A complete guide to selling goods in private domain "welfare groups"

Community is one of the necessary operating methods in the private domain, and it is as important as the circle of friends.

There are many types of communities. There are welfare groups, flash groups, membership groups, theme groups, traffic groups...

Different types of communities have different gameplay and operating purposes and cannot be generalized.

This article will focus on the most widely used and universal welfare groups in the private domain, and explain how to sell goods based on the cases of leading brands.

Before we officially start, we must first understand the purposes and forms behind different types of communities. It enables us to clarify our thoughts, identify our goals, know what to do and what not to do, and act accordingly when we implement specific operations.

01How many categories can private domain communities be divided into?

There are many types of communities in the private domain, and there are many ways to play. I have summarized them and they can be roughly divided into three categories:

1. Promotion Group

The main purpose is to save operating costs and achieve batch transactions. The specific forms are:

1) Flash group: A group that uses ultra-short-term discount incentives, takes advantage of people’s herd mentality and scarcity effect to guide rapid batch transactions. The promotion is in the form of a limited-time flash sale, and the group will be disbanded when the time is up; for specific gameplay, you can refer to this article "5500-word methodology: 700 orders in 3 minutes, "flash group" private domain bulk transaction strategy".

2) Welfare group: guide users to place orders through scenario-based product recommendations, limited-time discounts, recommendations, user feedback, and theme activities. This type of community is the most common and is the focus of this article.

2. Member Group

This type of community is aimed at super users with high brand recognition, high loyalty and strong purchasing power. The form of differentiation is that the user either purchases a membership or the frequency of repurchase reaches a certain critical point, exceeding that of most ordinary users.

The operational actions that the community needs to take are to provide in-depth services and exclusive privileges to these super users, so that they can have a sense of belonging, honor, and respect.

For example, exclusive product offers, exclusive benefits, exclusive activities, exclusive products, and you can even extend the online community to offline to hold offline meet-ups, salons, team-building events, etc.

It should be noted that the privileges that can be enjoyed within this community must be those that are not available through other channels. Typically, the discounts must be the lowest on the market, and member-exclusive products must be unique and can only be purchased within this group.

3. Theme Group

A group established based on a common hobby, common interest, common purpose, or common area.

Users usually join this type of group for three purposes:

• For learning needs, I want to learn some practical knowledge and become better, such as: live course groups, financial training camps, and fitness check-in groups;
• Social help, networking, and chatting, for example: industry-based operator exchange groups, offline community idle items exchange groups;
• Resource demand, resource exchange, or the desire to experience purchasing a certain service, such as: resource exchange group, new product experience officer group.

02 Characteristics of welfare groups

A welfare group distributes benefits under different names within the community and completes transactions with users in batches through scenario-based operations. The main purpose is to allow users to purchase across categories, or to increase the frequency of repurchases of a single category.

Suitable brands usually have one of the following characteristics:

• The products are relatively standard and non-customized, so the initial communication costs for users are low;
• The product price is low and the purchase decision cost is low;
• There are many SKUs, so users have choices, such as beauty, clothing, maternal and child products, snacks, fast-moving consumer goods, etc. Otherwise, it is necessary to expand product categories or cooperate with other industries;
• Users have a high repurchase frequency, whether it is a single category or different categories of products under the same brand;
• The number of users is large, the cost of one-to-one communication is too high, and the ROI is not reasonable.

In addition, the more users joining the group, the better. They need to be screened.

For example, from the perspective of the user's life cycle, users in the private domain are divided into the introduction period, growth period, maturity period, and churn period, which correspond to users who have only purchased a product once and have not repurchased, users who have repurchased 1-2 times, super users/member users, and churned users.

The welfare group needs to attract users in the introduction and growth stages.

We introduce users into the private domain, usually because they have already purchased a product once in the public domain and are familiar with the brand. Invite him to join a group in private domain. His willingness to join the group means that he identifies with the brand to a certain extent and is willing to buy again.

Therefore, through the operation of welfare groups, we can guide users to complete their first repurchase in the private domain, or generate more than two repurchases.

You can also differentiate users based on their consumption data, such as consumption amount, number of consumption, and consumption categories, to stratify and group them.

