Inventory of 18 operational strategies for online education!

The epidemic at the beginning of last year caused the development of online education to accelerate at rocket speed, and offline educational institutions were also "forced" to transform online. It seems like a bit of a chaos, but as an online education practitioner, I am both a witness and a participant. The past six months have been unprecedentedly busy, but I am also very fortunate to be involved in this change.

Over the past six months, the way online education is played has been constantly iterating: in addition to the common low-cost training camps, free open classes, and task treasure fission, many innovative combinations of gameplay and strategies have been born. In order to better empower my work, I would like to use this article to summarize it. I also hope that this article can become a marketing tool manual that online education practitioners can use.

In order for the AARRR model to really work, it is necessary to find the traffic depression. As the Internet traffic dividend has peaked, the RARRA model is more suitable for most online education institutions. Making good use of existing users and using existing users to find incremental ones is not only a leverage, but also more accurate than the new users brought by AARRR, and the subsequent conversion rate will also be higher.

Traditional Marketing-Traffic Thinking (Left)

VS

New Marketing-Retention Thinking (right)

The boundaries discussed in this article only revolve around the internal traffic matrix of online education products, including APP, official accounts, personal WeChat accounts (corporate WeChat personal accounts), WeChat groups, and mini-programs, and do not involve the self-construction and delivery of external traffic. According to the ultimate goal of each strategy, it is assigned to each link of RARRA. Before using it, you need to do a practical analysis based on your own business situation.

1. Retention

Strategy 1: Membership system establishment

For example: Spark Coins of Spark Thinking, credits and medals obtained, and research value of Chaos University.

Use the internal member points system to create a currency circulation system. Generally speaking, these "circulating currencies" can be exchanged for material and spiritual rewards that cannot be exchanged for RMB, fully reflecting the members' sense of superiority.

Moreover, the longer you spend learning on this product, the higher your sunk cost will be. This product has witnessed your growth and marks along the way, and it will be more difficult for you to migrate. This is also one of the product design methods between official binding and old user relationships.

Design stimulating activities based on the membership system (generally aimed at attracting new customers), such as member rights day, new member invitation activities, product internal testing and feedback, etc.

2. Activation, user activation

Strategy 2: Clear Beginner Tasks

For example: Fan Deng Reading’s customized book list for new users.

This is common in the field of knowledge payment. It matches personalized recommendations through user tags, allowing users to experience the product's Aha moment as quickly as possible and activate users from the moment they register.

In the novice tasks, some products will also design incentive mechanisms. For example, if you complete a certain task within a certain day, you can also enjoy something else. Of course, this must be based on sufficient confidence in the product. Otherwise, the more users experience the product, the worse their reviews will be, which will be counterproductive.

Strategy 3: Newcomer bonus

For example: GSX, Chaos University, Get, etc., after the user completes the registration, a new member red envelope will appear in the floating layer on the homepage.

It adopts e-commerce gameplay, gives preferential benefits to new users, and stimulates them to quickly complete orders and experience products. The products are usually the flagship products of the institution, such as open courses and experience camps. The picture shows the new member red envelope page of Who’s Teaching:

3. Referral, user recommendation

Strategy 4: Fixed-type old employees bring in new employees

For example: VIPKID, Walnut Programming, GuaGuaLong English and Spark Education.

Fixed-type mentoring is very common in enlightenment education and K12. Usually, a [monthly theme mentoring activity] is released at the beginning of each month. By completing the tiered tasks of inviting new members, the institution can obtain institutional points and physical prizes (i.e., the mentoring of new members with superimposed tasks).

Each company has its own merits in gameplay design. One worth mentioning is Spark Thinking’s referral system design. According to official data, its products have an 82% referral rate, an 80% renewal rate, and 120,000 paying users, in which referrals play a lever-like role.

Good products are the driving force. Spark Education mainly relies on its two major products, live classes and AI classes, to attract new customers. Class hours, Spark Coins, physical objects and commissions (there is also a Spark Mom Agent System) are the reward mechanism designs.

