Why is your “old bring new” fission activity not working?

The global conversion rate of the project in this article reached 59%, the distribution conversion rate reached 56%, the fission level was 7, the cost of attracting new customers was controlled below 5 yuan, and the fission model was implemented for partners, which can be reused in the future to continue to acquire customers.

1. Project launch background and input-output ratio

The partner's promotional product is adult English speaking courses, which have a relatively small user base. Before the project, they had never done fission before, and they had no clear understanding of indicators such as the number of active users in the existing user pool and the recommendation index of old users, and there was no past data to refer to.

The partners’ needs are to achieve a global conversion rate of more than 30%, run a group fission model, and be reusable; it would be best if they could migrate old users of the original QQ ecosystem to the WeChat ecosystem to facilitate subsequent private domain operations.

2. Two key strategies in project operation

In terms of gameplay design, since the partner wanted to try the distribution model and hoped that users would settle on personal WeChat accounts, we chose the community fission model of old users bringing in new users .

This classic model has been repeatedly verified in different industries and regions, and the results are always to achieve goals efficiently with low customer acquisition costs.

The activity path of the 9.9 yuan secondary distribution fission is as follows:

After user A shares the poster and user B buys the course, user A can directly profit 5 yuan. After user B shares the poster and user C buys the course, user A can earn another 3 yuan. This feeling of making money without doing anything will stimulate users to share multiple times, thereby attracting more users to participate in the event.

Looking back at the entire project, we implemented two key strategies to ensure the ultimate effectiveness of the event:

1. Discover user pain points

2. Matching user pain points with course benefits

Key Strategy 1: Discover the Core Pain Points of Users

Many operations people will ask, “I deal with users every day, do I still need to do user research?”

In fact, every time you conduct user research, it is an opportunity to get to know your users again and build a deeper relationship with them, because user needs are changing dynamically . If you don’t understand them in depth, you may not even know when they have changed their minds.

Take the education industry as an example. Students’ learning needs before the start of school and before the end of the semester are completely different. The demand for improving scores at the end of the semester is much greater than that at the start of school. If you carry out activities during this period, the effect is likely to exceed that of the start of school.

The essential purpose of user research is to discover the core needs of users and help them solve their problems. Only then will users truly want to participate and ultimately achieve conversion.

The most important thing during this period is to define and find our research subjects, and use various channels to find the core needs of users.

(1) Find research users through multiple channels

For an enterprise, core users are those who are willing to spend money and time on the enterprise .

In the education industry, the core users of an enterprise are old users who have purchased courses, and potential users are new users who are interested in courses and may purchase courses in the future.

Only by clarifying this can we figure out what the growth goals are and determine the corresponding activity methods and paths based on the growth goals.

After defining the target, the next step is to find this group of users through different channels. In this "Good Morning English" activity, I used the following three channels to find research subjects, which can be used for reference:

(2) Hierarchical mining of common user needs

Use various methods to find users from different channels for surveys and explore their common needs. Later, when packaging and promoting the courses, we can use common needs to find the interest points that make users willing to participate in and share activities to ensure the spread of fission activities.

You can determine user demand through competitive product analysis, and then use one-on-one user interviews to accurately identify user needs and pain points.

① Competitive product analysis to determine user demand

When doing competitive product analysis, many people will contrast competitors with their own products, while some people think that their own products are the best and there are no competitors at all. These thoughts can make people fall into a state of blind confidence, making it impossible for them to objectively look at the position of their own products.

First of all, competitors are not one-dimensional .

Products that can grab users' time and attention are considered competitors in different dimensions.

Isn’t there a term called “dimensionality reduction attack”? Therefore, treating your own products correctly can help you avoid blind confidence, explore users’ unmet needs in competing products, and find your own growth opportunities.

Therefore, in this "Good Morning English" event, I investigated 10 competing products (including 4 adult oral training camps and 6 AI courses) to verify the universal needs of users from multiple dimensions such as the course price, content, main selling points, and course gameplay of the competitors.

In the process of learning spoken English for adults, the more universal needs of users are mainly:

• Real scene drills
• Need help with pronunciation correction
• Encourage persistence in learning

The difficulties faced by human oral learning users through inference from the results are:

• Self-study, no real scenario to practice
• I don't know if I'm saying it right, and no one helps me correct my pronunciation.
• It's hard to stick to it

After finding the general direction of user needs through competitive product analysis, we need to further conduct one-on-one interviews with segmented users to verify the authenticity of their needs.

