User operation: effective strategies for user segmentation and precise growth channels!

This article takes Toutiao as an example, taking new users as the starting point, and establishes a user model for its own brand products by analyzing the consumption behavior data of existing users and mining potential customer information. Through this model, it finds effective channels for user growth and new users, and matches them with efficient user acquisition strategies to achieve rapid user growth.

In the marketing industry, there is a classic case - how to sell a batch of wooden combs to monks in the temple.

The standard answer given by traditional sales companies is to use temples as distribution channels, develop monks into sales agents, sell combs to devout believers who burn incense and worship Buddha in temples, and use the sales selling point of "combing away thousands of worries". This kind of misplaced marketing thinking, or marketing thinking, has always been regarded as a classic by insurance companies and sales companies, and is often used in case materials in offline training sessions.

Why is this not a good case?

In fact, monks are not direct users of combs. According to the user operation thinking of the Internet, we should focus on precise channels and efficient new customer acquisition strategies. The positioning of this channel was wrong from the beginning, and it is pure nonsense at the moment. This case was also mentioned as a negative sales example in a public interview by Jack Ma.

When it comes to user stratification, we have to talk about the company Toutiao. Toutiao's products are expanded based on user stratification growth, and the huge product matrix clearly corresponds to specific user groups. Especially the two products, Dongchedi and Jimeng, which were launched later, directly targeted vertical groups of people as product positioning. This approach is worth learning from.

Toutiao product matrix

1. User group portrait: Multi-dimensional data construction of three-dimensional user portrait

When many companies conduct user research, the user portrait part becomes a formality. It is not enough to simply conduct a superficial analysis based on user age, gender, and region. An analysis that is too superficial has no practical significance.

The author believes that a more in-depth user portrait should not be produced solely by the marketing department or external consulting agencies. Portraits based on user questionnaires and user interviews are not sufficient to explain the problem, and it is difficult to accurately locate target potential customers. Only data will not lie. The most authentic and reliable user portrait should be obtained through data operation analysis and combined with external industry information.

A user portrait is three-dimensional and has depth. Every time I make a user portrait for a new product, I imagine the process as painting a mural, where inks of different raw materials are superimposed layer by layer. The final portrait has different indicators (color difference), different angles (geometric proportions), and different guidance (visual).

1. Four common dimensions for describing user portraits:

• Based on the user's basic information: gender, age group, region, education level, source channel, registration behavior, etc.;
• Environmental information based on social attributes: job type, occupational label, family status (whether there are children), marital status, etc.;
• User behavior data: user activity, active cycle, daily active time, usage preferences, price preferences, number of interactions, etc.;
• User consumption habits and contribution: single contribution amount, cumulative contribution amount, last consumption time, consumption frequency, complaint rate, etc.

2. Define products through user portraits and adjust market direction through user insights

Continuing with the analysis of Toutiao’s two short video products, the user portraits and user insights are very well done. In the early stages of its product maturity, Douyin targeted young working-class users in first- and second-tier cities, and trendiness and innovation were the labels for this group. At this stage, Tik Tok has developed to a mature and explosive period, and has begun to evolve from a "young" user profile to a "universal" user. The product tone and content operation direction are also being adjusted.

Volcano Video focuses more on people outside the Fifth Ring Road, from third- and fourth-tier cities to young people in fourth- and fifth-tier towns, and the age range of the population is also more focused on 25-35 years old.

Tik Tok’s current user profile

User portrait of Huoshan Video

Internet giants are now advocating consumption upgrades or downgrades. This is not a problem from the perspective of the overall economic environment, but we have to admit that circle economy is still the mainstream at the current stage of social development and will exist for a long time. Building a three-dimensional user portrait and finding accurate user circles are the prerequisites for the sustainable and effective development of the product.

2. Positioning potential customers: locking in and penetrating user circles

Focus and fission are a mutual process. Should we focus on one group of people first or develop a large and comprehensive customer base first?

Let’s draw a user circle diagram first. At different stages of product development, different user groups should be explored accordingly.

Three basic logics for constructing potential user circle graphs:

1. Target core users based on basic portrait dimensions (age group, geographic space, occupational label, etc.);
2. After the product matures, how to expand secondary users through user circle mining;
3. Through industry user research, we build a user management and labeling system to enter the big blue ocean.

For example, the user circle mining of Volcano Video has entered a mature stage. It focuses on the leisure urban youth circle outside the Fifth Ring Road with crowd interest tags, locks in the high-net-worth middle-level user circle with user contribution, and penetrates the vertical professional circle through crowd occupational classification.

3. Reach out through different channels to achieve rapid user growth

Traditional advertisers have a motto: I know that half of the advertising budget is wasted, but I don’t know which half. From the transformation of 4A companies in the advertising industry and the rise of digital marketing agencies, we can see that this phenomenon will gradually disappear in the current era where performance-based delivery is the mainstream development trend.

Continuing with the case in the previous article, we will continue to use the automotive industry as a research object. The automobile category is a large consumer category. The user profile of China's automobile industry is: 60% are male, 60% are born between 1980 and 1990, the majority are from coastal provinces, and most users use domestic models. If we focus on the car rental industry, this portrait will appear very abstract. As mentioned earlier, we can combine multi-dimensional data to build a more three-dimensional user portrait first. (Due to the lack of user behavior data and consumption data, this portrait can be further improved and upgraded)

Find scenarios through user portraits, penetrate channels through scenarios, and establish a user growth channel ecosystem.

After achieving the goal of positioning potential users from user portraits, the next step is to analyze and lock in user channels. Let’s take the short-term rental business of eHi Car Rental as an example. The car usage scenarios of short-term rental users are mainly concentrated in transportation hubs, hotels, large communities, and business districts. It can be seen that business travelers are the largest user group for short-term rentals. Based on this relevant scenario, accurate traffic channels can be found. If there is sufficient funding, saturation delivery can be targeted at these channels without wasting the "half of the advertising fee" mentioned earlier.

eHi's business has been expanding rapidly in recent years, and it has basically penetrated the above channels. In terms of offline traffic channel expansion, eHi has established its own distribution system, using the SaaS system as the middle-office support, integrating the scattered channels of offline scenarios into its own sales system, and forming a user growth channel ecosystem.

I wrote this article hoping that you who are engaged in user operations will treat our customers well, avoid using a wide-ranging approach to attract new users to disturb non-precise users, and achieve "what we need and what we get".

In this era of rampant competition among homogeneous products and increasingly expensive traffic, no matter how large your budget is, it will eventually run out. Moreover, it is "winter" now, so you should use the best resources where they matter the most to achieve refined operations. Doing a good job of user segmentation and accurate reach is the sword of victory for those who are engaged in user growth-related work.

Source: Rushiyiwen