The mode of operation is mainly to reach out to old users and generate referral behavior through weekly task lists, activity centers, and monthly theme activities. Take sharing personalized posters as an example. As long as you upload photos and share them, and upload screenshots to the background, you can get corresponding Spark Coins. Even if you cannot acquire customers accurately, you can cast a wide net.

Spark Coin is a reward of lower value. If you want to obtain higher value rewards such as class hours, the difficulty of inviting new users to complete will be increased. For example, new users are required to listen to the trial class for more than 15 minutes, and it must be their first registration and first purchase of a course. Although the threshold is raised, the quality of leads is ensured.

It is worth mentioning that a special area for inviting overseas users has been added to the referral page.

Strategy 5: Active-based mentoring

Examples: Fan Deng Reading and Chaos University.

Activity-based promotions are usually used to accumulate knowledge before large-scale promotions. By giving old users benefits, they are stimulated to invite new users to experience the product. Afterwards, before the new users’ experience period is out of date, a wave of price-oriented promotions are launched to stimulate conversions.

For example, the 7-day trial reading card that Fan Deng will make before the big promotion, and the 7-day course experience package that Chaos University will make before the big promotion, are typical examples of this strategy.

5. Revenue, commercial realization

Strategy 6: Low-to-High Training Camp

For example: Fengbian Programming for RMB 8.9, Changtou Xiaobai Financial Management Camp for RMB 9.9, and Kaikeba Python Course for RMB 9.9.

Low-cost training camps are still the most effective operational conversion strategy at present. Through "rewarding courses + beyond-expectation services", users can experience the teaching results during the trial period. In the training camp, conversion is guided through multiple combinations such as limited large coupons, limited-time gifts for course purchases, and endorsements from previous students.

Strategy 7: Live broadcast, press conference, lecture

Example: Spark Thinking 0 Yuan Live Broadcast

Due to the epidemic this year, "short video + live broadcast" has become the standard operation of online education, and live broadcast sales have become commonplace. Common forms include free live lectures, new product launches, etc., where teachers show off their muscles and cooperate with other marketing methods such as raffles and coupons to achieve rapid conversion in the live broadcast room.

A typical example is the Spark Thinking live class, which stimulates the excitement of parents by having the main teacher appear on screen, and uses interactive marketing methods such as lucky draws, limited physical gifts for orders, and Spark Coins. The most clever thing is that it also comes with discounted renewal coupons, which directly extends the user life cycle.

Strategy 8: Deposit expansion (superimposed with friends’ help, actual fission)

Examples: New Oriental deposit inflation, Knowledge Planet 618 deposit inflation

Deposit inflation is a common phenomenon in e-commerce promotions, and now online education is also booming. Deposit inflation can take advantage of the psychology of "being greedy for bargains" to quickly lock in potential users. Generally, it is necessary to add supporting gameplay to achieve the dual operational goals of monetization and attracting new users.

For example, New Oriental Online: if you pay a deposit of 10 yuan in advance, it will immediately expand 5 times; if you invite 2 friends to help, it will immediately expand 10 times. This is a standard textbook-level "deposit inflation + friends' help" case. In addition, it also adds the strategy of "pay a deposit and get a free New Concept Premium Course" to accelerate users' decision to pay the deposit.

Strategy 9: Affiliate Program

Examples: Get, Chaos University, Himalaya

When traffic reaches its peak, companies move from competition to cooperation. No matter they are in the same or different industries, they all start to become joint members, taking advantage of their highly overlapping user groups and converting each other. Typical cases include getting × Evernote membership and buying 1 get 13 on Himalaya.

6. Acquisition, attracting new users

Strategy 10: Low-price training camp, superimposed e-commerce gameplay (add 1 yuan to get 1 more item)

Example: Yuanfudao 29 yuan course + 1 yuan

With the proliferation of low-cost training camps, the low-to-high conversion rate is worrying. Traffic is precious, so when users come, we must make full use of it. Recently I saw that Yuanfudao is doing “29+1”, where you can buy a low-priced Chinese training camp and add 1 yuan, and you can choose to add math or English. This adds on to the common e-commerce method of adding 1 yuan to get one more item, which increases the user experience time. On the premise of ensuring the attendance rate and completion rate, the conversion rate on the back end will also be improved accordingly.

