User operation: How to make use of private domain traffic?

What is private domain traffic? Why do we need private domain traffic? What are the carriers of private domain traffic? How to make use of private domain traffic? In this article, the author will analyze "private domain traffic" from these four aspects.

The term private domain traffic has suddenly become popular recently. I first heard this term in March or April this year. The other party said, "Look at how well we are doing in private domain traffic."

With my IQ of 125, I subconsciously thought that it might be about community operation. After I came back, I searched the concept of private domain traffic and it was similar to what I thought.

Why is private domain traffic suddenly being mentioned by many companies, and its momentum is likely to surpass the concept of growth hacking?

I think this is mostly due to the development of the industry. In fact, as early as 2017 and 2018, many Internet companies had already felt that the growth had reached its peak. To maintain the company's growth momentum, there are two ways: either acquire new users or maximize the value of old users.

At a time when traffic dividends have been exhausted, tapping into the greater value of old users has become a consensus among all companies, and the concept of private domain traffic has become popular.

Here I will explain to you from the following 4 aspects: What exactly is private domain traffic? And how to make good use of private domain traffic?

1. What is private domain traffic?
2. Why do we need private domain traffic?
3. What are the carriers of private domain traffic?
4. How to make use of private domain traffic?

1. What is private domain traffic?

To understand private domain traffic, we must first understand the concept of traffic pool. Traffic pool refers to a channel with huge traffic, such as Taobao, Baidu, Weibo, etc. As long as the budget is sufficient, it can continuously acquire new users, which is called a traffic pool.

Private domain traffic is relative, referring to channels that we can directly reach users at any time and frequency without paying, such as: self-media, user groups, WeChat accounts, etc.

2. Why do we need private domain traffic?

Private domain traffic has the following advantages:

1. Traffic is more controllable

Suppose Baidu has 10 million users, but these 10 million users have nothing to do with us. Only when we import these users to our own platform can they be considered our own users. Subsequent services or exchanges for users may then become possible.

2. High cost performance

We need to pay to get exposure in the traffic pool, such as keyword bidding. It is impossible to get exposure without spending money.

Once users are imported from the traffic pool into private domain traffic, such as WeChat groups, then it is truly my territory and I am the boss, and I can play however I want. Of course, you can't let yourself go too much. If the user experience is not good, it will leave the private traffic pool in a minute.

3. It gives us the possibility to provide in-depth services to users

Take Douyin as an example. There are many short videos that users like. When they are interested in one of the videos, they can choose to follow the owner of the account. After following, they can continue to enjoy the video viewing service provided by the owner.

When more and more people follow the owner of an account, he becomes an Internet celebrity, and his account becomes a private traffic pool.

3. What are the carriers of private domain traffic?

Private domain traffic will be slightly different depending on the company’s attributes and services. Here I take my official account as an example to see: For me, what are the carriers of private domain traffic?

1. Official Account

The official account is my first private domain traffic. I keep sharing a practical article about operations and promotions every week, which are published on many platforms.

On the platform, dozens or even hundreds of articles are refreshed every day. Users forget them after reading them and do not pay attention to who the author is. When I continue to publish useful articles next week, I have no idea who will see them, as all recommendations are in the hands of the platform. Operators who have experienced Douyin’s traffic restrictions should have deep feelings about this.

Therefore, many authors, including me, will write my public account number in their personal profiles or other places, and tell everyone that if they want to learn more practical information, they can follow me. When they follow me, they will receive every article I publish. At this time, they only have two choices: either open it or pretend not to see it. Either way, it's better than publishing on the platform.

2. QQ Group and WeChat Group

Many people don’t use QQ anymore, which is wrong, even though QQ is the domain of those born after 2000. However, in terms of business communication, QQ is still much better than WeChat. For example, if you use QQ groups well, you can attract a lot of customers.

When I set up and operated QQ groups and WeChat groups, I decided to do it after careful consideration. I am very happy when many people follow my public account because the articles I write are useful, insightful, and helpful to others in improving their abilities. Looking at the number of followers of the official account increasing every day, it has increased my confidence in updating the articles every week, and I dare not stop.

However, during the maintenance of the official account, I always felt that something was missing. Users could see my articles, and I could also see the users in the background. However, when I wanted to communicate with them, I found that there was no connection. It seemed that there was a transparent wall in the middle. We could see each other but could not connect.

This is not so good. For example, when I am operating a game, there is a bug in the game and I need to notify the users. Because there is a QQ group, when the game cannot be opened normally, the users can be notified quickly and will not be confused.

