Heytea’s private domain operation method

A few days ago, when I was browsing the news, I found that Heytea ’s mini program has more than 35 million members! According to official data, as of the first quarter of 2021, the number of members of the mini program HEYTEA GO has exceeded 35 million, and the online ordering rate accounts for 81%. If you have no idea, we can compare it with Starbucks, which currently has 15.4 million members in China, less than half of Heytea. Is Heytea’s mini program already doing so well? ? ?

With doubts, I came back to check the relevant information and found that Heytea is simply the originator of mini programs in the tea industry. Before Luckin Coffee started to develop mini programs, it had already launched Heytea go.

Now, Heytea has not only made its mini program flourish, but also relied on it to firmly sit on the top spot in the tea beverage industry...

How did HEYTEA do it?

In this article, we will uncover the secrets behind Heytea’s private domain operations .

01. Multiple online and offline touchpoints

If you want to make a good mini program, the first step is to build a good user base.

So, where does the traffic of Heytea GO come from?

1) Offline store traffic diversion

For Heytea, which has nearly a thousand offline stores, traffic generation of course starts from the stores.

① Mini Programs started early

If we look back at the development of HEYTEA, we will find that there is a problem that has created a considerable hidden danger to HEYTEA’s growth – queuing.

In the short term, queues may create momentum for a brand and give the impression that the brand is popular; but in the long run, people other than loyal users are likely to be blocked by long queues.

In order to address this problem, Heytea launched the mini program Heytea go in May 2018.

How early is this time?

Heytea was more than three months ahead of Luckin Coffee, which made its fortune through online fission; Starbucks did not launch its mini program until 2020.

Although the mini program HEYTEA GO was initially launched to solve the queuing problem, due to its early entry, HEYTEA has unknowingly accumulated a large amount of private traffic through ordering through the mini program.

As of now, the number of HEYTEA GO members has exceeded 35 million.

② Good store support

In order to further promote the mini program offline, Heytea also launched the go fast-moving store specifically for the mini program.

These stores are usually small in size, and there are mini-app QR codes on the glass at the door and everywhere in the store.

Whenever a user enters the store, the clerk will remind them that orders can only be placed through the mini program.

In this way, through a large number of fast-moving consumer goods stores, Heytea will be able to transfer its huge offline user base to the mini program.

In addition, in Heytea's experience store, the staff will also guide users with words:

For example, when queuing to order, the clerk will remind the user that if you mind queuing, you can use the mini program to place an order, which is convenient and fast...

2) Online Owned Traffic

To drive traffic to a mini program, the most convenient way is definitely to use a WeChat official account in the same ecosystem, so the binding between the official account and the mini program is inevitable, and it is very obvious.

① Menu bar settings for public account

Once you enter HEYTEA’s official WeChat account, you can find the mini program HEYTEA GO in the menu of the official account page. Click it to jump directly to the mini program.

② The article image comes with a jump link

In addition to the obvious settings of the menu bar, Heytea also contains a lot of little tricks in each push.

The user profile of HEYTEA has always been a young group of fashionable and individual people, who often have high requirements for "texture". Therefore, the pictures pushed by HEYTEA's official account are all full of style and beauty.

The most important thing is that each of these exquisite and beautiful product pictures comes with a jump link.

Think about it, you just finished looking at Heytea’s new season’s tea drink rankings one second, and the next second you click on the picture to automatically jump to the product page.

Isn’t the drainage efficiency improving every minute?

02. Use mini programs to receive traffic and convert it

With the traffic now available, how can Heytea maximize user conversion on the mini program?

We all know that the process of placing an order on a mini program is not complicated. You just open the mini program page, start shopping, and finally pay for the order.

However, even with such simple steps, Heytea can also insert countless tips to convert you.

