Is it a pitfall for brands to build private communities?

In 2020, the emergence of cases such as Perfect Diary and Hepuolan has brought about a lot of thinking and attention about private domain traffic . Currently, the topic of private domain is very hot, and many brands also want to enter the field of private domain, but how should brands do private domain? Which brands are suitable for private domain? Many people are very confused about this issue and simply want to enter the market to try out the effects.

At many brand private domain sharing conferences, you will find a very obvious situation: these brands are either big brands themselves, or they have super offline traffic, or they have enough financial budgets willing to spend on private domains and have generals who are good at private domains.

Looking at the world from the shoulders of giants always gives you a different view.

No matter what kind of private domain traffic success case emerges, it is inseparable from the three elements of people, goods and places; if we talk about it in depth, it is inseparable from the three points of time, place and people.

Brands that are truly willing to engage in private domain business almost all completely innovate a model from top to bottom and pay for this model. After all, most Internet companies can afford to spend the money. Just like Dong Mingzhu’s live broadcast to sell goods, it is not as simple as just live broadcasting. It is an activity from top to bottom, and I don’t know how many agents, dealers, department heads and even the support team from the headquarters have been mobilized.

In fact, doing private domain is relative. After speaking out to the outside world, you can guide the traffic to your own WeChat community pool through various means, so that users can have long-term reach and repurchase. For example, Luckin Coffee, which has been very popular recently, is using offline stores and online mini-programs to guide users to the corporate WeChat group belonging to the store, and publish coupon information through the corporate WeChat group to attract users to repurchase and place orders.

So, how should a brand do private domain? I hope to provide some frameworks from the following aspects, first take stock of resources, and then start practical operations.

1. Prerequisites for whether a brand is suitable for private domain

Whether a brand is suitable for private domain business depends on whether it can first assess how much it can invest and how much profit it can generate.

First of all, the quality of the product itself must be excellent and able to meet the timely feedback of the private domain community, such as delivery cycle, after-sales service, etc. It is very important for user experience to be able to provide timely feedback as soon as possible when problems arise.

In the past, for brands, a user’s suggestion or complaint usually had to go through stores and dealers before reaching the headquarters. However, after the brand established its own private community, this step was often omitted, and the brand directly skipped the stores and dealers to reach the headquarters, and required timely feedback, which often placed higher demands on the headquarters’ emergency feedback system.

Secondly, it is particularly important to take stock of how much resources the brand has in public domain traffic.

The size of the public domain traffic pool is like a funnel, combing the entire user system from top to bottom.

As shown in the above figure, public domain traffic actually occupies the largest part. If the public domain traffic is likened to a big fish pond, then the private domain traffic should be counted as the small fish and shrimp in the pond. Through some means, such as interest bait, value-added services, etc., users can be caught. Then, screening and sedimentation will begin, and user stratification management will be carried out, and then precise corresponding services will be provided.

The key factor in whether a brand can build a community depends on the size of your public domain traffic. When the public domain traffic is large enough, the value of private domain traffic will be fully reflected.

Of course, the nature of the brand itself also determines whether the brand can operate a private domain community. For example, some brands are products that are difficult to buy once a year, and there is no repurchase after purchase. In this case, the existence of a private domain community may not be very meaningful. At this time, if the brand must do it, it can also consider developing multiple categories and selling related peripheral products.

Here I have compiled a quadrant diagram on how brand types build private communities to support the above point of view.

Brands with high frequency and high customer orders:

For example, maternal and child diapers and milk powder are of high frequency and high order value, and are products that users have a strong need for. Such brands can use methods such as grass-planting content, KOC product recommendations, and WeChat communities, mini-program interactions, and live broadcasts to sell according to the user cycle. Not only can they increase traffic, but they can also bring in more private domain users, thereby increasing cash flow.

Brands with high frequency and low customer orders:

For example, snacks, fresh food and some shoes and clothing are of the high-frequency, low-order type. This type can refer to the practice of community group buying. In fact, many brands do not need to operate the community too heavily because the user purchase frequency is high enough; therefore, they only need to manage the construction of WeChat communities and Moments, and the mini-programs can be used for interaction and event design.

