Violent operation is dead, and the era of refined operation has arrived!

The operational cases that have been reviewed previously cover many popular fields such as e-commerce , O2O , sharing economy, sports, online education and social networking . They are sufficiently representative in terms of product entry points, operation construction and results achieved. Successful products have the right time, place and people, but they insist on doing the right thing.

Today I want to summarize the essence of these cases and share the operating experience of different products at different stages. The whole text is permeated with case summaries and is told in four stages.

Market Choice

The vast majority of cases are products of mobile Internet . In this regard, mobile design provides new product forms and interaction methods, that is, new user capture opportunities.

Based on this, several characteristics can be summarized in the choice of market entry:

1. Lack of industry products . The starting point is to make up for the lack of segmented needs in the industry, such as Jianshu and Keep .
2. Industry wave . In pursuit of the trend, join the competition head-on or look for classified markets, such as Youlin and Kongkong.
3. Change the original industry structure . Change the original links of the industry or the way of connecting with users, and provide new experiences or models, such as 9beike and where to go on weekends.

There are many different entry modes in the fields where the cases are listed, such as in the field of fitness, there are private training platform "Chu Lian", ClassPass's gym platform "Quanchengre Lian", fitness meal platform "Haosepai Salad", etc.

In this market situation, there are two common evolution directions:

1. Different links coexist. By providing services to different links or roles in the industrial chain, there will be coexistence and even resource complementarity. For example, fitness meal pass can be promoted in cooperation with gyms or fitness apps.
2. Different paths lead to the same destination. For the same role (even if they are divided into different levels), in the end, either the positioning is normalized or there is a difference between life and death. For example, in the field of art e-commerce where Dongjia APP is located, no matter from the perspective of content, auction, or community , the final independent platform form must include all. It is necessary for both competition and operation.

In such an environment, it is very important to predict the entry direction (including the choice of user segmentation) and the development of product form. If the choice is correct, you can smoothly transition to the final form. Otherwise, you will need to transform midway to follow your competitors.

In addition, when talking about market selection, we have to talk about the issue of barriers. Among the many case barriers mentioned, one is the user volume effect, and the other is the user stickiness generated by the product closed loop, both of which are operation-oriented.

Including Xueba Jun’s photo-taking and question-searching technology, technical factors are the foundation of the product and are indispensable, but compared with competitors, the experience is not a difference of 0 and 1. Only operational advantages can ultimately make the product take the lead. In other words, barriers are not built overnight, but are the result of long-term accumulation.

Product Launch

After choosing the market direction, the next step is how to start product development and operation plans. On the one hand, we need to think firmly about how to design early functions and find and operate seed users in the absence of brand effects; on the other hand, the scarcity of resources and the trial and error of operational methods make the start of operations full of uncertainty.

1. Product Planning

In the era of traditional e-commerce, product development plans generally involved building a basic transaction model and then gradually optimizing the shopping process and marketing system. As a result, products were caught in a vortex of perfect competition in their prototype stages.

In the new era of mobile Internet , demand is constantly fragmented by a large number of entrepreneurs , users are disrupted by various products in different spaces, and the situation of homogeneous competition has decreased.

After experiencing the fierce cost competition in the e-commerce wars and a large number of O2O failures, we can see that more and more products pay attention to iteration plans, transforming the large market demand into small user demand, and using technological means to achieve innovative breakthroughs in user growth. Summarize several features:

(1) Platform unilateralization

This type of product is destined to be in the form of a platform, connecting service providers or merchants on one end and consumers on the other. However, in the prototype stage of the product, they usually only provide services to one party, have tool attributes, and form a growth breakthrough for single-point users.

Let’s look at two different cases.

Tingke APP is a skill service trading platform, with skill service providers on one end and consumers on the other. In the early stages of the product, it is only open to skilled service providers. Service providers can upload their skill services through the APP and promote them through self-sharing, which is similar to a store opening tool and meets the service providers' publicity needs. Only after accumulating enough service providers will the centralized purchasing portal for consumers be launched online.

The O2O platform "Where to Go on Weekends", which also has two-end attributes, is completely the opposite. In the early stage of the product, the service side solved the quantity problem through the shopping guide model, while focusing on acquiring C-end users. When the transaction volume is sufficient, the merchant entrance will be launched.

(2) Tool-based transformation

Unlike the first type, this type of product starts from a tool that meets specific needs. As the number of users grows and content and data accumulate, it gradually explores commercial services and grows into a comprehensive platform.

"Orange Bull Car Manager" starts with the car violation query function, which is a typical tool attribute. During the product development process, we will gradually add car-related service functions, including ticket payment, gas cards, car insurance, etc., to form a one-stop car service.

Another example is "Jianshu", which started as an editor that supports Markdown, a very niche product. Later, a normal editor was added to adapt to the general public. When users get used to producing content on Jianshu, it will then transform into a reading platform, increase the content display design from a reading perspective, and improve the social interaction experience between readers and authors, such as likes, rewards, and follows.

