How to learn the "routines" and quickly and comprehensively become an industry expert!

In the field of operations , a major difference between the Internet and traditional industries is that the career trajectory of the former is to master operational skills and then move to different industries. Before you are fully prepared, choosing a job is the first priority and then choosing an industry. For example, for those who do marketing planning, the front factory is engaged in the automotive aftermarket, the current factory is engaged in fresh food, and the next factory may be engaged in health O2O . Even after working for many years, you may still be faced with taking the helm of a new industry or starting your own business . Today I want to talk systematically about how to start learning a new industry and quickly and comprehensively become an industry expert.

1. Understand the industry definition

The core definition of the industry is divided into two layers. The first layer is the consumption pattern at the user level or the way the product is used. Let’s look at a few examples:

1. OTA industry: the abbreviation of online travel agency, where users book hotels, air tickets and other travel products online and consume them offline according to the product instructions;

2. Automotive aftermarket: a series of repair, maintenance and insurance services for vehicles after purchase and driving;

3. Online shopping rebates: After purchasing goods through the rebate website or rebate APP, the rebate website will return a certain amount of money to the account according to the rebate ratio, and users can apply for cash withdrawal.

The above is the user-level definition of the three industries, which reflects the basic value of the product to users and is also easy to understand.

The second layer is the business logic and model: including the supporting links behind it, upstream and downstream links, key technical features, etc.

For example, in most OTAs, such as Ctrip and Tuniu, travel products come from offline travel agencies, sign directly with hotels or airlines, and generate revenue through price differences, commissions or advertising.

In the rebate network model, the most important thing is Taobao Affiliate. Taobao sellers set the products to be distributed and the commissions through the Alimama advertising platform. When users purchase such products through the rebate website, the rebate website can obtain the commission and then return a certain percentage to the user, with the remaining percentage as income, forming a consumer rebate chain.

Under the two core definitions, when observing cases, you can have a preliminary understanding of the operation concepts and operation data.

2. Upstream and downstream derivative scope

In addition to the model of its own product, there will be other models and companies in other links of the industrial chain. Different links have completely different cooperation relationships and profit distribution with upstream and downstream, which is very meaningful for reference in terms of cooperation methods and operational ideas. Let’s look at how to decompose the model in an industrial chain through cases.

1. In the rebate network model, the upstream is the seller or e-commerce platform, and the middle layer is the advertising platform. They connect sellers and rebate networks, provide order tracking technology, and charge a certain percentage of commission as income after generating commissions. For example, Alimama connects Taobao sellers and rebate networks.

After the emergence of Alimama, similar B2C advertising platforms such as Yiqifa and Duomai also emerged, connecting with the vast number of B2C e-commerce and rebate websites.

2. Between advertising platforms and rebate websites, there are also shopping guide platforms. Like rebate websites, they earn commissions by guiding transactions, but they do not give any rebates. All commissions are treated as income, such as Mogujie and Zhe800.

Due to the difference in models, there are huge differences in the value to users and revenue, which also leads to different policy restrictions imposed by Taobao on the two.

Although both are shopping guide platforms, they also have different operational positioning. Mogujie is a shopping guide with picture waterfall flow, 800 yuan off is a low-price shopping guide, and "What's Worth Buying" is a content recommendation shopping guide.

3. Rebate websites are a combination of traffic, transaction guidance and additional brands. In parallel, there are advertising platforms such as CPA (online earning platform), CPM (Weibo fan club) and CPC (Baidu bidding, Guangdiantong). Their technology and competitive advantages are also worthy of attention.

Through detailed decomposition of the industrial chain, we can understand the models and products in each link vertically, and the main entry points of different products under the same model horizontally. We can get a lot of inspiration by sorting out their advantageous operating methods.

3. Industry Role Exploration

In an industry model, there are different participating roles. It is necessary to know the types, characteristics, survival status, interest distribution and gathering places of these roles, so as to understand the value of the product or platform and how to connect multiple roles.

For example, in online art auctions, the industry roles involved are merchants, bidders, appraisers, and logistics. There are many types of merchants, such as individual collectors, auction houses, antique shops, and brand owners. Different merchants have different gathering places, product quality, and profit demands. The high unit price requires that the logistics suppliers, packaging and insurance methods must be unified.

