How can online education create a training camp with high conversion rates?

1. Introduction

After several years of development, online education has focused on retention, that is, conversion and referral, under the premise that traffic costs are becoming more and more expensive. Conversion is especially important because the conversion rate will determine a crucial data, ROI. The level of ROI often depends on the conversion rate. Even if the customer acquisition cost is high, as long as the conversion rate is high enough, the ROI can be relatively high in the industry.

Since online education has very different operating models and class types, there are two main conversion models: one is telemarketing conversion, and the other is training camp conversion.

Telemarketing conversion is generally a conversion model of live classes (one-on-one and small class). Because the actual cost of a live class is relatively high (customer acquisition + labor cost), trial classes often have one trial class. Few companies set up multiple trial classes. Of course, there are some. Jiuqu Children's English often has two trial classes, and the price of two classes is 49 yuan, which is also quite impressive.

The conversion model of training camps is generally large-class courses, AI courses and pure recorded courses, which are relatively low-cost, especially the marginal cost of the courses is low. However, recently more and more online education institutions have combined training camps with telemarketing, with training camps as the main method and telemarketing as the supplementary method.

The training camp model of online education often adopts a model of low price to high price, and rarely adopts a model of low price to low price, because low-priced products make it difficult for online education to generate considerable profits through small profits but quick turnover.

If online education institutions want to ensure substantial profits, the conversion rate from low-priced to high-priced training camps is crucial.

As more and more online education institutions choose the low-price-high-price training camp model and compete for resources, conversion rate has become a long-standing problem. Especially in today's increasingly expensive traffic costs, conversion rate becomes even more important.

So how do online education companies create a high-conversion training camp model?

2. Key points to note when designing a high-conversion training camp 1. Universality The universality of an online education training camp means that the age span required by the training camp must be wide, so that there will be more target users. For example, when I was recruiting students for the training camp, our company’s training camp products were only for the 2-4 year old age group. It was difficult to recruit students for new projects, and we also had to find users who were 2-4 years old. As a result, there were only a few users that could be recruited from my user pool.

In addition, the services of the training camp are standardized. First, the level of teachers cannot be uneven. Second, the content of community services is standardized, such as the unified implementation of standard SOPs.

2. Effects are easy to externalize. Effects are easy to externalize means that the product can easily produce externalized effects and allow users to clearly feel the value. Such products are easy to convert. In particular, the design of the trial class must make users feel the effect clearly. In addition to the effects of the course itself, externalized effects must also be created through some aspects of the training camp, including common tests, homework, works and user testimonials.

Some industries in online education obviously create externalized effects through homework. For example, the class process of children's programming class is that the children learn first, and then complete the homework according to all the content. After completion, they submit it and the teacher will give comments. In children's art class, the teacher will take the children to draw while teaching in class; building block classes let children build building block shapes.

3. Consistent experience means that the content of the training camp services and trial classes should be in the same mode or on the same level as the long-term classes, so that users feel consistent.

If you are doing live classes, it is better to convert from live classes. If you want to convert from recorded classes to live classes, you will find it super difficult. The explanation cost of directly converting recorded classes into live broadcasts is very high, so a live experience class will be added in the middle, which will make the process too long. In addition, the price of live classes is high, and the price of recorded classes is low. After users experience recorded classes and then experience live classes, they will still want recorded classes.

In terms of service, your training camp service experience is very good, but the long-term classes are not that good, which will lead to two problems. First, it is difficult to impress users in terms of conversion, and second, even if they are impressed, there will be many customer complaints later.

4. Reasonable pricing. Product pricing will have a great impact on conversion rate. If the pricing is unreasonable, it will be difficult to convert. For example, the course is a recorded class, but it is priced at the price of a live class. Under the same model, the price of a small company is significantly higher than the market average.

In addition, price increases will also affect conversion rates. Price increases should be used reasonably. We should not blindly increase prices for short-term benefits, but should increase prices regularly.

