of urgency for users and prompting them to take immediate action.

Common routines:

Valid until X month X day

Only XX hours left until the event ends

6) Timed/quantitative price increase strategy

A timed or quantitative price increase strategy refers to how much the price will increase when a certain time point or a certain trading volume is triggered. The New World Marketing Course that went viral in April 2018 used this strategy - a 5 yuan increase for every 10,000 people who bought it.

However, I suggest that operations students use this strategy with caution and less frequently. The reason is simple, it hurts the user experience too much and induces negative emotions in human nature.

Putting aside the question of how much the collapse of word-of-mouth after the New World Marketing Course is related to this strategy, let us think about it. These are obviously the same products and services, and the marginal cost is almost zero. Why buy the cheap one first and then the expensive one? If users have a clearer mind, they can easily see through this marketing trick, which not only violates the relationship between supply and demand, but also exposes the bandit logic of pricing.

Common routines:

Every XX people purchase an increase of XX yuan

Increase by XX yuan every XX hours, capped at XX yuan

Element 5. Trust endorsement

Starting from the user experience process, when users first see a poster, they first need to pay attention to the poster, then be attracted by the poster, and have the urge to click to learn more details. During this process, users observe, feel, and think, but whether they will take the next action depends on the information collected during the observation. Does this information hit the user's needs/pain points/desires? Is there a trust cost? We have already introduced the former in the previous article. The remaining problem that needs to be solved is how to make users feel trust?

Trust is the core of user decision-making. If there is no trust, or the cost of trust is too high, then out of loss aversion, most users will choose to do nothing, wait and see, or just give up to avoid losses.

There are three common strategies for increasing trust endorsement:

1) Well-known brands

Use brand endorsement to increase user trust.

2) Real person photos/real photos

Real photos and real objects can easily make users feel the reality. Therefore, in the fission poster design, real portraits and photos of real objects can be used to increase users' sense of trust.

What needs attention is the space occupation of the photo. If the character has a strong IP effect or is a celebrity, then the character can occupy a larger proportion in the poster, because this can attract more attention. If the character is not so famous, it is recommended to reduce the character's proportion in the poster, because non-famous characters have no meaning to users who do not know him, and cannot capture the user's attention in the first time.

3) Celebrity recommendation/joint recommendation

Similar to expert and media recommendations for books, fission posters can also include joint recommendations from several well-known figures.

Element 6. Conversion Entrance

For posters, there are only two types of conversion entrances: QR code and picture link.

In most cases, we use QR codes. Image links are only used in a few pictures and texts that can have external links. Users can jump to the next step by clicking on any area of ​​the poster. The most common application of image links is WeChat public account pictures and texts. In this scenario, image links save one step compared to QR code recognition, which is conducive to click-through conversion.

The life cycle of a fission poster

Since most fission activities themselves are short-term, the life cycle of a fission poster is roughly equivalent to the activity cycle.

If the activity lasts for a long time, the situation will change. For example, when a fission poster is launched on a certain channel, when the number of new visitors to this channel approaches zero, the launch of this channel will come to an end. At this point, if you want to continue to deliver the same content on this channel, you need to change the material.

Generally speaking, the number of visitors within 3 days after the launch will account for more than 80% of the total number of visitors, and the number of visitors within 7 days after the launch will account for as high as 98% of the total number of visitors. This is basically consistent with the data change curve of picture and text reading volume on WeChat public accounts.

Fission poster design process

1) Write the copy: Write the copy content of the poster.

2) Draw a wireframe: Draw a simple wireframe (similar to a product prototype) and indicate the size, quantity and other requirements of the posters to be designed, the color scheme and tonality of the example, etc. It is important to explain to the designer here that the structural layout in the wireframe is for reference only. Only the copy content is fixed, and the designer can design anything else freely. Because sometimes, designers surprise you.

3) Collect materials: Collect materials needed by designers, such as character photos, avatars of jointly recommended characters, user avatars, and reference posters.

4) Design delivery: Package the above materials and hand them over to the designer for design.

5) Modification: Modify, modify, and modify until no problems can be found.

Design knowledge

There is no doubt that design is a profession with a relatively high threshold. But even so, operators must understand some design knowledge, and they need to cultivate their own aesthetic taste, observe more, think more, and summarize more.

Here are the six most frequently appearing and most important aspects: color matching, layout, font, size, information display priority and aesthetics.

Color matching, layout and font are the three basic elements of poster design. The size determines the information capacity, and the information display priority determines which information needs to be emphasized and which needs to be weakened. What runs through the whole process is aesthetic ability. You must know how to appreciate the beauty of highbrow culture, as well as be able to discover the beauty of lowbrow culture, and then choose the appropriate style based on the user and your own brand tone.

1) Color matching

Colors have personality, just like cool colors make you calm and warm colors make you feel warm. Red can stimulate people's desire to shop (this is why almost all e-commerce platforms choose red as their brand color), and dark blue can best convey a sense of nobility (Luckin Coffee's brand color).