According to the interests of different roles, the platform can be positioned as art information, trading platform, store opening tool , data platform, etc.

After getting an initial understanding of the industry, you need to fully investigate the information of your competitors. Through detailed competitive research, we can understand the launch methods, resource advantages, market share, operating strategies of competing products, and even tap into their resources and users. This allows for strategic reference, follow-up, and targeted optimization.

1. Who are they?

"They" can be divided into three categories: competitors, partners, and friendly reference objects, and the three have different intersections in industries, fields, and product models.

For example, as a technical question-and-answer product, its competitors are domestic and foreign technical communities; its partners are technical products and tools, such as cloud storage, code hosting, etc.; and its friendly reference communities are Fenda , Zhihu, Baidu Knows, etc.

How to quickly collect a list? Most products have a "Partner" channel at the bottom of their official websites. You can use the same method through any of the partners listed there to get everything in an hour.

2. Mode Comparison

When it comes to competitors, the first thing to do is to investigate their business and product models. There are several ways to understand:

1) Press releases and startup media coverage

Whether it is a report or a soft article, this type of article may introduce different contents such as the product's approach, the background of the founding team, the product vision and concept, the operating strategy, operating data, financing status, etc. By comparing reports at different financing stages, we can see the development and changes in product direction and operational data.

Searching for the two keywords "Keep" and "咕董" in 36Kr will show not only their financing news, but also industry analysis articles that mention many similar product names, which can then be searched separately. In addition to popular products such as Gudong and Yuepaoquan, there is also "Love Burning" which focuses on event services for veteran running enthusiasts, providing these users with more professional equipment and event exchanges. One of the key operational focuses is event agency and cooperation.

2) Product process experience

Includes experience comparisons of product design features, business processes, types of goods or services, etc. By comparing these experiences, we can see the differences in team level, user positioning, and core model.

One of the differences between e-commerce self-operated platforms and shopping guides is the ordering process. The shopping guide's order is redirected to Taobao or other platforms, while the self-operated platform completes payment and logistics delivery within the site. Some overseas shopping platforms also allow payment within the site, and then place orders independently through foreign websites, helping users complete overseas payment and delivery.

"Kongkong" and "Tingke" have been compared before. The former has a higher degree of complexity of merchants, and the unit prices and types of merchants are more popular; the merchant types of Tingke are long-tail and dispersed, with higher unit prices, and richer qualifications and introductions. The consumer groups are also different accordingly.

It is recommended to follow these two steps in order so that you can be more purposeful when experiencing the product.

3. Research on the founding team

There is no doubt that the founding team’s products and operations are result-oriented. It mainly starts from the structure of the founding team, professional background, participation in activities, Weibo and WeChat status, etc.

1) Through the "Enterprise Credit Publicity System" or third-party tools, you can check the company's registration time, shareholder list and other information, and you may also find the presence of bigwigs.

2) By searching shareholder lists and entrepreneurial reports, and searching for the founding team’s work experience and events they attended, you can understand the product’s philosophy, resources, and operational advantages.

For example, Xu Jianjun, one of the founders of "Start Crowdfunding", comes from the media and has extensive connections in the industry. The product is positioned as crowdfunding in the new lifestyle consumption field, focusing on interests and social interaction under finance. This is easier to understand from the industry attributes of media professionals. The core operating idea of ​​the product is new media driven, which is also the way to start the project. Tell crowdfunding stories through new media to trigger resonance and spread them.

For technology products, such as Qiniu Cloud, the founder Xu Shiwei and other technical members can be found, who often attend technology sharing and salons, and promote and preach their own products or the technologies they use in front of target users.

3) Judge the progress of the project, the founder’s attention and passion for the project, the company’s atmosphere, etc. through the status posted on personal Weibo, personal public accounts, and personal WeChat Moments .

4. Competitor strategy collection

Generally speaking, a competitor's effective operational strategy is also effective for your own products. When we build our operating system, in addition to conventional means, we focus on collecting competitors' promotion channels, operating cases, strategic directions, etc., and then choose to follow up.

1. The first priority is still news search. Some entrepreneurial reports will briefly introduce the operation status and results, especially the difficult promotion of the project in the early stage.

