Case analysis: 4 key steps to establish a community operation system!

Running a live community is not an easy task, and it is even more difficult if you want to convert it into cash. So, in this situation, it is very necessary to establish a community operation system.

How can a very niche product quickly accumulate users and achieve conversions?

This was a project that I personally managed in 2015. At that time, I was working in an education and training institution, mainly engaged in IT technology, big data and other related technical training. As the operation manager, I developed and expanded new projects due to business needs.

Although the project itself is relatively small in scale, the overall ideas and logic are similar. I would like to take advantage of my recent break to organize it and share it with you.

background:

SAP is the world's largest provider of enterprise management and collaborative e-commerce solutions, the world's third largest independent software provider, and the world's number one ERP software. At that time, I was mainly responsible for the training business of SAP ERP implementation technology, mainly providing training for individuals and companies who wanted to learn SAP technology and wanted to work as SAP implementation consultants.

In 2015, SAP had a big change, integrating the e-commerce platform hybris with SAP's ERP system, integrating the front-end, mid-end and back-end platforms. The previously lukewarm Hybris technology emerged. At that time, many companies were building their own e-commerce platforms (Watsons, Benefit, Bestseller, Lenovo's overseas official website, Laiyifen, Kidswant, etc. all adopted the hybris platform and technology). In addition, the ERP training business encountered a bottleneck at that time, so I thought it was an opportunity to adopt hybris technology training, so there was a hybris training project later.

Because this project involves many links such as project preparation, instructor contact and screening, operation and promotion, etc., here we only introduce how to find target customers, establish connections through the community and achieve conversion.

The overall idea:

1. The ultimate goal of establishing a group: to achieve payment through the output of training value.
2. Target group within the community: customer profile based on products and services.
3. Community membership: how to establish connections between products and members.
4. The connection between community and products/services: conversion methods and conversion paths.

1. How to determine the community goals and define the population

Because my purpose at that time was to test whether this project was feasible, the ultimate goal was to achieve paid conversion for training.

Now that the positioning and goals of the community are clear, the next step is to think about who might be your potential customers, how to attract their attention, and how to keep them around.

Those who are already working in the SAP industry and need to expand their career path, those who are currently using or preparing to use the hybris platform and technology, and those who are currently working in other technical fields and are optimistic about the prospects of hybris. (But these must have a technical foundation, more specifically a Java technical foundation)

Create a target customer profile based on your understanding of the products and services themselves.

Next, I did not look for these potential customers immediately. Instead, I first posted topics, articles, tutorials, resource/video sharing, related salary and benefits, development prospects, etc. related to hybris technology on major search platforms and related technical forums, and published these contents as some hard goods and soft articles.

This action must be done before you look for target customers. On the one hand, it is because when you gather potential customers, you have a foothold for your marketing purposes. On the other hand, the content of these platforms needs time to settle before being included. When publishing content, you must also selectively look for platforms with higher weights and easier to be included.

When customers first begin to understand and prepare to accept a new product, they will first learn about the product from all aspects and be prepared for it.

These actions include the path you take to guide your customers. For example, the content I publish guides users to join communities, participate in activities, and obtain contact information.

2. How to find potential customers

I personally think it is not difficult to find potential customers. There are several main points:

1. Aggregation method

The aggregation method is to plan which platform to circle potential customers to, whether it is QQ group or WeChat group, or other platforms. There is no definite answer to this, it depends on your ultimate goal and user habits.

Because most of the users of this project at that time preferred to use QQ, and based on considerations of later conversion methods, the initial screening was concentrated in the QQ group.

1. channel

Of course when looking for channels, the more concentrated the customers are, the better. This requires studying where this group of people often hang out and what habits they usually have. With these information, you will know how to find them.

QQ group: In 2015 and 2016, more technical personnel gathered in QQ groups. QQ groups have advantages such as convenient communication, convenient document transfer, and private chat without adding friends. In the eyes of technical people, these advantages are unmatched by WeChat. Therefore, technology-related QQ groups and SAP learning groups have become the main channels.

The appeal of great people and big names: If a lecturer or company has the resources of a big shot, they can also spread and gather potential customers and fans through forwarding and recommendation.

WeChat: Guiding user fission through WeChat groups is what I use more often now. It can quickly expand the group based on the original customers and fans to accumulate energy for the next step of conversion.

When we were working on this project, WeChat didn’t have the functionality it has today, so it wasn’t used in this project. If it were used today, the effect would definitely be amazing. I have also planned and actually managed several community fissions, and I will continue to share them with you when I have the chance.

Third-party platforms: When looking for potential customers, you cannot ignore third-party platforms or your own partners. I put the videos and live classes using hybris on Tencent Open Class. On the one hand, I could get relatively large exposure, and on the other hand, I could also gain some potential customers and fans. It’s just that the paths are different. If you watch a video or participate in a live broadcast and think the content is good, you will join the QQ group. Those who were originally in the QQ group will go back to watch videos and live broadcasts to have a deeper understanding of our project, and ultimately they cannot leave this circle.

1. Contact method

The potential customers are there, how do they appear? When will it appear? What is the quick way to introduce it into your own community?

During the operation and new customer acquisition stage, the way and efficiency of reaching users directly determines the subsequent retention and conversion.

External advertising exposure: exposure through search engines, such as publishing articles on Baidu, Zhihu, technical forums, etc.

