Product Operation: How to create a high retention product training camp?

The reason for writing this article is that I have finished a job related to boot camp enrollment. In order to improve myself and re-examine the original intention, I decided to systematically sort out the product design logic of the boot camp.

Regarding the product model of the training camp, many people have given their own interpretation formulas. For example, my good friend Mu Gongzi once summarized it as: training camp = courses + homework + community + activities.

I agree very much, but I think it can be modified, that is, training camp = ceremony + community + course + activity . Next, I will break it down according to this formula.

ceremony

For everyone, there is a process of transition from one stage to another. This process often requires a ritual to reflect people's wishes and needs, or help self-realization, or bring identity recognition. This feeling is the sense of ritual.

For a training camp, once users decide to participate, they have to make a transformation to some extent. Although this process is relatively short, by creating a sense of ritual, the user's desire to participate in the training camp can be greatly increased. This is why training camps often have opening and closing ceremonies.

Next, let’s talk about what you need to pay attention to during the opening and closing ceremonies.

1. Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony generally consists of the following steps:

Preview: Notify group members in advance of matters related to the opening ceremony, and remind them to first understand the basic information of the training camp and their own brand; Warm-up: Heat up the community atmosphere in advance by sending red envelopes and asking group members to introduce themselves; Formal introduction: Systematically explain the purpose of the training camp, brand introduction, schedule, content introduction, teacher introduction, check-in rules, exclusive benefits, etc., so that group members can clearly understand what to do next and how to do it; Pilot class: Mostly in the form of short videos, let group members systematically understand the importance and general content of the special training camp, and prepare for the first wave of conversions.

For example, Xiaobu Early Education is an early education product that the author recently discovered that is similar to the Baby Plays English (name changed) model. Their opening ceremony is conducted according to the above process, especially the addition of pilot classes, which is refreshing.

2. Closing Ceremony

Similar to the opening ceremony, the closing ceremony also has fixed parts, mainly as follows:

Review: Systematically review the learning content of the entire training camp and make a summary of the essence; Comments: Praise users who have performed well during the training camp, and evaluate and guide those who have done a good job in checking in; Q&A: Answer questions related to the training camp content raised by group members during the period; Easter eggs: Send the ultimate training camp benefits, give a sense of honor and surprise, and pave the way for the final conversion.

A typical case is that the author has experienced its user growth course. During the closing ceremony, the teacher gave comments and answered questions, and the final easter egg part guided students towards the full-priced course.

In fact, at this stage you can receive medals of honor or related small benefits, and then link them with the courses, the conversion effect may be further improved.

Community

Community is the second essential element of the bootcamp model. Why? Because according to most people's understanding, it is necessary to build a community. With a community, you can implement operational actions on users in a centralized and efficient manner to promote conversion.

This makes sense, because humans are social animals, and blind conformity and emotionality are typical characteristics. These can be used to implement specific actions in the community, thereby influencing the minds and behaviors of group members.

So for training camps, what kind of group is easier to control and influence? The answer is class-type groups, which I think is the most suitable community form for training camps.

Class-type communities have two obvious characteristics: one is strong rules, and the other is a learning atmosphere. Let’s talk about them separately.

1. Strong regularity

The so-called strong rules mean that group members must follow certain rules, otherwise they will be punished. In the community of the training camp, the rules are generally divided into the following two aspects:

Rules to ensure community experience: prohibit group members from posting advertisements, and prohibit members from chatting about content unrelated to the special training camp theme; rules to protect community trust: prohibit impersonating group owners to post messages, and prohibit privately adding all group members as friends.

Once rules are established, there must be punishment measures for breaking them, just like making loud noises in class will be criticized by the teacher and made to copy the text as punishment. In the community, if the above two rules are broken, the lighter ones will be a warning, and the heavier ones will be removed from the group chat, and other members will be informed that they will be disqualified from the activities.

By establishing rules and punishment measures, it can serve as a warning to users in the group and lay the foundation for creating a good learning atmosphere.

2. Learning atmosphere

As mentioned earlier, communities should be organized into classes. Another major feature of class-type communities is that they have a learning atmosphere, which is the most essential difference from general communities.

What is a learning atmosphere? I personally think that the most important performance is that group members can take the initiative to initiate topics and discussions about the content of the training camp, just like students in a class can take the initiative to ask questions to the teacher and have free discussions with classmates.

However, this is too difficult for a newly formed short-term community. Even if the content of the training camp hits the user's pain points, the probability of causing spontaneous discussions is not very high, so strategic topic guidance and sharing incentives are needed.

As for the specific operational details, it depends on the situation, but the basic routine is nothing more than the group owner, class teacher, or even the main teacher to initiate the topic, and match it with corresponding incentive designs that can promote conversion, such as rewards that can be used to redeem points for courses, peripheral gifts, etc.

However, this is considered a basic strategy. A more advanced approach is for users to initiate topics. There are two ways you can try.

One is to invite or recruit core users to share. For example, if Baby Plays English, parents of students who are class representatives will be invited to share their children’s learning achievements, and students outside the circle will invite students with good performance in the group to share on the topic.

The second is to give the content of exercises or check-ins certain sharing attributes, and the content must be positive. For example, you can require check-ins on reading notes to be sent to the group, and select the best ones to create a gap. At this time, based on the boosting effect, latent group members will gradually become active. At this time, guiding the discussion of related topics can achieve twice the result with half the effort.

