The 10 most popular growth hacking strategies in China in 2017

Any growth practice starts with small things. In the future, the project will be free to develop and transform, but if the first step fails, there will be no chance.

As the traffic dividend gradually fades away, the era of wild growth of the Internet is coming to an end.

Although the trends are changing, the need for growth never changes – companies are beginning to seek more scientific and efficient methods to stimulate a new round of business growth.

Therefore, in 2017, " growth hacking " became a hot topic, and more and more people began to pay attention to the growth hacking theory and try to implement it in the domestic environment .

Today, yolo@Growth Black Box will take you to review the 10 most popular growth hacking strategies in 2017:

1. WeChat fission
2. Community Operation
3. Mini Program Traffic Diversion
4. Group Buying
5. Distribution Rebate
6. User subsidies
7. Share and help
8. Content Marketing
9. vote
10. Vertical penetration

They may not be the newest concepts, but in 2017 they were the most widely used and most effective strategies. Below, we will analyze them one by one.

1. WeChat fission

2017 is the "golden age" of WeChat fission. The issue of increasing followers, which is the biggest headache for public account operators , is a piece of cake for fission masters – there are many cases of increasing followers to over 10,000 at zero cost. There are two core fission mechanisms:

Bait: rewards beyond expectations, such as free classes, free information packages, etc.

Threshold: You can only receive it by inviting friends, such as sharing posters and taking screenshots, two friends scanning the QR code , etc.

It is not difficult to find that fission actually takes advantage of the greedy weakness in human nature: if a user wants to get rewards, he must invite more new users to participate in the event, and this cycle continues indefinitely. According to the classic " viral transmission model", for a successful fission, the viral coefficient K must be greater than 1 - that is, on average each user can bring more than 1 new user, in order to achieve exponential growth.

I believe everyone has noticed that various posters and QR codes appear in the circle of friends every day, and fission activities emerge in endlessly. In fact, this has already affected the user experience of WeChat - some companies with bad intentions have even deceived users. Therefore, WeChat began to suppress fission, trying to restore peace to the circle of friends: accounts were blocked and fans were reduced to 0. In 2018, it may be difficult for WeChat to reproduce its former glory.

Examples:

There are too many successful cases, here is one that left a deep impression on me: Captain Feiyu, the founder of the public account " Operation Control", teamed up with two knowledge payment experts, Angie and Peng Xiaoliu, to organize a "3-day monetization thinking training course". By utilizing the model of poster fission + free membership to attend classes , tens of thousands of people joined the group to participate in the event simply by forwarding it in personal friend circles. In the subsequent stages, through secondary marketing within the group (promoting paid courses), millions of yuan in revenue were earned. At the same time, the traffic pool of these thousands of groups has also brought tens of thousands of followers to multiple public accounts.

2. Community Operation

When it comes to communities, everyone must be familiar with them: from the earliest Xiaomi to the hugely influential Luoji Siwei . However, in the past, communities were often limited to the concept of “circles,” where people paid to join a group for the influence of a certain KOL or brand .

In the past two years, the form of communities has undergone new changes, gradually returning to user needs: for example, the popular "Taobao Affiliate Group" in 2016 and the popular learning and check-in groups in 2017. Now, communities are not only a monetization tool , but can also be used to increase new user acquisition and user retention .

The so-called community is not limited to WeChat groups and QQ groups, but connects users through websites, mini-programs, APPs, etc. Our products can leverage the social effects brought by the community to achieve more efficient growth – while ensuring a good user experience.

In 2018, community operations will continue to be hot.

Case 1: Clock in

People always have a bad habit – they like to talk but not to do. As a result, many check-in communities have emerged to provide social pressure and help everyone “walk the talk.”

For example, JD Finance and the "National Early Check-in" public account have organized "early check-in" activities: first pay a certain "deposit", and if you complete the check-in, you will have the opportunity to return a higher reward.

Other event organizers will also adopt the WeChat group format, requiring everyone to pay to join the group, send check-in records to the group, supervise each other, and let the fittest survive - for large companies, this is a good way to promote activity.

