Practical review: How to increase the number of paying users from 0 to 700 in 3 months?

I have seen many products that were poorly made. They did not think clearly about what users need and what they could provide to users, and in the end users were not interested at all.

A while ago, we operated a knowledge planet, where on average more than 10 latest operation cases were shared every day. In three months, the number of paying users reached 700.

There are more than 1,000 cases shared spontaneously by users, making it a very valuable case library.

You know, it is very difficult to find a case library suitable for operations personnel to study and research on the market, and the fees are tens of thousands, and these cases are not new enough or numerous enough.

Therefore, a planet that updates operational cases in real time is absolutely valuable!

Here are some key points of the planning process:

1. Find the combination of product and user interests

When you are ready to start operating a product, you need to consider this question:

Have you defined your business purpose? What is the connection between your purpose and your users? Are these connections what users actually want?

At the beginning, we first clarified our goal: to build a high-quality case library.

But the question is, what problems will arise if only a few people in the team are left to find and collect cases every day?

• Limited human resources: Even if a team searches 24 hours a day, it is likely that not much data will be collected in a month.
• Information blind spot: Because the WeChat accounts of three people may only be 3,000 or 4,000 people, sometimes you may not be able to find the cases in other people’s WeChat Moments

So, we must find a lever to pry everyone together to accomplish it: the power of one person is small, but the power of a group of people is great.

Leverage effect: link the wisdom of all people, take the strengths of all, and become the strength of one.

But at the same time, we also need to think about these two questions:

1. Is this contact what the user really needs?

First, we tried to understand users’ awareness of operational cases. Through many feedbacks, we learned that users generally believe that analyzing cases can not only improve their in-depth thinking ability, but also help them find solutions to work problems through analyzing cases.

2. What is the connection between our purpose and users?

Based on these feedbacks, we decided to provide an environment for operational case analysis, allowing operators in need to use the circle as a scenario for deliberate practice and sharing, so that high-quality cases can be accumulated.

The circle is a place to provide case analysis. After users learn how to analyze cases, they need to observe cases around them to produce content.

If the content produced is very good, and because it is your own analysis, it can be easily forwarded to your circle of friends, thus invisibly promoting the circle.

Assuming that 100 people share 3 cases, then there will be 300 high-quality case sources with thinking and analysis in the case library for us to learn and refer to.

2. People act for why

When we do anything, we need a reason to tell us why we are doing it. If no one tells us the meaning of doing this thing, we will be very confused.

In TED-<How Great Leaders Inspire Action>, SIMON proposed the golden circle rule of "why, how, what", explaining that there should be a why behind everything we do and we should tell the users.

This why can motivate users to take action, which is the underlying essence of doing anything: people only act for why.

Therefore, we need to impress users with vision, values, and trust, so that companies can break through product limitations and achieve success.

"Top Operation Cases" What is the why-how-what of Knowledge Planet?

Think about the overall operating environment at that time:

1.why: People all have "path dependence" and are used to doing what they are good at. This is a thinking inertia. We are used to using old methods to solve new problems, and when the old methods fail, we are at a loss.

The problem that operators often encounter in their work is that they don’t know what methods to use to achieve their operational indicators. In fact, many times our creativity is insufficient, largely because we don’t know. For example, if you don’t know about fission, you will never think of using this method to increase your fans.

2.how: Most of the creativity in the world comes from reference. There is basically no creativity that starts from scratch. Many things we do are the result of combination innovation. By looking at the information source of the case, we can learn a lot of ways of playing.

Therefore, a good methodology is mostly not original, not 100% original. Many popular gameplays are improved upon past gameplays to become gameplays that suit themselves.

3.what: In this process, in order to provide you with more and newer high-quality cases for your thinking in your work, I decided to build a high-quality case library.

Imitation is a shortcut to learning, and a high-quality case library is an operator’s secret weapon.

3. Users don’t care about your product, they only care about themselves

Sometimes, no matter how well we describe our product, users remain indifferent because they don’t want to know what your product is, they only care about what they can get from it.

Users don’t buy products, they buy solutions to problems. Users don’t buy a 1.1-inch drill, they buy a 1.1-inch hole.

So we have to think about: Who are the main parties that constitute the standardized operation of the entire planet? What practical benefits can each party gain from this?

Clearly define the main bodies that make up the entire ecosystem: organizers, volunteers, content contributors, and onlookers

• Official benefits: Rapidly build a high-value frontline operation case library
• Benefits of volunteers: As an organizer, you will be deeply involved and come into contact with the most cases.
• Benefits for content contributors: Develop a habit of thinking deeply about things around you
• Onlookers: By learning from cases related to my work, I can apply them to my work.

1. User demand analysis:

The 5H2W model is more useful for analyzing different users. Each type of user can make an analysis table:

2. User path analysis:

Users go through a certain process from learning to purchasing, so we need to think about what factors influence users' decisions. At this time, we can draw a simple flowchart and think about what important influencing factors there are.

For example: A user sees a planet through a certain channel , what is his user path?

4. Give users a reason to buy

Because the user's impression of the product is anchored on the first contact, and even the first impression determines whether he will log in again and how satisfied he is with the product.

So before you start promoting , you should pay attention to the following points:

• Positioning: What needs of users does the circle meet? Are the segmented needs specific?
• Differentiation: The essence of differentiation is to give users a reason to pay attention to you.
• Sales Page Copywriting : Are the Benefits Clearly Described?
• Name: Does it fit the positioning? Does one glance let others know what you do? ?
• Headshot: Does it look professional? Can it make people associate?
• Introduction: Is the introduction appealing to others and is the description of benefits specific?
• Intuitive feeling: Is the circle still active? What is the quality of the content?
• …..

