Double the performance? 7-step framework for new media word-of-mouth marketing

In the digital age, marketing methods have changed a lot. In recent years, I have been conducting a questionnaire survey on the " Current Status and Confusion of Corporate Marketing " for traditional enterprises. The survey results show that less than 50% of enterprises believe that their products are basically competitive in the market, but many brand practitioners are more interested in marketing techniques, which exceeds their attention to user insights and product innovation . Many companies hope that marketing will solve the traffic problem, but they have little knowledge of their own brand repeat purchase data. At that time, the survey showed that the top three marketing expenses for traditional companies were exhibitions, newspapers and magazines, and new media marketing . Even for new media marketing, many companies only roughly used WeChat and Weibo and had not tried other methods.

Is your brand also trapped in the marketing dilemma of " high investment, poor results, and slow effectiveness "? You have promotions every day, but you can’t retain old customers or attract new ones through word of mouth? Are you frustrated that your story creativity alone cannot translate 100,000+ readerships into sales? Have you spent a lot of time and money attending various offline training courses, but still lack a systematic marketing method?

1. Word-of-mouth marketing case that increased sales 10 times in one month

A few years ago, one of my students was Mr. Chen, who made sea duck eggs. After class, he gave me a box of sea duck eggs so that my colleagues could taste and give me suggestions. I usually eat eggs, but I don’t know much about the nutritional value of duck eggs, so I posted the following message on WeChat Moments :

As a result, more than a month later, he wrote me a letter and told me that in just one month, the sales volume, which had been difficult to increase in the past, suddenly increased tenfold. Here is the story. I share below some of the original content of the letter from several years ago:

This case is just an individual case, and there is an element of luck involved. I haven't contacted this brand for a long time, but you can all see the power of word-of-mouth marketing at that time.

2. 7-step framework for new media word-of-mouth marketing

I have experienced various traditional and Internet marketing methods, so after gaining insights, I combined my own practical experience with the theoretical systems of various marketing masters to form this new digital marketing model. This marketing system mainly includes the following 7 frameworks:

1. Deep insights into users

The main tasks here are: strive to explore the core pain points of consumers, implement innovation based on user pain points rather than satisfying user needs ; segment customers and average them. Although they all buy your products, they are not the same type of people. Launch products and services that match different users; survey customer ideas through the Internet, listen to consumers' voices through big data such as online public opinion; and perform small data analysis and modeling around old users.

2. Create Magic Products

The main work is: Magic products are not only hype, but also highly recommended for lifestyle changes and word of mouth. Brand competition must evolve from traditional unique selling point USP to CEP user experience competition. Magic product creation requires the trinity of leaders, engineers and marketers , none of which can be missing. In addition, we must try to find the most important reasons why most consumers buy or don’t buy, and give the product core differentiation points. If a new product is launched, it is necessary to follow the " development-measurement-cognition " feedback principle, use the MVP method of lean entrepreneurship to complete the cycle with the least investment and the fastest speed, quickly update and iterate the product, and finally, the product needs to be extremely simple, cutting off any unnecessary functions.

3. Prepare selling points with moving language ( content marketing )

The main work of preparing selling points with moving language: To do content marketing well, you must first be clear about the purpose of content marketing. Don’t always send promotional advertisements. Content marketing has four topics: products, daily, traditional and in-depth interaction . When discussing product topics, you can explain them from dimensions such as product details, word-of-mouth experience, taking advantage of the topics that most people on the Internet pay attention to, and the benefits of buying now . Finally, content marketing requires five major work processes: reading and researching, creating valuable content, sharing content, discussing and communicating, and using a variety of online tool platforms . So in principle, companies need the above five types of talents to implement new media marketing.