However, many companies have also found opportunities to cash in: most people who paid a deposit failed to complete the clock-in, so the deposit would not be refunded. This is a considerable income!

In addition, some companies do not add any commercial elements to the clock-in communities, but only use them as a means to promote activity, such as 36Kr's no-overtime clock-in group.

Case 2: Learning

In 2017, knowledge payment was in full swing and people's enthusiasm for learning was unprecedentedly high. In fact, the attribute of "learning" is very consistent with the community, and many learning communities have been born.

For example, the two English learning communities, "Mint Reading" and "Know Your English", provide functions for class teacher guidance and student communication, which minimizes the boredom of language learning. This has also been recognized by many users and its monetization ability is very impressive.

3. Mini Program Traffic Diversion

In 2017, mini programs were officially launched, bringing more new opportunities. Many mini programs achieved a screen-sweeping effect and gained tens of millions of users.

However, the development of mini programs has always been conservative, and it is difficult for everyone to find a breakthrough point - how mini programs will play in the future, no one dares to make a conclusion yet.

However, everyone is generally concerned about one question: How to use mini programs to direct traffic to your existing business?

We all know that the mini program is a closed system and cannot directly jump to official accounts, websites, or apps. So how can we maximize the value of the tens of millions of traffic it brings?

Some experts found the answer. Let’s take a look:

Case 1: Diverting traffic to public accounts

As mentioned earlier, you cannot scan QR codes or place links in the mini program, so how can you guide users to the official account?

There is actually a way, which is to use the customer service message function . For example, the "Maker" mini program has added an entrance called "Follow Us" in the mini program. After clicking it, it will jump to the customer dialogue interface and automatically send a link to the official account tweet. After opening it, you will be given a big QR code. Follow it to receive a red envelope !

Case 2: Direct traffic to the mini program

One advantage of mini programs is that you can freely jump to other mini programs - this provides a very convenient channel for traffic diversion.

For example, the "Brain King" applet that was popular on WeChat Moments before is now cooperating with Zhihu, and you can directly jump to the " Zhihu Live " applet through the banner.

For thoughts on traffic diversion between mini programs, you can also refer to this article: Growth Hacker Case Analysis: Using a 10-page website to attract 20,000 accurate customers - Can this strategy be used on mini programs?

Case 3: Traffic diversion to APP

In fact, there are ways to direct traffic to APP, but I have only found the operation methods for Taobao and Alipay .

For example, the small program "Group Play Assistant" with a large amount of traffic adopts an advertising model and uses the Taobao password model to direct traffic to Taobao merchants . When you click the button, the password will be automatically copied, and you can jump to the merchant page by checking in on the Taobao app to receive the coupon - in simple terms, the Taobao affiliate model is put on the mini program. In addition, it also has advertising space for Alipay red envelopes , which also uses a password jump method.

Of course, there are so many possibilities for mini programs that I won’t go into detail here. For other ways to use mini programs, you can also read an old article of mine: Can we see the secret of e-commerce mini programs earning tens of millions of yuan a month through the blood and tears of a company?

In 2018, we expect Mini Programs to enter a real bonus period!

4. Group Buying

In our impression, group buying is an outdated concept. Can it bring new impetus to business growth? Looking back at the consumer goods e-commerce industry in 2017, the brightest stars were Pinduoduo and Mogujie – and their rise was largely dependent on the sharing and group buying mechanisms within WeChat.

According to PingWest:

Pinduoduo has only been established for two and a half years, but its daily order volume has already exceeded that of JD.com ! In addition, Mogujie has also acquired 3 million new users through the new medium of mini programs - 70% of them were attracted through the group buying mechanism, and the conversion rate is twice that of the APP.

Why do people like group buying? The reason is simple: it’s cheap. For users in third- and fourth-tier cities, price is the starting point for purchasing decisions. Through continuous optimization of their products, these two companies have placed the group buying entrance in the most prominent position, and the entire sharing + group buying process is extremely smooth . Finally, please experience the temptation of group buying prices from the picture.

