For the entire process of online event operation, just read this article!

Event operations play an important role in the operations sector. Unlike content operation and user operation which require long-term accumulation and steady progress, event operation is a short-term explosive force and is a work done to quickly achieve a certain short-term goal . Among all the operation methods, event operation is the most user-perceived. In this issue, I will first introduce to you the entire process of online event operations, and then organize some classic event cases when I have time.

A complete online event includes five steps: preparation, planning, execution, communication, and review. Let’s take a look at a mind map first, and then we will analyze it in detail.

1. Preparation Period

▷What、Who、How、How much ◁

What

Goal oriented. First of all, ask yourself why you want to do the event. Never do it just for the sake of doing it. Generally, activities are carried out in conjunction with short-term operational goals. Do you want to attract new customers , stimulate activation, retain customers , convert customers , or increase brand awareness through this activity? Having a legitimate reason can not only make your planning direction clearer, but also help gain the recognition of other collaborative departments so as to better coordinate various resources to support your activities.

Who

Users first. Based on your activity goals, you can identify your user groups. Who are they? Where is it? What are the characteristics? What are your preferences? Clarifying this information will help determine the form of the event and the promotion channels .

How: Efficiency first. Do you want to make the event long-term or short-term? It depends on the urgency of the activity and resource allocation.

How much

What is the budget for this event? What resources are available? What goals can be achieved by investing how much resources and get the final quantitative indicators.

Only after completing these preparations can you enter the event planning stage.

2. Planning Period

▷Activity form——Planning proposal——Activity copywriting ◁

Activity Form

Determining the form of the activity is the core link, which affects the development time, cost and effectiveness of the activity. When determining the form of an activity, we mainly consider: activity relevance, attractiveness and feasibility.

1. Relevance : Set the activity format in line with the activity goals , product positioning and user portrait to ensure that users will not be disgusted by such activities and that the activity goals have a certain effect. If we want to attract new customers, should we build more channels , set up some privileges for new customers, or have old customers bring in new customers? If you want to promote activity, you can do so through commenting, sharing rewards, sign-in rewards, etc.

2. Attractiveness : The activity must be simple to operate, easy to understand, and attractive. Here we need to grasp the users' love of playing, showing off and seeking profit . By making your content interesting, you can get users to spread the word for you, such as the Baozou Comics and Durex official Weibo, which are very attractive in themselves; or you can give users certain discounts through activities, such as Tmall Double 11 , group buying wars, Didi Kuaidi subsidy wars, etc.; you can also plan some brand activities to expand your brand influence by leveraging the momentum; initiating controversial topics will attract many people to conquer the opposing debaters with a sense of justice of "saving mentally retarded children."

3. Feasibility : The cost-effectiveness of the activity, that is, the input-output ratio, should be high. The input here includes labor costs and the cost of the activity itself. If you develop for a month and the results are mediocre, it is better not to do it. It will cause people to question your ability, and the cooperation of the collaborating departments in subsequent activities will also decrease.

Planning

A complete planning proposal includes: event theme, time, background, purpose, description, rules, communication channels and rhythm, expected results, event cost and input-output ratio, and risk control .

In fact, after completing the above steps, your activity plan is almost halfway done. Now you need to connect them together and then make additional optimizations. Let me talk about what is not mentioned above:

Communication channels , internal channels: push , EDM, SMS, opening screen...External channels: paid channels and free channels for resource exchange. The high matching and correlation between the users of both parties can achieve twice the result with half the effort, such as the cooperation between JD.com and What’s Worth Buying , ofo and Minions , etc.

Expected results and costs : They are relatively important but also easily overlooked. By comparing the actual results with the expected results, you can discover the highlights and shortcomings of the activity. Through constant comparison, your expectations will become more and more accurate, and you can even quickly determine whether an activity is worth doing. More importantly: the expected results help promote cooperation among collaborative departments.