1) Home page: Create an atmosphere and guide consumption

The homepage of a general mini program is either like Starbucks and Nayuki’s Tea, which highlight their various activities as much as possible to attract customers;

Or, like Luckin Coffee, put as much content as possible on the homepage and make full use of the advantage of the homepage being the "user's first glance".

But I found that the content of Heytea’s homepage is different from theirs…

① Exquisite product posters

When you click into the homepage of the Heytea mini program, you will find that nearly half of the page is occupied by posters of various new products.

These posters are beautifully composed and come with all the price information.

In my opinion, Heytea uses a large amount of space on the homepage to arrange the poster. This design has two tricks:

On the one hand, through textured product posters, we can create an atmosphere, enhance users' purchasing desire and establish a refined brand image.

On the other hand, the "natural freshness" of the raw materials is repeatedly emphasized through the poster copy. For example, the poster of succulent grapes says "hand-peeled each one", and the poster of succulent bayberry says "picked bayberries in early summer".

These copywritings repeatedly hint to users that the ingredients used in Heytea are of high quality and fresh.

There is a theory behind Heytea's actions.

According to the Goebbels effect, we know that when an idea is repeated over and over again, it becomes a fixed mindset.

In simple terms, when HEYTEA repeatedly brainwashes its users by telling them that the ingredients they use are of high quality and fresh, users will truly accept this information and believe that HEYTEA's quality is very good!

This not only strengthens Heytea's high-quality brand positioning, but also improves users' brand favorability towards Heytea.

② Eye-catching purchasing channels

In addition to the poster, the largest space on the homepage is occupied by purchasing methods.

The copy below the purchase path can be said to directly hit the user's pain points.

For example, the copy for in-store pick-up is “order without queuing”, which can be said to have always been one of Heytea’s biggest pain points; the copy for takeout is “contactless delivery”, in line with the needs of the epidemic.

In addition, Heytea has also explored other online consumption methods - group purchasing with friends. By group buying, Heytea not only reduces its delivery costs, but also allows users to enjoy the benefits.

2) Purchase: Fine operation drives growth

Regardless of whether users pick up the order themselves or have it delivered, they will eventually be redirected to Heytea’s purchase page. Heytea has also prepared a lot of tricks for this page.

① A shopping page with different faces for different people

The shopping page of the Heytea mini program presents different arrangements depending on the user and store, which can be said to be a thousand stores with a thousand faces.

First of all, since different stores use raw materials at different paces, not all stores have the same content.

For example, some stores may have run out of grapes, so if the user locates the store, succulent grapes will not appear on the recommendation interface, but other more popular teas will be recommended.

For stores, each store can have its own flagship products for the corresponding time period; for users, it can also avoid the embarrassing situation of out of stock after placing an order.

Secondly, the vertical menu bar of the mini program will be different depending on whether the user is new or old.

For new users, Heytea often puts the popular must-drinks at the top of the list.

Because new users may not know how to choose from a wide variety of drinks, what HEYTEA needs to do is to reduce the difficulty of selection for users, allowing users to complete their first order as quickly as possible and experience the "aha moment".

The popular must-drink list is composed of the 10 best-selling drinks with the highest sales each month. Among them, "Succulent Grape", which ranks first for many months, is the first cup of HEYTEA that most people drink.

Creating a hit, especially a well-known hit, is often more likely to attract new users and thus drive growth.

For old users, Heytea puts new product recommendations and seasonal specials at the forefront.

Because tea drinks are consumer products with a low decision-making cycle, continuous sensory stimulation is important for old users. To continue to attract old users, we must focus on creating freshness, continuously develop new products, and update and iterate the menu.

Through refined operations of different stores and new and old users, Heytea not only provides users with a good shopping experience, but also attracts new users to try new things and increases the life cycle of old users.

② Extremely detailed single product page

After users have roughly selected a tea drink based on recommendations, they can also click on the detailed page of the tea drink to learn more information.

First of all, the product page of each tea drink is a color picture with a white background, and the second page is the actual picture.

What is the purpose of doing this?

