How did VIPKID build a customer acquisition system with a 70% referral rate?

VIPKID is the fastest growing online English education brand for children and teenagers in the world. It is also one of the few unicorns in the field of online English for children. It provides 1-on-1 online lessons by pure North American foreign teachers, connecting Chinese children with North American teachers through the Internet. Next, the author of this article analyzes how VIPKID built a customer acquisition system with a referral rate of 70%.

Vipkid is one of the few unicorns in the field of online English for children. I believe many people are familiar with its customer acquisition system. The author does not intend to sort out its overall logic, but only does some research on its core referral system.

There are two purposes:

1. The first is the purpose of the work, which is to empower the referral work that individuals engage in;
2. The second is whether you can discover new ideas and further verify the referral operation logic summarized by yourself.

The author has briefly summarized the types of referrals of vipkid, which are divided into three categories:

• Basic type: including personalized posters, friends and family coupons, posters with recommendation prizes, gifts for sharing, and old members bringing new members, etc. The basic reward is the hours of the main course, and the additional rewards include physical prizes, high-quality open classes, live broadcasts by foreign teachers, learning videos, etc.
• Hotspot type: Based on the basic type, it is transformed into a new interactive form and launched in combination with hotspots. The rewards are not much different, but the exposure brought by hotspots is emphasized, such as the beginning of the school season, The Legend of Zhen Huan, Children's Day, Anniversary, Time Machine, etc.
• Functional: related to teaching functions, such as course videos, parent V classroom, VIPKIDFM, foreign teachers taking you to see the world, Planet Library, etc. They all have sharing functions, and the rewards are energy stones (VIPKID points system), which can be redeemed.

The above referral methods can also be found on vipkid, but in addition to these, several new methods have also been added. This article will analyze them one by one.

1. Big turntable

The big roulette game is a very popular strategy for old customers to bring in new customers recently. The author has looked through online education institutions that focus on preschool and primary education, such as Xueersi, Spark Education, Walnut Programming, and Hua Lala, and found that they all adopted this strategy to improve the effect of old customers bringing in new customers.

VIPKid’s big wheel’s path of bringing in new customers is actually quite different from those of these institutions. Let’s take a closer look.

First, old users (i.e. registered users) enter the lottery page and are visually attracted by the activity in the vipkid brand color scheme. Then they click “click to enter the lottery” to participate. Old users will have a chance to participate in the lottery, allowing them to taste the sweetness first, or feel the disappointment of not winning.

At this time, out of greed or unwillingness, you click again and get the invitation poster - the purpose of this step is to complete the activation before inviting new members.

Then comes the sharing stage. Under the combined psychological influence of "taking advantage" and "gambler's mentality", old users post to Moments, WeChat groups, and even private messages to attract friends to help. The way to successfully help is to follow the official account.

This is consistent with the common task treasure fission. Following, unfollowing, and previously following are not considered as help.

After old users complete the invitation and new users complete the assistance, it seems that the cycle of old users bringing in new users will begin. However, this is not the case in reality. It is necessary to complete the conversion of new users into old users (registered users). The conversion method is very simple. After following the official account, there will be a channel code message, using the 0-yuan spelling class as bait to guide new users to register, and then they can participate in the lottery to achieve a closed loop.

Through path analysis, it is easy to find that this is a simple strategy of old users bringing in new users. Different from the simple task treasure, it increases passive registration conversion. The core purpose is to allow registered users to attract new registered users, accumulate an effective user pool, and provide volume for sales conversion.

2. Invite Cashback

Invitation rebate is actually distribution. Low-priced courses are the main form of courses in the online education field. Common prices are 9.9 yuan, 19.9 yuan and 49 yuan. The rebate ratio is 30%-50%. A check-in return mechanism is set up, and high-quality learning boxes are distributed, which provides a strong grip for user recommendations.

Vipkid’s invitation rebate basically meets the above distribution characteristics. Next, let’s talk about some details of its use of this strategy.