So, the question is: there are so many companies doing group buying, why are only these two popular? In addition, won’t this mechanism of inducing sharing be banned by WeChat?

The answer is simple: both companies are invested by Tencent, so the relationship is strong. So please don’t imitate easily.

In 2017, the group buying mechanism was introduced not only in the traditional consumer goods industry, but also in the field of knowledge payment. For example, on NetEase Cloud Classroom, “teachers” who have joined the platform can initiate group buying activities on their own and set group buying prices – based on my on-site observations, this can indeed greatly improve user conversion rates.

Of course, the group buying mechanism can also use some "tricky" means: for example, using robots disguised as users to initiate group buying, thereby increasing the enthusiasm of real users (for example, two out of a three-person group are robots).

Whether it is 2018 or 2019, as long as communism has not been realized, group buying will always be effective - provided that you have a good relationship with Tencent.

5. Distribution Rebate

The prevalence of the distribution mechanism has led to the success of countless micro-businesses. However, how much tolerance does WeChat officials have for distribution?

In 2016, Zheng Lipeng, senior director of the WeChat Security Risk Control Center, drew a clear line: the WeChat platform only allows a two-level distribution model (including the developers themselves) . If there are more than three levels of distribution, the WeChat payment function will be suspended and the account will be blocked.

In January 2017, due to violating the red line of three-level distribution, "SOIREE Little Black Dress" and "Global Catcher", known as the "distribution myth", were successively blocked - the little black dress had just received a 20 million investment from Tencent, can you believe it? When WeChat blocks accounts, even its own people are afraid!

Now, the rebate can only be extended down one level . That is:

User A purchased a product on platform X and shared it with user B. After user B purchases the product, the platform makes a profit and user A receives a commission.

At this time, if user B shares the product with user C, only B can get the commission, and it has nothing to do with A. Each person can only develop one level of "downline" and take a commission from it.

Logically speaking, the power of the distribution mechanism has been weakened by being cut into two levels – but this does not prevent many companies from finding growth opportunities with the help of distribution! Because, humans’ desire for money will always exist. Who can refuse the opportunity to make money by simply moving their fingers and sharing it on WeChat Moments?

Case 1: Knowledge payment

Let’s think about this first: What products are best suited to distribution mechanisms?

1. The rebate amount should be high to be attractive.
2. The product cannot be too low-end, otherwise users will feel social pressure and be hindered from sharing.
3. The profit of the product should be high, not loss-making
4. The marginal cost should be low, the more you sell, the more money you make.

From this perspective, payment for knowledge, especially virtual goods such as online courses and communities, can perfectly match the distribution mechanism. For example, Knowledge Planet has established a good distribution mechanism. After the circle owner opens the distribution model, users who join the community can share the circle to the outside world (or directly share the content in the circle) to earn commissions, and the proportion is very high. There is also the online course platform Yiling Micro Course , which Cao Zheng just founded. It can automatically generate sharing posters for users to share conveniently and easily earn commissions.

In addition, online course platforms like Xiaoetong also provide distribution functions for lecturers of each column and support live broadcast sharing.

Case 2: Affiliate Commission

For daily consumer goods, the most common distribution model is alliance commission, which we call " Taobao Affiliate ".

By sharing items sold on the platform, we have the opportunity to earn commissions. The largest and most mature one is Taobao Alliance, JD.com's Jingfen, Dangdang.com and Amazon all have corresponding mechanisms.

This model is not new, and the "Taobaoke" market is approaching saturation, making it increasingly difficult to operate. Can e-commerce platforms really achieve growth with the help of the “Taobao Affiliate Model”? NetEase said: Let me try it!

On October 31, 2017, NetEase launched the "NetEase Wealth Creation Plan", also known as the " NetEase Promoter " project, which focuses on the concept of "social retail" and strives to use WeChat to create a new Taobao affiliate platform to drive the growth of the two e-commerce platforms, NetEase Yanxuan and Kaola Overseas Shopping.

Although Taobao Alliance has long been in a dominant position, it has a fatal flaw: it is completely banned by WeChat .

