10 steps to planning an event, and 5 key points to focus on

To plan a high-quality event, operators need to have two qualities. One quality is the ability to plan events, which can be understood as the path, steps and methods of thinking, which is a routine. This includes analyzing user needs, understanding common types, being result-oriented, being able to evaluate effects, and how to implement the solution step by step.

Another quality is planning ability , which refers to the creative direction and is something subjective and non-routine. For example, what is the specific idea of ​​an activity? This depends on qualities such as imagination and creativity.

This article only deals with the first quality, which is the method of planning activities. This kind of methodology and experience can be taught to everyone, but the second quality of creative direction cannot be taught by reading an article or having a good teacher.

Even if someone has run a hit event or written 100,000+ articles, he may not be able to achieve it if you ask him to do it again. He can only tell you how successful cases that have already happened were achieved. This is actually reverse reasoning and is not very meaningful.

1. Let me tell you a story first

Let's assume a scenario that you have opened a new coffee shop in Beijing's Wangjing SOHO, a new brand different from Starbucks and Costa. The problem you face is that office workers don't know that a new coffee shop has opened here. Even if they have seen it, they are unfamiliar with the brand and don't know what the characteristics of this coffee shop are, when is the best time to go, and what the price range is.

Therefore, although there are many office workers coming and going in Wangjing SOHO every day, few people pay attention to this coffee shop, let alone come in to consume. Do you have any good solution for this problem?

One way is to plan an event.

There are three purposes for planning this event. The first is to let others know that a new coffee shop has opened here and attract attention. The second is to tell everyone what the characteristics of this coffee shop are and how it differs from Starbucks. The third is to attract everyone to consume and become real customers.

From this perspective, planning this event is very necessary, so how should we do it specifically?

I have never run a physical store, and I am just using this as an example here to try to look at this issue from an Internet perspective. I think there are the following types of activities :

• The first type is content-based activities , which use the power of content planning to spread the word among Wangjing’s white-collar workers on new media platforms. The content or gameplay needs to be interesting, well-structured, and relevant.
• The second category is promotional activities , such as creating a hot-selling product, launching a hot-selling item for only 9 yuan at 2 pm every day, or buying a 200 yuan gift card and getting a 50 yuan gift.
• The third category is offline activities , making good use of one’s own physical stores to organize small-scale activities. For example, write a number every day and then ask everyone to weigh themselves. If the weight difference is within 5 kilograms, everyone will be given a cup of American coffee.

When I think of this, I have a general framework of ideas. If I want to organize an activity, I basically choose from the three categories above, and the specific form needs to be further refined.

2. The value of the activity

The above case puts the activity in a simple scenario, allowing everyone to feel the role of the activity, that is, why we should do activities, and also mentions the three forms of activities.

If you are making online products instead of offline products, is this case also applicable? In fact, the principle is the same. When it comes to operations, online or offline only have different carriers and scenarios. The same thing is that everyone has a product to face users, so the essence is the same. Even if you are operating online, you will face different industries, different users and different demands, so nothing is exactly the same. The only thing that remains unchanged is focusing on user needs.

From the above case, we can draw three values ​​of the activity: attracting user attention, stimulating user participation, and strengthening user awareness.

These three values ​​can be understood literally, but two points should be emphasized:

• First of all, these three points are all centered around users. You can see that the word "user" is included in them. So no matter what activities you do, you must pay attention to users' needs or interests.
• Secondly, these three points are a progressive process in terms of the user's awareness of the product, from attention to participation, and then to cognition.

The above coffee shop activity case can at least satisfy the two points of attracting attention and stimulating participation. Then, by repeating this process over a period of time, it can gradually strengthen user awareness. Once your product occupies its own space in the user's mind, it means that the user has a solid understanding of you and will become your long-term customer.

3. High-quality event cases

I will list a few cases that I think are good, and see how the three values ​​of the activities are reflected, what are the advantages of these activities, and what is worth learning from.

There are several cases that I mentioned in previous articles. Let’s analyze them again.

Case 1: Baidu Map Sakura Parkour

Users only need to pick up their mobile phones, open the Baidu Maps app, and search for nearby McDonald's to participate. It's like a game that combines online and offline elements, which is very interesting.

In addition, the process of users participating in the activity is actually the core process of users using the map app: finding the destination, determining the route, and driving/walking to arrive. Therefore, this activity also uses games to educate users on how to use the product. This activity was launched a few years ago, so educating users is still very necessary.

For businesses, this event also reflects the commercial value of cooperating with Baidu Maps, and there is a lot of room for imagination in various future gameplay methods.

Case 2: Momo’s red envelope competition

This activity was launched during the Spring Festival a few years ago. At that time, the red envelope war between Alipay and WeChat attracted much attention. Red envelopes were already a concept that users had a high degree of acceptance. Coupled with the hot topic of the Spring Festival, it was very effective for Momo to take advantage of this point at this time.

