Who did you learn the secrets of attracting new customers?

In recent years, competition in the online education sector has become increasingly fierce, and the entire industry has been going further and further down the path of burning money.

In this industry, GSX - a company that had achieved eight consecutive quarters of profitability before Q3 2020 - can be said to stand out from the crowd.

This "miracle" was achieved because while other companies were still fighting for public domain traffic, GSX had already laid out its own private domain traffic pool.

Chen Xiangdong, the founder of GSX, once said that in 2018, the company had accumulated its own service account and WeChat's private traffic pool, and through community operation conversion, it brought the company a huge amount of low-cost traffic.

This year, almost all industries have set their sights on "private domain traffic". Who can learn from this successful private domain traffic model? What experiences and lessons can we apply to ourselves?

Next, Jia Jia will review with you the path to establishing the private domain traffic model of GSX, and summarize 7 experiences that can be directly reused and 3 pitfalls that you must avoid.

Let’s first review the development history of GSX:

In 2014, Chen Xiangdong, former executive president of New Oriental, founded GSX. Although it encountered some setbacks in the early stages, the company's business developed rapidly. Five years later, it became China's first K12 online education company to be listed overseas.

The business of GSX is divided into three parts: Gaotu Classroom, which focuses on K12 business, GSX, which focuses on adult business, and Xiaozao Enlightenment, which focuses on education for children aged 3-8. It focuses on different segments of the population and markets, and the main form of business is large-class live broadcast classes.

During this period, the entire online education industry rose rapidly and was burning money to expand its scale, but only GSX achieved profitability.

Because of this, GSX has been subject to a lot of doubts and was shorted 15 times by four institutions in one year.

In response to outside doubts about the company's ultra-low-cost customer acquisition, founder Chen Xiangdong said that in 2018 the company established a service account + WeChat community traffic pool, using the WeChat dividend to accumulate nearly 100 million users, and converted them through community tiered operations, bringing the company a considerable amount of low-cost traffic.

This is indeed the case. In 2019, the Education New Growth Research Institute conducted a survey and found that the main company under GSX has 97 certified public accounts, with an estimated number of active fans exceeding 8.5 million.

While other competing companies are still competing for public domain traffic at high prices, GSX has already taken advantage of the customer acquisition advantages of private domain traffic to greatly reduce its own costs.

Here comes the key point: how can we learn reusable experience from Who’s Teaching’s low-cost private domain gameplay layout?

First, we need to have an analysis framework:

The process framework of the private domain system of GSX

To put it simply, it is - public traffic pool - users follow the service account matrix through inducements (mutual traffic diversion) - users add corporate WeChat accounts in order to get prizes (reaching different needs of users) - enter learning communities - get free courses - community operations - live broadcast guidance - refined course arrangements (breaking the ice - establishing authority - attending classes) - guiding users to consume paid courses.

Next, let’s go over the entire process in detail.

Getuixue uses its own APP, official website, paid placements on major platforms, and its own self-media matrix to guide users to pay attention to its own service account matrix through enticement points such as free physical books, information collections, or 0 yuan courses.

After users follow the service account, there are three ways to receive official news:

1. 48-hour active contact rules for public accounts

Tencent officially stipulates that public accounts can push messages to new users within 48 hours after they actively reach out to them, so the time when new users follow the public account is the best time to reach them.

For example, the public account about IELTS learning that Jia Jia followed pushed 7 activities within 2 hours of following it, and the inducements and copywriting were all different.

2. Monthly content tweets from the official account

The official account has 4 to 8 tweets in its tweet column. All of the tweets pushed out in a month are lead-generating tweets for free courses. Moreover, each course has carefully set up copywriting with different approach angles, and carefully polished titles and pictures.

3. Official account function page

Clicking the first-level menu and second-level menu on the official account function page also provides function buttons for getting free books and courses. Depending on the information, fission posters, study groups and personal corporate WeChat accounts are provided.

Through these three contact channels, enticement points and content settings, the official guides users to complete the following three actions:

1. Guide users to follow other public accounts in the matrix and increase followers through 0 yuan fission.

In order to receive materials and physical books for free, users need to follow other public accounts of the official matrix, generate exclusive posters, and invite x friends to help.

Through this step, the service account matrix can greatly reduce the cost of acquiring customers - ideally, a new fan of a service account will not only follow other public accounts in the matrix, but also bring 3 to 10 new fans to the original service account.

2. Guide users to add the company WeChat group, usually when users need to receive free courses.

In order to receive free courses, users need to scan the QR code to enter the group and add the teaching assistant’s WeChat. After this step, Getui has completed the accumulation of its own private traffic pool.

3. Guide users to place orders directly for the courses they are interested in and go directly to the payment conversion stage.

This situation is relatively rare. Generally, users need to have enough trust in the brand before they will go directly to the conversion step. This is a step mainly set up for old users.

The next step is the conversion phase. After the user joins the enterprise WeChat group, the group will send a group notification to guide the user to add the enterprise WeChat account of the teaching assistant. Only through the teaching assistant can the user obtain the entrance to the course live broadcast and receive a prompt that the course registration is successful.