②One-on-one interviews, stratified research on paying users vs potential users

We usually conduct one-on-one interviews to communicate with users in depth and explore their real needs.

At this time, it is necessary to pay attention to conducting stratified surveys of users, not only to understand the views and needs of old users on the courses, but also to explore the needs of potential users. Only by combining the two can we find [increment] through [existing] and achieve our growth goals.

For old paying users

The essence of distribution fission activities is to find incremental new users through existing old users, so old users are one of the key elements of fission activities.

In addition, old users have actually used our products and have the most realistic opinions about them. Therefore, during the user research stage, by understanding old users’ true opinions on the product, we can find the core advantages of the product and use them for subsequent course packaging and promotion. for example:

• Opinions on course learning
• The overall feeling of using the product (both the good and the bad)
• Unmet needs, what else do you hope the product can provide?
• Have you registered for other similar courses?

Targeting potential users

Compared with old users, we would like to verify general needs on potential users.

If you don’t know which users are your potential users, you can find the gathering places of users through the catalytic habits of old users. For example, you can search multiple keywords on Weibo, WeChat and Douyin to find out what potential users think about the product.

When I was doing user research on "Good Morning English", I went to Weibo and used multiple keywords such as "English", "Spoken", "Check-in", "Listening", "CET-4 and CET-6" to search for people's opinions on learning English.

At this time, I found that it is really difficult for adults to persist in learning English. I thought that I would give up because I couldn’t persist. Therefore, I realized that “it’s difficult to persist” is a common pain point for everyone.

In addition, we can also use our personal network to find people who are learning English or who are interested in British and American dramas, and ask them about their interests, their views on spoken English, how they would learn English, etc., so as to understand potential users' thoughts and the possibility of payment.

But please note that in the actual interview process, the questions are flexible and changeable, because users may not necessarily answer according to the questions you set.

We may also talk about something new. At this time, when the user talks about his or her feelings, we can ask more questions about why, rather than forcing the user to answer the questions rigidly according to the script you designed.

During the preparation stage of the event, we accurately explored user needs and pain points through competitive product analysis and one-on-one user interviews, laying a solid foundation for the next step of event planning.

Key Strategy 2: Matching User Pain Points with Course Benefits

After understanding the real needs of users, we can start packaging and attracting products, focusing on solving two problems:

1. What problems can the course help users solve?

2. What benefits can the course bring to users?

Combined with the previous survey results, I found that users have the following problems:

• No scenes to practice dialogue
• English pronunciation is not correct, I don't know how to pronounce it
• I can't hear clearly what's being played.
• It's hard to stick to it

However, users generally only pay for [pain points and benefit points], so I need to find the benefit points where this product can solve user problems and meet user needs.

At the beginning, we can brainstorm and pool ideas to match user needs and pain points with the benefits of the course:

According to the previous user survey, it was found that there are two main types of typical users of Good Morning English:

Category 1: College students who have passed CET-4 and CET-6 and improved their listening scores

The second category: office workers who want to improve their workplace skills and enhance their oral ability

These two groups of people have different needs for learning spoken English, so we need to put different interest points on the poster to meet their needs:

Targeting college students, the poster packaging focuses on: improving CET-4 and CET-6 scores

Targeting office workers, the poster packaging focuses on: job hunting, social networking

So I initially designed the following three poster styles:

Later, I found that the text expressions of the above three posters were rather empty, and failed to let users know at a glance the course's ability to solve pain points and its benefits.

Therefore, I reviewed the survey content again and circled the high-frequency words mentioned by users, such as job hunting, barrier-free communication with foreigners when traveling, correcting pronunciation, lack of confidence in speaking, etc. I then explored the benefits of the course, formed corresponding solutions, and wrote them into the copy.

Finally, we chose to set the theme of the event as "Devil's Oral English Counterattack Camp", using the word "devil" to highlight the effect of the course. The "Counterattack Camp" is different from the "study camp" and "training camp" on the market, making users feel that as long as they participate in the event, they can counterattack and solve the problem of English speaking.