Brands with low frequency and high customer orders:

For example, luxury goods and digital products require users to have a longer decision cycle and a relatively low purchase frequency. For this type of product, we generally establish an IP persona first; for example, a super shopping guide IP, and then based on trust, we empower offline physical stores, conduct private chats on WeChat, and sell it in a way that creates a good persona in the circle of friends. Such private domains have a higher chance of success.

Low-frequency and low-order products are not suitable for private domains, and therefore are not reflected in the private domain.

Of course, if the user consumption frequency is low, but the user volume is relatively large, we can also consider solving this problem by expanding the brand's SKU and product categories. For example, if you sell refrigerators, and the user repurchase frequency is not high, but the volume is large enough, you can also consider expanding with other categories of products, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, food storage boxes and kitchen supplies, to enhance user value.

Generally, a brand’s complete product chain in the private domain must at least include: traffic-generating products, flagship (regular high-repurchase series) products, and value-added (peripheral) products. These three product chains can quickly and effectively help the brand achieve growth and conversion of private domain traffic.

2. The first step in building a brand private domain: personnel

After taking inventory of the brand’s existing resources, if there is enough public domain traffic and the product line is rich enough, then you can start considering how to allocate personnel.

The most important thing in the human-cargo field is people, and the human body here is reflected in several aspects:

Does the boss pay enough attention to it, is the person in charge of the private domain capable and experienced, and are the store manager and clerks cooperating?

The driving force and importance of these three parts will determine the progress and effectiveness of the brand’s private community promotion.

To build a private domain brand, the boss's attention is crucial. Because the boss pays attention, the subordinates will push it forward faster and will be more willing to cooperate. This key factor can greatly enhance the effect of private domain construction when mobilizing the resources of the entire group.

At the same time, a good private domain manager is also very important, because things are actually done by people. For an idea to become an implementable operational process, it must be executed by people.

Here, the person in charge of the private domain must have experience in community building. Here, I think the abilities that a good private domain person in charge should have are:

• Must have previous trading experience;
• Must have overall team leadership and certain management capabilities;
• Have the ability to coordinate and coordinate the cooperation of various departments;
• You must have a certain self-perspective and feeling, be able to control data in a refined manner, and be able to control risks;
• The tools, elements and processes for building private communities are clear, and team dynamics can be adjusted in a timely manner.

If you have the above capabilities, then a private domain community can be launched.

The third point is whether the store and the store manager cooperate with each other. In the cases we have experienced before, if the store manager and the clerk cooperate well, things will proceed faster; this is especially important in the construction of private domain communities that use store traffic as the primary channel.

The tip is: try to give employees detailed training and incentive conditions that suit them. If you do a good job of motivating users, then in many cases private domain traffic can be built very quickly.

If the main source of traffic is e-commerce brands or online sales, then this is not a necessary condition.

3. The second step of building a brand private domain: goods and tools

Once you have prepared the traffic channels and have a private domain manager, you can start the second part of the work, which is what I call the goods and tools.

Goods are products, and products are a very important part of private domain communities. Generally, the goods and brands in private domain communities are different from those outside, which is reflected in two aspects: average order value and product categories.

Average order value: Because users usually join the group after having purchased or understood the brand, we will slightly lower the average order value, and we will also be selective when selecting products, so that the products will be more suitable for users' consumption decision-making habits.

Product categories: In terms of product categories, brands generally choose pricing and positioning strategies that are slightly different from e-commerce or external channels when building private domains. For example, although Perfect Diary's products seem to be selling cosmetics, a closer look reveals that the pricing and strategies of many products presented in the mini program are different from the channels of its Tmall store, which can be specifically reflected in the diversity of discounts and gifts.

The private domain community of Perfect Diary in the picture below will give away additional customized canvas bags, which are exclusive gifts for the community:

If you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools. The right tools are also very important for brands to build private community systems.

What needs to be considered here are: the cost of investment in own research and development, the controllability of the risks of using external tools, and whether the requirements can be met. These two points are particularly critical.

When Watsons builds its own private community membership system, it chooses to develop its own community management tools and robots, so as to ensure that its user data is not leaked and the functions are customized; however, for many brands, they also need to consider the input-output ratio.

