From 0 to 1, how to obtain seed users?

Product operation from 0 to 1: A series of articles on how to acquire seed users, divided into practical and theoretical parts.

• The practical part is divided into two parts. The first part mainly focuses on three aspects: products, groups and channels; the second part will focus on three aspects: copywriting, activities and optimization.​
• The theoretical part will summarize some of the thinking aspects of [From 0 to 1] and is expected to be written from four levels: product, data, channel, and copywriting.

As for why I wrote the practical part first:

1. The practical part is difficult and tiring to write, and it is hard to write it without someone who has actually led or experienced it;
2. Most of the articles on the Internet talk about theory and are separated from the practical steps. Generally, newbies can understand them clearly but don’t know how to put them into practice.
3. From practical operation to theory, we can better understand the theoretical level and help novices grow quickly.

I have been very lucky recently. I have experienced the cold start-up phase of two tool products. These two products have begun to grow. I personally feel it is necessary to summarize my thoughts and the pitfalls I have encountered in this regard.

When I took over the cold start of the product, I read a lot of articles online. Many of them analyzed from an ideological level or gave general direction guidance, but there were problems in the actual implementation. In other words, what they said seemed right, but when they were put into practice, they were all wrong. In fact, some people who write articles simply summarize other people’s thoughts and share them without even understanding the basic operating rules. There is really no value in reading this kind of summary.

This article is different from other articles on the market that talk about theories and cases. It will share from the perspective of implementation. The routine of having products first and operations later is slightly different from the operation method of having operations first and products later. Another product belongs to the operation routine of having operations first and products later (if there is time, I will share from 0 to 1, the rapid implementation of AI products, and write from the idea of ​​having users first and products later).

This article is more suitable for newbies who have just entered operations. Most of the operations are at the implementation level. There are some ideas, but they are not important summaries. The real ideological level things will be summarized in the ideological section. This operation is how to grow the product from 0 to tens of thousands of users. People in the industry already know that the user target is 100,000.

When doing something, you must understand the purpose or meaning of doing it, otherwise it would be blind. For product operations, there will be North Star indicators at every stage.

How are the North Star indicators of a product determined? Generally, they are issued by the leader or reported by the operations department and approved by the leader.

1. Objectives

The first phase of the North Star Indicator: quickly acquire 10,000 users and verify whether the product has achieved PMF. The boss's words have two important instructions:

1. Quickly acquire 10,000 users. Quickly is too general and you can only communicate with your leader before that.
2. Whether the product has reached PMF, PMF should also have an indicator, what state is considered to have reached PMF.

So call the boss, product and operations, and preferably the technical staff, together to discuss "how fast is fast, and what state is PMF". General indicators must be quantified, and indicators based on feelings are not reliable.

The final definition is:

• The fast time is 1 month, and the PMF status is the next-day retention rate is greater than 20%.
• So the North Star Indicator was changed to: acquire 10,000 users within 1 month and verify whether the product’s next-day retention rate is greater than 20%.
• The operation goal is very clear: to acquire 10,000 users within 1 month, and the product goal is also clear: the next-day retention rate is greater than 20%.

All indicators must be quantifiable in order to have the next operational plan.

2. Product Positioning

With a goal in mind, we need to position the product. When I came into contact with the product, it had already been produced but had not yet been launched. For a startup company, optimizing product details before the product is launched is a fatal thing.

In any case, the product is already there, so let’s analyze it from a product perspective, position the product, and get started!

2.1 Product attributes

The product is the aiXcoder intelligent programming plug-in, a product that only programmers will use. The vast majority of programmers write code on computers, which determines the product's usage scenario: programmers sit in front of computers and program.

Although they are all sitting in front of the computer, their operating systems, programming tools, and programming languages ​​are different, and the product usage scenarios will also be divided based on these three dimensions.

2.1.1 Operating System

Windows, Mac, Linux

2.1.2 Programming Tools

IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, PyCharm, Android Studio, PHPStorm, Visual Studio Code, sublime...

2.1.3 Programming Language

Java, Python, PHP, C++, JS, Go...

According to the product usage scenarios, there are so many operating systems, programming tools and languages. Which one is the main focus? We conduct data statistics and judgments from three aspects.