III. Project resistance and three iterations to break through

Unexpectedly, just after the activity was launched, I encountered the most common difficulties of distribution fission activities: there were only 238 old users recruited in the initial stage, and the old users’ willingness to share was not high.

This means that there are fewer old users participating in the event, and even fewer old users willing to share the event, so fission cannot occur.

You should know that the essence of the fission activity of bringing in new users is to reduce the cost of attracting new users by having old users bring in new users. The current result makes me feel like I have fallen into a big pit before I even set out. Dying before accomplishing my mission is a hero's cry.

I got up, shook off the dust on my body, and started thinking about which directions I could take to break through through iteration.

After evaluating the current situation, I found that the focus should be on increasing the sharing rate of old users + incentivizing new users to share .

Based on this, I carried out three iterative optimizations, and eventually the number of people participating in the distribution increased to 582, a 2-fold increase.

Round 1

Resistance: Low sharing rate among old users

Iteration direction: Reduce marketing sense + layered incentive mechanism

In the initial promotional copy, we packaged the user's distribution commission into a scholarship, [a 5 yuan scholarship for every person shared], which reduced the marketing sense and made users willing to share.

Later, we found that the number of people sharing was relatively small, so we wanted to encourage users to share with more people. Therefore, we emphasized that sharing with 1 user would get a scholarship, and transitioned to [Share with 3 friends to get a premium course worth 488 yuan, share with 5 friends and get the original book delivered to your home] to encourage users to share with multiple friends.

Round 2

Resistance: Different levels of users have different willingness to share

Iteration direction: focus on encouraging old users to share

After multiple activities, we found that the ability of old users to bring in new users is in line with the 80/20 rule. Generally, the top 20% of old users bring in 80% of new users, while the middle and lower-level users have weaker abilities to bring in new users. So our focus is on incentivizing old users to share.

Since old users have deep feelings for the brand, we chose "Good Morning English" peripheral products (such as Good Morning Vocabulary Book, Good Morning Canvas Bag, etc.) as incentive prizes for old users.

In addition, we have also increased incentives for old users: share with 10 people and receive a cash reward + free shipping of the original book + vocabulary book + canvas bag + high-quality courses under Good Morning, to stimulate old users to share with more people.

At the same time, we had private chats with old users who had the potential to bring in new users, encouraging them to share to win bonuses and bring in more new users. The final fission rate reached 402%, an increase of 25% compared to the initial stage.

Round 3

Resistance: Limited number of old users

Iteration direction: Multi-level incentives for new users to share

After reaching out to old users, we found that their number is limited, so if we want to increase the number of people sharing, we need to encourage new users to share.

Here I borrowed the method that the previous project department used to direct traffic to the offline stores of Shenzhen Happy Coastline: after users join the group and generate an exclusive QR code, they can get a distribution bonus + 1 cup of milk tea.

At that time, this action greatly increased users' motivation to share, while also ensuring the user's redemption rate at offline stores, making the event more effective.

I migrated and reused this action in this online event: after users join the group, they can generate exclusive posters and forward them to their friends circle, and they can get a reward, which increases the UV exposure of the event.

When a new user adds a personal account to claim rewards, inform the user again that [share with 3 friends to get a premium course worth RMB 488, share with 5 friends to get the original book delivered to your home], reach out to new users multiple times and encourage them to share.

As a result, 48 new people shared the post that day, bringing in more than 100 distribution orders, an increase of 33% over the number of people who shared the post the day before.

I remember when I was a kid, I watched Slam Dunk and there was a line that always left a deep impression on me: "If you give up now, the game will be over."

As long as it's not over, we still have a chance of winning. Similarly, when we are doing an event, as long as the time is not over, we can continue to optimize and iterate to maximize the project effect.

4. The underlying thinking logic of fission distribution activities

1. The underlying logic of distribution fission: improving the efficiency of bringing in new customers

After completing this project, I think the most important thing to do in order to carry out a distribution fission activity where old customers bring in new customers is to have a deep understanding of the principles behind the distribution activity.

This activity is carried out in the WeChat ecosystem, based on the [social] scenario, and aims to reduce the cost of attracting new users by having old users bring in new users. The higher the sharing rate of old users, the stronger the ability to bring in new users, the better the activity effect, and the lower the activity cost.

