Only 5 steps to achieve a cold start from 0 to 1

The launch of a product must inevitably go through the process from 0 to 1; it’s just a matter of time. For products backed by huge traffic portals like BAT, it may only take a blink of an eye to go from 0 to 1, but for most startups , the transition from 0 to 1 is a very difficult process. So today, let’s talk about how to achieve a cold start from 0 to 1 through 5 steps.

Step 1. What is product positioning?

Just as “it is important for people to know themselves”, the same goes for products. Only when you have a clear understanding of the positioning of your product can you know where to focus your efforts.

What is the positioning of the product we want to operate ?

To clarify the answer, we can ask ourselves another question: "What functions does this product use to meet the needs of which users in which scenarios?" As long as we answer this question, we will have a clear understanding of the positioning of the product.

Secondly, we need to compare our products with other competing products in the market to find out the differences between our products and other competing products and what our advantages are. Only in this way can we play to our strengths and avoid our weaknesses during the operation, and even use our strengths to attack others' weaknesses.

In this process, if we are not involved in the research and development and design of the product itself, then these positioning and differentiation information are likely to be conveyed to us by others. Although this saves us a lot of time to a certain extent, it is still necessary for us to fully experience the product ourselves and sort out the relevant information, so that we can have a clearer understanding of the product positioning and even the strategic direction.

Step 2. Who are the target users?

After clarifying the product positioning, we can focus on users. Before looking for target users, we must first determine who our target users are? How to define our core users?

2.1 Identify target users

I have mentioned before that one of the three major principles of operation is "results-oriented", and the other two are "customer first" and "efficiency first".

Every decision we make should be aimed at getting us closer to our goals, not moving us in the opposite direction. Therefore, we must know who the target user group of our product is, whether it is white-collar women, young mothers, students or business people. Since we are in the cold start phase, we are looking for the most core seed users , so the user group should be segmented as much as possible, and we should try our best to acquire those users who are attracted by the functions of the product itself rather than subsidies and discounts.

2.2 Defining core users

"Circle operation" for users is a very important idea for user operation . The so-called circle operation is to classify users according to a certain dimension, which can be based on the level of activity or whether they pay. The purpose of user circles is to carry out differentiated operations and invest limited energy and resources on the most core and important user groups, so as to maximize ROI.

As the seed users introduced earliest into the product, they are often also the core users who are most likely to grow with the product. It seems unreasonable to classify by importance. Here we can refer to the classification logic of key figures in the "Law of Individuals" proposed by Malcolm in his book "The Tipping Point" - insiders, connectors and salesmen to define the core users of the product.

Insider: We can understand him as the group of seed users who are willing to contribute content to the product. A typical feature is that they often do not obtain information passively, but actively collect first-hand and second-hand information, and process and compare the collected information to ultimately output content. A typical example is the creators of the content on many UGC products. For example, the authors who publish articles on Jianshu.

Contact person: This is a group of seed users who can spread the product and let more people know about our product. Compared to insiders, they may not be good at creating content, but they know a lot of people, and their social circles cover various fields, age groups and even different nationalities. In short, the connectors have a network of relationships far beyond that of ordinary people. Many "KOLs" who are sought to endorse products when they are first launched can be considered a typical type of connector.

Salesman: If the role of a connector is to let people know about our products, then the role of a salesman is to persuade others to use our products. This type of user is often willing to share, and has its own unique social charm and strong infectiousness.

Step 3. How to obtain target users

After determining the target user group of the product and knowing which types of core users to look for as the product's early seed users, the next thing we have to face is the problem of how to acquire the target users.

3.1 Where are the target users?

The first step to acquire core users is to find where the users appear.

3.1.1 Relationship circle

"Killing the familiar" is a major characteristic of the Internet industry. Therefore, the initial wave of users for many products come from existing relationship circles.

Investors : As the financial backers of the company, investors have certain interests tied to the company. In addition to contributing money, I think it wouldn't be too much to contribute a little more effort. Generally speaking, investors have considerable networks of relationships. In particular, most investors often have multiple Internet investment projects under their control. We can ask investors to match them up for resource exchanges between related products.

Founder/founding team: The founding team has an unshirkable responsibility for product growth and user acquisition. If you ask your boss for help in recruiting a group of his friends, but he chooses to shirk responsibility, then there is no need for you to stay in this company.

Colleagues/employees: Many startup teams’ new customer acquisition targets are assigned to internal employees. It’s just like when Sina Weibo was first launched, every employee was required to achieve a certain new user acquisition target every week. If they didn’t achieve it in the first week, they would be criticized, if they didn’t achieve it in the second week, they would be fined, and if they didn’t achieve it in the third week, they would just say bye.

Family/Friends: As employees, when we are asked to attract new customers, we can only start with our family and friends. The conversion rate of asking acquaintances for help will definitely be higher than asking someone on the street to download our app.

3.1.2 Online

In fact, there are so many large community platforms now: such as Douban, Zhihu, Tieba, Guokr, Weibo, WeChat public accounts , etc. As long as we clearly define the attributes of our target user group, it will be relatively easy to reach our user group.

For example, if you are a UGC product, your main focus is to produce high-quality Internet-related content. For this type of product, its earliest batch of seed users are definitely the content creators. You can go to Zhihu to find big Vs who answer Internet topics, find well-known related WeChat public accounts , etc., and invite them to join.