The purpose of doing this is to improve operational efficiency and maximize corporate value. Otherwise, after a user joins the group, if he has never bought your product or even heard of it, he will do something in the group that is not conducive to the transaction, which will require one-on-one communication and resolution by the operations staff, increasing costs in vain. After seeing this, other users will most likely be influenced by him.

03 Welfare Group Operation Methods

Many operators will think about how to increase the activity of welfare groups, thinking that the more people speaking, the better. In fact, each type of community has its own mission and purpose.

The welfare group is designed to convert users into repeat purchases. Users join a group to obtain brand-related benefits within the group; therefore, the activity of the community cannot be used as a measurement indicator, but should be measured by the order rate.

To give an extreme example, even if no one in the group speaks, as long as someone places an order, the group is still successful.

Therefore, all operational actions to be performed within the group should be centered around encouraging users to convert and place orders.

Let’s look at the community process one by one:

1. Welcome message

@Users, tell users the value of the community, what benefits are offered, and when they will be distributed, so that users have expectations.

2. Product recommendations

When recommending products, try to consider it from the user's perspective. What product do users most likely need right now? Whether the brand can satisfy you. You must not promote a product in the community based on the corporate perspective, thinking that if a product is slow-selling, you will sell it out as soon as possible.

When recommending products, there are often benefits attached. Common ones include discounts for purchases over a certain amount, gifts for purchases over a certain amount, buy one get one free, buy N get N free, N discounts, exclusive prices, fixed prices, new product trials, etc.

Brands of different categories and stages have different recommendation methods. Generally speaking, they can be divided into two types:

1) Replanting grass

Some categories of users are naturally less sticky and have a weak sense of value. They need to be constantly promoted to make users feel that it is worthwhile and thus generate purchasing behavior, such as beauty, clothing, education, etc.

Taking Perfect Diary as an example, they will recommend skin care products or cross-industry collaboration product combinations within the community. Only recommend one product at a time, and do so for about 3 days, using limited-time flash sales to get users to place orders.

The products they recommend each time are in line with life scenarios. For example, since it is summer now, they will recommend a sunscreen combination, including hats, clothes, and sunscreen.

One day before the official start of the flash sale, we will warm up in the group and inform everyone what the recommended product is, what it is used for, how much it costs, how many copies are limited, and the purchase time.

The copywriting is also lifelike and close to the target users' daily habits, with many pictures, emoticons, and cuteness.

On the day of the flash sale, the preheating frequency is maintained at once every 2-3 hours. Each time, it will be accompanied by some models’ buyer shows and matching pictures. When users see how beautiful the buyer shows are, they will have the illusion that they will be like her after buying it, which increases the possibility of consumption and ordering.

In terms of price, coupled with the price comparison chart on other platforms, the discount is more impactful.

Every time a product is recommended, the internet water army will appear from time to time. They will post pictures of products that are so good-looking, so discounted, that they have bought before, and other Xiaohongshu users' outfits, etc.

The flash sale will start at 11 o'clock on the day, and before it starts, texts such as tips for grabbing the item, how many people have already added the item to their cart, and if you miss it you'll have to wait a long time, will be posted in the group to create an atmosphere.

When the flash sale time comes, the internet water army comes on the scene again, posting some texts or screenshots about those who got the item or didn’t.

On the afternoon of the day of the flash sale, the inventory of some products that have not been sold out will be announced as a second promotion.

After the flash sale ends in the evening, there will be a preview of the products that will be promoted in the community the next day.

2) Welfare

As the name suggests, it is to simply and directly distribute benefits, without any grass planting or the behavior of grass planting is very light. Suitable for brands with high brand stickiness, high popularity and high recognition.

The time for distributing benefits is generally chosen during the peak period of user activity or consumption.

The frequency is determined by category and recurring purchases. The most frequent ones are sent 3-4 times a day, and the least frequent ones are sent 1-2 times. One single product or product combination is sent at a time.

The peak consumption period refers to when users will consume your product. During the consumption period, corresponding products can be recommended within the community.

For example, at McDonald's, peak consumption times are generally in the morning, noon, and evening.

What to eat is a very confusing thing. When users happen to see McDonald’s community making recommendations and offering discounts during meal time, they will be reminded and the probability of going to eat will be much higher.

Therefore, McDonald's will recommend products in the group a little earlier than the average office workers' meal times every day: 8:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 17:00 p.m., and will post product posters and corresponding discounts to guide the mini program to place orders.

