How do WeChat fans, APP users, and transaction customers convert into each other?

Many vertical industry businesses are not as easy to make as mass-user products. Each industry has its own characteristics, and special attention needs to be paid when making such products. This article about securities firms may provide some inspiration to you.

Regarding the topic of securities firms ’ WeChat public accounts , there is actually not much public research within the securities industry. Previously, Teacher Kevin had an article on his official account that studied the content of securities companies’ official accounts, which received a lot of attention in the industry.

Sharp also read the article repeatedly and was greatly inspired, but of course he still had a lot of confusion, so he had the idea of ​​doing further research on this topic.

1. Why do securities firms need to set up public accounts?

Since we are talking about brokerage firms ’ WeChat public accounts, let’s first analyze why brokerage firms need to create public accounts, or what exactly is the purpose of brokerage firms creating public accounts?

First, serve customers

Based on this purpose, most securities firms have chosen to open WeChat service accounts , with the original intention mostly to better serve customers on WeChat.

At present, the functional layout of securities companies’ WeChat service accounts in serving customers can be summarized into three categories: account center, message reminder, and transaction.

The account center category mainly provides customers with account personal information inquiry, asset inquiry, account responsibility detail inquiry, stock position inquiry, shareholding profit and loss, day's entrustment and transaction inquiry, day's capital flow and new stock subscription information, etc. The setting of this type of function can make it convenient for customers to quickly complete account information inquiries that are closely related to their own interests in the WeChat environment.

The message reminder category includes four types of reminder functions: transaction reminders, new stock reminders, favorite stock reminders, and financial reminders. WeChat can remind customers to perform relevant operations in a timely manner, which saves time, worry and effort for customers.

As for trading functions , not all WeChat service accounts have trading functions at present, and in general, customers are more accustomed to performing trading-related operations on mobile apps or PC stock trading software. After all, they are all "real money".

Second, brand promotion

Regarding brand promotion, this is an indispensable part. Most brokerages have integrated the brand promotion function into the content of service accounts and subscription accounts , but some brokerages have chosen to separate the brand promotion WeChat public accounts, and generally brand promotion is mainly done through service accounts.

Third, marketing and business development

According to iResearch Consulting data, the total number of WeChat user devices reached 740 million per day, the total monthly usage time reached a staggering 19 billion hours, and the daily usage time of a single device reached 0.86 hours. The number of WeChat users and the length of time they are used are far ahead of all other mobile apps. The huge traffic on WeChat has also attracted brokerage firms to conduct marketing and business here.

Data source : iResearch

Since all users are on WeChat, it is natural to conduct business on WeChat. Then opening an account and downloading mobile APP become the two most direct goals for securities companies to market and develop their business on WeChat. Of course, advertising for some financial products can also be considered a form of business development, but this is not the focus of this article, so this point will not be elaborated on.

The above is some analysis on why securities companies have WeChat public accounts. I think everyone will have a lot of confusion when talking about this.

For example, using WeChat's traffic to attract more customers to open accounts and at the same time directing traffic to one's own APP. This logic is relatively easy to understand. So should brokerage firms move their own services to WeChat? Will this contradict the goals of "daily active users" and "monthly active users" for APP that all securities firms are striving to achieve?

To clarify these confusions, we need to understand what the positioning of brokerage firms’ WeChat public accounts is.

2. What do brokerage WeChat fans really want?

Before exploring the positioning of each brokerage firm’s official account, let’s change the perspective and first look at why brokerage clients need brokerage firms’ WeChat official accounts? Why did they choose to follow your official account?

WeChat fans, APP users, and transaction customer conversion paths

First of all, we need to figure out the relationship between brokerage WeChat fans, APP users and trading customers.

As can be seen from the above figure, there are about 6 conversion paths between WeChat fans, APP users and transaction customers:

• Path 1: WeChat fans → APP users → trading customers
• Path 2: WeChat fans → trading customers → APP users
• Path 3: Trading customers → APP users → WeChat fans
• Path 4: Trading customers → WeChat fans → APP users
• Path 5: APP users → trading customers → WeChat fans
• Path 6: APP users → WeChat fans → trading customers

Among them, Path 1 and Path 3 are the two most common conversion paths.

Path 1 is the conversion path from WeChat fans to APP users and then to trading customers. It is also the most ideal conversion model for brokerages based on the WeChat environment. Of course, it would be best if you skip "APP users" and directly become trading customers. This is the way of Path 2. Corresponding to this path 1 is the "marketing and business development" of the securities firm's WeChat official account.