The successful registration reached the user’s text messages, mini-programs, personal WeChat, groups, apps and other platforms, and the platform obtained most of the new user’s information.

Finally, teachers and communities use free courses, materials, high-quality teachers and teaching content, community operations, and IP operations to shape users' awareness and trust in courses and brands, guide users to purchase paid courses, and achieve the ultimate goal of conversion.

Through the above analysis, we have a detailed understanding of the entire private traffic pool model of GSX.

The most important thing is, in the entire private traffic pool construction system of Getuixue, what are the points we can reuse?

Reuse point one: The lure point is set at the most conspicuous and important location.

When you open the GSX app or official website, the first thing you see is a scrolling page of various free physical books, information collections, courses, and training camps.

Even in the first column of each subject function page of the APP, there are various enticement points for free things.

Open the service account, whether it is pushed tweets, information or function pages, all of them are copywriting and posters for attracting traffic.

Doing so will allow users to flow into the platform's own private traffic pool as soon as they reach the platform.

Think about it, does your current way of presenting the lure attract users' attention at first sight?

Reuse point 2: Comprehensive and diverse decoy point deployment

In terms of the form of inducements, there are different forms such as physical books, free courses, electronic materials, etc.

In terms of user needs: Service accounts are also differentiated according to the different needs of the same target group.

For example:

Just in English, users have many different needs, such as the need for high scores in grammar, oral English, reading, and high-frequency words.

Combining these two, a lot of attractions have been created: a collection of electronic grammar materials, physical grammar books, and free grammar lessons; a collection of electronic oral materials, physical oral books, and free oral lessons...

Even if the user does not have much demand for one or two of the lures, there must be one that he really needs, right?

To make a vivid analogy, this is a bit like the "sea of ​​questions tactic" commonly used in exam-oriented education - I don't know what you will be tested on in the college entrance examination, but I have done enough questions, so there must be some that are right, right?

Think about it, can your own company or business make diversified lure deployments based on the different needs and lure forms of users?

Reuse point three: Building a refined service account system.

GSX has set up different service accounts according to each grade, subject and needs, so the service account matrix has hundreds of accounts.

This achieves three goals.

First, it can accurately meet the diverse needs of customers (I like this way of expression)

Just imagine, a service account can only push information four times a month at most, but the user groups and needs included in Getui’s business are so different.

Using only one or two service accounts to reach users is undoubtedly a huge waste of resources and users.

Second, minimize customer acquisition costs.

When a user comes in, he may just want to take a course, but when the company has a matrix, through fission and mutual promotion of service accounts, users can find out that other courses they want to learn are also available here.

Then he will follow another service account, and through fission, bring more fans to the service account.

This will make great use of user resources and lower the unit price of acquiring customers.

Third, it can greatly reduce the impact of traffic loss caused by one or two accounts being blocked.

Since there are multiple accounts, even if one or two service accounts are blocked, the authorities still have other platforms to speak out.

In addition, in order to solve the problem of low brand recognition of service accounts due to too many matrix accounts, the avatars of each service account mostly use a unified logo, and the copywriting style and layout are also kept consistent as much as possible.

Try to think about it, are your current users a group with multiple needs, different age groups, and complex levels? Is it necessary to set up a multi-account matrix for refined operations?

Reuse point 4: Seize the golden 48 hours when you can actively reach new users.

Tencent has an official rule that in order to prevent businesses from excessively harassing users, businesses can only proactively reach out to users after the users have taken the initiative to initiate communication.

When users first follow a public account, they are most curious about the brand, just like when you first meet someone, you want to know more about them.

Therefore, in order to let the other person know you and become your friend, it is best to take the initiative to introduce yourself at this time and let him know you as much as possible.

Therefore, the first 48 hours after a user follows a public account is extremely critical, and it can even be said to be the first 3 to 5 hours.

Just one of the accounts in the GSX Matrix that I follow received 7 messages within 3 hours, and each message had different enticement settings and copy.

Of course, there needs to be a balance here. If you push too many messages too frequently, users might get disgusted and unfollow you.

Try to think about this: whether it is a social network, service account or other place, when a new user comes, do you let him get to know you in a timely manner and through diversified inducements and content?

Reuse point five: Establish a complete reach system.

From contacting the brand to receiving free courses, users need to go through the steps of "adding personal WeChat and WeChat group - booking courses through mini program - SMS notification of successful course booking - taking classes on Getui's own APP".

In this way, even if the user does not receive class information on a certain platform, he can still receive notifications from other platforms and remember the courses and schedules he needs to attend.

This can greatly improve users' attendance rate and class rate, laying the foundation for subsequent conversions.

This is a bit like the "saturation rescue" in "The Wandering Earth" - I'm not sure whether users can receive information through this channel, but as long as there are enough, there will always be one that can successfully reach users.

However, this is also a double-edged sword. When determining whether so many platforms and channels are needed to reach users, one should also consider whether it will cause unnecessary harassment to users and cause users to label the brand negatively as excessive harassment.

Try to think about whether your company or business currently has a system that is too thin to reach users? Can we optimize the channels for traffic diversion, provide users with more accessible channels, and avoid excessive harassment?