Risk control : Step out of your role and look at the possible risks of the activity from a bystander's perspective and develop countermeasures. Common risks generally include the following categories: delay in launch time or bugs after launch, resources not being in place on time, users not buying into the event, users taking advantage of activity loopholes to cheat and flood the site, etc.

Event copywriting

All the copywriting involved in the event, including event rules , prompt copywriting, sharing copywriting, WeChat pictures and texts, Pr drafts , etc. For example, the rules of an activity should be as simple as possible so that users can see at a glance what they are required to do and what they can get without having to think. Complete rules require a lot of words to describe, including time, operating methods, award evaluation methods, prize list, award collection methods, precautions and disclaimers, etc. The reading cost for users is very high and they do not have the patience to read them, so the core rules should be placed in a prominent position at the top of the page. Detailed rules can be placed at the bottom of the page. Not reading them will not affect participation in the event. Communication copy needs to capture the user's psychology: interesting, curious, preferential, respected, sense of honor , etc. The level of copywriting needs to be accumulated over time (I finally figured out why my copywriting is so bad, maybe I'm still young and haven't accumulated enough). For copywriting skills, you can take a look at Li Jiaoshou 's X-type copywriting and Y-type copywriting , which are very useful.

III. Execution Period

▷Writing execution plans, internal communication, external communication◁

Jack Ma said: I would rather have a first-rate execution + a third-rate idea than a first-rate idea + a third-rate execution. This shows the importance of event execution. The following is a detailed description:

Execution Case

Treat the entire activity as a project and break it down into several links. The time nodes, responsible persons and completion standards of each link need to be controlled well. You can use online collaboration software such as teambition. I usually use Excel to make Gantt charts , which are relatively simple. I update the progress regularly and synchronize with the relevant persons in charge. Major activities can use the story wall , which is divided into four sections: Ready, Play, Test, and Done. The project progress is clear at a glance, and the person in charge of each link can see at a glance what he is doing and what he will do next. He can make arrangements in advance and play a supervisory role at the same time to improve work efficiency and ensure that the event is launched on time.

Gantt chart: capture part of the execution of an activity

Story wall: Source: Internet

Internal Communication

Next is cross-departmental communication, great! Heavy! want! (You may experience various conflicts). Each company has different processes. Generally, you should first communicate with the product manager about the details of the entire activity. The product manager will produce the activity prototype and flow chart. Then, you can hold a review meeting with all relevant departments such as design, R&D, and public relations together with the product manager. Based on the launch time of the activity, you can work backwards to determine the time nodes with the person in charge of each link, update the execution plan, and after the meeting, email the meeting results to all participants (pay attention, highlight this !). Each subsequent link is strictly executed according to the execution plan, and more communication is carried out with design and R&D during the execution process to prevent the results from not meeting expectations. Remember a few principles in cross-departmental communication: take the initiative, be willing to suffer losses, be patient, and think from others' perspective . How to avoid conflicts: explain the importance of the activity, identify the responsible persons for each link, clearly explain the activity requirements, and follow up at any time

External Communication

If it involves business cooperation, you need to prepare an activity plan or cooperation investment promotion PPT, mainly to tell the other party what are the benefits of cooperation and what results can be achieved? What resources do you need? What does the other party need to do? Choose partners with high matching degree in users and resources. The meaning of cooperation is win-win. Any cooperation without matching degree is just hooliganism. In addition, after determining the partner and form of cooperation, you must sign a cooperation agreement. It is best to find an alternative cooperation plan, as there are too many uncertainties in external cooperation and do not affect the activities.

4. Transmission Period

▷Warm-up——Detonation——Ending◁

Preheat

It is very important. It is related to whether the event can usher in a hot spot and how high the hot spot can be. Through posters, H5 activities and other forms, users can be informed of event information, such as event time, event highlights (fun, discounts...), and to a certain extent, it can whet the appetite of our activities and let them continue to pay attention to our activities. For example, Double 11 will be preheated half a month in advance to accumulate traffic and lock in users in advance, and then a concentrated outbreak will occur on the Double 11 day. Before Didi's comprehensive brand upgrade from Didi Taxi to Didi Travel, it made a series of posters, which led to public speculation and the "Didi XX" style became popular on WeChat Moments, including Didi beating people , Didi pooping, etc.

