Methodology: Use the idea of ​​creating a "hot product" to operate content

When doing content operations , most people hope that the content can "go viral" and generate continuous traffic (explosive articles). At the same time, the content should retain its individuality and it would be best if it has some followers.

In fact, this is somewhat similar to product marketing . If the operation of content value is regarded as a process of constantly "pricing" and "promoting" content, then content can be regarded as a product. For this product, users either spend time, pay attention, or pay money...

Ideally, content that can attract a large number of users to actively spread it and grab a large number of users' attention within a certain period of time can also be understood as "explosive products" among products. If we try to understand content from this perspective, it will actually give us many different ideas when operating the content value.

Looking at things from a new perspective can quickly break down many rigid ideas.

Before that, we need to understand what a “hot item” is.

A hot-selling product refers to a product that is in short supply and has very high sales volume. Usually refers to products that sell in large quantities and are very popular. Widely used in online stores and physical stores. (Source: Baidu Encyclopedia )

The emergence of a hit product requires the herd mentality of users and the explosive power of the product itself. Some hit products were caused by "hot spots" or "events", such as the clips that were so cute that they sprouted, and the clips with super cute little yellow chickens, which were all the rage on the streets and the Internet at the time. In addition, some popular products are created by their own products and continuous operations, such as Apple mobile phones.

The creation of a hit product involves a series of processes including competitor analysis , selling point refinement, product packaging, communication and promotion , etc. It is also necessary to consider factors such as objective trends in the market. This process is not easy at all.

If the content is made into a hit, what kind of scene will it present?

The creation of content and the presentation of words and sentences always give an impression that comes from the heart, and more often they carry the editor's thoughts. If we use the word "hot item" to describe the content, it seems to have a strong taste of pandering to the masses. This may be unacceptable to many content creators. “Creating the content you want to create is the right attitude, right?”

Writing content out of personal preference and expressing personal feelings is a good way to satisfy personal writing interests. However, for those who do content marketing or content operations, whether it is following hot topics, following trends, or producing some "explosive" content through their own continuous operations, this is a realistic pursuit and goal.

Popular content will make users "can't help but" spread it, but popular content does not just mean catering to the public's aesthetic taste. It is more inclined to understand that popular content will find opportunities to break through in the content market environment based on user needs.

Whether actively or passively, users are faced with a lot of content every day. Among them, those contents that can touch users and make them pay costs (an act of forwarding and sharing, or spending time and attention) will always be special.

First of all, these contents are different, and may be presented in a novel form (not just different) and are the best quality comparison results. This difference will make it relatively easy for the content to stand out from the crowd. In addition, these contents will conform to a major demand trend, are what most people need, and are the preferred choice of most users. To be honest, content that is too niche is unlikely to have a high degree of dissemination.

The production of hit content is not easy at all, it is the result of presenting the best content.

Hot content is grabbing users' attention

What is the most impressive hot content that has impressed you recently? What are those contents that frequently appear in your field of vision and fill your circle of friends ?

Durex ’s strong hot spots and Mimi Meng ’s explosive articles were widely spread in a short period of time. Once a certain content demand point is occupied, it will cost more for other content to grab user attention. Popular content will create a competitive barrier. When similar content is produced, it will be considered as imitation , which makes it more difficult to shift user attention.

What is the reason why a hit product is a hit, and how are hit products/content created?

We can first look at it from the product's perspective to see how popular products are produced and what conditions support their production.

1. Herd mentality

For products with large sales, from being known and consumed by a few users to being purchased by more users, a very important factor in stimulating sales in this process is: herd mentality. Herd mentality can activate more potential users to join the purchasing team.

During the product purchasing process, customers can easily buy products due to the herd mentality (perhaps they don’t really need them so urgently at the time). The marketing of many products will use some public relations stimulation methods to trigger the herd mentality of users to buy. For example, creating some materials that can trigger the herd mentality and limited-time sales are a very common way to create a phenomenon that many people are "scrambling for it".

Xiaomi's Marketing Activities

The application of herd mentality can also be extended to word-of-mouth communication, which makes the possibility of a hit product even greater. Because of word-of-mouth among users, the number of potential users will be stimulated to become larger, the impact of the product will be greater, and even a phenomenal hit will emerge.

2. Bring your own IP

Many popular products are based on their own IP. For example, every time an iPhone is launched, it will cause a huge spread and impact, and there will even be people lining up to buy it. A very important factor here is that it is Apple.

