E-commerce Operations: A Guide to Private Domain Customer Acquisition on WeChat for Enterprises

This year's Double Eleven is coming soon, and various e-commerce platforms and merchants have begun to eagerly try it out. In the past few days, we have received Double Eleven event push notifications from various platforms. Due to the epidemic this year, many platforms have started live streaming or private domain traffic . The author of this article shares a guide to private domain customer acquisition on corporate WeChat in e-commerce operations . Let's take a look.

Due to the epidemic this year, many e-commerce peers and retail stores have been affected to a certain extent. Double Eleven has become an opportunity for everyone to fight back; so at this point in time, everyone’s expectations for Double Eleven will be particularly high, and I hope that this year’s Double Eleven will be better than in previous years.

There have been many changes that everyone can see this year. Many platforms have started live streaming and private domain customer acquisition and conversion. In fact, these things did not appear this year. The concept of private domain traffic appeared as early as two or three years ago. It’s just that the epidemic has accelerated the development of private domain traffic, allowing us to understand that there is still such an opportunity to help our business grow.

To this end, I will share with you how to achieve growth and customer acquisition in private domain e-commerce operations.

The sharing will mainly focus on the following four aspects:

• The goal of private domain e-commerce operations;
• Attract new customers: the fission of e-commerce retail customers;
• Promotion: Dismantling private domain e-commerce and operation planning;
• Conversion: corporate WeChat account and social media marketing.

1. Goals of Private Domain E-commerce Operations

1. Develop incremental channels in the WeChat ecosystem

• In addition to the Tmall centralized platform, new channels are being added to the Tencent ecosystem.
• Build a private traffic pool for the brand and make strategic plans for future enterprise development.

2. Monetize traffic and maximize asset value

• Integrate and activate existing public accounts, IP resources, CRM user assets, etc.
• Through the mini program mall, traffic can be monetized, digital data can be transformed into assets, and asset value can be maximized.

Although many brands have grown greatly, once they encounter a black swan event like the epidemic, they will find that they do not have the means to reach users and are unable to sell their goods in a timely manner; therefore, private domains also help businesses better monetize traffic and accumulate digital assets.

3. Seize new traffic opportunities

• Apply for Tencent policy traffic through a third party.
• Seize new traffic opportunities such as WeChat live streaming, enterprise WeChat, and mini-program e-commerce.

2. New Customer Attraction: Fission Customer Acquisition in E-commerce Retail

1. Distribution fission

Distribution fission is suitable for offline retailers or some brand companies that want to test the private domain at a low cost. There are only three elements to successfully conduct a distribution campaign: 1 popular SKU + 1 poster + 1 event details page.

To do fission, you only need to provide products, related gameplay and introductions, which is the fastest way to get started; some people can succeed in distribution fission, but some people cannot. The key is that they have not found the core problem.

Core 1: Hot-selling items/super-value gift packs

• Choose 1 gift package + a bunch of gifts, low price and affordable price to promote orders.
• It cannot be given away for free. It needs to be packaged with value to encourage users to share actively and receive rewards for completing tasks.
• Low-price flash sales, users pay, increase in-store check-out ratio, and generate related sales in-store.

Case: A shopping mall in Shanghai: Creating an offline Double Eleven shopping carnival.

Core Program:

• Online traffic diversion and offline conversion;
• Selling benefits worth more than 200 yuan (including food and shopping benefits) at a low price of 19.9 yuan;
• Second-level distribution rebate, user sharing, friends purchase, income is credited to the account in seconds;
• Target customers online in advance to encourage them to shop on site;
• After purchasing coupons online, customers are guided to add corporate WeChat to accumulate private domain traffic.

Core 2: Targeting the right people

• Employees screen seed users based on user tags;
• Configure posters and welcome messages for the fission activity, and then have employees send them to users in batches;
• When users receive group-sent activities, they will generate exclusive fission posters;
• Forward the fission poster, and when your friends scan the code, you will complete the task and receive the prize.