Reuse point six: Carefully designed live course conversion process.

The live course process of Who's Teaching mainly includes three parts: "breaking the ice, establishing authority, and in-depth explanation of single point knowledge".

Step 1: Icebreaker

Since everyone is unfamiliar at the beginning, how to make students find the course interesting, divert their attention to the online course, and quickly become familiar with the students is a very critical step.

Therefore, the teacher will play a small game at the beginning of the class, such as performing a small magic trick:

Students write down their birthdays and mix them on small cards. The teacher randomly calls a student to see if his birthday is on the cards on the display. If so, the teacher can accurately point out the student's birthday.

This can not only focus students' attention on online classes, but also quickly shorten the distance with users.

Step 2: Establish the teacher’s authority

Before class, the teacher will give a brief self-introduction. At this time, the teacher will use various titles to shape his or her professionalism and authority and enhance the user's sense of trust.

For example, the teacher is a master's graduate from Peking University or Tsinghua University. The average math score of a class he taught was 135. He is a gold medal lecturer at Who's Who in Education and has xx years of teaching experience.

Step 3: In-depth discussion of single point knowledge

Because it is a free course, the teacher used a very clever teaching method - polishing one or two knowledge points and explaining them to the best of their ability.

The free course time is limited, and it is definitely not enough if you want to systematically talk about the content of an environment.

This will instead result in students not learning anything, thinking that the teacher is incompetent, and affecting their impression of the brand, which is a very thankless task.

Therefore, the best strategy for free classes is to carefully polish the course for one knowledge point and let students see the teacher's strength.

Overall, this actually seems to be a sales strategy for following up with customers, and GSX has very cleverly integrated it into the course design.

Try to think about whether you can reuse GSX’s strategy of “breaking the ice - sorting out authority - in-depth explanation of single point knowledge” in the design of your free courses or conversion links.

Reuse point seven: excellent content operation strategy.

This is reflected in three aspects:

1. Poster design: Getuixue.com can often use the same lure to promote different selling points and display different designs. It has designed more than a dozen promotional posters of different styles and made adjustments and optimizations based on the conversion effects of different posters.

Output copywriting based on different main selling points and entry points, so as to promptly avoid the situation where the overall traffic declines due to a low conversion rate of a copywriting.

3. As an inducement, some of the materials are from internal teachers themselves. For example, an English teacher who teaches IELTS has “5000 high-frequency words for IELTS”, which are summarized from his own experience.

Use it as an inducement for promotion, so as to ensure that there is enough diverse content to promote and attract traffic, and provide support for sales and after-sales.

Try to think about whether your business can now develop a refined content operation strategy. Does it have the content genes to retain users and provide support for sales and after-sales service?

In addition to these reusable private domain strategies, we can also find the shortcomings of some of GSX's projects.

Avoiding the same pitfalls as others can reduce a lot of costs caused by trial and error. Compare the following content and see if your business line has the following problems?

Optimization point 1: IP is not established

A vivid, professional and informative IP can naturally be loved by users, which will invisibly increase users' trust in the brand and lower their psychological threshold for payment.

In the process of experiencing the service, I found that some of the communities and IP operations of Who’s Teaching are more professional, but some experiences are very bad.

For example, I joined an adult English education exchange group with teaching assistants and groups.

1. Use anime avatars.

If the target users are children, this can help narrow the distance with users, but this teacher is in the field of adult English teaching, which seems inappropriate;

2. The push information does not have a very obvious sense of "emotion".

Some of the related words sent by the individuals and groups that Jia Jia came into contact with after joining the group were all text, without small icons, and without the use of interjections to express feelings.

3. After joining the group, group message push is too slow and users lose patience. There was no intervention action for one hour after joining the group, and users didn’t know what to do after joining the group.

4. The community rhetoric was not clear, and the course collection process was not explained clearly. Many users did not know where to take the course even after reading it.

5. The teacher did not establish his authority, and his intervention in the community was not timely and even unprofessional. Many users began to say in the group that they were cheated and questioned the teacher's professionalism.

The second point that can be optimized: too many steps in the process, too much personal information leakage, and increased user decision-making costs;

From the time a user comes into contact with a brand to the time they successfully receive a course, there are too many platforms on which they need to authorize. Users have to disclose their phone numbers and other information once on each platform. If a user is sensitive about personal privacy, he will seriously consider whether this course is worth doing so. This will invisibly increase the user's decision-making cost.

The third point for optimization: too much marketing flavor.

A core of private domain traffic is to become friends with users. Even if you are not, you should make sure that your content and appearance can provide value to them.

Because the original intention of private domain traffic is to encourage users to repurchase and enter the era of stock. Therefore, there should be a balance between marketing, providing valuable content and intervening behavior.

If there are too many marketing messages, some users will not want to be disturbed too much and will quickly unfollow the service account.

Perhaps it is because of the fierce competition in the industry, and the overall feeling is very impetuous. It feels like people are very anxious to convert you using various methods. If you are aiming to convert you once or twice, it is a huge waste of user resources.

The essence of education is still service and content.