Ximalaya FM Product Experience Analysis Report (Part 2)

As the largest audio platform in China, Himalaya FM has over 470 million users. What changes has Himalaya , which has been leading the audio industry, undergone since its development? The author will take you to analyze it in depth from several angles including market, users, product structure, functions and operations .

Note: This product analysis report is based on Himalaya iOS version, version number: 6.5.23

Ximalaya FM Product Experience Analysis Report (Part 1)

This article mainly focuses on functional and operational analysis

4. Functional Analysis

4.1 Audio Payment Module

Audio album payment is a very important core module for Himalaya. Good design of this module can directly lead to higher conversion rates , while also allowing users to consume high-quality audio content to satisfy their curiosity or high-quality entertainment needs.

The user process involved in the audio payment module mainly includes: users browsing product details, listening to audio and purchasing (as shown below). After initial exploration, once the user locates a paid audio album, they will be directly directed to the audio album details page.

The details page of an audio album is a preliminary reference for users to understand the product and help make purchasing decisions. Then, the user will enter the audio audition page and use their "ears" to judge the audio quality and their own preferences. This is the second step in the audio consumption decision and a very critical step.

In the end, the user pays for the product or gives up.

The entire process presents a typical funnel shape. From users browsing details to paying for purchases, there will be a relatively high level of user loss . For the audio payment module itself, if the value of the audio itself cannot be accurately and quickly transmitted, and the audition audio is not attractive enough, it will not be able to encourage users to pay, resulting in user loss.

4.1.1 View paid audio details

(1) Product promotion pictures

On the product details page, the first thing that reaches users is the product promotional image. Product promotion pictures can give users the most intuitive feeling. Because the feeling is intuitive, the quality of the picture will affect the user's judgment of the quality of the audio content.

The author believes that in e-commerce design, atmosphere and quality are two factors that affect product sales. The sense of atmosphere refers to the sales or promotion atmosphere created by the product image placed in the entire page; the sense of quality refers to the sense of product quality presented to users by the product image. Although audio is a virtual product, these two feelings also need to be conveyed through product promotional images.

On the other hand, price is the most sensitive part of users' perception of a product. It is recommended to display the price next to the product promotional picture.

This approach: firstly, is in line with users’ perception and usage habits on e-commerce platforms; secondly, it can strengthen and enhance users’ psychological expectations of the price of paying for knowledge .

The size of Himalaya’s paid audio product promotional images is too small, there is too much white space around the images, and the atmosphere and quality are weak. In addition, the price label is located next to the purchase button, which is not convenient for managing users' psychological expectations of price. The author tried two designs, aiming to make full use of page space, enhance the sense of atmosphere and quality, and make users desensitized to price as much as possible.

(2) Detailed introduction

Himalaya’s paid albums have very rich details, including album content, outline, user reviews and purchase instructions. Users can fully consult the relevant information to help make purchasing decisions.

However, the existing content information is mixed together, and users cannot quickly locate the information block. It is recommended to consider adding a tab bar to help users quickly lock content through anchor positioning.

The detail page is usually a long page. When users read in depth on a long page, they need to be prompted which audio album they are in to increase their sense of control.

Therefore, the author recommends that when the user slides 2-3 screens, the top navigation bar displays the album name.

(3) Listen and purchase

The two entrances fixed at the bottom of the product details page are trial listening and purchase.

Click on the preview button and the user can enter the audio list page for preview. Purchases are divided into happy point purchases and VIP purchases. If an audio album is added to VIP privileges, VIP users can listen to it for free.

The author believes that the bottom entrance design in the details page can be further optimized:

1. At the bottom of the audio albums for VIP and non-VIP users, the preview and purchase texts are not consistent between the two types of albums.
2. The design style is also not uniform, and the design presentation of the “7-day trial” benefit point is rather abrupt.

There are two factors that influence users in the process of purchasing paid audio: VIP user status and whether the audio album belongs to VIP.

If the user is a VIP, he or she can choose to listen to VIP audio for free, or purchase paid audio other than VIP at a VIP member discount price. If the user is not a VIP, he or she will face two choices: purchasing VIP or recharging Xidian.

However, the existing process design only highlights the benefit of free listening when purchasing VIP, but ignores the benefit of exclusive prices for VIP members.

For example: In the picture below, "Speak Well" adds the benefit point of VIP free listening next to the product name, and emphasizes VIP free listening in the VIP purchase button copy at the bottom of the page. However, in "Emotional Intelligence Class by Kevin Tsai", the benefits were only summarized using membership discounts, without informing the specific form of discounts or prices, nor providing a VIP purchase entrance.

If we can highlight the VIP discount price in the design, we can attract VIP users to recharge and purchase, and also attract non-VIP users to purchase membership, thereby strengthening the consumption chain from VIP purchase to users using the discount price to purchase paid audio (orange arrow in the figure below).

