How to reduce the cost of attracting new customers through event invitations?

An invitation is a project: from an idea in the brain to a case running online, it generally requires connecting nine parties including operations , products, design, front-end, server, client, testing, customer service, and risk control, which is a huge investment. While controlling risks and costs, achieving an unlimited upper limit is the hard currency in operations.

Complete project process

1. Set goals

The primary goal is to invite new users , and the secondary goal is to increase the conversion rate of users who have completed filling out information to users who apply for loans by 5 percentage points.

2. Come up with ideas

Ideas generally come from three sources: copying, copying, and experience.

If you come across good activities in the same industry or the Internet industry, or see reposts and comments in your circle of friends / community , then dig deep into the research, extract the essence, and output your ideas, which is called copying; if you know certain routines, such as understanding that some game operation strategy tools are very effective - such as rankings /medals/points, then you can combine them with goals to set activities, which is called shooting; ideas based on experience are generally born from the review after the above two practices.

3. Say something

This stage is to prevent the idea from going in the wrong direction due to personal limitations and misunderstandings.

As a reliable operation, the feasibility of the activity and the possibility of more optimization should always be considered. After sorting out an idea that you have about 30% or 40% of in your mind, talk to your superiors and friends in the same industry about the idea, so that you are about 50% or 60% sure. The focus of communication is whether the processes related to user experience are logically smooth, and whether there are more existing calculable indicators and data to support and infer the effectiveness of the activity (basic consensus: activity data is the value expression of all activities recognized by users).

The best part is that you can also find customer service and active users to conduct research and gain insights. If there is no one to communicate directly with, refer to the content of regular survey questionnaires, or set up corresponding questionnaires for the activities to collect opinions from active users (if none of these can be done, then the operations staff can rotate to customer service because you are too far away from the users).

4. Write a plan

After the general logic and goals are determined, the operations team needs to write down the ideas and make them into a six-point plan.

The ceiling of operations depends on the wisdom and carefulness of the operator (operators who work hard and love to think can basically accumulate exponential experience). Even expert-level operations have a lot of room for improvement. The users we know are always in the past tense, and activity strategies are always being optimized in the process of constantly testing and understanding users.

5. Check solution

The program includes the following parts:

(1) Activity objectives

It is best to have clear data indicators. It doesn’t matter if there are no indicators. Just make sure the direction is correct.

(2) Activity theme

First, you need to accurately express the attraction of the activity, and second, you need to clearly state the logical reasons for doing this activity, such as "Support Double 11 and increase the credit limit of all employees." Increasing the credit limit is the attraction, and supporting Double 11 is the logical reason. Applying the theories of marketing and psychology: people’s consumption is based on clear reasons. Every event is a carnival of copywriting , and every word written into people’s hearts is a money printing machine. Therefore, only by putting yourself in the user's shoes and writing copy that complies with his or her heart and needs can you become the biggest invisible fuel for the event.

(3) Activity time

The start and end times should be as precise as possible, such as 2017/11/11 23:59:59-2017/11/18 23:59:59. For activities that are not certain or have strong iteration, such as sharing red envelopes, the single period should be controlled within one week, so that the data iteration can be quickly observed regardless of whether it is good or bad. Regular online activities should ensure sufficient time for iterative development.

(4) Event Scheduling

This is an excellent habit that needs to be cultivated to improve efficiency. Once there are no activities on the platform, users will no longer have the tools to be motivated (this is the same principle as “everyone loves to join in the fun” and taking advantage of Internet hot spots. It is said that a listed financial management company has an intuitive data: the investment amount in e-commerce festivals such as Double 11 exceeded 1 billion in a single day).

It is precisely because of the widespread laziness and giant baby syndrome among users that operational activities are needed to make consumption or investment decisions for them. So once you have an idea and direction, you need to make a clear schedule for things. Implementing scheduling needs is an art of communication that requires accumulation. Here is a scheduling template for reference:

The schedule is generally formulated using the reverse method: first determine the possible launch time and the difficulty of developing the activity based on the communication in the first two steps, and then make a record after a clear time is given after the product confirmation document. The general development cycle of iterative reuse projects can be roughly given, but new products will be more complicated:

First, we need to determine whether the activity tools meet the requirements: activity tools include product tools and operation tools . Product tools mean that the reward for the activity is an interest-free coupon. So does the product have a ready-made interest-free coupon function? Are operational tools including activity data displayed in real time? Is the activity's record in the database complete for awarding rewards? If not, then you need to reserve time for product feature development.

