Private domain traffic cannot save the brand!

The concept of private domain traffic is said to have originated from the Taobao system a few years ago, but it only became popular at the end of last year and the first half of this year. Marketing in the WeChat ecosystem is becoming increasingly difficult, and the brand's private domain traffic pool has become more important, so "private domain traffic" has become industry jargon.

According to our observation, although the concept of private domain traffic is very popular, there are very few cases where brands have done a good job with private domain traffic. Instead, it is still small teams in the e-commerce and WeChat business sectors that are doing well with private domain traffic. why is that?

Is private domain traffic micro-business?

Maybe many people have different opinions, but we believe that private domain traffic is a micro-business method.

If a brand wants to deposit traffic into personal accounts such as WeChat, it will inevitably have to use some micro-business "fishing" methods. If it wants to convert through social groups and friend circles, it will inevitably have to learn routines from micro-business predecessors.

Although WeChat business does not have a very good reputation, the experience behind it is summarized in the methods and approaches of user operation and IP building, which ultimately formed a complete set of efficient traffic diversion and conversion system. The focus of private domain traffic is to manage long-term relationships with users, which is no different from WeChat business. Of course, there are also many WeChat businesses that "cut leeks" to make a fortune. We believe that in the long run, they are unqualified WeChat businesses.

There was once a joke in the industry that all PR/KOL/operators will eventually become micro-businesses, which reveals part of the truth. But the reason why private domain traffic or WeChat business are so ridiculed is not only because of the effectiveness of their methodology, but also because of the limitations of their methodology in the overall pattern. Here are three ideas:

1. Private domain traffic is not suitable for all brands.

We have expressed similar views in "Think about these three questions before doing private domain traffic." Private traffic is just a tool, and it only solves the problem of traffic cost. If the brand itself has a stable source of cheap traffic (such as some fission traffic and offline traffic), then there is actually no need to create a private traffic pool.

Private domain traffic requires manpower costs for daily operations, which is not low. It usually also requires the setting up of a certain interest mechanism to activate the enthusiasm of operators. However, for products with low gross profit margins, long decision-making chains, customization requirements, and low-frequency consumption (typically 2B products and durable goods such as hardware), private domain traffic may not be a good choice.

In addition, private domain traffic can only solve specific problems, such as traffic reuse costs and efficiency issues, but cannot solve product strategy problems. If your brand does not know where to find accurate users, there is not much point in doing private domain traffic.

2. Discomfort from brand marketing to brand operation

Building private domain traffic does not seem complicated, but in fact it requires the brand to have subsequent operational capabilities. After the traffic is circled, how to conduct subsequent operations and how to achieve user conversion is a big question. If you add refined operational operations such as user stratification and labeling, this often exceeds the "circle of competence" of traditional brands.

Operations originated from Internet companies. Because Internet products such as software need to provide services to users for a long time, the products themselves also need to be iterated and updated. This is how the concept of user operations came into being, involving all aspects such as attracting new users, promoting activation, conversion, and retention.

In contrast, traditional brand companies focus more on marketing, continuously carrying out wave after wave of advertising promotions through campaigns, and then cooperating with terminal channels to achieve sales conversions. In the marketing process, few brands are aware of and capable of continuously tracking and promoting to users, which is why the traditional marketing model is not very efficient.

Compared with marketing, operations are more refined and long-term, and can be regarded as the back-end service of marketing. Unfortunately, most traditional companies do not have the ability to operate users, nor do they have so-called operations departments. Long-term user operations and new media content are usually outsourced to operating companies and advertising agencies. In this case, the construction and operation of "private domain traffic" is further away from the brand itself.

3. The more you rely on channels, the worse you will be at managing private domain traffic

We believe that the WeChat business teams are still the best at operating private domain traffic. One of the important reasons is that WeChat businesses do not have many sales channel options, so they pay more attention to transaction conversions in communities and friend circles.

Take fast-moving consumer goods as an example. The sales of products are highly dependent on offline sales channels such as supermarkets. Generally speaking, the more offline supermarket agency outlets there are and the wider the channel penetration, the better the product sales effect will be. Therefore, compared to the time-consuming and laborious construction of a closed loop of private domain traffic, it would be more practical for these brands to spend their efforts on optimizing offline channels.

Private domain traffic is more suitable as a conversion operation tool for terminal channels, and is used by user-facing terminal operators, such as store managers and bosses of offline stores, offline salesmen of insurance and real estate, group owners in the community, etc. (and due to individual interests, they are also more motivated to operate private domain traffic).

Take WeChat business as an example. The bosses of WeChat business brands do not need to spend much effort to set up groups and send messages to friends circles to sell goods. They only need to manage the entire agency system. Those who sell goods through private domain traffic are mostly lower-level individual agents.

Conclusion

Private domain traffic is not a panacea, and anxious brands may not really need to build private domain traffic. Instead of chasing new popular concepts, it is better to think carefully about the focus of your own product/brand. But unfortunately, we see that many people pay too much attention to concepts and too little attention to themselves.

Related reading:

1. Product operation and promotion: How to compete for traffic?

2. Community Operation丨The essence and gameplay of "private domain traffic" in 2019!

3. Product operation: 2 major ways to get started to accurately capture private domain traffic!

4. Promotion and marketing: A brief discussion on vlog’s brand marketing and traffic monetization!

5. User operation: user growth in the post-traffic era!

6. Online marketing promotion: How to spend big money? Fine-tuned operation of large traffic!

7. Is the popular “private domain traffic” really that powerful?

8. 9 thoughts behind private domain traffic, fission, and sinking market

Author: Zheng Zhuoran

Source: Spread Gymnastics