Path 3 is the customer service path from trading customers to APP users and then to WeChat fans . Generally speaking, once you become a customer of a brokerage firm, you may consider using the brokerage firm’s APP to trade stocks or manage your finances, and then follow the brokerage firm’s WeChat public account to seek more service content.

Paths 4 and 6 are relatively niche conversion paths. Of course, it is not ruled out that many brokerage clients do not use the brokerage’s self-built APP, but instead use some third-party stock trading software. In this case, the clients may be converted according to Path 4, that is, from trading clients to WeChat fans and then to APP users.

For path 6, there are more wool fans. For example, many brokerage apps have activities to divert traffic to WeChat official accounts, such as "Follow the WeChat official account to increase one chance of winning a lottery", which will convert the APP into WeChat fans.

As for Path 5, this is the path that all securities firms are actively working on. This path witnesses how securities companies convert APP users into trading customers through operational means, and in order to better serve customers, they direct them to WeChat service accounts to provide more real-time, rich and convenient service content.

What do WeChat fans really want?

So what do WeChat fans want when they follow a brokerage firm’s WeChat public account?

• To serve. This is the most direct appeal of brokerage firms’ real WeChat fans, and this is also the part of fans that brokerage firms’ WeChat public accounts should serve the most. The service content has been clearly described above. If you forget it after reading it once, you can go back and take a look.
• Need wool. The world is so big that wherever there is a bargain, there are bargain-hunters . What's more, the WeChat public accounts of securities companies usually have a lot of bargains and are deeply loved by bargain-hunters. "Shaving the sheep" is an obligation and a must.
• Wait and see. Why do we say we should wait and see? Because many new investors are taking a wait-and-see attitude, or some old investors want to try to change their luck, they first go to various brokerage firms to explore and see which one is most suitable for them to contribute their stock trading career to. This group of fans needs the brokerage firm’s WeChat public account to work hard to convert them.
• To forward. This point is also the viewpoint in Teacher Kevin's article, and I agree with it, that is, some of the fans of brokerage firms' WeChat public accounts are their own front-line sales personnel, such as account managers. They will serve their clients by forwarding the content of the WeChat public account, or use it as a tool to expand their customer base.
• To compete. Competition among peers is inevitable, so peers follow each other’s official accounts to find out what their competitors are doing every day. To these fans, Sharp just wants to say, "I'll do whatever you want me to do..." Learn from each other and make progress together.
• To expand business. This content is actually not what the brokerage firm’s customers or WeChat fans directly want, but rather it is what the brokerage firm’s WeChat official account itself wants, and it uses various routines to make its fans “want” it - opening an account, downloading the APP.

3. Positioning of Securities Companies’ WeChat Official Accounts

Once you have figured out what the brokerage firm’s WeChat fans want, the positioning of the brokerage firm’s WeChat public account should have a general direction.

The most direct way to determine the positioning of a brokerage firm’s WeChat public account is to start with the three purposes mentioned above:

• Customer Service
• Brand Promotion
• Marketing and Business Development

But in fact, many public accounts fail to do anything completely because they do not fully understand these three purposes, or are too "greedy" and want to do everything.

Single positioning

If you want to position yourself as a customer service account, you should return to your original intention and properly plan your service account. You should have all the necessary functions for your customers and push the content they need to them in a timely manner.

If you position yourself as a brand promotion public account, you might as well just do this one thing well and do pure brand promotion.

If it is positioned as a marketing and business development public account, it will require a large number of operational personnel. Not only do they have to produce content, but they also have to organize activities. Attracting a large number of fans is the primary goal, and after the fans come, they also have to think about how to convert them.

Cross positioning

Of course, cross positioning is also possible. For example, service + product promotion, or service + marketing, or product promotion + marketing.

If it is service + brand promotion, this kind of intersection is more common and easier to operate.

If it is service + marketing, then the structure of WeChat fans may be more complicated, the operation is more difficult, and the capabilities of product and operation personnel are required to be higher.

Brand promotion + marketing, this type of positioning is not recommended. After all, brand promotion is something that cannot be too "quick and utilitarian", and the nature of "marketing" determines that its tendency to be "quick and utilitarian" is more obvious.

