Dismantling the big size: Without fission, how can we achieve monthly sales of tens of millions through social e-commerce?

The name of "The Woman with the Scent of Soul" (hereinafter referred to as "Soul") comes from a million-selling book;

Li Xiaoyi, the author and founder of the public account, experienced nearly 12 years of work experience in traditional media advertising operations . In 2014, she "micro-transformed" to become an author and published "The Woman with a Scented Soul", becoming famous overnight and becoming a best-selling author.

Taking advantage of the popularity of "best-selling author" (IP) and the community resources built up by readers in the early days, Li Xiaoyi approached Tao Yanyan, his former partner at Anhui Business Daily for many years, and together they entered the public account market .

Shortly after the account was created, in July and August 2014, with only 10,000 to 20,000 fans accumulated in the early stage, she wrote a popular article with a readership of over one million. At the same time, she enjoyed the content dividend of WeChat at that time, and gained more than 500,000 fans, becoming a major female emotional account, and thus attracted the attention of most investors ;

One year later, in October 2015, the public account "Linghun" successfully obtained the first round of financing of 3 million yuan. The investor was the "Lion Home New Media Investment Fund" initiated by Wu Xiaobo (which has invested in major accounts such as " Shidian Dushu "), and the market valuation was 30 million yuan;

At the end of 2016, it began to focus on content e-commerce, and in November of the same year, it received 15 million yuan in financing led by " Toutoushidao " and followed by Antelope Morning.

In October 2017, it received the favor of "Zhencheng Fund" (which has invested in big accounts such as Luoji Siwei / Dedao , Ergeng , and Youchehouyi) and raised another 30 million yuan in financing. At this time, the public account "Soul" has been valued by the market at 300 million yuan, and its value has increased tenfold in two years.

At the "2018 New List Conference" in January this year, Li Xiaoyi gracefully walked onto the stage and shared with everyone her experience of "traveling" between creators and entrepreneurs over the years. She admitted that she felt mixed emotions as "Soul" became a formal company because of financing and was promoted to a local "major taxpayer."

It turns out that as early as the early days of the establishment of the public account "Soul", they had already achieved relatively positive revenue. Under the condition of not much financial pressure, financing for "Soul" was not "leverage growth" as the outside world believed, but more of "opening up new ideas";

For example, in the early days, the positioning of "Soul" was just a vague "female growth account" and focused on creating content for female users , but Li Xiaoyi felt that it was not precise enough. Wu Xiaobo, a potential investor at the time, enlightened her with one sentence: "China's middle class needs a new media carrier to spread their values."

Li Xiaoyi said frankly, "We found a direction all of a sudden, which is to become the 'new media for middle-class women'"... Financing has become a directional guide for the team's development. The "Soul" team attempts to find more and see farther business directions through financing cooperation.

The two main creators of "Soul", Li Xiaoyi and Tao Yanyan, both come from traditional print media backgrounds. From writing to starting their own business, the two seem to be very different, but Li Xiaoyi admits that "creation and entrepreneurship are the same, both are about finding the path that works."

"Micro-transformation" to become a writer: writing books using the method of making products

Li Xiaoyi's main job is not a writer. Since she became independent at the age of 21, she has worked as the general manager's secretary of a consulting company, human resources director, and financial reporter for a newspaper... Later, she came to Anhui Business Daily and worked as the director of the advertising department for 12 years. She has almost always come into contact with the identity of "writer".

In 2014, by chance, she decided to write a book. This “micro-transformation” did not stump Li Xiaoyi, because she found the “workable path” in “creation”:

“When I was working on the book The Woman with the Scent of a Soul, I told my editor that you should not ask me to do it the way an author does, but should do it the way a product does.

To write this book, I studied the top 30 bestsellers , analyzed their themes, and changed my writing style 14 times. ”

When the book was published, it was like a bomb went off in the flat ground of the women's book market. Even Li Xiaoyi herself said, "I knew it would be a bestseller, but I didn't expect it to be so popular."

