3 traffic thinking methods for e-commerce marketing

When it comes to e-commerce marketing , brands may have the most headaches. Unlike brand marketing, brand communication can at least be measured by data, but the investment in e-commerce marketing is ultimately judged by sales performance, which is where the difficulty of communication lies.

In a whole year's communication plan, there are actually only a few major e-commerce communication campaigns. For brands, these include new product launches, anniversary celebrations, 618, Double Eleven, etc. But those crucial times are often these nationwide sales carnivals.

As we all know, this national-level battle is basically a "cat and dog war". The two giants led by Tmall and JD.com are competing in the arena, using all kinds of marketing routines. Horizontally, various forms of content are spread across all major channels, and vertically, various gameplays and benefits emerge in an endless stream, all for the purpose of consolidating the brand position in this S-level marketing campaign in the middle of the year, and secondly, stimulating demand, promoting consumption, and bringing overall growth.

Source: Kaiyuan Securities "Douyin e-commerce channel analysis"

Starting last year, platforms such as Pinduoduo, Suning, Douyin, and Kuaishou also began to join the battle. Pinduoduo relied on its "low-price" strategy to achieve efficient transformation. Suning and Douyin joined forces to create Suning's "super buyer" live broadcast room and implemented normalized operations.

Douyin itself has also launched IPs such as "Douyin Live Flash Sale Carnival", focusing on the live broadcast battlefield, while Kuaishou has joined forces with JD.com to create a quality shopping festival, joining forces to keep each other warm. At this point, all the major platforms in the national battlefield have been gathered together.

So the question is, how can brands use external forces and current trends to achieve breakthroughs and substantial growth amid the current fierce competition on the platform?

1. Understand the gameplay and strive for traffic

Keeping up with the platform’s policies is the brand’s central guiding principle. There is no doubt that the platform has traffic and exposure, so for many brands, it is more efficient to achieve brand-effect integration with the help of the platform than to go it alone. Especially in today's monopoly by Internet giants, being able to take advantage of the platform can often achieve twice the result with half the effort.

So looking at the current gameplay of major platforms, what are the changes and constants, and what small trends can help brands achieve both good reputation and sales?

Let’s first look at Tmall. Some time ago, Tmall took advantage of the mid-year promotion to achieve a renewal and upgrade, upgrading “What if life is not exciting” to “Life always has new surprises”, and gave a new interpretation of “new”, such as linking up with Xin Shixiang to issue a call for “Cheers to our new life” and so on. Then this "new" may be the unchanging theme of the Tmall battlefield this year.

On the other hand, for brands, the most noteworthy thing is the super-long promotion period this year + Tmall’s newly launched V list. On the one hand, during this super-long warm-up period, it will help brands to make more reasonable plans. On the other hand, the Tmall list will help brands to gain large traffic and exposure. Based on past experience, these two new models are likely to be used in Double 11.

JD.com continues to use the theme of "passion". In terms of marketing, JD.com also focuses more on circles this year. For example, in the Boiling Night, it focuses on circles such as "This kind of national trend", "Beautyism", "Passionate players", and "Dimensional space". At the same time, the two IPs of JD.com Little Magic Cube and JD.com Star President also promote "new products" and "good stores" respectively.

As for Kuaishou, Douyin and Suning, the overall scale is actually not particularly large. Although Kuaishou and Douyin have established e-commerce departments, they are still in their early stages and are still focused on e-commerce marketing with "live streaming" as the core. They are basically expanding through cooperation with leading e-commerce platforms, and then converting traffic from their own channels.

If a brand has an advantage in this area, it should also seize the opportunity, because the official platform has its own anchors, and they urgently need cases to open up the market and better promote commercialization.

For example, Douyin’s Super New Launch Day and Mercury Home Textiles’ “Mercury’s Dream into Dunhuang” are good examples. So if a brand can become that case, it is not impossible to rise overnight.