My suggestion here is: if the brand has a technical team, you can consider self-development or purchasing source code for independent deployment; if you do not have a technical team and the cost is limited, you can consider using the many social tools currently on the market that provide services to enterprises.

The use of the tool is mainly reflected in the following aspects: enterprise WeChat or personal WeChat traffic diversion, group creation, traffic import, community management, user management, Moments publishing, and community activity publishing.

A good tool can save labor costs to a great extent and improve employee work efficiency.

When the traffic source is relatively large, my suggestion is to use corporate WeChat to carry users. If the traffic is not particularly large every day, you can consider using a personal WeChat account. Of course, I will not go into the details of account maintenance and risk control here, as there are many articles that have already explained it very thoroughly.

People are alive, but tools are dead, so try to use tools only to improve employee efficiency. Don’t rely too much on tools and lack the warmth and emotion necessary for the existence of private communities. Respond to user feedback and respond to user needs in a timely manner, and I believe your brand effect will also be increased.

4. The third step in building a brand private domain: venue

The third step mentioned here, venue, is actually a venue in a broad sense, which can be understood as a platform carried by private domain communities. Currently, most private domains are sold using communities as carriers.

WeChat communities are the source of user traffic. The same goes for WeChat accounts and Moments. As long as they can reach users, they are our battlefield for building private communities.

Comparison between enterprise WeChat and personal WeChat:

• Enterprise WeChat: High security, prevents financial loss, convenient user hierarchical management, improves employee efficiency, and inconvenient to reach friends circle. Recently, the function of sending red envelopes has been opened after enterprise WeChat authentication.
• Personal WeChat: There is a risk of account blocking, users are easily taken away by employees, user segmentation and management are difficult, employee efficiency is relatively low, it takes a lot of time, and users can be easily reached through Moments.

Many brands also particularly like to use mini-programs to conduct user transactions after WeChat. For users, watching groups is to obtain preferential information and value; therefore, after seeing the preferential information in the group, they are often willing to click to place an order directly in the mini-program without the need for cumbersome jumps. This results in lower operating costs for the brand.

For example, the Tmall beauty brand Zise directly uses the method of pushing discount information within the group + mini-program live broadcast + user ordering to conduct private community transactions.

In addition to WeChat communities, I think another venue that should be available is: physical stores.

In our previous shopping experience without the Internet, if we needed something, we would go to the store where we could buy it, then choose the one we needed, pay and leave.

The most important role that physical stores play in this process is trust and connection between people.

If a brand has physical stores, then the store’s traffic source, transaction and conversion rates must be the highest; because customers and stores have met and connected offline, the brand appears as a real product at this time, and users are more willing to accept such a warm brand.

Therefore, if a brand has a physical store, it will be a great boost to the brand. Stores can bring a large amount of high-quality traffic to brands, and can also generate trust and connections between people.

Once the store manager or shopping guide is able to connect with users as a super shopping guide IP, the value of the entire brand will be infinitely magnified; in addition to being able to convert transactions online, it can also have more brand word-of-mouth publicity effects.

5. The final link in building a brand’s private domain: connecting everything and carrying the future.

Once the people, goods and places for private domain traffic in the community are completed, all that is needed in the middle is the control of the marketing links and activity content.

No matter which method is used, it ultimately comes down to using different methods to create an equivalent exchange with users and let users pay for your brand products.

The marketing methods here are not the topic discussed in this article, because there are thousands of marketing methods, but they all ultimately cannot escape the steps of providing users with benefits, making users willingly place orders, and sharing fission.

If you want to know more detailed user marketing plans, you can refer to the AARRR model, which is the management of the user life cycle.

VI. Final

The ultimate goal of all brands building private communities is to connect users, and connecting users carries the future of the brand.

No brand appears out of thin air. Behind them, there must be millions of loyal users and fans. Trusting a brand may be because of its appearance, its quality, or its value, but ultimately it must be because of the feeling it brings to you.

A warm brand can connect with more users and will definitely carry the future of the Internet.

Author: Red Division Practical Camp

Source: Red Division Practical Camp