The book won the best-selling book list in 2014 and the new book list in April 2015. So far, the book has sold more than 1.2 million copies and has attracted more than 1.7 million fans...

As a result, Li Xiaoyi was listed on the "Chinese Writers List", and won the "Literature Contribution Award", "Youth Pioneer" and other honors that she had never dared to think of in the past.

From creation to entrepreneurship: "In fact, the logic of the two is consistent"

With 12 years of experience in the market, Li Xiaoyi is keenly aware of some changes in the market:

"Later, I found that all the newspapers that were not doing their main business were doing very well, while all the media driven by a single purpose were having a hard time."

At that time, official accounts had just appeared, and Li Xiaoyi found Tao Yanyan, who had been her partner for many years, and decided to "take a chance" and start a business. The two continued their previous division of labor and each formed a "soul" product and content team.

The success of The Woman with a Scented Soul has further verified Li Xiaoyi's observation: "Writing is not about making yourself happy, but about making the readers happy."

So in starting a business, she once again found the "workable path": using the logic of creating best-selling books to create a public account.

Li Xiaoyi: "The logic of running a public account and publishing a best-selling book is the same."

The so-called "pulse" is actually what we often call accurately grasping the user's pain points and itch points. How to grasp them? The most direct method is to "emulate", that is, to review and summarize the results of "what has already happened" and finally "use it for your own benefit";

For example, when writing books, Li Xiaoyi would research and analyze the top 30 best-selling books. Later, in order to improve the public account, Li Xiaoyi said, "In the early days, I would record the changes in reading volume every minute to find out when to post the best results."

The purpose of doing this is actually to infer the best time to publish the article through intuitive data (reading volume) . Correspondingly, you can also find the corresponding "most suitable" method by observing the corresponding data of different topics, contents, forms, etc.

The method is not difficult, but few people actually do it and achieve it.

In the past four years, Soul has grown into a large account with a valuation of 300 million yuan, 2 million subscribers , 3 million book buyers, nearly 250,000 radio users, and 58 urban women's communities...

At the beginning of this year, Li Xiaoyi, who was at the New List Conference, said with emotion:

I recently learned that the newspaper group I used to work for laid off 250 employees in a newspaper with 400 employees. I am very glad that I was able to enter the new media track relatively early.

Community is the cornerstone of the "soul" and also the core.

Reading Club accumulates seed users

The establishment of the initial community benefited from the unique identity of the two founders - best-selling authors.

"Because of my book, I will be constantly holding book signings across the country, so it is only natural for me to hold offline community gatherings."

In this process, the book links the author and the reader, and at the same time becomes a natural "barrier":

“Because readers spend at least 2.5 hours reading the content, they will think critically about the values ​​while reading the story, but more often they will accept it. This is the deepest communication and exchange.”

This "barrier" filters out a group of fans with extremely similar characteristics, which means that the needs of this group of people are more concentrated and easier to grasp:

"88% of our users are women, aged between 25 and 40, living in cities, with a good level of education and strong spending power, but at the same time they also face problems in life, work, and emotions."

The form of the community is like a "net" behind the "barrier", which brings this group of people together better. As a result, the reader group became the prototype of the later community "Xiangmi Club", and its members also became the seed users of the "soul".

The core of the community

The community of "Soul" is called "Xiangmi Club", and the fans are called "Xiangmi", which means "the best friend of a woman with a fragrant soul":

On the surface, the "core" that brings together the community is the "best-selling author" IP established by Li Xiaoyi and Tao Yanyan respectively. In fact, more fundamentally, it should be the values ​​​​behind them, which is also the core purpose of "Ashes of Love": women's growth is more important than success.

Just think about it, is there any more powerful influence than spiritually occupying a person's mind? This "core" is like a magnet with strong attraction, attracting more people to join.