In other words, it is very difficult for Taoke to promote products on WeChat - how can such a huge traffic advantage of WeChat be wasted?

NetEase’s promoters have solved this problem perfectly: selecting goods, withdrawing cash, and managing accounts can all be done on the official public account, and the product sharing links will not be blocked !

In this way, more Taokes can be attracted to join NetEase promoters and help sell goods on their platform! It seems that Ding Lei ’s invitation to Ma Huateng for dinner was not in vain!

Like group buying, distribution is also an enduring model, but it depends on whether each platform has the ability to open up channels .

6. User Subsidy

In 2017, from Alipay vs. WeChat to Mobike vs. OFO , we have experienced countless rounds of red envelope wars . However, many people are very disdainful of the model of burning money in exchange for users: Is this also a growth hacking strategy?

The answer is yes. As long as the company can spend money in the right place and make the user lifetime value (CLV) greater than 3 times the user acquisition cost (CAC), it is a healthy growth model - in other words, as long as the users brought by spending money can generate more revenue in the future, it is worth spending money!

How to spend less money to bring in more users is what growth hackers should study. In 2018, there will be more and more ways to provide user subsidies.

Case

In 2017, the industry was unanimously optimistic about the information flow model. Toutiao , Baidu Baike , and UC have all taken strong measures to vigorously support their own platforms.

But what is surprising is that the information app with the fastest user growth is Qutoutiao - from its launch in June 2016 to March 2017, in just 9 months, its DAU has reached 6 million, ranking seventh among IOS information apps !

Faced with the double-teaming of major giants, it only used one trick to stand out: making money by reading the news .

When you open the Qutoutiao App, you can see a dazzling array of "send red envelopes" and "send gold coins", giving you the impression that "this App can make money". Qutoutiao generally has the following subsidy mechanisms:

1. Register to receive a 0.5-2 yuan bonus
2. Invite others to register and get a red envelope
3. Complete the task and get a bonus

The cleverness of Qutoutiao lies in that it does not simply allow people to share and get rewards, but instead adopts a " master-apprentice system ": the new users you invite are considered your apprentices, and you will get a share of their future rewards! Everyone can only have one master, but can have up to 4,000 apprentices - at this time, you can theoretically get a maximum red envelope of 66,666 yuan ! More importantly, as long as the number of apprentices reaches a certain level, the master can basically enter a mode of making money without doing anything and can receive rewards every day.

What’s even more amazing is that these rewards can not only be spent in the App’s built-in store, but can also be withdrawn to the WeChat wallet . In order to help users get started with this operating mode as quickly as possible, multiple tutorials have been specially added to the App to teach you how to recruit apprentices and how to make money!
This subsidy mechanism has won the crazy pursuit of people in third- and fourth-tier cities, cleverly avoiding the first- and second-tier markets targeted by platforms such as Toutiao, and is the same approach as Kuaishou .

On the other hand, the actual subsidy investment did not actually burn too much money:

First of all, there is a threshold for withdrawals, starting from 30 yuan and gradually increasing.

Secondly, the goods in the mall can be sold in a cooperative model, or points can be exchanged for coupons, and the money is paid by the supplying brands - this subsidy investment is not worth mentioning compared to the advertising revenue brought by 6 million daily active users.

7. Sharing helps

In fact, the sharing and supporting activities in WeChat are a viral model that appeared before fission. As early as 2015-16, a large number of public accounts began to use this kind of activity to attract fans. The two elements of sharing power are very similar to fission:

• Bait: Rewards beyond expectations
• Threshold: New users help old users

To simply describe the whole process: User A participates in the event by embedding H5 in the official account, and then shares H5 to Moments/WeChat groups. User B visited H5 and gave A a boost. At this time, user A's points will increase, and when the total score reaches a certain number, he can receive the prize. If user B is interested in this activity, he needs to follow the official account to participate in order to increase his followers .

