Case analysis: How can a product achieve user growth?

In recent years, the popularity of online education has only increased. Many people wonder why online education can continue to develop and what is the key point? In this article, the author will analyze from the perspective of business logic and growth core:

Over the years of working in online education, I have been thinking about a question: What is the core of the sustainable development (i.e. growth) of online education?

The answer is: productization.

Some people may object because online education is essentially education, so what is the core of education? --teacher.

The author is also a teacher and knows that the existence of this view is very normal and has core significance, because students and parents are willing to study and pay in an educational institution largely because of the teachers. The teachers in this institution teach well and provide good service, so students and parents are willing to follow them. Even the birth of online education has not changed this reality. Therefore, the training and management of teachers must be a top priority for educational institutions, so much so that it is logical to believe that teachers are the core of growth.

However, the author feels that it is too one-sided to simply assume that teachers are the core of the growth of educational institutions. In order to understand the core driving force behind the development of an enterprise or even an industry, it is also necessary to analyze and discuss from the perspective of the business model. Of course, this is also the premise that productization is the core of growth.

1. The business logic of online education

When talking about business models, everyone has their own understanding and uses various tools. For example, the most commonly used one is the business canvas, which is a very good way of analysis. However, I think or hear most analysis about business models, which are just three key words: product, traffic, and monetization. To put it in the words of Teacher Liang Ning, it is products, traffic, and conversion rate.

However, the author wants to make a modification, namely positioning, traffic, and monetization. As for the reason, the author believes that product should not be the keyword of the business model, but the specific practice to verify the business model. In other words, the product itself is the business model. With this in mind, the author further breaks down the business model of online education based on the three key words of positioning, traffic, and monetization, forming the following picture:

1. position

Positioning is something that every business must do, and I believe it is the first thing because it determines the starting point of the business model. As for specific positioning, we often hear it as occupying the user's mind. This statement is correct, but it is not the whole of positioning, because real positioning requires two things: one is user positioning, and the other is product positioning.

The first thing to figure out is who the users of an online education institution are. However, this cannot be determined based on experience alone, but rather it is broken down into many dimensions. There are generally three: basic information, behavioral habits and demand pain points.

For example: The user positioning of children's English products is: middle-class families in first-tier cities, children aged 4-12, have a strong need for English, expect teachers to be professional or even have an international background, and prefer online learning. As a result, online children's English products that we are more familiar with, such as VIPKID, DaDa English, and Baby Play English, appeared.

Secondly, online education must clarify its position in the industry, which requires refining from multiple angles such as learning model, teaching and research level, teacher quality, curriculum system, and technology accumulation. For example: Most online education companies have proposed that "you can learn easily at home without leaving your home", which focuses on the physical and time advantages of online over offline, and this also establishes the long-term competitive advantage of online education.

1. flow

Traffic is a prerequisite for the verification of a business model, because no matter how good, awesome or new a product is, it is just empty talk if no one uses it. As for how to obtain traffic, this is not only a problem that online education has always faced, but also a problem faced by any industry. Because traffic can directly determine life and death, this is very scary.

As for traffic acquisition and operation, two ideas that are currently more popular are growth hacker thinking and traffic pool thinking. If we simply explain the difference between the two: the former is data-centric, while the latter is operation-centric. However, the author believes that these two ideas are actually guidance for specific traffic acquisition behaviors, which can avoid many detours. However, when thinking at a higher level, we need to avoid the influence of these two ways of thinking and jump to the global thinking of traffic.

What is the global thinking of traffic? ——That is, the running path of the traffic.

For online education, the traffic goes through the following steps: recruiting new users - promoting activation - conversion - word of mouth.

Recruiting new customers: Attracting traffic through channels and fission methods. Common methods include paid placement, social marketing, WeChat marketing, etc.; Activation: Designing some operational actions and promotional activities to activate and increase the frequency of users and create stickiness; Conversion: Starting from user needs, provide experiential products and services to reduce decision-making costs and increase the possibility of monetization. Word of mouth: Active user recommendations and brand accumulation based on meeting needs, improving results, and even exceeding expectations.

In these links, there are many frequently mentioned gameplays and modes, such as social fission, gamification operations, etc. These are all specific implementation methods in the above links, so I will not go into details.

1. Monetization

Monetization can be simply understood as realizing user transactions, but there are two types of transactions: one is the continuous transactions of a certain category, which is called class renewal in the education field; the other is that based on the transactions of a certain category, users can purchase products in other categories, which is called additional subjects in the education field.

Renewing classes and adding subjects are areas that the entire education industry, including online education, pays attention to, and are also the core manifestations of growth.

When talking about growth now, most people will think of the growth in registrations and payments. In fact, the real growth is the growth in the number of users of core products, and its reasonable name is retention.

