In-depth analysis: How to operate 2B products

A large number of companies and products have been born under the entrepreneurial boom, providing 2B services with more potential customers. The crowded and fierce competition in the field has led more companies to seek low-cost development, refined operations , and diversified 2B services, making their value more prominent. In such an environment, the operating system of 2B products has gradually taken shape. This article will analyze in detail the operating strategies of 2B products and their respective operating characteristics through three products that provide different services: GrowingIO, Ping++ and Duiba.

Key decision makers

Compared with 2C products, 2B products are aimed at corporate customers. Whether to choose them is related to fees, technology and operating costs, as well as effects. In addition, the use of 2B products is naturally exclusive to a certain extent, that is, opportunity cost, so in theory the decision-making chain is longer. How to locate the key decision maker KDM and build a strategy system around this role is the focus of operations. First, analyze the decision makers through the characteristics of three product cases.

GrowingIO is a self-developed deep data analysis system. By connecting products to GrowingIO's SDK, you can view detailed product data.

The characteristic is that the access process is one-time, there will be no complicated technical failures, and the cost of technical access is low, which means there is little technical resistance. Data analysis is a backend function and does not affect the planning of the product itself. Then you only need to push the decision makers at the business level (operations or products), and then the decision makers will push other departments with little resistance.

Ping++ is an integrated service provider of payment functions, reducing the technical costs of accessing multiple payment channels. The difficulty of decision-making lies in three points:

1. Payment, and the scenarios built around payment, are the core aspects of the product, with a high level of decision-making;
2. Given the convenient experience of Alipay and WeChat Pay, the business side has no obvious demand for the front-end experience of integrated payment;
3. Ping++ is an intermediary between channels such as UnionPay and Alipay. In the payment process, technical failures in different payment channels occur frequently and are concentrated on Ping++. The technical maintenance cost is not low.

Therefore, it is not something that can be driven by a single decision maker.

Duiba helps products build points malls and provides operational support.

The points mall is not a new thing. In addition to the low technical access and maintenance costs, its characteristics are also reflected in the prizes and marketing support brought by the platform advantages, which reduce operating costs. For operators, the experience advantage is significant, and they are the key decision makers.

However, the access to the points mall will occupy the product entrance and greatly change the original user system of the product, so it also involves the decision-making of senior management and product parties. From the above three cases, we can see that technology is a key factor for 2B products and merchants, but the key decision maker is not necessarily the technical department. Sorting out key decision makers based on product characteristics and promotion difficulty is the guiding direction of the entire operation system.

Sales and operation services

2B product decisions are complex and will not lead to a surge in customers through viral transmission, and the number of customers is not high. The first thing is to establish a complete sales and service process that can reflect the value of the product itself.

1. Sales Force

Two years after Duiba was established, about 3,000 companies have connected to its APP. It is conceivable that there is no such thing as getting rich overnight. Sales is the core force. In the early stages of development, there is no reputation and no successful cases, and valuable customers are mainly acquired through sales. Once a certain reputation is established, the sales goal can be shifted to conquering major customers. Small customers complete access through a complete promotion process, technology and customer service support.

In the early stages of development, customers can also be acquired through targeted cooperation with incubators. After Ping++ was launched in 2014, it first served the customers here, such as "Kung Fu Bear", through its own Microsoft accelerator. 2B products for Internet companies are already better able to leverage their strengths. Instead of simply making stranger visits as in the traditional way, we will leverage the power of the market to obtain displays and sign batch contracts on the spot through exhibitions, salons, targeted cooperation portals, etc. In addition, through various types of cooperation such as technical exchanges and operation sharing, you can indirectly reach key decision makers and gain customer recognition and conversion.

2. Technical & Operational Support

Different types of products have very different emphases in the support process. Including access process consultation, technical troubleshooting consultation, community, business needs support, etc.

(1) Technical support

Compared with the other two products, Ping++ relies more heavily on technical support, involving professional fields of finance and technology. Judging from the tone of the official website, technical support also accounts for a large proportion. In terms of form, it includes several measures: various document descriptions, common technical fault descriptions, technical communities, technical QQ groups, and work order systems.

The efficiency of technical support is reflected in the reduction of manual answers. Different developers have different levels and may cause technical failures due to various reasons. Independent diagnosis is often required, which is not something that general customer service can solve. Therefore, forms such as developer communities and QQ groups can guide developers to solve problems among each other.

(2) Operation and business support

GrowingIO and Duiba are long-term operating tools , and the proportion of direct technical support is low. In addition to documents, Duiba’s official website only has QQ for technical support at the bottom. GrowingIO's operational support is reflected in how, as a deep data platform, it continuously sorts out the data, reports and analysis needs of different types of products so that customers can draw analytical conclusions conveniently and effectively. Therefore, one of the core functions is data analyst.

