Fission Guide: What is traffic pool thinking?

The core idea of ​​" traffic pool thinking" can be summed up in one sentence: find incremental growth from existing stock and bring high frequency to high frequency. This sentence is very suitable for operational work.

The book "Traffic Pool" has aroused every operator's attention to traffic, and also popularized another concept that is comparable to " growth hacking " - "traffic pool thinking".

Traffic pool thinking is the essence of the book "Traffic Pool", and the reason why it can be accepted by people, in addition to the role of the book, is more importantly the marketing experience of the person who wrote this book. The best proof is the recently popular "little blue cup" Luk Kincoffee, whose traffic acquisition, conversion , and fission adopt the traffic pool thinking in "Traffic Pool".

However, traffic pool thinking should indeed be taken seriously by every operator, but not all operating methods therein can be used, especially for traffic channels that the operator has not been exposed to. So, how does the “traffic pool thinking” know how the operator operates the traffic? How to improve customer acquisition and conversion at the operational level?

In fact, the core idea of ​​"traffic pool thinking" can be summed up in one sentence: find incremental growth from existing stock and bring high frequency to high frequency. This sentence is very suitable for operational work. Therefore, as long as we firmly grasp and understand the meaning and core of this sentence, everyone can build their own traffic pool.

So what should we do specifically?

I think we can start from three aspects: brand , fission and conversion.

1. Brand

Brand is the most stable traffic pool. This is the most accurate description of the role of brand. So, how does a brand become a stable traffic pool?

There are many answers, which generally include three aspects: positioning, symbols, and scenes.

For operators, symbols and scenes are more suitable for marketers , and what operators can try is positioning.

However, before talking about positioning, you need to know a word - strategy. For a brand, it is the brand strategy, which is something that the top management of a company needs to determine. What does it mean to the operators?

Because it helps you find your position.

In today's era, there are actually three effective brand strategies, and in the traffic pool thinking, there are also three sharp and effective methods for positioning. Coincidentally, they can correspond one by one.

1. Reverse brand strategy: oppositional positioning

The so-called reverse brand strategy is essentially to reduce service items and improve service quality, or to use a popular term, "subtraction." For example: Google 's minimalist search page. While other search engines are constantly adding various services, it goes the other way and reverses the competitive landscape with a bare page.

The positioning method under the guidance of this strategy is oppositional positioning, that is, to find areas where there are significant differences with the opponent. Simply put, I have what others do not, and I am better than others in what they have.

In copywriting , you can use words such as "more, than, without, increase, not... but..." to reflect the comparative advantages. One thing to remember is: make sure to clearly state your positioning in one sentence or a few words, making it simple and easy to understand.

Case: Not all milk is called Telunsu, Baidu understands Chinese better, and Guazi.com, a used car direct sales website, has no middlemen to make a profit from the price difference.

2. Hostile Brand Strategy: USP Positioning

The essence of hostile brand strategy is not to market in a traditional way, and even to engage in anti-marketing that goes against users. One of the ways is to emphasize the functional features and special effects of the product. In terms of positioning, this is called USP positioning, which means physical positioning.

In principle, the functions of the product should be very good, even unique, and the copywriting generally uses the sentence pattern of "use ..." to form a scenario-based slogan. Of course, the best way is to combine the product's functional points for conceptual packaging, using more verbs and words that describe the effects.

Case: Mini Cooper of the Beetle , drink Red Bull when you are tired, Nongfu Spring is a little sweet, charge for five minutes and talk for two hours.

3. Beyond industry brand strategy: upgrading positioning

This is a strategy and positioning opposite to the first two ideas. It is not to compete with the opponent under the same concept, but to upgrade to a higher dimension. The essence is to completely ignore the existing category definition and pull users out of their habitual consumption rhythm.

The principle is: to be user-demand-oriented, create new demands, new categories, and new areas, suitable for innovative products. The copy often uses words such as "xxx industry pioneer, redefining xxx, xxx revolution" to attract attention.

Cases: Rio’s pre-mixed cocktail concept, Xiaomi’s Internet TV concept, etc.

The above are relatively effective positioning methods suitable for operators, but they must be user-demand-oriented, product quality must be excellent, and avoid being false and empty.

2. Fission

Fission is currently a low-cost way to acquire customers, and many people like to equate it with "growth hacking" and "traffic pool thinking." This is wrong. Fission is just a means or model of acquiring customers, but it does play a very important role in building a traffic pool.

I will not elaborate on the methodology of fission here (please refer to previous articles in this column), but will only make a relatively systematic classification of fission.

1. Classification by power

It takes motivation to get users to participate in fission, and the most fundamental motivation comes from user needs. Based on this, fission can be divided into three categories:

1. Word-of-mouth fission: Users experience and use products because of need or influence. When the product or service exceeds expectations, users will spontaneously recommend it and generate word-of-mouth.
2. Social fission : Users participate in interesting and creative activities out of curiosity. When the activities meet social needs, users will spontaneously spread them to satisfy their desire to show off.
3. Interest fission: Users are forced or actively share because of some attractive benefits, such as red envelopes, discounts, etc., and their desires are satisfied.