For online education, "renewing classes + adding subjects" is equal to retention, which is determined by the particularity of educational products. Because once students decide to study in a certain institution, they will try their best to follow the teaching system; if there is an interruption, it will be difficult to keep up, and it will cost more to choose and adapt to the new system. This is the premise for students to renew their enrollment.

In addition, institutions will not only offer one subject, they will definitely offer other subjects. In order to generate revenue and further bind students, they will definitely encourage students of a certain subject to purchase new courses, further increasing the possibility of students staying in the institution. Therefore, "the number of users who renew their classes + the number of users who add courses" is the core growth indicator that an online education company should pay attention to.

2. The core of sustainable growth: productization

As I mentioned earlier, the product itself is a business model, and productization is the implementation strategy based on the above analysis.

What's the meaning?

That is, from positioning to monetization, one or several products are provided to achieve the connection of each link, thus forming a product system and matrix. For example: in terms of positioning and monetization, it is necessary to determine the specific form of the core product, including the teaching model and subject system, such as VIPKID's 1-on-1 foreign teacher classes and Yuanfudao's elementary school mathematics system classes.

As for traffic, we can launch traffic conversion products suitable for each traffic link, such as the free introductory course of Baby English and the group experience course of Onion Mathematics.

By implementing products in the three aspects of positioning, traffic, and monetization, the entire business model can be made clearer and growth more efficient.

So, what aspects should be paid attention to if productization is to be implemented?

The author believes that there are three points that can be said to be important components of online education products: service, content and teaching.

1. Serve

The service requirements for traffic conversion products and core products are different: the former should be light, while the latter should be heavy, but the requirements of the former must be close to those of the latter.

For example, although both the trial live classes and the full-priced live classes are in the form of live broadcasts, the former may be configured as "WeChat group + Q&A", but the latter is "WeChat group + Q&A + homework correction + learning reports + personalized care". This is the difference in service, but also the difference in price.

Of course, there are counterexamples. For example, the difference in service between Baby English’s introductory course and premium system course is very small. Both are “community + training camp” models, and the most fundamental difference lies in the content.

1. content

Content is the key to product implementation, and its core is to form a standardized grading system.

The author has mentioned that the core indicator of educational product growth is retention, that is, ensuring the continuity, standardization and systematization of student learning is the most direct guarantee. An example of something you can learn from is Xueersi. Each grade in its "Twelve-Grade Primary School Mathematics System" has corresponding learning content and training objectives, and there are classes of different difficulty levels to match students with different learning abilities.

Of course, the English subject also has a corresponding system. For example, VIPKID’s main courses have an 8-level system. Each level is matched to the corresponding age group and also puts forward training requirements. However, compared with subjects such as mathematics, there is a lack of stratification and low sustainability, and the system itself is also being improved.

1. teaching

In addition to services and content, teaching is the third factor that affects productization. This mainly refers to the teaching of core products, including teaching models, teaching methods, and teacher training.

The teaching mode is the way of attending classes that students accept, and there are four main teaching modes in online education: online one-on-one, live small classes, live large classes with two teachers, and private classes. They each have their own advantages and disadvantages, and we will not compare them here. Because the teaching model is not the only determinant of teaching effectiveness, teaching methods and teacher training are more critical.

The core of teaching methods is standardization, which is used to reasonably evaluate and control the teaching quality of teachers and ensure that students have a good teaching experience; while teacher training is based on teaching methods and formulates corresponding training content and assessment standards.

Take the example of an offline institution: New Oriental Youneng Middle School did not have a standardized teaching method before, which led to its growth being hindered and severe student loss. In order to change this situation, we had to carry out teaching reforms and introduced the seven-step teaching method, which was later used to catch up in market share.

For traffic conversion products, the requirements for content and teaching are definitely lower than those for core products, and from a growth perspective, core products are more important. However, what can be done is to transfer the productization experience of core products to traffic conversion products, which can significantly improve the front-end customer acquisition level.

Therefore, if we do a good job in service, content and teaching, productization can be implemented quickly. Of course, we must also adhere to an "iterative thinking" mindset, promptly adjust product strategies based on market and user feedback, and quickly polish and improve product quality.

Conclusion

The product itself is a business model, and the same is true for online education. When conducting specific analysis, we can consider three aspects: positioning, traffic, and monetization. It can be clearly seen that the core indicator of online education user growth is retention, that is, class renewal and additional subjects. The key to ensuring the growth of online education users is to implement product implementation strategies based on positioning, traffic, and monetization. Specifically, we should focus on services, content, and teaching, especially core products. For traffic conversion products, we can simply copy the experience.

Author: Dugushang

Source: Dugu Operation