Luckin Coffee is the same, and will recommend coffee during peak consumption times at 8:30, 12:00, and 14:00 every morning.

The copywriting is very scenario-based, for example, if you feel sleepy on Monday morning, have a cup of coffee, or if you are about to have a holiday, have a cup of coffee to celebrate...

Sometimes, we also post some positive reviews from users on Xiaohongshu as a light promotion.

Many people may have concerns that if I post so many advertisements in the group every day, users may feel that they are worthless after reading them and block or quit the group.

It’s right to think so. But in fact, unless the groups are of particularly great value, the first thing many users do after joining the group is to set the group to do not disturb, so objectively speaking, it is normal for users to block the group.

But they will not leave the group, because the users we invite into the group have already purchased products from us and have a certain knowledge and recognition of the products, so they will still keep the group, thinking that maybe they will need to repurchase someday, and they can see if there are any discounts in the group.

When we send messages in a group, they will be pinned to the top of the group regardless of whether the user blocks it or not. Therefore, the purpose of our continuous distribution of benefits within the group is to provide more contact opportunities, increase exposure, and remind consumption.

Take Luckin Coffee as an example. I was sleepy and hungry in the afternoon, and Luckin Coffee happened to launch a product. The group was pinned to the top. When we saw it while browsing WeChat, we clicked in and found that he also gave a large coupon, so the possibility of placing an order was much higher.

At the same time, the more times you post, the more times users will see your products. Even if users do not buy now, their impression of your brand will be deepened. The next time they have a demand for the same product, you will be the first person they think of, and a habit will be formed.

3. Limited time events

In addition to regular product recommendations, it is also necessary to hold events regularly to increase the value of the community to users and improve stickiness.

Activities can be divided into two categories:

1) Fixed activities

Fixing and normalizing the activities can cultivate users' expectations, develop consumption habits, and increase revenue on the day of the event.

For example: Zhong Xuegao’s community holds lucky draws every Monday and ice cream flash sales on Wednesdays; McDonald’s offers free products at 5 pm every Friday.

2) Theme activities

Non-fixed activities are held at irregular intervals according to different times and events.

For example, push exclusive activities for holidays.

For example, when new products are launched, we can cooperate with live broadcasts and hold new product promotions.

For example, gamification activities such as raffles, quizzes, tests, etc.

Finally, let’s summarize this article:

1) There are many types of communities in the private domain. Different communities correspond to different ways of playing and purposes. Generally speaking, they can be divided into three categories: promotion groups, membership groups, and theme groups. Promotional groups can be divided into flash groups and welfare groups.

2) Welfare groups are relatively common communities in the private domain. That is, welfare is distributed within the community under different names, and users are traded in batches through scenario-based operations. The main purpose is to allow users to purchase across categories, or to increase the frequency of repurchase of a single category.

Suitable brands usually have one of the following characteristics:

• The product is relatively standard and non-customized, so the initial communication cost with users is low.
• Low product price and low purchase decision cost
• There are many SKUs, so users can choose, such as beauty, clothing, maternity and baby, snacks, fast-moving consumer goods, etc. Otherwise, it is necessary to expand product categories or cooperate with other industries.
• Users have a high repurchase frequency, whether it is a single category or different categories of products under the same brand
• The number of users is large, the cost of one-to-one communication is too high, and the ROI is not compatible

3) Users who join the welfare group need to be screened and stratified based on the user life cycle. It is necessary to attract users in the introduction and growth stages, that is, those who have bought a product once and have not repurchased it, and those who have repurchased it 1-2 times.

4) The more active a welfare group is, the better it is. Its value should be measured by the order rate.

5) The process of the welfare group can be divided into a welcome message to the group, product recommendations, and limited-time activities.

Recommendations often come with benefits, the most common of which are discounts for purchases over a certain amount, gifts for purchases over a certain amount, buy one get one free, buy N get N free, N discounts, exclusive prices, fixed prices, new product trials, etc.

There are two ways to recommend products. One is to focus on product promotion, and the other is to focus on benefits. It depends on the actual situation of the brand.

There are two types of limited-time activities: fixed activities and themed activities.

Author: Tomato Operation

Source: Tomato Operation