In 2010, Sean Ellis proposed the concept of " growth hacker ", which set off a strong trend in Western countries. Since the rise of WeChat and its subsequent increasingly powerful functions, social fission has attracted a high level of attention, and the work of "growth hacker" has become a hot topic among every product person.
The development of all companies is inseparable from growth: growth in the number of users, growth in revenue, growth in sales, growth in user time, growth in order volume... Ultimately, the premise of all growth is growth in the number of users.
Growth hacking serves this purpose.
1. Common fission forms
In life, we often see users sharing, and these shares take various forms, some of which inexplicably fill your screen.
What are the common fission forms?
1. Old customers bring in new customers - Alipay invites customers and sends red envelopes
The old users bring in new users form of fission, which is a form of fission in which old users bring in new users while giving rewards to one or both parties.
As the cost of acquiring users continues to increase, WeChat Pay has competed for the payment channels of lower-tier users, and Alipay has launched activities such as giving out red envelopes to attract new users more than once.
2. Fission coupons - Share and receive coupons for Meituan takeout
Sharing random coupons means guiding users to share a link after they have completed an order, and all people who click on it will receive a coupon of a “random” amount.
This fission evolved from the logic of old leading new fission.
3. Pure sharing fission - profit from sharing mini programs
This type of fission is the most primitive type of fission. If users want to obtain more rights and interests in a certain product, they need to do so through sharing.
This type of fission only takes into account the sharing willingness of basic users, but does not take into account the willingness of new users; a common example is profiting from sharing in mini programs.
4. Stored value fission - Starbucks buys her a cup of coffee
This fission has a strong social attribute. User A purchases products (vouchers or gift cards) on the platform and gives them to B. B must redeem the products through this platform. Through this channel, B will inevitably become a new user.
The stored value fission has the characteristic of extremely high conversion rate , but how to make user A willing to buy is the difficulty of this fission form.
5. Bargaining fission - everyone bargains and invites relatives and friends to bargain
Bargaining fission has achieved a very strong fission effect by using WeChat as a carrier: when a user buys a product, he can get a discount if he can ask his friends to help bargain.
The effect of this fission is very good: shopping users are very keen to ask relatives and friends to help bargain, but as for the users who help bargain, they may not attach great importance to it - they often leave after bargaining.
6. Group buying fission - Pinduoduo gets discounts when the purchase is full
When it comes to being the most adept at user fission , no one dares to claim to be the first, if Pinduoduo is second to none; in just three years, it has gained 300 million active buyers, and its annual GMV in 2017 reached 141.2 billion yuan.
It took Alibaba 10 years and JD.com 16 years to achieve the same results.
The method of group buying fission is to let users buy in groups to get lower discount prices. This fission can not only trigger a high sharing rate, but also achieve a high conversion volume.
Users who purchase products hope to get more favorable prices, so they are very enthusiastic about asking their friends to buy in groups. New users will also be happy to buy in groups when they find that group purchases can get preferential prices.
On the surface: both buyers and sellers benefit, thus harvesting a large number of sinking users.
7. Distribution Compound Interest - Global Catcher's " Sharing Economy "
Many groups are constantly changing their distribution methods, Global Catcher is one of them:
The membership fee for expert users is 299 yuan, and a commission of 100 yuan is given for each new user.
Manager user pulls a 200 yuan
Director level pull one 250
There are also layers of compound interest, which is essentially not much like a pyramid scheme, but as long as it is handled well and properly constrained, it can also be a good fission tool .
(Pictures from the Internet)
8. Personality and zodiac analysis fission - NetEase Cloud Music personality analysis
This type of fission is rather special in that users spread the information spontaneously without gaining any actual benefits. This type of fission usually touches the user's heartstrings, thus generating a desire to be understood and noticed, leading to sharing.
9. Show off fission - WeChat annual bill
Common ways to show off fission include posting bills and history.
The main purpose is: users hope to create a unique image through this behavior to satisfy their vanity.
10. Achievement Fission - Game Milestones
Generally in the game settings, the completion of each milestone will induce sharing, inducing users to share fission when their sense of accomplishment is overwhelming.
Users are motivated by showing off their strong side to gain a sense of honor or satisfy their competitive psychology.
11. Identity Splitting - Famous Quotes
This type of fission is similar to the show-off type of fission. It also expresses one's own identity by sharing celebrity quotes or opinion stories on social platforms, thereby shaping one's personal image.
etc……
The above are common types of fission. After careful analysis, we found that users’ sharing behaviors are all based on interests. If there is no sharing of interests, users will not do it. “Interest” is the essential driving force of sharing fission.
For users, benefits can be tangible or intangible; we can essentially summarize two fission driving models:
1) Actual interest fission
After sharing, users can directly obtain actual benefits, such as red envelopes, items, virtual goods, and services.