If you blindly raise prices for short-term profits, you will find that prices will be higher than the industry average later, and other marketing strategies will be difficult to be effective. Especially in today's highly competitive industry, users will shop around.

So how do you price your product?

First, you need to consider the market average level, second, the pricing of major competitors, third, the product settings, and fourth, your own profit margin, etc.

The key point here is that the pricing of the trial classes will recruit different levels of users, and the conversion rate will naturally be different. Generally, a 49-yuan training camp often has a higher conversion rate than a 9.9-yuan training camp. Walnut Programming is a good example of this. As far as I know, the conversion rate of Walnut Programming's 49-yuan training camp is around 30%, while that of 9.9-yuan is generally around 15%.

3. What are the main factors affecting the conversion rate of online education training camps? 1. I personally think that the first factor affecting conversion rate is the product. The quality of a product will determine the final conversion rate of the product. Product is king. Product not only affects conversion rate but also refers to the rate and renewal rate, especially under the premise that traffic costs are becoming more and more expensive. Therefore, creating high-quality courses has become the top priority of the training camp. So what are the key elements to pay attention to when it comes to training camp products?

(1) Clear course objectives First, the purpose of the course must be clear. What is the course mainly for? Is it to build cognition or teach skills? Is it to improve logical ability or specific knowledge? Why study this course?

For example, Walnut Programming claims that it is designed to train children’s logical thinking, strengthen basic thinking skills, and cultivate children’s efficient learning methods.

(2) Reasonable curriculum content Reasonable curriculum content means that the curriculum design must be scientific. First, there must be a systematic teaching outline. Second, teaching must be based on the children’s age development level. Finally, it must be based on the children’s ability standards.

(3) Scientific learning process design: The process design of many online education programs often includes five steps: teaching, learning, practicing, evaluating, and testing. This is the most scientific learning process design.

First, the teacher teaches the content, and second, the children learn. After learning, they need to practice to consolidate the learned knowledge. There will be tests and scoring on how well the knowledge and skills are mastered.

Nowadays, both large-class courses and AI courses pay more and more attention to practice and evaluation in addition to teaching content. In terms of practice, there are not only real-time interactive exercises during class, but also exercises assigned after class. In terms of scoring, technology is used to achieve real-time scoring in the system, and comprehensive feedback on learning status after class. In terms of testing, there is not only a baseline test before class but also a periodic evaluation. The following is the process design of vipkid;

(4) Instant learning feedback: A good training camp product must provide instant learning feedback, so that parents can know what their children have learned after class. How are you doing with your studies? What content have you mastered? What contents are weak? This will allow parents to know their children's level, and educational institutions can also know the children's situation, thereby encouraging parents to pay for their children.

(5) High-quality peer environment A good training camp product must also have a high-quality peer environment. A high-quality peer environment can not only encourage children to learn from each other, but also improve children's social skills to a certain extent.

A high-quality peer environment should not only keep children's levels basically consistent, but also enable them to develop well. This will make parents feel the gap between them and their excellent children, thereby encouraging parents to buy in. We all know that one of the selling points of small classes is fixed companions.

2. Traffic Traffic is a key factor affecting conversion rate. The quality of traffic seriously affects the conversion rate. Therefore, to create a high-conversion training camp, we must focus on the quality of traffic. What should we pay attention to in order to capture the quality of traffic?

(1) Does the user’s age match the target user’s age group? Courses at online education institutions often have age restrictions. For example, early childhood education is generally for children aged 0-3, and the transition from kindergarten to primary school is generally for children aged 4-7. If the course requires children aged 0-3, then as many users as possible should meet the age requirements. If the age group does not match, there will basically be no conversion.

In addition, online education courses are often divided into age groups and have several levels. The match between the user's age and the course stage will also affect the conversion rate, so the age must match the course stage.

