Douyin e-commerce 618 marketing strategy

In another week, the annual Douyin 618 Good Products Festival will be here.

In my opinion, this year's 618 promotion is extremely important for brands and merchants. On the one hand, the promotion can be used to achieve the goal of clearing inventory and activate inventory as cash flow; on the other hand, it can also boost the confidence of brands and merchants and respond to the still uncertain economic situation with a more positive attitude.

Based on this, we believe that this year's 618, brand merchants will pay more attention to the investment and operation in new traffic channels than in previous years, and will not miss out on new e-commerce platforms such as Douyin, which has daily active users, incremental growth, and the ability to produce sales miracles. However, this will also lead to more fierce competition for traffic during the 618 period, especially for brands and merchants that are already in the red ocean. Even if they are prepared for bidding under "high traffic", refined "people-goods-place" operations are still imperative, otherwise it is very easy to become a "loser runner" in the big promotion.

To this end, we have prepared this practical article, taking the food and beverage industry as the research object, and teaching you step by step how to do a good job in product layout, position layout and promotion layout in the three stages before, during and after the big promotion .

Water storage and grass planting period (May 1st - May 31st)

How to find potential hot-selling products as the main products for big promotions?

The time for Douyin e-commerce’s 618 Good Products Festival has been confirmed. It will officially start on June 1st and end on June 18th. In order to obtain higher product clicks and more interested users, brand merchants are advised to plan ahead.

The top priority is to do a good job in product layout , including three dimensions : set products, gifts, and new products .

The so-called product grouping is to disrupt consumers' perception of the original commodity pricing system by recombining and packaging commodities of different specifications. This will not only speed up users’ ordering decisions, but also enable them to enlarge product packaging based on the user’s mentality of “stocking up at low prices” during promotions, thereby obtaining higher profits and sales. Take Three Squirrels as an example. Every New Year’s Festival, the cost-effective New Year’s gift packages become the core hot products in the live broadcast room.

For gifts , we find products that are more closely related to the main product and use this to carry out corresponding buy-one-get-one-free activities. It should be emphasized here that gifts do not necessarily have to be in the same category as the main product, but they can be effective assists. For example, if you sell drip coffee, the gift can be a beautiful coffee cup.

The third is new products . Please note that the new products here do not require you to develop brand new products for the big promotion, but it is recommended to work hard on packaging and marketing selling points to give users more impulsive reasons to place orders.

Now that you have the idea of ​​combining products, giving away gifts and new products, and have taken action, you can move on to the product testing phase, so that you can figure out the real preferences of Douyin users.

How to test? In Douyin, there are two paths: short video product testing and live broadcast product testing.

Kas suggested that short video evaluation should focus on user public opinion below the video , rather than using the product as a tool to look at actual order conversions. In order to improve the effectiveness of product testing, it is recommended to obtain more interactive samples through "DOU+" heating.

When testing products in live broadcast rooms, brands are advised to pay attention to three other indicators, namely: the click-through rate, conversion rate and average order value of products in the live broadcast room , so as to find products with higher GPM as the main products .

After the product layout and testing are completed, we need to make a detailed layout around the four major business positions of Douyin e-commerce (F merchant self-broadcasting, A expert matrix, C marketing activities and T head KOL). It is recommended here that brand merchants should make relevant layouts in FACT, while small and medium-sized merchants should focus on F and A.

Taking "merchant self-broadcasting" as an example, during the water storage period, it is recommended that everyone adjust the assessment indicators of the live broadcast room to: interaction and fan conversion. It is recommended that the overall interaction rate can reach 5% and the fan conversion rate can reach 3%. In order to achieve this goal, the gameplay and wording of the live broadcast room should be adjusted accordingly. In addition, starting from late May, it is also recommended to gradually extend the length of live broadcasts, because the effective live broadcast time will directly help the overall exposure and audience of the live broadcast room, but remember not to blindly extend the length. In the process of extending the length, you should also prepare corresponding means to stimulate traffic.

It is worth mentioning that during the water storage and grass planting period, the live broadcast scene should also be designed and adjusted accordingly, including live broadcast room patches, backgrounds, etc., in order to obtain more big promotion traffic.

So, during the water storage and grass planting period, what should we do around the "expert matrix"?

For the food and beverage category, the expert matrix is ​​a business position that requires special attention. From the brand "Li Ziqi" to "Notland", the expert matrix has brought too many surprises to the food and beverage industry, and has also proved that the expert matrix is ​​an important channel for food and beverage merchants to expand their overall sales. The reason is that the threshold for selling food and beverages is low, it is applicable to the live broadcast rooms of experts in various vertical categories, and it covers a wide range of people, from young people in small towns to the elderly, all of whom have consumption needs.

