How to attract new users in 2021?

The second quarter of 2020 has passed for so long, and for most companies, this quarter was still a difficult one; and with the country's strong support for the economy, the arrival of spring in the third quarter of 2020 also brought new starts to many companies.

During the epidemic, affected by the epidemic, many traditional businesses had to move online. Due to the hasty transformation and the eagerness to solve the problem of offline cash flow.

Once many companies go online, they focus more on how to quickly "monetize" and "convert" their existing users, but ignore user acquisition, retention and refined post-operation, resulting in monetization results that are far from expected.

In the second half of the mobile Internet, the cost of acquiring users is getting higher and higher. For many small and medium-sized enterprises with little influence, how can they choose the right way to attract new users in the current situation of fierce competition for online traffic? So what are some low-cost and effective ways to attract new customers?

I need to clarify here that this is not an in-depth article filled with professional terms and data; at most it is a brief discussion and listing, as it is a friendly way for beginners. If you are already an operations expert or a veteran in attracting new customers and promotions, then you may not need to read this article.

At the end of the day, attracting new users means using every possible means to find your users, and then using every possible means to get your users to come to your site and start using your products.

Originally, I wanted to talk about it from two aspects: paid and free. In this way, there might be choices for different company situations. But later I found that this division is actually incorrect, because whether to pay is not determined by the method but by your method. Some methods are free when you use them, but others can also pay to operate them.

So, in the end, I still summarized them according to methods; OK, let’s get to the point. The following are the commonly used methods for attracting new customers.

1. Online Advertising

Without using any professional terms (the professional term may be market-oriented placement), you can tell from the title that it means to use various means on the Internet to place creative advertisements to attract traffic to your territory.

Generally, online advertising is mainly divided into: SEM promotion , DSP promotion, precision website promotion , and advertising media

1. SEM promotion

SEM promotion: Search engine marketing is advertising based on search engines - that is, every time you search for a word, the information that appears in the first result and you don’t know where the word "promotion" or "advertisement" will appear is SEM advertising.

SEM promotion is basically a "through train" to the entire network (this concept may only be known by those who have worked in e-commerce); that is, you specify a certain word and bid on it; as long as your bid reaches a certain standard or is higher than others, users will see your ad first when searching for this word in the search engine; but whether users click on your ad depends on whether the group you specified is accurate and whether your ad is attractive.

In terms of positions, SEM is often combined with SEO, unless a large company has the money and strength to separate them.

In addition, from the perspective of my current team, SEM is actually not just search engine placement, because most of them are still based on Baidu, and Baidu's Baiyi promotion is also a promotion channel (Baiyi actually belongs to the category of DSP promotion that I will talk about later).

SEM promotion is more inclined to be used by large companies, with higher costs and medium conversion rates.

2. DSP delivery

DSP delivery: The so-called DSP (Demand Side Platform) is the advertising demand side platform. To put it simply, it is a platform that links advertisers and websites (APPs) where advertising can be placed.

For example, you want to place advertisements on 100 websites, but it is unlikely that you will go to talk to the persons in charge of these 100 websites one by one; and the persons in charge of these 100 websites will not be willing to receive countless people like you who want to place advertisements on their websites every day.

So DSP appeared. Those 100 websites entrusted the advertising space on their URLs to the platform. The platform then looked for people who were willing to place advertisements. The platform told them, “I have 100 websites here. As long as you place advertisements here, I can make your advertisements appear on all 100 websites.” Then you will ask how to charge.

Generally, DSP advertising charges are divided into two types: charging by display and charging by action:

• It is charged based on the cost per impression (CPM), and a certain fee is paid for every 1,000 impressions.
• Pay by action is divided into several situations: pay per click (CPC) and pay per behavior (CPA). The behaviors here may include registration, placing an order, etc.

In DSP promotion, there is a special advertising display method that is often listed separately, that is, information flow advertising; sometimes some advertising companies will treat information flow advertising display as a separate business.

3. Precision website promotion

Precise website promotion. Actually, the probability of this being successful is not very high at present. However, if your industry is very vertical and a certain website has a large number of your users, then precisely placing advertisements on that website may be a better choice.

The premise is that the advertising space of that website is not handed over to the DSP platform mentioned above for agency.

4. Available advertising media:

Moments advertising: This form of advertising is still very practical for many local service businesses; if you don’t want to find an agent, go directly to "Tencent Advertising" (formerly Guangdiantong).