Another supporting point is how to educate the market. For many operators, they do not have professional data analysis knowledge, so they need to continuously output data analysis knowledge through online classes, content, sharing, etc. Duiba’s operational support system is relatively complex, and the key is how to reduce operating costs. It includes several points: a large number of free prizes, hot activities that can be directly put on the shelves, and the design of points consumption scenarios.

Then there needs to be an investment team to find product cooperation and continuously update high-quality prizes; the event team needs to continuously plan hot events; and based on the needs of different products, explore ways to play with points, and even customize them. Technical and business support form a complete service and product optimization process. For customers, fault response rate and demand satisfaction are very intuitive experiences.

3. Marketing support

It refers to online communication activities initiated by 2B products for the purpose of gaining product experience, exposure or traffic, which is illustrated through two cases.

On July 17, 2015, Ping++ launched a Chinese Valentine's Day rose-giving event. By using Ping++'s function, you can pay 0.01 yuan to give virtual roses to yourself or your friends, and a national ranking will be made on the number of roses. Finally, physical roses will be given out based on the ranking. Spread the message with social attributes and gain participants’ intuitive experience of Ping++.

In this activity, the uncontrollable social chain will inevitably lead to a large number of participants not being potential customers. In addition, the light nature of social interaction conflicts with the heavy professional attributes of payment, and the promotion will not be profound. Duiba invested a lot of resources in the "2016 Spring Festival Celebrity Red Packet Giving" and "International Women's Day Points Event" initiated by Duiba. All Duiba merchants launched the activities online at the same time, or because of the prominent themes, a large number of products were put on the shelves independently to attract traffic, and due to the investment model, they obtained advertising or CPS income. In general, product-themed online communication activities, including H5 formats, are very worthy of consideration and research. Regardless of whether the decision maker is the BOSS, technology or product operation , there are topics that fit the circle, you can show your face and have some low-cost interactions.

Content Operation Potential

The audience of 2B products is vertical, and content operations are not like pure new media that blindly chase hot topics and organize activities. They are usually to highlight the value of the product and establish a professional image. The content range includes product dynamics, event announcements, industry news, and experience case sharing, and the dissemination of pure technical content is relatively weak. Take GrowingIO as an example, it is a typical representative of content operation.

Other products similar to GrowingIO include Sensors Data and Zhuge IO. Relying on the founder's Silicon Valley background, GrowingIO's content is positioned on the concept of "growth hacking", hitting the operational pain points faced by most products and targeting operations and product people.

Content production source:

1. Founder Zhang Mengxi and senior executives frequently shared Silicon Valley cases, data analysis, and growth content at many events, which were widely reported and disseminated;
2. Almost all employees of the company, except for senior executives, including data analysts, product managers , etc., continue to produce relevant original articles.

Distribution channels include:

1. 36Kr, Everyone is a Product Manager and other mainstream industry media. In 2 months, I was a guest author on 36kr and published 10 articles, not including reports written by other authors.
2. Initiated 17 series of open courses and frequently participated in external activities;
3. Content communities and public accounts publish original articles, which are reposted by a large number of industry accounts.

A closed loop of wide content production → multi-channel distribution → content sedimentation has been formed.

Relatively speaking, Ping++'s content has two extremes. One category is biased towards education on major trends in the payment industry, and the other is professional explanations of payment services.

Ping++ has complex decision makers, and the theme of the content can be spread and targeted at different roles. Finding roles that are easier to spread does not necessarily mean talking about payment alone.

For example, around the newly launched balance and coupon functions, you can share the product design of the coupon system and how to operate the coupons. The content type of Duiba is similar to GrowingIO, which is inclined to the points and user activity operations from an operational perspective. One obvious difference is that the content of Duiba mainly comes from the content records of company members sharing in activities.

Although they are original, most of them are short and not profound (due to activity restrictions), and the editors are too "lazy" to process them in depth and just copy and publish them.

In addition, as a strategically upgraded APP operation platform, it is possible to plan to regularly produce original high-quality content within the company. Good content is also a form of productivity. Since we have the need to expand and have the ability to "reproduce", why should we be "DINKs"?

Market and brand

In the operation of 2B products, a marketing department is standard. The goal of brand exposure and communication can be achieved through different routes such as market cooperation, content output, and activities.

The importance of brand influence is comprehensive, including customer attention and growth, the quality of market resources, and the degree of natural dissemination. In simple terms, the greater the influence, the more focused customer attention and choices; the greater the attraction and bargaining power over resources during market cooperation; and the media will track and report on product changes and events held.