2) Virtual interest fission
After users share, they cannot directly obtain actual benefits, but they can get spiritual comfort or psychological changes, such as: gaining a sense of accomplishment, receiving attention, and emotional resonance.
In the fission of virtual interests, users essentially have only one demand - identity shaping.
Analyze the user's psychology:
Users forward quotes, music, and even comment on behaviors in order to shape their identities and thus elevate their unique status in the group.
Users forward and share entertaining and funny content in order to gain the attention of the group and create a happy and humorous image of themselves...
Therefore, virtual interest fission can be summarized in one sentence:
Any event that can highlight a person's unique image and gain the attention ("benefits") of others is virtual interest fission.
2. Design a disruptive product
As we mentioned above, the appeal points of user fission are all based on interests, and interests are divided into two models, one is explicit actual interests, and the other is relatively implicit virtual interests.
Next, we will discuss based on the essential "interests" how to design a viral product that can generate its own fission and reduce promotion costs?
The whole process of product communication (simple)
In the entire process from product exposure to dissemination, there are three important factors: product, seed users and sharing mechanism.
Three objects can be extracted and analyzed one by one.
1. Products
Products are the prerequisite for communication. Without products, there is no communication.
Category C products are more suitable for product fission, while Category B products are relatively more difficult to fission and require finding a suitable entry point.
In 1997, Hotmail targeted business users. However, due to its free model (solving pain points) and a link “Get your free Hotmail mailbox now” (spreading benefits), it achieved a growth of over 10 million in one year, thus opening the chapter of viral marketing of Internet products.
There are many differences between the fission of Class C products and Class B products, but tracing back to the bottom line, they are essentially profit-driven, but the demand will change. Here, we focus on Class C products.
Before doing product fission, you should first conduct an in-depth analysis of the product. Not all products are suitable for fission. You should consider the following three product positioning issues:
1) Is it necessary? (Product Requirements)
Not all products need to undergo viral fission. The premise of fission needs to be based on product demand.
For example, the product has not yet taken shape, and the MVP (minimum viable product) has not yet reached the PMF state. At this time, the demand for the product is not to promote fission, but to improve core functions and solve pain points.
2) Is it suitable? (Product attributes)
Whether the attributes of a product are suitable for fission marketing is a question that needs careful consideration. If the product itself has extremely high-end users, and more users may not necessarily bring positive benefits, and may even lead to a higher churn rate, the company should not engage in fission marketing.
Among the ladies who pursue luxury brands today, how many know about the existence of the Birkin bag? Hermès launched this product to establish its noble and intrinsic positioning, to satisfy the recognition of extremely high-end users and the industry, and at the same time to distinguish extremely high-end users from general consumer users. When its big logo bags are running all over the streets, it always hopes that its platinum bag will remain extremely unknown.
In addition, is the product aimed at Class B or Class C, and where is the user group? Whether it can be covered through the Internet is a question that needs to be considered.
3) Can you do it? (Resource matching problem)
The characteristics of viral marketing are: fast and fierce.
Successful viral marketing will bring about an explosion of traffic in an instant, but can the server, bandwidth, technical support, etc. enable the product to withstand such a huge concurrent volume in an instant? The product's fault tolerance mechanism and other aspects must be taken into consideration. If the product's resources cannot match such high concurrency, it will give users an unpleasant experience and will backfire.
2. Seed users
Seed users are a key role that is often overlooked. Many products are very well made, and the fission mechanism is also well considered, but they fail to explode. A big reason for this is that the seed users, a major variable factor, is ignored.
"The Tipping Point" points out that every product has a tipping point, and this tipping point is accumulated through seed users; when the number of seed users fails to reach the tipping point, the product will not be able to explode.
Similarly, seed users also need to consider three issues:
1) What is it? （User location）
Who are the seed users? What city? How is the income? How is consumption? What are the scenarios and habits for using this product?
User portraits determine our delivery scenarios, timing, bait (interest points), and paths; without careful analysis, it is easy for companies to deliver in the wrong scenarios, thus failing to achieve the expected fission effect.
2) How to reach? (Reach channel )
One of the benefits of analyzing user portraits is that we know how to reach them.
The book "Traffic Pool" points out that we should develop the mindset of a traffic pool rather than a mindset of traffic; if we always try to find traffic when we need it, it will be a huge expense in terms of cost and time. However, after establishing a traffic pool, we can get it right away - that is, after the product is launched, we can promote it quickly and at low cost.
Currently, there are three main ways to establish a traffic pool:
One is brand pool
That is, to increase brand awareness and recognition, so that users can trust the brand. However, a simple brand pool cannot be used immediately, and timeliness and reach cannot be guaranteed when promoting products, resulting in poor reach.
