Many cases tell the story of "cold start", which is not as simple as just finding seed users!

The most important thing for user-oriented products is the closed loop of content contribution and consumption, that is, the flow of inflow and outflow. The product itself is a platform for them to enter and exit.

The two are interactive, and neither can work without the other. It is a bilateral model.

Therefore, cold start is a problem.

The difficulty lies in the fact that when the product is first launched, there is nothing, but the two sides that are interdependent have to be built.

Solution:

• Step 1: Get the key party in the bilateral model
• Step 2: Build the product as you want it
• Step 3: Guide key parties to integrate into the product
• Step 4: Invite the other party to participate
• Step 5: Control the bilateral rhythm and improve the platform level

Below, we will explain it in detail step by step.

Step 1: Get the key party in the bilateral model

In other words, before the product goes online, a seed user team should be formed first. But it's not that simple. The steps are:

1. Clear product positioning
2. Identify your audience based on your location
3. Analyze crowd needs
4. Determine how to meet the need
5. Find where the crowds gather
6. Introducing groups through operational measures
7. Re-operation within the group remains active
8. Import products after going online

This is the general idea of ​​establishing seed users, which I will not go into detail here. Anyone who wants to read it can leave a message below. If there are many people, I will write a separate article.

The most important thing is the "selection of seed user groups". When faced with a product with a bilateral model, which side the seed users choose determines where the center of operations should be placed.

There are two common types of bilateral models: B2C and C2C. Example:

B2C

• Lagou, companies and job seekers
• 58. Merchants and Consumers

C2C

• Douban, contributors and viewers
• Know, questioner and answerer
• In the industry, experts and demanders
• Didi, drivers and passengers
• Spring Rain, Doctors and Patients

In addition to the above two categories, there are also B2B, and mixed types of B2C and C2C. The former is less common, and the latter can be analyzed separately, so it will not be mentioned as a typical example.

The above cases such as Lagou, 58, Douban, Zaixing, Didi, etc. can all be regarded as products of the bilateral model. Which side do you think is more important?

Take Lagou as an example. Without famous companies, it would not be attractive to job seekers; but without job seekers, the company's recruitment needs could not be met.

Therefore, we need to clearly know who is the more critical party. If we can deal with them, we can leverage the other party.

It can be analyzed this way: companies and job seekers are like merchants and consumers in Wanda Plaza. A newly built Wanda Plaza must first attract investment and allow these brand merchants to move in before opening its doors to welcome customers. So between the two, merchants are more important.

Lagou needs to first get on board with well-known companies, create an account, and communicate about job openings, and then carry out marketing activities to attract job seekers and convert them into resume submissions.

This case also applies to several other products mentioned above. Therefore, the first step is to prepare the seed users. When encountering a product with a bilateral model, choose the more critical party as the seed.

Step 2: Build the product as you want it

Establishing a seed user team is a preparation before going online. When it comes to internal testing, you need to "clean up" the product from the inside out.

"Tidying up" refers to what operations do, such as filling in content, activities, and topics, so that you have a strong control over the product tone, content type, and user experience. The first impression users get from the product should be consistent with its positioning and what you expect.

Suppose you want to open a small store, you must have a clear positioning and be clearly differentiated from other stores. Before opening for business, the shop must be "tidyed up" so that passers-by can see the characteristics of the shop at a glance.

For example, if it is arranged like this, you can tell what kind of store it is at a glance.

The difficulty here lies in the "cleaning up" step. Many content-based products do not pay attention to content preparation in the cold start phase, and just randomly reprint or grab a batch of content and fill it in. If you treat users so carelessly, users will treat you the same way. Because the content obtained in this way lacks human touch, the activity of the product cannot be felt, making the entire product cold.

The correct approach is for operations to select or write the most appropriate and typical content based on the product positioning, and publish it in different styles, angles and contexts. If necessary, create a certain amount of reply discussions, requiring different opinions and sharp but not vulgar.

According to the above method, after filling in the content, the product has been initially established, but there is very little content and no users have visited it yet.

It's like a newly opened shop. The store decoration and merchandise display are all completed, but not a single cent has been sold. The next step is to wait for customers to arrive.

After reading this paragraph, you will understand why there were answers from big names like Kai-Fu Lee in the early days of Zhihu. All the preparations must be made in advance.

Step 3: Involve key parties in the product

At this stage, the seed users are already in the group (if they are B-side seed users, the pre-introduction communication has also been completed), and the product has also been packaged. So, the product was launched.

After going online, just import the seed users in the group into the product. In order to ensure bilateral interaction, this "import" work is carried out almost simultaneously with the product launch.

Therefore, the goal of this step is to increase the conversion rate of seed users from the group to the product. There are three factors that affect conversion rate:

1. Accuracy of seed user selection

Newly launched products should meet the core needs of seed users, after all, they are designed for them. Therefore, if the wrong person is chosen, there should not be a large loss.