Community Operation

After the community was established, the "Soul" team used a set of operating mechanisms to enable 20,000 Xiangmi users in 41 cities in 5 regions across the country to achieve a high degree of autonomy and self-operation:

Each group elects a monitor to stimulate member participation by organizing various topics and activities, thereby increasing the value and activity of the community;

At the same time, team leaders will be selected to stimulate their enthusiasm for operating the community. Therefore, although there are no more than 5 people in the company who are responsible for the community full-time, it is actually equivalent to dozens of part-time people who highly identify with the "soul" doing this.

The themes of the community, in addition to reading, also involve all aspects of life, including fitness, food, beauty, body etiquette...

The ultimate goal is to infiltrate the influence of "soul" into every specific aspect of fans' lives, bit by bit, while also laying out the development of other aspects in the future.

“The role of the community is not to bring immediate commercial value, but to lay the foundation in advance when you want a commercial explosion.”

For example, community themes or activities can be used to cultivate demand for a certain type of product among a certain group of people, which can then be replenished through e-commerce, etc., to achieve monetization. Of course, this is only a superficial aspect, and the deeper aspect is mainly reflected in business cooperation.

In a previous article titled "For women, are houses more reliable or men more reliable?", the "Soul" team obtained data that in the community, 35% of women own their own independent properties, and 25% of women own properties jointly signed with others... This means that the actual consumption and sales power of this group is much higher than imagined.

Facts have proved that these 3 million reading users provided a lot of feedback to the development of self-media in the later period.

Through the "Xiangmiyou/Miyou" project, the "Soul" team enables KOLs (key opinion leaders) to have very in-depth communication with users, which is essentially a more accurate filtering and screening:

Someone who is willing to spend 8-10 days hanging out with us is definitely not an ordinary user, but a super user .

This group of super users can bring to the community not only the available source of super stories, but also, since most of them are female entrepreneurs, through this form of in-depth communication, they can promote cooperation with each other, which in turn leads to the development of more women's projects, forming a virtuous circle.

At present, there are two service accounts under "Soul", "Soul has a fragrance of women's life hall" and "Soul has a fragrance of women's fragrance honey club", which have their own responsibilities and undertake the functions of e-commerce and social networking respectively;

There is also another subscription account called "A Woman with a Fragrant Soul". It does not have a large matrix because Li Xiaoyi believes that "the matrix is ​​not very useful". She pays more attention to dividing the functions/division of labor more detailed and precise.

PS: This sentence "Matrices are not very useful" was put forward by Li Xiaoyi at the 2018 New List Conference. However, it has been observed recently that the team seems to have created a new account "Sister is on Top", which mainly talks about gender relations and promotes erotic products. It seems a bit "face-slapping" to have created a matrix account, but my personal understanding of the emergence of this account is that its function should be to distinguish between ordinary and special products (erotic products are also a large category), so as to better manage e-commerce, which can also be regarded as a functional segmentation.

Content update

Currently, the update frequency of the subscription account article push is maintained daily, and the push time is generally concentrated around 16:00 in the afternoon;

In addition to pushing content, the other functional divisions of the subscription account are also relatively obvious on the menu bar, including [Xiaoyi's New Book], [Double 11] (recent update), and [Join the Community], which provide entrances to the following three functional modules: content, e-commerce, and community.

The main menu bar [Xiao Yi's New Books] mainly provides "content", including the historical articles of the subscription account and the sales channels of the books, the latter of which will link to Dangdang's book purchasing platform;

The main menu bar in the middle, [Double 11] (formerly "Enter the store and browse"), has been updated due to the recent time node. It mainly provides an entrance to "e-commerce". The platform selected is Youzan, and the name of the store is "Aroma Selection";

The main menu bar on the far right [Join the community] not only provides the entrance to the community "Xiangmi Club" , but also contains a link to the course platform "Xiangmi Academy" (using the Xiaoetong platform).