New products from IPhone

Having its own IP and generating IP attention is actually a continuous process of building a brand or traffic. Some products will use the image of the founder to create an IP that can quickly attract traffic . Many founders of Internet products have their own big-name IPs. Of course, there are also some that are based on past hits to form a series, and a new IP is formed in the process of continuous series operation.

Products with IP can easily become popular with the help of a single highlight product based on the existing attention, the impression it has left on users, and the existing fan base.

3. Leverage social communication

I have paid attention to some popular products. In addition to factors of the products themselves, they can also be created with the help of some incentive mechanisms to trigger the spread of social relationships. This requires meeting the social needs of users, whether it is to show off or to fill the inner emptiness, etc. Activating social communication will allow the product to spread further and further along the relationship chain.

Starbucks ' Star Communication

4. Traffic explosion

In addition to the spreadability of the product itself, external traffic support is also very important for a hit product. There are very few products that are completely exclusive (either in form or function), and there are relatively few products corresponding to various areas of user demand. Therefore, if a product wants to grab users' attention and convert certain zero-sum consumption of users , it is very dependent on generating strong exposure in front of users, that is, effective traffic.

One of the phenomena that causes a product to become a hit is that it becomes a hit in a certain channel , but not necessarily in all channels. One of the main reasons for this situation is that, on the corresponding channel, the promotional resources of this channel are concentratedly acquired or seized, and the attention of users of this channel is occupied. This is a relatively common and cost-sustainable promotion method.

5. Product power of hot-selling products

For a hit product to emerge, the power of the product itself plays a decisive role. First of all, this product is the best choice for users to solve a certain demand, including the lowest cost (special price) and the most effective solution to the demand (high quality). This will allow the product to attract a large number of users in the first consumption and win the first launch battle of the hit product.

In addition, the product also needs to have the ability to encourage users to continue to consume for the second time. This secondary consumption includes repeated consumption (repeat purchases) and influencing relationships around people to generate consumption (word of mouth). Only in this way can the consumer base covered by the hit product increase and support the quantity and coverage required for the hit product.

In summary, this type of product will have the following characteristics: high quality, low price, exclusive, latest, and focused .

If we create content with the idea of ​​becoming a hit, then what content has the potential to become a hit?

Popular products are produced after comprehensive analysis and refined operations, and the same is true for content. A hit content can be spread "crazily" among users, and these contents essentially have certain commonalities with the hit product. If you compare it with other popular contents that have appeared in the past, you can more or less see some clues.

Those 10w+ titles /ideas

The small target that is popular in the circle of friends

Not all content can become a hit, so which of our currently operating content can we work on? Maybe these contents can really achieve the small goal of becoming a hit.

1. Activate content that meets popular demand

Different channels will have different contents that users prefer and pay attention to. However, most of the content that resonates with users across channels meets the needs of the general public. Being sincere, self-deprecating, and in line with the type of content that more and more people prefer nowadays will make it easier to attract the attention of a large number of users.

Some content only meets the needs of a small number of users and is only circulated within a small circle, so it is difficult for it to become popular content. Of course, if we don’t pursue user volume or hot products, niche content also has strong value, whether we discuss it from the perspective of content stickiness or conversion . The explosive content mentioned here mainly refers to those contents that can touch and spread by a large number of users.

2. IP Effect

If the content continues to operate to educate users and create an impression, or is extended by relying on a certain brand, then the possibility of these contents becoming popular will be greater. Because these contents have the prerequisites for gaining attention, and they already have a base of attention. If the content is operated in accordance with the characteristics of the user group that the IP can activate, it will be relatively easier to create distinctive and popular content.

However, for most content, in order to produce the effect of IP, strong resource support is needed, or long-term continuous education of users is needed to strengthen the impression of IP.

3. Traffic support

Regardless of the accumulated fan traffic or external traffic support, the creation of a hit content will always have a fission trajectory, whether it is intentional or unintentional. From the source of content publication, to its dissemination and distribution through the core user group/user nodes, then affecting more and more people, and finally stimulating users to actively spread it on a large scale.

The trajectory of content distribution is actually the process of continuous generation and transmission of traffic.

A content with the power of dissemination can accelerate the time it takes for it to become a hit if it is recommended through traffic channels. Some people will promote through groups, while others will activate through paid channels. But traffic is only a way to accelerate, and the content itself is still the decisive factor.