There are two reasons why old users are willing to share:

① Loyalty to the brand;

② Interest points that encourage users to share.

The loyalty of old users to the brand is accumulated over a long period of time and cannot be accumulated quickly. What we can change in a short period of time is the benefits we provide to users.

We can choose some interest points that old users are very interested in to motivate them, help promote, and bring in new users, such as:

Materially: cash rewards, valuable private lessons from teachers, branded peripheral products, etc.

Spiritually: honorary awards, places in the core fan group, etc.

After experiencing this project, I have a deeper understanding of the distribution fission model.

When I was communicating with other friends in operations before, they thought that distribution fission was consuming old user resources, and they were worried that if the old users shared this time, the gameplay would not work the next time they did an event.

After experiencing this event, I found that if I can deeply understand user needs and identify interest points before the event, old users will be willing to help share.

On the contrary, if old users are not activated, they may also churn naturally. Only by moving a little can the entire traffic pool bring new vitality.

Distribution is a classic marketing method, and for the education industry, courses are virtual products that have a natural advantage in creating community fission. If we can combine our existing advantages, we can achieve twice the result with half the effort.

2. Reusable distribution gameplay operation panorama

We have summarized a distribution fission customer acquisition model, which is mainly divided into four sections: event promotion - fission sharing - private domain precipitation - private domain conversion , and broke down the important influencing factors, data models and operation strategies for each link. In addition, there is the underlying psychology of users in each link.

When doing distribution activities, users scanning posters, sharing activities, guiding classes, etc. are all superficial user behaviors. Only by exploring the underlying psychology of users, breaking down the key factors that affect user behavior, and combining operational strategies and data models, can we truly fully understand distribution fission.

It's like an iceberg. The surface is all routines, and the deeper level is the operator's thinking about the entire fission growth activity and his understanding of human nature.

3. Three underlying capabilities of community fission

On the other hand, as a project manager, if you want to do a good job in community fission, you also need to have three basic capabilities.

(1) Target breakdown

When you get the demand target, don't just jump in and execute it blindly. Instead, you should first translate the target and determine the key factors that affect the target; then make a plan and reduce the target to specific actions; finally, divide the granularity and break down the big target into small phased goals according to the timeline.

For example :

One of the goals of community fission activities is to ensure UV exposure of the activity in order to bring in the first stage of users.

We can break down the activity UV exposure into the following key elements according to the channel:

① Own traffic pool: APP, public account, circle of friends, community, personal account, etc.

②External traffic pool: delivery channels

③ New traffic brought by fission: sharing by old users

After a comprehensive assessment of the company's resources and channel conditions, key channels are identified, and then the key elements of the key channels are broken down to determine the channel's promotional materials, frequency, and user profile.

By breaking down big goals into small, controllable goals, you can increase your control over the overall effectiveness of the event, rather than looking for a needle in a haystack.

(2) Marketing packaging

The copy needs to be translated into words that users can understand at once, which requires marketing packaging capabilities to package the activities to make them more attractive. Here are 2 tips for your reference:

①Speak human language

The ultimate goal of the activity is conversion. If users don’t understand it, how can they continue reading? Every time after I finish writing a copy, I will read it three times in my native dialect. If it sounds strange, I will continue to revise it until the elderly at home can understand it, then it will be fine.

②Simply and directly point out the benefits of the product

It is necessary to maximize users' understanding of the actual benefits of the product and reduce user response time. A classic example is the Red Army’s recruitment advertisement: Fellow villagers, you can get land by joining the Red Army!

(3) Data analysis

Data is the most direct barometer of the effectiveness of an activity.

There must be "data" behind any "phenomenon", and there must be "reason" behind any change in "data".

We need to pay attention to, record, compare and analyze data in real time to determine whether the operation strategy is effective and perform targeted optimization and iteration.

For example, different copywriting on the same channel may have different traffic, which can directly reflect the user's interest in the copywriting, thus determining the optimization direction of the copywriting;

For example, the order volumes from different channels are different, which can be used to evaluate the quality of the channel. Focus on promotion in high-quality channels to amplify the effect of the activity, and reduce promotion in low-quality channels to lower the cost of the activity.

Reviewing the past can help everyone gain a deeper understanding of the operational logic behind fission activities. We do not do it for the sake of doing activities, but to achieve the ultimate growth goal