Breakthrough in customer acquisition for small and medium-sized enterprises: Private domain traffic methodology

Recently, in many offline retail stores and online e-commerce experiences, it has been found that inviting customers to become brand members, adding customer service instant messaging tools or joining groups when shopping has become the standard operation of various merchants. In the past two years, private domain traffic has been very popular, and private domain is by no means just a concept. Its actual value has been reaped through the operation practice of each merchant. There are husband-and-wife fruit shops that use WeChat personal accounts and WeChat groups to generate private domain traffic; there are merchants with zero fans who teach writing and have obtained 3 million readings of popular content through Baidu Enterprise Baijiahao in 4 months, with more than 100 weekly leads; there are Douyin merchants who use short videos, live broadcasts, private messages, and comments to generate private domain; there are merchants who use Tmall + WeChat to play private domain across platforms...

Whether it is a traditional enterprise or a new consumer brand, some companies have invested heavily in private domain traffic. In particular, retail companies have greatly promoted the pace of new retail through the operation of private domain traffic by all employees. With private domain traffic in full swing, how should small and medium-sized enterprises participate in it?

There are several sets of data to share:

1. Baidu has over 1 billion mobile users, 21.3 billion Baidu users per day, and 6 billion Baidu APP searches per day.

2. As of now, the number of Baidu Enterprise Baijiahao has accumulated to more than 1.1 million, with an average daily content recommendation of 570 million and a closed-loop conversion component click-through rate of 9%;

3. The number of monthly active users of smart mini-programs is 414 million;

4. The lead conversion rate of Jimuyu hosting page is 77%, the order conversion rate is 89%, and the APP activation conversion rate is 138%...

From the above data, it seems that Baidu's private domain traffic has achieved remarkable results. What is more important is the user conversion tools behind the traffic, the long-term operation logic from traffic to users, and how to match different application scenarios under huge traffic. At the sharing session, Ms. Zhu Lei, General Manager of Baidu Marketing Center and Dean of Baidu Marketing Research Institute, emphasized: " Enterprise Baijiahao is a sedimentation pool of content assets in the Baidu ecosystem in all domains and modes. With the sedimentation of content assets, Enterprise Baijiahao can attract a large number of users through the interaction between content and users, and form brand user assets. Through the various interactive capabilities, component capabilities and private message communication capabilities of Enterprise Baijiahao, continuous interactive communication with users is formed. In terms of user conversion and monetization, hosted pages such as smart applets, Jimuyu, and Duxiaodian have greatly improved the service management capabilities of enterprises. "

When it comes to understanding private domain traffic, the initial stage will stay at the short connection interactive relationship from the circle of friends to the community, one-to-one and one-to-many. As different platforms intervene in private domain traffic, whether it is individuals or businesses, their operational capabilities are constantly improving with the tools and gameplay given by the platform . Baidu's private domain ecosystem is constantly improving. It is currently in the traffic dividend stage. Most businesses have not realized it because of traditional cognition. Everyone thinks that Baidu is just a "search". However, based on the ability of 6 billion searches per day, "Enterprise Baijiahao + Mini Programs + Jimuyu + Duxiaodian" has built a closed-loop ecosystem from the public domain to the private domain. Taking Baidu as an example, we will sort out and summarize Baidu's private domain traffic methodology for reference by small and medium-sized enterprises that hope to improve their private domain capabilities:

Baidu private domain traffic methodology = content + operation + conversion tools

1. Content

When talking about private domain traffic, we cannot leave out content. Content is increasingly becoming an important connector between brands and users, especially the daily content management of brand positions.

Compared with the content formats of various platforms on the market, Baidu is relatively the most comprehensive. Enterprise Baijiahao can present corporate brand and product information from a full perspective through various content formats such as pictures, picture albums, live broadcasts, short videos, small videos, dynamics, compilations, columns, etc.

