Channel promotion and operation strategy, 3 tricks to double your customer acquisition!

This article takes free channels as an example, and briefly reviews a recent promotional work to systematically sort out how to do channel promotion well.

I remember when I just graduated, I joined an education company. There was a position called subject, which is a profession that I still like very much. The work of this profession is mainly divided into two parts, one is called channel and the other is called enrollment, so it is self-evident what the subject is about.

The so-called channel is to attract new customers, and the so-called enrollment is to convert and monetize. In Internet companies, these two tasks are included in one position, that is, operations.

However, the subject includes more than just these two items, there are also aspects such as course design, repeat purchase retention, etc., so in comparison, the operation is much simpler.

Throughout my academic career, I have been mainly engaged in channel work for a long time, one of the core aspects of which is channel promotion. In the eyes of many people, channel promotion is very simple. Just post on public accounts, post on Moments, and post on WeChat group advertisements, and that’s it. NONONO.

In fact, channel promotion is much more complicated than we think. For example, is it paid or free? If it is paid, which channels should be counted? What are the free channels? How to screen, test, evaluate, and implement them?

Therefore, if you can do a good job in promotion, it is an incredible skill in itself. Today's article will take free channels as an example, and briefly review a recent promotion work, to systematically sort out how to do channel promotion well.

1. Channel Inventory

When using free channels for promotion, after preparing all materials, the first priority is to take stock of the channels you have mastered. For online education products, the commonly used free channels are mainly the following:

(1) WeChat

This is currently the most important channel, including public accounts, WeChat groups, Moments, personal account friends, etc. Public accounts have service accounts and subscription accounts, and the promotion forms are articles, pictures, text + links, and template messages.

WeChat groups and Moments often use the promotional form of text + link + picture. Personal account group messages use text + picture, and one-on-one chats use text + link + picture.

(2) QQ

This is the second mainstream free channel, including QQ space, QQ group, QQ friends, interest groups, QQ highlights, etc. The most important ones are space, groups and friends. The commonly used promotion forms are text + link + pictures and texts, and QQ groups also have a big homework function, which can be sent to group members.

(3) Weibo

This is a social platform that is as famous as WeChat. You can directly post promotional posts in the form of text + link + picture, and set up fission forms mainly based on @ for dissemination. You can also publish headlines for promotion, and send private messages to fans.

(4) Headlines

This is another major free traffic platform besides BAT. The channels that can be used for direct free promotion mainly include articles, Weitao and private messages to fans. When the account reaches a certain level, articles can be associated with external links, and Weitao is the main channel for free promotion in the form of text + picture + link.

(5) Forum

Vertical forums are another free channel that can directly promote products. The format is also mainly text + pictures + links, but they are easily blocked and require careful and meticulous operation, unless it is a self-operated traffic platform. However, for each industry, only the top players can have this.

(6) Website

The official website is also one of the free channels, such as carousel positions, banner positions, etc. After users click, they will directly enter the landing page or article page. The specific forms are relatively rich.

(7) Short messages

It mainly refers to promotions in the form of SMS, in-site mail, push, etc., often in the form of shorter copy + link. The information of the recipients is mainly crawled and pushed by the system.

In addition to the above, there are many traffic platforms that match different industries and different forms, such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, Zhihu, Tieba, Jianshu, Douban, Xianyu, Himalaya FM, etc.

Regardless of which channel is used, effective promotion needs to be carried out in combination with the characteristics of the corresponding channel, so as to maximize the effect of attracting new customers.

2. Promotion rhythm

After taking inventory of the channels at hand, you need to determine the appropriate promotion rhythm. Two points need to be noted here: one is the promotion time, and the other is the promotion cycle.

(1) Promotion period

Each type of user in each channel has a corresponding active time period. Promotion during this corresponding time period will undoubtedly have the best effect. To grasp such data, the best way is to survey more users and look at the platform user data report.

For example, everyone is using WeChat channels for promotion, so when are WeChat users active? What are the specific times? Which time period is the most active? What behaviors occur during the most active hours? The answers to these questions should be impressive.

Only by mastering the data of users of these platforms can you know when to prepare and when to promote.

(2) Push through the cycle

Promotion requires a cycle, and the length of this cycle depends on the promotion data.

If the promotion cycle is set to twice a week and it meets expectations, it means that the promotion effect is good. However, if it does not meet expectations, for example, it only reaches a quarter of the expectations, it is necessary to improve the promotion effect by increasing the promotion frequency, such as changing from twice a week to once a day.

In addition, such changes are often temporary and may continue to change. After all, channel promotion has goals. If the goals cannot be achieved, it is a failure, and it is a failure without action. Obviously, this should not happen.

However, in order to make channel promotion work more stable, I would like to recommend the experience of adjusting the promotion cycle summarized by the author, namely "longer in the early stage, halved in the middle stage, and increased in the later stage". As for the specific promotion frequency, it will be determined according to your actual promotion time.

Of course, it would be best to have a channel promotion plan, which is convenient for both execution and evaluation.

3. Effect Evaluation

Most of the time, channel promotion work needs to be evaluated to evaluate the conversion effect of each channel and examine the impact of the promotion plan on the conversion effect.