Specific suggestions :

• When the discount is not large, the reduction and savings value should be highlighted. During the user survey, all interviewed users said that the benefit of a 9.5% discount was not attractive enough.
• Add interest point labels to create a VIP exclusive price atmosphere. Plan the operational interest points of all premium paid programs, and provide different designs for different discount methods such as full-discount, coupons, direct discount, etc.
• For non-VIP resources, add a VIP purchase entrance. If the user is already a VIP and logged in, hide this entrance.

The author, combined with the previous analysis, gives a specific design (may be immature, for reference only)

4.1.2 Listen to the audio

(1) Audition list page

When users click the Free Trial button on the audio album details page, they can enter the audio list page and select audio to listen to.

All audios are available for trial listening, a small portion of which can be listened to in full for free, while other portions can be listened to in the first 60s or 180s. On the one hand, incomplete auditions can prevent free content from not matching user tastes and causing traffic loss; on the other hand, they can also attract users to explore, satisfy their curiosity and desire to pry, and thus inspire them to buy.

However, there are some design deficiencies in the audio audition list page: first, the complete audition and the incomplete audition cannot be distinguished, the "Audio" label cannot convey the meaning of the complete audition, and the incomplete audition audio has no identification; second, the arrangement of fields, labels, etc. is irregular.

Finally, the player at the bottom of the page is too focused and can easily interfere with users both visually and behaviorally.

The specific issues and suggestions are shown in the figure below:

Based on the problems analyzed above, the author redesigned the original design, as shown in the following figure:

(2) Audition process analysis

The above picture shows the entire behavior path of users from auditioning audio to paying. Users can start two core links through two trigger points: incomplete audition (N seconds of audio can be heard) and complete audition (a single audio is free).

For the first link, we can include the function from N seconds of audio being audible to free listening. For the second core link, we can consider the function from free single audio to continuous playback of N seconds of audio.

Next, I will analyze the audition function based on these two audition links.

Audition link 1:

When entering an incomplete audition, the user will be informed of the audition status (in progress or finished) and can directly purchase the audio album. This is the most basic functional solution. In addition, Himalaya added a very small feature: free listening .

After the trial listening is over, a free listening entrance is set up next to the entrance to purchase the album.

Each album has only one free listening privilege, which requires users to share the album on social media . After successful sharing, the audio will be free. If the user has used this privilege, the next time he clicks the free listen button, he will be directed to purchase the album.

The advantage of this small feature is that it kills two birds with one stone. It can increase the number of shares of audio albums and bring in new traffic through sharing; it can also improve conversion rates, because an additional purchase entry will increase the probability of users placing orders to a certain extent.

However, if we analyze it from the user's perspective, this function still has some problems:

1. Free listening increases users' cognitive costs, interferes with their decision-making, and is bound to cause a certain amount of user loss. In order to understand the gameplay and meaning of this function, users must click the button and read the text; if they want to practice this gameplay, users need to select a sharing platform to share. So many cognitive operations can easily be interrupted by users switching between multiple mobile apps .
2. Strongly induced consumption will affect users' favorability towards the product. The free listening button is essentially equivalent to the purchase button. This compulsory and inducement design will inevitably make users feel that they are being forced to buy, and their favorability will be affected.

I have two suggestions for this feature:

1. If we consider user experience completely, we can remove the free listening function, which is a more radical approach.
2. The free listening feature will be retained but needs to be redesigned. This is a conservative approach that balances user experience and business. You can consider: first, removing the "Listen for Free" button; second, if the user has not used the free listening privilege, when the incomplete trial is over, directly display a pop-up window to guide the user to share. If the user has used the privileges, no prompt will be given.

Audition link 2

The second audition link starts from the free audio. After the audio is played completely, it will not enter the next audio in sequence, but will randomly play the next audio that can only be listened to for N seconds.

This link design actually did not meet user expectations. When a user selects a free audio to play, he expects it to be played in sequence according to the audio. But the actual situation is that after a free audio is played, the next free audio will not be played. Instead, a random audio that can only be listened to for N seconds will be played. When this audio is played, it will pause and a voice prompt will be given to the user to purchase the complete album.

Although this design does not meet user expectations, its advantage is that it allows users to quickly finish the audition and prompts them to make purchasing decisions. Because when auditioning, users may be dealing with other things at the same time. If all free audio is played continuously for a long time, the user is more likely to actively interrupt listening and leave the APP. In order to speed up users to make purchasing decisions, it is necessary to provide an interruption mechanism in time and give purchase prompts.

(3) Audition summary and suggestions

In the previous analysis, the author has mentioned that trial listening is a key link affecting the conversion rate in audio payment behavior. Whether users pay or not depends on whether the audio meets their needs, and the essence of this need lies in the audio quality.

User surveys found that audio quality is a universal and rigid demand. Combined with user survey data, the author summarized the content factors and sound factors that affect audio quality.