The content published by business owners on Baijiahao can be accurately pushed by Baidu and presented to the target audience on all platforms such as Baidu App, Baidu Tieba, Haokan Video, and Kuaishou, thereby obtaining more traffic.

"Content format" and "content distribution" are capabilities provided by the Baidu platform, while content creativity and production test the capabilities of merchants. Many merchants not only combine the characteristics of their own products in the creation of corporate Baijiahao content, but also have insights into Baidu's traffic characteristics and create creativity in different content formats. For example, they can take advantage of hot topics to publish updates, or turn product services into strategy articles and then publish them in conjunction with entertainment hot spots. When netizens search for related hot spots, the chances of reading corporate Baijiahao content are greatly increased.

In addition, in terms of content creative production, for example, Baidu has launched a video content production tool through the empowerment of AI technology. From articles to audio and video, all are completed by intelligent robots. A video can be produced in 3 minutes, greatly improving efficiency and effectiveness.

At the sharing session, Chen Hong, founder of Traffic Source, said: There are four points to summarize about Baidu's private domain traffic . First, it is open and inclusive, and can achieve cross-platform jumps; second, Baidu's traffic is very accurate, and the efficiency of traffic monetization is the highest; third, the operation is stable, and there will be no platform traffic restrictions during operation of other platforms. Various indicators and policies are very stable; third, Baidu's private domain traffic products are currently in an upward period and there are many opportunities.

In the traditional era, "supply is less than demand", and business operations and production are relatively "extensive". They can obtain a steady stream of users without sophisticated operations. The era of lack of competition and no traffic worries is gone forever. Nowadays, more and more companies are beginning to realize the importance of "operation". After creating a good content, they also need more professional content operation and growth operation.

Standardize daily content operation and management work such as content positioning, style, theme, beautification, and update frequency. Combining the content format of Baidu Enterprise Baijiahao, the content operation suggestions can be referred to as follows:

Dynamics: You can take advantage of hot topics to update short content, such as emergencies and special holidays. Creative ideas for holiday hot topics can be planned in advance. For example: The monochrome dance company Baijiahao took advantage of the Dragon Boat Festival to release a Dragon Boat Festival dance poster "Different from Zongzi". Hot spots mean traffic. Many people will search for relevant hot spot information through Baidu. Don’t miss this opportunity to operate content.

Articles: They can combine hot topics, output opinions, and create knowledge points. For example, the daily articles of Beijing Shengting Law Firm’s corporate Baijiahao account are mainly legal knowledge, with a single article having a maximum reading rate of 650,000+, and many articles having 100,000+ popular articles.

Video & short video: Video content is more suitable for content creation through various methods such as product capability display, knowledge popularization, plot, KOL recommendation, etc. In terms of operation, pay attention to the difference between long and short videos. Short videos should be precise and interesting, and long videos should be deep and emotional. There should be a basic sense of quality in the video. For example, He Xiaoxiang Writing Class’s corporate account Baijiahao started with zero fans in 4 months, and gained a hit short video with over 3 million views per post. It has published 121 short videos, gained 31,000 fans, over 110,000 likes, and exceeded 100+ leads per week. It published a funny short video titled “Why am I still a mess when doing my homework after taking a one-year calligraphy class?” which triggered spontaneous photo-sharing and interaction among netizens.

Column: Add paid knowledge products to new media accounts. Although other platforms also have similar products, with massive search traffic, merchants can serialize their own content into knowledge products, set them up as low-priced diversion products, and supplement them with free content such as updates, articles, and videos. Under one account, a user funnel can be formed that progresses layer by layer. For example, the monochrome dance company Baijiahao opened a paid column to generate online income from low-priced courses.

Baidu's ecosystem has special services such as operations aimed at acquiring users, event organization, and traffic delivery. The private domain traffic ecosystem built by Baidu Enterprise Baijiahao is different from other platforms. It is not address book traffic, nor does it need to worry about fission. It comes from massive search traffic. As long as the basic operations are done well, there will be continuous traffic. In the past, everyone jumped to their own official website through Baidu search (high cost and high risk). Now, Enterprise Baijiahao puts the company's official website in front (see search, effective in 72 hours), and has more content forms and traffic operation tools, from public domain traffic acquisition to private domain traffic operation.

