After reading 300 fission cases, I want to share with you the traffic acquisition thinking

This article will help you change your taste. It does not have any successful cases for you to admire, but it will help you build a foundation for traffic acquisition thinking.

In the WeChat ecosystem , whether it is micro-businesses, companies, or individuals, they all hope to obtain low-cost traffic through WeChat fission, traffic diversion and other means. But the beauty is always broken: after listening to so many courses and so-called success stories, when I put it into practice, it still feels like I am walking on air and I can’t exert any strength.

After reading so many case analyses, I feel that the gameplay seems to be similar, but for those who are still a little confused about how to do it specifically, this article will help you change your taste. It does not have successful cases for you to appreciate, but it will help you build a foundation for traffic acquisition thinking.

This article will share with you the following :

1. What are the three elements for acquiring traffic: people, goods, and places?
2. People, WeChat Ecosystem Analysis and Channel Selection
3. 4 types of bait design and balancing customer acquisition costs and user engagement
4. Summary of channels: personal account, community , public account , and mini program

1. The three elements of traffic acquisition: people, goods, and venues

1. People, Goods, and Places in New Retail

Since Jack Ma proposed the concept of "new retail", people, goods, and venues have become the three key factors that determine whether its business model can run smoothly and whether it can bring real efficiency and investment-output ratio:

• People (external - target customers + internal - sales staff)
• Goods (style + category + price band + listing time)
• Venue (city + business district + address + floor + scene design + environment layout)

For new retail and the entire Internet , people, goods and places are a victory for user thinking and big data .

2. The people and goods field in the flow

In the design of all fission and drainage activities, the concepts of people, goods and places are designed from the perspective of traffic, products and scenes, which is the cornerstone for the smooth development of the activities.

• People (high-cost-to-yield and high-quality traffic acquisition channels + traffic pools)
• Goods (select appropriate bait, user needs, effect and cost control)
• Field (the destination of traffic, public account/personal account/community/mini program)

2. People - the source of traffic, how to choose channels

The PC Internet era in 2000, the mobile Internet era in 2014, and the second half of the mobile Internet in 2018. If we change too fast and cannot keep up with the times, we will become as stated in "A Brief History of Today": we cannot keep up with the development of the times and technology, and will eventually become useless. The difficulty of survival in the world is becoming increasingly higher. In this era of survival of the fittest, how should we adapt?

E-commerce , WeChat commerce, social commerce, and community commerce, a series of developments have brought us into the era of precision marketing before we have even reacted.

The period of WeChat's rapid fan growth before 2018, the low-cost traffic acquisition launched by Guangdiantong in 2017, and the offline low-cost traffic channel layout in 2017, all these dividends have passed, leaving behind a wave of wailing and regret. In 2018, we must have a deeper insight and exploration of channels and traffic pools, which is the way to win.

1. Obtain accurate traffic channels

In the era of precision marketing, use the least amount of money and time to do the most amazing things and acquire the most precise users. Social e-commerce, which has been very popular recently, is its loyal executor.

(1) Based on relationship chain

The relationship chain is the easiest entry point to obtain traffic.

People are valuable because of relationships, society exists because of relationships, and all social products are based on the complex relationships between people. For most individuals, relationship chains are the best way to obtain traffic.

Ideas for establishing links:

It is not difficult to gain traffic and build relationships through WeChat. Who doesn’t have hundreds of friends nowadays? Join a few groups and chat, and everyone in the group will establish "links" with each other. With primary links, there is an opportunity to strengthen and expand the relationship chain.

The core idea of ​​the relationship chain is to be precise and not complicated. You must know what you are good at, what business you are in, and what kind of friends you want to make. Only by clearly establishing your own positioning and then matching the corresponding channels can the relationship chain be maximized.

In the Internet age, the cost of offline communication is actually not lower than that of online communication. You are the center of your personal social interaction, but not the center of the entire social network . If you want to quickly find groups with common interests and establish connections, social relationships are the best choice.

