Activity operation channels and promotion methods!

After organizing several popular events recently, I feel very accomplished and decided to share my skills in event promotion.

If the early event planning determines the height of the event, then the event promotion determines whether you can reach the expected height. Have you ever wondered why some events seem so good when planned, but in reality very few, if any, people attend?

If this is the case, then I suggest you don't hold the event for now. Because there are no publicity channels and the channel quality is very poor, no one will know about even the most perfect event.

Isn't there some kind of fission gameplay? You should never try to attract more people to participate through the event itself. Sorry, the premise of fission is also to have a group of high-quality loyal users to share and attract more people to participate.

I have worked on many campaigns, some with a few participants (startups, no budget and no experience), and some that exceeded expectations, with over a million exposures and more than 20,000 participants.

If you don’t have channels, you can buy them with money, or you can also use your own team to slowly build your own platform’s user base or new media. Below is a brief description of the commonly used promotional channels on the Internet and their characteristics.

The first step is to be familiar with the characteristics of the channel itself, which can be divided into two categories: online and offline. The following mainly talks about online channels, which can also be divided into two categories: on-site and off-site. There are many different types of offline advertising resources, and I am not very professional, so I won’t teach you how to do it.

1. Common promotion channels for activities

1. Inside the site

1) Splash screen

Introduction: The splash screen refers to the first ad space that appears when the app is reopened.

Characteristics of the channel: The exposure of this channel is generally very high, and the dwell time is generally 1 second. It mainly relies on vertical posters or animations to attract user clicks. The disadvantage is that it cannot be delivered in a targeted manner. If it is delivered by time, all users who open the app during that time period will see it.

Application scenarios: Splash screens are generally used for event exposure, commercial advertising realization, new product promotion, etc.

2) Push

Introduction: Push refers to the server sending information to the user's mobile phone interface in real time. Through the information push service, it actively and timely interacts with the user and pushes reminders, dynamics and other information to the user.

Characteristics of the channel: Push can send information to designated users and is a refined operational method. However, due to the mechanism and principles of push messages themselves, the conversion rate is generally not high.

Application scenario: Push is a very good tool for promoting and recalling users. It can send different content to different user groups to promote and recall users.

3) Private messages and notifications

Introduction: This generally involves sending messages to users through some official accounts of the app itself. The content of the messages usually includes text, pictures, links, emoticons, etc.

Characteristics of the channel: The content format of private messages and push notifications is very similar, but the sending mechanisms are different. The cost of private messages will be relatively low, and the conversion rate is similar to that of push, and it mainly depends on the conversion of the copy. After refined operations, different content can be sent to specific users to achieve the effect of different faces for each user.

Application scenarios: Because it has a similar function to push, but has a lower operating cost, it is also often used in various marketing messages, function upgrade messages, event messages, etc.

4) Pop-up window

Introduction: A pop-up window refers to a floating layer that pops up on the page when you open an app or web. It is usually displayed in the form of picture + text + jump link.

Characteristics of the channel: Pop-ups are more likely to attract user attention and are similar to splash screens, but the scenarios are somewhat different. The exposure will also be relatively high, but the disadvantage is that it cannot be targeted.

Application scenarios: Pop-up windows generally display important user announcements, activity exposure, product promotion, etc.

5) In-site advertising banner

Introduction: In-site advertising space is a fixed image display position on the app web page. The specific location depends on the design of the product manager, generally including the head carousel, feel flow, bottom, etc.

Characteristics of the channel: The conversion rate of the banner position within the site is generally high, which mainly depends on the attractiveness of the picture content to users. The disadvantage is that the traffic limits the exposure to internal active users and locations.

Application scenarios: Generally used for event promotion, important product promotion, commercial advertising monetization, etc.

2. Off-site

1) Email

Email marketing is to send activity content to users by email. Due to the current migration of users' Internet behavior habits, the promotion and conversion rate of emails may be the lowest among all channels, and few users will read advertising emails.

2) SMS

The reach rate of SMS channels is very high, but the cost is relatively high, so basically only large-scale events will use this channel to promote their activities.

3) Cooperation platform

You can place advertisements on platforms with similar user groups, which requires a certain amount of cost. You can also consider volume exchange cooperation, but you also need to consider the input-output ratio.

4) Weibo and WeChat

WeChat and Weibo are the current representatives of new media. Basically, many companies attach great importance to the operation of this area. This channel mainly focuses on fan operations. The conversion of event promotion needs to take into account the platform's rules and copywriting capabilities, and is also a commonly used promotional channel.