2. Seed users’ expectations for new products

When recruiting seed users to join the group, the product had not yet been launched. During this stage, you can guide users' expectations of new products to be consistent with actual conditions through methods such as demand research, UI exposure, and product internal testing.

For example, if the product is a three-story villa under construction, then you need to guide users to discuss topics about villas, such as what style of villa they like, how to decorate and arrange it, what issues need to be paid attention to, etc. You can also "leak" a few photos of the villa under construction. In this way, users will not think that this is a 30-story office building or a courtyard house, and the general expectations are consistent with reality.

This is done to ensure that when seed users see the newly launched product, they will not be disappointed or confused because it does not meet their expectations. Only when it meets expectations can the conversion rate be improved.

3. Quality of import activities

In order to guide seed users from the group to the product, a means of guidance is needed. The role of the group is to gather people, cultivate brand loyalty, and control expectations and prepare for the event.

In order to truly enable users to jump from the group to the new product, a powerful means is needed, and this means is activities. Therefore, the quality of event planning has a direct impact on the conversion rate of users to new products.

Things to note when doing activities:

1. The purpose of the activity needs to be very clear and can directly drive the core data of the product. For example, answering questions (Baidu Knows), posting jobs (Lagou), and accepting orders (Didi).
2. The user's benefits need to be very strong and can be increased quickly. There can be financial subsidies, material rewards, or limited privileges. At this time, you can invest some costs because the value of a single seed user is very high.
3. The activity has a low operating threshold and is convenient. Although the seed users have been operating for a long time, they are still faced with a new product. We need to improve conversions by lowering the operating threshold, landing pages, activity copywriting, etc.

Step 4: Invite the other party to participate

After completing the first three steps, the product has become the "key party" in the bilateral model. For example, Lagou handles famous companies, Zaixing handles experts, Meituan handles merchants, Didi handles drivers, and Zhihu handles well-known contributing users.

The fourth step is to package and promote the "key party" by using activities, brand promotion, godfather diversion and other methods to attract the other party to participate.

Case 1: Didi’s promotion method is subsidies. You can refer to the promotion of express cars and designated drivers launched by Didi later (see the picture below). They must have first secured the support of designated drivers and express car drivers, and then promoted the product among Didi’s old users through subsidy activities.

Didi’s promotional activities after the launch of the designated driver service

Didi’s promotion after the launch of Express

Case 2: Lagou’s most important promotion method is to package famous companies and then launch them with a theme. For example, the “Internet Recruitment Storm Week” shown below.

Case three, in addition to the above-mentioned subsidy promotions and online activities, there is also a way to divert a large number of users to newly launched products or modules, and rely on the "key party" that is already in place to convert the imported traffic.

Baidu Zhidao previously launched an independent product module called "Ask a Doctor". After signing up a group of doctors, it accurately imported the traffic from Zhidao and search, thus converting them into users who ask questions.

It was originally called "Ask the Doctor", this is the current page

When guiding the "other party" to participate, we cannot blindly pursue more and faster, but must control the rhythm, otherwise the platform will be overwhelmed, resulting in the unmet needs of one party and causing user dissatisfaction.

After the "key party" enters, there should be an estimate of the amount of interaction or orders that can be tolerated at the current stage, and then the "other party" should be introduced based on the estimated level.

For example, Didi needs to calculate the acceptable number of orders based on the number of drivers; Baidu Knows needs to calculate the acceptable number of questions based on the number of doctors.

The goal of this step is to make both sides work together, build the platform first, and not pursue quantity. Looking at the problems or opportunities therein is a verification. Wait until the operation is stable before entering the next stage.

Step 5: Control the bilateral rhythm and improve the platform level

After completing the first four steps, the platform has begun to operate normally, with basic supply and demand or throughput demand flows. The goal of the fifth step is to make the platform bigger, that is, to increase the scale of bilateral users.

The difficulty lies in the fact that for products in a bilateral model, if the needs of either party are not met, the platform will be doomed.

Suppose that Chunyu has more and more doctors in Grade A hospitals, but the number of patients asking questions does not keep up. Then the doctors will definitely be dissatisfied with Chunyu, thinking that this platform has no value, and then slowly leave.

Let's assume that "58 Daojia" has a good effect in diverting traffic from the mother queen, resulting in more and more C-end users, but the merchant service capabilities prepared in the initial stage cannot keep up, which will lead to dissatisfaction among C-end users.

Therefore, although the goal is to increase the user scale of the entire platform, the pace of growth in the number of users on both sides must be controlled. Just like walking on two legs, the stride and speed of each leg should be consistent, and the two legs should alternate, so that you can move forward more steadily, otherwise you will fall.

The focus of this step is to estimate demand and judge the future of the platform. After all, each industry has its own characteristics, so it is impossible to have a more detailed description.

Conclusion

Many products have "bilateral" elements, and the difficulty of cold start lies in the pull and balance of both sides. It seems that no one has mentioned this, so I wrote it. It can be regarded as a supplement to the traditional cold start idea, which is actually contempt.

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