3.1.3 Offline

Offline user gathering places are mainly used for ground promotion . For example, a product targeting business people can choose CBD, and a product targeting college students can be promoted on university campuses . However, given the relatively high cost of ground marketing, it is not recommended for start-up companies to choose this method when acquiring seed users.

3.2 What are the means of acquisition?

When we start to acquire target users, please first ensure that our products are ready and have their own unique selling points to attract users. Because in the process of acquisition, we need to package this selling point in various forms and present it to our target users in order to attract them to enter. If these are ready, then next, let's talk about several ways to acquire users.

3.2.1 Invitation

This method is more commonly used in UGC content products, such as Zhihu, Sina 's early invitation of big Vs to join, and knowledge sharing platforms such as Zaixing and DaKaShuo.

The general operation method is as we said before, to find KOLs or high-quality content producers that match our products through some existing online platforms and invite them to join our products. For some well-known KOLs in the industry, start-up products often do not rely on material rewards to invite them, because start-up companies often have limited funds and it is difficult for them to come up with material chips that are enough to impress the big names. At this time, we often need to meet their spiritual needs. In terms of fame and fortune, for this kind of kol, fame is often more attractive to them than financial benefits.

3.2.2 Recruitment

This approach is more for the users of our products. If it is a UGC content product, when acquiring seed users, for content consumers, recruitment is more often used rather than invitation.

Recruitment can be divided into paid recruitment and unpaid recruitment.

1) Paid recruitment

For the so-called paid recruitment, we generally give certain material incentives to the recruits in exchange for their activeness within the product, and we often require the recruits to create multiple vests so that the product can create an atmosphere with a considerable user scale and active users, thereby attracting more users to stay and interact.

2) Free recruitment

Free recruitment is more about reaching a large number of potential users through product promotion.

Content method: We can promote our products by publishing soft articles on major platforms (Zhihu, Tieba, Douban, etc.). Please note that this is a soft article, not a hard advertisement. We need to write an advertisement that does not look like an advertisement, so as to attract users to click on it without causing users to be disgusted. In the application process of content law, taking advantage of hot news is a good method.

Vest method: Use multiple vests to interact with others on major community platforms, QQ groups, and WeChat groups , seemingly unintentionally revealing product-related information to arouse the interest of others.

Social method: mobilize your own circle of friends to help forward and spread relevant information about the product.

Joint method: conduct joint promotion and resource exchange with other platforms. When choosing a platform, be sure to choose a platform with a relatively high degree of user group matching. For example, the upstream and downstream of the industry in which the product is located, or other demand platforms of the group: for example, although early childhood education products and children's books are not in the upstream and downstream of the industry, their user groups are highly matched.

ASO method: If it is a product with an app, you can make good use of the recommendation channel of the application platform and optimize related searches.

Step 4. How to keep target users

In the seed stage, the product should pay more attention to user retention . If you want users to stay in your product, you should first make the user loss cost large enough. Only in this way will they think twice before leaving. As for core users in the seed stage, our main method of retaining them is often to interact more and give them enough recognition and respect.

For creator users in UGC products, we can use pseudonyms to comment and like their articles, organize some offline experience days to invite these creators to participate in live events, and issue some honorary certificates to satisfy their desire to be respected and recognized. Of course, we must not forget to promote his articles or other creative content from the content operation level. The more supporters he has within the product, the less likely he will be to leave.

As for content consumers in content-based products, our main way to keep them is to recommend content that they are interested in. For different products, we need to improve their retention rate by continuously strengthening the role of the product that attracts users and improving their retention rate . At the same time, we also need to use our accounts to interact with such users, reply to their comments, and make them feel that they are not alone.

Step 5. Make users active

Only when users are active will they become dependent on our products. Only in the later stage will there be an opportunity to commercialize users. So how do you get users active?

5.1 Establishing a user growth system

In fact, we hope that users will be active, which means that we hope that users will move forward steadily on the track we set for them, rather than falling behind or going astray. At this time, it is necessary for us to design a user growth system. Certain incentives are given to users for behaviors that are beneficial to the product, while harmful behaviors are punished accordingly. The design of the growth system can not only stimulate user activity, but also prevent bad money from driving out good money.

5.2 Plan activities to motivate users

If designing a growth system for users is a long-term operation to guide users to engage in beneficial behaviors, then planning activities is a short-term operation that often achieves explosive results. For example, the "IT Special Topic Recommended Authors" event recently held by Jianshu is to mobilize the enthusiasm of creators in the form of activities, and there is a clause in the activity rules that the "number of fans" must be greater than 60. In the short term, it will inevitably cause a surge in Jianshu's "attention" data, and in the long term, it will also strengthen the interaction between users, thereby enhancing the creators' sense of recognition and attention, and strengthening their stickiness with Jianshu.

Summarize

Cold start can be said to be a problem that most products have to face, and this is often the most important and difficult period for a product. The quality of seed users acquired during the cold start phase will largely determine the length of the product's life cycle. The five steps I mentioned are only a universal methodology. In actual operations, operators need to make corresponding changes and adjustments based on the particularities of their own products to tailor a unique cold start solution for their own products.

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

The author of this article @糖愫尔 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!