In terms of article content, there are three main columns : [Xiaoyi Original], [Ask Yanyan], and [Celebrity Stories]. They mainly promote original content from the two major IPs, as well as some stories about stars and celebrities. This section is mainly used to express the author's views on some things and convey the values ​​of the official account.

In addition, there are some small columns that are not fixed and have a certain "purpose", such as [Crazy Planting], which serves as the soil for content e-commerce, [See the World], which connects to the "Xiangmi Tour" project, [Film and Television Circle] or [Pop], which focuses on gender relations and also takes into account the diversion to the new account "Sister is on Top", and [Xiangmi Academy], which teaches new courses...

Content Features

In terms of content creation, what "Soul" has always insisted on doing is to convey the values ​​they proposed and emphasized at the beginning: "Women's growth is more important than success." This sentence has also become the unified summary of almost every article of "Soul" (except for content e-commerce articles).

Why do we need to emphasize values? This requires looking back at the characteristics of "Soul" fans. Do you remember the user portrait of "Soul" mentioned earlier? One of the points is that "most of them are between 25 and 40 years old"...

This means that most of the readers of "Soul" have gone through a certain amount of experience and their characteristic is "unemotional".

"Users of each age group have their own characteristics. The values ​​of middle-class women will not be so sharp and their behaviors will not be so radical when they grow older. Simply using emotions to impress this group is actually not a very appropriate way to treat them."

This group of people are more rational, independent, and willing to think. One of the most prominent manifestations is that in terms of "soul", few people will like an article or comment (not agreeing), but there are many comments (emphasis on expression);

What they prefer to see are the "values" that they themselves approve of, rather than the opinions formed by others' emotional incitement; therefore, the stickiness of "soul" fans will be higher, just like you will not easily give up a good friend who shares the same values ​​as you.

Looking back at the topics of "Soul"'s recent popular articles, almost all of them are related to the value of "women's growth is more important than success". What is the manifestation of women's growth? To put it simply, it means becoming more independent.

Then words like "Queen", "divorce" does not mean a heavy blow, "single mothers can also be brave", etc., naturally become the key elements for selecting popular topics; of course, you can also incorporate some celebrity hot spots to become eye-catching points.

When it comes to creating content from the "soul", we can get some inspiration, which is to try to "understand your fans/users in depth" and start from their perspective so as to better understand their needs. Using "reverse reasoning/substitution" is a good way.

Radio content

In addition, "Soul" will also have a radio station on the Himalaya platform, named "Soul has the fragrance of women FM" , with about 300,000 fans, targeting emotions and workplace:

The highest number of subscriptions for related albums is "Soulful Essays", which has 140 million subscriptions. The main content is the headlines of the corresponding public account, which is equivalent to a voice version of the subscription account.

In addition, we will also make some audio courses, focusing on women in the workplace, and have a certain gradient in price. Readers can start with the relatively low-priced (9.9 Xidian) "Teaching You High Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace" and then advance to the relatively high-priced (198 Xidian) "Winning Beautifully in the Workplace". The number of subscribers is also quite impressive.

Li Xiaoyi mentioned in a sharing session that when the team first started, they also faced the question of "whether to make quick money (advertising)". Later, the team came to the conclusion that it was not necessary to make money so quickly, but the layout had to be fast.

Currently, the two main ways to "soul" are e-commerce and courses.

E-commerce

In November 2016, the "Soul" team began to enter the e-commerce field, initially named "Xiangqi Shop" (now renamed "Xiangqi Optimization") , and the positioning of content e-commerce is:

In the view of its founder Li Xiaoyi, "Fragrance Shop" neither follows the supermarket department store route nor the non-standard explosive product route, but focuses on high-quality products.

Tao Yanyan: E-commerce should not be a goal, but something that comes naturally. Readers like you and want to use the same things as you. At this time, e-commerce is a natural extension. E-commerce also has its dos and don'ts. We use text to connect emotions. There will be an emotional barrier when talking about purchases directly, so we will try it with caution.

