First of all, we must understand that everything we do, whether through investment or other activities, is to achieve the big goal of selling our products. Investment is only one of the channels or means to achieve it. Therefore, before doing anything, we must first clarify what our big goal is, that is, what product we want to focus on and how big the product will be. Secondly, how to achieve it and what the pace will be, and then make a clear plan based on these.
Why do we need to write a hot product plan? Only when we have a clear plan can we have a corresponding action guide so as not to get lost in the subsequent execution details. At the same time, you can have a reference base to know whether the results you produce are good or bad. And let the team have a clear overall goal so that everyone can work around the same goal and avoid the inefficiency caused by doing their own thing. Okay, let’s answer the question of what preparations need to be made before launching, that is, how to write corresponding plans for the products that you want to be popular. In fact, everyone is doing the overall logic and methods, which generally include the following three points. Next, I will expand on these three points:
1. Sort out and determine the major rhythm corresponding to each product;
2. According to the big rhythm, use the month as the dimension to make data indicators that can be measured every day;
3. Adjust the plan based on the data collected after the action;
01 Determine the rhythm around the main product
Generally, new products follow big sales, so we will use large-scale e-commerce festivals as a node for new product outbreaks and determine the general direction. It generally includes four stages: preparation period; testing period; volume expansion period; and explosive harvest period.
With the goal of explosive growth at large nodes, determine the phased indicators for each month and the key action strategies for each channel. Taking the 618 hot-selling products as an example, the general rhythm is as follows, and the following content revolves around this table:
The following things are usually done during the preparation period:
1. Basic sales volume and effective reviews in PuTao;
2. Xiaohongshu’s content planning, distribution plan, corresponding fees, and pre-arrangement of top influencers;
3. Kuaishou and Xiaohongshu determine the content strategy, delivery plan, corresponding fees, and preset arrangements for top influencers at each node;
4. Preliminary communication and preparation of live broadcast related resources inside and outside the site;
5. Arrangement of information flow and UD delivery materials.
(The above is for reference only. The specific distribution channels should be prepared and arranged in advance according to the company's daily work and what is effective.)
When entering the testing period:
1. Start testing the on-site payment tools to maximize sales growth;
2. Xiaohongshu has completed the first phase of influencer delivery. Through delivery, it looks for high-quality content. It uses information flow + CPC tools to increase the volume of stable data notes and continuously find high-quality content. Because the ROI in Xiaohongshu is closely related to the quality of the delivered content, it continuously improves the ROI of delivery through content. After completing the ROI in the Xiaohongshu environment, it drives overflow traffic to Taobao.
3. When Kuaishou completes the first phase of influencer delivery, it begins to cooperate with the live broadcast to harvest and complete the basic ROI. At the same time, Kuaishou can effectively and intuitively drive the increase of Taobao search index. It is necessary to test it through delivery to determine the relationship between influencer selection, playback volume, Taobao search, and delivery cost, so as to optimize delivery skills later.
4. Information flow & UD, through the funnel data in the delivery, continuously optimize the materials and determine the achievable ROI;
5. Continue to supplement target sales through live streaming and determine achievable ROI.
(The above is also for reference only. Determine ROI based on the methods that the company finds effective in its daily operations.)
As the ROI related to the testing period has been explored and the paths of various channels have been run through, we have entered the period of mass production:
1. It is necessary to adjust the fee ratio of each port based on the data of the test period and the actual situation. Within the limited funds and psychological expectations, channels and methods with good data should be expanded, and the channel dividends and methodologies that have been explored should be fully understood as much as possible;
2. At the same time, look for new long-tail traffic channels to prevent the channel bonus from changing too quickly, spending too much time exploring the next bonus channel and strategy, and adding new output channels. At present, public accounts, Zhihu, and Douban are still worth exploring. Similarly, while exploring, you can also find ways to play each channel and set corresponding ROIs.
We will first refine the relevant content of the preparation period and testing period that need to be resolved first. The large-scale period and explosive harvest period will be iterated based on the previous results and data. In general, first let yourself and your team know the general rhythm of promoting the corresponding products according to the big promotion.
02 Determine the recent monthly indicators based on the big rhythm
After the major operational rhythm is determined, it is necessary to clarify what needs to be done each month. Here we break down each traffic port corresponding to the product into three parts: on-site payment, off-site payment, and off-site promotion. At the same time, we start to calculate the sales volume corresponding to each traffic port and determine the initial target. The approximate rhythm and framework are as follows: Because relevant data needs to be filled in the monthly plan, the most important thing is to determine two data ports: the sales volume and conversion rate that each channel port can bring. Once these two are determined, the others can be obtained through relational formulas.
