3 operational thinking methods to beat e-commerce promotion campaigns (Part 1)

This article mainly summarizes the author's own experience to share with everyone how to use three types of operational thinking to defeat the e-commerce promotion campaign. This article mainly talks about the first type of thinking.

I have been working in e-commerce for more than 9 years, and I have been fighting a lot of the time in many forms. The fastest and most obvious one is event promotion. Here I summarize my work experience for your reference.

Here is a piece of advice for everyone who runs an event :

Promotion is not a goal, it is just a form.

We need to understand the original intention of our activities, whether it is for brand marketing , user activity, or to improve conversion , etc., and then do further operations on this basis.

Three major promotion operation ideas:

1. Topic operation thinking: find out the points of resonance among users and then conduct participation conversion;
2. Hot product operation thinking: identify the user's needs and make a breakthrough in a single product;
3. Data operation thinking: discover users’ potential needs and promote the natural pull of supply and demand.

Here I will break it down one by one

Spreading operational thinking

Basically all e-commerce companies will create topics before big sales. This has become a habit and form of event operation, but not many are successful. It mainly depends on whether it is for self-entertainment. Many activity operators just make themselves excited, but users are indifferent.

Below is a communication curve I made, which shows three communications on the same topic.

The communication curve is an S-shaped curve. Enough popularity has been accumulated before the big sale, so the overall participation in the big sale has increased by 35% compared to the big sale standard. I measured the communication cycle and basically it is about 7 days for one communication. The climax is obviously only 1-2 days before it falls back.

The communication cycle is about 7 days, and the communication cycle will vary with different products, different groups of people and topics.

When doing communication, we must pay attention to two types of user demand attributes: social attributes and interest attributes.

Social attributes: spreading for the purpose of socializing, conveying personal values ​​and feelings, and expressing pride.

It could be for showing off, symbolizing status, being happy, unhappy, etc. Similar to posting a message on WeChat Moments , there must always be a topic to tease others, so the desire to show off or seek attention is the easiest to spread. For example, the currently extremely popular Tik Tok has rapidly grown thanks to this point.

Benefit attributes: spreading for the sake of benefits, whether the benefits match the efforts made to come to the platform.

For example, Didi , Mobike , Uber , and ofo all entered the market through the dissemination of interests. “Free use” and “free riding” spread and became popular like a blockbuster bomb. The recently popular Pinduoduo and Luk Kin Coffee also followed the same pattern and were quickly accepted by everyone. They benefited from it, and so did the people around them.

Communication has become a native capability of products rather than an additional action.

In addition to products with their own marketing nature, there is also a need to create topics for self-propagation. In this case, choosing topics is crucial. There are four principles for choosing topics:

1. Low threshold, everyone can participate

Before setting a topic, it is best to find people from outside your company or industry, preferably your target audience, and ask them three questions:

1. Do you understand?
2. Want to get involved in particular?
3. Want to share?

Douyin previously had a topic called "9+1", which was then expanded to include topics related to numbers such as "9÷1", etc. Everyone can participate in guessing the answer and everyone can express their opinions.

Before JD.com’s 618 event , it always liked to use Milk Tea Sister as a topic, especially in the past few years. Topics about celebrities and internet celebrities were something that everyone could talk about and discuss. JD.com would become a hot search term before 618 .

2. Topics that users are interested in

User needs are very important. In 2015, there was a particularly hot topic in the tourism industry: "As long as there is sand in your heart, everywhere is the Maldives." This was a topic created by Tuniu Travel Network.

The chosen location is Chengdu , a city far away from the sea. Everyone here loves to visit the beach, but it is also one of the top source cities for Southeast Asian islands. The news quickly gained momentum, and Tuniu later invited this uncle to visit the Maldives, which quickly made the Maldives very popular and established Tuniu's dominant position in Maldives tourism.

3. There is room for discussion and controversial topics

Generally speaking, when discussing a topic, people are most afraid of clear answers that are either black or white. There should be 1,000 Hamlets for 1,000 people, and they can all have their own clashes of opinions, argue for their own opinions, and pull their friends to stand for them. It would be best if even the media could come uninvited and celebrities would be interested as well.

I particularly admire "QiPaShuo"'s ability to create topics. Every debate is a good topic. "Is it shameful to be a parasite?", "Should a beautiful woman focus on her career or on her man?", "Is it important to marry someone who is well-matched?", and they always create a big stir on platforms such as Zhihu and Weibo.

4. It is better to follow the trending topics than to create your own

Many times we create topics on our own. People in the market understand that this requires the joint efforts of topic selection, platform, and big V. It can be said that it is the right time, the right place, and the right people. Then, following the hot topics is like a pig in the wind. Sometimes, even if it is a little heavy, it can still fly.

For example: The World Cup has been very popular recently and is being hyped up on all platforms.

Mafengwo travel content platform made World Cup predictions, combined with their popular advertisements during the World Cup (visit Mafengwo before traveling), with handsome Huang Xuan mentioned over and over again, and then the topic of the advertisement being criticized arose.

When Camera360 was developing its overseas market, it created a topic called "Girls' Day" in Japan. They took photos of the decorations for the Girls' Day on their app and shared them. At that time, it topped the Japanese APP Store and was recommended. The most important thing was that HKT48 (a very popular group in Japan) Rino Hara recommended it on a TV show, which was shared and spread among the fan group.

Although communication is powerful, it is not the goal.

Author: Operation Lao Chong, authorized to publish by Qinggua Media .

Source: Operation Laochong