However, the above is only a strategy. When it comes to actual implementation, it will be found that the results are often difficult to meet expectations, because the compulsory nature and learning atmosphere are difficult to compare with actual classes. However, users can get real value and an experience that exceeds expectations, which will undoubtedly be of great help to the activation, retention, and conversion of the training camp.

course

The course is the core part of the training camp and the key to attracting users. In the training camp model, the course design mainly includes the following parts:

1. Course Objectives

The purpose of the course determines the purpose of the training camp. Generally speaking, there are two types of training camp courses: one is biased towards a specific ability, and the other is biased towards a specific knowledge. In the words of Mu Gongzi, they are "ability-based courses" and "information-based courses."

For training camps, more emphasis should be placed on efficiently cultivating certain abilities or skills, such as concentration, thinking ability, memory, or writing, speaking, time management, etc. After learning these contents, they need to go through practical operations, practice and testing, so that you can know whether you have mastered or acquired a certain ability. This is obviously more in line with the model and positioning of the training camp.

1. Course Content

A major feature of the training camp is concentrated learning, and the learning content needs to present three characteristics.

First, there should be a systematic framework, that is, a complete, clear, and logically progressive content outline, which should be based on corresponding theoretical basis or systematic experience summary, rather than being fabricated out of thin air and randomly arranged.

For example: the calculation training camp for elementary school mathematics has a scientific and reasonable content system regarding the specific methods and ability levels of calculation, and the essential points that can be presented in the outline are extracted based on this system.

Second, there is an advanced system, that is, the training camp can serve as an introductory course for the product of the capability advancement system. The basic logic should be that the training camp is a part of the entire product system, connecting downstream courses (lower capability requirements) and upstream courses (higher capability requirements).

For example: for training camp products that cultivate design habits, the beginner level can allow students to learn the basic note-taking method, the intermediate level requires them to learn a scientific note-taking method, and the advanced level requires them to master a learning method that combines note-taking. Specifically, it is "x-day note-taking training camp-x-day Cornell note-taking method training camp-x-day note-taking review method training camp".

What I want to emphasize about the advanced system is that we must design a differentiated experience and design a complete traffic conversion system according to the purpose of "attracting traffic-experience-conversion-monetization", such as "free 3-day training camp-low-priced 7-day experience camp-high-priced 14-day intensive training camp-full-priced 30-day special training camp", with service levels from low to high, and entry barriers also from low to high, to achieve layer-by-layer screening of traffic and efficient conversion.

Third, it must be transferable, that is, users who have completed the training camp can be retained in other products. This product can be the training camp itself, short-term classes, long-term classes, or membership products. There needs to be a certain relevance in content between the training camp and the transfer products. There should not be such weird things as "users of elementary school training camps sign up for high school courses."

For example: a special training camp for self-control suitable for primary school students can be linked to the regular-priced small-class subject courses, because the small-class courses take into account the problem of self-control of primary school students and design relevant classroom functions, and this point can be highlighted in the training camp courses.

3. Learning session design

The design of the learning session of the training camp is the most prominent part that highlights its model positioning. Generally, the learning session of a training camp follows this process: listening to lectures and learning - practicing and checking in - comments and summarizing - testing and evaluation.

This process is similar to the normal learning process, namely "teach-learn-practice-test-evaluate", but there are slight differences in the specific details. Let's briefly break it down:

Learning by listening to lectures: Users need to choose a way to learn the content. In terms of effect, live broadcast is better than recorded broadcast, and video is better than audio. However, considering the autonomy of training camp learning and the low operating costs, recorded audio or video is a better choice. Practice check-in: There must be corresponding exercises or homework behind each class. For ability-based courses, exercises or homework are mostly practical content, and are mostly submitted in the form of photos. This is significantly different from the practice homework of information-based courses, because the practical content is easy to see the effect, which is more suitable for students to learn and imitate each other, and it is also convenient for teachers to point out problems and discover advantages. Comments and summary: After students submit their check-ins, teachers need to comment on the homework or exercises, give students corresponding feedback, and summarize the whole. This step is conducted frequently and helps students to devote themselves to learning the next day. Test evaluation: After several days of check-in learning, it is necessary to use tests to evaluate the students’ learning effects, and give corresponding commendations and rewards accordingly, which will help spread word of mouth.

When designing the specific learning process, the "addiction model" can be used to effectively improve the course completion rate and check-in participation rate. In addition, daily class reminders, check-in guidance, sign-in replies and other social group notifications should be timely, using methods such as @all members and sending red envelopes. These are also significantly helpful in improving participation and completion rates.

Activity

In addition to courses, corresponding activities are also indispensable in training camps, which are very helpful for activating, retaining and converting users. There are three main common forms of training camp activities.

The first is live sharing, which involves inviting outstanding students, former students, etc. to share their learning experiences, or additional courses assigned by the instructor. This is a soft activity that aims to increase the value of the training camp. The second type is team competition, that is, team PK, allowing students to freely form teams to check in and study, and give material rewards to the group that persists in studying the longest. The purpose is to use the team collaboration effect to increase students' enthusiasm for learning. The third type is welfare activities, which is to add some small benefits, such as gift packages, free draws, group purchases, flash sales, etc. The purpose is to increase community activity and pave the way for overall conversion.

For example: New Oriental launched a "1 Yuan Lucky Bag" flash sale in its training camp, which includes audio courses, accompanying reading courses, book subsidies, course subsidies, etc., with an original price of 1,999 yuan. It set marketing strategies such as time limits, limits, and income cards, which greatly increased the sense of urgency and conversion efficiency of community users.

The above is a complete analysis of the training camp product model. The reference formula is "training camp = ceremony + community + course + activity", among which the course is the core and the key to gathering users.

Hope it's useful for you.

Author: Dugushang

Source: Dugushang