Operational Tips: Talk about the operating model of Wandering Whale through the AARRR model!

This article will use the AARRR model to analyze how Wandering Whale grew so wildly.

In half a year, starting from scratch, with a cold start , he entered the fiercely competitive second-hand book market. Without any large-scale marketing (money-burning) activities, he published only 12 original articles, gained more than 700,000 followers, and successfully carved out a market share.

The founder does not have a strong background, nor is he a "big V" or "Internet celebrity", and the traffic he brings is very limited.

This product is - Wandering Whale . A second-hand book trading platform whose mission is to protect all "second-hand books from being sold at a low price".

The selling point promoted by Manyoujing is "buying books at original price and selling them at 15% off". This price is very competitive in the market because most other platforms buy books at 10%-30% off and sell them at 30%-40% off. But in fact, recycling books does not actually give users cash, but instead gives users an equal amount of virtual currency, which cannot be withdrawn and can only be spent on Manyoujing.

We will not discuss the issue of product model in detail today. We will mainly learn how Whale has grown so rapidly . I will break it down and analyze it for you using the AARRR model .

The "AARRR model" is a concept mentioned by Fan Bing in "Growth Hacker". It can reflect the depth and type of user participation behavior in different stages and is a typical funnel structure. After users are introduced into the first layer, they will be lost in the following steps, and the remaining users will eventually be converted and spread by themselves.

AARRR is the abbreviation of Acquisition (acquisition of users) , Activation (increase activity) , Retention (increase retention rate) , Revenue (obtain revenue) , and Refer (self-propagation) . These five words correspond to the five important links in the life cycle of a mobile application.

1. Acquisition

Whale Watch has never conducted large-scale marketing activities, and its media exposure is limited to financing exposure. So how does it attract new customers?

The answer is to rely on the WeChat ecosystem and establish a communication matrix of WeChat official account + mini program + WeChat personal account + WeChat group.

(1) Recommended articles on public accounts

By searching the keyword "Manyoujing", we found that since June, Manyoujing has been running soft-text advertisements on many public accounts.

(2) Public account recommendation

Recommending a public account through a public account is probably settled through CPA (pay per attention) or CPC (pay per click).

Through observation, we can see that the range of public accounts launched by Manyoujing is very wide, but there are very few top accounts, which are relatively accurate small accounts . The main target users are students and white-collar workers. Through long-term and persistent delivery, Whale Watch has gained a large number of accurate users. Compared with the large-scale ads that cost hundreds of thousands of yuan each, Manyoujing chose to launch a large number of smaller ads at a lower price, using quantity and scrolling frequency to ensure exposure and accurately reach its target users, which is undoubtedly a clever move.

By using the service account to generate a QR code with parameters , you can track data such as subsequent active conversions of each channel, continuously optimize the delivery channels, and achieve the best results.

2. Increase Activation

(1) Follow us and receive 30 RMB virtual book fee

In order to encourage users to become more active, Manyoujing subsidizes each new user with 30 yuan of virtual book fees. Through observation, the 30 yuan virtual book fee allows consumers to buy most of the books on the platform at a 15% discount, which can effectively promote activities.

Currently, the price has been changed to 20 yuan, so consumers can no longer purchase it directly at a 15% discount. They need to purchase it at a 30%-40% discount, or attract a new user to follow (get 8 virtual book fees) and then purchase it at a 15% discount. Although this adjustment will reduce some activity, it can effectively improve self-propagation and help attract new users.

(2) Buy back second-hand books at original price, free postage

This step is very tempting for new users, because the users of Manyoujing are not only consumers but also people who need to deal with second-hand books. The model of free postage and recycling at original price can effectively promote activation. Moreover, the original price recovery does not give cash, but virtual book fees, so there is not much financial pressure.

(3) Guide students to add WeChat customer service number and form WeChat book club groups

The reach efficiency of WeChat groups and personal accounts is much higher than that of service accounts. Through micro-communities composed of personal accounts and groups, we can promote activities through various activities.

3. Improve retention

(1) Virtual book fees

Manyoujing uses virtual book fees instead of real currency, so the user migration cost is very high, which naturally improves retention. Moreover, virtual currency can effectively reduce transaction friction, improve user satisfaction, and thus improve retention.

(2) WeChat Matrix

Although mini programs are quite convenient as they can be used as you please and discard them after use, the problem of user retention has not been effectively solved. Therefore, it is necessary to utilize multiple matrices such as WeChat personal accounts, public accounts, and micro-communities to help with retention. In this regard, Wandering Whale has done a good job. The matrix is ​​well-built, and advertisements are continuously rolled out and exposed, which is beneficial for attracting new customers and retaining existing ones.

4. Revenue

The source of income for Wandering Whale is the profit from selling books. Since the book fee given for recycling is virtual, the investment is actually zero, so even if it is sold at a 15% discount, there is still a substantial profit.

When the order volume reaches a certain level, the logistics costs can be effectively reduced, and a certain income can also be obtained through the difference in express fees purchased by users.

Second-hand books are different from other industries. They will never be a high-profit industry, either in the past or in the future. However, by continuously expanding the scale and maintaining a steady income over the long term, profits will still be guaranteed based on the existing gameplay.

5. Self-propagation (Refer)

(1) Invite friends to get rewards

Every time you successfully invite a friend to register, you will be rewarded with 5-8 virtual book fees; after your friend successfully logs in, he or she can receive 20 book fees + 1 free shipping coupon for free.

Both the inviter and the invitee can profit, which can effectively eliminate the inviter's negative emotions. Moreover, book invitations are different from invitations for other types of products and do not have much impact on the inviter's social currency.

Therefore, although the rewards are not large, precise users are still willing to invite and introduce each other.

(2) Word of mouth

The current platform model of Manyoujing is very different from all previous second-hand book trading platforms. However, it is regarded as an upgrade on the previous model (the upgrade only represents the upgrade of the model, not the superiority or inferiority; the superiority or inferiority of the two models needs to be tested by the market), which is very attractive to many reading enthusiasts.

Word of mouth is imperative.

Summarize

Wandering whales are still very small and far from being successful. However, the fact that Manyoujing has achieved rapid development without any background or big players through effective industrial model upgrades and operational means is itself a successful case. In the second half of today's mobile Internet, with traffic dividends gradually disappearing, it is difficult to achieve success by relying solely on operational routines. Relying on industrial model upgrades, content optimization, and effective operational methods is more likely to bring surprises.

Source: Liu Qiuping