2.2 Product data

2.2.1 Questionnaire

Where should I send the questionnaire? Often, we see people sending links to questionnaires on WeChat Moments. The credibility of the data obtained in this way needs to be examined. After all, a friend may fill it out for you after seeing it, but he is not someone in this industry, so the data he gets is not credible.

The best way to distribute questionnaires is to join several related QQ groups. The reason why it is recommended to start with QQ groups is because WeChat groups are not easy to find. QQ has a search function that can find related QQ groups.

Sending a link to a questionnaire and then sending a red envelope has two benefits:

1. Avoid being kicked out by the group owner or administrator
2. Mobilize the enthusiasm of users in the group

From an operational point of view, it can avoid being kicked out of the group by the administrator, and can collect feedback from 10% of group users. Without sending red envelopes, more than 3% of user feedback can be collected.

2.2.2 Internal Discussion

When choosing the main channel, the boss and product manager usually already have an idea, but their ideas are sometimes not reliable, and data must be produced to decide which channel to choose; or the product manager may have already compiled statistics on the product data when making the product, and the main direction can be chosen based on the product manager's data.

2.2.3 Third-party data

Every year, there will be statistics agencies that release some data, and these data can be obtained through the Internet. However, it is not recommended to search through Baidu. A lot of the data searched out are unreliable. If you don’t know whether there is similar data, it is best to ask a professional.

Regarding programming languages: It is still easy to obtain the usage of programming languages ​​in the programming industry.

Programming language rankings in March 2019

Regarding usage scenarios: Windows, Mac and Linux are all supported, so there is no question of which operating system to launch first.

Regarding programming tools: This requires a survey of users. Based on the user survey data, it is found that some people use editors that are not supported by the product. Analyzing from other data, it is impossible to promote the product according to the editor unless it is put on the official market.

So we arranged the delivery based on the user acquisition scenarios of the product, starting with language: follow the language ranking from top to bottom, and deliver according to the languages ​​that the product already supports. The operating system and programming tools are not considered for now.

3. Crowd Positioning

In fact, this product has already determined the target group: programmers. Regarding the classification of programmers, the classification of tool products cannot be based on universal products, but on gender, age, and preferences. Here they can only be divided into junior programmers and senior programmers.

3.1 User attributes

You can also use third-party tools to perform exploratory segmentation, such as Java by region, age, and interest distribution.

From here, we can conclude that our user group is: men aged 30-39, because their interest distribution is similar.

The conclusion drawn here is superficial and an extremely irresponsible inference. Because this programming tool is suitable for any programmer, our user group is all programmers.

3.2 User Hobbies

Divide the access device based on the data of Java users searching and accessing Java (ps: the access device here is different from the product usage device)

According to the users' daily access data, we found an interesting phenomenon: the data on Saturdays and Sundays were relatively low, mainly because programmers did not go to work on Saturdays and Sundays. So we gave up the idea of ​​promoting products on Saturdays and Sundays. (The product usage data later also proved our idea.)

3.3 User gathering places

Where are the users? Does the so-called fish pond really exist? Actually, there are. For example, a QQ group is a small fish pond.

The largest gathering place for programmers in China: CSDN and 51CTO.

Since there is a fish pond, is there any way to fish from it?

The common method that comes to mind is posting, but this method is too slow and cannot meet the company's goals. As for how to play these channels, an introduction will be made within the channels.

From the crowd positioning, we can conclude that our product is targeted at all programmers' PC terminals and the time is working hours from Monday to Friday.

4. Channels

I am very happy. Channels are my strong point. Since I come from online marketing, I have worked in SEO, SEM, self-media, e-commerce, social media, and EDM.

According to my personal understanding, every channel has traffic, it is just a matter of how much traffic it is and whether it can support the company's business goals.

4.1 Channel Division

According to the three types of customer acquisition channels, we divide the channels into: word-of-mouth channels, organic channels and paid channels.

• Word-of-mouth channels include: social media (such as WeChat, Weibo), friend recommendations, community recommendations, etc.
• Organic channels: SEO, content marketing, EDM, submissions, etc.
• Paid channels: SEM, Guangdiantong, Fanstong, sponsorship, etc.