APP application marketing: ASO is the abbreviation of App Store Optimization, which is the process of improving the App's ranking in various App application stores/market rankings and search results; while SEO is search engine optimization, which uses the rules of search engines to improve the website's natural ranking in relevant search engines.

I won’t go into details about this, but here are a few points: App store launch and optimization, advertising investment, and open platform (such as Tencent Open Platform, 360 Open Platform, etc.) launch.

2. Social Marketing

There is a saying that: the above-mentioned new customer acquisition is called active new customer acquisition, which means that the demand side takes the initiative to contact users and try every means to actively flirt with them; while social media marketing is called passive new customer acquisition.

In other words, the demand side has just started, and it is more about the users taking the initiative while the demand side is passive.

In the past few years, some fission activities that have been tested on the edge of pyramid schemes have become very popular; I have previously done a fission activity, which brought 20,000 fans to the official account in a few days, and the cost was basically controlled within 1,000 yuan.

However, it is very simple to operate, and I will explain it in detail later.

Let’s first talk about the three common techniques for attracting new customers:

1. Use the old to guide the new

The term "old members bringing in new members" sounds no different from the community fission mentioned above; new users are brought in by referrals from old members of the community (usually member users). This method of attracting new users is slightly less efficient, but it can ensure the activity of the community and is more direct.

The word-of-mouth sharing of old members will naturally make new members have a high sense of trust in the group, so there is no complicated process.

And generally speaking, old users bringing in new users will be more accurate than the community fission mentioned above to some extent; it is conducive to the completion of the first order and entering a virtuous circle. This is also more suitable for offline stores.

2. Fission and new user acquisition

The so-called fission is exponential growth, one becomes two, two becomes four... It generally refers to using various methods to get users to actively help you attract new users.

The above mentioned 1,000 yuan in exchange for 20,000 fans is achieved by this method. Let me explain the operation in detail. I guess you will roughly understand how the fission works after I finish.

In fact, the model can be introduced in one sentence: user A recommends user B, A gets points; user B recommends user C, both A and B get points (B gets more and A gets less); points can be used to redeem gifts.

At that time, I used a third-party plug-in called Jifenbao, set up the fission poster template, and set up the points redemption mall; then I asked the user to generate a poster with a QR code exclusive to him in the official account; the seed user sent the poster out, and as long as the user entered the official account and followed it by scanning the user's QR code, the scanned user could get points, and then use the points to redeem gifts; different numbers of points can be exchanged for gifts of different values.

Again, without using any technical terms, the so-called fission is the two-level distribution (be careful not to turn it into a pyramid scheme, haha), but currently such fission seems to have a relatively high risk on WeChat, so proceed with caution.

3. Funnel to attract new customers

This is also the method used by many communities today to attract new members, through offline promotion, other media platforms, event marketing, etc.; attracting large numbers of users, and then through layers of screening, retaining the real core users. This is a very useful method when a community is just starting out.

Of course, you can also attract some users by signing in within the community and redeeming points, but the conversion rate will be lower.

4. Group Operation

The group here generally refers to QQ groups and WeChat groups. In fact, this method of attracting new users is more inclined to operation rather than single-purpose acquisition of new users; however, for many Internet platforms, the group does not represent your users, so there will be another step of converting group members into users.

There is actually a lot to say about this, and even a long article can be written on this point.

I can't write so much here, so I will just mention 2 important points:

• The group must have rules: the so-called people are divided into groups, which means that these people may be the same type of people or consistent in some dimension; so if you want this group of people to operate in an orderly manner within the group, the group must have rules, such as what cannot be sent and what cannot be said.
• The group must have value: no matter how idle a group of people are, they will not chat all day long, so if a person is always in a group, it means that he can get something from the group.

5. Social Platforms

If you are not in the self-media business, you may not be very familiar with the so-called social platform matrix; but perhaps you will see content from the same organization or the same author on various platforms, which means that they have established the so-called community matrix - that is, using different social platforms to cover users in different time and space, and each platform has the same ultimate goal of transporting users.

The social platforms around us can be roughly divided into the following categories: Weibo and WeChat, various self-media accounts (Sohu, Xiong Zhang, Toutiao, Baijia, etc.), various forums and post bars, larger vertical social platforms (Zhihu, Douban), major short video or live broadcast platforms (Tik Tok, Kuaishou, Douyu, etc.); continuously publish high-quality content related to their own products or brands on these social platforms, and finally direct the traffic to their own platforms.