When users listen to audio, their perception of the sound itself is very quick and direct. Within a few seconds, users will have an intuitive judgment of the sound quality. However, as for the quality of the content, users need to listen more deeply or view relevant information before making a judgment. Therefore, in order to allow users to purchase audio after trial listening, it is necessary to diagnose and improve the quality at both the sound and content levels.

suggestion:

(1) User participation in audio quality diagnosis

Himalaya can try to break down the audio quality and establish quantitative indicators, such as: authority, level of substance , fun, pleasantness of voice, Mandarin proficiency, etc. When the user clicks the Cancel button to abandon the purchase, ask the user to rate the album.

After collecting enough user rating data, Himalaya can conduct quality diagnosis on paid albums, and then work with audio publishers to optimize and improve the paid albums.

(2) Communicating content quality from a design perspective

For example, you can consider adding a short promotional video on the audition list page. This video can be an introduction by the host or endorsement by multiple celebrities, etc. The purpose is to convey the influence or authority of the host. Alternatively, you can add the estimated number of updates and the estimated total album time on the list page, allowing users to judge the quality and cost-effectiveness based on these factors.

4.1.3 Purchase

In the purchase operation, the author mainly focuses on the payment confirmation page. There are two ways for users to enter the payment confirmation page: one is to enter through the business details page, and the other is to enter through the trial playback page. The following figure shows that VIP users access two different payment confirmation pages through two different methods, with different information layout and interaction.

The author speculates that the reason why Himalaya designed it this way is: on the one hand, it may be due to technical difficulty: it is difficult to grab album pictures when entering the payment confirmation on the trial listening and playing page; on the other hand, it may be because different product managers are responsible for each module and have different ideas and decisions on functional design.

However, this differentiated design has some problems:

Different payment confirmation pages will cause cognitive load to users and make them doubtful.

For example: when entering the payment from the play page, the missing album image will make the user think that he is purchasing the single audio he is listening to, rather than the entire album.

There are irregularities in the information and interactions on different payment confirmation pages.

For example: the wording of the two payment buttons is inconsistent, one is "Go to pay" and the other is "Please pay"; and one payment button has the amount displayed, while the other does not.

There are inconsistencies in the two payment methods in selecting discounts. One aggregates discounts and coupons together, allowing users to go to a deeper level to make choices; while the other design displays them separately and allows users to directly click to confirm.

Specifications not only reflect the rigor of a product, but are also one of the basic indicators of product experience. If the basic experience is not up to standard and the product is not rigorous, future product development may be hindered.

Therefore, the author recommends: merge and unify, use the same payment confirmation page, and standardize the design of information and interaction.

The above picture is a summary of the information on the existing payment confirmation page. We can see that the payment confirmation includes: product information, discounts, benefits to users, and an entry for sending gifts to friends.

In the basic information of the product, the audio album image can intuitively tell the user what product they are purchasing; when designing the benefit points, you can consider using small labels to uniformly expose them; the discount methods are presented separately, and you can consider using pop-ups to allow users to choose the discount content; the secondary page for sending to friends is also displayed in the form of pop-ups.

Basically we can take the form of simplifying the hierarchy to optimize the interaction.

The following figure is the optimization solution made by the author, for reference only:

4.2 Discovery Module

The popularity of WeChat seems to have fueled the sociality of contemporary Internet products, and social attributes have been injected into more and more mobile apps.

For example: In JD Discovery, users can watch live broadcasts and interact with the hosts to learn about product information; in Taobao 's Weitao, users can learn about what experts wear and get clothing matching suggestions through discussions; in QQ Music's Discovery, music lovers can like and comment on MVs or music.

As a mobile audio platform, Himalaya introduces social mechanisms through the discovery module.

In the audio scenario, Himalaya attracts users to consume and even motivates them to create content through the content output and social circles of the anchors. Users satisfy their social needs through exposure to various content and connection of relationships.

The figure below is the author’s breakdown of “Discover”. We can see that: “Discover” not only has the main social functions, but also some audio production and entertainment consumption entrances.

The information layout shows that social interaction-based attention, recommendations, and circles occupy most of the page area, and the information exposure is simple and direct. Other lower priority, non-core content is clustered at the top of the page.

When the user slides the page, the tab bar including "Follow" is pinned to the top and multiple entrances at the top are hidden.

The author speculates that Himalaya wants to use the "discovery" function entrance, which is mainly based on social attributes, to carry out some traffic distribution functions - it needs to use the audio production entrance to encourage users to make audio uploads, and it also needs to use the consumption entrance to guide users to consume content other than audio: such as reading novels, playing games , etc.

Encouraging users to produce audio is actually the development strategy of Himalaya's audio platform. Through integrated incubation services, it stimulates the public's enthusiasm for creating audio and accumulates high-quality content for the platform.

However, the entrances to national reading and fun dubbing in "Discover" are essentially entertainment production methods for users to try out. Whether they can help train users to become more professional anchors and output quality content is still worth considering. Therefore, I have doubts about the significance of some audio production entrances at the top.

The consumption of content other than audio, such as reading novels, playing games, etc., is actually a very niche demand or compensatory demand for the product; but from a business perspective, these traffic imports can increase additional revenue, so they are also an indispensable part of commercialization.