If the target audience is not accurate, the promotion effect will not be so good. Therefore, before we do the fission activity, we still need to manage the user labels; select some suitable seed users, and then send fission posters and welcome messages. After the users receive the posters, they can do fission, and the whole activity will become smooth; use corporate WeChat to do user labels, so that we can identify which users are the main users of this activity.

Case: Cotton Era

The case of Quanmianshidai is a very good activity during the epidemic. Users can forward the received fission poster to their friends, and get rewards after scanning the code. After receiving the reward, they will be guided to add the company WeChat. The whole process is to use old users to fission new users.

2. Low price unlock + red envelope fission

Case 1: Eat fruit at Baiguoyuan for one yuan

The activity of eating fruits for one dollar at Baiguoyuan has already determined the bait and path of the entire fission.

• Step 1: Tell the customer clearly and send a private message: For only one dollar, you can choose any item (priced at 10-20 yuan) and quickly complete your first order.
• Step 2: When customers pay, they will be reminded that if they spend over 49 yuan, they can pick up the goods in the store for free shipping, but it costs 6 yuan for home delivery, so that customers will continue to buy goods in order to get free shipping.
• Step 3: Guide users to share the "1 Yuan Purchase" benefit with their friends. After their friends place an order, the paid amount will be refunded in the original way.

Many businesses adopt the method of sending red envelopes and coupons to users after payment is completed to generate repeat purchases. From the perspective of the user life cycle, it is better to do fission directly, which can attract more users to participate in the event, and the effect of the event will be more ideal than directly sending red envelopes.

However, the issue of delivery must be considered. If many users complete their first order just to eat fruit for one dollar; but the fruit or delivery provided by the merchant is not up to standard, these experiences will also cause user loss, so the risk control of the entire activity must be well controlled.

Case 2: Beauty Sample Distribution + Red Envelope Fission

• Step 1: Pay the postage to get a free trial package to attract targeted users.
• Step 2: After the trial, submit a selfie of your usage to get a refund on the postage to prevent freeloaders.
• Step 3: After receiving the trial package, a red envelope will pop up, guiding the user to share and invite friends to receive the trial package.

When friends receive the red envelopes, they can get random red envelopes which will be credited to their accounts in real time, which encourages users to actively share the activities to social groups and friends circles; thus increasing users' willingness to place orders, lowering the psychological threshold, reducing offline queuing time, and saving equipment costs.

3. Activation promotion: Deconstructing private domain e-commerce and operational planning

Many times, the new users we acquire will quickly leave, and there is no way to keep them in our private domain. It is not cost-effective to spend money to attract new users after the customers are lost, so it is very necessary to promote activation.

1. Five steps to operate private domain e-commerce

Drainage—water storage—living water—fish farming—raising big fish.

We can see that both advertising and attracting new customers are for the purpose of attracting traffic. After the traffic comes back, we will give different labels to different customers, and then stratify them into different communities for sedimentation.

After attracting customers, you need to activate them and transform the weak relationship between merchants and customers into a strong relationship. The purpose is to find out which users are more loyal to me and more willing to participate in my activities.

For example, which users are more willing to distribute in promotional activities, and which users are more willing to buy more products during my membership day; in this way, we can discover some high-quality users who create great value for our business, distinguish them and focus on maintaining them.

The entire private domain e-commerce operation is in a closed loop. From the initial traffic generation to the subsequent monetization stage, there are corresponding touchpoints in every place, and all activities are aimed at identifying different types of users.

For example, if he participates in a group buying activity, the merchant can view the data on how many groups he has joined in the background. The fact that he has joined many groups means that he has a strong appeal in his circle of friends, and this product is very suitable for him to do fission; this user can be used well in later promotional activities.

When the entire closed loop finally comes together, we will find that we still have to manage the entire community well and find our super users. For customers who have made great contributions to us in our entire private domain, we need to have corresponding points to do some maintenance on retention and activation.

2. Private Domain 1+1 Indicator: User Assets + GMV

User assets: number of users, active users.

GMV: conversion rate, frequency.

1) Accelerate the accumulation of user assets

• Accelerate the efficiency of traffic import: corporate WeChat, live streaming, etc.
• The fission of private traffic pool: distribution fission of old customers bringing in new customers, etc.
• Improve the user's life cycle: light membership system, etc. (purchase free shipping card).