The common “Winning Phone Bills” is an example of sharing and helping. Although the mechanism is similar to fission, traditional support activities have several shortcomings and are not as efficient as fission in attracting fans:

• The process is more complicated than fission, and the propagation level is shorter.
• Not everyone can get the reward, not attractive enough
• The tendency to induce sharing is serious and it is easy to be blocked
• Easy to cheat
• The link in Moments is not as eye-catching as the poster

However, the application scope of sharing assistance is wider than fission . It can be used to acquire new users for APP, mini-programs and even websites, and can also promote user activation and retention .

Therefore, in 2017, many companies improved the way of sharing support: support does not have to be limited to the point ranking model, and everyone can get rewards. In this way, the shortcomings of traditional gameplay are greatly compensated.

Examples:

What impressed me most was the "Help to Grab Tickets" campaign launched by Ctrip during the Golden Week in October 2017.

During the holidays, train tickets/ air tickets are an absolute necessity for everyone. What should I do if I don’t have a ticket? Grab it!

In the Ctrip App, you can still place an order even if the tickets are sold out, and the system will automatically grab tickets for you - however, the success rate is very low. If you want to increase your success rate, you can buy a speed-up pack – 2 yuan each, up to 20 packs.

I have tested it myself and found that this can increase the success rate of ticket grabbing to over 90%! However, most people don't want to spend this money. At this time, the App provides the function of inviting friends to speed up for us!

If you share this activity with your friends on WeChat, it will automatically switch to the mini program ! Friends can open this small program and click "Help him speed up" to get the acceleration package for free . What’s even more interesting is that the number of acceleration packs rewarded for assistance is random , which makes it more interesting - friends can help you get 1-20 acceleration packs. Finally, the reward itself is two-way : after friends help us speed up, they can also get a 10 yuan travel coupon themselves.

Personally, I speculate that this Ctrip event will not only bring a large number of new users to the mini program, but also promote the activation and repurchase behavior of App users.

8. Content Marketing

The so-called content marketing is actually a long-term marketing strategy, and it is not as simple as writing on a public account or shooting two product videos.

The core is to create and disseminate valuable content that is highly relevant to the product over a long period of time, thereby attracting users' active attention - ultimately leading users to convert and make profits.

The core value of content marketing lies in " active customer acquisition ", that is, letting customers come to us on their own initiative.

With the development of technology and platforms, consumers have more autonomy in choosing information and are no longer monopolized by traditional media. Therefore, we are able to attract consumers' attention through valuable information and influence their purchasing decisions.

The dispersion and transfer of media discourse power is becoming a trend in the future, and everyone can become a KOL; therefore, content marketing is an indispensable marketing strategy in the future.

On the other hand, the cost of traffic is getting higher and higher . Instead of proactively looking for consumers, we let them come to us - this not only saves money but also improves efficiency.

Content marketing has been gaining momentum in 2017. According to a survey by Hubspot, a well-known foreign SaaS company, 79% of companies believe that the effect of content marketing is very obvious. In addition, 70% of companies increased their investment in content marketing in 2017.

What are the specific forms of content marketing? Take a look at this graphic from HubSpot:

Examples:

SaaS companies undoubtedly have the highest customer acquisition costs and the greatest difficulty. They usually organize offline activities , place advertisements, do PR, etc. to obtain sales leads.

Is there any way to make potential users come to you on their own initiative?

As a data analysis SaaS, GrowingIO strives to create the concept of " data-driven growth", incorporate the ideas of growth hacking into it, and encourage companies to establish a scientific growth model. Therefore, GrowingIO has produced a number of e-books around topics such as "data analysis" and "growth hacking", providing valuable content for targeted customer groups. When users download this e-book, they need to fill in some of their contact information. At this point, a high-quality sales lead is available - GrowingIO sales staff will score the lead and then follow up with different strategies. At the same time, GrowingIO’s founder Zhang Ximeng also published a paper book "Chief Growth Officer", further expanding the company's influence.

IX. Voting

In 2017, a new voting method became popular and became a great way for public accounts to increase followers and monetize – it was called “ Diamond Voting ”. I believe everyone must have seen in the circle of friends: "Please vote for baby No. XX", "Please vote for cat No. XX" and so on.