4.2.1 Attention

The "Follow" page is an area that aggregates the information flows of people that the user follows. When a user does not follow anyone, an entry is provided in "Follow" to guide the user to select the one he wants to follow from the recommended list of people to follow.

In addition to following some influential anchors, users can also bind other APP accounts and follow contacts on other platforms. So, at the top of the page, we can see two entrances: address book friends and Weibo friends.

However, there is no WeChat friend entrance in the recommended follow list. The author speculates that this may be because WeChat has not opened API permissions to other platforms in order to protect its own social ecosystem . After users follow some accounts, the updates posted by these accounts will appear in the “Follow” section.

In addition, most of the recommended users are PGC accounts with many fans. These accounts have produced a lot of high-quality content, so to some extent, they are bound to attract users to explore their content and follow them.

The only drawback is that the number of recommended high-quality accounts is limited (40+), and users cannot continue to scroll, which will make them lose the desire to explore. On the other hand, when the user has already followed, the recommended follow-up entry will no longer appear. When users want to find some high-quality accounts again, there is no way.

suggestion:

1. Increase the number of recommendations for high-quality accounts to give users more choices.
2. After the user follows, the recommendation entrance is still retained (as shown in the picture).

4.2.2 Recommendations

On the “Recommendation” page, we will see a large number of recommended accounts and the content they post. Information such as text, videos and pictures are mixed in the "Recommendations" page.

Compared with the recommended accounts in "Follow", the recommended accounts here are more grassroots and popular: they are full of self-expression of ordinary Himalaya users. While they share their joys, sorrows, and anger, they can also gain a sense of identity and companionship from them.

However, due to the weak influence of civilian accounts and the uncontrollable nature of UGC content, the establishment and strengthening of these decentralized relationships are hindered, and the lower number of likes and comments is enough to illustrate this point.

In addition, the account recommendations are not accurate enough and the reasons for the recommendations are rather far-fetched.

For example: In the picture above, a certain account posted "very depressed" + accompanying picture. The content itself is not of great value to the information recipient; the reason for the recommendation is that everyone is watching it, but there are only 6 likes and 1 comment. This information inevitably makes people doubt the quality of account recommendations and the reasons for the recommendations.

In order to better build relationships through recommendations and strengthen social functions, the author suggests expanding the scope of recommendations, not limiting recommendations to ordinary accounts, but extending them to recommendations for big names, high-quality PGC, live broadcasts and even game promotions , thereby satisfying the exploration desires and needs of different users.

Specific suggestions are as follows:

1. PGC+UGC joint recommendation: In "Recommendation", high-quality PGC accounts and UGC accounts are interspersed. High-quality PGC exposure can not only increase the number of followers and popularity of the followers, but also allow followers to find their favorite anchors. The exposure of ordinary UGC accounts can increase the number of likes and comments, allowing publishers to gain a sense of recognition, thereby increasing their level of interaction.
2. Optimize the recommendation algorithm: On the one hand, recommendations can be made based on the number of likes and comments, and highly interactive content can be placed at the front of the page; on the other hand, the user's taste can be predicted based on the user's clicking and listening behavior on the Himalaya homepage to improve accuracy.
3. Recommend users who are currently live streaming: You can consider aggregating some users who are currently live streaming in the recommendations to meet the needs of some users seeking companionship and entertainment.
4. Increase promotional space: consider promoting games and copyrighted books.

4.2.3 Circles

"Circles" are mainly communities created by influential anchors to gather fans. In this community, administrators can run some topics and allow users to participate in discussions to activate the community. Users can make friends and chat in the circle to meet their own social needs. If the circle is well established, it will be able to improve the retention rate of Himalaya FM, which is a very important functional point.

When a user enters a circle, if he has not joined any circles, there will be no circle list in the "I'm Joined" area, and clicking All will not produce any data. Users can choose the circle they want to join based on the circle recommendations of their interest. Once they join successfully, the "I've Joined" area will display the circle the user has joined, but the circle recommendation entrance will disappear.

This question is the same as the "I'm Following" question on the "Follow" page: guide users to complete behavioral goals, then remove the entrance by demolishing the bridge after crossing it.

There are some problems with this design:

First of all, removing the entrance does not meet user expectations and will cause cognitive confusion. When a user joins a circle through the recommendation list, an entire area on the page disappears without giving the user any prompt, which in itself will give the user a strange feeling.

Secondly, removing the entrance will hinder behavioral operations: once a user completes a click-search-follow behavior operation, he will remember the operation. When the user wants to repeat this behavior next time, he will not be able to find the entrance, which will cause trouble in use.

When the user enters the "Circle", the bottom navigation bar of Himalaya FM is hidden and the audio player disappears. Prominent on the main page is a button for publishing content.

The circle encourages users to produce information in order to attract attention and to communicate and interact on the content of the information. At the same time, when users browse other people's information, they are actually exchanging information. Through information production and exchange, users gather with a group of people "similar to themselves" to find their own sense of existence and belonging.

So what is the specific gameplay like?