This is why the author puts channel inventory and promotion rhythm first. So, how to make an assessment? The answer is to look at the data from various channels, which are often presented in a table. The author drew a simple picture:

This table generally contains the following indicators:

(1) Coverage

It mainly refers to the number of users covered by each channel. For example, if a personal account has 3,000 friends and a group promotion is sent to 2,500 people, the coverage is 2,500. If the promotion is sent to the circle of friends, 2,700 people can see it, so the coverage is 2,700.

(2) Number of visits

It mainly refers to the number of people who scan the code or click to enter the landing page, commonly known as UV. This data is often counted through the background.

(3) Number of registrations

It mainly refers to the number of users who are guided to register through the copy of the landing page. It is also counted through the background. However, it is necessary to distinguish between new registered users, old registered users, and unregistered users to facilitate the calculation of the true registration conversion rate.

(4) Number of applications

That is, the number of users who enter the landing page through various channels and finally sign up for the course is also counted by the background. This number is one of the core indicators for evaluating channel effectiveness.

(5) Conversion rate

This is the most core indicator for evaluating each channel, namely the number of registrations/visits. However, this is often the calculation formula used in the background. When actually evaluating the channel effect, it is also necessary to count the results of the number of registrations/coverage to provide an additional dimension for reasonable evaluation.

In actual channel reports, the data dimensions that can be counted and needed are far more than this. There will be a ratio between every two statistics. The purpose is to facilitate a more comprehensive evaluation of the promotion effect of a certain channel, and this must be achieved through technology.

The author was once in charge of a project promoting a trial class. Every day, he would keep an eye on such channel data statistics tables in the background, refreshing them several times every minute. The purpose was to adjust the promotion strategy in a timely manner based on real-time changes in the data.

In addition, the people who operate the promotion need to add relevant information of the promotion plan based on this table, such as frequency, copywriting, etc., and flexibly adjust the promotion copywriting, promotion cycle, etc. of each channel according to the daily data changes.

However, one reality that needs to be exposed is that most operators sometimes cannot see such a table, either because the promoted product is not perfect or there is no data statistical support at all, or because the registration process for the product is very useless and requires cross-platform registration, resulting in the inability to count the data.

In this case, how can we do a good job in channel promotion? The author uses a recent trading case to illustrate how I solved this problem.

IV. Case Review

I have been working on micro-course operations recently, mainly traffic courses, and promotion work occupies a large part of the operation work. Fortunately, I am used to sorting out the process and refining the sop, plus I am a little versatile, so I can do what a team should do by myself.

In the process of promoting micro-courses, the first thing to do is to take inventory of the channels, mainly official accounts, personal accounts, branch schools, QQ groups, teacher’s circle of friends, etc. When broken down, there can be nearly ten channels, and then we design and provide copywriting for each channel.

The next step is the implementation of the promotion. As mentioned before, it is best to have a promotion plan, even a simple one is fine, which includes the promotion time and frequency of each channel.

When I was promoting, I made a simple comparison with the micro-course registration data in the same period last time. How did I make the comparison? Experience. Since there is no statistical data to support it, and I still remember the data from the last micro-class clearly, I use experience to make a direct comparison.

I discovered the problem: the number of registrations was increasing too slowly and adjustments were needed, so I increased the frequency of promotions on WeChat and QQ groups from once a day to twice a day; I advanced the time and intensity of promotions on other channels, such as repeatedly emphasizing to branch schools that micro-courses can help them recruit students better and arrange promotions as soon as possible; I worked hard to adjust the copy and lowered the enrollment expectations from 2,000 to 1,000.

Unfortunately, none of these tasks were done to the utmost due to limited energy. Tasks like copywriting testing could not be performed and could only be simply modified. Fortunately, the expected number of registrations after adjustment was still achieved.

Through this simple review, I want to tell all operators that many times we cannot get the operating conditions that meet our expectations. At this time, we can only find ways to do controllable things and complete the operating indicators as much as possible.

Of course, the results are often unsatisfactory, but as long as you have tried your best, it will not be in vain.

The above is my sharing on channel promotion. There are many details that have not been expanded, such as A/B testing of copywriting, specific operations of each channel, and effectiveness evaluation models of each channel. These all belong to the technical level and require collaboration of the entire team, rather than being solved by one person. I hope you can understand this.

To summarize the core content of this article:

1. The overall work of channel promotion is mainly divided into three steps: channel inventory -> promotion rhythm -> effect evaluation;
2. Take inventory of the main free channels and break them down into smaller categories, such as WeChat official accounts, WeChat groups, and personal accounts, and QQ groups and QQ spaces, to determine the appropriate form for promotion;
3. Formulate a promotion plan, arrange the promotion rhythm reasonably, facilitate execution, and flexibly adjust according to actual conditions;
4. Refine channel promotion data and evaluate channel conversion effects from all angles, preferably with technical statistical support.

above.

Related reading:

1. APP channel promotion: How to conduct channel evaluation efficiently?

2. APP channel promotion: 3 major channels and experience sharing!

3. Highlights of APP promotion through free and paid channels!

4. Channel promotion: How to choose high-quality and suitable APP promotion channels

5. Omnichannel Promotion | How to find an effective user interaction strategy?

6. How to carry out App channel promotion? 3 stages!

Author: Chi Yuluo

Source: Naowei