First, in terms of invitation rules, there is no tiered incentive like most institutions. There is only half cashback and no upper limit. It only highlights the gimmick of making cash. The author feels that it will be very weak compared to other motivations. Although the ranking list can be seen by pulling down the landing page, the income and number of people cannot provide stronger stimulation.

The second is the fission closed-loop path, where old users click to generate a poster - share it with friends to scan the code to purchase - click "Earn Red Packet" on the purchase page - enter the distribution participation page - new users log in and register.

The entire closed loop is relatively smooth, and I personally think there are two valuable points:

1. First, guide distribution in a relatively eye-catching position on the purchase page.
2. Second, you will be reminded to register before participating in distribution to ensure the participation threshold.

In terms of conversion, the course content section is more worthy of recognition. It directly displays the selling points and describes the effects directly, with an emphasis on using some numbers, which will help to increase the purchase rate of new users.

As far as the entire distribution design is concerned, there are not many highlights. I personally think it is an MVP version. There is a high probability that new optimization strategies and incentive programs will be added in the future, and the basic direction will be aligned with the industry.

3. Free Classes

Giving away free lessons in exchange for free lessons is a reciprocal fission model, and can also be seen as a distribution model that replaces cash with lessons. After all, the underlying logic of all MGMs (the English abbreviation for old and new) is the same.

VIPKid's free classes are very simple in path and short in process. It is completely based on H5. The product logic is similar to the common H5 fission (without posters). The specific path is: old users visit the page - click "Share the gift package with friends" - follow the instructions and click Share in the upper right corner - new users visit - register and leave information to receive it.

In fact, the purpose of this strategy of bringing in new customers is still to attract registrations, and it uses the same logic as vipkid, but has made adjustments in terms of rewards and frequency.

For example: rewards for old users are changed to public class hours, with a maximum of 26 classes, and restrictions are placed on sharing incentives for a single day and a single week (to ensure scarcity); while new users receive a gift package that includes comprehensive rewards such as "energy stones + public classes + coupons", which is a powerful tool to guide registration behavior.

In addition, another highlight of this strategy is that a random function is set for the gift packages received by new users. That is, the types and values ​​of the gift packages obtained are not fixed. They may be lessons, coupons or energy stone packages, which will have a certain impact on the retention of newly registered users.

This is because different gift packages target different types of users, thus playing a role in tiered conversion.

4. Bargain and get it for free

I believe everyone is familiar with bargaining as a means of attracting new products. Pinduoduo allows people around them to bargain for free items or cash every day, which is simply fun. However, educational products rarely use bargaining.

Because it has too much marketing connotation, it is not unusable. You can change the strategy. For example, vipkid uses it to give out physical prizes to attract new registrations.

Simply break down the path: scan the QR code to follow the official account - the mini program pops up and enter - new users register/old users participate directly - select a product to start bargaining - bargaining poster pops up - save and share - friends scan the QR code to follow and enter the mini program.

In terms of the path, this is a strategy of old customers bringing in new customers, which is upgraded based on the fission of public accounts, and takes into account both the goals of increasing fans and registering customers. There is a small highlight in the connection guidance between the official account and the mini program, which directly tells users "successfully helped friends cut xx yuan", ensuring the basic conversion rate.

In addition, it is impossible to bargain for just one product. Multiple SKUs can obviously improve sharing efficiency. The fundamental motivation is whether the product is worth the money.

Although vipkid has gone beyond courses in product selection, its attractiveness remains to be discussed, because truly attractive items such as microscopes, telescopes, and Lego are not prominently displayed on the homepage, but are mentioned in the copy, which will inevitably disappoint users and is a small failure.

V. Conclusion

This article analyzes some of vipkid’s new ways of bringing in new customers, and forms the following table, which we hope will be useful to everyone.

There are many principles in designing a strategy for bringing in new users. Personally, I think creativity and conversion are two aspects that must be considered. After all, as one of the core means of user growth, it will be futile if you cannot attract real users. You must bring real growth.

Author: Dugu

Source: Wild Operation Community (id: dugu9bubai)