In the circle, users can interact with the circle owner and his fans. If a user has purchased the album of the circle owner, the user can also join the paid circle friend group.

The posts and featured products on the homepage help users filter content. The topic calendar has a time period of one week. The circle owner will operate a topic every day, and all users in the circle can participate in the discussion of the topic.

Users can also post whatever content they want to share in the circle, including text, pictures, polls or questions.

In addition, the author suggests adding a circle ranking list .

An algorithm is used to evaluate the activity of circles and rank all circles in the entire APP. In this way, it can not only provide a reference for users who want to join the circle, but also motivate the administrators of the circle to actively activate their own circle. This approach can ultimately strengthen the closeness of relationships, allowing users to find a sense of belonging and recognition from others in the circle.

4.3 VIP module

The VIP module is a membership mechanism launched by Himalaya. Users can choose to subscribe for a continuous month or year or purchase in cycles of 1 month, 1 quarter or 1 year.

As a common marketing method, the membership mechanism can not only bring direct revenue to Himalaya, but also increase the frequency and duration of user usage, thereby improving user retention rate.

4.3.1 VIP Home Page

Through the VIP exclusive page, Himalaya can effectively solve the problem of what users should listen to after purchasing VIP. Whether it is Himalaya’s self-made book lectures, the “You May Also Like” section on the first screen, or other content on the page, they all provide users with a lot of room for choice.

Enter the VIP page, and the top carousel shows some album audios recommended by the operator. Some banners contain introductory text about the joint membership of Tencent Video and Himalaya, but when users click on the banner, they can only enter the recommended album page and cannot reach the introduction page of the joint VIP.

Below the banner is the user's VIP account information and renewal entrance. Users can check their VIP status and choose whether to renew.

Under the account information, the VIP-exclusive Himalaya book-reading content is presented.

Himalaya's book-telling service introduces a book through a single audio, meeting the needs of users who do not have time to read to quickly understand the content of a book. In other areas of the page, there are some VIP-exclusive special content, including: recommended content, new arrivals, audiobooks, boutique columns, crosstalk, etc.

When a user enters an album to listen, the top of the page will dynamically display that the user is currently listening with VIP privileges, which not only conveys the value of VIP privileges but also gives the user a sense of identity.

Himalaya's book lectures are special content exclusive to VIPs. The host will introduce the essence of a good book through 25 minutes of audio every day. Users can learn about high-quality books at a very low cost and expand their knowledge.

On the VIP page, we can see four access points for Himalaya’s book lectures, which shows that book lectures are Himalaya’s main content at present.

Enter entrance one and you can see the first-level category page for audiobooks (as shown below). At the top of the page is the user's listening record, which indicates how many books the user has listened to and other information. [Audiobook Calendar] introduces the book content released on that day, and users can click directly to listen.

[Must-listen series] is the book-talking theme of operation planning, and [Book classification] is the introduction of books in different categories. The [Newly Listed] section in the lower half of the page lists books arranged in chronological order, and users can click to listen to the explanation.

Throughout the page, users can listen to the day's content, choose to listen to explanations based on the category of the book, or choose based on topics of interest. Users can explore a lot of content and will not feel that the content and format are monotonous.

The page reached by entrance two is actually the secondary page of the book-telling category page, which is an operation-planned book-telling aggregation area with the theme of "eating".

This entrance is at the same information level as entrance one. The author speculates that the company hopes to use the physiological need of "eating" to attract users to reach deeper areas in the category page. Xima’s storytelling in [Guess You Like] is the entrance to the storytelling album. After entering, users will see a list of ordinary album audios.

The entrance of [VIP Good Book Lectures] directly exposes the content of the book. You can listen to the explanation directly by clicking the button on the book; and clicking more can enter the book category page.

Book talk is a very great content of Himalaya, which solves the pain point of many users who have no time to read but really want to read. The solution to this pain point will make some users who purchase VIP feel it is worthwhile. Although the content of the book and the column design are average, the author believes that there is still room for improvement.

suggestion:

(1) Involve VIP users in the book selection process

Everyone has different favorite books, and as the saying goes, it’s hard to satisfy everyone, but you can let users participate in book selection activities and let them vote for the books they want to listen to.

For example: the editor introduces three books and lets users vote for them. The editor will explain and recommend the books with the highest number of votes. In addition, all participating VIP users have the opportunity to win a physical book through a lucky draw. This method can enhance VIP users' sense of participation and identity.

(2) Invite book authors to talk about their books

You can open a section for authors to talk about books, and invite some influential authors to recommend their works through audio lectures. This can not only promote the author, but also make users more convinced of the content of the explanation.

(3) Add book information and purchase entry

When users listen to the explanation and become very interested in a book, they may want to go to Douban to check the reviews and reading notes of the book in order to learn more about it. Furthermore, the user may want to go to the e-commerce platform to purchase the book.

Himalaya can cooperate with Douban or e-commerce platforms to add information or purchase entrances, which not only meets the needs of users but also increases revenue through cooperation.