6. KOL Cooperation

KOL is a person who has the potential to bring you explosion, especially KOL in the industry who carries the most natural sense of trust and the attributes of "bringing goods" and "bringing traffic". Cooperating with KOL may be a way to make your platform famous overnight in the industry.

However, it can also backfire if you're not prepared.

7. Summary

In a community with interaction, benefits, useful information, a learning atmosphere and warmth, automatic fission is the norm, and there will naturally be no shortage of new members.

Of course, community management and marketing tools are also essential!

3. Media Promotion

As far as the current environment is concerned, the above two points basically cover most of the basic means of promotion for Internet companies, but different scales, budgets and different planning and execution will affect the results.

Then media promotion may be relatively traditional, and the following points are relatively traditional.

But tradition does not mean bad results, as the saying goes, one trick can work everywhere; so the newness of the method is not the key, the key is whether it is effective.

1. Attract new members through WeChat for Business

Judging from the user experience paths and risk comparisons of social e-commerce platforms such as Weibo, WeChat, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and the later-coming WeChat for Business, WeChat for Business should be the most suitable platform for private domain traffic among all domestic social platforms.

The functions of WeChat for Business in traffic diversion are mainly reflected in the following 9 settings: 50,000+ friend limit, WeChat for Business contacts, go to WeChat for Business to add the other party, scan, add from WeChat friends, share WeChat for Business business card to WeChat (account or group), contact me with mini program, contact me with official account, batch import of address book, QR code for joining group, live code function, etc.

1) Efficient customer acquisition: Companies can directly share members’ QR codes or mini-program “Contact Me” buttons, community QR codes or mini-program “Join Group Chat” buttons with target users, thereby guiding them to add friends or join groups without requiring customers to download a separate app.

In addition, the upper limit for certified members to add friends is 50,000 (and they can even apply for expansion), and both community QR codes and mini-programs are "live codes", which makes the efficiency of enterprise WeChat traffic generation even more powerful.

2) Access to professional marketing tools to help attract traffic: ShenDa Enterprise WeChat SCRM is one of the first enterprise WeChat service provider platforms in China, and can provide enterprises with one-stop private domain traffic solution services.

In addition to the original functions of WeChat for Business, users are also allowed to use the functions of money transfer, red envelopes, keyword replies, and quick product recommendations to customers; multiple marketing interactive activities can be initiated with one click, and other unique functions that are not officially supported, helping companies achieve their traffic goals faster.

2. Live streaming to increase followers

Currently, there are many ways to increase fans through live streaming, such as Douyin live streaming, Kuaishou live streaming, Kandian live streaming, Taobao live streaming, mini program live streaming, etc.; and mini program live streaming is currently the most popular live streaming method.

Mini Program live streaming is a capability launched by Tencent WXG (the WeChat team) in public beta in February 2020. It is an official business management tool provided by WeChat that can achieve a closed loop of live streaming interaction and product sales in merchants’ own mini programs.

The advantage is that it can be directly embedded in the merchant's mini program and connected to the official account. The traffic attracted by the live broadcast is deposited in the merchant's own mini program without jumping to other channels. It is conducive to the formation of private domain traffic and the conversion rate is also high.

During this epidemic, people are restricted to home life and cannot shop offline. Instead, they try or participate in online live broadcasts more frequently to satisfy their consumption desires.

Through live streaming, consumers can more intuitively understand all aspects of the product, become familiar with how to use the product, and increase their awareness of the product, thereby increasing the purchase rate of the product.

Mini Program live streaming is more of a "teaching + planting grass + communication" model, which requires brands to be more attentive to content planning and have strong social attributes, and it is also a great test for companies.

Live broadcast promotion strategy:

• Promotion time: Promotion should be conducted 1-2 days before the live broadcast. The preheating effect is the most prominent and the conversion rate of new customers will be more obvious at this time.
• Promotion channels: WeChat fan groups, shopping guide friend circles, one-on-one private message communication with key customers, offline store event promotion, public account tweets;
• Start broadcasting 5 minutes in advance and divert traffic to the live broadcast room through multiple channels again;
• The live broadcast room is set up with sharing methods to further generate fission and traffic.

3. Increase of Weibo followers

As a long-established new media platform, Weibo’s trust endorsement effect is unquestionable, so it can be used as a platform for corporate platform brand display.

In addition, Weibo's fission environment is more open, and the interactive methods supported by the platform are applicable to many industries.