2) Significantly increase GMV

• Conversion rate: first order, repeat purchase rights and interests gameplay;
• Average order value: profitable products + super users (what kind of products sold to what kind of users will have better conversion rates);
• Frequency: Expand products + points mall (increase user stickiness and continue to place orders on the platform).

3. Private domain e-commerce operation system

First, you need to know where the users come from, for example, through package cards or store brochures, so that users can add you; secondly, you need to consider what benefits you provide to users, what kind of categories users will like, and why they will add your corporate WeChat for this reason.

For example, when Perfect Diary was attracting customers, it guided users to add the shopping guide corporate WeChat by giving away beauty eggs. This was a very low-cost way to acquire customers. What we need to consider here is the traffic rate, that is, how many gifts were sent out and how many people were willing to add the corporate WeChat to receive the gifts.

When users are already on their personal WeChat accounts, what we need to consider is how to pull them into our group and complete the conversion of their first order. First, we need to see whether the user understands our product. If they are familiar with it, it will be easy to complete their first order. Then we can give them some coupons to encourage them to continue to repurchase.

If the user does not know enough about our product and does not place an order in time, we need to pull him into a science education group so that he can first understand our brand and our services. This link needs to indicate whether the customer has paid. If he has paid, we pull him into one group, and if he has not paid, we pull him into another group. To do user tag stratification and corporate WeChat channel diversion, we need to set up different chat scripts for different people.

After paying users enter the community, you can push some flash sales and good product recommendations in the community, and set up some community membership days and other activities to retain customers; let customers know the positioning of this group to prevent customer churn, and when you want to do a big promotion, these users can be used, and you can directly let them participate through flash sales and live streaming.

It can be seen from this that the private domain e-commerce system will be divided into the front-end and back-end of operations.

For operators, there are some trivial things that need to be understood, such as the positioning and content of a personal account, the reasons why customers add this corporate WeChat account, and what kind of understanding they have of you. For example, in the beauty industry and beauty personal accounts, they are often positioned as a beauty consultant, and will regularly recommend some good makeup matching content.

The same goes for communities. What kind of messages to post in the community, what kind of posters to use and how to arrange the rhythm of the community are things that community operators need to consider.

Being active in a community is inseparable from products, so you also need to be strategic in product selection - what kind of products to choose, what price to set, and what kind of packaging can attract users to place orders, all of which require careful consideration.

The entire sales talk also needs a standard. With the organization of water army, an atmosphere of rush to buy can be created, and users will place orders based on the atmosphere.

Operators need to grasp user tags and real-time conversions. Through data feedback, they can understand what kind of hook products are more efficient in making users join the group and optimize subsequent activities.

4. Private domain e-commerce operation planning

It is not a good idea to simply start with private domain in the community. The private domain must be imported from the public domain.

During the startup period, you need to have a foothold in private domain e-commerce to build a small program mall, place some advertisements, do live streaming and promote short videos; during the startup period, you must have large-scale traffic imported, and at the same time, you need to think about what kind of products will be more effective in reaching users. In addition to considering the product category, the hook product also needs to consider the price of the product.

During the incubation period, that is, when users have entered the mini program mall, it is necessary to consider how to reach users; for example, when to add a personal account, when to enter a community, what type of community to enter, and what kind of people to add; in the later stage, all operations and product iterations are based on the early understanding of users, and then the fission gameplay is implemented.

Case: Urban consumption vouchers to attract customers.

Through group buying activities, we can improve users in multiple dimensions. There are not only one type of activities, but also many options.

Take advantage of the social fission of the WeChat ecosystem and use a variety of activities to improve conversions.

In the entire private domain, mini program + live broadcast + community is already a good combination; at this time, we need to consider how to retain users and how to operate in the private domain, and we still need to return to the corporate WeChat account and community.

Don’t think that since few people are using corporate WeChat accounts now, you should still use WeChat. In fact, this idea is wrong. Tencent is now clearly supporting the development of corporate WeChat. We must grasp the current dividends and seize new trends and opportunities.