As a personal habit, I like to write the schedule at the top of the entire document. One reason is to ensure that everyone who sees the requirements knows the exact time when they will complete the task at the first time. The second reason is to emphasize the rhythm of the entire event - this can also be understood as a tacit interaction with the team.

(5) Activity Rules

Activities usually come with rewards, and these rules mostly describe issues related to the reward name, reward conditions, reward content, and reward distribution. The detailed categories are as follows:

• Award name: Special Prize
• Reward conditions: such as selecting a specific user group to participate in the event or to receive the reward
• Bonus content: Like iPhone X
• Reward distribution: It is necessary to clearly explain on the page how users can receive rewards. This is part of the interactive copy.
• Reward limit: If it is an activity that actually requires real cost, then the daily activity limit must be carefully calculated.

(6) Design and research needs

1) Design requirements (designer cooperation)

The copywriting of event time/theme/rules, etc. that is directly displayed on the front end must be written down in a concise text form that can be copied to facilitate designers to copy it to the event page. (Designers are prone to mistakes when typing manually, for example, the activity reward was written from ip hone 8 to iphone X)

Specify the design form and quantity, such as splash screen, banner, App landing page , sharing landing page ( it is best to add a product logo to the sharing landing page sent from the APP, which is like the "self-introduction" of the product to the user for the first time, and it is a respect for the user ) and various copy content trigger pop-up windows, as follows:

In addition, the copywriter must respect the users. The principle is to be occasionally playful and always accurate. Any unnecessary punctuation or words must be subtracted.

2) Front-end requirements

Statistics and page title. Statistics should be added for both apps and web. The more detailed the statistics, the easier it is to review and analyze. Developers may not understand why you add statistics, so you must patiently explain and use historical data to explain:

For example, during a summer vacation event, it was found that few users won the grand prize, so the threshold for receiving the prize was immediately lowered, resulting in an increase of 50% in the number of users participating and winning the prize.

3) Promotion channels

The options are: wallet button in the upper right corner of the app, splash screen, small speaker, drop-down window, floating window, WeChat menu bar, regular SMS suffix, promotional resources, push , and other SMS. The copy for the corresponding position should also be written clearly. Push and SMS have different capabilities and very different effects: for example, the click-through rate of full push is 11% and that of full SMS is 49%, isn’t that great?

4) FAQ

Implement it in the Excel format of "problems/positive points/negative points", hand it over to customer service before going online, and follow up with feedback.

5) Cost estimation

The registration unit price is 1 to 10 yuan, and the loan unit price is 10 to 100 yuan. The closer to the extreme value, the better/worse the effect.

6) When writing a proposal for the first time, you can show it to your classmates or operation friends and ask for their opinions.

When I first started writing the plan, I showed it to two friends who had more than three years of operations experience . One of them pointed out many shortcomings, which instantly gave me some advice. One said that some things needed attention. I listened to their opinions and improved the activity plan in a timely manner. Although it may not be directly usable in the end, after this step, I will be more confident when I make demands to the product manager .

7) Risk Mechanism

Various means of brushing orders are common in the market. We must be alert to the risk of brushing registrations due to activities and exclude such users when awarding prizes. It is abnormal for a single IP to register hundreds or thousands of orders at the same time. Learn to detect risks yourself and ask for product cooperation when necessary.

6. Make demands

The plan that has been optimized countless times is written into Tower or other collaborative tools (some teams use emails a lot, so they write emails and copy relevant personnel), and the editors are informed of the changes. Then, it will be passed to the event planner and the product manager who will undertake the event in the form of "topic + link" to collect their opinions.

7. Change requirements

Repeat point 5

8. Expediting period

After the requirements and schedule are finalized, keep the development information synchronized with the product manager.