4.3.3 VIP Purchase

When users enter the VIP purchase page, the first thing they see is the promotional copy and activation entrance for the 7-day free VIP trial. When users click to activate free listening, they are actually purchasing a monthly subscription package. iOS phone users will be automatically charged 7 days after activation.

Many users complained about this in the App Store review section, saying that there was no reminder of automatic deductions and they didn’t know how to cancel automatic deductions. Automatic deduction is a function of the Apple system itself, but many users believe that Himalaya has deceived them and made them spend money in vain.

Below the free trial is the joint VIP purchase entrance of Himalaya and Tencent Video, followed by the purchase package of Himalaya VIP membership. The default packages provided are continuous monthly and annual packages. Only when the user unchecks the automatic renewal option will the non-continuous monthly package be displayed.

This design can indeed bring greater profits from a business perspective, but for users it hides information and induces consumption. In the middle of the long page is an explanation of VIP membership benefits, which uses contrast to create a sense of value.

suggestion:

(1) Display all membership packages

The non-continuous monthly package is too hidden. It is recommended to expose it to users together with the continuous monthly package and let users choose. Avoid making users feel that the content is too deceptive.

(2) VIP benefits are displayed on the first screen

When users enter the VIP purchase page, they must first understand the value that membership brings to them before deciding to buy. This is the typical consumer psychology of users. So when users enter this page, the first thing they should see is the introduction to benefits.

The comparison between VIP and non-VIP can convey a sense of value very well, but this comparison is rather general. You can consider adding a detailed introduction to each benefit point in this long page.

Add text about VIP savings amount. For example: designing the copy “Join VIP and save an estimated xx yuan” can impress users more and make them feel it is worth it.

5. Operational Analysis

When the functions and services of Internet products become increasingly homogenized and no differences can be seen, the key to determining the success of a product lies in: operations.

The so-called operation is to establish and maintain the relationship between products and users, and finally use this relationship to realize commercial monetization and form a closed loop of product-user-business.

Specifically: Internet product operations must achieve three key goals: attracting new users , maintaining (increasing user activity and retention ) and converting users to paid users.

Case 1: Take that, you nitpicker

"Take that, argumentative person" is an H5 marketing campaign placed by Himalaya on the banner of the APP homepage, with the aim of attracting new users and converting them to paying customers. This activity uses arguments in conversation as the scenario, and uses the famous quotes from Kevin Tsai and Li Dan's shows to design a small interactive game.

Ultimately, we want to encourage users to share and get more people to download the app, and at the same time, we also hope to get old users to buy albums. See the picture below for specific gameplay.

When entering the event page, the event title and the cartoon images of the two big names created suspense and attracted the user's interest very well.

After clicking to enter, the user selects a topic: workplace or love.

When the user enters the topic, large scrolling subtitles appear, and each subtitle stays for a very short time, making it difficult for users to read even if they want to. When the user clicks "Stop talking, you nitpicker", the image of the little girl and the text design of the bottom button will make people think that the whole story is over.

So, when I first experienced this activity, I thought it was over and closed the page immediately. In fact, the real game begins when the user clicks “Shut up, troll” and enters his or her username.

The user clicks on the "weapon pack" and hits the cartoon character in the center of the page. After the 10-second game time is over, he will be prompted to claim the prize. But what I received was just a virtual certificate. The entire marketing campaign does not end here. When the user continues and clicks "I'm so strong", he will enter the album promotion page of Li Dan or Cai Kangyong.

The IP album content is the main incentive to attract users to download and use Himalaya, and the game may just be an introduction.

We can break down the entire marketing campaign to review and discuss the pros and cons of the entire campaign.

Promotion :

The banner operation position of Himalaya APP is generally used to place the album promotion entrance. When users click on the promotional image, they will enter the album details page. When users discover a different event promotion entrance, it can actually arouse their curiosity and desire to explore. Therefore, carrying out some H5 marketing activities at this location will be very eye-catching and conducive to dissemination. It is also very appropriate to choose this location for argumentative activities.

The Gangjing activity is a new user-attracting activity planned by leveraging the IP effect and album resources of Kevin Tsai and Li Dan. Therefore, the copy of the promotional image and the cartoon images of the two big names are well in line with the theme and purpose.

Activities and Games:

The entire game is divided into three parts: the game background, the game process and the game end.

Let’s talk about the background first. Since it’s about sluts, it must be explained who said what he said in what scene. The game uses two scenarios: workplace and love scene. These two scenarios are typical work and life scenes, so the scene selection is very appropriate.

But when entering a certain scene, a large number of text conversations appear, which inevitably increases the cognitive cost of the game itself and reduces the fun. If the text content can be deleted and presented in a sound way, I think it will be more interesting and attractive.

When the game explains the background, it should actually let the user enter the process of "playing". But a page connecting the background and game content appeared in the middle. This page appears in the form of a transparent floating layer, a crying cartoon and three different buttons, which make people mistakenly think that the story is over.