How to get traffic:

Lao Wang opened a restaurant and wanted to find a community of people in the restaurant business so that they could discuss how to manage the store, manage people, and reduce logistics and food costs. How can he find one? A simple way is to find people around you who are also in the catering business and ask them to recruit you. Generally, others already have it. A simpler way is to find a course, just find a high-end xxx catering training course, then ask someone to pull you into the discussion group, and repeat the routine of joining the group and pulling the group.

What this example tells us is feasibility. There is only one Lao Wang, but if there are 100 Lao Wangs, will the traffic increase 100 times?

What many social e-commerce and WeChat businesses are doing is designing a set of replicable traffic acquisition methods to acquire traffic on a large scale.

The core of this lies in four points: WeChat policy, number of personal accounts, building of personal image and methods of obtaining traffic. Once the methods of building a personal profile and obtaining traffic are implemented, you can expand the number of personal accounts and exploit WeChat platform traffic on a large scale. But does WeChat allow you to exploit it as you wish? Definitely not, this will have a very bad impact on the WeChat ecosystem. Therefore, the marketing control of personal accounts is very strict now.

It can be seen from the official launch of the enterprise version of WeChat that this will be the main way for companies and brands to obtain WeChat traffic in a compliant manner in the future.

（2） Content Marketing

Content marketing has the characteristics of high barriers and high monetization capabilities.

Content is king and it never goes out of date. Combining content and marketing is a milestone invention in the history of writing. Joe Pritz, the father of content marketing, said in his book "Monetizing Interests": "Interest is the starting point of communication, and value is the basis of relationships." Only content, communities, and products that arouse people's interest can help people regain the essence of relationships.

When we look at the road to success of Shenyefawu , we don’t consider the layout, the user experience , whether it will be popular, or whether it has 100,000+ followers. Because we like it and it is unique, it has value. What’s funny is that people later reviewed what font she used and what her writing style was.

Why is content marketing so enduring? Because it has become an IP. You recognize what I write, but not others. First-mover advantage, what I write first is mine and you can’t take it away. In business, the first-mover advantage has the characteristics of a dimensionality reduction attack. This advantage is even more like a stabilizing force in terms of content. Why don't you try to take my thoughts away?

(Voiceover: But maybe it can be taken away through technological and biological means in the future)

Why do so many people follow Shenyefawu, Mimi Meng and Papi Jiang ? Because the content itself is a barrier.

(3) GuangDianTong

Whether it is Weibo or WeChat, the benefits of advertising are fleeting.

Speaking of WeChat advertising , it is GuangDianTong. Since the price increase, I have been very regretful and annoyed. Although I have completely missed out on e-commerce and micro-commerce, I don’t feel very tired about missing out on GuangDianTong. After all, compared to now, I didn’t even have a WeChat public account at that time.

Finally, let’s summarize the three channels of WeChat ecosystem for your reference:

• Difficulty of acquiring traffic: relationship chain > advertising > content marketing
• Traffic acquisition investment ratio: advertising > content marketing > relationship chain
• Difficulty of traffic monetization: content marketing > relationship chain > advertising

I won’t go into details about external channels here. There are many popular articles introducing channels on the Internet, you can search on Baidu.

2. Channel screening

The purpose of channel screening is to reduce costs, which include advertising investment costs, labor costs, and time costs.

(1) First screening

Find a channel that meets your requirements. For example, if I sell maternal and infant products, then I will definitely look for platforms where mothers gather, such as maternal and infant self-media and KOLs on Weibo and WeChat public accounts. I can use Guangdiantong for advertising, or cooperate with maternal and infant apps. I can also find people with community resources for mothers to place advertisements.

(2) Second screening

The purpose of the second screening is to continuously optimize the conversion effect through multi-channel testing, and finally eliminate the channels whose input-output ratio does not meet the requirements.

