Do you understand the full-stack thinking ability behind event promotion planning?

What kind of full-stack thinking ability is needed behind event planning? This article uses 5W2H to break it down. Enjoy~

If the product is likened to a complete person, then activities are the energy that can generate waves of power in people. Activities are the source of power and are closely linked with channel operations, data operations, user operations, new media operations and other links. The combined force will detonate the energy.

We know that a good event planning needs to have good enough creativity and be able to impress users and trigger a screen-sweeping effect. After having the creativity, there are also high requirements for the planner's implementation and coordination capabilities, which is what this article wants to introduce: event planners should have full-stack thinking capabilities!

The full stack thinking ability can be broken down into 5W2H :

• WHY: Why do it? Need to know the background of the event, is it a regular event, holiday event, or anniversary event?
• WHAT: What to do? What is the purpose of the activity? Attract new users, activity, retention, revenue?
• WHEN: When to do it? That is, determine the activity time, when does it start and when does it end?
• WHERE: Where to do it? Determine the location of the event, online or offline?
• WHO: Relevant people? Who is the activity aimed at?
• HOW：How to do it? That is, what is the plan for the activity?
• HOW MUCH: How much? That is, the expected input and output, CPC, CPA, ROI, ARPU value, etc.

1. WHY: Why do it?

From the perspective of the brand itself, activities can be organized based on new product launches, holiday marketing, channel expansion, public relations crises, major brand events, etc. From the perspective of the market environment, it is necessary to consider the industry structure, competitor dynamics, hot spots, national policies, etc.

Based on the above background, if the anniversary celebration of a business department can be positioned as a major brand event, from the activity level, it is more for enhancing brand awareness and improving performance conversion.

2. WHAT: What to do?

The purpose of the activity can be generally divided into the following points:

• Income: The factors related to income include average order value + sales volume. During the event, we need to package the hot-selling items and sales models, such as multiple orders per person (packaged sales of goods), multiple orders per person (group purchase), pre-sale purchases, limited-time and limited-quantity flash sales, full-site discounts, points redemption, etc.
• User: From the user’s perspective, all we need to focus on is attracting new users, promoting activation and retaining existing users. In terms of event operation, activities can be set up according to these three indicators respectively.

To attract new users, you can start with special preferential activities for new users. At the same time, you can also set different preferential policies for different user identities . For example, ordinary individual users can set up activities such as giving coupons to new users, free trials for new users, and gifts for new user registration. For corporate users, you can start with strong corporate support policies.

Activation promotion means improving the activity of platform users. At this time, it is necessary to analyze how long the regular login cycle of platform users is and take corresponding activities to increase the frequency of user logins. The commonly used operating methods are login points mechanism, lottery mechanism, membership level policy and other incentive measures.

Retention requires analyzing which stage the product is in, which users are losing, why they are losing, what are the means of returning users, how to retain users after returning, and how to predict that users are about to lose and take measures to prevent it in advance.

Brand: To enhance brand awareness, in addition to making the brand bigger and stronger, enhancing brand influence and public recognition, we also need to make a good crisis public relations plan to turn danger into safety in times of crisis.

3. WHEN: When to do it?

When we decide to plan an event, we need to consider the time node and cycle of the event.

Activity nodes refer to the activity warm-up period, the time when the activity starts, and the time when the activity ends.

The activity cycle refers to the duration of the activity. How often is the activity held? Is it a replicable long-term activity or a one-time activity? If it is an anniversary celebration, it will be held once a year. If it is a regular activity, you can set a certain period and plan the next review period, and adjust the intensity of the activity for different time periods.

4. WHERE: Where to do it?

The activities are mainly divided into two modes: online and offline, and the two can also be combined.

Online, the main thing is to find the traffic entrance and do a good job of directing traffic. The traffic entrances are mainly divided into on-site and off-site. The on-site ones are usually the advertising spaces for their own products, such as banners, patches, buttons, links, public accounts, etc. Off-site advertising mainly includes search engines, new media, WeChat, Weibo, text messages, emails, etc.

Offline mainly includes the location, size and layout of the venue, which mainly involves the construction and layout of the venue, as well as on-site maintenance during the event.

5. WHO: Relevant persons?

The target of the activity is the key link, that is, we need to be clear about who the activity is aimed at and who will do the activity?

Who we are doing it for means we need to understand the target audience of the activity, their basic portrait characteristics such as gender, age, behavioral habits, hobbies, etc. It is also necessary to understand the user's activity area, from large cities to small entrance decisions. At the same time, they also need to pay attention to the people they work with.

Who will be the organizer of the event? The person in charge will coordinate the overall situation, and the collaborators will be responsible for cross-departmental, cross-third-party, invitations, overall event planning, content planning, event promotion , data analysis, and post-event follow-up.