Therefore, during the period of planting grass and accumulating water before the big promotion, the key thing for merchants to do is to try their best to establish efficient alliances and cooperation with different types of influencers. The channels for cooperation include but are not limited to selected alliances, direct private messages and cooperation with star map experts. Here is a reminder that we must not ignore the Star Map experts. They are better at scene implantation and oral promotion of products, which can bring higher exposure to the products. In addition, if you have group leader resources, you can also contact the group leader in advance through the official platform to achieve twice the result with half the effort.

During the entire water storage and grass planting period, the platform has actually prepared many activities to help merchants maximize their exposure. For brand merchants, it is recommended to pay attention to the following activities, such as: variety show co-branded activities "Sisters' Eating and Shopping", "Tracing the Origin of China", etc., official activities "STAR Star Project", "Galaxy Project", etc.; for mid-tier merchants, they can pay attention to the official platform-level challenges and national mission activities initiated for ordinary Dabo and expert accounts.

The last position is TOP KOL. For the vast majority of brand merchants and mid-level merchants, top influencers including celebrities are also a business front that we should focus on.

However, merchants should note that the value of cooperating with celebrities and top influencers lies in four points: first, breaking the circle and bringing in a wider target audience; second, accumulating more interested users for the products; third, providing more reliable trust endorsement for our products; and fourth, providing richer materials for account management.

Big promotion conversion period (June 1st - June 18th)

How to optimize position management and achieve higher GMV?

Entering the big promotion conversion period, increasing overall sales is obviously the core goal of this stage. So at this stage, how should merchants plan their products, positions and promotions?

In terms of product layout, we know that after the product assembly and testing during the water storage and grass planting period, we have clarified the main products to be promoted during the promotion period and have made corresponding preparations for live broadcast gameplay. Therefore, at this stage, we should pay more attention to the operation of Doudian, especially to ensure the normal experience score of merchants during the promotion period.

In the entire experience point system, the weight of the product accounts for 50%, especially the negative reviews and product return rate of the product are the red line indicators of the platform . In addition, logistics and customer service indicators are also included. Therefore, we must ensure sufficient inventory while ensuring timely response of logistics and customer service . Try your best to ensure that the experience score remains above 4.6 during the promotion period.

In addition, live broadcast optimization should be done well. The live broadcast room is the core position that carries the overall GMV during the promotion period. The traffic of the live broadcast room changes in real time based on indicators such as the real-time GPM and dwell time of the live broadcast. Therefore, we should also adjust the product arrangement and product presentation strategies of our corresponding live broadcast rooms based on the changes in traffic of each live broadcast.

So, in addition to product layout, how do we manage our positions well during the promotion period?

The first is the self-broadcasting segment that everyone is most concerned about. During the promotion period, the first thing to do is to increase the effective live broadcast duration, because the duration will directly affect the traffic. For example, under normal circumstances, the audience of a one-hour live broadcast is 1,000 people. If the duration is extended to 2 hours, there may be 2,000 viewers. 2,000 viewers means more orders and higher GMV under similar conversion rates.

For merchants participating in BIG DAY, they should focus their business strategies on BIG DAY, and all preparations should be made around the outbreak of BIG DAY. For merchants who do not design BIG DAY, they should optimize the three elements of "people-goods-place" while increasing the length of live broadcast.

In the optimization of "people", we should make corresponding psychological preparations, such as how to cope with the increased live broadcast time and how to deal with the reduced audience, etc.; secondly, the optimization of "goods", which must be centered around the main products to carry out product arrangement design, while selecting the drainage products and welfare products, and optimizing the interactive gameplay based on the product selection and determination strategies, including lucky bags, flash sales, fan coupons, newcomer coupons, etc.; finally, the optimization of the "venue", the purpose is to increase the overall entry rate of the recommended screen in the live broadcast room, that is, the peripheral "exposure-entry rate".

In addition to self-broadcasting by merchants, the operation of the Qida broadcast matrix should also be emphasized during the promotion conversion period.

As we all know, during a big sale, it is impossible for any influencer to promote products for only one merchant. Therefore, it is extremely important for merchants to find excellent influencers and ensure that he/she can produce more videos for the brand or conduct longer live broadcasts of single products.

The question arises again, what makes an excellent influencer?

It is recommended that you filter from two dimensions: one is the overall product exposure, and the other is the product's GPM (also known as the transaction amount per thousand impressions) . For mid- and low-end influencers, GMV is not actually the core indicator we should focus on. What we should be more concerned about is the influencer's overall traffic monetization efficiency for products . We should find influencers with high exposure and GPM and cooperate deeply with them . We can give such influencers higher targeted commissions and provide traffic support during their live broadcasts to ensure that the influencer spends more time on the main products.

Next, it comes to the marketing activities stage.

During the promotion period, the platform also prepares corresponding activities for all merchants and experts. There are those with lower thresholds, including good product live broadcast rooms, peak mission competitions, etc., and there are also those with relatively high thresholds, such as Douyin brand activities. Kas suggested that business influencers should participate in official activities as much as possible, because where there are activities there will be rewards and traffic.

