This article will use offline activity cases to analyze the operational details of offline activities to improve conversion rates.

1. Conversion rate: what exactly should be converted?

Every industry is talking about conversion rate. What exactly are we talking about when we talk about conversion rate?

There are many scenarios for conversion rates, which vary according to the business content. E-commerce business talks about payment conversion rate, advertising business talks about click/registration conversion rate, event planning talks about forwarding rate, user operation talks about funnel path conversion... But no matter what kind of business content, it is ultimately about traffic conversion, and traffic is the prerequisite for all conversions.

Many Internet companies have their own three-stage rockets. The first level: top traffic; the second level: business scenarios that accumulate a certain type of users. Level 3: Complete the business loop. Conversion rate is like the final result of pushing a first-stage rocket to a three-stage rocket.

2. Conversion Rate Process

Chen Yong’s six-factor conversion theory believes that the conversion of all products is inseparable from the six processes of “reciprocity - commitment - trust - good reviews - pain point stimulation - scarcity” .

This is a classic 6-step process, which can also be simply summarized into 3 steps : "Attract attention → Control the mind → Trigger order" . This process is applicable to most industries.

3. Offline new customer acquisition activities at auto shows

There are many cases online about improving the conversion rate of online activities. Today, I would like to share with you an example of improving conversion through offline activities. I will explain it from three aspects: activity background and purpose, activity design, and strategy formulation.

3.1 Activity Background & Purpose

The auto show is an offline event that the company must hold every year. One purpose is to strengthen the company's influence in the Guangdong media circle, and the other is to use it to attract new customers for the company's products.

For the offline auto show in 2019, the boss set the activity goal of increasing the number of new users of the company's APP, official account, and mini program (at first glance, it seems that there are too many activity goals and it is difficult to achieve. You want to do everything, but you are most afraid that you will not do anything well in the end).

3.2 Activity Design

One event requires attracting new customers for three products. Many operations staff thought their boss was crazy when they received the request. How much cost is budgeted? The boss said: In 10 days, the cost will be controlled within 10,000 yuan.

Even though it seemed impossible, the team still went ahead and did user research and user analysis. I found that under such cost control, it is still possible to meet the boss's needs as long as we grasp the user's pain points.

1. User analysis

（1）Who are the target users of the auto show?

The majority of users are from Guangzhou and surrounding cities, usually families of all ages come to visit the auto show, and there are also some professional buyers (mostly on-site staff).

(2) What are the characteristics of the target users?

Car fans, the media, or families who have some spare money and are planning to change their cars, as well as car enthusiasts from other places, value their time more and don’t mind small gifts.

(3) What are the main needs of users?

Buy a car, or learn about the latest car information or discounts.

(4) What are the pain points of auto show users?

Sun, heat, thirst, noise, lack of time, and poor on-site network.

2. Activity rules design

Based on the results of user analysis and the experience of offline events in previous years, we finally decided to design the entire offline event into two events in terms of event rules setting. The operation will flexibly adjust the actual gameplay based on the actual situation on site and user preferences.

3. Activity method

Activity 1: Users who download the APP can get 3 chances to grab a doll, and the ball in each claw machine has a 100% chance of winning; (main activity).

Activity 2: Follow the official account, identify the lucky draw app, and win 100%. (Divided into activities, Activity 2 does not force users to participate, Plan B)‍.

In the customization of event gifts, we also deliberately selected low-cost gifts related to the auto show or that can solve the pain points of on-site users: cartoon customized paper towels, cartoon towels, red dates and longan tea, customized mugs, cartoon folders, cartoon car stickers, windshield washer fluid, etc.

3.3 On-site strategy formulation

In fact , there are only a few ways to play offline activities on various platforms, such as downloading to receive rewards, following to receive rewards, sharing to receive rewards, registering to receive rewards... After the rules of the event are formulated, the key is for the operators to design the traffic flow and control the operation rhythm of the entire on-site event, which is the magic weapon to win.

At the offline event in 2019, although the company's booth was next to the Tencent booth, the booth was in a poor location and not close to the entrance and exit, so the flow of people was extremely low. This posed a big problem for the operation, and an emergency plan adjustment was made one day in advance.

1. Traffic flow design

If you carefully observe the store designs in major shopping malls, you will find that the entire pedestrian flow design is extremely exquisite. Low-priced stores such as supermarkets that are frequently visited by users are usually located on the first and second basement floors of a shopping mall. Restaurants and cinemas are usually located on the top floor, while clothing, shoe and bag stores with higher average customer spending are usually located in the middle floor. Escalators are located in prominent locations in the lobby, while direct elevators are often in hard-to-find corners.

Why? Supermarkets, restaurants, and cinemas are relatively high-frequency consumer goods in people's daily lives, while clothes, shoes, and bags are not. Such traffic flow design allows users to move along the route expected by the merchant, increasing the possibility of user consumption (conversion). For example, a user originally only wanted to watch a movie on the 5th floor, but when passing by the 2nd floor, she accidentally found a skirt she liked very much and bought it! ! !

The same goes for offline activities. Reasonable traffic flow design can increase traffic and conversion. The picture below is the geographical distribution map of the outdoor area at that time. Our booth was next to the Tencent booth, but users basically went directly to Gate 4 after entering from Entrance B. In addition, it is very sunny and hot outside, while there is sufficient air conditioning inside, so most users only go shopping inside.

Under this unfavorable situation, we urgently added two traffic flow designs, numbered ① and ②, in an attempt to effectively guide users to the company's booth.

