4 ways to promote brand marketing in the education industry

According to statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), as of March 2020, the scale of online education users in my country reached 423 million, a significant increase over the same period last year. Behind this rapidly growing data is the large-scale outbreak of the epidemic this year. Most primary and secondary schools across the country were forced to suspend classes and could only choose online teaching. In the face of the epidemic, when many industries have been hit hard, online education has been booming and going against the trend, giving many investors hope and motivation.

On June 29, Zuoyebang announced the completion of a US$750 million Series E financing round, led by FountainVest Partners and Tiger Global, and followed by Sequoia Capital China, SoftBank Vision Fund I, and others. Not long ago, Yuanfudao also announced that it had completed a US$1 billion financing, with a valuation exceeding US$7.8 billion.

Online education was originally a track favored by many investors, but with the outbreak of the epidemic, it has once again become the focus of attention. With the injection of capital, what marketing methods did these online education brands use to enhance their influence and popularity, and then complete sales conversion?

A combination of film, TV and variety shows

People who often watch variety shows will definitely notice that Zuoyebang sponsored the fourth season of Hunan Satellite TV's variety show "Longing for Life". Peng Yuchang's "straight man-style" broadcast and He Jiong's list of sponsors left a deep impression on the audience. The program also bluntly mentioned that "the one who pays more (words) gets bigger." From the picture, we can also see that Zuoyebang appears among the sponsors.

In addition to sponsoring variety shows, we also see that Zuoyebang’s advertisements frequently appear in popular film and television dramas, such as the urban drama "An Jia" starring Sun Li some time ago. According to incomplete statistics, since 2018, Zuoyebang has cooperated with at least a dozen variety show TV series. In addition to the two mentioned above, it also includes implantation in variety shows such as "Hot Blood Dance Crew" and "Happy Trio", as well as knowledge-based programs such as "Magic Chinese Characters".

Yuanfudao, another online education giant in the K12 track, appeared on CCTV's Spring Festival Gala in 2020, becoming the first education company to sponsor the gala. In addition, it also sponsored the fifth season of CCTV's "Chinese Poetry Competition" and the fifth season of "Ace vs. Ace". Recently, Yuanfudao also announced that it has become the exclusive title sponsor partner of CCTV's "Let's Talk".

It is not difficult to see that as the trend of online education becomes increasingly hot, the marketing competition is becoming increasingly fierce, and choosing to cooperate with well-known film and television variety shows seems to have become a routine action.

Celebrity endorsements win hearts

In addition to making efforts in the fields of film, television and variety shows, we also see that more and more online education brands are establishing their brand image by inviting celebrities and stars to endorse them, in order to further build emotional bonds with users.

Careful people will find that national women's volleyball coach Lang Ping has been a bit busy with endorsements recently. On April 15 this year, Youdao Premium Courses, the K12 online school under NetEase Youdao, suddenly released an official announcement: it has successfully signed a contract with Chinese women's volleyball team head coach Lang Ping and invited Lang Ping to become the brand spokesperson for Youdao Premium Courses. Just two days later, on April 17, Zuoyebang announced a partnership with the Chinese women's volleyball team. Lang Ping therefore has a dual endorsement identity.

Other brands are not far behind. 51Talk, an online English brand for young people, has chosen Wang Junkai as its brand spokesperson; Akaso, an online English education institution, has announced that model celebrity couple Tong Dawei and Guan Yue will serve as its brand spokespersons; Zhangmen 1 to 1 English has Huang Lei as its spokesperson; and Squirrel Ai, an artificial intelligence education brand, has announced that Yang Lan will serve as its spokesperson...

In recent years, major education brands have chosen to cooperate with well-known celebrities and stars to promote their own brands. At the same time, they use their personalities to enhance users' deep understanding of the value of education brands and endorse the brands with trust.

Testing the waters for live short videos

With the explosive growth of live streaming e-commerce this year, many online education brands have also begun to try to promote and sell products in the field of short videos and live streaming.

Many education brands have opened blue V accounts on platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou. Among them, "New Oriental Family Education" has 1.74 million Douyin fans, and "Zuoyebang" has 599,000 Douyin fans. At the same time, we can also see that under the same brand, multiple public accounts will be set up on different platforms according to different products to provide users with more accurate content. New Oriental Education has established its own public accounts on multiple platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Weibo, forming its own new media matrix.

In addition to releasing short videos, many educational brands have also begun to test the waters of "live streaming with classes". On April 10 this year, Luo Yonghao promoted the Zebra AI course under Yuanfudao during his second live broadcast. The products sold in the live broadcast room were 10 English and thinking experience classes, which came with a teaching aids package and two weeks of teacher tutoring, priced at 49 yuan. According to statistics, the final sales volume of Yuanfudao's Zebra AI course was 10,800, with sales revenue of 526,800 yuan. Compared with some other products that were sold out in seconds before they were sold out, only 20% of the 50,000 courses in stock were sold. Although the sales effect was average, it is still a test for the education brand to explore the online consumption scenario.

On April 28 this year, Li Yongxin, the founder of Offcn Education, a comprehensive vocational education enterprise, also entered the live broadcast room. Although he claimed that he was "particularly unwilling to show up in public and unwilling to come to the front of the stage", he still transformed himself into a "host" to promote his own brand. In May, Zhang Xiaolong, CEO of Fanbi Education, was invited by Taobao to be one of the six "famous teachers" and made his live broadcast debut. He not only interacted with netizens online about civil service exams and employment, but also promoted the series of books from the Fanbi Book flagship store.

Whether it is accumulating fans by publishing short video content on the platform, or converting sales through "live streaming with classes", many education brands are paying more and more attention to the construction of their own video content, actively building the brand's official account matrix, and trying out the "live streaming with classes" method, gradually accumulating brand assets on major platforms.

WeChat Moments fission

With the rise of private domain traffic in recent years, we have seen many education brands "take an unconventional approach" and instead establish various WeChat groups to achieve fission and conversion.

GSX, a B2C education and training organization that went public in the United States last year, has fully exploited the gameplay of WeChat group fission. It splits the user group by inviting people to join the group to try live classes for free or giving away learning reference materials, and then promotes sales during the trial live classes.

Many paid knowledge-based education products have also chosen this WeChat group fission method as a core means of promotion and customer acquisition. Among them are English classes, psychology classes, accounting classes...all of which are growing rapidly and wildly in this way.

With the development of the education market and the expansion of third- and fourth-tier cities, the education industry will continue to show a rapid development trend in the future. For major education brands, hiring endorsements and product placement have become common ways to increase brand awareness and exposure. However, faced with existing traffic bottlenecks and high customer acquisition costs, some education brands have broken through by establishing their own official public account matrix and continuously outputting high-quality content to accumulate fans. Other brands have begun to try the currently popular "live streaming with classes" model and WeChat group fission to achieve sales conversion.

As an educational brand, its core competitiveness still lies in the product itself. In addition to marketing and promotion, the social value of educational products is far greater than their commercial value. When users choose an education brand, in addition to referring to spokespersons and advertisements, the reputation of the product itself and the advice of KOCs around them are also crucial. Perhaps the good reputation accumulated through user use is the ultimate marketing method for educational products.

Author: Webmaster's Home

Source: Webmaster Home