It is worth mentioning that during this 618 event, Juliang Qianchuan also launched a series of activities for the first time. For example, there is a ranking competition with different tracks from "Newbie" to "Master". Friends who have already opened an account must pay attention to this official event and get as much traffic rewards as possible.

As for merchants cooperating with top KOLs, it is emphasized again that the purpose of cooperation is not simply for exposure and product promotion, but to enable them to better provide certain support for the 618 promotion operations . For example, providing streaming materials, or interacting in the live broadcast room.

Finally, there is the big promotion strategy that merchants are extremely concerned about.

As mentioned earlier, during the promotion period, the competition for paid traffic is very fierce, so there will be higher requirements for our overall budget, bids, and conversion rates. When businesses formulate promotion strategies during big sales periods, they must focus on their goals.

For example, when producing materials, it is necessary to output information with strong interest points such as "strong discounts, limited quantities, limited time pre-orders" to guide users to convert immediately. For merchants with cloud maps, they should focus on the a1 (understanding) to a3 (inquiry) groups to improve the overall conversion rate of the live broadcast room. In addition, the plans for the live broadcast room should be adjusted in real time according to the live broadcast situation. High-quality plans that have been implemented during the water storage period should be selected as much as possible to increase investment. At the same time, as many backup plans as possible should also be prepared.

Sustained growth period (June 19-June 30)

How to conduct a comprehensive review and continuously expand crowd assets?

By June 19, although the big sale has ended, it is recommended that brand merchants should not take it lightly, but press on to seize the opportunity and strive for a greater outbreak.

First of all, in terms of product strategy, the product packages, gifts or new products we prepare for the big promotion should not be taken offline immediately after the promotion is over. Instead, we recommend holding corresponding return events.

On the one hand, these main products themselves take on the vast majority of traffic during the promotion period, so the weight of the products will be relatively high, and may even become the core support part of our live broadcast room traffic. If the product is removed from the shelves rashly, it will lead to a cliff-like decline in the traffic of the live broadcast room after the big promotion, which will also be an immeasurable loss for the merchants. On the other hand, a large part of the a1 (understanding) to a3 (inquiry) population we have accumulated in the entire early stage may not have yet been converted. Appropriately extending the activity cycle will also help stimulate conversion.

Therefore, during the period of sustained growth, corresponding return activities will not only help to increase the overall GMV, promote the sustained stability of traffic, and cultivate users' consumption mentality, but also gradually transfer the traffic of the main products to subsequent products to ensure the stability of the overall operation.

In addition to product layout, corresponding position layout is also essential.

Take the example of self-broadcasting by merchants. After the big promotion is over, the first thing to do is to review. This includes a review of the entire promotion, a review of each day’s live broadcast during the promotion, and even a review of each live broadcast. The dimension for review should start from GMV and think about the three major components of GMV: traffic, conversion and average order value. Analyze the traffic composition and traffic utilization efficiency of each live broadcast and the overall live broadcast of the promotion, analyze the operational conversion efficiency within the live broadcast room, and analyze the rationality of the average order value of the products and the live broadcast product arrangement.

At the same time, we also need to review the crowd, including the review of the Doudian crowd, the review of the account crowd, the review of the product crowd, and the review of the live broadcast crowd . Clarify the changes in the overall population before and after the promotion to provide data support for subsequent operations.

In addition, as we enter a period of sustained growth, corresponding adjustments should be made to the duration of live broadcasts and the arrangement of personnel. It is recommended that merchants combine the analysis of anchors during the promotion period to optimize the configuration of the live broadcast team after the promotion ends. Since a reduction in live broadcast duration will inevitably lead to a decline in traffic, it is necessary to review the traffic utilization efficiency and traffic scale per unit time to determine the team's ability to attract and carry traffic.

As for the business position of the influencer matrix, it is recommended that merchants do not stop operating this position after the big promotion is over. Instead, they should engage in long-term cooperation with high-quality influencers to establish a stable influencer distribution base. When selecting talents, I would like to emphasize again that GPM should be the core reference indicator.

The third is TOP KOL. Among the top influencers, we should also find some influencers who can engage in pure commission mixed cooperation and establish long-term cooperation. At the same time, we can also conduct corresponding evaluations on the influencers who have expressed willingness to cooperate with us during the promotion period, and cooperate with some influencers with better results to carry out corresponding return activities.

Finally, as for the promotion strategy, as we enter a period of sustained growth, the promotion strategy should focus on maintaining stability. On the one hand, we should adjust the subsequent delivery strategy or correct the overall population portrait based on the population portrait during the promotion period, or help us discover the portrait of potential customers and further expand the scale of such users through delivery. At the same time, we can also continue to optimize the grass-planting period, expand the overall scale of 5A users as much as possible, and generate more repeat purchases.

Author: Mr. Hanekawa

Source: Kas Data