At that time, Momo was positioned as a stranger social platform , and its core was to enable strangers to communicate and interact. This activity is connected in the core process of the product: users open Momo and see a list of strangers around them. Some users have a red envelope icon behind their avatars, and they can get red envelopes by chatting with them. This is how the core data of the product is improved through activities.

Case 3: Same, you take a picture of me drawing

At that time, we could only publish pictures, texts, movie lists and music. This activity created a new way of playing without relying on product development.

Even if you can't draw and don't want to upload your photos, you may still be interested in this activity, which is why it is worth browsing.

Case 4: Meituan and Didi ’s red envelopes

Red envelopes are an important means of operating O2O products . Whether it is to attract new customers or to recall users who are about to lose, it is achieved by sending red envelopes. Of course, the specific strategies are different, such as which users to send to, how much money to send, and what the usage requirements are. There are many ways to operate here.

In addition, new product lines can also be promoted through red envelopes. I remember that Didi's designated driver service at that time and the luxury cars it has been promoting recently were both introduced to users and used through red envelopes.

Case 5: Maoyan movie ticket machine opening screen

The most difficult thing about organizing activities is that we have no resources and no funds. The case of Maoyan Movies has tapped into potential resources very well: the ticket machines placed in the cinema were opened and taken out to exchange resources with fans.

For fans, the only purpose is to benefit their star, and if the star has a movie coming out, it is to help promote the movie. Therefore, the resources of the ticket machines can both expose celebrities and help promote movies.

In addition to clever use of resources, this activity did not rely on any product adjustments. It could be launched on Weibo and in user groups with just a picture.

4. Four characteristics of the activity

Based on the above excellent event cases, four characteristics of the activities are summarized: clear purpose, short-term results, attractiveness, and low operation threshold.

① Clear purpose

There must be clear benefits and quantifiable indicators for activities, and they must be clear and direct. Only in this way can each link from planning to implementation be less likely to go astray. After the event is over, how to evaluate whether the event is good or bad depends first on whether the original goal has been achieved.

② Short-term effect

Since we are doing an activity, we must fight to the bitter end. At least there must be a short-term rapid pull. This is the role of the activity. Long-term results are achieved through your operating model. For example, if your model is to attract new users on Weibo and Douban , and promote activation through level points tasks, this is your model, and it is long-term. In the long-term operation model, individual activities are needed to drive short-term growth in order to ensure the overall continuous operation.

③ Attractive

A very important factor in determining whether an activity attracts a lot of participants is whether it is “interesting”. This is the first step to attract users to participate and determines the effectiveness of the activity.

④ Low operating threshold

An activity is an independent small module, such as a page on H5, PC or app. It does not require users to stay for a long time or frequently. Instead, it can be started quickly and needs to be easy to use, so the learning cost and operating cost must be very low.

5. How to plan an excellent event

The following are the specific steps for planning an event. The purpose is to help everyone sort out their ideas. As long as you analyze and execute according to this routine, at least there will be no major mistakes.

There are 10 steps to planning an event, as shown below:

We select the key steps to analyze:

① Clear goals

Before planning an event, it is important to clearly define the purpose of the event, such as to increase new users or GMV.

② Determine your goals

The goal is specific and quantifiable data, such as adding 50,000 new users. This goal is the standard you will use to evaluate the effectiveness of the event after it ends.

③ Warm up before going online

Important activities must have a warm-up phase and cannot be launched suddenly without users’ knowledge. This will not only affect the effect but also cause a bad user experience.

The effect of an activity is an upward curve. The effect on the first day after the activity goes online basically determines the effect of the entire activity. The higher the first day’s data, the better the overall campaign was. Because in most cases, the data will trend downward from day one.

Therefore, in order to ensure the effectiveness of the first day of the event and to enhance the explosive power of the event, we must rely on early warm-up. Because no activity will explode all at once, users always need time to receive information, understand and participate. Put this process in the warm-up phase rather than at the start of the event.

④ Follow the progress after going online

After the event goes online, it is like the start of a football game. As the head coach, you must not only know the result, but also pay attention to the progress of the game and make adjustments based on the trend. For example, look at data trends, user feedback, content output or transaction status.

⑤ Activity summary

An activity is like an experiment. For an experiment, the most important thing is the result. Only with the result can we draw the previously speculated results. Therefore, the results of the activity are very important.

The summary of the activity is roughly divided into four parts:

1. Overall summary , simply say whether the activity is effective and whether it meets expectations;
2. Specific analysis , analyze each link and data in the activity in detail, this part of the content will account for a large proportion;
3. Pros and cons analysis , listing what went well and what didn’t go well in this activity;
4. Guide the follow-up , the conclusion of this activity, how to guide the subsequent work, and how to make adjustments.

The above are the ten steps to plan an event, as well as the five key points that need to be focused on. I hope it will be useful to everyone.