How to operate an event well?

In the traditional forms of domestic activities, C-end operations are the only and most important audience. However, with the integration of platforms and resources, a large number of influential platforms have emerged, which has created a new form of activities, 2B2C, which is a model of creating C-end activities through B-end customers.

B-end activities are also appearing more and more in front of everyone. The separated entities have given the B-end and C-end a clearer boundary effect, allowing them to perform their respective duties and lay the foundation for the smooth development of project activities.

Now let’s take a closer look at what are the essential differences between B-end activities and C-end activities?

In my personal opinion, it may be the difference in audience and service path. In the traditional sense, most C-end activities are directly organized by manufacturers and users. The activities are intuitive and clear, and the gameplay and participation methods are relatively simple. The scope of involvement is relatively limited and regional. They are often mainly offline and supplemented by online.

As for B-side activities, more often than not, they are initiated by platforms or industry leaders, who call on and recruit B-side service providers, stores, etc. to participate in the activities. With unified deployment and planning, the influence and intensity of the activities are relatively larger. A common one is the Taobao Double Eleven event, which is a nationwide event with the participation of multiple merchants.

For B-side activities, it is easy to get confused about whether to focus on the experience of B-side customers or the experience of C-side customers. In most scenarios, the B-end and C-end experience of activities is consistent, but in some stakeholder-related links, there will be more obvious differences.

For example, both the B-end and the C-end have the intention to participate in the activities, but the rights and interests of participation are obviously different. The C-end is more involved in the use of discounts or coupons, while the B-end is more concerned with traffic diversion, lead volume, or rebates.

However, there are certainly limits on the control of activity costs, so there will often be times when both B and C cannot be taken into account. From my personal professional experience, the weight mainly depends on the purpose of the project. If it is to attract new customers, then we must focus on the C-end fission experience. If it is to maintain market share, then we must meet the business needs of the B-end.

To do a good activity, whether it is a B-end activity or a C-end activity, an incubation process is required. This process is actually a process of continuous polishing and self-analysis.

In the plan, list the activity plan for each step, and then communicate with key people at key nodes of the activity to discuss and consider the needs of different stages and dimensions such as functions, pages, gameplay, user experience, etc., to ensure that every link is reasonable and well-prepared.

My overall planning for activities is generally arranged from the following four points:

Demand research, solution determination, communication and implementation, and execution feedback.

The so-called demand research is to conduct research and analysis on the purpose of the activity, the resources available for the activity itself, the needs that need to be achieved by all parties involved in the activity, the characteristics of the activity group, etc.

Many times we need to understand the underlying needs. For example, we hold an end-of-year B-side event to help car dealers make deals and conversions at the end of the year. This is an activity requirement arranged by the leader.

But is that enough?

What we need is to explore the deeper purpose. Why do we carry out such a support activity at this time? After in-depth analysis, we found that there is another purpose, which is to report on the results of this year's activities in order to promote next year's activities and members.

At this point, our goals have a clearer guiding direction. We are not only focusing on closing transactions for a single event, but also on our hopes for future events.

After talking about demand research, let’s talk about plan determination, which requires us to adjust and output appropriate activities based on the current market situation.

If the purpose is to attract new customers, then you should output activities that are easy to split, light in size, short in frequency and high in efficiency to promote new customers; on the contrary, if the purpose is to convert customers, then you need a richer activity experience, more attractive activity rewards, and clearer activity benefits to help with conversion and close deals.

After clarifying the direction of the activity, you need to communicate with the product, technology, and design teams to determine the specific gameplay, choose the overall activity tone, confirm the technical implementation methods, output design drawings, and other related work. After these preparations are completed, we can start to implement them. This can be implemented according to the different management systems of each enterprise, so I will not repeat it here.

Then we can monitor the activity results according to the activity execution process, follow up the actual situation at any time, fine-tune the activity strategy, and ensure the smooth progress of the activity. Finally, summarize the results of the activity, sort out the advantages and disadvantages of the activity, summarize the experience, and improve it for the next activity.

Author: Yan Zhiyouli

Source: Yan Zhiyouli