Xiaohongshu blogger’s money-making rules!

Today, Xiaohongshu has become a "gemstone" for many brands to place advertising ads. Perfect Diary became the "pride of domestic products" on Xiaohongshu that year.

Correspondingly, Xiaohongshu has also become a "must-fight place" for creators. People flock to the platform one after another, hoping to "make a fortune" here and receive business orders from brands.

However, the "ability to make money" of different Xiaohongshu bloggers is very different. According to Qiangua data, @易梦玲, a Xiaohongshu blogger with more than 3 million fans, has an estimated quote of 500,000 yuan for a picture and text note and 550,000 yuan for a video note.

Image source: Qiangua Data

But some creators also complained that they had accumulated fans with great difficulty, but they could never get promotions, and even if they did, they could only earn a few hundred dollars.

So how can Xiaohongshu bloggers monetize their accounts faster and better, and receive high-priced business orders?

This time, the operation agency contacted a media person responsible for brand placement, @珺珺, to talk about what kind of accounts brands prefer and what bloggers should do to win the favor of brands.

01 What kind of accounts are more popular on Xiaohongshu?

Before creating an account with strong monetization capabilities, bloggers often consider the following questions: What field should I choose? Do you want to create a persona for your account? What kind of character do you want to create? What content format is better? Pictures or videos?

In the eyes of brands, what kind of fields, personalities, and content formats do they need?

1) Focus on vertical fields, which affect bidding

@珺珺 told the operation agency that, in fact, there is no situation where brands prefer bloggers in popular fields (such as beauty and skin care) and dislike bloggers in niche fields (such as digital technology and snacks).

When brands make advertising campaigns, they often select bloggers in a corresponding field based on the product category. For example, if you want to promote beauty products, you will look for beauty bloggers.

But brands sometimes choose multiple bloggers from different fields. When the aromatherapy brand "Guanxia" was promoting its aromatherapy, it found fragrance review blogger @恋恋闻香, home blogger @Leean and art blogger @Duolan, etc.

Data source: Qiangua Data

Although the fields of home and art do not directly correspond to fragrance, they are related to fragrance to a certain extent, so they are also within the consideration of brands.

What Xiaohongshu bloggers mainly do is to choose a good track and output vertical content so that brands can understand at a glance what field they are bloggers in. Instead of treating Xiaohongshu as a circle of friends, posting outfits today and food tomorrow, the messy content will make brands "confused".

However, @珺珺 mentioned that the price of the promoted product is directly proportional to the brand’s bid. For example, when a brand wants to place an ad on digital products such as computers and mobile phones with higher average order values, the bid will be higher than that on snacks and stationery products with lower average order values.

In other words, if Xiaohongshu bloggers want to earn a high advertising fee, they have to take on the promotion of high-priced products, so they have to move closer to "high-priced products" when choosing the track at the beginning.

2) Having multiple accounts

A distinctive personality can leave a deep impression not only on fans but also on the brand.

So what kind of personality do brands prefer? @珺珺 told the operation agency that this was chosen based on the brand's tone.

“If the overall tone of a brand is high-end, even if it is launching products with relatively low average order value, it will look for bloggers with high-end personalities.”

For example, Nike once approached blogger @Ricci to promote a pair of running shoes. Judging from the content of the notes, the personality displayed by @Ricci is that of a fashionable, cheerful and lively girl who often shares her fitness and daily outfits, which is consistent with Nike's trendy brand tone.

@珺珺 also added, “Brands will also consider the blogger’s career. If (the blogger) has a good career, that will be a plus.”

Just like @Ricci’s profession is a freelance model, perhaps in Nike’s eyes, the “model” profession is a good bonus, which can better highlight the brand’s “fashion and trend” characteristics.

When establishing their personal image, Xiaohongshu bloggers can start from their own situation. If you are a white-collar worker with decent financial strength, you can establish the persona of a "sophisticated woman", which will make it easier for you to receive promotions from mid- to high-end brands later; if you are a student, you can establish a "down-to-earth" persona, which will make it easier for you to receive promotions from popular brands.

@珺珺 also mentioned, “When brands launch some theme activities, they hope to find bloggers with multiple and rich personalities. Diverse personalities can better express the theme that the brand wants to convey.”

The operation agency found that "HokaOneOne" cooperated with blogger @董奕杭_ to promote running shoes this year under the theme of "March 8th Women's Day".