Strategy 11: Free Bootcamp

Example: Baowan 8-day free training camp

Running low-cost training camps has high labor costs, and the conversion of full-priced courses cannot be guaranteed at present. Many institutions have begun to run free training camps, with attracting new members as the goal and conversion taking a long-term view. A typical example is Baowan’s 8-day rolling training camp, where the class teacher posts course and homework notifications in the group, and the transformation is relatively Buddhist.

Strategy 12: Assessment Boot Camp

Example: Momself Strengths Bootcamp

Whether it is a low-cost or free training camp, it requires manpower to operate throughout the entire process. So the question is, is there a better traffic-generating teaching product that can not only screen out more accurate users but also reduce manpower operations? Recently, I have seen several companies, such as Momself Advantage Training Camp and Wu Zhihong Psychological Assessment, which use assessment products to attract customers and are close to the common diagnostic courses in the K12 field.

This product package generally includes: 1 assessment (usually with a large number of questions, to screen out users with higher accuracy) + several recorded classes (with after-class exercises) + 1 live class to explain the assessment results + light community services.

Strategy 13: Public account mission treasure physical attraction

Example: Attract new customers with physical products in three classes

As more and more people use the public account Taskbao, users are gradually cultivated, and the appeal of the earliest electronic materials to them gradually decreases. Starting this year , K12 institutions began giving out physical prizes such as books/electronic technology products/teaching materials . General educational institutions began giving out high-value and high-practical physical objects , preferably original ones that cannot be bought anywhere else, which makes them more attractive to users.

At present, the physical attraction of new users in the public account mission treasure usually requires inviting 12 to 18 new followers, which is quite difficult. For institutions, the cost of acquiring a single customer is low, but the subsequent retention rate of new users is unclear. The focus should be on how to activate the new traffic brought by Mission Bao in the first place and convert it into formal users of the organization later.

Strategy 14: Unlocking gameplay (1 yuan, low price or free, requires superimposed distribution gameplay)

For example: Zero One Fission 1 yuan live class unlocks distribution, Xueersi unlocks free assistance

The unlocking gameplay has existed for a long time, but recently there have been more and more variants and upgrades. The most common ones are paid unlocking and free unlocking. The key is to add fission mechanism, which generally includes distribution fission and assisted fission.

For example, Zero One Fission's 1 yuan live broadcast class unlocks distribution. If users want to watch the live broadcast, they need to pay 1 yuan, which appropriately raises the threshold. At the same time, the organizer has set up two other baits, namely the qualification for the 14th distribution training camp and the paper version of "Collection of Hot Case Studies" (free shipping). If you want to get it, you need to share a personalized poster. If a friend pays 1 yuan through your poster to participate in the live broadcast, you are not only one step closer to completing the task, but also can get 60% of the profits.

A payment threshold that is too low is not very helpful in screening users. Instead, it will become a barrier that hinders users (you need to enter a payment password for 1 yuan, isn’t that inconvenient?). For example, Xueersi has designed a free unlock + help unlock gameplay. Direct registration can get some courses. If you want to unlock all the remaining courses, you can choose to pay 99 yuan or invite 3 friends to help (the price is anchored, and most people will choose to help because of loss aversion)

Strategy 15: Group buying (low price group buying, group buying cashback)

Examples: VIPKID Phonics Training Camp, group buying cashback at an offline education institution

Group buying is very common in the e-commerce field, and it can be seen everywhere in online education nowadays. The most common one is a low-priced group buying of three people , and participation permissions will be set. For example, VIPKID has been using low-priced group buying course packages to attract new users for many years. Anyone can initiate a group buying, but participants are limited to new users who have not yet registered.