But in fact, the game begins when the user clicks "Shut up" and then enters the user name. The author suggests that the transition page should be removed to make the background and game content more quickly and directly connected. Users are very busy and have no time to carefully study these pages and buttons.

After the game ends, there is a prompt saying "Come and receive the prize quickly." This copywriting raises users' expectations and makes users mistakenly think that they will gain some benefits or value points. But when the user gets a meaningless virtual certificate, expectation becomes disappointment.

IP resource promotion:

After the game ended, two behavioral guidance appeared: one was to hold the page for a long time, and the other was to "I'm too strong". The first guided the copywriting purpose was very clear, but the second copywriting was unclear.

The second behavioral guidance is to allow users to enter the IP album promotion page, but the entry copy is not relevant at all.

If you want to guide and connect the game end page and the album promotion page, it is recommended that the entry position is more obvious, and the purpose of copywriting must be clear.

When users enter the album promotional page, they can see the IP cartoon image and course name. And there is a prominent audition entrance that guides users to the album details page of the album Himalaya. Finally, guide users to download the APP through audition.

The entire marketing uses IP as a gimmick and tries to attract users to download the Himalaya APP through sharing. Creative, but still need improvement. The author puts forward the following suggestions on attracting new H5 marketing:

(1) Reduce the cognitive cost of user participation

If you want users to participate in marketing activities and perform small interactive operations on the page, you must reduce the reading of text and replace it with pictures or text + voice.

Take the bargain activity as an example. You can use a picture to match a sentence and then dynamically switch to display the character dialogue, so that the amount of information displayed on a single page will be reduced and users will be more likely to accept it. Or use voice to display character dialogue. Voice dialogue can have a certain degree of dramatic expression, making the dialogue interesting and fun.

Both methods reduce the load on users to receive information and increase the sense of pleasure. On the other hand, in terms of behavior guidance and page connection, you should be direct and do not let users stop and think. The more users think, the greater the probability of leaving your activity page.

(2) The stimulus reward must be valuable

A simple and crude method is to give users real material rewards, such as sharing with users in the circle of friends by participating in the leverage activity, collecting a certain number of likes, and getting Li Dan’s humorous lessons for free.

Another way is to set up a lottery, for example, when the user ends the game of leverage, he will get a lottery qualification. Complete the lottery and have the chance to win Cai Kangyong's emotional intelligence class. These methods can enable users to gain some benefits and make them willing to participate in the event.

(3) Use process-based thinking to do marketing

In the design of a marketing activity, you can consider first disassembly of the activity itself, think about the factors that affect the process of each activity, and then consider the solution.

Taking the Bar Essence Activity as an example, when designing this activity, we first disassemble it, which can be divided into event preheating promotion, event game participation, event game ending, audio album guidance, sharing and downloading, etc., and then think about the elements required for each process.

For example, the promotional elements for preheating the event can be considered: suspense copywriting, publicity portal, IP drive, etc. Each element can correspond to multiple solutions. Only in this way can the entire event be built. When subsequent activities are launched, the activities can also be diagnosed and improved based on these processes and factors.

Case 2: I'll "know" this Wentao

In the "Discovery" of the Himalaya APP, there is an activity entrance, which gathers various competition activities that use recording and uploading as a way to participate, including national and local activities. The author selected the currently popular Dou Wentao activity to analyze it.

This type of activity introduces activities based on long pages, setting up an entrance to participate at the bottom of the screen where the page is located and attaching the event time. We can see that when the user enters the activity page, he first sees the event promotional map. Swipe to view the event introduction, details, participation methods and event rewards. And the audio recorded by the participants is displayed at the bottom of the page, and a voting button is set for more people to vote.

The Druming Wentao event encourages fans to use the recording function of the Himalaya APP to express their views on Dou Wentao and the programs he hosts by uploading audio. The purpose and process of the entire event are clear, but the user's participation is not good. As of November 8, less than 30 people uploaded the audio.

The author believes that there are three reasons:

(1) The activity promotion entrance is single, resulting in low awareness of the activity

If a user wants to enter the Douwentao activity, he must open the APP, enter "Discover", and then click on the activity to find the entrance. This entry is the only entry for users to enter the activity, and it is hidden deep and difficult for users to discover. So from the perspective of user access alone, there are obstacles.

(2) The event has no endorsement from IP celebrities and is not attractive enough

The Dou Wentao event is essentially a fan confession event, but there are only image pictures of Dou Wentao on the event page, and there are no slogans he made about the event, which makes this event a fan's self-entertainment event. It may be more attractive if you play a piece of what Dou Wentao said to fans on the page, or a short video where Dou Wentao promotes the event.

(3) The process of uploading audio is complicated

After clicking "Join Now", the user will record it. After recording the sound, the user needs to fill in the title, select the label, and create an album. Creating an album requires a series of operations. The entire process requires a lot of operations, which to a certain extent hinders.

For such uploading activities, the author recommends:

(1) Add multiple publicity portals

You can consider adding an activity portal on the APP launch page, or interspersing the entrance to such activities in the APP homepage Banner. With the increase of multiple entrances, users will be more easily accessible, which will increase the possibility of users participating in activities.

