Practical tips on field marketing cases: How do you spend the first hour in the field marketing battlefield?

16 years ago, Alibaba relied on a huge field sales force to conquer cities and build the Alibaba Empire of today.

Five years ago, Meituan relied on an efficient field sales team to dominate the market and became the dominant force it is today.

Today, we are also trying to enter this bloody battlefield.

1. What is ground marketing?

Ground promotion is the abbreviation of ground promotion personnel, who are mostly involved in the promotion of games and mobile applications . Their main job is to go to specific places to distribute and deliver various promotional materials such as flyers, posters, promotional POPs, spray paintings, car stickers, DM leaflets, etc., in order to achieve sales of the company's products, establish brands, etc. Conventionally, it is a ground promotion method in which sales personnel distribute relevant flyers at places with large traffic such as target school gates, supermarket gates, and around shopping districts. In layman's terms, it is a method of distributing flyers (small advertisements) in places with a large target customer base.

2. What preparations are needed in the early stages of ground promotion?

On June 24, 2015, we planned our product's first door-to-door advertising. We worked vigorously and decisively. We came up with a plan in the morning, printed flyers at noon, and in the afternoon our staff went out to the streets, office buildings, residential areas, and commercial plazas to scan, post, distribute, and deliver the flyers.

First of all, the plan for this ground promotion was quickly decided after discussion among several team members. We didn’t even use designer resources and used PS to design two copies of the advertisements we were going to post (generally, I can handle the basic design myself). Then we discussed, modified, discussed, modified, and confirmed with the team members. After the design plan was finalized, we printed it directly with the company printer (because this was the first test, it didn’t need to be very good, small quantity, low investment, and quick execution). We printed 20 copies of each of the two design drafts, and then we looked up the map with the operations partner who was going to go out to post the advertisements to understand in advance the places that would be scanned, mainly several office buildings, several communities, bus stops, subway stations, cinemas, etc., and arranged the itinerary. Considering that this time we were mainly posting flyers, we bought another bottle of glue.

(This is a magical story)

The preparations made in the early stage include: ground promotion plan, design draft, printing of flyers, ground promotion area, glue, and ground promotion personnel.

3. What is the purpose of our ground promotion this time?

Because this ground promotion is our first attempt at promotion and publicity targeting individual tourists (individual tourists refer to ordinary scattered users, as opposed to business and corporate users). Previously, we have cooperated with various businesses, non-profit organizations, WeChat public accounts , subway stations and airports to establish product alliances. We have not invested too much energy in first-level users (individual tourists). Our hundreds of thousands of first-level users are almost all resources shared through cooperation. Our own WeChat public account "Lost and Found" has not reached the expected number of fans. Therefore, this ground promotion is the first time we try to promote the public account to attract fans at the suggestion of our operations partners. So with the goal of attracting fans, we did not say that we would send a flyer to everyone who passes by, but instead determined the target location based on the flow of people, and then posted our flyers on its billboards, telephone poles, walls and other places where they can be posted (although some behaviors are hateful, as an Internet person, we must do it, because one day we will all become the people we hate, this is the truth) to achieve the minimum investment and obtain the maximum benefit.

4. How is the execution process?

After lunch, I discussed the execution process with an operations partner and went out, carrying 40 flyers, a bottle of glue, and two grown men, and went out to post flyers in the 32-degree high temperature!

First, we set the first stop at the bus stop, because this is a place with a large flow of people every day, and it is also the closest point to our company. We plan to make a circle with the company as the center, and we basically estimate that 40 flyers will be posted. After arriving at the bus stop, I found that there was no place to post the poster. The advertising columns were protected by glass screens, and the telephone poles next to them were too thin to post the poster on. What should I do? After looking around, I finally made up my mind to put the sticker on the screen outside the advertising column (I am a disgusting person L)!

After finishing the first bus stop, we set off for our next goal under the attention of the crowd - the subway station. When we arrived at the subway station, we found that it was even worse than the bus stop. There was no place for us to post advertisements, and there were cleaning ladies everywhere. The entire subway station was so neat, clean and elegant that people were reluctant to destroy it. In the end, we walked around the subway station and when we were about to leave, we felt urgent and wanted to go to the toilet. Suddenly, an idea came to me that the toilet was a perfect place. I remembered that when I was in college, I would go to various public toilets to post small advertisements for promotional activities, and the effect was very good. Then, wouldn’t the subway toilet also be a good place to post small advertisements? So we quickly put two stickers in the toilet, then slipped out and prepared to go to the next target.