In addition, there are now many upgraded ways of playing group buying. For example, an offline educational institution initiated a group buying activity. If you pay 6 yuan alone, you can get the electronic version of the materials. If you complete a group buying of two people, you can get the corresponding physical materials with free shipping, and you can get a cash rebate of 1.6 yuan for each person you invite. This is a combination innovation of [low-price group buying + group buying cash back].

Strategy 16: Obtain electronic information without any threshold and accumulate new users

Examples: Zuoyebang, Yuanfudao

It has to be said that users are becoming more and more picky nowadays, and low-priced courses sometimes fail to impress them. When users leave the details page, we need to seize the opportunity to retain them and establish a final relationship with them. Therefore, many educational institutions have set up product retention mechanisms here to use free learning materials packages to attract new users.

For example, Zuoyebang directly launches the mini program from the APP, lets users follow the official account through customer service messages, and then retains users in the official account, waiting for gradual conversion in the future.

Strategy 17: Distribution fission (first and second level distribution, team distribution, unlock distribution cashback, group distribution cashback, distribution + lucky red envelope + task treasure)

Example: Zebra AI

There are many variations of distribution, such as first and second level distribution, team distribution, the unlocking distribution rebate mentioned above, and group distribution rebate. Distribution is a versatile item that can be combined with other gameplay methods.

For example, Zebra AI has designed a [distribution + random luck red envelope + task treasure] mechanism in the fission link. Specifically: after the user purchases the course, he will be reminded that he can invite friends to get distribution rewards. After inviting one friend to purchase, he will get an instant red envelope reward + a random luck red envelope (increase the surprise of random prize drawing). After completing the number of invitations specified by the official, he can also get corresponding physical rewards. The task treasure gameplay is superimposed here.

Strategy 18: Building a traffic matrix within WeChat

Example: Who to learn from

In building the traffic matrix within WeChat, if someone tells you that you are second, then no one dares to claim to be first. There are 45 subscription accounts and 52 service accounts, which can reach over 10 million users with high accuracy.

Who to learn from - some WeChat matrix accounts

Who to learn - Traffic flow roadmap

There is no secret to the entire traffic strategy of Who's Teaching. It starts with obtaining traffic through external advertising on WeChat and collecting traffic within the WeChat ecosystem. It is first directed to official accounts, then concentrated on social groups and personal accounts, and finally converted through large-class live classes.

If it is a large company and has sufficient operational and R&D manpower, you can give it a try.

To sum up the whole article, I have mentioned 18 online education operation strategies in one breath. You may say:

"I'm dazzled. What should I do if I can't remember?"

You don’t need to remember all of the above 18 operation strategies. You only need to remember four basic models: fission, distribution, group buying and referral. Other ways of playing are the combination and superposition of these four models, thus creating a new way of playing.

In the Internet operation mode, e-commerce is in the forefront. Isn’t there a saying that what’s left in e-commerce can be continued in other fields. For example, group buying, deposit and other methods all originated from this. Students engaged in operations in the field of online education can read more and learn from them.

The most important thing is to never put the cart before the horse. In the field of education, products always come first. Users will not pay for the experience, but for the results. I hope everyone can become the person who understands education growth the most.

In addition, I would like to say something else: in the reality that traffic has peaked, paying for education is still a low-frequency behavior. Can you find a breakthrough, that is, find the high-frequency scenarios in which users use your product? Typical cases include Zuoyebang and Yuanfudao, which started with photo-taking and question-searching tools, and then built a three-stage rocket model verified by the Internet, using high frequency to bring low frequency , to build traffic products, business scenarios and business closed loops.

Education is an old industry that has been passed down for thousands of years, but innovation has never stopped. Future innovations in educational products should be built around a closed learning loop. This includes not just innovations on the student side, but innovations on the student side, teacher side, and institution side. We should go deep into each port and explore the segmented scenarios for each port. In a word, online education has great potential.

Finally, I hope everyone can understand human nature, growth, and education . Do things foolishly, believe foolishly, and keep a record of your achievements, and all your operational goals will be achieved naturally.

Author: Wild Operation Community

Source: Wild Operation Community