The "primacy effect" tells us that the first impression is often the strongest and lasts the longest. Color drawings look more refined and beautiful, and leave a better first impression on users.

In addition, this kind of white background picture without background can better highlight the core selling point. For example, the selling point of "Cheese Berry" is that it is made from fresh strawberries, which also helps users make purchases.

Secondly, Heytea has made extremely detailed divisions in the flavor blending of its products.

Take Heytea’s “rival” Nayuki’s Tea as an example. Nayuki only divides the flavor blending into three aspects - tea base, temperature and sugar content.

Heytea has made extremely detailed divisions in seven aspects, including state, amount of ice, sweetness, tea base, added ingredients, taste, and whether the topping is packaged separately.

In this way, Heytea allows users to enjoy customized services to the greatest extent possible, solving the problem of "it's difficult to satisfy everyone".

Finally, through the real product reviews on the single product page, users can intuitively see the feedback from other users.

There are two benefits to doing this. On the one hand, it provides users with a reliability reference and enhances brand favorability. On the other hand, because users can comment freely, it forces each store to remain vigilant at all times and pay attention to product quality.

The ultimate goal of HEYTEA is that the introduction page for each drink must allow users to immediately understand every aspect of the drink without having to go to an offline store, and place an order according to their own needs to get a cup of their own exclusive tea.

3) Ordering: Improving experience and balancing resources

In order to solve the queuing problem, Heytea also launched an order progress bar on the mini program.

As long as you place an order on the mini program, the mini program will automatically filter out the nearest stores for you. There will be a progress bar under each store showing how many orders are ahead of you and how many cups are in the production process.

Doing so will not only help users arrange their time reasonably, but also share the production pressure of those popular stores and avoid uneven distribution of resources.

In addition, if the store makes too many cups of tea, in order not to waste the user's time, the mini program will automatically display "Tea making is busy, only snacks and ice cream can be purchased";

When the production pressure is reduced, the mini program will send you a reminder message indicating that you can place an order.

Finally, we can make a summary of the mini program:

03. Improve retention through membership system

We all know that drinking tea is a high-frequency, low-demand scenario.

Therefore, establishing a user incentive system plays a significant role in extending the user life cycle and increasing user repurchase rate.

To this end, Heytea’s membership system is full of details.

HEYTEA membership is divided into two types: ordinary "GO members" and paid "Planet members". As long as you scan the code to enter the mini program and authorize the login, you will automatically become a go member.

If you want to become a "Planet Member", you need to pay, which is divided into 6 levels. You can see the picture:

1) Convert ordinary members into paid members

So, how does Heytea get users to purchase Planet Membership?

The most important point is that it will promote membership when users need special benefits the most.

For example, some store clerks will catch those users waiting in line and take action:

If you become a Star Member now, you can get two priority coupons (no need to queue, priority production), in addition, you can also get two free shipping coupons, two buy two get one free coupons...

According to my observation in the store, many people paid for the card after hearing this, because the "priority ticket" function directly hits the pain point without the need to queue.

For example, when users place an order, the store clerks will remind users:

Wow, you have a lot of points here, but you are an ordinary user and you can only earn one point for every two dollars, which is a bit disadvantageous. Should I help you open a paid membership for Planet so that you can get double points for every purchase?

You can try it for just one month, and it will definitely be a lot cheaper based on your recent frequency.

You see, by using the "uncost-effective" go membership as an anchor point for comparison and kindly reminding users from the perspective of saving money, the success rate will of course be greatly improved.

2) Use membership level design to increase the ARPU value of paid members

① Difficulty of advancement

HEYTEA membership is divided into six levels: silver, gold, platinum, diamond, black gold and black diamond. At first glance, the path to membership advancement seems harder than climbing the Shu Road, but HEYTEA will let you move up without you even realizing it.

After you open a paid membership, you will be a silver member. The system will then directly give you 200 points. When you have used up the coupons given by Heytea, you will find that you have actually become a gold member? ? ?

