2B operation: How to reach target users?

I haven’t posted an article for a long time. As an operation addict, I recently started to get involved in 2B operations and am also learning different 2B operation routines. There are also some problems and pitfalls that 2C products have not encountered, as well as some ideas and methods to solve the pitfalls by yourself.

I'd like to review some of my recent experiences and give you some reference.

The operation of the 2B side is very different from that of the 2C side. For example, the choice of channel placement is a very important difference. When facing 2C users, you can choose products with high user activity, good retention , and long average usage time as your promotional channels, and customize some promotional plans based on the characteristics of the channel to attract traffic to the product. An obvious feature of the 2B side is that the operators cannot find the target users in the early stage , and each target user company needs to tailor a different operation plan to carry out some targeted activities and promotions based on the characteristics of different companies.

How can I reach my target companies?

2B enterprises will indeed be confused in the initial operation, but generally there are two ways: find enterprises yourself, or let enterprises find you.

Through advertising and marketing , we all look forward to the situation where "companies come to me". In this case, the companies themselves have strong needs and are willing to communicate. However, in the early stages of some products, there is often no well-known brand , so operators need to find target companies themselves.

Find a business yourself

Finding companies on your own often runs through the entire stage of project operation, and at different stages of operation, you need to constantly upgrade and optimize and find new channels. This is the most difficult stage in the entire 2B operation. The later event planning and activation are all aimed at encouraging companies to come to you, but finding accurate channels in the early stage is the most important thing to pay attention to.

Preliminary preparation

In the process of finding a company yourself, the first thing you need to do your homework is the early preparation stage. Operations require a lot of rhythm, so early preparation is essential. Knowing yourself and your enemy will ensure victory in every battle. This is the truth. The content that you need to understand in the early stage generally includes: what needs of users the product solves, the frequency of demand, the general situation of competing products in the industry, market share, user pain points in the industry, the specific process of users using the product, the decision-making chain in the industry, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of your own products, the main attributes of the product brand... You can use marketing methods such as SWOT, 4C or 4P to help you sort out your analysis ideas.

Channel Selection

When you are ready to start the next stage, the big pitfall of channel selection is waiting for you ahead. In the early stages, you may doubt the most important indicators at the current stage. What is the most important task at the moment? What should I do?

At this time, you may need to do two things in parallel : one is to establish the company's brand and cover the initial online product information ; the other is to select channels and reach users .

First and foremost, you need to ensure that after you have contact with users, if they have any demand at a later stage, they can find your products through online searches and can contact you. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the product names and contents can be searched by search engines . Baidu, 360, and Sogou can all cover some basic information. It is worth noting that if you are not sure about the source channels of your users, it is best not to blindly place advertisements . First, it is unnecessary because of the high cost. Second, multi-channel placement may interfere with your analysis of the conversion rates of each channel and disrupt the rhythm of operations.

I think a very effective way to reach 2B users is to transform 2B operations into 2C ones . Whether it is a corporate product or a personal product, it is inseparable from the individual user. Even if the decision-making of an enterprise product is very complex, it still cannot escape the individual users. The first thing is to determine the internal decision-making chain of the enterprise , and then achieve the promotion goal by contacting the employees in the decision-making chain . For example, if you are a company that makes archive system products, your users are only the archive management personnel within the enterprise. Therefore, you can determine that the internal decision-making chain of the enterprise is: archive personnel -> approval leader. Clarifying the decision-making chain can help you sort out the communication process with the company. No matter which decision-making link you come into contact with, you can try to promote decision-making through some operational means , so that the decision-making chain will not be stuck because you cannot find the decision-maker in the next link.

To deal with 2B companies, you must first understand which 2C channels the relevant decision makers are distributed on, and then contact them or place advertisements. This will be more accurate than aimless placement. Based on the characteristics of the users who need to make decisions, select better channels . You may be faced with the choice of forum communities, feed stream products, and advertising soft ads. I think it still depends on the user attributes. If most users are technology users, such as programmers , then we should increase the operation of major forums and Zhihu, and weaken the content of Weibo public accounts ; if users pay more attention to authority, such as archivists, then we should increase the proportion of authoritative media in the relevant industry, cooperate with major training and government agencies, and pay attention to the operation of offline channels.

Self-built channels

Building one's own channel is a measure that will only be considered when the current channel conditions cannot meet the needs of the enterprise . It should be clear from the literal meaning that building your own channel is much more difficult than attracting traffic through external channels, because it also involves issues such as post-channel maintenance and conversion . The most important of these is the time cost, because it usually takes more than one or two days for a channel to take shape, but it takes a certain amount of time to settle.

Under what circumstances will existing channels fail to meet business requirements? Generally speaking, there are two types: the first is the need to be aroused : the demand for the product is not strong enough, or the user himself does not know that he has this demand; the second is strong resistance : the user has a too strong sense of being sold to the new product, so he resists getting to know the product.

Faced with these two situations, you can consider building your own channels to help promote your products. There are many ways to build your own channels, such as building your own industry community, industry exchange meetings, or industry public accounts, which are often based on the company's capabilities. I think community products are a very good way, but in the early stages of the community, they require a lot of operational guidance, content system building, user system building, the sedimentation of the community's tone, the guidance of community content, the activation of community later activities, etc. WeChat public accounts or industry forums are all very good channels. The main purpose of their existence is "shell promotion" . Approach users with another positioning. For example, if I am developing a file management system, it is meaningless to communicate with users through existing known channels. Users do not understand the improvements brought about by the new system, but are very disgusted with the promotion of new products and regard it as advertising. In this case, by establishing a public account for archive management knowledge, and using the identity of a public account for industry practical knowledge, we can popularize the benefits and advantages of the new system, save manpower, material and financial resources, and reach users.

The above is some of my sharing on 2B operation issues. The next content will discuss how to improve user conversion and user communication.

Urge yourself to review and organize your thoughts in a timely manner. If there are any unclear or controversial points, everyone is welcome to discuss and learn together!

The author of this article @LunaDeng was compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services, advertising platform, Longyou Games