9. Follow up development

Keeping abreast of the development status will help you find better solutions. Let me give you a counterexample of a pitfall I've seen: When doing an activity that included red envelopes for loans, you had to determine the probability. As a result, the version developed by the operations staff fell into the trap of double probability: it limited both the amount and number of a single red envelope, and the probability difference in the amount of the order in which a single red envelope was received. The logic was very confusing, but the product manager did not raise any objections and handed it over to the developer. The developer saw it and then raised it to the product manager, who then relayed it to the operations manager, which consumed a lot of communication costs.

There is another method, which is to loop in operations when product development raises demands. However, this method is only applicable in the mature stage of the product. In the growth stage, fast battles and flexible responses are the main focus.

10. Follow-up testing

After the pre-launch test is confirmed, the operation must go through the actual process under the relevant user identity status according to the activity content, such as logged in/not logged in/not authenticated/not transacted, etc., to ensure that the copy is complete and accurate, and fill in the gaps overlooked by the testers in a timely manner.

11. Go Online

At this time, create a new data synchronization text, and the title can be written as "activity keywords + data", such as lottery data, fourth edition invitation data. The content should be based on the main data lines of the activity, and the details can be elaborated in the project summary. The data format is as follows:

Or in the following form:

• If the online time is long, fix any problems immediately and go online immediately after the fix;
• If the online time is less than 4 days and the content that needs to be adjusted does not involve key processes or the activity itself has a small response, it can be temporarily left unchanged or taken offline directly.

12. Initial review

Guided by directly visible data, such as the number of participants, PV of key pages, number of loan recipients, conversion rates at all levels, cost of reward issuance, etc., we analyze the room for improvement and take action to optimize product functions and coordination. If after the invitation activity ends, it is found that 206 users did not apply for loans after registration, and 1,007 users did not download the app after registration, then follow-up marketing methods such as SMS or telemarketing can be used.

13. Zhongji Review

Guided by the overdue rate that requires time to prove and the overall usage efficiency of interest-free coupons after expiration, we will count the recall effects, analyze the optimization space, and make more preparations for the next event.

14. Follow-up

Use this group of users as a sample to analyze their reactions to other activities and product changes. In other words, you need to know every user who has participated in the event.

I really want to emphasize "interaction"

I divide it into functional interaction and text interaction:

• Functional interaction - Take the invitation activity as an example: on the activity page, real-time data is used to inform participants how many people clicked on the shared link, how many people registered, and how many people successfully borrowed money. This is essentially a strong functional interaction.
• Copywriting interaction - The click-through rate of activity rules is very low but very important. After we added a question "Can the rewards overlap?" before the activity rules, we directly brought out a top user who invited more than 2,000 people to register (regardless of whether it is good or bad).

In addition, the pop-up reminder behind the activity button is also a form of text interaction, informing users of what conditions they need to meet to receive a certain prize, and guiding users to play along the active path you want, which is a weak interaction.

The connotation of interaction is to express respect and provide continuous feedback. Text notifications make users feel respected, and data facts allow users to receive timely feedback.

Every ordinary person is an actuary of life. They will not insist on doing things that they cannot see the results of, and will not participate in activities whose rewards they cannot understand. Therefore, if you want to convert users , you can use activities as a carrier, with functions and words, to express your respect for users, so that users can recognize and finally approve of you.

summary

Seeing this, many people may still be curious: How did the cost of the invitation event drop to 17 yuan! ? Simply put, it is to achieve a comprehensive low-cost new user acquisition effect by using a highly attractive gaming tool such as a ranking list, supplemented by the many interactive details mentioned above, and finally setting a threshold for receiving rewards.

Max Weber once said: Human beings are animals that live in a web of meaning that they weave.

The more you believe in this path and the more you practice it, the more you will gain. But if you don’t believe it, then no matter how many experiences and articles you read, it will be a form of self-torture. People must do things that they are interested in and willing to think about, because everyone has talents.

If you like operations in your heart but are still confused, don't give up and believe in the power of time.

Believe in yourself.

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

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