The categories include [Beauty], [Good Food], [Good Things], [Daily Use], and [Good Reading], which correspond to beauty, food, clothing, daily necessities, books and stationery products respectively.

When it comes to the operation of content e-commerce, it is inseparable from three major points: product selection + channels + content.

In terms of product selection , the Soul team insists on the requirement of "most suitable + high cost performance";

"Most suitable" means to meet the needs to the greatest extent possible, and "high cost performance" generally means that the quality is not too bad, and the purpose is also to establish a good reputation;

At the same time, from the perspective of the operator, it is also relatively important to choose consumables as much as possible . It can bring the highest possible "repurchase rate" and realize monetization, just like the categories mentioned above.

In terms of [channels], the community has made a great contribution to e-commerce, and some members can choose to serve as volunteers or partners.

Volunteer: "There is a group of people in our community called 'Xiangmi Lifestylers'. They are responsible for writing product trial reports, which helps us better understand whether a product is suitable for recommendation to users."

Partner: "We all work together to develop the market, turning many users into customers and suppliers of e-commerce products, and broadening the sales categories."

The community has become a fertile soil for content e-commerce.

In terms of [content], products are usually introduced through some celebrity examples, and a purchase link is given at the end. In addition, a special column called [Crazy Planting] is opened in "Soul". The purpose is to distinguish it from other content, allowing users to get what they need and avoid being disturbed.

Li Xiaoyi concluded that the rapid growth of content e-commerce is inseparable from the stickiness of the community and the influence of values.

“A senior once said, ‘ The conversion rate brought by an e-commerce company with very deep content is incomparable to that of ordinary self-media, and it may be about ten times’;

The value brought by a platform with values ​​and impartial content is also explosive. ”

The members of the community gather together because of their high recognition of values. The community managers start from the users when providing content and products. The two promote each other, and it is no surprise that they achieve excellent results.

This is also the reason why "Soul" had achieved a monthly turnover of over 10 million at the end of last year.

course

The course is mainly taught on the Xiaoetong platform, and the course categories mainly include [Women's Growth] and [Career Improvement]:

The price is mostly 99 yuan, but there are also courses corresponding to different price levels such as 29.9, 79, and 198, with the aim of providing users with more different choices; the content of the courses mostly revolves around topics that fans care about.

“You don’t have to make money quickly, but you have to plan quickly.” Soul started out as a community, and in the early days it had already made all kinds of preparations for its future plans.

This includes the rational construction of a team (to ensure content and product specialization), the observation and collection of user habits, and even their development and establishment of a community operation mechanism... With these kinds of behaviors paved the way, the subsequent efforts in e-commerce, courses, and other aspects have become stronger and more powerful.

From a best-selling author to a self-media entrepreneur, the birth and growth of "soul" is inseparable from two key points: community + values .

When the best-selling book was first published, the value of the book, "Women's growth is more important than success", attracted a large number of fans and formed a reading club;

At that time, Li Xiaoyi was trying to transform herself in the face of market changes. She took advantage of the fan resources accumulated from the book club in the early days, used the community as a starting point, took advantage of the content boom, and entered the self-media industry in one fell swoop, eventually achieving success.

Reading clubs became the prototype of early communities. Later, based on communities, they adopted multi-round drives, including community operations, content e-commerce, knowledge payment... Each module pushed the other party forward.

The high stickiness of the "Soul" community is related to its initial nature as a reading club, but in essence, it is nothing more than the operators of the community providing content and products around a certain point of view;

It is equivalent to attracting fans through spiritual content rather than common material rewards, etc. This is a very advanced but difficult thing to do;

If you are lucky enough to have the talent to write books or content, I recommend that you try to follow the approach of "Soul". After all, this is a market-tested model.

And if you are not so lucky, I suggest that you should still pay attention to the community, and do your best to use various methods to explore the needs of this group and then meet them.

The above are the suggestions that I have discovered by disassembling the "soul" and may be of some use to you. I hope they can be of some help to you.

Source: Kunlong Team