In fact, every operations staff will think of these channels, but many people (including operations directors) do not understand the characteristics of the channels. When making a plan, they can only talk nonsense and come up with a plan that cannot be tested or implemented at all.

Sometimes a product is a good product, but it is ruined by people who don’t understand operation and promotion.

If you are lucky enough to work in a large company, this problem of channel division almost does not exist. Traffic from any channel can be enough to make your product a six-figure star launch product. However, most operators are not so lucky and can only attract users according to these channels.

4.2 Channel Testing

With so many channels listed out, as for which one to launch first, we need to evaluate it from several aspects, including situation, cost, time investment, output time, and scale.

Confirm the mastery: Degree of understanding of the channel, who in the team knows the channel better, let the person who knows the channel better confirm whether the channel can be used, calculate it based on 5 points, see if our channel mastery score is qualified, and calculate other inputs, and discuss internally whether the channel can be tested.

Here are just some simple lists. In fact, when you are considering and calculating, you should be more detailed than this table. As for why so many people are reached in a day, why so much money is spent, and how many people are finally converted, you must list them with reason and evidence, otherwise the leader will question it or fail the test.

When faced with other people's questions, channel personnel must be able to explain in detail and stick to their own opinions. When disputes arose, many people believed that EDM had no effect in China, and everyone agreed that the EDM channel should be abandoned.

For me personally, I know how to do it effectively and insist on doing EDM. In the last day, I sent 10,000 emails, which converted about 500 download users. The conversion rate was about 5%. The cost of one email was about 0.3 cents, which means the cost of one user was 0.6 yuan, a very cost-effective ROI.

The channels selected in the first round are: EDM, SEM, sponsorship, and paid submissions

The test order is: EDM, SEM, sponsorship, paid contribution (some people may ask why paid contribution is launched again, because there are too few channels and no room for expansion)

4.3 Channel Segmentation

4.3.1 EDM channels

According to language and IDE, the languages ​​include Java, Python, PHP, JS, C, and C++. According to IDE, the number of users is too small, so we give up for the time being.

SEM: For the time being, the only channel is Baidu. Considering that programmers only use computers and give up on mobile terminals, the channels are only Baidu & PC.

4.3.2 Sponsorship

Sponsorship is provided according to comprehensive fields and vertical fields. The comprehensive fields include CSDN, 51cto, etc., and the vertical fields include Java and Python.

Of course, after the segmentation here, there should be another table. I will use EDM as an example to show this table because some data are indeed inconvenient to disclose.

After segmenting the channels, preparing what is necessary, going online for testing, and finally getting the test results, we estimate that the unit price for acquiring a user is around 15 yuan.

Test results: The test results are calculated based on segmented channels and the KPI of the overall goal. The assessment indicator is the unit price of registered users.

Baidu & PC: 150 yuan, sponsorship: CSDN: 150, 51cto: 60; vertical field Java1: 6 yuan; EDM: Java: 0.6, Python: 1.5, spring: 0.9.

4.4 Channel Life

Each fixed user channel has a certain lifespan. As investment in a single channel increases, the channel's traffic source will dry up. This does not include marketing channels such as DSP, SEM, and SEO.

4.4.1 Fixed User Channels

Because of the fixed user channels, the general user group changes very little. You acquire users from here, but there is only outflow and no inflow of users. Finally, the users in the pool are gradually exhausted, and you will eventually have to change channels.

4.4.2 Flow Channels

The channels for mobile users generally have an inflow and outflow of customers. The users in the pool will never be exhausted, and the inflow of users is far greater than the outflow of users. Such a pool can be used continuously.

After the channel testing is completed, you can screen out suitable channels and increase delivery, and suspend delivery to unsuitable channels. Problems that we were not expecting still came. Due to rule changes, the EDM channel was completely obsolete after two months and had to be replaced by other channels.

That is to say, when doing channel testing, there should be at least 1 main channel and 2 auxiliary channels. Once there is a problem with the main channel, increase investment in the auxiliary channels in a timely manner to avoid being in a panic after the main channel has a problem.

Author: Zhang Mu

Source: ReadMeditation