(2) Is the target users’ income level consistent with the course price? After several years of development, online education has live classes, AI classes, and purely recorded classes. Behind each course model there is a predetermined target group. For example, 1-on-1 and 1-on-4 live classes, because of their relatively high prices, generally require the target group to have a considerable income level.

At present, users of one-on-one and small class courses are basically concentrated in first- and second-tier cities, so it is best to acquire target users from first- and second-tier cities so that the income level can ensure the purchase of high-priced one-on-one and small class courses. If most of the training camp users come from third- and fourth-tier cities, the conversion rate will definitely not be high.

(3) Whether the user fits the user profile of the course. In online education, especially adult education, special courses are often aimed at special groups of people. For example, a three-class advanced growth course targets operational personnel with a certain level of experience, so novices are not suitable for this course.

(4) Do the conditions required by the product match the target users? We often find that many products often have requirements for class equipment. For example, some programming institutions can only use computers. If many of your users do not have computers, it will be difficult to convert these users because they cannot take courses. Therefore, when we acquire users, we must pay attention to emphasizing the equipment requirements in our promotional materials.

3. People matched by the training camp (1) Position positioning of community operation Online education conversion positions are generally positioned in sales and operations. There is no consensus on which model is better. If it is positioned as sales, then the recruited people are generally required to have strong sales ability and be able to force orders. If it is positioned as operations, then they are generally required to be able to use operational skills for conversion.

Some companies take advantage of high sales conversion rates, while others take advantage of high operational conversion rates. How to position yourself depends on the company’s business model and areas of expertise. I personally suggest that the online education training camp model should be based on operations and supplemented by sales, and create professional teachers to serve students. After all, professional teachers are equivalent to counselors, and conduct telephone sales during critical periods.

(2) Personal conversion ability The conversion ability of online education positions depends on the job positioning. If the position is sales, sales ability accounts for 80% and operation ability accounts for 20%. If the position is operation, operation ability accounts for 80% and sales ability accounts for 20%. I personally recommend a combination of the two, with operation ability accounting for 60% and sales ability accounting for 40%.

Operational capability refers to relying on community operation SOP and utilizing operational routines for conversion, while sales capability mainly refers to the ability to directly solve customer problems through point-to-point communication.

A good converter should have sufficient expertise (professional knowledge + course knowledge) and the best service (quickly answer user questions + quickly solve user problems.

Being professional enough means that you are familiar with the courses and subject knowledge, and at the same time know how to communicate with clients and how to pressure customers for deals. The ultimate service is to remind users to study on time, and to respond and solve users' problems in a timely manner.

We all know that Yuanfudao's conversion rate is relatively high in the industry. Yuanfudao's conversion is driven by operations and supplemented by sales. Yuanfudao creates professional tutors to convert through services in the community, and when necessary, conducts point-to-point communication through WeChat voice and telephone to force orders.

Taking Zebra English as an example, the high conversion rate of Zebra English is related to a setting, which is the pronunciation correction link. Parents are very involved in pronunciation correction, and the consultant teachers in the Zebra English training camp provide users with instant pronunciation correction directly. Users can experience professionalism and the ultimate service.

4. Operational Process of Training Camp (SOP) (1) User Path of Training Camp A scientific user path of training camp can greatly improve the conversion rate of training camp. Let’s first look at what the user path of training camp is like? After analyzing hundreds of training camps, we concluded that the training camp path is generally: see the course - sign up for the course - add a teacher - the teacher creates a group - take a trial class - purchase the regular course. Improving conversion depends on the conversion rate of each node.

The key data are: number of registrations; registration conversion rate; number of friends added; friend adding rate; number of people joining the group; group joining rate; number of active members in the community; community active rate; number of people checking in; check-in rate; homework submission rate; homework submission rate; number of people completing the course; course completion rate; number of people registering for the regular course; conversion rate.

(2) The design of the training camp links The training camp links are also very important. The training camp links are mainly divided into before the camp, opening ceremony, during the course, closing ceremony and after the camp.