2. Browse the content of public accounts and Weibo. The information here is rich and valuable, including the proportion of new media operations , content positioning, important product changes, types, frequency and scale of marketing activities, etc., which to a certain extent reflects the operation direction and strength.

3. Sogou’s WeChat search. Here you can search for cooperation information pushed by partners. For example, if you search for the "Food" APP, you can see many part-time job openings for field promotion posted by recruitment accounts. By putting them together, you can understand the field promotion strategy of the Food APP at a certain stage.

4. Search QQ groups and view group announcements. If so, the purpose of the group creation, whether the group operation is a startup or regular operation, and the management method and level of the group can be judged through the group name, group creation time, announcement content and time.

5. Product content operation. Check the quality, update frequency, and source of content on the product. The authenticity of data such as the number of users and daily active users can be judged.

6. Look at the recruitment information. Through recruitment positions and requirements, you can intuitively see the focus of current operations, whether it is investment promotion, community or new media, etc. If it is not within the current business scope, you can also determine the direction of new business.

7. AppStore updates and rankings. Through the "Version Record", you can view the direction of product iteration; through ASO100 , you can determine the operational proportion of ASO ; through the ranking curve of the sub-list, you can determine the timing of major events; and combined with promotions and activities, you can determine the effectiveness of operations.

During the entire information sorting process, it is important to organize the information into a timeline based on time points.

5. Data Evaluation

By evaluating the data, we can determine the competitors’ current operational efficiency, model and product effectiveness, and decide on the direction of follow-up and catching-up strategies. It can be evaluated through the following dimensions.

1. Website traffic

Including average daily traffic, traffic sources, traffic from each channel, SEO , etc., to determine the composition ratio of traffic and obtain effective channel information.

For example, some websites specialize in creating a content channel that automatically captures and generates a large number of articles, web page keywords, etc., to expand the number of included content. This can be observed through webmaster tools and Baidu search (site: domain name).

2. WeChat fans and readers

This needs to be combined with the product data and the proportion of new media operations to determine whether the high or low data is due to the focus of operations or the level of operations. For example, Kuaishou is a product with hundreds of millions of users, but the average number of readers of WeChat headlines is around 20,000.

By comparing the reading data of highly read content and activity graphics and texts, we can determine user preferences, competitors' activity strategies, and obtain effective references.

3. Product content quantity

Count the number of new contents added to the product every day and the growth trend. If it is UGC, it directly represents the daily activity and product stickiness.

The leading mentioned here does not necessarily mean becoming the leader in the industry, but rather being able to gradually get rid of the shadow of competitors after starting from the starting point of catching up, and think and operate with one's own characteristics. After entering the industry's operations, we will deepen our understanding of the industry and users, explore channels, and find differentiated operations through more dimensional practical experience.

1. Communicate with different industry roles or experience job rotation. Different roles have different interests in the industry. In addition to downstream consumer users, some upstream roles are offline, and online operations cannot reach and understand them in depth, so more opportunities for communication are needed.

Some people don’t like merchant BD, thinking it’s like sales, just chatting with fixed scripts. If you don’t know the merchant’s communication habits, and whether their interests are brand or traffic, then when you are doing investment promotion for an event, you will only be able to bargain.

Some traditional industries have gone online, such as art e-commerce. The industry has many exclusive rules and price systems, which are not normal consumer psychology and patterns. If the upstream and downstream knowledge is not connected, it can only operate outside the industry.

2. Attend industry conferences. Through offline activities, you can clearly understand the original industry gameplay, activity process, as well as face-to-face communication and experience. For example, purchasing meetings, auctions, sharing sessions, etc.

3. Peer dynamics. One of the things that operators must check every day is to check their website, APP and WeChat push notifications, activities carried out, new content, etc. A small detail may be able to determine the changes that competitors are currently planning, and can also expand ideas and inspiration for operations.

First of all, you need to understand before you can surpass it.

Industry learning and operational skills complement each other. When we do copywriting and planning, we may deviate from the brand itself because we are self-satisfied and we are not able to apply industry concepts freely. We are at a loss as to how to establish an operational system because we have not sorted out and continued our learning from our competitors. Industry learning is also a kind of "routine". With more "routines", you can be calm at the crossroads of operations.