Data source: Qiangua Data

@董奕杭_ is a blogger with multiple identities. She is not only a fitness expert who loves sports, but also a model with a basic knowledge of ballet. The character setting of "having multiple hobbies and skills" can better convey the concept that the brand wants to promote - "No matter what stage women are in, they should do what they want to do."

Xiaohongshu bloggers can also establish diverse personalities for themselves based on their own occupations, experiences, and personalities, allowing brands to see more "possibilities."

3) Choose the content format you are good at

In addition to the field and personality, the blogger's content format is also a factor that affects brand cooperation and bidding.

According to the data displayed by Qiangua Data, the estimated quotation of video notes is generally higher than that of picture and text notes. In August 2020, Xiaohongshu also provided traffic support, cash and traffic tool rewards, etc. to creators who opened video accounts.

This means that compared to pictures and texts, high-quality video notes are more likely to obtain traffic and high advertising fees.

Image source: Qiangua Data

But this does not mean that bloggers must choose the "video" content format. @珺珺 said, " Brands' requirements for content formats are sometimes based on promotion budgets. When the budget is limited, they tend to prefer pictures and texts."

Bloggers only need to choose the content format they are good at. Whether it is text or video is not the decisive factor that affects whether a brand wants to cooperate.

02 How can bloggers demonstrate the quality of their content?

After determining the field, personality, and content format, the next thing the blogger needs to do is to continuously optimize and improve the account data. Because the data directly represents the quality of the blogger's content.

What data do brands focus on when selecting bloggers? What data will affect the brand’s bid?

1) Keep increasing your followers

@珺珺 told the operation agency that the number of fans is the first factor affecting the brand's bid. In other words, the more fans there are, the higher the brand bids.

But this does not mean that only top bloggers will receive the most business orders. At present, mid-level bloggers are also the favorites of brands.

@珺珺 said, “Now when brands are doing advertising, they mainly rely on mid-level bloggers, and top bloggers will only cooperate during important node events.”

The definition of top, middle and bottom (primary) bloggers in Qiangua Data

In other words, if a blogger on Xiaohongshu is at the mid-level, although he cannot get super high bids, he can receive advertisements frequently; if he develops into a top blogger, although the number of advertisements may decline, the brand bid will increase accordingly.

But whether you are a mid-level or top blogger, you need to maintain a steady increase in followers.

@诗儿, co-founder of Li Ke Culture, once said in a conversation with the operation agency that brands like to find bloggers who are in the rising stage of increasing followers to do advertising because they are cost-effective.

The blogger's followers increase quickly, but the speed of content production is limited, so this advertisement will be exposed in the front position of the blogger's homepage for quite a long time. Brands can obtain a lot of "long-tail traffic" from it.

The operation agency found that many bloggers are facing a confusion: they have produced one or two popular notes, but the number of new fans brought by this is not high.

This may be because users do not recognize the overall content quality of the account. Users may just like this one note, but the overall content of the account is different from what they expected.

Therefore, if Xiaohongshu bloggers want to maintain their following, they must ultimately ensure the verticality and high quality of each note.

2) Produce more popular notes

In addition to the number of fans, brands will also pay attention to another data that reflects the quality of the content, the explosive post rate, which refers to the ratio of bloggers producing explosive notes.

Assuming that a blogger’s homepage has a total of 100 notes, 20 of which are “explosive” with particularly good interactive data (likes, favorites, and reposts), then the blogger’s explosive post rate is 20%.

@无惧, a self-media person who works as an agent for Xiaohongshu, pointed out that brands prefer bloggers with a high rate of explosive posts, because brands hope that the business notes they post have more chances of becoming explosive hits.

So how much interactive data should a note reach to be called a "hit"? There is actually no absolute numerical standard. It depends on the number of fans and track of the blogger .

Marketing consultant @庄俊, who has 4 years of experience in Xiaohongshu marketing, once mentioned in a conversation with @亿邦动力:

For ordinary bloggers, a post can be called a "hot item" if the number of likes, collections, and comments reaches 1,000. But for a blogger with 200,000 followers, such data is not outstanding.

If it is in the maternal and infant field, a note with an interaction data of 500 is considered a "hot item", because the content in the maternal and infant field is highly homogenized and it is difficult to produce a "hot item".

It is not enough for Xiaohongshu bloggers to produce only one or two popular notes. They should produce as many popular notes as possible.

03 How can bloggers demonstrate their ability to promote content?

While bloggers are taking good notes, they also need to demonstrate their ability to promote products to brands. Because the ultimate goal of a brand’s advertising is often to achieve high conversions.