An account with 12 followers and only 20 views can still achieve order conversion, and the order revenue covers the team's operating costs for a year. It can be seen that people already have relatively clear needs in their search behavior, and the related content becomes accurate.

In addition, it is more open and inclusive in terms of traffic conversion. For example, external link jumps can meet various marketing demands of enterprises by configuring jumps to official websites, JD.com, Taobao, and even directing traffic to WeChat communities.

At this sharing session, Xu Zhibin, founder of Jianshi Technology, believed that there are three reasons why private domain traffic has quickly become an industry consensus. The first is corporate demand, the second is the level of awareness among corporate founders, and the third is the motivation behind it. The core motivation is that private domain traffic is meaningless if it cannot bring conversions, so the company’s private domain mainly talks about conversions, sales, and repeat purchases.

Good private domain traffic operations are inseparable from conversion tools. Clever application of tools can make operations more efficient. What are the conversion tools of Baidu Enterprise Baijiahao?

Blue V certification mark

"Brand Enterprise" Label

Business lead conversion components such as geographic location, contact number, etc.

Video mounting form, card and coupon function

Live room hanging component

Live small bubbles

Number + Mini Program

No. + Degree Store

Number + Hosting Page

The private domain traffic operation methodology of "content + operation + conversion tools" is based on the analysis of Baidu Enterprise Baijiahao ecology, and the specific gameplay for different platforms is different. The reason is that the characteristics of each platform are different, but the logic of the basic methodology is applicable. For example, WeChat also applies "content + operation + conversion tools", but there are differences in content. The reason is that WeChat's content ecology is relatively independent but can be connected. For example, you can post articles and videos on WeChat public accounts, add video account content, and direct it to personal WeChat at the same time. Video accounts can start live broadcasts, and the content can be connected through WeChat groups and Moments.

Here, I will briefly compare the differences in private domain traffic among various companies:

Platform features: Social

Private domain gameplay: relationship + content marketing

Common methods: Enterprise WeChat + Group + Live Broadcast/Mini Program, WeChat Community + Moments + Official Account/Live Broadcast/Mini Program…

Platform features: Recommendations (interest recommendations, content recommendations from friends in the address book)

Private domain gameplay: interest + content marketing

Common methods: short video + live broadcast + private message/comment, challenge + short video/live broadcast + comment, topic + short video + comment...

Platform features: Hot topics (many people would not be able to adapt to Weibo without hot searches)

Private domain gameplay: fans + content marketing

Common methods: topics + activities (lottery, red envelopes) + Weibo fan groups...

Platform features: Search (search behavior determines people’s desired behavior and is suitable for mining clues)

Private domain gameplay: leads + content marketing

Common methods: search + video/article/live broadcast + mini program/Dou Xiaodian/hosted page...

In addition to WeChat, Douyin, Weibo, and Baidu, various platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Kuaishou, Taobao, and Bilibili have built their own private ecosystems. Each has its own characteristics. In each ecosystem, it is important for the platform to highlight its own differentiated advantages in content, operations, and tools, and empower merchants' business and brands.

Overall, although Baidu entered the private domain traffic relatively late, it has inherent search traffic advantages that cannot be underestimated, and it has spent a lot of effort in building a content ecosystem and connecting it with Baidu's traffic, and even opening up traffic to other platforms. Generally speaking, my experience is that Baidu has entered the private domain, and in terms of lead acquisition and conversion of user purchase decisions, it has directed traffic to the company's own Baijiahao through content, and is conducting refined operations, from a full content system of pictures and texts to videos, live broadcasts, and knowledge payment, to mini programs, Du Xiaodian, and hosted page transaction systems, which can even be directed to Tmall, WeChat, etc.

