How do the six major industries of online education, Internet finance, social software, travel products, smart hardware, and gaming products develop the campus market ? This article is the first in a series.
We have talked a lot before about the significance of the campus market and how to build campus channels and teams. The year 2014 that has passed can be said to be very lively. Whether it is online education products, financial products, hardware products, social software, travel products or game products, the Internet industry and non-Internet industries have all set their sights on the campus market. However, the same old models and goals have left many people empty-handed. We have talked a lot about things that combine theory and practice. Now let’s talk about some methodological things on how to develop campus markets in various industries. Many of the friends I know are working in the online education products and Internet finance industries. At the same time, I have also been responsible for campus market operations in many industries including online education, Internet finance, social software, travel products, smart hardware, etc. Today, let’s talk about how online education products can serve as campus channels.
The following are merely personal opinions and experiences. If there are any inappropriate comments, I would like to ask readers to criticize them. PS: Most of this article uses New Oriental Online’s campus market as an example. If you think it is an advertisement, please bypass it. I just hope that through real cases, everyone can gain something! It is unjust for online education not to be part of the campus With 51Talk English completing its USD 55 million Series C financing, online education products have once again been pushed to the forefront. Whether it is the old-fashioned New Oriental or the later emerging education brands, the focus has gradually shifted from offline to online. It seems very optimistic that online education will become the dominant trend of future education. VCs have a special liking for online education: New Oriental Online, 51Talk, Kaike.com, Woying Career, Baidu's Chuanke.com and Zuoyebang, etc. As long as you know a little about this industry, you can immediately name a bunch of online education product brands. Because I worked in the campus market before, I have close relationships with many familiar online education brands. Due to the particularity of online education, I have also studied and thought about how the online education industry can enter the campus market. Now, I will share my personal thoughts with you: PS: The prerequisite is that you have a campus channel of your own! You can also do the planning yourself and outsource the execution to others, but you can only get the brand effect. First, the brand comes first in the early stage, and you should avoid being too eager for quick success. The original intention of all campus products is basically to attract users, and online education is no exception. However, it is a simple truth that if you want people to use your product, you need to let them know about your product. This is a question of brand indoctrination. Take New Oriental Online as an example. Since its inception, New Oriental Online’s campus channel has been targeting brand communication. Whether it is campus material coverage or campus lectures, whether it is team gatherings or expansion training, New Oriental Online’s campus team has always been committed to brand communication and has carried out related offline + online activities. Through one activity after another, New Oriental Online’s brand has penetrated into the student population. 1. Own leading brand promotion activities For example, New Oriental Online’s campus team often organizes charity events and team building activities, and maximizes the effectiveness of the activities through offline activities and using online platforms as diffusion points.
Nowadays, many companies or student groups often organize charity activities. At the same time, charity activities may have a much greater impact on a brand than other methods. Campus teams can participate in charity activities in the form of organizations, which can not only achieve the effect of brand promotion and attract attention, but also improve the cohesion of the team.
However, a personal reminder: when doing charity, don’t just do it for the sake of gimmicks, but do it sincerely and with your heart . On this point, my opinion is highly consistent with that of Shuang Ge, the head of New Oriental’s campus channel.
2. Joint promotional activities with other brands I often say that it is difficult to achieve great results relying on the efforts of one company alone. It requires joint efforts. There is strength in numbers and more resources. For example, in the China Campus Competition organized by Xinrui Magazine, the campus teams of New Oriental Online and Moman Camera responded positively and made good use of their strengths to achieve the effect of brand promotion. During the summer vacation of 2014, I was honored to participate in an expansion training in Shanghai organized by the provincial head of the Southern Region of the New Oriental Online Campus Team as the then head of Xiaomi Campus. After the training, I thought that if all campus channels could go with the flow, then there wouldn’t be so many campus channels that would fail. Second mid-term school-enterprise cooperation to expand user groups I divide online education products into three categories: English training, vocational training, and technical training. How to cooperate also requires different strategies based on different products1 . For example, for English online education products , taking New Oriental Online as an example, when the campus team is carrying out campus activities in full swing, if it reaches cooperation with the foreign language colleges and foreign language associations of relevant schools, the company provides necessary support to relevant organizations and uses its own products as a platform for students, then will the result be pleasant? In 2014, New Oriental Online Campus Team planned and implemented a “One Candy per Person” campaign, opening offline physical courses in universities in Shaanxi, Shandong, Tianjin and other places to provide tutoring and training for students. This campaign not only received official recognition and support from the schools, but also received a lot of exposure within the company, establishing New Oriental’s position as the leader in English training in the minds of students. Being interesting and useful is the best way to evaluate the best results of offline activities.
2. For example, if online education products for careers, such as Kaikeba and Woying Career, can connect with the career guidance centers of various schools to provide students with more employment opportunities, I believe that no school can resist this temptation.
Many companies hope to bring in a large number of new customers through campus channels to make up for the saturation of online channels. This thinking is understandable. Whether it is the campus channel or other channels, the ultimate goal is to achieve orders and new growth.
But what I want to say is: never be too eager for quick success. If you only focus on the number of new additions, you will end up with a very bad situation of false data.
The campus channel is an integrated online and offline channel. At the same time, more emphasis is placed on the offline. Moreover, after some understanding, the current cost of offline promotion in China is very high. I once talked with a brother who works in education, and he told me that now through offline activations, the cost per user can reach 40 yuan for the whole set. If this is the case, the responsibility we bear when conducting offline promotion will be even greater! 3. Customized products in the later stage to test the profit model All products will ultimately come down to the question of how to make a profit. I don’t want to discuss the issue of profit model here, I just want to talk briefly about how to make a profit? The domestic consumption environment is still that if it is free, use it; if it is not free, don’t use it. In this environment, getting users to spend money is definitely harder than climbing a mountain. However, online education seems to be an exception! Personally, I believe that the profits of online education lie not with students but with parents, not with universities but with middle schools. Of course, this refers specifically to English products. If you infiltrate parents while reaching out to students, let them see the significance of your product, and at the same time, customize different targeted products for different students in the relevant population, I dare to ask, will parents not buy it? I have come into contact with many online education products, and I personally think that among all the campus channels that are currently offering online education products, New Oriental Online is doing really well! It’s not because Li Yuanshuang (we all call him Brother Shuang), the head of New Oriental Online’s campus channel, used to be the head of my national team and was later recommended by me to join New Oriental, but because New Oriental Online has always been very fortunate in doing business in the campus market, without being impatient or anxious, but moving forward steadily and gradually penetrating, which is very rare for doing business in the campus market.
At the same time, I personally believe that online education in China is still in its development stage, and all online education brands need to work together to standardize this market and gradually transform educational concepts and ideas. As the saying goes, it takes a hundred years to grow a tree and ten years to cultivate a person. The education industry has a long way to go!
For online education products, it is the right choice to take students as the target market. The key lies in whether you can adapt to local conditions and whether you have enough patience and appropriate methods! Campuses need more companies to develop them, which not only provides students with practical opportunities to contact society, but also solves students’ practical problems! However, how to do it and how to do it, this question really needs to be seriously discussed! I also hope that all the brothers who are engaged in the campus market of this kind of products can truly understand: unity is the key to success! Four large-scale replication and promotion After the basic skills are laid, online education products can be promoted nationwide. So how to build a nationwide campus promotion channel? 
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