(3) Closed-loop growth

The entry direction of this type of product is sufficiently differentiated and competitive. As the product develops, it will gradually refer to and introduce the business models of competitors to improve the ecosystem. For example, Keep 3.0 is launched for running.

As mentioned above, products can be small and beautiful, but the ecological ambitions are the same.

2. Operation start

With a product prototype or just an idea, how to carry out early operations is of utmost importance. In addition to acquiring users, it can also provide direction for product adjustments in the most timely manner.

If the product concept meets the needs, early operations will definitely not be difficult, which means that it will not be difficult to collect user channels and reasonable promotion methods.

Summarize many cases and sort out the common operational cold start methods for different products.

(1) KOL Operation

Obtain the earliest core users through targeted cooperation or one-on-one invitations.

For example, "Stand Sports" is a basketball chat app that focuses on the field of basketball. Users can chat in groups during different live broadcasts of games. The core operation method in the early stage was to sign basketball celebrities including basketball reporters stationed in the United States, Ke Fan, Yang Yi and others into the group.

As a writing tool, Jianshu's early users discovered well-known bloggers through blogs and Twitter. In addition, in the technical circle, the KOL method is also very practical.

(2) Event Operation

Many products have broken through the bottleneck of early operations through activities and completed user accumulation ahead of schedule. But objectively speaking, to launch an event that exceeds expectations requires careful planning and perhaps luck.

For example, SegmentFault is a UGC technical question-and-answer community that was officially launched in 2012. Communities of this nature usually require a long period of operation accumulation, which is something that startups in the new era cannot afford. In December 2012, by chance, SegmentFault introduced the concept of hackathon from abroad and organized a programming event called "Challenge on the Eve of Doomsday". This event became famous and became a series of activities that are carried on every year.

(3) Content distribution

First of all, there are two types of content. One is the high-quality content produced by the platform itself; the other is the content written separately for the purpose of promotion. There are also two differences in promotion. One is to distribute it to multiple platforms to obtain traffic widely; the other is to focus on distributing recognizable content to user re-aggregation channels.

For example, Dongqiudi, as a football information platform, takes the platform brand as its theme and distributes content simultaneously on different platforms. It can not only attract traffic widely, but also create a unified brand matrix. Keep belongs to another situation. It writes fitness tutorials independently and disseminates them through specific channels such as Douban Fitness Group to build a KOL image.

(4) Community Operation

This method is more common, has a low operating threshold and is effective quickly. Acquire users through one-on-one quick invitations, event dissemination, etc., and retain users through product experience exchanges and event operations.

(5) Local marketing

For some products, ground promotion is also suitable in the early stage. The advantages are accurate user base, controllable number of users and promotion costs. After promotion, there must be timely communication and activity follow-up, and a prerequisite is to have a product model for user experience.

In the case of "Xue Ba Jun", early users were obtained through small cards at the campus gate. Users could solve problems in the official account . "Xue Ba Jun" subsequently launched the "School Beauty and School Prince" campaign, successfully activating and spreading the first batch of users.

Operation system construction

In the early stages of a product’s development, there are unknowns about market reaction and the difficulty of promotion, and there are many difficulties in operational trial and error, including the incompleteness of the team. As the product develops gradually, it is necessary to normalize key operational tasks, which is the construction of the operation system.

The operational focus is very different for different products, and before and after the transformation of the same product. The operation system described here is centered around the operational needs of the product itself. It is not a single position and does not only refer to the operation personnel, but also includes technical completion, etc.

1. E-commerce, O2O

These two types of products are put together because the online operating ideas are very similar and many links are shared. The core of many O2O startups also mainly comes from e-commerce, local information and other companies.

(1) Investment promotion

Managing the product supply chain and recruiting service technicians is both the primary focus and an ongoing process. The types of investment promotion on different platforms are also very different. For example, the employer and where to go on weekends.

E-commerce self-operated platforms are mainly large and stable suppliers; B2C e-commerce is generally negotiated by the KA team; C2C platforms, including many O2O products, are initially operated through one-to-one recruitment, field promotion, online promotion and event operations.

(2) Merchant Operation

Connect with merchants to upload and improve service information, and train merchants to carry out marketing promotion and customer service experience.

(3) Category Operation

Based on data analysis , seasonal changes, cycle changes, and user habits, reasonably display and optimize the products and mapping relationships between the front and back ends.

(4) Marketing planning

Planning of on-site promotional activities and coordination of marketing activities.

(5) Marketing

Responsible for promotional matters such as traffic introduction, advertising placement and market cooperation. In many O2O companies, there are separate offline event operation positions, which also serve as promotion roles.

2. Content & Social (Community)

We can see that many products enhance user stickiness and precipitate value output by adding these parts one after another. For example, Dongqiudi and Jianshu.