So how does a brand determine whether a blogger’s ability to promote products is up to par? How should bloggers respond?

1) Leave space for advertisements

The prerequisite for demonstrating your ability to promote products is to show the "possibility of embedded advertising" in your notes .

@Wuwei suggested that if bloggers want to receive more business orders, the key is to "leave enough advertising space" in the content.

The so-called “leaving good space for advertisements” means setting up as many scenes as possible in the notes so that advertisements can be naturally embedded.

@Fearless gave an example:

As a book review blogger, if you only shoot a few books, you can only receive promotion for book lists. In addition to showing off books, you can also show off various desk items in your notes, such as Bluetooth headsets, bookshelves, mouse pads, etc., so that you can receive promotions for other office supplies.

Image source: Xiaohongshu blogger @Fearless

The blogger only shows a single scene in his notes, which is equivalent to discouraging the brand by saying “I can only recommend one product in my notes.” Presenting diverse scenarios in notes provides more room for advertising.

2) Optimize business notes

The blogger’s business notes from past collaborations will also be included in the brand’s assessment. @珺珺 said, “Brands will observe the interaction data of past business notes. If the data is too bad, the brand will not consider it.”

Therefore, bloggers should also treat business notes carefully and find ways to present an advertisement that users will like.

Taking the beauty brand "Bobbi Brown" as an example, after observing several business notes with high interaction data, the operation agency found that these notes usually have several characteristics.

The first is to set up "gimmicks" in the title and cover , such as "scheming makeup", "built-in skin smoothing", "yellow and black skin correction fluid", and "minimalist pseudo-bare face makeup". Such "gimmicks" can often directly hit the user's pain points and arouse their interest in clicking.

The most popular business notes for "Bobby Brown" in the past 3 months. Data source: Qiangua Data

Second, advertisements are embedded more naturally in the notes. They will even share their own practical knowledge instead of just stiffly "reading advertising copy".

For example, the business note of beauty blogger @你找哪只熊_ received 12,000 likes, exceeding the blogger’s average number of likes of 8,457 (source: Qiangua data, collected on April 22).

The note starts from the perspective of "evaluating a certain cosmetic product". The blogger directly applies the cosmetic product on his face in the video, which enhances the "credibility" of the advertisement. At the same time, the blogger also shared his or her own makeup skills and techniques, providing users with certain practical knowledge output.

3) Provide positive guidance for comments

An advertising marketer @默默 once shared in @零克Club “How to become the most popular blogger for brand dads to invest in? ” points out that brands will also focus on the comment sections of past business notes and whether bloggers provide positive guidance on product inquiries in the comments.

“This not only reflects the blogger’s ability to convert content into sales, but also his or her sense of responsibility for promotion, which is often overlooked by bloggers.”

There is a "problem" in many business notes: no one in the comment section is asking questions about the product, but rather discussing other things that are not related to the product.

For example, under a note promoting "Tsingtao White Beer", most people are discussing the blogger's appearance and expressing their love for the blogger, but few people pay attention to the beer. The blogger did not actively steer the discussion toward the product.

For the brand, the effect of the promotion is greatly reduced - although there is exposure, it does not bring much actual effective conversion.

According to some business notes, many users will inquire about the products and bloggers will provide positive guidance, which is exactly what the brand expects to see. For example, in the comment section of a note promoting "Mistin" sunscreen, blogger @崔佳楠 actively answered users' questions about the product and recommended the product again.

@默默 said that if Xiaohongshu bloggers want to prove their "grass-planting conversion power" to brands, they need to do more guidance in the comment area to make the brands feel that they are promoting it with all their heart , rather than just considering the task completed after posting the note and "ignoring" the subsequent conversions.

04 Conclusion

If Xiaohongshu bloggers want to become the "best candidates" for brands to place ads and earn more advertising fees, they must ultimately master the logic of brands selecting bloggers - do a good job in their own vertical field, personality, and content format, prove the quality of the content, and demonstrate the ability to promote products.

An outstanding number of fans and popular articles are bloggers’ competitive advantages. When negotiating with brands, they can appropriately raise their quotes and gain more benefits for themselves.

But it is worth noting that the blogger’s quotation should not be too high. @珺珺 said, "If a brand sees a quotation that is out of touch with reality, it will simply choose not to cooperate." Then the loss will outweigh the gain.

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Author: Operations Editorial Department

Source: Operation Research Society