Review: A complete event operation planning plan is like this

The end of the year is approaching and various activities are basically coming to an end. This year I also tried event operation for the first time, and below I will present you with a hot review!

First, let's look at the data: During the Double Eleven period, the company planned an event for the purpose of revenue. The final effect of the event achieved a total revenue of over 1.5 million yuan, an increase of 23% in per capita income, and an increase of 51% in per capita income in the highest day. Compared with previous events, this event was quite successful.

Let’s take this event as an example and see how to achieve peak revenue through the event. (The data in this case has been anonymized)

01 Confirm the time node

If you want to plan an event, the first thing to decide should be the time of the event.

To exaggerate a little, choosing a good time is almost half the battle.

The choices of time nodes are generally the following four:

• First, traditional festivals
• The second is the peak period of specific events (such as the job hunting season in March and April, the start of school, etc.)
• Third, hot events
• The fourth is a self-created holiday (a holiday invented by your company, which can also be understood as a member's day)

Since most of the time is predictable, many companies will determine the activity time for the whole year half a year or a year in advance.

Ever since Boss Ma created the Double Eleven Shopping Festival, it has become the most important day of the year for the e-commerce industry. Today, all walks of life cannot ignore the potential brought by this festival.

02 Purpose of the activity

After setting the time node, we need to think about what is the fundamental purpose of holding this event?

Different activity purposes will adopt different activity methods, and the target groups, resources invested, etc. will also be different.

There are three common activity purposes:

• New users: Increase new users through activities
• Revenue: Increase company revenue through activities
• Brand: Increase brand influence and enhance brand awareness through activities

The purpose of this case is revenue generation, so the following introduction will be based on this goal.

03 Activity Objectives

Before we take specific actions, we need to further break down our goals. Activity goals refer to specific results, which will be specific to each channel and each number.

For example, the revenue target this time is 1 million yuan.

If your store has multiple channels, it may be broken down into the following:

Revenue = [Channel 1] Revenue + [Channel 2] Revenue + ….

= [Channel 1] Single Product 1 Revenue + [Channel 1] Single Product 2 Revenue + …. + [Channel 2] Single Product 1 Revenue + …..

The revenue of a single product can be broken down into the following dimensions:

Single product revenue = number of buyers * average order value * average purchase volume per person = new users * average order value per new user * average purchase volume per person + old users * average order value per old user * average purchase volume per person

If we want to break it down more finely, old users can also be divided into first-time rechargers and repeat purchasers. In short, the finer the granularity, the more conducive it is to controlling the details of the activity.

If it is a new customer acquisition activity, the split dimension may be another one. Here is just a simple example:

The goal is: 100,000 followers on the public account = 50,000 followers from the event + 20,000 followers from mutual promotion of the public account +…

04 Activity Form

After the above analysis, we have made certain preparations for the activity crowd, channels, and quantity, and now we should consider the interactive form.

The design of the activity format is mainly to increase user participation.

Specifically include: event prizes, event discounts, event methods (lottery, full gifts, full discounts, distribution, etc.), event UI

This step requires special consideration. The activity should not be designed too complicated, as it will reduce user participation. It is recommended to make some comprehensive considerations with the event prizes. If your prizes are particularly attractive to users, then the event rules can be designed to be relatively complex.

The attraction here not only refers to the prize itself, but also should include the user's psychological expectation of getting the prize.

Therefore, the specific form of activities needs to be based on a certain understanding of user needs, so user research is required in the early stages.

The biggest success factor in this case can be said to be the design of the event. Because the company previously only offered simple discounts, which had a relatively simple appeal to users, this Double Eleven event added the gifting of physical prizes, which can be understood as stimulating user purchases from two angles.

This idea is an attempt based on the experience of previous activities and the actions of competitors. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the research on user needs.

Up to this point, the framework of the entire activity can be said to have been basically established. One thing needs to be synchronized here. All the above content needs to be evaluated by product, operation, and technology for feasibility before it can be determined. Operations and product must not make a snap decision and then directly hand it over to technical partners.

05 Project Division

After the above content is confirmed, the project leader needs to write an activity project document based on the above content, confirm the activity content with the superior and apply for resources. Only after the superior's confirmation can the following overall arrangements be made.