Based on this, I added the QQ group number in the automatic reply to the first follow-up of the official account. Users who want to communicate can add them to the QQ group. Currently there are two QQ groups with several thousand people. We exchange operational knowledge together. If I have any questions, I will also post them in the group and communicate with them face to face. The connection is closer than that through the official account.

To take a step back, no matter how the official account is revised or how the display is adjusted, it will not affect the users of QQ groups and WeChat groups. This is the advantage of the private domain traffic pool.

3. Personal WeChat

Compared with private domain traffic, there is a more advanced concept that you can learn about first - KOC. I won’t write the full English name because you can’t understand it anyway.

This corresponds to KOL. KOL is an opinion leader, and KOC is a personal service butler (my own understanding). KOC’s expression is through personal WeChat. Most people are wrong in operating WeChat accounts, especially posting advertisements randomly in the circle of friends, which ultimately results in being blocked.

KOC’s approach is different. They post on Moments from the user’s perspective, see what the user’s needs are, and post corresponding content.

Some of the people who follow my public account have added my WeChat account. In order to create a competent KOC, the content I post on a daily basis is mostly one or two sentences of personal experience and insights, some inspirational jokes, or funny copywriting. Interesting, fun, and profound are my personal labels, and also the labels of my personal KOC account.

Think about this: a WeChat account with 5,000 friends and a public account with 5,000 followers, which private traffic pool is more valuable?

Of course it’s the WeChat account. Even if others have blocked their Moments, remember that you can still chat privately. Point-to-point private chat is more effective than mass text messages and telephone sales. However, you must pay attention to the copywriting and avoid hard advertising, otherwise you will be blocked.

4. The enterprise’s private traffic pool carrier

Unlike individuals, enterprises have larger scale and capital, and their private domain traffic allows them to create one more app than individuals.

Some public accounts with millions of users will develop APPs. For them, their public accounts are a private traffic pool. However, the APP developed by oneself is a super private traffic pool. Only by importing users into the APP can the closed loop of user washing be truly completed.

4. How to make use of private domain traffic?

Now that we know about the traffic pool and the carrier of private domain traffic, there are only two questions left: How to import users from the traffic pool to private domain traffic? And how to maintain private domain traffic?

How to import users from the traffic pool to private domain traffic?

The most common one is inducement by benefits, which is often seen in companies with stupid people and lots of money. Following the official account to receive red envelopes, downloading the APP to receive cash, etc. After being exposed in the traffic pool, when users see the benefits of entering the private domain traffic, conversions will generally occur. Although the data is good, the quality of these users is very poor.

Another way is to create high-quality content and rely on the content itself to impress users and generate conversions.

This is the method I am currently using. Produce more valuable, content-rich, and helpful content. When others find that what you have done is helpful to them, they will come to you on their own initiative. This is the real long-term approach. It is not uncommon for companies to grow rapidly by relying on subsidies and eventually go bankrupt, such as that bicycle company.

How to maintain private domain traffic?

Being pulled into the private traffic pool does not mean the work is over, on the contrary it is a new beginning. Previously, everyone’s focus was on attracting new users and winning over users. Now we need to change our mindset and improve our ability to maintain users.

Maintaining users requires care and putting yourself in the user's shoes. It's easier said than done, but actually this is the most difficult thing. I always feel that the virtue of empathy is innate and cannot be learned.

Many of the texts we send to user groups and articles posted on public accounts on a daily basis are self-indulgent, and we think that users who like them will also like them. In fact, through the sporadic comments of user groups, we can see that these contents are not very attractive.

Treat your users like your friends and create content in the same way you would recommend a product to a friend. For example, if you find a noodle shop with great food, what would you say to recommend it to a friend? Remember this feeling and tell your users the same thing; the effect will most likely be good.

Summarize:

It is foreseeable that private domain traffic will become the focus of corporate development in the next 5 to 10 years, especially in times of economic downturn. Activating existing traffic can keep a company alive.

Operations colleagues who can make good use of private domain traffic will definitely be very competitive in the future. So, come on, start studying how to master private domain traffic from now on.

Related reading:

1. User operation: new funnel model for conversion analysis!

2. User operation: How to use B-side operation thinking to increase user growth?

3. Product operation: How to use data analysis to drive product user growth?

4. APP user growth: One model solves 90% of growth problems!

5.How to increase users? Take Pinduoduo and Xiaohongshu as examples

6. Triggering user growth: Is user operation just about attracting new users?

7. User operation: What else can you do to attract new users without fission users?

8. User operation: how can financial products awaken dormant users?

9. User Operation | How to perform user behavior path analysis?

Author: Tiger

Source: Tiger Talk Operations