Channel operation: How to operate a product well when funds are insufficient

Insufficient funds is a common problem faced by many channel operation students. Unless you work in a large company, it will be difficult or rare to get a large budget.

There is insufficient or no budget, but the boss keeps chasing you for results. It is usually difficult to achieve results in this situation. If you don't handle it well, you will most likely be blamed and labeled as incompetent. You feel wronged, your boss thinks you are incompetent and keeps blaming it on insufficient budget, which puts you in an awkward position.

So, how should operations be carried out with limited funds? How to operate a product well?

Understand the responsibilities of channel operations through a picture:

Simply put, the responsibility of channel operations is to introduce traffic and be responsible for the quantity and quality of traffic introduced. Each company has different products and stage development goals, so the specific KPI assessment indicators will be different, which will not be analyzed one by one here.

Now that we understand the responsibilities of channel operations, how should channel operations be carried out next?

Specific operational work can be divided into two parts: internal and external.

1. Internal

Before launch:

• 1. Understand the characteristics of your own products;
• 2. Basic characteristics of the target user group (explicit and implicit characteristics);
• 3. Sort by product features based on user-friendly features;
• 4. Extract the advantages of the product over its competitors;
• 5. Understand the conversion status of existing channels

The main purpose of internal work before launch is:

1. It helps you quickly understand the product and business, extract the materials needed to make the guide page and landing page , and make the landing page more targeted;

2. Understand the current delivery situation to clarify the focus of your work, whether to find new channels for delivery or to maintain and expand delivery in existing channels.

After delivery (mid):

• 1. Real-time communication data effect feedback
• 2. Conduct data analysis and re-evaluate channels based on data feedback (optimize materials? expand delivery? shut down?)

More work during the launch is to conduct real-time evaluation and adjustment of existing cooperation channels.

When conducting channel evaluation, there are two situations: one that requires optimization and maintenance, and the other that requires shutdown. The judgment cannot be made based solely on the cost of purchasing data. The CPS conversion cost must be evaluated, that is, the cost of converting users into customers. Traffic ≠ users, and similarly users ≠ customers. The traffic quality and user purchase cost can be judged by the traffic and user conversion ratio; the channel quality can be judged by the conversion ratio between users and customers.

When conducting channel evaluation, horizontal data comparison is often used. Horizontal comparison can show the data difference between the current channel and other channels, and can also eliminate the misjudgment of the channel due to insufficient product operation conversion capabilities.

2. External

Before launch:

• 1. Channel information collection
• 2. Channel effectiveness evaluation
• 3. Identify the materials you need

Before launching, you need to collect channel information. You can use Excel to make an information collection table. The information can be as follows:

Channel contact , contact information, channel name, channel classification ( friend circle , Baidu search , information flow , points wall , DSP , media community...), delivery scenario description, whether there are any competitive product cases...

According to your needs, enter some relevant information, so that you can have a basic judgment on the channel before launching. This is not enough. This is just what you heard from the channel. With the development of various media today, you can use other platforms to analyze the channels, use Analysys to understand the characteristics of the channel user groups, use ASO100 to understand the APP performance, and use Baidu Index to understand the channel attention. . .

The more detailed the understanding is in the early stages, the lower the probability of misjudging the channel, and the lower the probability of being deceived in today's increasingly rampant fake traffic.

After understanding the basic information of the channel, you can select the channel that suits you from the channels you know and start testing. Before testing, clarify what materials the channel needs, which are generally header images, copywriting and landing pages. Copywriting and landing pages: Based on your understanding of the product above, it is basically not a problem to write copywriting and landing pages at this time.

Running:

• 1. Channel communication for delivery optimization
• 2. Postpone or suspend delivery

During the delivery process, communication with channels is more about adjusting the delivery time or replacing the delivery materials. Some materials convert very well at the beginning, and the conversion of traffic to users is high, but after a period of time, it is not so good, and the materials need to be replaced.

Usually, the evaluation of materials focuses on two data indicators: click-through rate. A poor click-through rate means that the header image or copy is not attractive enough, and the header image or copy needs to be replaced; click-to-conversion ratio. If the click-through rate is very high and the conversion rate is very poor, it means that the landing page is not attractive enough, or the conversion path is too long, and the landing page needs to be optimized. Of course, some people will count the bounce rate, but usually many channels cannot count the bounce rate. This requires technical development to report the user behavior data of the landing page and then analyze it.

Some channels have better conversion effects and a higher cost-effectiveness in converting them into paying users . At this time, you can consider expanding your investment, but pay attention to cost control.

During the delivery process, if you encounter some channels with poor conversion or poor effect, just shut them down directly. Of course, the evaluation should be combined with the conversion cycle of your own products. Some products have a longer conversion cycle, such as online education , which usually has a conversion cycle of about one month. It is best not to terminate the delivery after just a few days of delivery and see that no one is paying. At this time, you need to look at other data indicators, such as the data connection rate and the appointment trial rate. These can be used as indicators to judge the quality of the channel before conversion.

Daily work is important, but it comes down to being responsible for your goals

The above mainly talks about the daily work flow of channel operation, and more about how to carry out the work. Operation is ultimately responsible for the goal. It is embarrassing to operate like a tiger and find that there is almost no data. This should be avoided as much as possible.

When you get the data indicators given by your superiors, if you are the project leader, you need to set them yourself. Taking educational products as an example, the company requires sales of 1 million this month, and the average customer unit price is 5,000 yuan, then 200 paying students are needed. According to the 4% payment conversion rate, 5,000 original data are required. So how do you do it on average every day? What should we do if the data volume is sufficient but the conversion rate is insufficient?

Channel operation is a job about quantity and quality. Both quantity and quality must be met . When evaluating channels, under the condition of the same test quality, channels that can meet data needs should be given priority. Quantity is the first priority, because colleagues in product operations need data to complete conversion indicators, and a good cook cannot cook without rice. Quantity alone is not enough. Although channel operations are not directly responsible for conversion results, they still need to improve the quality of data conversion as much as possible.

Taking the 5,000 original data as an example, a 4% conversion rate is still too high for educational products. Generally, the amount of data required will exceed 5,000. So let's calculate it based on 200 data per day. The WeChat Moments has a good conversion effect, but WeChat can only provide more than 10 data per day. The conversion of information flow is also acceptable, but there are only dozens of data. At this time, you need to consider placing it on other channels that can meet the quantity.

Through the combination of channel data, two indicators can be achieved, quantity requirements and conversion rate requirements, taking into account both quantity and quality.

Different products have different performances on different channels, so I won’t recommend channel effects here. Channel operations with limited funds are the most challenging, and channel operations with sufficient budgets can enable people to grow the fastest. Finally, I wish every student who operates channels will have a large budget in 2018.

The author of this article @王豫强 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services, advertising platform, Longyou Games