Different from fission, sharing and assistance, etc.:

The candidates are fixed, and others can only vote, but cannot participate in the election. You can spend money to buy "diamonds" to vote for the candidates, which means that everyone can spend money to cast unlimited votes.

In the first half of 2017, this was a very profitable project , with many people earning between RMB 100,000 and RMB 1 million per month. Because it cleverly exploits people's weaknesses of comparison and greed:

All candidates naturally want to be the first and win prizes, so they will go out and campaign frantically for votes. Out of support (or for the sake of face), friends and relatives will spend some money to vote for a candidate. What if you don't want to spend money? It doesn’t matter, as long as you share it with more people, you can get free tickets. Eventually, a positive cycle is formed: more and more people share and buy diamonds.

The core of Diamond Voting lies in the candidates themselves and the setting of rewards .

Generally speaking, cooperating with kindergartens, schools and other institutions to initiate voting activities and vote for teachers or students/babies will have a very strong appeal.

After the traffic increases:

Only after following can you vote, so the public account can gain a lot of fans ;

People will buy more diamonds out of competition, and the organizer can directly earn income ;

Public accounts/activity pages can accept advertisements. If the number of visitors can reach hundreds of thousands, the advertising fees will be very considerable.

In 2018, can diamond voting continue to drive fan growth?

It’s quite difficult because the competition is very fierce now. However, if you have offline resources and understand traffic operations, this strategy is worth trying.

10. Vertical Penetration

At the end of the article, let’s talk about a bigger proposition: What kind of products will have more growth opportunities in 2018?

My personal opinion is: projects that penetrate into vertical fields

• Providing tools for people with clear needs
• Provide professional services for vertical fields
• Providing content consumption for people with niche needs

With the development of the Internet, the long-tail effect will become more and more obvious, and users' needs will become highly diversified and niche. If a startup wants to achieve exponential growth, it must rely on an excellent product - the key point is to grasp user needs and find P/FM (market/demand matching) .

It is obvious that user demand has already been divided up among the giants. Today, it is almost impossible to create another WeChat, Toutiao, or Taobao.

However, emerging demands that arise with macro-environmental changes are often ignored by the giants and also offer the most opportunities.

For more information on how to grasp niche needs, please read this article: A Growth Hacker's Entrepreneurial History: Using Google to Explore Market Segments and Earning Millions of Dollars from Cold Start

Here are some examples of vertical tools :

• Online: The era of mobile Internet has arrived, and people have a demand for "unified traffic entrance across devices". Therefore, a convenient website creation tool was launched online, which can also generate mini programs and apps with one click.
• New Media Butler: " Content entrepreneurship " has been popular since 2016, and the self-media industry has flourished. Therefore, New Media Manager provides a series of tools to assist content editing: WeChat editing enhancer, material collection, etc.
• Jianqunbao: As mentioned earlier, WeChat fission was very popular in 2017. However, the entire operation process is very cumbersome and consumes a lot of human resources. Therefore, Jianqunbao developed an automated tool that can help people easily manage fission activities.

There are also examples of professional services :

Customer Success forCS: In 2017, China's SaaS industry developed rapidly. However, one challenge faced by many SaaS companies is the difficulty in establishing a systematic customer success mechanism, which leads to the loss of old users .

At this time, Xu, an early employee of Youzan, established a public account based on his experience in the SaaS industry and provided customer success consulting services, which were well received by many companies.

Finally, here is the case of content consumption :

Plain Language Blockchain: I believe that " Bitcoin " and "Blockchain" are the most popular topics in 2017, because it makes us feel that we have never been so close to making money. Then, a large number of blockchain novices want to learn blockchain knowledge and prepare to get started. Although there are many blockchain celebrities and self-media on the market, they are not very informative and are not friendly to newbies. Therefore, the public account “Bai Hua Blockchain” was established (hatched from Yiren’s “Making Money” circle), and in less than a month, it attracted 10,000 active fans.

You may have questions: The ceilings of these projects are obvious, are they really worth doing?

What I want to say is: any growth practice starts with small things. In the future, the project will be free to develop and transform, but if the first step fails, there will be no chance.