How to formulate corresponding promotion strategies in the three stages of APP?

What is operation? I have read a sentence in "Learning Operations from Scratch" that summarizes it very well: Any means that can help promote products, improve user awareness, and promote user usage are called operations. I agree with this point of view. Although it seems to be a simple sentence, it actually contains three aspects:

• Early product promotion;
• In the medium term, improve user awareness, which is what we call brand exposure;
• Promoting user usage, in other words, post-user operations.

These three aspects are the main points I will share today. Let me explain them one by one:

1. Early product promotion

1. Product user positioning

How to locate product users is directly related to our subsequent promotion direction. Where our users are determines our different promotion directions. So how do we locate it? Then you need to carefully consider the following three questions:

● What are our products?
● Who are the users of the product? Where?
● What problems can we solve for users? What services are provided to users?

2. Register various accounts in advance and understand the platform rules in advance

● Register and classify accounts in major application markets, forums, and communities. Understand the rules of each platform, including the first release rules, recommendation rules, and forum posting rules, and record them in a detailed excel document for easy reference and future dissemination.
● Setting up community accounts such as Weibo and WeChat. Build these camps in advance to prevent losses caused by others registering your brand later when it becomes bigger.
● Accumulation of resources such as application market promotion groups. Especially for those who promote apps, it is quite important to join such groups, because many messages are released through official groups in the first place. So as not to miss some activities and topics.

3. Competitive product analysis

When we have prepared all the preliminary work, the next step is to start the prelude, understand the opponent's strength, do a good job of competitive product analysis, and find the advantages and opportunities of our own products through competitive product analysis. So what do we need to know when doing competitive product analysis?

① Approximate data of competitors: their download status in major application markets, website traffic data, and try to understand as real user data as possible through indirect methods, such as using some third-party tools to view traffic.
② When doing ASO and SEO, you need to observe what hot words your competitors are using. Why do they have large download volumes and high traffic? Here I recommend several tools for searching hot words.

● ASO can be used: http://tools.appying.com/apphot.html;
● SEO can be done through: index.baidu.com;
● Webmaster keyword selection tool: http://s.tool.chinaz.com/baidu/words.aspx.

③ The approximate distribution of competitors’ users: In which cities do they perform particularly well and in which cities do they perform poorly? Do we have a chance to overtake them in the cities where they perform poorly? Do they have more users in first- and second-tier cities or third- and fourth-tier cities?
④ Comparison of product advantages and disadvantages: Compared with competitors, what are our advantages and what are the more attractive features? For example, the taxi-hailing app that was very popular some time ago, how do you convince Kuaidi users to use Didi? 1. Quick response 2. High cashback. Therefore, after we have done the data analysis of competitors, our promotion strategy will have a general direction.

2. Mid-term resource expansion

1. Accumulation of major CPs, channels, and media resources

● Peer CP: Communication between peers is essential. Gossip can help you predict the industry's developments in advance;
● Cooperation channel expansion: You can learn about the current situation and cooperation forms in the industry in real time, such as the points wall;
● Media contact: What if some startup companies don’t have a full-time PR? These media resources must be managed and connected by our operations staff.

2. SEO Optimization

There are two types of website SEO optimization: the first type is like many other websites, which are very simple and have very little content; the second type is sites with a lot of content. The ideas and methods for optimizing these two types of sites are slightly different. For the first type of site, it is much more important to post some soft articles in the forum community where you have registered an account before, and to include links to attract traffic to the website than simply creating website content. And the coverage should be as wide as possible. You can observe the background data every day and sort out high-quality sources. The second type of site that focuses on content should pay more attention to content optimization and title keyword selection, which can be achieved by using the tools recommended above. As for how to optimize specific content, the third point below will discuss it in detail.

In addition to the above points, you also need to pay attention to the following two points:

● In addition to optimizing the official website on PC, create a good mobile website. At present, web pages made with H4 will get better rankings than those made with H5;
● Whether it is a PC website or a Mobile website, don’t pursue coolness too much, and strike a balance between users and search engines.

3. Make good use of media to maximize exposure

First of all, we must make a certain distinction between the media. When using the media to create momentum for us, we need to pay attention to the following aspects:

● The media is not just a platform for us to publish soft articles, but it can also deliver news or information that the public needs. The media is for the general public, not for your business. Therefore, when releasing media information, companies should avoid the form of press releases as no one will pay attention. Companies should look for their own highlights when promoting themselves through the media.
● How to find your own highlights. The background of the founder (giving users a sense of trust), financing background (at least increasing reputation in the industry), product innovations (closely related to the general public), and integration with real-time hot spots (increasing exposure) are also some key points that can attract media to come and report.
● Not all media are suitable for you. Taking technology new media as an example, Huxiu.com and Titanium Media both focus on discussions on business models of Internet companies. Taking WeChat public accounts as an example, "Gupo's Things" focuses on sharing online useful information. Only by finding media exposure that suits you can your conversion rate be higher.
● Mutual benefit and win-win situation. The media needs content, and we need exposure. Everyone gets what they need, but this still requires more interaction and communication with media personnel on a regular basis. They can help provide some content when they have nothing to do. If it is really urgent, it is also necessary to spend some money.

3. User Operation

1. Event Operation

When it comes to event operation, there must be event planning. How to carry out event planning? I think the writing skills our teachers taught us in elementary school can be applied: time, place, characters, causes, process, and results. When will we hold our event (festival? anniversary?) and will it be online or offline? Who can participate? What is the reason for our activities? What do you want to achieve? How much budget are you prepared to spend? How to control the activity flow and process? How to evaluate the effectiveness of activities? Finally, there is a summary after the event.

2. Content Operation

● First of all, we must understand the needs of users. Provide our users with the content they need.
● Determine the content mechanism. After determining the content, we need to determine whether the source of the content is direct program collection or UGC or self-editing and creation. Different sources mean that our mechanisms are different. If it is UGC, we must do a good job of guiding design, and if it is original, we must hire an editor.
● Goals need to be set. We need to evaluate the effectiveness of our content to determine whether it is what users really need and what content users care about most. We need to let users see the content they care about most as soon as possible, such as by creating special topics or placing banners.
● Optimize product user experience. Test the conversion effect of each page, such as the login and registration buttons, to improve the registration conversion rate. Finally, differentiate users, capture core users, and consider how to make core users pay for products through content, and what kind of content will make users pay for them.

3. Community Operation

(The 7-word secret of user operation: attract new users, retain existing users, and promote activity) To acquire new users, retain old users, and increase activity through certain means, community operation requires us to make judgments based on the above activities and content.