How about it? Isn’t it much easier than the gold rank in King of Glory?

After deducting the points given by the system, it only costs 300 yuan to upgrade from silver to gold, but it costs 1,200 yuan to upgrade from gold to platinum.

Therefore, in order to reduce the difficulty, Heytea will launch various "points gift" or "points doubling" activities from time to time, such as doubling points on Women's Day, and giving away triple points on the birthday of a lucky user...

In addition, we all know that many businesses will update the membership QR code in real time to prohibit users from lending out memberships by taking screenshots.

Unlike these businesses, in order to encourage users to accumulate points and increase consumption motivation, Heytea not only does not restrict "borrowing membership", but also launches the physical Planet Membership Card, which allows users to accumulate points by simply swiping the card.

In this way, users can lend their cards to colleagues and friends for consumption (just provide the card number), allowing them to enjoy discounts while they can continue to accumulate points.

② Membership Benefits

In terms of card opening (Planet Membership) benefits, HEYTEA offers the maximum discounts, giving away two priority coupons (no need to queue, priority production), two free shipping coupons, and two buy two get one free coupons.

First of all, priority coupons are a major selling point for Heytea in promoting membership cards, which can directly hit the pain point of users who don’t want to queue.

Secondly, by using free shipping coupons and buy two get one free coupons, you can not only increase the frequency of users placing orders on the mini program, but also help attract new customers.

Finally, these coupons are limited-time coupons, which force users to make as many purchases as possible in a short period of time, further converting them into mature users.

However, after observation, I found that Heytea did not do a good job in setting up the promotion benefits.

The most obvious problem is that the division of rights and interests is not clear.

For example, to upgrade from a gold member (accumulated points of 500 or more) to a platinum member (accumulated points of 2,000 or more), one must spend at least nearly 1,000 yuan. However, in fact, platinum only adds a benefit such as "get one coupon for every three purchases" and a few coupons that are not much different from gold.

For example, from diamond (accumulated points of 4,000 or more) to black gold membership (accumulated points of 7,000 or more), the rights and interests enjoyed by users are almost the same, the only thing that changes is the number of coupons.

The benefits of different membership levels do not differ much, which to some extent has hurt users' motivation to upgrade.

Finally, we can summarize Heytea’s membership strategy:

In fact, when it comes down to it, Heytea is carrying out tiered operations for different user groups.

For ordinary users, what Heytea needs to do is to guide them to log in to the mini program, lower the standard of ordinary members, and expand Heytea's membership base;

For loyal users, what HEYTEA needs to do is to further improve user loyalty through payment and the premium experience brought by payment, extend the life cycle of these users, and increase their ARPU value as much as possible.

But when writing this push, I also found that Heytea’s membership benefits and payment methods often change:

For example, sometimes paid members can pay quarterly, and sometimes not;

For example, the discount coupons for annual membership were generally 10% off for purchases over 150 yuan, but later it became 5% off for purchases over 80 yuan... Not only the discount coupons, but other benefits also changed frequently.

Unstable membership benefits can easily hurt loyal customers and cause dissatisfaction among everyone.

If you want to build a good membership system, member rights and interests are the key point. Only by choosing suitable real benefits and convenient methods for members can you attract members to stay on the product for a long time and become loyal users.

04. Conclusion

Before Heytea launched its mini program, it only had offline data, and when a user bought a drink, it would not leave much of a trace.

But with the mini program, Heytea has connected online and offline.

In addition to increasing sales and revenue, Heytea can also conduct data analysis on users' purchasing behavior. While obtaining user portraits, it can also refine the granularity of consumer consumption and deepen its connection with consumers.

Of course, Heytea’s great success is not just due to the mini program. However, its series of operations and forward-looking actions on mini programs are worth learning from.

Author: Routine Editorial Department fun

Source: Routine Editorial Department fun