4. Are brokerage firms ’ WeChat mini-programs disrupting the market?

The emergence of WeChat mini-programs has, to some extent, changed the above six conversion paths of securities firms. The conversion has changed from being between WeChat fans, APP users, and trading customers to being between WeChat fans, mini-program users, APP users, and trading customers.

However, WeChat mini-programs do not currently support direct jumps to APP download links, and the trading and account opening functions have been suspended by regulators in January and are still in the "research and demonstration" stage with no progress. Therefore, there is currently very little that brokerage firms’ WeChat mini-programs can do, and the effect of business development in this area is not very good.

According to some recent leaks, a mini-program of Tencent already supports jumping to external links (downloading Tencent gaming apps). If it is really fully opened one day, it will still be very tempting for securities companies to attract traffic to download the APP.

5. Content of brokerage firms’ public accounts: What do industry insiders think?

This section is selected from some comments from industry insiders on Mr. Kevin's article. Let's see what opinions everyone has on the content of securities companies' WeChat public accounts:

Wang Minda

In addition to the mismatch of fans mentioned by Kevin, I think there is another reason. The brokerage account is not maintained by one person. What content is published is often based on the needs of various business lines. If they need to promote an app today, they will write an app. If they need to organize an event tomorrow, they will promote the event. The specific content cannot reflect the personal will of the writer, and it may not be written by the same person, and the writing style is not uniform.

Lu Renjia

User attributes do not match. What users want to see most is to be told clearly: buy quickly, there are 66) daily limits ahead, and this is a trend of buying houses, cars, and RVs! Users don't want to see the reasons. Who would invest in a fund and study a bunch of indicators such as A-shares, US stocks , Hong Kong stocks, European stocks, government bonds, US bonds, gold, Shanghai and Shenzhen 300, etc. However, those who can say that the previous 12 daily limits are either scammers or insiders, thank you for your hard work. This wave of leeks is very good.

Big big citrus.

Take our company as an example. Many front-end colleagues have no idea that there is such highly professional information in the official account. Many of them may not be able to understand the information at all. If they don’t even read it, how can customers do that? I carefully read the relevant articles in our official account. The content is very long and the font size is very small. This is probably the reason why customers are reluctant to read it.

Crazy snail

Perhaps the right approach is to let service accounts return to service, link effective services together to form "weak" stickiness, and then "educate" and "classify" users during event operations . This is basically the logic of China Merchants Bank. It is enough to think of you when I need you... The friendship between gentlemen is as pure as water

Adam Lin

It's not just the securities industry. My understanding is that not many people in the entire financial industry can achieve dissemination. The financial attributes make fans think that this is a niche group. The key is to break this mental defense. The app is still mainly transaction-based, and the channels for dissemination should also be based on interests. Try more

Aaron

I think a big part of the reason is that this information cannot bring benefits to users, and it is difficult for most users to distinguish whether it is true or false.

Wang Er

I have never really understood why brokerage APPs pursue the number of opens and the length of time online. If you don’t trade but just read the content, only die-hard fans would do that; if you trade frequently, doesn’t it mean that the more frequent the trading, the greater the risk of loss? If it is possible to quickly connect WeChat and brokerage APP (whether it is a mini program or other method), this ecosystem of usually communicating on WeChat and trading in one step on the APP can be fully realized.

Fan Jun

Personally, I think it is determined by the positioning of the brokerage firm’s WeChat account. Not to mention that the positioning of many accounts is unclear. They want to provide services, marketing, and information, and there will be large deviations in the target customer groups they face. Even if the positioning is clear and a dedicated subscription account is opened, there will be great contradictions in the configuration of the new media team and whether the incentive system and mechanism are in place. After all, I think most securities companies still use WeChat accounts as an auxiliary means, and generally lack the ability to directly realize cash and form a positive cycle.

Fly Mark

I feel there are two points:

1. The self-media that one likes are usually driven by one's inner love, and when one clicks on an advertisement, one feels that it is for the purpose of doing better in the future. But securities people will feel that it is official stuff and they make me click on ads that waste my time. Where is your conscience? In terms of quality, self-media is for survival, while securities is just for work. The weekly report of self-media in simple voice push will be a bit stuttering when it is first read by a new person, and it sounds unpleasant, but it will obviously get better after a period of time. Does the morning meeting report of the securities make you feel that you are changing interns to read every day? For several months, it was still read by a few people who stuttered, had no emotion, and were not familiar with the script.
2. Every push from self-media is valuable, but the quality of push from brokerage firms varies, and gradually people become too lazy to look for them.