Similarly, color matching also needs to be considered in fission poster design. If you need to stimulate users to pay for purchases, such as distribution fission, give priority to red, which is the same or similar to your own brand color.

Tips: Keeping the color the same or similar to your own brand color is to maintain consistency in users' brand perception, thereby enhancing user stickiness.

If your users are mostly female, then choose a color that most women like. Of course, the female group itself is very large, with different spending power, class, cultural level, family background, etc. Therefore, more detailed things need to be decided by the operator based on the attributes of the users. It is right to choose what your users like.

If your users are mostly male, then cater to their preferences as well.

However, if the ratio of male to female users is similar, and other tags with smaller granularity are also equally divided, how should you choose? Taking the middle way, we need to capture both ends of users, so the compromise is a neutral style.

2) Typography

The layout should be beautiful and generous, avoiding information being too concentrated or too dispersed. The basic structure is divided into left-right structure, top-bottom structure, and diagonal structure, but in fact they can be combined arbitrarily. Left and right can be nested in top and bottom, and top and bottom can also contain left and right... Different positions of the dividing lines will have different effects.

Typesetting must take into account the presentation of content information and also be combined with the user's visual habits. You can refer to the typography design of some excellent products for this.

For example, for the user guidance copy and QR code at the bottom of the poster, is it better to put the QR code on the left or on the right?

Maybe you haven't noticed this detail yet, but in fact, the layout design of a large number of products tells us that it is better to put the QR code on the right. Because people's visual habits determine that they will see the content on the left first, and then the content on the right. When the QR code is placed on the left, in the very brief moment when the user sees it, some questions will pop up in his mind: What kind of QR code is this? What does it have to do with the topic? Do you want to scan? If the QR code is placed on the right, so that users can see the user guidance copy first, the user's journey of understanding will be much smoother.

Of course, not all fission posters have to place the QR code on the right, because poster design is a small system and the details need to be subject to the whole. If the designer adopts another presentation method in the layout, or for the sake of overall balance, the position of the QR code can be adjusted according to design requirements.

3) Font

Fonts, like colors, have character. Since there are many female users, a more feminine font is used. The font is slender, thin, with multiple curves and sans serif, giving female users a friendly feeling. Since there are more male users, we use masculine fonts, which are characterized by being strong, powerful, angular and with serifs. Since the number of male and female users is about the same, a neutral font is used.

When it comes to fonts, the font size also has its considerations. Usually in fission posters, the font of the main title is required to be large and conspicuous, so that users can see the title text clearly without clicking on the poster, thereby improving the efficiency of information transmission.

The layering of fonts is also very important and can effectively avoid dullness.

4) Size

The main platform for the dissemination of most fission activities is mobile phones, so the posters are mostly mobile phone posters. The common sizes are 640 1334px, 1080 1920px, etc.

If you have "obsessive-compulsive disorder" and want to further optimize this detail, you can find a way to obtain your users' mobile terminal information. If your users are mainly concentrated in the official account, you can check it in the user attributes of the official account. If your users are mainly concentrated on the website or APP, you must first see whether the technology has collected user terminal information before you can decide whether to check or not. Finally, based on the distribution of user terminals, select a poster size that is suitable for most users' mobile phones.

5) Information display priority

Information display must have a focus. Important information should be highlighted, while unimportant information should be weakened. Where visual cues are needed and where the reading rhythm needs to be guided...all these must be considered in advance. In general, the six elements of the fission poster are all very important, but if I have to rank their priorities, I think it should be: main title>subtitle>conversion entrance>user guidance>trust endorsement>content outline>other information.

6) Aesthetic ability

Aesthetics is half subjective and half objective. Therefore, subjective tendencies make it difficult to unify aesthetic standards and they are always changing. From ancient humans' worship of the beauty of totem patterns, to humans' deliberate processing of utensils, clothing, and decorations after mastering production tools, to today's rapid changes in design and fashion trends... There are as many aesthetic tendencies as there are humans.

In this case, is it difficult to define the beauty or ugliness of a poster?

no. Although aesthetic ability cannot help us exhaust the various styles of beauty in the world, it allows us to perceive ugliness, where it is, and why it is ugly without having to think about it. Therefore, operators also need to cultivate their own aesthetic abilities, visit art exhibitions, experience first-class design products, look at more excellent design works (not just limited to posters), and even from the layout design of paper books, they can find some shadows of beauty.

The skill lies beyond poetry.

To make an excellent fission poster, it depends not only on our deep understanding of the business, products, users, and channels, but also on understanding design, psychology, and behavior. Only in this way can we respond to ever-changing situations with constancy, continuously optimize details and adjust strategies in a timely manner based on data feedback and market changes.

Author: Think about it

Source: Think Qing