1. Exhibition and interaction at the conference

Participate in large-scale exhibitions in the industry, set up exhibition areas, plan interactive sessions, and give out gifts. The exhibition has a large flow of people, and the exhibition area layout and prize setting are outstanding, which can gain considerable attention and conversion.

(1) Ping++

• 2014.8.11 Techcrunch International Innovation Summit Exhibitor
• 2015.7.19 HTML5 Summit Shanghai

(2) Exchange

• 2016.4.28 Participated in the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC)
• 2016.5.10 Innovation China Spring Summit

This is a form of participation with a low threshold, which requires paying fees, exchanging resources or scanning your face. It can be seen that the exhibition runs through most 2B products.

2. Share with the industry

Core members such as company executives can participate in industry activities and share their experiences based on their own products and technologies, which can positively spread the importance and advantages of their own products and attract more resources. When it comes to founders’ participation in industry activities, we need to look at both sides. For those who participate in regular and “premeditated” activities, they act as free KOLs for the company. There are many types of activities involved, including:

• Industry conferences: mainly initiated by industry media or organizations, such as WeChain, Everyone is a Product Manager, iDev, and events under giants;
• Industry Partner Salon: Various 2B products will regularly launch theme salons, which require a large number of guests to participate;
• Exclusive interviews and open classes: Open classes can be shared online through voice or PPT, or by recording short videos . The organizers are responsible for recruiting and promoting students, and the sharers use their own experience to endorse and promote the products.

In this regard, the three products have participated in a lot of industry sharing around their own products, from the perspectives of growth hacking, payment monetization, and active points operations. Many technology-based 2B products, such as Qiniu Cloud, also organize operations-related salons with a lot of cross-selection.

3. Brand activities

Refers to online and offline activities initiated independently. In the 2B field, offline activities are mainly sharing salons, some of which are single sessions, such as the [ Internet Finance Transformation] salon held by GrowingIO on June 16, 2016. Some are theme series, such as Qiniu Cloud’s Architect Practice Series and Ping++’s [Monetization Era] series. Others operate offline activities in a branded manner, such as Duiba’s [Operation Helicopter]. There is no need to explain the role of offline activities. Usually, guests are invited to share their experiences based on the theme, and venues and gift support are obtained free of charge through resource exchange. We also obtain registrations through multiple channels through mutual promotion among industry partners and publication on event platforms. The activity process is generally similar, and the overall cost is not high. The key is to determine the activity planning ideas.

This is a virtuous circle. The higher the quality of the guests, the more attendees there will be. As a result, it will be easier to invite the next guest and there will be more cooperative resources. Therefore, the quality of the event is very important. A common large-scale example of online brand activities is technical competitions based on products.

For example, on November 12, 2014, Ping++ launched its first online hackathon. Participants used the Ping++ SDK to develop payment scenarios, and their works participated in a prize-winning selection.

4. Extensive cross-industry cooperation

Actively participate in industry partner activities to gain joint exposure, which are commonly of the following types:

1. Collaborative publicity. The other party provides free tickets, preferential services, etc. For example, on December 9, 2015, Ping++ cooperated with the designer platform "Tezan" to help promote it, and "Tezan" gave a specific discount code "ping++";
2. Joint gift pack. Multiple 2B products jointly offer coupons or free trial services for packaged joint promotion;
3. Event sponsorship. Provide your own peripheral gifts, and place roll-up banners, leaflets and other materials at the partner's event site, as well as logo joint display;
4. Join online activities and obtain designated entrance. For example, in the development competition jointly organized by UCloud and Gitcafe, developers develop through the API provided by UCloud and submit the code to Gitcafe. During the entire event, both parties' products gained in-depth experience and direct conversion from developers.

Cross-industry cooperation is mostly aimed at establishing cooperative relationships and high-frequency brand exposure. It has low thresholds and low costs. Except for specific forms, it generally does not seek to directly convert customers. It can be seen that the multiple routes of brand operation actually promote each other, especially focusing on the accumulation of industry resources, thereby reducing the overall cost of resource acquisition.

The truth behind the routine

The official website of a 2B product includes product introduction, documentation, SDK downloads, etc., so the PC website is very important. SEM / SEO is also involved. In addition, by analyzing the product usage data, fine-tuning optimization can be achieved. Under the basic operating framework, the so-called real chapter is to maximize the service link based on product characteristics, and by the way, not stick to one's own business. Wherever the wind blows, there is life.

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

Author of this article@ Yilin Xiaoyu is compiled and published by (APP Top Promotion). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!