The second is the forum information pool
This type of pool will build a platform for users to communicate with each other, either business to user, or user to user, common forms include Weibo, official accounts , forums, Tieba, etc.; users are relatively stable and high-quality, which is an important magic weapon for official traffic storage. The disadvantage is that it is necessary to provide a steady stream of topic information to maintain activity, otherwise there will be a situation where there are many dead fans.
The third type is the water army pool
This type of pool can also be considered an undercover pool. The company's operators will infiltrate the WeChat groups of its competitors or related products, industries, interests, etc. by disguising their WeChat identities. After establishing trust through active speaking, they will promote fission products in the group as users when the product needs it.
The water army pool is a very good seed user pool - the users in the group are all target users with product needs, gathered together because of interests or communication, with high activity, accurate positioning, fast dissemination and other characteristics. If the operation location is good, it is easy to become "tap water".
In many large companies, one of the considerations for an operations staff is: how many high-quality WeChat groups you have.
Assume that the company has 4 operations staff, each of them controls an average of 300 high-quality WeChat groups with 200 users.
Then, there are 4×300×200=240,000 seed users in the water army pool. Assuming the conversion rate is only 10%, there are 24,000 users as seed users - this number of seed users is already very considerable for many small companies.
This method is also a way of building a traffic pool that I highly recommend. It does not require too much management but the returns are extremely high.
Similar extensions include posting videos, content or activities on platforms such as Tik Tok and Communities in the capacity of a user, with a group of internet trolls commenting and applauding below.
(Refer to Meituan Waimai’s operation on Douyin)
3) Where to share? (Sharing channel)
Sharing is the most critical step in fission. Just consider two points when sharing.
First, the form of sharing
Is the text shared? picture? H5? Mini program? Public account article?
This needs to be analyzed in combination with actual needs, but it is recommended that the principle of "light and convenient" is the best.
Lightweight, it can reduce development cycle and cost, respond quickly to the market and reduce risks.
Convenient , easy to share, users feel no pressure or burden when sharing, and may even feel happy; the key points are to lower the threshold for sharing, increase the benefit points of sharing, and reduce the steps of sharing.
H5 or pictures (with QR codes) are the two most recommended forms. These two forms can transcend the limitations of the platform and increase the chances of user reach - of course, a combination of multiple forms is even better.
Second, the sharing platform
Theoretically, the more shareable platforms there are, the better. Every additional outlet means a new possibility. But with the increase in shareable platforms comes an increase in development workload and management costs. Therefore, it is still necessary to choose a sharing platform based on the business and user groups.
Secondly, you also need to understand the limitations of the platform and what platform should be used to share the past and in what form. For example, Taobao cannot share links to WeChat, so Taobao thought of pasting them into WeChat in text form.
WeChat mini programs cannot be directly shared to other platforms, so you can use pictures + QR codes to solve the problem of WeChat information islands.
3. Sharing mechanism (gameplay)
The sharing mechanism is the core point of viral marketing and low-cost customer acquisition, and it is also the top priority of this article!
The quality of the sharing mechanism design directly determines whether the product has viral genes.
The sharing mechanism must meet these conditions: interesting gameplay that makes users willing to share and able to profit from it.
It can be summed up in three words: fun, willingness, and profit.
Interesting gameplay
It is the key to unlock users' acceptance of the product. Users are always curious about new things. Meeting user needs and introducing interesting gameplay requires considering the fun of the gameplay, as well as the perception and compatibility of the product.
Tuniu once created a hit marketing campaign: "As long as there is sand in your heart, everywhere is Maldives." I believe everyone has seen this photo, which is very interesting, but few people know the person behind it. It was a good marketing campaign, but the conversion rate was extremely low.
Willing to share
Then we need to consider the user's psychological level. Based on the user's positioning and scenario, consider whether the user is willing and has sufficient time to share.
Durex has done a very good job in operations, but users are not very willing to share its products; as a result, everyone's perception of Durex is that it only sells condoms, but few people know that the company also has many categories of sex toys.
This is driven by the user's psychological factors. In essence, all the sharing behaviors of users are to gain more benefits for themselves.
When it comes to products like Durex, users have needs, pain points, and are willing to buy, but because sharing Durex products will create a vulgar image of the individual (in the current environment), this leads to the loss of personal image (virtual benefits). Therefore, even if Durex holds a big promotion, it may not necessarily have a good fission effect.
Gaining benefits
Essentialism tells us that humans are driven by interests - the same is true for sharing behavior.
Interests are divided into real interests and virtual interests. The bait of fission is to allow users to gain benefits. The benefits must be obtained later, and compensation will be given only after users have made effective sharing behaviors. This is the only way to ensure the effect and conversion of fission.
It should be emphasized that after users share, new users coming in should provide benefits to both parties, otherwise it will increase the burden of sharing for users and reduce the desire of new users to enter.
For users who care about gains and losses, the bait can be actual benefits.