(2) Promote activities through celebrity IP

If the event involves the promotion of celebrity IP albums, it is recommended that they participate in the promotion of the event. You can record an audio or video and put it in the promotion page. This cooperative promotion method mainly relies on the promotion and promotion capabilities of IP to enhance the effect of attracting new products.

(3) The process of uploading audio in a simple way

Consider giving some input word examples in some places where the user needs to enter, or giving the user some words to choose. This allows users to complete the series of audio creation and album creation operations required to upload audio faster, making the entire process easier.

Other suggestions on operations

Suggestion 1: New and hot topics

When doing product operations, one of the key abilities is to maintain a high degree of sensitivity to new things.

In daily life, we will be exposed to news, hot topics and hot topics on various media platforms. We need to take time to understand these contents in depth, and then put them into our operating material library in categories.

In this way, we can use these materials and combine our products in the future to create more communication and valuable activities.

Even: We can cooperate with some fresh content manufacturers to leverage each other to have a more informative operational party.

On the Himalaya APP, the author has not seen any operational activities that are combined with new things or hot topics. All operations are based on existing high-quality resources, either directly advertising or designing some small interactive operations to allow users to participate.

The attention-attracting degree of these propaganda methods is relatively weak.

Therefore, the author suggests: make more use of new things and hot topics to help promote product promotion.

For example, recently Hunan Satellite TV launched the bel canto singing program "Voice Enters the Heart". The program gathers more than 30 young people who sing opera or bel canto. Their average age is only about 20, and each has very high appearance and singing ability.

Himalaya can fully cooperate with this program, allowing contestants to settle on the Himalaya platform, and then plan a bel canto program to allow these contestants to demonstrate bel canto singing in the program and teach everyone how to appreciate bel canto. On the one hand, such cooperation can give Himalaya new and establish brand influence.

On the other hand, it can also let more users know about this program and increase the ratings of the program. For example, Himalaya can combine it with game commentary audio to design some operational activities related to e-sports games.

Suggestion 2: Emotional operation

Emotional operations require operational personnel to awaken the deep emotions in users through various forms to enhance product stickiness or increase new traffic.

For example: Through user research, the author found that most users use Himalaya to listen to audio due to the reigniting of childhood interests. For example, some users like to turn on the radio when they were young, listening to the radio while doing homework, and now they are used to turning on the Himalaya radio.

Some users like to listen to teachers tell historical stories when they were young, but now they are used to listening to historical audio, etc. Himalaya can use childhood interests as marketing points to create a series of publicity copy and advertisements to awaken the busy city people to pick up the good times of childhood. This is a way of emotional operation.

For example: It can make Himalaya employees closer to users.

When a user registers and enters the APP, the product director or CEO can send a heartwarming greeting letter to the user. When users encounter problems, the operator can send private messages to help solve the problem, etc. These approaches that are close to users will make users feel that the product is not cold and warm, and at the same time, it also meets the users' respected needs.

VI. Conclusion

Although Himalaya FM has been deeply engaged in content for many years and has become the overlord of the mobile audio market with the help of knowledge payment, there are still some questions worth thinking about.

How to hinder the impact of pirated audio on conversion rates?

Many high-quality big-name resources for mobile radio and knowledge payment platforms can be purchased online at extremely low prices. The sales are mainly through WeChat negotiation and Baidu Netdisk delivery. Users save the audio they buy into their own Baidu Netdisk and then listen directly using the mobile APP. This approach seriously hinders the conversion rate of audio platforms, including Himalaya. Can trafficking be cracked down on through cooperation in other industries? Can users be blocked from stealing through technical means? Can you plan a Knowledge Protection Festival to educate users to respect knowledge copyright? These are all issues worth thinking about by Himalaya and even the entire knowledge payment industry.

How to develop additional services for audio content?

Although audio itself is a virtual product, this product can give birth to more content or value. Users' discussions on knowledge content, practice of teaching methods, imitation of funny jokes, and even admiration for anchors are all derivatives of the content value of users after listening. If the Himalaya platform can provide support and services for derivatives, can it increase users' sense of dependence on the platform, thereby increasing activity and retention? In the future, Himalaya needs to think about how to use audio-related additional services to solve the retention and activity problems.

Can the Himalayas become a soothing person of loneliness?

The imbalance in China's urban development and the uneven allocation of educational resources have led to more and more children leaving their hometowns to study or work in other places. More and more foreigners are working hard with beautiful hope for life. They work hard in office buildings during the day, but when they return to the rental house at night, they can only face loneliness.

British writer Ryan once said: "Loneliness itself is a city." So what is the bustling hustle and bustle in this lonely city? Is it the picture in my head after I’ve been squeezing? Is it a random thought when you are alone? Or is it the message delivered from the social software on your phone? We need a door to block the noise of the world, but we need a voice to soothe loneliness. Can the Himalayas become a soothing person in this city?

Source: Heguang Tongchen