• Project leader: activity project document + activity budget submission + activity resource application
• Operation: activity copywriting + activity preheating channels and copywriting + submitting UI requirements + activity data statistics
• Product: Output requirement documents + product details to connect UI and technology
• Technology: Development + Data Tracking

Here is an additional introduction to the indicators that each department is responsible for. Operations is responsible for conversion data, products are responsible for exposure data, and UI and technology belong to the support department and are not responsible for activity indicators.

Among the above work items, there is one point I would like to single out - data tracking. This is a very important task. Subsequent activity optimization and review will rely on data to a large extent, so there must be no problems with tracking.

The indicators that products and operations focus on here are different, so the data required for tracking are also different. If the company has a data department, then you should submit your needs to the data department and let them support the completion of data tracking. If there is no such department in the company, products and operations will need to provide data based on their respective indicators.

06 Activity Preparation

After all the above processes are completed, you can start the activity implementation process. Here we will focus on the action sequence of each department.

First, operations and products take action.

The operation should first start by polishing the copy, including the event warm-up copy and all the copy used in the event, and then refine it. If you want to achieve better results, the warm-up copy for different channels should be different.

At the same time, the product prototype design began.

After the operation team has polished the copywriting and the product prototype has been drawn, we can start delivering the UI and designing high-security features. If development resources are tight, you can prioritize backend development.

After the UI diagram has been reviewed by operations and products, the technology can be delivered for development.

After delivering the UI, operations partners can start warming up the event at the same time!

For example, replacing certain advertising positions, publishing articles on public accounts, establishing and notifying user groups, etc. All available resources can be utilized to create momentum as much as possible before the event!

07 Activity launch and iteration

Once product development and testing is complete, it can be ready for launch on the event date.

However, the launch of the event is not the end of the event.

Be sure to pay attention to the event data, especially the first few days. Have the event exposure and conversion achieved the expected results? If the expected effect is not achieved, find out the reason immediately.

Is it that there is a problem with the expected data in the early stage, or is it that there is a problem with the later channels, activity forms, etc. The sooner you find the cause, the sooner you can remedy it.

In this case, the exposure after the activity went online was very poor, about five times less than the expected effect.

First, check whether the data is correct. If there is no problem, then check the exposure channel to see which channel has reduced exposure.

Finally, it was found that after the regular ad slots were replaced with active ad slots, the click-through rate of each ad dropped by about 2%-5%.

In theory, the activity UI should be much better than the regular advertising design. However, the click-through rate has dropped. Is it because the factors that attract users to click have decreased after the UI is replaced?

After comparing it with the previous UI, we found that the enlarged numbers in the original ad space (representing the amount of resources the user can obtain) were replaced with text. Even if we have polished the copy, it is definitely more difficult for words to make users feel the value compared to numbers. Afterwards, we immediately adjusted the UI and replaced the text of the event gifts and discount amounts.

After the modification, the click-through rate increased immediately, even 2%-5% higher than usual, achieving the expected exposure effect of the activity page.

This case also tells me that for short content such as titles, we need to quickly capture the user’s moment and give priority to using pictures and numbers rather than words to express it.

When I first started working in this industry, I remember a teacher saying something that had a profound impact on me at the time, so I’d like to share it with you all: As long as the product is not offline, never give up on optimization.

If development resources are tight, then modify the UI; if UI resources are also tight, then draw the pictures and modify the text yourself, and keep trying until the product is launched or the goal is achieved.

08 Activity Review

The activity is offline, and there is one last task left to do - review.

Regardless of whether the expected results are achieved or not, it is a meaningful gain and has important value for the planning and design of subsequent activities.

So how do we review an activity?

I think the activity review should at least include the following two parts:

• Data review
• Project process review

The first part is data review.

Since the data is in the hands of operations and products, this step is mainly reviewed by operations and products. In the third section, we broke down the activity goals so that we can see whether we have met the targets. If it is not completed, then which step of the data has a problem, what is the cause of the problem, and how to avoid it.

The second part: project process review

This section mainly summarizes the experience of cross-departmental cooperation. After all, as long as there is cooperation, some friction and collision are inevitable. When a project is in progress, it is inevitable that the project must be the main focus, and everyone keeps a lot of emotions in their hearts, which is actually not conducive to subsequent work. Therefore, when reviewing the project, each department can put forward its own opinions on the project process and everyone can discuss solutions together.

Author: Xiao Yingzi

Source: Yingzi D Operation Notes