Currently, more and more educational institutions are focusing on the first half, converting in advance, and even enabling registration after the course starts. In addition, more and more educational institutions have incorporated live family lectures, using live broadcasts to brainwash and quickly generate sales. What are the main actions before the camp, during the opening ceremony, during the classes, during the closing ceremony and after the camp?

Before the camp starts, we mainly do pre-camp communication, focusing on the following aspects: self-introduction; simple product promotion; collecting user information; simply informing of learning arrangements; guiding downloading of the APP; guiding testing or baseline testing; and communication on learning status.

The opening ceremony mainly includes the following contents: self-introduction; product promotion; course arrangement; welfare activities; user self-introduction.

The main tasks during class are: reminding students to attend classes; urging them to attend classes and do homework; sharing knowledge; arranging lectures; infiltrating brands and theories; guiding course reservations and registrations; and follow-up visits.

Graduation ceremony: summary of learning; praise by name; distribution of rewards; presentation of system courses; use of marketing strategies within the group to pressure sales; use of emotions to pressure sales.

After the closure, many educational institutions have chosen to give up. In fact, they should utilize resources to operate private domain traffic, conduct some knowledge sharing and user growth activities on a regular basis, and conduct secondary conversions at key points, mainly by using flash group group buying discounts to promote orders.

(3) In the training camp process, the sales conversion path should utilize each link for conversion rather than focusing on a certain node.

Excellent converters will carry out conversion in the following steps:

User portrait arrangement: gender, age, city, education, occupation and preferences

Users are divided into: those who actively purchase courses; those who actively consult about purchasing courses; those who have completed courses; those who have attended courses; those who have not attended courses;

Classify orders: active purchases and passive stimulation purchases

Building trust: brand promotion; homework guidance; ultimate service; showing your real life; private messaging and chatting;

Continuous follow-up of users: circle of friends marketing; flash group buying; private message chat;

5. In addition to making good products and providing the best services in the training camp, the marketing strategy of the training camp also includes making full use of marketing strategies and taking advantage of human nature to stimulate purchases. The commonly used marketing strategies for online education mainly include the following aspects:

(1) Conduct embedding in every link of the training camp, continuously infiltrate the brand and course concepts, and set hooks step by step to guide users to sign up for courses. And use a variety of methods to embed points, not limited to groups, but also pay attention to private chats and circle of friends marketing.

(2) Discount strategy The most commonly used strategy to encourage users to purchase courses is discount strategy, which takes advantage of people’s desire for bargains to promote sales. Commonly used discount strategies include: coupons; limited-time specials; group discounts; buy-one-get-one-free; discounts on purchases over a certain amount; draws and exchanges for course purchases.

Through the above strategies, users will feel that buying now is the best deal, which will encourage them to place an order, and there will definitely be no better deal if they buy later.

(3) The Bandwagon Effect Social psychology analyzes human nature and states that people tend to follow what others are doing. Online education uses the herd effect to create an atmosphere within the group and encourage users to place orders. Common methods of online education include: appointment registration; posting orders in the group; registering in a chain (the more you sign up, the more discounts you get)

When taking advantage of the herd effect, we should pay attention to building up a network of online merchants and make full use of the network of online merchants to induce the herd effect within the group. When building a water army, you should pay attention to making the water army accounts as parent-like as possible, rather than just pulling in colleagues' accounts to interact.

(4) Word-of-mouth effect

The word-of-mouth effect is also often used by online organizations to stimulate user purchases. Good reputation helps to strengthen user confidence in purchasing.

What we often see is inviting outstanding students from the past to share and official outstanding students to showcase in groups and live broadcasts, as well as leveraging the class insights in long-term class groups to gain recognition from other users and build a good reputation.

This method is often used by Baby Play English, where former students are asked to talk about their experience with Baby Play English, in order to encourage new students to purchase. But now I find that most institutions are self-directed and self-acted, and there are very few real parents.