Location ①

Position ① is the entrance with the largest flow of people. All people entering from Entrance B will most likely enter the inner exhibition area directly from Gate 4. Then you need to design a hook at position ① to first attract the user's attention and then let the user go to the route you want.

We urgently customized a batch of logo stickers and distributed them at position ①. Users only need to bring the logo stickers to the booth to receive a pack of tissues (the cost of tissues is low and it is what users need). However, the operator in charge of position ① should not inform users in advance that they will receive paper towels by presenting the stickers. Instead, they should change their wording to inform users that the stall has high-value gifts such as red date tea, towels, and glass water, so as to fully gain users' trust. (In fact, this part of the gifts is also 100% winning, and the quantity is also relatively large. Users need to participate in the event to get them).

Location ②

The traffic flow design of position ② is mainly based on the booth logo and oral announcement. Because the logo is the same as the sticker logo, it deepens users' understanding of the booth and helps them find the booth quickly. At the same time, it guides users to the booth correctly through verbal broadcast. The work content of position ② seems boring, but it is actually necessary.

Location ③

Position ③ is the unified queue entrance for our two events. The entire moving line from position ③ to position ⑤ is designed to be very long (in the shape of a Chinese character "国"), with the aim of creating a lively activity atmosphere for users and using it as an offline fission dissemination point to attract more users to the exhibition area. When there are no people on site, internal staff will also act as agents to queue up and participate in the event. (This trick is super useful) As long as there is always traffic in position ③, there will be a lot of traffic in positions ④⑤.

2. Operational Strategy

(1) Operational props should be large and placed in a prominent position

Different from the previous two auto show events, we specially customized a large claw machine as an event prop for the 2019 auto show. Why would you spend 2,000 yuan to buy a claw machine within the limited operating cost of 10,000 yuan?

This is because we found through user research that many on-site users are families of all ages who come to the auto show. The most obvious feature of this user group is that it is mainly composed of children. How to attract children's attention? ——Putting a claw machine and a few cartoon balloons in the booth is better than saying a thousand words. Use the classic "claw doll trick" to attract children. As long as you can attract their attention, you can attract at least 2 adults to participate in the activity.

(2) Make users feel involved and trust you

From observations of auto shows in the past two years, it seems that most users don’t pay much attention to the value of gifts. Amid the lively and active atmosphere on site, they paid more attention to the sense of participation and reputation of the event.

For example, others can easily grab the ball from the claw machine, so I want to try it too? Make him feel involved in your event booth and fully trust you. When he successfully catches the ball, users will spread word of mouth for you for the second time. ——"Wow, I have never been able to catch a doll since I was a child, but I caught one in the xxx exhibition area. The gifts in their exhibition area are super easy to catch. You should go there too. This is the power of word of mouth."

(3) Seize the opportunity of operation

The Tencent exhibition area has rich gifts for activities, and it uses the most popular blind box format to attract the favor of a large number of users. Therefore, even if its booth location is not very good, it can attract a large number of users to participate in the activities with its brand influence.

As an operator, we must be good at seizing various opportunities. When Tencent holds an event, we also take the opportunity to attract users who have participated in the Tencent booth activities to our own exhibition area and reap the benefits.

(4) Flexibly adjust operating strategies

There are too many users at the auto show and the network is very poor. If we insist on requiring users to download the APP before participating in the event, it will easily lead to a large number of user losses and user complaints, affecting the overall event effect and reputation. How to solve it?

Operations can flexibly adjust operating strategies. When there are many people, the rules of the activity can be changed to following the official account and forwarding the tweet to the WeChat community to participate in the grabbing doll activity. In this way, the dual goals of "increasing the number of fans of the official account when there is a lot of traffic, and driving downloads of the APP when the traffic is moderate" can be achieved.

Note: We recommend that users forward tweets to social groups rather than Moments, because the conversion rate of Moments is lower than that of social groups, and generally, users who share on social groups are more willing to harass their relatives and friends, and they are also worried about being kicked out if they post random content in other groups. Therefore, allowing users to forward content to social groups will result in better overall conversion effects. In addition , the information cannot be withdrawn 2 minutes after it is forwarded to the community, while the information in the circle of friends can be deleted at any time. This is also the biggest advantage of the community.

(5) Oral communication is important

As a media platform, its biggest advantage is that it has plenty of hosts with sweet voices and can switch between Mandarin and Cantonese at will. We also made full use of the host's advantage and continuously broadcast the preview of the event in a loop. On the entire "street" outside, only our booth and the Tencent booth had hosts broadcasting (as long as the broadcast was broadcast, users on the entire street could hear it). Platforms such as Kuaishou, Sohu, and People's Daily were all quiet, which brought us effective communication.

(6) Mobile personnel on standby

The event coordinator should serve as a mobile personnel and always be at position④ to observe the entire event and support the operating personnel at any position at any time. This is very important, otherwise the activity process will easily become disorganized and lose its rhythm.

4. Activity review

The entire offline auto show event made full use of the rules of Chen Yong’s six elements of transformation. Ultimately, even though the flow of visitors was twice that of 2018, the overall activity data actually increased by 20% compared to 2018.

The following is a review of the process:

All businesses and all activities seek conversion. The key is not how many resources you have at your disposal, but how you make good use of limited resources, how you understand the underlying needs of users, and then formulate operational strategies to suit their needs. To put it simply, conversion rate is the result of striving to solve the needs of the target audience with the greatest probability .

Author: Kaka's Product Notes

Source: Kaka's Product Notes (gh_e5aa104aafcb)