Regarding channels, it’s easy to fall into the traffic trap:

1. Cheap traffic does not mean good traffic;
2. To select with the purpose of successful conversion;
3. Don't go all in at once, but instead continuously optimize across multiple channels and methods.

For example.

Fangfang, who is good at creating personal IP , used Guangdiantong to direct traffic to her official account to sell courses. She invested 10,000 yuan in advertising and brought in 2,000 users, so the cost of acquiring customers was 5 yuan. Another 10,000 yuan was spent on WeChat group promotion , which brought in 8,000 users, with a customer acquisition cost of 1.25 yuan. Therefore, the customer acquisition cost of WeChat group promotion is less than Guangdiantong.

But can we say that WeChat group promotion is better than Guangdiantong? No, because our purpose is to make money, not to be a gangster. Guangdiantong wins in precision, and ultimately it is measured by conversion effect, not simply by how much traffic is obtained. What we need to do is to find the channel where (CAC>CLV).

Average order value*average number of purchases per year*profit margin

CAC User Acquisition Cost

CLV Customer Lifetime Value

For example, Company C placed an advertisement on a vertical portal for RMB 5,000 and acquired 2,000 users, 100 of whom became customers. Each customer placed an average of 2 orders, and after deducting the discount cost, the profit per order was RMB 50. The net profit from this campaign was RMB 5,000. Of course, this does not include costs for manpower, hardware, venue, etc., so the actual profit would be even lower.

Traffic often creates a false impression. A friend of mine who has 500,000 followers subscribing to his public account is in a dilemma as to whether to post or not. If he posts, his followers will drop by the thousands, and very few people will buy his products. Not posting will lead to a slow death. Similarly, bosses will set KPIs for their subordinates, but these goals are often unscientific, unsustainable, and unable to balance both cost and effectiveness. My advice to everyone is to think clearly about the core goal before doing it.

3. Goods - Use the best bait to capture users

Goods are bait. A good bait is one that makes users willing to follow you and forward your content for you. It can be a physical product or a virtual product ( knowledge payment , tool software). The bait should not be random or copied from others, but the most suitable one should be chosen based on insight into human nature and a deep understanding of user needs.

1. 4 tips for choosing bait

(1) Practical Bait

Do people prefer novel lures? After many tests, we found that practical baits are the most stable and versatile. Giving away books is a very good practical bait. Books themselves have their own positioning, and different books can be given to different groups of people to achieve the best effect. Suitable things will increase in value. For example, in the summer, a fan worth 39 yuan is more attractive than a down jacket worth hundreds of yuan.

(2) High-value bait

The weakness of human nature tells us that people always seek benefits and avoid harm. Although we may doubt the costs incurred for great benefits, the perceived value of the bait itself is far higher than the cost. This is why many people use balance bike scams to obtain low-cost traffic, but users are still deceived again and again. Everything is voluntary. If people are stupid, they will not be allowed to be exploited. This is an anti-social development.

(3) Virtual Bait

Virtual baits have two incomparable advantages over physical baits: 1. No cost, 2. No need for users to provide personal information. This is why knowledge payment will carry out fission activities on a large scale. A good knowledge payment fission activity takes into account practicality, targeting and low cost.

The barriers to paid knowledge are getting higher and higher now, and fighting alone is a thing of the past. Using personal influence + endorsement + platform traffic support is the core competitiveness of a powerful paid knowledge platform.

(4) Internet celebrity bait series

The irresistible pursuit of the same products as those worn by internet celebrities and TikTokers once again proves the curiosity and herd mentality in human nature. The same sunflower as Douyin, the same sunscreen as Douyin, the internet celebrity pens, and the LUNA cleansing device are all very good fission and drainage baits.

When it comes to bait, not the one that attracts users the most is necessarily the best.

From the user's perspective, just like psychological accounting , users have their own value criteria for bait. On the surface, it is a distinction in interests, but in essence it is a distinction in values ​​and purposes.