2. Focus on users and win traffic

Now that we have the advantages and gameplay of several major platforms, will users buy into them?

First of all, this kind of nationwide marketing campaign, regardless of whether the direction is right or wrong, will start with a bombardment of various channels. Users will either inevitably receive information passively or be softly implanted. Therefore, brands do not need to worry. Whether online or offline, users will be attracted by this centralized communication. In this regard, the influence of giants is unquestionable.

At the content level, in addition to the most direct benefits, the platform's various communication content is also of high quality. It can either entertain users through interesting content or poke users through precise insights. As we said above, JD.com specializes in communication based on circles. At the brand level, the platform also constantly builds momentum on major social media based on product categories, so the content level is also relatively reliable.

Large activities include linking with TV stations, evening parties + variety shows breaking the circle, and concentrated dissemination from the entertainment content field to the e-commerce traffic field, and endorsements from major celebrities and KOLs. Small content points focus on pushing specific content to a certain circle or group of people, such as Tmall’s special content for 88VIP members.

Source: QuestMobile "2021 Cross-Platform KOL Ecosystem Research Report"

Looking at the above content, there are several small trends in the content level. Overall, it is a chain-like path of communication from e-commerce content dominance to pan-entertainment content to e-commerce transformation.

From a detailed perspective, outside the site there are celebrity recommendations, two-dimensional virtual idols, and entertainment-oriented gameplay such as challenges and rankings. Inside the site, top IPs, cutting-edge IPs, and branded products will become the platform's main promotional sections. At the same time, there is also the creation of short video scenario themes to mobilize users' shopping needs in all directions.

Based on these small trends, from which angles should brands plan and layout their e-commerce marketing?

3. Selling thinking, monetizing traffic

The essence of e-commerce is to sell goods, so through the transformation from the above "low-price strategy" to the "pan-entertainment promotion + sales conversion" path, we can find that its essence is cyclical preheating and selling. There are three key knowledge points here: wide coverage, deep interaction, and selling good goods.

For a brand, wide coverage means omni-channel linkage, leveraging the power of the brand ecosystem to spread information and build as many channels as possible to let users know that the brand has such an event.

Of course, this is purely from the media perspective. The normal logic is to cooperate with e-commerce platforms to do some campaigns or small communications, and then build momentum through as many channels as possible based on this event. It is best to implant the conversion path and shorten it as much as possible to maximize the efficient conversion of communication.

For example, every major promotion of Tmall will be carried out through various channels, including opening screen, information flow, offline, etc. Brands can also refer to its strategic model to link online and offline to maximize their sales.

If the budget for linkage with the platform cannot be held, then the brand can refer to deep interaction and selling good products. Deep interaction, as the name suggests, requires good content to attract users. If you want to save the channel budget, the content must be particularly outstanding. Otherwise, the early warm-up is actually not very meaningful. It is better to save the money for promotions and discounts.

Selling good products actually requires some of the explosive product strategy and top-notch product thinking of e-commerce operations. First, the profit incentives must be in place, second, the limited-time and limited-quantity operations must be good, and third, the service must be great. However, pure e-commerce is not particularly capable of achieving breakthrough growth in such a large marketing campaign, so brands should still grasp some of the platform's activities and control their own content.

Finally, I want to say to all brands that they must identify their own advantages in marketing and then gain a firm foothold on a certain platform.

For example, you may have a good relationship with Tmall and often have major collaborations with them, in which case you should stick to it and hold on to that platform first. For example, if your company is suitable for short videos and has its own anchors and a certain amount of traffic, you can try Kuaishou and Douyin, because they are also rising stars and their potential will be immeasurable once they find a breakthrough in the market.

In a word, we should make use of our strengths and take advantage of the situation. We hope that brands can capture small trends, carefully plan their layout, and win a big victory on Double 11!

Author: Editorial Department of Community Marketing Research Institute

Source: Community Marketing Research Institute (ID: Community_Marketing)