The main marketing methods include: lucky wheel, limited-time flash sales, rewarded forwarding, pre-order purchases, free trials, and rewarded solicitations; generally speaking, these functions can also drive traffic for the company.

4. WeChat Official Account

Although it is becoming increasingly difficult to acquire customers through WeChat official accounts, and the traffic has declined compared to other carriers in the WeChat ecosystem; it is undeniable that official accounts are indeed a low-cost, high-conversion traffic-generating method for many small and medium-sized enterprises.

If you want to do a good job in attracting traffic to your public account, you must understand its essence: create good content, and then make good use of various channels and methods, and attracting new traffic will not be a big problem.

The common ways to attract traffic in WeChat are as follows:

• Mutual promotion: Try to find companies with the same user groups but no direct competition in their businesses and products. If it is a newly launched public account, you should first create good content and then promote it to others after you have a certain fan base.
• Fission activities: Even though the fission activities are restricted by WeChat officials, it is still a good way to increase followers. It is a cost-effective activity that can be done in the early stage.
• Develop relevant mini-games/mini-tests: Develop a fun mini-game or mini-test related to the product business, and put it in the official account. Users need to follow the official account to play it. However, the premise is that the game or test must be fun and interesting.
• Hot events diversion;
• Push content to other public accounts;
• Promotion on other self-media platforms, such as: Tieba, Zhihu, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Toutiao, Douban, etc.

5. Baidu Tieba

There are two things to pay attention to when attracting traffic to Tieba: title and content.

1) Title: Content and advertising are used for conversion, and the title is the beginning of conversion. If you don’t even have a beginning, how can you achieve conversion? The same content, different titles will produce completely different effects.

So when writing titles in Baidu Tieba, you can refer to the following points:

• Emotional resonance;
• data;
• curiosity;
• contrast;
• Take advantage of the popularity.

Example: Online data shows that the average debt of those born in the 1990s is 130,000 yuan. Why is this?

This title uses emotional resonance, data and curiosity; as a post-90s generation, seeing this data will more or less make you feel touched and curious.

2) Content: On the Internet, "traffic is king" will slowly shift to "content is king"; first of all, people who are good at content do not need to deliberately seek traffic, traffic will come automatically no matter which platform they go to; secondly, each platform is changing the rules and restricting low-quality content; and a good content, a high-quality post can greatly improve your conversion rate.

The content display forms in Tieba are mainly as follows:

• Sharing type;
• Live broadcast type;
• Self-questioning and self-answering type;
• Naked advertising;
• Packaging IP.

It is best if the content is original. If you can't, then just create pseudo-original content. If you still can't, it's also simple to just copy it from other platforms (Zhihu, Baidu Wenku, WeChat public accounts, etc.); but even if you copy it, it is best to make slight modifications and add your own opinions.

4. Offline marketing

This category of promotion method may be more traditional than TV advertising, but as long as it is well placed, the effect is often better than TV advertising; the main ones are: subway (station), bus (station), elevator, and flyers.

These promotion methods are closest to users, and if the delivery area is more accurate, the conversion rate will be higher, but the disadvantage is that they are restricted by region.

5. Cooperation and Promotion

As an operator, most of the time you just need to constantly integrate resources.

Cooperation with peers and across industries requires you to constantly understand the industry and the other party; think about these questions: What can you give to the other party? What can the other party give you? Then think about whether it is equal, whether you are willing, and finally how to implement it.

Sponsorship cooperation is more about money, how to use the money to get more resources, and how to use these resources to gain more exposure and topics.

6. Event Planning

Event planning includes event promotion and PR promotion.

The last point is actually not a real means of attracting new customers, but it will be the content or booster of all the above promotional methods!

A good activity will greatly improve the conversion rate of new customers, and will also play a critical role in the retention and conversion after entering the platform.

VII. Conclusion

In fact, this article does not contain any professional knowledge in a certain sense, but it may help to clarify some ideas for entry-level operators, and provide a directional guide when doing various "odd jobs".

Of course, attracting new customers is important, but what is more important is user retention and refined operations after attracting new customers. Only by refining user operations can we continuously improve repeat purchases and increase conversions.

Each of the methods of attracting new customers mentioned here could probably be written into an article that is more professional and longer than this one. Moreover, I hope that novice operators can find their own direction that they are willing to study in depth from here.

Author: Hua Dong

Source: Hua Dong