4 misunderstandings of ToB operations and 3 ways to acquire customers!

There is a popular saying now: ToB companies do not need operations, they only need business, because business drives better orders, and operations are nothing more than obtaining customer information. Bidding, SEO, new media, exhibitions and other promotions are enough to obtain customer information, so operations are redundant!

I once believed in this statement. As an operator switching from ToC to ToB, I had doubts about my operational direction and career planning, and even wanted to switch to product development.

When playing billiards with friends, there is a movement called raising the ball.

I have figured out one thing: there is not much difference between ToB operations and ToC operations. ToB companies also need strong operational intervention, and can even be split into ToC operations.

Myth

1. The real users of the product are not the customers

After all, ToB products require users to pay money. You basically cannot find the person who decides life and death in one step, but you can find the person who influences life and death. This person cannot become our customer in one step, but we can gradually infiltrate and nurture him first!

ToB companies have existed for a long time. When we were doing ToC business on a large scale, we often cooperated with ToB companies. The most common ones were: Umeng, Qimai Data, and these data service providers.

Common ASO service providers often hold various online and offline app operation exchange meetings to reach app operators on a large scale. When operators need to brush up the rankings or comments, they are likely to contact the ASO service providers they have contacted. After all, after an event, everyone had a meal together, and the offline reach is much higher than the online one.

Although such companies cannot directly reach the company's CEO or director, who are the direct customers responsible for paying the money, they generally reach the user groups that actually use the products within the company.

2. User's quasi-needs

Whatever approach we take, we must not forget the fundamental user needs.

In the past two years, many emerging products have emerged, and some company operations have complained that we want to find companies with problems ourselves to use our products, but these companies are not aware that they have such problems.

For a product like this, there are two specific issues that need to be considered.

1. A strong education market is needed, and ordinary business owners will not give this opportunity to operate.
2. It is a pseudo-demand product and cannot find the user’s “aha moment”.

It is still recommended that operators who have such ideas stay away from this product.

3. Operations familiarity with the product

Operations personnel do not have to be experts in product usage, but at least they have to be product enthusiasts.

I have always believed that an operation that cannot provide good customer service is not a qualified operation.

I once came into contact with a team whose use of the product was limited to testing by testers and acceptance by product developers. There were no other usage scenarios. When the operations staff were asked to describe the product in one sentence, they were unable to grasp the core points of the users, and when asked about a certain function, they stammered and could not explain it clearly.

ToB products require real money, but at least one sentence must touch the user's heart, and the product must be able to expertly answer any questions the user has about the product's usage and principles.

4. Make the product perfect before launching it online

There are some companies where technology leads the product, but technology has a geeky tendency and technology believes that the product is not perfect enough, so the product launch time is delayed again and again.

It would be a terrible thing if there were such people in the company leading the product.

A product that is considered perfect within the company may not have reached PMF status in the market.

There is a good advertising slogan: Hello, I'm good, everyone is good. A product should not only be considered good by the company but also by users. Only then can it be considered as truly good.

Customer acquisition methods

There are three common operating methods for ToB products:

1. Content Operation

Content operation means having your own blog platform and third-party columns to provide customers with valuable information so that target customers can quickly find solutions when they encounter problems, thereby increasing the brand value of the product in the minds of users.

Most of the content traffic comes from search engines, which plays an important role in helping companies obtain customer contact information.

1. Content operations need to be done in cooperation with SEO personnel to help improve the ranking of content in search engines.
2. The title needs to compromise with SEO rules and user search habits to obtain search engine rankings.
3. High-level support to create valuable content to attract users. Keyword ranking coverage is not something that can be achieved overnight. It requires continuous efforts to achieve qualitative changes from quantitative changes. The results will not be seen in a short period of time. Without high-level support, it is difficult to obtain cross-departmental or financial support.

2. New media operations

Here, self-media and new media are collectively referred to as new media. In essence, self-media and new media are actually content operations, but each platform is different and the ways of playing are slightly different.

Many people will publish the same article with the same title on different platforms. In fact, this practice is inappropriate. Before publishing an article, you need to have some understanding of the platform's strategy.

Here we take Toutiao and WeChat official accounts as examples:

1. Toutiao has a content distribution mechanism: embed more target user keywords in the article, and it is important to avoid using the target user keywords. When distributing the article, Toutiao will automatically distribute the article to users who like it.
2. The official account itself has no distribution mechanism: it requires long-term user accumulation. Although there are now "look" and "search" functions, there is still a big difference compared to the distribution of self-media platforms. The advantage of public accounts is that after the fans accumulate, they provide valuable information, and the overall activity and conversion are much better than other platforms.

Many new media operators are burdened with strong KPIs. When they fail to meet their targets, they will think of some unorthodox methods. It is not recommended that you do this. At the same time, the leadership must have reasonable indicators rather than arbitrary KPIs.

3. Offline activities

Offline activities can make use of online platforms to attract users to participate in their own offline activities. The activities can be paid or free. At the event site, the leaders of the organizer usually introduce the products, leaving some traces in the minds of users.

Offline activities cannot result in orders immediately, but you can leave the user’s contact information or form an on-site group on site.

1. Invite heavyweight guests: The heavyweight guests here do not refer to the senior management of state-owned enterprises or a certain company, but KOLs with a certain influence in the industry.
2. Talk about practical stuff: provide some inspirational value to the users who come.
3. Add personal WeChat: According to the author’s experience of participating in events, the on-site group usually becomes a dead group two weeks after the event. It is better to add the company’s designated customer service WeChat or the boss’ WeChat.

Generally, everyone likes to add their boss’ WeChat, as they feel like they know some big shot and have a psychologically satisfying sense of showing off. When doing offline activities, bosses should not be pretentious. They can publish a personal company WeChat for everyone to scan the QR code and add.

There are other ways to acquire customers, such as SEM and banner ads. These products mainly require clarifying the user groups, knowing the user groups’ ideas, and the users’ specific behaviors.

If it is an innovative product and there is no mature business model on the market, advertising such as SEM and banner images are not suitable. Instead, it is suitable for content columns and offline event operations.

Having said so much, from the perspective of the AARRR model, ToB operations tend to be operations in the direction of growth, which is commonly referred to as customer acquisition. As for increasing activity and self-propagation, the overall user group of the product is somewhat difficult compared to real ToC products. In fact, it is an operation method for specific ToC user groups.

Judging from the numerical results of the activity, the results are greatly discounted, but the actual commercial value may be better than pure ToC. Generating revenue and improving retention rates are business-driven and are largely beyond the control of operations.

When everyone is talking about ToB, it does not mean that operations are about to lose their jobs, but the core work premise of operations is to understand more ways to acquire customers, adapt to changes, and continue learning to avoid being eliminated.

Related reading:

1. The three core elements and operation processes of to B operation!

2. Tob business promotion, an effective way to acquire customers for Tob business!

Author: Zhang Mu

Source: Paradigm Product Operation (ReadMeditation)