Scenario contact: When the QQ group discusses related topics, intervene and guide in a timely manner. For example, when there is a recruitment need for Hybris, introduce topics related to salary and career prospects in a timely manner; when there are related technical questions, answer questions and guide training content related to the module, etc. Although it may take time, it is also essential if you want to build strong relationships with customers and gain their trust, especially when managing customers in the later stages. Many of the customers who were converted in the later stages of this project became my friends and my group management helpers, so this is very important.

Forced reach: This can be understood as hard advertising, which will be posted more or less.

As users are becoming more and more sensitive today, extensive approaches will become less and less effective, and any kind of user reach needs to be carefully designed and thought out. Only by coordinating different channels and reaching out methods can the operational goals be achieved.

Through all of the above, it took more than a month from the initial planning to the establishment of the QQ community, and gathered more than 400 QQ group users. Because there was no group fission at the time and the focus was on group maintenance, it was a pity that the number of people in the community was relatively small, but the conversion rate was still good, and the final dozen or so conversions also came from here.

3. How to manage the community and quickly screen customers

I basically don't care about this group anymore, but it is still very active and maintains an atmosphere of technical exchange and discussion, without becoming an advertising group.

There are mainly several types of people who join the community:

• The first type is those who really want to learn;
• The second type is those who want to make friends and join in the fun;
• The third is for recruiting people;
• The fourth type is advertising.

In a basic community, we know that these types of people exist. What is important is the attitude and rule definition towards these types of people.

The first type is what we focus on tracking. When necessary, it is also necessary to find out the other party’s thoughts on this product and service through private chat.

The second type of people are key players who are essential to an active community atmosphere. Many of them are already pioneers of this technology and leaders in the industry. Once we establish a trusting relationship with them, their opinions will be of great help to our services and conversions. In my group, I got a general idea of ​​what kind of people they were through their speeches and activity, so I established a deeper relationship with them through private chats. These people became volunteers to answer questions, group administrators, and also provided some free technical open classes, etc. I never shy away from the fact that I am doing technical training. On the contrary, I will directly tell everyone that I am the person in charge of this training project. Some of them are technical persons in charge of enterprises, and they will even take the initiative to consult me ​​about corporate training matters, which inspired me to develop customized corporate training.

We allow the third category of people to exist because they post some recruitment information, but they can only post once a day. The job postings they post are a testament to our optimism about the prospects of this technical career.

We will resolutely resist the fourth type of people and will show no mercy if we find them specifically advertising.

Images directly borrowed

Our relationship with group members is like falling in love, which requires a process from not knowing each other to knowing each other, understanding each other, trusting each other, and loving each other.

This process is also a process of screening and identifying customers. If the users of your community are scattered when you first establish it, you need to find a way to identify and reshape them. For example, if you are doing paid knowledge, users may initially come for free books and other activity rewards. Then, you need to identify what type of content users like and what level users are currently at. Re-stratify them and then carry out refined operations.

Because the clients of my project are relatively vertical and precise, there are not so many levels. I just use the QQ group as the basic operation group, and those who are interested in training are divided into the WeChat group for conversion. There are only these two levels.

4. How to convert social media users into paying customers

As mentioned above, this project started from scratch and eventually gathered more than 400 QQ group members, ultimately converting 11 people with an average customer price of 5,800 yuan. The service is provided in the form of hybris technical training via online live broadcast + video playback, for a total of 7 days (6 hours * 7).

• Paid conversion rate: 11 out of 400 = 27.5%
• Direct income: 5800 * 11 = 63800 yuan
• Indirect income: customized training for enterprises
• Duration: 1 month

Here’s how people in QQ groups are converted into paying customers:

Personally, I think the conversion issue itself is not about which marketing points you use and how you make your potential customers pay? The premise is whether your products and services meet the needs of target customers, whether these service points can eliminate customers' doubts and sufficiently recognize your products and services.

Taking my project as an example, those who can be encouraged to pay are those who really want to learn this technology. However, if we break it down carefully, there are different views on those who really want to learn technology: those who are familiar with the industry and profession pay more attention to what they can learn (knowledge teaching system, course content and instructor qualifications); those who are new to the industry pay more attention to career development and future expectations; there is also a part of people who pay attention to the participation experience (how to take classes, when to take classes, whether there are Q&A tutoring), etc.

The above customer needs are issues that must be faced and considered clearly when making products and services, and are also the basis of design transformation.

Open courses are a relatively mature way to promote conversions in the training industry. I have heard a lot of open courses in different forms in various industries on the market. In the past two years, there have been some voices saying that there is no routine and no marketing. It can only be said that the quality of open courses is getting worse and worse. One high-quality open class is more effective than ten, so it is better to spend time on improving quality.

The final paid conversion of this project took only one open class. The specific process and details are not detailed. Here are some directions for your reference:

1. Who controls the overall ideas and content of the open course, the operator or the lecturer?
2. Should the instructor be responsible for the final conversion results?
3. How to balance content and marketing advertising?
4. What are the flaws that make customers spend money? For example, how to use marketing tools such as group buying and limited-time discounts
5. What are the follow-up actions after class?

Summarize

As the saying goes, "I have read a lot of books, understood a lot of principles, but still cannot live a good life." Many people who run communities know that they need to have clear goals, but when they actually do it, they forget the original starting point and the end point. I think the definition of community goals should be more about the design and definition of a conversion path. This path should at least be able to withstand scrutiny and be executable. Once the path is clear, the subsequent actions will also be clear.

I have been exploring operations. You are welcome to discuss community operation experience and monetization issues!

Source: summer