The third stop we went to was a residential area next to the subway. When we arrived at the community, we first found the bulletin board and saw many flyers for house transfers. We happily posted our own lost and found advertisements there and took a photo of them to keep for later promotion.

(You need to take photos for the ground push advertisements)

We passed through one community and came to another. We searched for a long time under the scorching sun but couldn't find any billboards. We asked the security guard at the door and he told us that there was no billboard in this community. I spat out a mouthful of blood at that moment. What should we do? We disguised ourselves as a young man who didn't post advertisements. Finally, we quietly came to the fitness area of ​​the community and put a billboard on the seat railing next to it.

Later we posted flyers in several other residential areas, bus stops, public bicycle rental points, Yintai Shopping Mall, and commercial office buildings. When we returned to the company's office, we had three flyers left and only a little glue left. We quickly climbed up the stairs and secretly posted one flyer in the elevator, even though there were surveillance cameras. . . Then we took the remaining two to the toilet and posted them. It was perfect. All 40 advertisements were posted within an hour, and the 1 km area around the office building was basically covered. We returned to the company to reflect and summarize and prepare for the next round of advertisements.

5. Summary of the experience of this field promotion

From the planning in the morning to the execution in the afternoon, it took us more than two hours, involving the labor costs of three people. As of 18:24 this afternoon, we gained dozens of new fans. After analyzing the process and effect of our promotion, we have the following experience summary:

1) Find the right place

The most important thing about ground promotion is to find the right place. According to the goal of ground promotion, we need to find places where traffic gathers, and distribute, post and display promotional materials so that more people can see them. Therefore, the places we need are under office buildings, community bulletin boards, bus and subway stations, public bicycle rental points, shopping mall entrances, etc. At the same time, we must learn to make choices based on the target users of ground promotion. For example, for leaflets related to life, the main target group is community residents; then other places such as bus and subway stations and office buildings can have a lower priority, and the community should be covered first, with key promotional points placed in the community.

2) Find the right time

When doing door-to-door marketing, besides location, another important factor is time. Only when you are in the right place and at the right time can you find the right target users. Otherwise, it will be a waste of time or the effect will be greatly reduced. Because we set out at around 1:00 p.m., there weren't many residents in the entire community. On the one hand, they were at work, and on the other hand, it was the hottest time of the day and basically no one came out. As a result, the flyers we posted were not able to convey the promotional information to the target user group in a timely manner, which greatly reduced the final effect.

3) Find the right method

Our goal for this field promotion was to post flyers on various bulletin boards. However, the final result did not meet our expectations. In addition to the impact of inappropriate factors in the execution process, it may also be related to the method. Would it be more effective if we sent the flyers directly to each individual? For example, divide an A4 paper into two parts as shown below, with only a large QR code and our identity marked next to it. Perhaps this effect will be better.

4) Understand the conversion rate

As shown in the figure above, in order to grasp the conversion rate, in addition to the early factors such as advertising content, exposure , external interference, etc., there is also the later continuous interference operation and data analysis . According to the actual situation, the second set of plans should be quickly followed up to continuously increase the popularity. No event has ever erupted by chance, and there must be a continuous promotion in the later stage (we did not pay attention to this aspect during the ground promotion this time, which led to lack of strength in the later stage. We missed the best time and can only start from the beginning next time).

5) Pay attention to early planning

This preliminary planning must be detailed, and try to clarify as much as possible what needs to be done in each step, and make estimates in advance, use the estimated data as the goal, and then promote execution.

Be bold, careful and fast. If you are caught, you will quickly bow your head, admit your guilt, apologize and run away.

Those who do door-to-door sales will never be smooth sailing and welcomed by everyone. On the contrary, door-to-door sales personnel are always like a rat crossing the street, always shouted at by everyone. Therefore, in the process of door-to-door sales, they will inevitably be chased, caught, scolded, despised, and even beaten by the police on motorcycles with batons. Therefore, door-to-door sales are not something that everyone can do. It requires you to be bold, careful, and fast. If you are caught, you must bow your head quickly, admit your guilt, apologize, and run away. It requires you to have a strong heart, a strong body, and a strong soul. I think I have it all...

There should be a summary after the end

This is not only applicable to field sales. In fact, every day's work, every project, and every activity requires summary. We must learn to apply successful experiences and avoid the big pitfalls we have already stepped into. Only by continuous accumulation and summarization can we grow.

Well, it’s not easy to survive in the battlefield of ground promotion. I wish you good luck.

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