Will the collapse of WeChat groups trigger a crisis in the private domain industry?

Not long ago, WeChat updated its IOS version and quietly added a new feature in the latest IOS 8.0.14 version: users can fold WeChat groups , just like WeChat subscription accounts, and the folded groups are displayed on a single page.

Unlike subscription accounts, collapsed group chats will not be pushed to the top of the chat box due to new messages.

As soon as the new version came out, it caused a huge stir in the private domain industry and was even described as a major event that caused an earthquake in the industry.

Recently we have been studying industry cases and found that communities account for a large proportion of private domain operations. So what impact will this revision have on companies and how should practitioners respond?

01Why do we need to fold WeChat groups

This update has made some people happy and some people sad.

For ordinary WeChat users, the folding function can help them clean up some meaningless group chats that they don’t want to quit, making the WeChat chat page cleaner. For businesses, the reduction in opportunities to directly reach customers is simply unbearable.

Why did WeChat update such a feature quietly?

We might as well make a guess: First, under the anti-monopoly background, various APPs are about to open the door to intercommunication, and various external links are flying all over the group, which will inevitably bring a certain impact on WeChat’s own traffic. This is WeChat’s self-protection. Furthermore, WeChat has always emphasized that it is a lifestyle. No one wants their life to be filled with advertisements and promotional information. This is also a way to improve user experience.

02 What impact will the collapse of WeChat groups have on private domains?

1) Reduce the chance of reaching people and affect the conversion rate

Teacher Da Bing talked about the exposure effect in "Marketing Psychological Warfare":

The exposure effect means that people always prefer things that are familiar to them. If something appears in front of people frequently, the degree to which they like it will increase.

In the marketing process, we need to first get familiar with the target customers, increase brand exposure through multiple communications, and thus leave a brand impression in the minds of customers, making them more willing to choose to trust us when purchasing.

Nowadays, community operation has become a standard feature of many private industries, especially in the fields of fast-moving consumer goods, catering, beauty, private e-commerce, and online education. Almost all of these brands rely on stores and have established many WeChat groups. Operational actions have become very standardized and require almost no customer interaction. Operational staff only need to send messages to the group at a fixed time every day.

In the past, although the operation of community groups was fixed, every time there was a new message, the community would be pushed to the top of the chat box. For example, Luckin Coffee appeared on the first screen of the customer's chat box at least 6 times a day. However, once the group chat was folded, the exposure effect would be invalid. This also means that group messages are basically unable to reach customers, and the corresponding community conversion rate will also be greatly affected.

2) It will test operational capabilities and increase enterprise operating costs

Past operational actions are no longer effective, and fixed mass messaging cannot reach customers. Companies must provide more diversified services, content, and discounts to attract and retain customers and reduce the possibility of being folded. This will invisibly increase the company's operating costs.

03As practitioners, how do we respond?

As the saying goes, when enemies come, we will stop them with soldiers; when floods come, we will block them with earth. Although the collapse of group chats will bring a series of troubles to private domain operations, there is no need to worry too much. Whether it is a traffic-generating or transaction-oriented community, its essence is to create more connections with customers, so that customers can have further understanding and trust in us, thereby prompting them to make purchasing decisions and choose our products or services.

Putting aside the product level, the collapse of group chats will test our service and content capabilities even more. We need to use certain means to avoid being collapsed, and we also need to establish a broader private domain mechanism from multiple aspects to maintain our activeness in front of customers.

As operators, we can improve in the following four aspects:

1) Build personal IP and increase the influence of personal account

In the private domain operations of the WeChat ecosystem, in addition to communities, there are also personal accounts, public accounts, live broadcasts, and mini-programs. In the past, many companies directed customers to communities and promoted dissemination and conversion through the community atmosphere. Now, we need to change our thinking. First, we need to add all community users to personal WeChat and use personal WeChat to exert the exposure effect and continuously influence customers.

For operators who use WeChat for Business, they should make good use of WeChat for Business's three Moments, view historical Moments and other functions, build a good personal image through Moments, and use Moments to reach out. You can also remind customers in messages on WeChat Moments to check the community to receive relevant benefits and cultivate the habit of customers joining groups. In addition, you should also interact and communicate more with customers.

For companies that use personal WeChat for accumulation, in addition to shaping their own circle of friends, they can also frequently like and leave messages on their customers' circles of friends, so that customers can often see you and strengthen the relationship with them.

2) Carry out refined community operations

There must be a reason why a community can retain customers, such as special discounts, special services, special people...

To operate a community in a refined manner, you need to make an overall plan based on the purpose of the community before creating a group. You need to clearly list the value that the community can bring to customers and why customers should stay here. Cherish every opportunity to reach customers through the community and avoid sending spam and invalid information to the group.

The community should also do a good job of group IP, influence customers through IP, make customers have enough trust in the community, and avoid customers collapsing group chats.

At the same time, certain community privileges can be used to make customers feel the value and role of the community, reducing the possibility of collapse. Communities like Hema Fresh have irregular community-exclusive coupons, lucky draws and other fun activities every month.

In addition, we also recommend small group operations: stratify customers, for example, based on the RFM model: most recent consumption (Recency), consumption frequency (Frequency), and consumption amount (Monetary), and according to the different life cycles of customers, pull different customers into different communities and perform targeted operations.

3) Improve event planning capabilities and build flash mob groups

A flash mob group refers to a group that meets on an hourly basis. Flash mob groups can be divided into activity groups and sales groups.

Sales group: Through short-term preferential stimulation within the community, taking advantage of people’s herd mentality, scarcity effect and sense of urgency, the purpose of rapid order placement and batch transaction is achieved.

It is generally suitable for retail companies, platform-based e-commerce, or offline physical stores with low decision-making costs and relatively standardized products and services.

Activity group: refers to a group that aims to attract new customers by attracting them to join through fun activities, and by stimulating them with benefits to encourage them to invite more friends to join the group, thus achieving a fission effect, and then guiding all new customers to the personal account.

For operators with relatively high planning capabilities, flash groups can be executed on a weekly or monthly basis as fixed actions in the private domain.

This is a flash group activity we did for a large health organization. We achieved the goal of attracting new customers by splitting more customers through seed customers. In addition, we strengthened the awareness of the company among all customers who joined the group through interesting activities. You can feel the level of customer participation.

4) Conduct offline activities

Studies have shown that the activity and retention rates of users in communities that have held offline activities are higher than those in communities that have not held offline activities.

Compared with simple online communication, face-to-face communication is more conducive to building trust between people because everyone can truly see and understand each other.

Brands can organize some offline salon activities according to their own circumstances, such as offline tasting sessions, book clubs, industry conferences and other activities to increase the stickiness of community customers.

Summarize

The collapse of group chats will inevitably bring some negative impacts to practitioners, but it will more test the capabilities of enterprises and individuals. We need to move from the private domain 1.0 era where customers are treated as numbers to the private domain 2.0 era of refined customer operations.

Only those companies that focus on consumer experience and feelings can respond to industry changes better and more calmly.

Author: Cheng Zhitian

Source: Chengzhi Marketing (yingxiao18)