5) We-media

Since traditional self-media platforms generally have restrictions on linking QR codes, the conversion effect of the event is very limited, and it will play a better role in product promotion and exposure.

2. How to choose the publicity channel

After understanding the definition, characteristics, and usage scenarios of the company's commonly used promotional channels, let's talk about how to choose the right channels. In addition to making your own choices based on the characteristics of the channel itself, you can also consider the following aspects.

1. Quantify according to the goal of the activity

The positioning and goals of each activity are different. When planning, you can choose the appropriate exposure channel based on the goals of the activity.

For example: the current number of participants in your event is 1,000. Based on the conversion rates of various channels, assuming that the click conversion rate is usually 5% and the participation conversion rate is 1%, you need to match and select channels with a total exposure of 1,000/1%/5%=2 million to achieve the event effect you want.

2. Choose the most appropriate channel based on the nature of the activity

For example: If it is a permanent activity, choose commonly used promotional channels, such as: private messages, push, site banners, etc.

If it is a small event for a WeChat official account, then choose the promotional methods of official account soft articles, social groups, and friend circles; if the event focuses on brand promotion effects, you can choose some external publicity channels with low conversion rates to increase the influence of the event.

For example: self-media, offline advertising, and cooperative platform advertising.

3. Check whether the channel audience matches the target user group of the activity

Another way requires you to have a certain familiarity with each channel. Whether the goal of this activity is to attract new users or to target highly active users, you should choose the corresponding channel that can accurately reach this user group. This requires a deeper understanding of the user portraits of each channel.

3. Grasp the promotion nodes of activities

Now comes the most important core part of this article, which is how to grasp the timing of promotion and make the event a hot spot?

Event promotion is generally divided into pre-event warm-up, high exposure at the start of the event, and promotion in the middle and late stages of the event.

1. Be sure to focus on promotional resources at the start of the event to trigger a hot spot

Through reviewing the activity data many times, we found a common pattern: the promotion in the first 1 to 2 days of the activity is very important. If you can use promotional channels reasonably and increase the participation data of the event from the beginning, the event effect will be very good in the end. Therefore, you must place channels with high conversion and large exposure in the early stage of the event.

If the traffic of an activity does not explode in the early stage, it will be difficult to generate traffic in the later stage. Even if adjustments are made to the activity, it will be difficult to recover the data in the later stage. Maybe users have a sense of freshness and timeliness about the event.

Only if many people participate at the beginning, will more and more people participate later. This is also in line with the characteristics of the herd effect of Internet users. It is rare to see an activity where traffic increases slowly.

The correct activity flow trend is as follows:

2. For festivals and hot events, promotional resources should be focused on the day

There is another rule that the promotion of nodes and hot events will be concentrated on the day of the festival, so you'd better put those high-quality, high-conversion channel promotions on the day of the festival to detonate the event.

3. You can combine the activity time and place appropriate ads to create a long-tail effect

The last point is that because the event duration is generally very long, the publicity channels should be properly distributed, with most of the important channels scheduled after the same day, and other channels can be arranged at subsequent time nodes.

If conditions permit, you can continue to arrange a second large-scale promotional rhythm in the middle of the event. The premise is that your first wave of publicity has a traffic explosion point. If the conversion rate of the early activities is very low, it is recommended that you first change the event copy, prizes and other aspects before launching the channel.

4. Monitoring and review of publicity data

To grasp the promotion channels for your event, you must not only understand each channel, but more importantly, be very familiar with the characteristics of each channel's conversion and reach, so that you can use the channels more effectively to empower your event.

So how can we become more familiar with each channel and how can we continuously improve the conversion rate?

Then you need to review the data of each channel after each activity, review the exposure pv/uv of each channel, click the pv/uv data, and calculate its conversion rate, and summarize the different conversion rates of each channel for each type of activity.

And by constantly trying different copywriting, promotional image styles, jump methods, etc., you can verify your ideas and gradually build your own familiarity with the company's various channels.

V. Conclusion

There is no good or bad channel, it just depends on how you use it reasonably to maximize the conversion rate.

There may be many more techniques for event promotion, and this article may have some poorly written parts. I also have some publicity and exposure channel resources such as news media, Tik Tok internet celebrities and bloggers, etc. You are welcome to add me as a friend, exchange ideas, and make progress together.

Author: Activity Operation Diary

Source: Product Operations (PM-20200201)