There are many cases mentioned above, such as word-of-mouth customer acquisition in the education industry, Lian Coffee’s pocket coffee shop, and fission red envelopes from Ele.me.

2. Classification by mode

In addition to motivation, fission also has different modes. The reason for the different modes is the distribution of benefits between sharers and those shared. Based on this, it can be divided into five types:

(1) Referral fission: that is, getting benefits after sharing.

This fission method is suitable for products with a high single experience cost, especially virtual products, such as: paid knowledge products, online education courses, etc. The most common way is to share free classes, offsetting the actual price through sharing while reaching more potential users.

Case: Youshu ’s community fission and Himalaya ’s sharing and free listening.

(2) Invitation fission: both the inviter and the invitee receive benefits

Attracting new users from old users is the essence of fission. If you want old users to be willing to attract new users, the fastest way is to reward old users for attracting new users, and also reward new users at the same time. This has become the standard way of playing, especially suitable for apps and WeChat public accounts .

Case: Invitation gifts for UCAR , and give-one-get-one promotion for Luckin Coffee .

(3) Group fission: the inviter and the sharer form a group to share benefits

This is already a relatively basic way of playing. Users initiate group purchases and use social networks to let their friends and themselves buy products at low prices, thereby achieving a fission effect. The basic logic is to gain profits through sharing.

Case: e-commerce or knowledge payment platforms such as Pinduoduo and Qianliao .

(4) Distribution fission: developing downlines to earn commissions

This is a very popular way of playing at present. Its essence is the secondary compound interest of direct sales. As long as the user recommends a friend or a friend of a friend to buy, the recommender can obtain a certain percentage of the profit, that is, the commission. The promoter model and fission poster model of some platforms are both distribution fission.

Distribution and invitation are different. The former is that paying users invite paying users and both make profits, while the latter is not necessarily invited by paying users, and only the inviter makes profits.

Case: Paid knowledge courses that have been popular on New World , NetEase, Sanlian Weekly, etc.

(5) Crowdfunding fission: inviting friends to help you make a profit

Crowdfunding is also a popular way of playing, which mainly utilizes the emotional identification among friends and the external form of welfare. The welfare mainly includes discounts, products, etc.

Case: Bargaining activities in social e-commerce and the help of various mini-programs to unlock.

3. Classification by platform

Sometimes, most people think that fission only happens on WeChat . In fact, it is not true. Any platform can do fission. However, according to this classification, there are three main types of fission:

1. APP fission: All fission methods are based on APP, with the aim of promoting APP downloads. Sharing channels are WeChat, QQ, Weibo and other platforms.
2. WeChat fission: Currently most fissions are carried out on this platform, and a relatively complete fission industry chain has emerged. The main tools include official accounts , WeChat groups , personal accounts and mini-programs.
3. Product fission: The main form of offline fission, which few people pay attention to. It can be combined with online or do pure offline promotions, such as: collecting bottle caps, collecting bottle bodies, collecting paper cards, etc., and a more famous case is ofo's Minions car.

3. Conversion

Brand solves the problem of "who are the users", fission solves the problem of "how do users come", and conversion solves the problem of user payment. There are actually many forms of conversion. I personally divide them into delivery, cooperation, live broadcast , discounts, and renewal. Cooperation is more of a BD responsibility, requiring more complex event planning and personnel allocation.

Live streaming, discounts, and renewals are often essential elements of some knowledge products, and the specific design requires some marketing thinking, which will not be elaborated here. Moreover, all of the above can be achieved here in "delivery", because delivery is a form of cooperation, and the content of delivery will also involve live broadcast, discounts and other content.

In the "Traffic Pool", delivery is a relatively effective but costly conversion method. For operators, the delivery involved is the delivery of public accounts.

There are two important parts in the public account launch: one is the soft copy and the other is the landing page . Except for the different display methods, the design logic of the copy is almost the same. To launch a soft copy or landing page with conversion effect, the following six elements must be present:

1. User thinking: The writing of soft articles and the introduction of landing pages should conform to user logic, so that users know "what, why, and how".
2. Selling points: Sort out the core selling points, brands, and event information, and display them in a prominent position. The images should be brief and the language should be straightforward.
3. Herd mentality: Be good at taking advantage of the herd mentality by using phrases such as "xxx user has registered to use" and "xxx user has placed an order".
4. Core value: Tell users what services the product can bring, what value it has, what effects it has, how big the discount is, etc.
5. Authoritative Testimonials: Display authoritative certifications and customer testimonials to lower the psychological threshold for users and enhance trust.
6. Conversion entrance: Provide an entrance where users can leave valid information, such as a QR code. Don’t leave too much information, just the most critical ones.

As long as these six elements are done well, a soft article or landing page with conversion effect will be born, so be sure to think about these six points carefully.

In general, traffic pool thinking is not a new way of thinking, but it is systematic and effective enough. If you can master it well, you can turn any huge or precious traffic into a self-growing pool.

Traffic is precious, and traffic pool is even more precious. If I have to choose, I will definitely choose the latter.

The above is my personal understanding of the traffic pool thinking. A picture is attached below for a visual explanation. I hope this can become a guide for traffic fission for every operator.