6. HOW: How to do it?

How to do it is usually the most time-consuming and labor-intensive part. We need to first determine the core activity strategy, detailed implementation steps, specific promotion channels, clear division of labor, precise time control, and accurate material preparation.

The core strategy needs to clarify the product's selling points, main hot products, themes, slogans, topics, and event formats.

For example: 50% off for new product launches, anniversary fan day, 50 yuan off for purchases over 99 yuan on imported travel guides, support for college students’ entrepreneurship, support for corporate crowd-innovation, gifts for registration, 10 yuan off for 1, etc.

(1) How to conduct online activities?

The implementation steps are divided into online and offline. Online steps mainly include drawing flow charts, prototyping, writing requirement documents, interaction, vision, reconstruction, development, testing, training, and release. The development process needs to make the activity rules clear, such as: whether the activity is reusable or one-time, the launch and end time of the activity, the promotion arrangements when it goes online, and the arrangements for taking the page offline after it ends. If there is relevant data display, the rules and methods of display must also be made clear, involving how the user interface operation retrieves information and notifies the user, such as how to prompt the user to claim the prize after winning a prize, etc.

(2) How to conduct offline activities?

Offline work mainly involves writing plans, booking venues, arranging materials, gifts and personnel, training, venue layout, on-site control, and clearing the venue. In the material preparation stage, focus on material confirmation. The most common problems are that the QR code materials cannot be scanned after printing, and the materials are not replaced in time after the event awards are changed. Another thing is to ensure the number of gifts during offline event interactions. If the gifts are sold out but the event is still going on, users will waste time but not receive the prizes, which will lead to a very bad user experience.

(3) Other factors

The main direction of channel promotion is to integrate its own channel resources, and then select appropriate self-media (Weibo, WeChat) + influential media (media, big accounts) + third-party platforms (event co-organizers, strategic partners).

In terms of personnel division of labor, online mainly includes product managers, designers, programmers, testers, project managers, and customer service. Offline mainly includes planning, copywriting, design, material and gift management (outbound/transportation/return to warehouse), collaborators (venue construction/hosting/etiquette/program), and on-site personnel (check-in/arrangement/explanation/speech/shopping guide).

In terms of time control, it is necessary to list in detail the start and acceptance time nodes of each matter, and follow up on the progress of each task in a timely manner.

Material preparation mainly involves design, production, transportation, delivery, display, recycling, and delivery of goods and awards.

As a coordinator, no matter what the division of labor is, it must be clearly assigned to individuals and the progress of each work must be followed up in a timely manner. Serious problems such as materials not being in place and software not being released should not arise until the last night. If problems arise, timely adjustments should be made. At the same time, you also need to be forward-looking and make good risk plans in advance.

7. HOW MUCH: How much?

Finally, let’s analyze how much it is estimated to cost to plan an event and what conversions it can bring?

At this point, we need to compare with the activities of the same period last year and similar activities. The comparison mainly includes the intensity of the activities, the resources invested, the changes in the industry and the conversion situation, so as to estimate the effect of this activity.

The main indicators for evaluating the effectiveness of activities include page visits, number of new users, new user conversion rate, number of users who have completed transactions, transaction conversion rate, CPC, CPA, ROI, ARPU values, etc. Of course, after we set an indicator before the event, we need to monitor various data in real time during the event. As the event coordinator, we need to have a clear grasp of the progress of each person in charge, check and adjust in a timely manner, and strive to exceed the goal.

Conclusion

Based on the above 5W2H theory, the emphasis is on the need for all-round considerations in the planning process, possessing full-stack thinking ability, overall control ability, good activity planning, goal decomposition, personnel division of labor, follow-up of various tasks, etc.

If you have taken all of these into consideration, will you be able to successfully plan an event?

The answer is no. As the saying goes, ideals are beautiful, but reality is cruel. Even if we have made the most comprehensive thinking, there will still be uncontrollable practical problems in the implementation process. For example, a general who is well-versed in military books, even if he has made a comprehensive analysis and plan in advance, even if he has made detailed arrangements in the process of leading his troops to fight, his enemies are definitely uncontrollable. At this time, he needs to have the ability to predict problems and come up with countermeasures for every possible problem, so that he can go into the battlefield with confidence.

Even if you have analyzed many problems and come up with countermeasures, there must be things you have not considered. This is the ultimate test for you. You need to have the ability to respond to challenges. This ability requires full-stack thinking ability and the ability to quickly come up with contingency plans after having very rich theoretical and practical knowledge. The same is true for operators. I hope everyone can go further and further on the road of operation!

Source: Big V Sister