Virtual benefits are more suitable for high-end users or groups with richer emotions. This type of user pursues more of a sense of accomplishment and gaining attention.
But in most cases, a combination of the two can produce better results.
3. Viral Marketing Case
Case: Lian Coffee Pocket Cafe
We take Lian Coffee’s “Pocket Café” as an example to analyze how they designed this fission marketing.
On August 1, 2018, Lian Coffee launched the "Pocket Café" feature, which went viral on WeChat Moments in just a few hours, with 520,000 coffee shops opened in one day, making it a model of viral marketing. Based on the above analysis of sharing motivations, let’s take a look at how Lian Coffee conducts product design.
Lian Coffee’s product positioning
Product requirements:
Break through the space limitations and solve the inconvenience of drinking coffee (refreshing) at work
Break through the asymmetry between coffee price and quality in the market, and let users drink high-quality and low-priced coffee.
After years of education in coffee shops, first- and second-tier cities now have a high acceptance of coffee, and some users have even become dependent on it. Users often need coffee to refresh themselves when they feel sleepy at work. Lian Coffee solves real pain points.
The product has already met market demand and a large number of orders are needed to meet the company's current development, so fission marketing is needed.
Product attributes:
Products are purchased online and coffee is delivered to your home (workplace)
Lian Coffee is positioned as an online coffee delivery service, and coffee is a fast-moving consumer product, so its product attributes are very suitable for fission marketing.
Lian Coffee's seed users
User positioning:
Lian Coffee is positioned for urban white-collar workers, and most orders are placed in offices.
Reach channels:
Celebrity endorsements, promoting to their respective fans through the celebrities’ own traffic pool
Public account promotion . The predecessor of Lian Coffee mainly focused on Starbucks coffee takeaway and has accumulated many coffee fans. The public account itself is a huge traffic pool. Through extensive publicity on the public account, it instantly accumulated a lot of seed users.
Sharing channels:
The sharing channels take two forms:
1) Generate mini program code store/coffee product pictures
Users can generate pictures of the store or pictures of coffee in their own store (all with mini program codes), save them to the album, and share them on various platforms through these pictures. It breaks the information island problem of WeChat.
2) Share the mini program directly with WeChat friends
Users can also simply and directly share their stores with their WeChat friends.
First of all, WeChat’s market penetration rate has reached 90%. By opening WeChat mini-programs and allowing users to share internally, they can already cover most of the users.
In order to facilitate expansion to other platforms and increase exposure, the remaining users are covered on other platforms in the form of pictures.
Lian Coffee’s sharing mechanism (key points)
This viral marketing combined the users’ pain points and implicit psychological needs, which not only brought practical benefits to users but also listened to their inner demands. It combined the use of interest bait and made this marketing so successful.
Interesting gameplay:
The gameplay setting is very similar to Youxi, like a development game, and it is very interesting.
Users can complete the decoration of their own coffee shop through the rich plug-ins provided. Thanks to the rich plug-ins, each user can decorate his or her own coffee shop in a very personalized way.
Moreover, novice sellers can only list 5 types of coffee. If they want to sell more coffee, they can only do so by "upgrading and fighting monsters", that is, getting others to buy more of their coffee to upgrade and unlock it.
Willing to share:
The key to Lian Coffee’s marketing success this time is that it grasped the very hidden needs of the target group. For urban white-collar workers or coffee lovers, there has always been a dream in their hearts - to own a coffee shop with its own personality in a city that is neither fast nor slow.
Lian Coffee has achieved this for these users. The highly personalized illustrations fully satisfy the users' ideas about the decoration of their dream cafe. The individual's inner world is concretely displayed. There is no doubt that the desire to share is bound to be strong.
Essentially, it satisfies users' expectations of being noticed and being unique, thereby shaping a beautiful personal image.
Benefits:
Store manager profit:
As long as someone visits my store and completes the transaction, the store manager can get 0.1 cup of growth value. After accumulating 1 cup, the store manager can exchange the coffee.
Customer benefits:
When a new store opens, users who enter on the same day can purchase high-priced products at extremely low prices, allowing customers entering the store to feel real discounts and benefits.
In fission, the interests of the sharers should be weakened and the interests of the shared should be emphasized in order to guide users to actively share.
IV. Conclusion
The premise of fission: matching product, market and user positioning
The core of fission: attractive benefits, interesting gameplay, and willingness to share
The basis of fission: seed users, channel coverage, technical support
The essence of fission is to make users feel that there are benefits. The benefits are intended to be specific, and a detailed analysis must be conducted based on the product, market, and users.
There must be a deeper driving force behind every phenomenon. Grasp the essence, feel it, understand it, and then evolve your own set of fission methods. Only by thinking carefully can we find and create more new possibilities and learn to trace the essence of the problem.
Author: G. , authorized to be released by Qinggua Media .