4. Establish a word-of-mouth communication group (word-of-mouth marketing)

The main tasks in establishing a word-of-mouth communication group are: distinguishing between three types of word-of-mouth communicators, namely word-of-mouth ambassadors, authoritative experts and team influencers , and making use of the three types of word-of-mouth communicators to promote matching products. Of course, the power of company employees should not be ignored; understanding how to find these word-of-mouth groups, customer databases, web pages, etc. are all methods, and the most important thing is to further subdivide the groups into four types: large media, bloggers and Internet celebrities, core fans and mainstream consumers ; finally, promotion to old customers is very important, and the " Net Promoter Score (NPS) " is used to measure the loyalty of old customers. You also need to learn strategies and methods on how to get old users to recommend new users.

5. Create effective public relations

The main tasks here are: In the Internet age, brands need to have new mechanisms for rapid response. Traditional corporate practices are slow and require leadership to make decisions, but in the Internet age, employees need to be empowered to make wise and quick decisions and respond to user needs or questions as quickly as possible. Brands should take the initiative to establish good relationships with new Internet media on a daily basis. The methods of contacting the media in the past are no longer applicable. Finally, when emergencies occur, effective emergency public relations should be implemented, and a working mechanism for monitoring Internet public opinion should be established to classify public opinion into four levels, such as attention level, warning level, crisis level and malicious attack level . A few years ago, the Mengniu brand had no experience in this part of the work, which led to the Internet going from attention to attack level, and Mengniu has never recovered since then.

6. Make use of effective communication tools and platforms

The main tasks here are: using various offline and online tools to actively interact with users, and taking advantage of every opportunity to contact consumers to spread the brand, such as product packaging, workplaces, job notices, and holding a theatrical offline press conference such as the launch of new Xiaomi mobile phones to spark discussion and viewing; at the same time, choose appropriate new media platforms and tools to spread brand highlights, such as WeChat, Weibo, live broadcasts , short videos , Baidu Knows, forums, etc., to attract user attention and forwarding.

7. Maintain and monitor word-of-mouth fan marketing effects

The main task here is to clearly understand the four purposes of monitoring new media word-of-mouth, namely optimizing marketing effectiveness, listening to user feedback, obtaining business intelligence, and improving service quality. Measuring marketing indicators tells companies where they should publish content. Specific indicators include the number of mentions, exposure , number of interactions, potential reach, fan value, and hot words . In most industries, the more meaningful data comes from e-commerce reviews and vertical forums, using big data technology to listen to user feedback. The results of these monitoring can provide useful references for product managers to innovate and improve products.

3. Summary

Customers have changed, competition has changed, and marketing has also changed: the Internet is changing consumers, the information gap between consumers and brands is being eliminated, and there are more and more contact points between consumers and brands. This means we need to change.

New media word-of-mouth marketing requires first selecting target customers, then acquiring high-quality customers, then developing them into core fans, and finally performing daily maintenance . Many companies attach the highest importance to products and services and have a certain understanding of customers, but lack understanding and execution of other important aspects, such as: differentiated value, content planning, public relations methods, media platform selection, word-of-mouth communicator selection and maintenance.

It is particularly pointed out here that marketing is divided into Tao and Spell. In the 7-step framework, in-depth insight into user needs and creating magic products are the "Tao" of marketing , which account for perhaps 85% of the importance of the final marketing effect. The next 5 steps belong to the "Spell" of marketing. We cannot put the cart before the horse, and digital marketing cannot deviate from the essence of marketing. Think about the reasons why many former Internet celebrity stores have closed down. Hype can only last for a while, but it cannot change a lifetime!

Lao Guan’s golden quotes:

• Whether it is traditional marketing or digital marketing, the essence of marketing has not changed. Brands must first understand user needs and create magic products;
• Don’t envy the internet celebrity brands that have become famous through hype. If they just create topics and cause heated discussions, they will often disappear soon.
• Digital marketing is a combination of measures. Single-point innovation that only relies on a certain point for show is often short-lived. Only systematic innovation is the right way to ensure the long-term success of a business.

Questions to think about:

Based on today's 7-step framework knowledge points, score your brand from 1 to 5 in the 7-step method, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest. How are your scores for each of the 7 steps currently?

How do you usually do brand marketing ? Please leave a message to share your insights on each aspect. You are also welcome to ask questions. Every Tuesday, I will respond to everyone’s common questions.

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

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