When talking about the topic of new consumption and Baidu's private domain traffic, Wang Fengyang, vice president of Baidu, said: New consumer products will encounter "bottlenecks" during their rapid growth. For example, after the model is successful, it needs to break the circle and go out of the circle, and Baidu is a very good platform for going out of the circle.

Zhu Lei, general manager of Baidu Marketing Center and dean of Baidu Marketing Research Institute, shared the user characteristics in the new consumer field. For example, users in the beauty industry have extremely in-depth exploration of knowledge content and professionalism. They will pay attention to the value of each ingredient and even whether the ingredient is natural or synthetic. We have discovered that there is a type of user that pursues in-depth exploration of information, so we recommend that companies operate content on Baidu Enterprise Baijiahao and must satisfy this type of user group that pursues in-depth information and content.

In addition, Baidu is a very good entry point for new things. When people pay attention to new things, they will search for them, and many "dark horse words" will appear. Prepare the content on Baidu before new things are launched on the market, so as to better meet the needs of users (users can see more valuable related content when searching).

No matter how good the methodology and private domain traffic operation platform are, enterprises still need to be prepared. Here are five suggestions for small and medium-sized enterprises to "play" with private domain traffic:

1. Platform selection: Enterprises at different stages of development, with different capabilities and financial strengths can choose corresponding platforms for "trial and error iteration". For example, a small team in the early stage can choose one platform. If you have financial strength, you can also choose an agency to operate on your behalf; if your business grows rapidly, you can open more different platforms appropriately, such as Danse Dance and Shengting Law Firm, which have operating accounts on many platforms;

2. Team preparation: Establish a professional content and operation team;

3. Make good use of tools: I won’t say much about the tools. As mentioned in the previous article, if you want to do your job well, you must first sharpen your tools. To operate private domain traffic, you must learn to use tools, but it is not recommended to "be greedy for too many". Choose a few tools that are suitable for your industry and company, and continuously optimize and improve after verifying the results.

4. Integrated marketing: This suggestion is that you should not just stay at account operation. If you are a small or medium-sized business owner, you can combine offline and online marketing activities and products, plan event marketing and topics, integrate private domain traffic, and increase brand awareness while converting sales. Integrated marketing thinking will make corporate marketing, operations, products, and users more integrated.

5. Don’t forget the product: Once you have a method to acquire customers, don’t ignore the product. A good product is a marketing strategy, and you must polish the product before acquiring customers. If the product is not “hard” enough, the more traffic you convert into users, the more “dangerous” it will be. Good products will bring good reviews, word of mouth, and repeat purchases, while bad products will lead to bad reviews and even destroy a company.

When the concept of private domain traffic appeared, many people said that it was because of traffic anxiety and the disappearance of traffic dividends that led everyone to play in the private domain... This is one of the understanding logics. It is true that there is always a ceiling for traffic, and more and more companies are participating in traffic sharing. But we can also look at it from another perspective. This is like consumption upgrading. When people have consumption power and their cognition is improved, they are more willing to consume valuable goods or services, and even pay higher prices.

So, let’s look at private domain traffic? In the past, traffic ended when a transaction was completed and a purchase was made. Even if a company did membership management at that time, it was only a "one-way" transmission. But now people have discovered that private domain traffic can be interactive in both directions, and major platforms have provided a "stage" . Like Baidu's corporate Baijiahao, the company's official website is placed in the front, and the corporate Baijiahao can be seen when searching. The clear content creates a natural attraction between users and brands. Through in-depth content operations, it will bring longer-term benefits to the company. It will not end after a temporary launch, but for one, two, or even longer years. People can still bring traffic conversion when searching for relevant information. This is the value of content precipitation, and it is also one of the differences between Baidu's private domain traffic and other platforms.

Taking traffic as points, operation as lines, and private domain as surfaces , I hope this article can inspire more companies to build their own private domain traffic operation methodology.

Author: Wei Jiadong

Source: Weijiadong Business Review (weijiadong2013)