4. The inherent explosive power of content

The explosive power of popular content mainly includes content differentiation, content value, and content personalization. The generation of these explosive forces requires continuous operation. "Personalization + persistence" is an important process in producing explosive content. Of course, this is also not a very fast process.

The form in which content is presented, personalized values, and characteristics of addressing needs can all become the personality of the content. Some content will be presented through continuous comics, and some content will give users a different experience through audio. Severely homogenized content is unlikely to become a hit, and unique content also requires persistence in operation in order to become a hit.

Unique voices can also become popular content

5. Adapt channel characteristics

Different channels have different categories of hot-selling products. Some channels are suitable for emotional content, while others are more suitable for review or story content. The user base of each channel will be different, and the content they like and pay attention to will of course be different.

Create corresponding content based on user needs and express core ideas.

Many people understand that popular content is content that is spread among the largest possible user base. However, popular content can also be widely disseminated within a certain user circle, and can also become popular content within a certain circle. Blindly chasing after a large number of users to spread the content while ignoring the final conversion of the content will only make the people who operate the content feel frustrated (this kind of hit cannot be achieved in a short period of time).

We don’t expect popular content to be easily produced, but we must have ideas for operating popular content!

The creation of popular content requires that the content itself has the value and energy that meets the needs of a certain user group, has its own characteristics and is continuously operated, and also requires the support of traffic, IP and other conditions. It is not easy to create a hit content, but this does not mean that we do not think about how to operate a hit content every time we create a content.

Today's traffic channels are filled with homogeneous content, and everyone wants to break through. However, we cannot always rely on luck. Becoming a hit in the existing user circle and in the target user circle is a gradual process that requires continuous investment in operational ideas for hit content.

An operational idea required for a hit content:

• Continuous operation of content personality
• The spread of the content itself
• The creation and accumulation of IP value
• Layout of traffic channels
• Constantly review, summarize and optimize

A popular content requires more continuous operating costs. The investment in these operations mainly comes from the following three perspectives.

1. People
2. Product​
3. context

1. People

A hit content needs to focus on the human level, starting from people's intuitive needs and satisfying their hidden needs, touching people's needs. This is the basis of hit content.

The popular content needs to focus on the needs of the target users and meet their needs. For example, if some content is aimed at female groups, then the way to touch the hearts of female users would be more suitable. Adapting to the trajectory of psychological changes of female users, from princes and princesses, to tragic Cinderella, to ordinary women, to the current emphasis on independent and capable women, etc. The greater the energy of the content to meet the content needs, the greater the possibility of touching and detonating the content.

2. Product

If content is operated as a product, then the content viewpoints that attract users are equivalent to the core selling points of the product, the presentation of the content is similar to the usage form of the product, and the continuous operation of the content is similar to the extension of the secondary activation purchase of the product.

Content, like products, can bring value to users. Content attracts users’ attention and occupies costs, which is similar to the marketing strategy of products.

The same applies to content, as do the competitive analysis, user demand solutions, user trajectory matching guidance, and continuous product iteration and optimization that hot-selling products do. There are actually very few contents that suddenly become hits. Most hit contents are the result of continuous operations. The content under continuous operations is the process of polishing the product, including its value to users, the way it is presented, the prominent viewpoints, the difficulty of user acquisition, the sense of experience, etc.

3. Context

In order to resonate with users and encourage them to spread content on a large scale under specific environmental conditions, the content has to take the context into consideration.

On the one hand, the content needs to satisfy the scenarios in which users acquire content. In this scenario, what are the similar contents competing for attention, and how should we win in such scenarios? On the other hand, which consumption scenarios does the content occupy? Does it meet the rigid needs of users (knowledge acquisition) or the implicit needs of users (emotional, interest-related, etc.)? Finally, in what scenarios can the content inspire transmission? Does it need to be driven by interests, or will it be transmitted naturally in the user's life scenarios?

The explosion of content requires the support of the situation.

Most content operators expect explosive content, but the ways of triggering it vary. It is not easy to produce healthy and popular content, but this does not mean that content operations can only be carried out in the usual way. I envy others every day because their content has such a large number of readers and such a high conversion rate , but envy alone cannot change anything.

Keep summarizing, keep trying, maybe the next content will be a hit?

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

The author of this article @粉小圆 is compiled and published by (青瓜传媒). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting! Site Map