Detonation

Carry out free promotional activities on all channels, increase the number of activity entrances, and attract users who did not join at the beginning to participate in the activity. On Double Eleven, Tmall keeps reporting transaction volume, which actually creates psychological pressure on users. With so many people around the world constantly buying, you will lose out if you don’t buy. Real-time rankings and discounted product rankings are also the final push for users to consume. After the activity is launched, it is necessary to monitor activity data in real time, collect user feedback, and appropriately adjust the promotion rhythm and operation strategy based on the activity data.

ending

Prevent the phenomenon of rising and falling back. In the second half of the event, users’ sense of novelty and enthusiasm declined rapidly. To prevent this from happening, Double 11 organized a performance PK event, seizing the users’ desire to show off. After the event ended, the data was even lower than before the event, because users felt that they might be at a disadvantage if they joined now. At this time, you can do a return event.

5. Review

▷Review goals - present results - analyze differences - summarize experience◁

Reviewing is different from summarizing. Summarizing is about the results of the activity, the participation in the activity, and what goals were achieved. Reviewing is the process of re-enacting what you did in the past in order to gain a deeper understanding of it. Reviewing focuses not only on a result, but also on the entire process of the activity. It is best to hold a review meeting as soon as possible after the event so that the event details and user feedback are still fresh in your mind. As needed, convene the persons in charge of each link to review together. If it is a small event, the review can be conducted within the operations department. The following is an explanation of the four steps of replay:

Review goals

The goal set when making the activity plan is the reference for review: how many new customers should be attracted? What is the percentage increase in activity? How many lost users are recalled? How much performance has been improved, etc.

Presenting the results

Present the actual data and conclusions of the activity at the review meeting, analyzing from the overall to the specific. "Overall" refers to the results of the entire activity. For example: 20,000 new users were added during the activity, so what is the time distribution of the growth? What actions were taken during the peaks, whether push notifications were sent or promotions were made through a certain channel, can help verify which methods are more beneficial to the activity. "Points" refer to user feedback during the activity, and based on user feedback, we can deepen our understanding of user preferences. Calculate the input-output ratio of this activity based on the results of the activity to determine whether similar activities are worth continuing.

Analyze the differences

The difference between the actual data of the activity and the target, and what are the reasons for it? The entire activity process should be presented as completely as possible so that each participant can express his or her ideas objectively. If the effect of the activity exceeds expectations, then we need to analyze what went well and where the results can be used in the future. If expectations are not met, make a hypothesis first: Did you overestimate conversions in a certain channel? Or is it a bad timing of the launch? Is it because the copywriting failed to impress users? Are some functions of the Landing Page not working smoothly enough? Then verify the hypothesis through data, AB testing and user surveys to draw conclusions.

Summary of experience

1) Find out the deficiencies in the whole process and what can be optimized in the future, so as to avoid the recurrence of some problems found in this activity and achieve our expected goals more accurately in future work

2) What were the good things in the whole activity process that can be used as a reference in the future, or even solidified?

The above is the whole process of online event operation. In addition, I would like to share some software that you need to be familiar with for event operation:

It goes without saying that you need to be proficient in Word, Excel, and PPT.

Axure/Modao: Drawing simple prototypes can help you sort out the activity process

Xmind/Baidu Mind Map: Mind Mapping Tool

Photoshop/ AI : No need to be proficient, you can simply process the pictures at the critical moment

H5 production software: Tuzhan, Yiqixiu , MAKA, Yunlai, iH5, etc.

Others: Chuangketie (production and editing tools), Maike CRM (user research), etc.

The author of this article is @操作瞎百算扯. It is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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