The cost of product promotion is almost zero, how to recruit KOLs?

The promotion cost is almost zero, how to recruit KOLs?

Product background: Linglingbang App is a mobile service platform for Baojun Wuling car owners. It is committed to providing more than 10 million Baojun Wuling car owners with a comprehensive, safe and convenient service platform including test rides, event benefits, car owners gatherings, technical answers, and repair and maintenance appointments.

The author has experienced SAIC-GM-Wuling's transformation to the Internet from 0-1. This APP is a handheld service APP created for Baojun Wuling owners. The author has basically participated in the entire process from 0-1, from the construction of the early product functions to the accumulation of the first batch of seed users, and the iteration of the product step by step.

The process from 0 to 1 is the most difficult, but the experience gained is often the most valuable. There are tens of millions of apps on the market, each with its own needs to solve, and each company's operating strategies are also different. Below is my personal overall operating experience to share with you, and I hope we can communicate with each other and learn from each other.

The following figure shows the download trend of our product since its launch. There are discrepancies between the data and the actual data, but the overall trend is of reference value.

(APP download trends)

Some students may say that since it is an APP under SAIC-GM-Wuling, it must be "leaning on a big tree for shade", but the reality is not so. It is difficult for many traditional enterprises to transform to the Internet. Sometimes there is not much attention and resource support from 0-1. At the same time, it is a subversion of the traditional organizational structure and an upgrade of the thinking of practitioners. It is difficult to "break from the inside". So in the beginning, this APP was initiated from the role of Party B, that is, the supplier of SAIC-GM-Wuling, and I took over the operation of this project in this company. At first, the business and operation model of the APP had not been verified, and it was basically "crossing the river by feeling the stones." In this process, we iterated quickly and gradually summarized some methodologies.

1. “Small steps, fast iteration”

In the early days, our APP only had a group chat function. At that time, we considered allowing users to log in to our product and make friends. However, after operating it for a while, we found that there were very few active and chatting users. What was the reason?

Later we found that most car owners have local provincial and regional car clubs and online WeChat QQ group chats, so why would users interact and communicate on a new APP? The cost of user migration is too high.

Then in the later iterations, we added a community posting function based on the original "group chat only", changed the original group chat into a community forum format, and set up administrators to manage it.

In the early stage, there were very few people who interacted and posted. In order to better create a community atmosphere, on the one hand, we would manually post in batches, and on the other hand, we set a task at that time . We must maintain the real users who interacted and posted every day to slowly accumulate popularity.

Users all have the desire to share, and sometimes they will post pictures of their car club’s self-driving tours, gatherings, or their own children, etc. Gradually, we have developed a user + content product. Based on the real feedback we received from users, we also launched content recommendation functions, online technician Q&A, new car test drives, third-party refueling and other functions, as well as more functions that meet user needs. We have made 15 major revisions in 365 days, most of which were structural revisions, and we have continuously optimized and adjusted the direction.

2. Operational “small effort to achieve great results”

In the process of gradually optimizing product functions, it is still necessary to attract more car owners. So when the promotion cost is almost zero, how to attract new customers is an especially critical task? There are relatively few operating staff and insufficient budget, but we have put some effort into this and always advocate focusing our energy on the most effective things.

2.1 Find key people to attract new customers

We understand that many car owners have offline car clubs, so we first guide the president to join and then let the "leader" lead more car owners to join. How do we do it?

On the one hand, we used online QQ resources to search for QQ groups in most provinces and cities across the country and joined as a "car novice" . Then we added an administrator to inform him of the APP situation, hoping to be able to join. In the future, we may enjoy discounts on car maintenance and can get to know car clubs all over the country. Later, when they organize offline car clubs, we can sponsor them (such as club flags, logos, and even some financial support).

In this way, we had some early seed users.

During the same period, we also went to automotive media such as Autohome, Yiche, and Aika to directly find KOLs and forum moderators to invite them to join . Of course, websites like Autohome are very strict in checking advertising posts, so many of our early posts that "indirectly guide attention and downloads" were harmonized, and in serious cases, their accounts were even blocked. However, we can also solve the problem of KOLs by sending private messages, but the timeliness is not high. However, once we can attract them, everyone can bring hundreds of car enthusiasts.

On the other hand, in order to further improve our pulling capacity, we also organized a "charity event" to attract sponsorship and support through the car club.

For example, once we held a New Year event on the APP, and required the car clubs to express their New Year wishes related to charity. We would provide financial support to help the car clubs achieve their wishes. The event competition system was "the car clubs with more popular likes will receive more financial support." Most of the car clubs love charity and are very willing to participate in collective charity activities. In this way, through the form of "charity acquisition", we have gained a wave of users full of positive energy.

During the accumulation of seed users, I was impressed by the fact that there was a car owner named "Guo Li" who had a profound influence on Wuling Baojun car owners nationwide. He was the president of the Yunnan Car Owners Association. In 2015, the Autohome website even filmed a promotional video for him called "Traveling Around China".

After feeling his influence, I found "Guo Li" through the recommendation of other car owners, hoping to invite this influential car owner to join our product, but our APP was too influential. At that time, Li Ge mostly cooperated with larger traffic platforms such as Autohome and Yiche. We really didn't have much resource support, so he rejected our invitation to join.

So when resources are not so sufficient, how to influence the big guys becomes a difficult problem?

After a while, I learned that Li Ge was planning to go to Tibet from Yunnan again. As an ordinary car owner, I posted a post about Li Ge in our community, expressing my appreciation and respect for Li Ge's trip around China. At the same time, it received unanimous praise from many car friends. They were concerned about Li Ge's health due to altitude sickness and admired his courage to travel around China.

At that time, I showed this post to Li Ge, and I said, "Brother Li, look, this is a post from a fellow rider. Look, many people below care about you, and many of your fans are on our APP." In this way, we moved Li Ge with our "emotional care", because what the boss values ​​is the fans and the connection with fans. In this way, Li Ge agreed to our invitation to join, and was willing to live broadcast the entire Yunnan-Tibet self-driving tour on our forum.

In this way, we accumulated the earliest seed users.

2.2 Maintaining core figures

After accumulating early users, we must maintain them to keep them. When the product is not so powerful, we need to make operational efforts. To this end, we try our best to dig out user stories among core users, build users into key KOLs and package them . We have set up the "Car Owner Stories" column to package the extraordinary stories of ordinary car owners, so that everyone can feel that the car friends around them have a wonderful side, and everyone can become the protagonist of life.

For example, the female car owner from Yunnan - Tang Qiong, a post-70s, has always wanted to pursue freedom, but she was bound by her family with elderly parents and young children to take care of. Until she got a serious illness, she felt that she needed to live for herself, so after being discharged from the hospital, she bought herself a car and began to enjoy a life of self-driving and photography.

We also packaged the story of the "third brother" in the car club who drove a hundred Wuling Lights to pick up his bride. "Mercedes-Benz and BMW were instantly sold out." At that time, his video had nearly 10 million views and was recommended on the homepages of Baidu and Toutiao.

These are our real car owners. In this way, we have created such "stories of people around us" to make the image of our car owners more vivid, three-dimensional and warm.

2.3 Find the core functionality

Retention solely on the spiritual level will certainly not last long, so based on user needs, we have launched an online technician answer function so that users can solve their car-related questions directly online without having to go to the 4S store. Of course, the early training of technicians in the onboarding process and rewards are also essential.

For technicians, we reward them based on the monthly quantity and quality of their answers. On the other hand, we will create a technician column for outstanding technicians, and even launch MVs of outstanding technicians in a later stage to create a sense of honor and exclusivity for the technicians. This not only reflects the technicians' service concept of "professional to cars, sincere to people", but also makes users feel that there are real technicians solving their problems through the APP, which builds trust between both parties.

(Technicians repaired the machine for the user in the early morning)

(Technicians answer questions for users in the APP)

2.4 Cultivating User Managers

In the car owner community, user posting and community management are very time-consuming, so guidance is needed for content generation (posting - essential posts - recommended homepage) , and guidance for community activity is also essential. So according to the "80/20 principle", we let users manage users , which greatly saves operational energy and makes users more involved. However, the selection and training of core managers also requires a lot of effort.

2.4.1 Planning community development direction

 Initially, according to the community planning, it was mainly divided into car clubs and city clubs. Later, a problem feedback area was created (for users to feedback community problems and car use problems), 4S store appointment maintenance and address inquiries were planned, and test rides and car purchase sections were launched later.

The management of the community involves the community growth system and the community management system, so the relationship between operators, administrators, and users needs to be reconciled. The early guidance of administrators such as state leaders is particularly critical.

2.4.2 Community Leader Management Plan

The leader in the community needs to be a representative of the car club, a user who is very familiar with the car models, has high brand loyalty, and more importantly, participates in the co-construction of the community. Training and guidance are crucial.

However, in addition to material rewards, the more important incentive for state administrators is spiritual rewards, such as medals and certificates, and even the priority to attend new car launches and test rides, and to communicate face-to-face with car manufacturers on behalf of the user group, which can provide key guiding value in production, sales, and post-maintenance.

2.4.3 Community Growth Level Classification

The car club community is divided into levels according to its different contribution levels, and assessed based on the certified population, sign-in activity, and contribution to the initiation and participation of online and offline activities. In the later stage, rewards for high-value corporate behaviors will be introduced, such as rewarding users of the car club for test rides, car purchases and maintenance, and trade-ins, and closed-loop operations will be achieved by giving back subsidies to users.

In this way, through key user maintenance + core function promotion + community maintenance management and brand endorsement, in half a year we have nearly 365 online car club communities, with a total of more than 400,000 car owners joining.

3. Core functions promote retention

In terms of user retention, we have connected to the 4S stores' online appointment and maintenance functions and the manufacturer's direct customer service functions. Later, as the number of users increased, we introduced a user growth and points system and launched a welfare club function for users to redeem points for goods.

As the number of users increases, we will continuously optimize product features based on user experience, such as the user feedback we collect.

Because the process from 0 to 1 has been completed, SAIC-GM-Wuling also provided a lot of support in the later stage: traffic from the official website, traffic from the car launch event, and traffic from offline 4S stores such as material table cards and roll-up banners. There is even an online function for collecting car coupons during the car purchase process, which deeply onlineizes the entire chain of users' pre-purchase, car purchase, and post-purchase.

In this regard, SAIC-GM-Wuling's Internet transformation has been successful. I would like to thank the users who have accompanied us, the leaders and the wonderful times we have experienced.

I have gained a lot along the way. I hope that what I said can be helpful to everyone. I look forward to communicating with you and making progress together.

Related reading:

1. APP promotion and operation: How to maximize the effect of your activities?

2. APP promotion planning: 60,000 paying users increased within 7 days of beta testing!

3. APP promotion activities: How to plan a screen-sweeping event?

4. A complete list of APP promotion methods in 2019, take it and don’t thank me!

5. How to carry out APP promotion and marketing? What are the common methods?

6. APP promotion case: How to go from 0 to millions of users?

Author: He Jie

Source: He Jie