Because the data in the table is related to everyone’s daily KPI, the data cannot be guessed, but must be based on evidence.
How are these data determined? Generally, it is evaluated based on 2 points:
1. Compare the data of corresponding channels of competing products;
2. The brand’s own past data; (If there is no past data reference, use the first point to determine the planned data)
Regarding the first point, when conducting competitive product analysis, several issues need to be determined:
1. What is the entire rhythm of the competing product from the beginning to the volume growth?
2. What is the total link promotion budget each month, and the approximate ROI calculation;
3. Has the free traffic increased after the product sales increased?
4. What is the core strategy that can influence sales?
For example: (Healthy food)
A product with a customer unit price of 90 to 130 yuan was officially launched on Tmall in April.
The sales volume in the first month of launch was 300,000, with an average customer order of 22.83 yuan. It is predicted that the basic sales volume should be achieved at an ultra-low price.
By analyzing the main traffic composition of the product site in the past 6 months, it was found that the traffic was mainly concentrated in Taobao Affiliate, Taobao Mobile search and other free traffic, My Taobao, shopping cart, and free traffic within Taobao.
Based on this data port, we can further analyze the specific production data of related distribution channels. If we calculate the production based on the data in December, the general situation is as follows:
1. The investment cost of this product is estimated to be around 1.6 million, and the cost on Taobao is around 500,000, totaling 2.1 million, bringing in 5.03 million in sales, with a ROI of 2.35;
2. Taobao's sales were 2.47 million, of which live streaming and Douyin accounted for 520,000, and the remaining 1.95 million was expected to come from information flow channels;
3. Other free searches on search and Taobao brought in 1.6 million users through seeding.
4. My Taobao regular customers brought in 960,000;
5. Taobao tools and the combination of seeding and harvesting brought in 930,000;
6. Shopping cart (conversion from favorites and purchases last month) brought 2.5 million;
According to these data, the other party’s main channels for increasing volume are: 1. Information flow; 2. Planting grass + live broadcast harvesting.
In summary, the process of using benchmarking products to develop your own monthly plan is as follows: When the overall monthly plan data is determined based on the above data, if there is no brand with previous delivery data for reference, execute it first according to the current data. This way, you will have reference data, which will allow you to have goals in execution and be able to evaluate whether you are doing well or not in a timely manner. If you already have relevant delivery experience, you can fill in the sales volume and conversion rate that the corresponding channel can bring according to the previous delivery situation and the data that the company can achieve on a daily basis. In this way, when setting goals, you can know how much can be accomplished according to the team's capabilities, and how much is left to be completed, and then conduct detailed decomposition and task allocation.Once the sales and conversion rates of each channel are determined, we use the relationship formula to determine other data:
1. According to UV = number of purchasers / visitor rate, the total UV can be determined;
2. Budget = single UV * click/consumption price corresponding to the channel (this data can be calculated based on past operation data/industry average data);
3. Promotion ratio = single channel budget / total budget cost;
4. Production = budget/estimated sales;
03 Implement and iterate around specific indicators and data
Once all this data is calculated, what remains to be done is:
1. Determine the main responsible personnel for each port and the corresponding KPI;
2. Each person in charge will plan detailed plans for the channels they are responsible for according to the tasks;
3. Start to combine resources to implement the implementation;
4. Adjust the work based on the collected data and compare with the original goals;
04 Conclusion
For a brand, whether it can survive for a long time depends on the sales of the entire store, and often a hot-selling product can drive the sales of the entire store. When resources and manpower are limited, creating explosive products becomes particularly important. In order to achieve higher sales, good products should be combined with large e-commerce festivals. This powerful combination will easily lead to good results.
Therefore, it is necessary to test the product first to determine whether it is explosive. For good products, it is particularly important to formulate a plan based on the volume to be achieved during the big promotion.
Generally, when formulating a plan, we first sort out and determine the general rhythm, and then on this basis, determine the data indicators with monthly goals. As the KPI for everyone's subsequent tasks, data indicators must be based on evidence. Therefore, when planning data indicators, the final determination should be made based on the data of benchmark competitors in various dimensions and combined with past execution experience.
After confirmation, we start to arrange for responsible persons. The responsible persons will then determine the detailed implementation plans and find resources within their own areas based on the tasks they have received, and start to implement them according to the rhythm. Recover execution data and monitor daily sales figures. If the target is met, we summarize the experience; if not, we check the status of each port, determine where the problem occurs, and solve it in time until the final goal is achieved.