We build our own planet's gameplay by investigating and understanding the gameplay of competitors whose target groups match ours. We look for competitors related to our target groups (competitors: anyone who may choose the other party instead of you is a competitor)

After analyzing more than a dozen circles and combining user needs, competitor advantages and our own advantages, we finally chose "Case Analysis Course" as our differentiated advantage, which is something that many operations circles do not have.

But in order to keep users, we need to maintain the case quality of the circle at a relatively good level through continuous iteration of gameplay and content control, and strive to improve user satisfaction.

5. Preparation before promotion

If a product has no content at all, is not active, and has very few users, it is very likely that people will not pay for it. At this time, the content must be cold-started and then tested.

1. Cold start

In the initial stage of establishment, basically everyone needs to find 1-3 cases for analysis every day as a cold start for the content, because if there are no cases to fill in, it will seem very deserted and users will be less willing to share.

At the same time, we will comment and like when seed users post topics, because in the early days each user automatically posts a topic after joining, and once the topic is replied or liked, the user is more likely to be activated.

2. Feasibility test

Before launching, we conducted a trial run and iterated three times:

• Set up an industry case exchange community , collect cases corresponding to different industries according to different industries, and each person can join the WeChat exchange group by submitting three (disadvantages: WeChat groups cannot accumulate content, the information noise is too large, and after joining the group, no cases are posted, and it is easy to become a dead group)
• The carrier is changed to Knowledge Planet. Everyone can enter Knowledge Planet for free by submitting three cases. (Disadvantages: After testing, it was found that many people would submit outdated cases from a long time ago, which would cause duplication, and many people would not submit again after submitting.)
• Pay 99 yuan to enter the planet, analyze and review the better cases you have seen, and get rewards if the cases are added as highlights or you participate in the check-in plan.

3. Willingness to Pay Test

At the very beginning, we did not directly promote it on a large scale, but conducted a small-scale test in two WeChat groups. The test found that the payment rate of users in this type of circle reached 20%, so we used other channels to promote it.

In terms of price, we gave the first 100 users an internal test price of 50 yuan. When the number of users gradually increased and a certain amount of content was accumulated, we restored the original price of 99 yuan.

Because the number of people in the circle is also a very important factor affecting user decision-making: suppose that when you see that there are less than 10 people in this circle, you will most likely not pay because the cost of trial and error is very high.

6. Find a user incentive method that suits you

Different products can have different ways of playing. The most important thing is to find an incentive system that suits your product and formulate rules based on user needs:

1. Rulemaking:

20% of users contribute 80% of the content, so we need to find the 20% of users who are the core content producers and motivate them to produce content, so that the community will not die quickly.

Since we are a learning community, we can mobilize activity and screen target users through check-in, so we chose a 21-day check-in plan with a low deposit.

The punch-in plan also went through three iterations:

• 1.0: Check in for 21 days to get 30 yuan
• 2.0: Multiple check-in rewards doubled
• 3.0: Team up with three people to check in for 31 days and get 90 yuan

Generally, target seed users have the characteristics of "stronger pain points", "imperfect attempts" and "providing feedback". We have created a check-in communication group specifically for check-in users. The purpose is to provide an environment for deliberate practice, motivate users in real time and collect feedback from core users.

If we only rely on users to share cases on their own initiative, it will not work at all.

People are lazy. "Learning Cleanliness" points out:

People think that they have not accomplished something because they are unwilling to do it, but if they are willing to do it, they will definitely be able to accomplish something.

In fact, many people who have just joined the check-in circle overestimate their perseverance, and one-third of them fail within a week. If you simply want to rely on user awareness, it is actually quite difficult.

The main purpose of checking in is not to cultivate the thinking habit of looking at cases (prompts) - checking in and sharing (habitual behavior) - premium bonuses/21-day rewards (reward returns).

Once users develop the habit, sharing and analyzing cases becomes a natural thing.

2. Real-time feedback:

If users feel that the goal is too far away, they will easily give up, so we need to use a gamified process to provide timely feedback to users on every step they take, giving them a sense of ritual and encouragement, which can encourage them to continue checking in and enhance their sense of participation and competition.

• Daily report in the check-in group: Every night the administrator summarizes the day's check-in status and sends it to the group.
• Knowledge Planet's weekly planet report: weekly summary of check-in status and elite case rewards are posted in the planet

All of these settings are designed to create an incentive system for users to spontaneously generate content.

3. User Stories:

People are more likely to trust the experiences of others who are similar to themselves.

When your product content is almost accumulated, you can consider using user-generated content to do something, such as user stories:

I always thought that 21 days was a long time and it would be difficult to find a case every day. But after I started, I found that this was just a limit I set for myself. In fact, there are different marketing cases around us every day, and you will find them as long as you pay attention.

——Cai Cai

It has directly cultivated my insight into the operational activities around me. In the past, I would always ignore the various operational details around me, but now when I see an activity or product, I will think about the purpose of doing so and whether there is room for improvement. I hope everyone can seize the time to complete their small goals and become the person they want to be! fighting!

——Pong₂₀₁7

Conclusion: Everything we do should make users feel your sincerity.

There is no road in the world that leads to sincerity, because sincerity itself is the road to everything.

The author of this article @包总学习笔记 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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