4. Corporate WeChat Account and Social Marketing

For personal accounts, it is nothing more than a combination of people, goods and places.

When we first come into contact with users, we must think about how to break the ice and how to greet customers. At the same time, we must also see what kind of interest points can trigger interaction with customers. Each step requires a corresponding strategy. If the product selection is not attractive enough, there will be no subsequent activities.

If the benefits of this activity or the product are not particularly impressive to customers, and the functions are not particularly powerful, customers will not particularly want such a product. Secondly, if you can provide some additional benefits, such as raffles and collecting likes, you can get users involved.

1. Enterprise WeChat + Mini Program + Offline Store

This combination of strategies first actively adds customers to corporate WeChat via their mobile phone numbers, and sets up automatic replies to send customers coupons; when users click on this mini program, they can get the coupon, which will display the expiration date and direct traffic to offline stores.

Note: When actively adding customers through mobile phone numbers, if the customer does not see the application, he will miss the opportunity. Therefore, it is recommended to inform the user through SMS/friend circle/community before adding customers through corporate WeChat; then our staff will add you, and informing the user will make the customer pay attention to this matter.

Case 1: Sephora

Sephora has long been planning for private domain gameplay with corporate WeChat. There will be QR codes for the brand's official accounts in stores. Scanning the QR code will prompt you to add an exclusive beauty consultant's corporate WeChat account, and the store's exclusive consultant will be matched based on the customer's location. After adding, a message will be sent to prompt you to register for the Sephora Mini Program Mall, and a coupon will be sent to new users after registration. If the coupon is not used, the subsequent message templates will continue to remind customers to use it.

When festivals such as the Chinese Valentine's Day and Teacher's Day are approaching, corporate WeChat will be used to remind customers of what discounts they can get and achieve one-on-one communication.

2. Paying group positioning: customer relationship maintenance, welfare activity push

How to play: After adding the personal account of corporate WeChat, guide the conversion of the first order and then join; and provide more services and products with lower discounts in the group to increase the frequency of repurchase.

Activities: An average of 3 welfare activities per week, such as raffles, flash sales, second item at half price, and 1 big promotion to stock up every month.

Case 2: UR

UR uses its stores to direct traffic to the community and migrates from WeChat groups to corporate WeChat groups. It tells everyone in the original WeChat group when the group will no longer be needed, and if they still want to enjoy promotions, they can join the corporate WeChat group.

And all users can receive a coupon after joining the group, which is a very effective migration from WeChat group to enterprise WeChat group. Users in the group will have some diversified buy-one-get-one-free or purchase-a-deduction activities to activate fans in the group.

UR adopts the method of old users bringing new users into the group. As long as the customer invites 3 sisters to join the group and adds the group owner’s corporate WeChat, they can receive a 20-yuan no-threshold coupon; then, there is an online mall mini program with a 95% discount on the first order for new users, guiding users to form the mentality of "this is sharing benefits with sisters."

The no-threshold coupons issued to users in this process have actually laid a hook for users who participate in attracting new users. The coupons cannot be used up at once, so everyone has to place orders again in order to use up the coupons, thereby forming repeat purchases.

In addition, you can also use the corporate WeChat group to grow the official Xiaohongshu account. By following Xiaohongshu, taking notes and liking the account, you will be given extra coupons, which shows that users are very loyal to the brand. Users who have liked the Xiaohongshu account can be tagged, and those who are very loyal can be invited first to the next event.

V. Conclusion

To sum up, there are several key points to share with you about using WeChat for Business to acquire and convert customers in the private domain:

• Develop an effective online customer acquisition strategy;
• Sort out the service system and incentive strategy of the private domain;
• Clarify the division of labor between attracting new customers and converting new customers, and do a good job in the front-end operations;
• Iterate the content and words that reach users, adjust the activity strategy based on the data, coordinate the delivery and other service links, and implement the back-end operations;
• Expand precise channel cooperation and delivery, and make necessary preparations to expand the private domain traffic pool.

It is worth our wait and see what outstanding performances private domain e-commerce will have on Double Eleven this year.

Author: Mr. Dark Horse

Source: Mr. Dark Horse