Closed-loop thinking for B2B theme promotion

PDCA stands for Plan, Do, Check, and Action, which refers to a closed-loop process in which task behaviors solve problems, check and summarize in the repeated cycles of these four links, and finally provide feedback and corrections on the final processing results. As one of the means of corporate marketing and promotion, theme promotion can also use PDCA closed-loop thinking for theme design.

For traditional media, theme promotion is both a large-scale special report in each issue and a topic reported continuously for multiple issues. This form is often the focus of a certain stage and is also the focus that can most cause social effects.

For B2B corporate marketing and brand promotion, this method can also achieve unexpected business goals. Whether it is a distinctive brand story, or a product image with differentiated functions, whether it is an industry benchmark that leads by example, or a social effect that stirs up waves, etc., all of them are formed through the theme promotion behind them. They are either carefully designed, or they are fueled, or they are varied, and the way they are expressed has gradually evolved from the release of a single text to a richer, more diverse, and more participated marketing activity.

Recently, I have been communicating frequently with some friends who are journalists. I am amazed at their ability to design topics. This unexpectedly reminded me of my twists and turns in my work experience. Behind each experience, there seems to be an essentially the same rule.

Therefore, I combined my previous practical experience in newspapers and corporate services, used the closed-loop thinking of PDCA, and sorted out and summarized a simplified methodology, hoping it will be inspiring to you.

1. What is closed-loop thinking?

PDCA refers to a closed-loop process in which a task behavior is repeated in the four steps of Plan, Do, Check, and Action. The plan is used to break down the target behavior, the results are checked and summarized, and finally feedback is provided to correct the plan. In this way, new elements will be injected into each link, and each cycle will solve some unresolved problems, forming a spiral upward state.

Almost everything conforms to the PDCA closed-loop thinking. When we fail to figure out this closed loop, it means that we have not thought thoroughly enough and have not been able to integrate it. Once a closed loop is formed, it will spin faster and faster, forming a virtuous cycle and achieving endless step-by-step progress. Such as the flywheel effect of corporate management.

PDCA is not only suitable for project management, but also has good guiding significance for enterprises, departments, and even individuals. It is a good tool to teach us to handle things in an organized, systematic and scientific way. To sum up, it has the following characteristics:

• It is a state of repeated cycles and gradual rise;
• New elements are constantly injected into the loop, and each loop cannot simply copy the results of the previous check;
• Once the closed loop is formed, the speed will become faster and faster, with timely feedback and rapid response;
• The big and small closed loops complement each other, and the goals after decomposition are consistent;
• The simpler the closed loop is and the fewer factors it involves, the more obvious the improvement effect will be and the higher the success rate will be.

2. Closed-loop thinking for theme promotion

Before completing the task we have been assigned, we should habitually think in a closed-loop way. When you have thought through the entire plan and formed a closed loop, your behavior will be in line with the laws and logic of the development of things. Only in this way can you deal with things with a "normal mind" (the so-called normal mind is an unusual mind that is not easy to achieve - going back to the starting point to consider things and focusing on the essence of things).

Just like the theme promotion that this article will talk about. When I first received the task, I would plan and design it according to the following closed-loop thinking:

According to the above ideas, the first thing we need to think about is what is the purpose of this theme promotion?

1. Promote the company's new smart tax solution;
2. Get at least 20 high-quality leads from major customers;
3. Establish a professional image of tax digitalization.

Secondly, how do we achieve this? In conjunction with the "Opinions on Further Deepening the Reform of Tax Collection and Administration" recently issued by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council, we planned to cooperate with authoritative media in the tax circle to carry out theme promotion.

But how to unfold it? In order to get the target customer group to actively participate, we leveraged the authority of our partner media to launch an essay contest, promoted excellent works online, and used offline reviews and awards as marketing activities to obtain leads.

So how do you control the compatibility between the essay content and the product? This led to the design of "agenda", which, like B2B product demand, is guided by customers' difficulties and guides target customers to participate in activities (please see the next chapter for techniques of agenda design).

Once we have a direction for the planned goals and implementation paths, we also need to have specific goals that can be quantified or broken down. For example, we can issue a call for papers to large enterprises, and through cooperative media, new media and targeted invitations, at least 200 large enterprises can participate; for example, we can invite a well-known expert to conduct offline reviews and present 50 awards offline. This will ensure that the planned objectives can be achieved.

Generally speaking, the clearer the execution path, the more valuable the result analysis is, because different segmentation goals mean that the problems exposed are more obvious.

The best way to analyze this part is to use the fishbone method to ask questions: Why was a certain goal not achieved? Why is a certain sub-task not executed? Why does the implementation strategy change? Each problem corresponds to a solution, which is used to provide feedback to the final processing and correction stage. Those that can be solved will be improved, and those that cannot be solved will continue to the next cycle until the root cause is exposed and a solution is found.

3. Small closed loop: Topic design skills

According to the characteristics of closed-loop thinking, they all follow the basic principle of big loops within small loops, small loops protecting big loops, and promoting big cycles. Departments at all levels should have their own PDCA cycles based on the company's policies and objectives, forming a big ring within a small ring, and the small ring within an even smaller ring. The large ring is the matrix and basis of the small ring, and the small ring is the decomposition and guarantee of the large ring.

So, the design techniques discussed in this chapter are actually a small closed loop in the big closed loop of theme promotion. Let’s take this as an example to discuss the significance of small closed loop in promoting large closed loop.

Looking at the topics and content of B2B companies' theme promotions, they basically fall into two directions: one is the "difficulty-oriented" theme promotion that is most likely to resonate with people and reflect the value of corporate services; the other is the "investigation-oriented" theme promotion that is most likely to attract capital attention and expose industry phenomena.

The most common terms heard in the B2B industry are customer demand and demand analysis, which are actually the epitome of “difficulty-oriented”. Therefore, we use this as the core idea to guide the direction of the essay solicitation. The planned goal is to ensure that the essay solicitation activity is closely linked to the theme of the overall goal, so as to ensure that the focus of the activity will not shift.

So how to execute it? First of all, we need to grasp the essence of the customer's difficulties and start by sorting out the pain points of the industry. Then, we should match the current policies in a targeted manner and divide them into several thematic directions according to the degree of matching to form a rich subject matter that is closely related to the theme.

For example, the tax collection and management reform policy we mentioned above not only established the tax collection and management "roadmap" for the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, but also put forward high requirements for the digital transformation of corporate taxation and risk management upgrades. In this context, the difficulties and challenges faced by enterprises in the process of digital transformation of finance and taxation are once again magnified, and they are facing the dual pressures of internal regulation and external prevention.

At this time, we will use the company's "difficulty orientation" to sort out the industry pain points, combine product advantages and existing large corporate customer cases, match them with the policy's core ideas of "taxation by numbers", "smart taxation", "precise supervision", etc., and plan a series of topics that customers care about and have something to say, and add the endorsement of authoritative media to ensure the effectiveness of the event.

The final result analysis and processing correction stage is best carried out in stages, using data statistics to objectively point out the root cause of the problem, so as to adjust the small closed-loop plan in a timely manner. This is the characteristic of closed-loop thinking that “spins faster and faster” until it can maintain the original state of motion and form a spiral upward pattern.

It is worth mentioning that closed-loop thinking does not mean that the more complex all links are, the better. Practice has shown that the simpler the closed-loop mode, the faster its rotation rate and the higher its success rate.

Author: No Sad Autumn Guest

Source: No Sad Autumn Guest