(1) Content Operation

The main differences between UGC and PGC are the orderly production of content through product guidance, incentive mechanism or recruitment of part-time authors, or the capture of content by technical means, and secondary editing of content. At the same time, like category operation, the content is displayed and output by topic and type.

(2) Marketing

In addition to traffic-based promotion, in the field of vertical content, content distribution through vertical communities and third-party content platforms and cross-industry cooperation are becoming increasingly important.

(3) User Operation

Under the UGC model, user operation is the core function, which improves the output and quality of content through continuous activity operations and short- and medium-term incentive rules. Many products introduce social relationship functions in the later stages to increase interaction between users or build communities.

(4) New media operations

Although new media is a standard feature of most companies today, different product genes will lead to different levels of difficulty and importance in operations.

3. Tools & Services

High-frequency functional entry is the entry strategy advocated by many markets, and then various services are introduced to expand business depth and monetization. The marginal cost of user operation of tool products is very low, the functions are similar, but the operational focus is different. For example, Xuebajun, Qichacha and Yiqixiu.

(1) Targeted promotion

The user groups of tool products are generally very vertical, with obvious commonalities and strong demand. It mainly acquires accurate users through vertical advertising and ground promotion.

(2) Product Operation

The relationship between users and tools is one-way, and data is the trace of usage. Product operations use various data to analyze the effectiveness of tool use, loss links, etc., to improve tool efficiency, increase user stickiness, and reasonably formulate communication link functions.

At a deeper level, we can explore users’ personalized needs and provide more personalized customized services.

(3) Brand Operation

There are two main aspects. The first is to make up for the lack of interaction of tools through online and offline activities, so that users can interact and trust the brand, and then have word of mouth; the second is external publicity, cross-industry cooperation and advertising mainly based on brand communication, to implant impressions in users in appropriate scenarios and cooperate with the advancement of other promotion links.

To thrive, you must understand the attributes of the products you operate and predict the direction of development, so that you can grasp the focus and efficiency points of the operation direction.

Deepening of operations

Operational deepening refers to pushing the product's operational level to a higher level by seeking cross-industry cooperation with broad purposes. The reason why it is discussed separately outside the operating system is that it does not seem to be a normal necessity on the surface, but it is extremely important and can add fuel to the fire.

The timing and resources are just right for different products and cases. Facts cannot be replicated, but ideas can be inherited. We divide them according to different cooperation purposes.

1. Service exchange

Utilize the platform’s own technology and services to meet the resource needs of partners, thereby “exchanging” for the other party’s user base. Often this is an operational upgrade with no or minimal out-of-pocket cost, and there are many such cases.

For example, where to go on weekends, the “To Craftsmanship” series of activities brings together craftsmen on the platform to carry out on-site themed DIY activities. In cooperation with large supermarkets such as Intime, the shopping mall provides venues free of charge, introduces activities to enhance interaction and atmosphere, and works with mall stores to attract traffic. Where to Go on Weekends provides artisans with publicity opportunities and converts a large number of targeted people on site for free.

Similar examples of exchanging volume include Xueba Jun’s photo-taking and question-searching technology and its embedding in MIUI8, Yitao’s “Silk Road”, etc.

2. User replacement

Based on the conditions of own users, various resources of partners can be exchanged. According to the purpose of exchange, it can be divided into the following categories:

(1) Hotspot replacement

With product users as the main participants and the partner's brand as the theme, the event is set up with the partner providing prizes, and the ultimate goal of active users and joint brand exposure is achieved. The product introduces various types of cooperation and continues to create hot spots.

Examples include the theme creation competition jointly organized by Jianshu, CONDING and Meizu, and the topic interactions jointly organized by Keep and various brands.

(2) Brand replacement

Cooperate with large organizations or brands to carry out activities, use your own users as one of the promotional subjects, obtain the brand endorsement of the partner, and promote your own brand.

For example, on September 20, 2016, Dongjia APP and Shanghai Jiahe Auction House jointly launched an online and offline simultaneous auction. Buyers watch the preview through video, pay deposits online, and bid simultaneously. Through cooperation, Jiahe has gained more attention from potential buyers and used its host's bidding system to lower the threshold for buyers to participate and obtain more bids. Dongjia obtains the endorsement of offline auction houses, the attention of high-quality customers of auction houses, and introduces high-quality auction items.

Similar cases include the “old clothes for new clothes” activities between Keep and PUMA, 9 Shells and Intime.

The era of refined operations

The era of simple and crude traffic has faded away, and users are becoming increasingly difficult to "please", which means the era of refined operations has arrived. Starting small and beautiful, with in-depth content, multi-platform deployment, scenario-based marketing, trivial functions, and big-picture collaboration.

Many cases have moved from the period of highly homogeneous operation system to the path of operationism with independent characteristics. What has not changed is that operations do not produce demand, they are only the carriers of demand.