(5) Scarcity effect

People tend to cherish a small number of places. After all, things are valuable because they are scarce. Just like when Xiaomi Redmi was first released, you had to have an F code to buy it, and F codes were limited, which created a tense scarcity effect and stimulated the mentality of scrambling to buy it. Common methods to create scarcity effects include: quota limits, flash sales, price increases, pre-sales, countdowns, and flash groups.

(6) Service Commitment

There is a final killer trick in the online education marketing strategy, which is the service commitment. Use the commitment to eliminate the user's anxiety and break through the user's last psychological defense line. There are two common types of service commitments: refund if not satisfied within N days and change of phase if not satisfied within N days.

Of course, online education will not use a single marketing strategy in training camp conversions, but a combination of multiple strategies. For example, a common combination strategy for large-class courses (Yuanfudao and Xueersi Online School) is appointment + buy-one-get-one-free + limited time and quantity + countdown + order posting.

4. Current development trends of online education training camps 1. More and more educational institutions are integrating parent classes and lectures by famous teachers into training camp SOPs. In the past 1-2 years, I have been dissecting the training camps in the online education industry. I found that more and more educational institutions are integrating parent classes and lectures by famous teachers into training camp SOPs. One is to create professional and comprehensive services, and the other is to achieve rapid conversion effects through valuable content and theoretical brainwashing by famous teachers.

Live video lectures will become a very important form of transformation in 2021.

2. Online education conversion actions will become more and more advanced. I vaguely remember that when we were doing training camp conversion in 2017-2018, we generally chose to focus the conversion on the graduation ceremony. But now I find that the conversion actions are becoming more and more advanced. Some institutions have even put the conversion actions two days before the start of the course, taking advantage of the users' freshness to convert in advance, and the graduation ceremony is basically just a formality.

For example, Yuanfudao puts the conversion link in the first three days, with appointment registration on the first day, sales on the second day, and key promotion on the third day. Zuoyebang also started to transform on the second day, and Gubi Art also started to transform on the second day.

3. Online education training camps are becoming more and more refined. When I was recently dissecting Yuanfudao’s live classes, I found that the teacher’s lecture time nodes were very strict. Basically, they were done according to the progress bar of the course design. There were even common simulations of offline classes, with bells for starting and ending classes.

In addition, in terms of communication before the start of the class, not only is there a preview session, but there is also a baseline test. The teacher will even talk to individual parents for diagnosis, which fully mobilizes the enthusiasm of parents before the class. This shows how refined online education training camps are now. By creating refined SOP + ultimate service, we can provide a better user experience.

4. Online education has increasingly stringent requirements for conversion positions and is pursuing more professional talents. Recently, I have found that many education companies have changed their positioning of conversion positions, and the positioning of learning planners and tutors has become increasingly prominent.

Because the conversion rate can be improved by creating professional services, the people responsible for the conversion are naturally required to be more and more professional. This professionalism is not only reflected in how many marketing and operational skills they have, but also requires professionalism in the courses. The children's English industry requires proficient English skills.

5. Conclusion The road to online education transformation is long and arduous. In the coming year, after the continuous increase in costs, the internal strength of enterprises' refined operations will be tested. In the refined operations, the creation of SOPs for training camps will be a top priority.

After my recent experience with Xueersi Online School, Yuanfudao, Zuoyebang and Qingbei Online School, I clearly feel that online education has put a lot of effort into community transformation and has become more and more sophisticated in certain aspects.

Particular emphasis is placed on rapid conversion in the first half of the training camp, and users are fully mobilized even before the camp begins. For example, before the camp, users will be communicated about their learning situation, tested their baseline, and prepared for the camp. What's more, conversion began on the first day of the camp, which was basically unheard of before 2019.

So I said that if you want to achieve good conversion in the training camp, you must pay attention to the details of each training camp, see how others do it, and what you can learn from. I believe there are more refined operational methods for conversion.

Author: Terracotta Warriors Still Waiting for You

Source: Terracotta Horse Still Waiting for You