• Why do humans like to eat? To survive
• Why do humans like sex? To reproduce
• Why do women like beauty? For better survival and reproduction

Popsicles in the summer, moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival, cotton-padded jackets in the winter, history, environment, special time points , we humans have endowed these different elements with relevance and value, thereby generating new perceptions of added value, which greatly influence all our decisions.

Girls always fail to understand boys' obsession with electronic products, let alone their interest in e-sports. Boys always cannot understand why girls fiddle with a lot of bottles and jars of cosmetics, and they don’t understand why girls want to collect all the lipstick colors they like. Why can't people understand each other? No, you are not me, you don’t understand me.

Social environment and genes jointly determine the major cognitive differences of a group, while family and upbringing determine the minor cognitive differences of an individual.

All of this can be resolved by empathy, but empathy = absolute rationality, and the state of complete empathy does not exist. This is also an insurmountable barrier between the rich and the poor. A single leaf blocks one's view of the mountain.

Similarly, factors such as gender, class, geography, and country all influence user behavior decisions, such as the association of women with beauty products, men with electronic products, Germany with beer, and China with food.

The attraction of the bait is only one aspect. The user's behavioral decision is further influenced by the acquisition threshold, that is, what I will pay to get this bait. Users will actively participate in activities only when their perceived value is greater than their perceived cost.

Here’s what you need to know about balancing customer acquisition costs and user engagement:

The LUNA cleansing device has an unparalleled appeal to female fans. The official website sells a LUNA cleansing device for around 1,580 yuan, and a Taobao purchase costs over 1,000 yuan. If I want to use the LUNA cleansing device as bait and keep the customer acquisition cost at 1 yuan, how should I use it?

Many people get exposed to fission by paying for knowledge, and some even think that fission is just inviting friends. There are many ways to play fission, including group buying, support, flash sales, 1 yuan purchases, lotteries, puzzle pieces, treasure chest systems, task systems, and invitations. Each one has its own characteristics and applicable environment and products.

Obviously, for the Luna cleansing device, the method of inviting friends is not very suitable for the game mode of inviting friends and winning. Few people can get this product by inviting 1,000 people. But we can use the 1-point grand prize as a gimmick to attract users, and use low-cost bait to make users really get it, so as not to lose trust and motivation in the platform.

2. Customer acquisition cost = new customer volume brought by the activity / total cost of the activity (promotion cost + bait cost)

The amount of new users brought by an activity is affected by two variables: promotion cost and bait cost. We use qualitative testing methods to keep one of the variables, such as promotion cost, unchanged, and change the bait cost to test user engagement.

For example, I used the trilogy of "A Brief History of Harari" as bait, which cost about 80 yuan. I set up three-dimensional tests, inviting 40, 60, and 80 people respectively. I posted posters with three different QR codes in 1,000 WeChat groups, and set different automatic reply contents through the channel QR codes. Finally, the statistics show that the three QR codes brought in 87, 66, and 31 users who participated and completed the task, totaling 3,480, 3,960, and 2,480 people. The conclusion is obvious: inviting 60 people is the number of invitations with the highest investment-output ratio, and the customer acquisition cost reached 0.25 yuan per person.

4. Field - Personal account, community, public account, mini program, how to choose a foothold

Finally, it is unavoidable that there will be some users who participate in the fission activity but do not complete it. These number of people are what you earn, accounting for about 30% of the total participation. You can calculate the cost based on the final result.

In the WeChat ecosystem, the so-called fields are nothing more than official accounts, communities, personal accounts, and mini-programs. We will also classify corporate WeChat accounts as personal accounts. In fact, we are still doing matching work. Attract the right people with the right goods and put them in the right place.

There are a lot of detailed content and experience about each foothold of the market, but today in order to establish a set of traffic acquisition methods, we first focus on analyzing these channels: