A guide to private domain traffic for restaurants!

Between 2020 and 2021, various catering companies began to deploy private domain traffic and achieved varying degrees of success.

During the epidemic, Haidilao accumulated more than 30 million members and achieved takeaway revenue of more than 300 million through private domain operations; Luckin Coffee followed the private domain wave, formed an operation team, and adopted refined private domain operations to pull itself out of the quagmire of losses and achieve profitability; Dalongyi accumulated 2 million fans through private domains, and its takeaway revenue in February 2021 alone was 7-8 million. In addition, big-name companies such as McDonald's, Starbucks, and Mixue Bingcheng have also achieved remarkable results in the private domain.

Why have so many catering companies entered the private domain in the past two years?

On the one hand, affected by the epidemic, offline business has suffered a severe blow, and the customer traffic of a large number of stores has seriously declined, and new customer acquisition channels are urgently needed. On the other hand, affected by the overall market and with increasingly fierce competition, the catering industry has entered an era of inventory, with "involution" and traffic "lack" becoming the norm. Catering operators have to change their thinking and explore more refined operating methods.

As time goes by, the new "key" to traffic growth - private domain traffic has become a high ground that catering companies are competing to explore.

1. What is the essence of private domain traffic in the catering industry?

1. The essence is to deepen the consumer connection

First of all, private domain traffic is relative to public domain traffic. The so-called public domain traffic, that is, platform traffic, is traffic that does not belong to enterprises and stores. Therefore, for restaurant entrepreneurs, it is more like a number on the traffic account that cannot be changed by personal will.

The essential difference between private domain traffic and public domain traffic is that the meaning of "traffic" itself is removed, and "traffic" is regarded as consumers with warmth and emotions, emphasizing a deeper connection with consumers.

To be more precise, private domain traffic is a space in which brands and consumers frequently come into contact, get to know each other, and interact with each other, establishing an emotional connection. This allows them to bypass their guard and be more likely to choose you when they purchase the same type of product in the future.

2. The essence is traffic privatization

Public domain traffic is platform traffic, and the control of the traffic lies in the hands of the platform. If stores and brands want to gain traffic on the platform, such as placing advertisements and organizing events, they are all subject to platform control. Public domain traffic requires restaurants to play by the rules set by the platform, otherwise they will be punished, with minor warnings and notifications, and serious cases such as account bans.

To put it bluntly, public domain traffic is traffic with shackles. Private domain traffic is traffic that has been freed from shackles. Catering operators can use the traffic freely based on their personal will. This is the privatization of traffic.

Once traffic is privatized, catering operators will have absolute control when distributing information, planning events, and conducting customer operations and management. They can decide what content to publish, when to advertise, and what types of consumers to plan events for.

3. The essence is customer management

Before there was a data management system, it was extremely difficult for a store or restaurant to maintain and manage customer relationships. Even with a customer management system now, many restaurants can only simply record the most basic information of customers, such as birthday, age, name and consumption channel, etc., making it difficult to establish a deep connection with customers.

With the emergence of a series of private domain tools such as WeChat for Business, catering operators can begin to have more frequent and deeper contact with customers based on social chains such as WeChat. Through such contacts, companies understand consumers more and more, and their classification and management of consumers become more detailed, reasonable and targeted. By utilizing the group functions, data statistics, and tags of tools such as WeChat for Business, restaurant companies can achieve secondary fission of traffic on their own and increase repurchase rates.

2. How can catering stores generate private domain traffic?

1. Establish a closed loop of traffic flow and open up the “Ren and Du meridians” of traffic flow

Before doing private domain, you must determine the private domain path, just like planning various paths before going to the destination, so that even if you accidentally go the wrong way, you can correct it in time.

Let’s take Luckin Coffee’s private domain path as an example. Luckin’s strategy is to direct the traffic of the public platform into official accounts, mini-programs, and apps, and then direct the traffic of official accounts and mini-programs into the corporate WeChat account, and then through the corporate WeChat account, direct it into the welfare group, and then perform secondary fission through the welfare group to form a complete closed loop.

In this closed loop, every step taken by Luckin is clear and systematic. If there is an error in any link, the system will immediately provide feedback to the operators.

2. Omnichannel traffic diversion to keep the traffic pool flowing

The ways to attract traffic in the catering industry are nothing more than offline and online. To attract offline traffic, every place in the store that has contact with customers can be used to attract traffic; to attract online traffic, we must utilize relevant online channels.

(1) Offline traffic diversion

A customer generally goes through several steps when arriving at a store, including entering the store, picking up food, ordering food, and eating. Corresponding posters can be set up at each of these steps to attract traffic.

a. Entering the store

When consumers enter a store, the first thing they see is the store’s main door and the area next to the door. So these two places can become our drainage points.

Take my own experience at McDonald’s as an example. When we enter the store, we can see a horizontal poster posted on the glass door of the store, with the gimmick of "Enjoy 40% off for 9.9 yuan, get your money back in one go, use more and save more", attracting consumers to scan the code to enter the WeChat mini program.

After entering the door, there is a roll-up banner next to the door, informing users that there is a recent joint promotion with Coca-Cola, "Buy a large meal and get a free Coca-Cola cup", guiding users to download the APP.

b. Ordering and Picking Up Food

During peak dining hours, consumers often queue up in long lines at the bar. At this time, if there is a sign on the ground of the store to guide consumers to order food on the private domain platform, it can not only reduce the work pressure of employees, but also save consumers' waiting time and alleviate the anxious anxiety of consumers while waiting to order food.

Some brands will ask waiters to recommend consumers to join the corporate WeChat group as a benefit when users pick up their meals. When consumers hear that there are benefits to be gained, they generally won’t refuse.

Previously, some McDonald’s stores would tell consumers to “scan to join our corporate WeChat group and get a free ice cream cone” when they ordered food, and would take out a QR code for them to scan. At the checkout counters of all Luckin Coffee stores, there will be QR code cards for joining the group, and store staff will also actively guide customers to join the group by adding WeChat.

After guiding the scan, you may encounter a problem: How do consumers who have scanned the mini program import personal WeChat and corporate WeChat? The best way is to put a personal WeChat or community QR code on the page when consumers scan and enter a page, and add guiding words and welfare words to introduce consumers to the WeChat account.

(2) Online traffic generation

Taking Luckin Coffee as an example, Luckin Coffee’s existing traffic platforms include APP, official accounts, and communities, and each platform has huge traffic.

a. Public account traffic diversion

Luckin Coffee has at least one million fans, and each headline article on its official Weibo account has over 100,000 readers. In order to direct the traffic of the official account to the corporate WeChat group for more refined operations, Luckin Coffee often diverts traffic through a series of welfare articles. A tweet about the benefits of receiving coupons has been read over 100,000 times, and even if the conversion rate is as low as 1%, there are still 1,000 people.

b. Mini Program Traffic Diversion

On the homepage and personal center of Luckin Coffee’s mini program center, two icons and a banner appear in the most conspicuous places. The discount information is directly displayed on it to attract consumers to click on the traffic page. When consumers enter the traffic page, they will see a text and a QR code, which will guide them to add Luckin Coffee’s operator’s corporate WeChat to request benefits. In this way, Luckin's operators will pull them into the private domain group to obtain benefits.

c. Social media traffic

When a brand’s community already has a certain fan base, fans can invite people around them to join the group to achieve fission and diversion. Luckin Coffee’s welfare officer will frequently post fission mini-programs in the group to guide fans to invite friends to join the group. Every time a consumer brings two friends to join the group, they can get a 38% discount coupon.

3. Targeted operations based on different traffic “pools”

The pool of private domain platforms includes not only communities, but also public accounts. Different private domain pools have different purposes and operating methods. So how do you do it specifically?

(1) Community Operation

a. Stay: Build expectations and give consumers reasons to stay

When consumers first join a group, they often feel unfamiliar and have some doubts about the value of the group. At this time, if someone welcomes them with a welcome message and clearly informs them of the value of the group, the chances of consumers staying will be much greater.

For example, at McDonald's, as soon as consumers join a group, Maimai Assistant will @ you and tell you that there are exclusive benefits for joining the group, and will explain in detail the type and time of the benefits, urging users to always pay attention to the group. At the same time, use posters to make the benefits concrete and establish expectations for users.

In addition, when informing users of the value of the group, you can also schedule the benefits, such as what time period will be used to distribute benefits on what theme, so that users know when to open the group to receive the benefits. The biggest advantage of doing this is that it can increase the frequency of users viewing the group and develop the habit of paying attention to group benefits.

For example, Luckin Coffee has made a poster schedule showing what to do at what time every day, with different themes for different time periods to prevent consumers from getting bored due to excessive consumption. In addition, another advantage of making the "Group Welfare Schedule" into a poster is that it is easy to save, which is beneficial for consumers to review it frequently.

b. Active fans: Create an atmosphere and make consumers excited

Method one: Two group owners operate the group to create a vibrant atmosphere.

Traditional groups usually only have one group owner, which puts all the tasks on one person. However, one person has limited energy and is inevitably unable to take care of everything. In addition, one person's "lonely fun" can easily turn the group into a dead group. To get out of this dilemma, you can use the "dual group owner" (group owner + full administrator) system to divide the work and cooperate in operating the community.

Take Perfect Diary’s community operation as an example. The group owner @小丸子 is responsible for taking over users. He imports users into the group and then sends @users some greetings and other caring words to bring them closer together and make users more willing to interact. The group administrator @小助手 is responsible for answering daily user questions, sharing knowledge, and assisting users in making purchasing decisions.

In the long run, when users encounter problems, they know who to contact, which not only saves staff time but also improves operational efficiency.

Method 2: Play games to awaken the enthusiasm of group members.

After the community is established, the group owner can play more games that everyone can participate in together to awaken the enthusiasm of community members and increase the activity of the group.

For example, for KFC’s balloon-popping event, the operator set up twelve balloons (virtual) in the group and told consumers that only one of them contained a reward, which was a buy-one-get-one-free medium-sized portion of French fries. The way to participate is for everyone to randomly report a number, and each person reports once. After the reports are submitted, the operator will announce the answers.

For example, in McDonald’s dice game, if the number rolled is 5, an exclusive gift will be given directly. If the number of participants exceeds 16, an additional winner will be added.

It is human nature to play games, especially group games. Everyone participates and has fun together, which creates a good atmosphere for the group. Although there are some people who never participate, they like it when they see such an atmosphere in the group.

Method three: activate fans through activities.

If conditions permit, the event can be developed offline, so that everyone will be more enthusiastic about participating, and it can also promote the brand.

For example, Starbucks Coffee Classroom often invites regular customers of Starbucks to carry out offline activities, such as teaching them how to make coffee and how to grow succulents with coffee grounds. There are also people on site to take photos for everyone, and then send them back to the group after the event. After seeing the photos, people who participate in the event offline will add text to the photos and post them on their Moments to further expose the brand.

(2) Official Account Operation

There are two types of public accounts, one is a subscription account and the other is a service account. Subscription accounts can send messages once a day, while service accounts can only send messages once a week, but they have complete functions. Which ones should restaurant operators choose, subscription accounts or service accounts? My suggestion is to choose a service account because it has three advantages.

Advantage 1: You can spend more time providing fans with better and more creative content. The service account publishes content once a week, so catering operations staff can spend more time coming up with ideas, polishing content, and providing consumers with high-quality content.

For example, Luckin Coffee has a service account called luckycoffee瑞幸咖啡, which publishes 7 tweets every week. Most of the content topics are welfare notifications, new product introductions, new product discounts, etc. Almost every article reads smoothly, the activities are also creative, and the copy and pictures of the new product introductions are also very attractive. The reason why Luckin's service account can maintain such content quality is that Luckin's official account operation team can spend a week planning content, polishing copywriting, and carefully layout.

Advantage 2: Published messages are not collapsed. Messages pushed by service accounts will not be folded and can be directly displayed in the consumer's chat list. The content opening rate and exposure rate are higher than those of subscription accounts.

Advantage 3: Fewer push messages and less interference to users. Many restaurant owners hope that consumers can see the content they push at all times, because this allows them to firmly grasp consumers' time. However, this will make consumers feel annoyed and unfollow them. Because for consumers, paying attention to you is not about you taking up their time, but about what value you can provide to them.

So how do we create a good corporate service account?

The first step is to set up the official account navigation bar to improve user experience.

The general navigation bar can be divided into three sections: take-out and pick-up, member center, and about us. Take-out and self-pickup are to guide consumers to order food online and avoid the queue process; the membership center is to guide fans to understand membership and purchase membership; About Us is to guide fans to understand the brand story, project features, and team information.

The second step is to build a personal image and get closer to fans.

If the official account always posts coldly, the distance between fans and the brand will become increasingly greater. In order to strengthen the relationship between fans and brands, catering operators can take some measures to establish their personal image, such as giving the official account editor a fun name, frequently using the first person in articles, and actively interacting in the comment section.

Take Lao Xiang Ji’s official account as an example. The editor of Lao Xiang Ji gave himself a funny name, Chicken Baby, which is not only interesting but also easy to remember.

In addition, Jibaobao often uses the first person to teach everyone how to get the best deal from Lao Xiang Ji, which results in a large number of comments on each article. Of course, Lao Xiang Ji also makes good use of the message section. Jibaobao often interacts with fans using humorous and fun words, which not only increases fans' favorability towards the brand, but also shortens the distance between them.

The third step is to plan content and give users reasons to stay.

Plan content types. There are two types of content in public accounts. One is the column type, which plans a series of content based on a theme.

For example, in order to reassure consumers about the food safety of Lao Xiang Ji, Lao Xiang Ji opened a column on its official account called Monthly Self-Inspection and Self-Correction. This column will invite a group of consumers to visit Lao Xiangji stores to inspect the store hygiene, products and services. After the inspection, the editor will write it into a tweet and push it out.

Plan content topics. If a company has many activities and new products are updated frequently, the official account can frequently publish articles about activities, new product introductions, and discount coupons.

For example, Luckin Coffee conducts cross-border cooperation and discount activities almost every week, and releases new products every week. Therefore, its official account will maintain seven updates of tweets every week, usually 2-3 activity tweets, one new product tweet, one cross-border activity tweet, etc. Of course, we don’t have to push out seven articles a week like Luckin Coffee does; one article a week is also fine. Just like Lao Xiang Ji, it keeps updating one article every week, and the content cover and title are also quite interesting.

4. Convert fans and increase repurchase rate

a. One-to-one conversion

There are three types of such conversion. The first is that after consumers join the corporate WeChat, the system automatically replies to the message, guiding them to jump into the mall and place an order using a coupon. The second is that operators publish different types of conversion copy to consumers based on tags to guide consumers to place orders. The third type is that consumers see information in groups and circles of friends, take the initiative to consult, and operators guide them to place orders through word talk.

Regardless of the above, operations staff are required to regularly collect common questions from consumers, summarize and optimize the wording, and then put it into quick replies to improve efficiency and optimize conversion rates.

b. Social media and friend circle conversion

The so-called conversion in social groups and friend circles means achieving conversion through discounts and flash sales.

(1) Achieving conversions through discounts

Welfare officers can use various welfare methods to stimulate consumers to place orders regularly or irregularly.

Taking Zhong Xue Gao as an example, after a consumer joins the group, the community welfare officer will first give the group benefits: a 12% discount coupon and a free steamed egg (which can be used when placing an order next time). In addition, in order to create a sense of community ritual, community welfare officers will use "secret codes" to allow consumers to receive discount coupons.

Not only that, in order to keep consumers paying attention to the community for a long time, Zhong Xuegao’s community welfare officer will also issue some irregular discount coupons, such as half-price coupons for dinner orders and half-price coupons for chicken soup.

The ways to send benefits in the circle of friends are generally monthly benefits and scenario-based benefits.

Monthly benefits. Zhong Xuegao organizes welfare activities every month to thank old customers. Consumers can participate in the circle of friends activities if they place orders for a certain amount. The welfare gifts are usually peripheral products and a box of ice cream. Of course, the activity time is limited to encourage consumers to participate quickly.

Scenario-based benefits. The so-called scenario-based welfare is to plan activities for specific scenarios. Some of Zhong Xue Gao's consumers are college students. August 23rd to August 27th is the start of the school year, so Zhong Xue Gao will set up welfare activities for the start of the school year.

Flash sales, also known as short-term special offers, use extremely short-term special offers to create a sense of tension for consumers and stimulate more orders. In order to stimulate fans to place orders, Zhong Xuegao often sets up flash sales in social networks and WeChat Moments. One is the flash sale day for members on Wednesdays, and the other is a countdown to the flash sale.

(2) Use the membership model to lock in customers and double the repurchase rate

In the past, restaurants often used a membership model to lock in offline consumers, and this tactic also applies to private domains. Take Lao Xiang Ji as an example. In order to increase the repurchase rate of private domain traffic, Lao Xiang Ji once launched the "77 Membership Card" activity. As long as consumers recharge 7 yuan, they can get a 27% discount on the most expensive dishes each time they consume, and can also enjoy other member points benefits.

To promote membership, Lao Xiang Ji also used a secret trick: the 77 trial card, which allows consumers to experience the rights and benefits of a 30-day membership first, dispel consumers' concerns, and develop a habit of using the card. This trick is very effective. It is understood that after the launch of the trial card, 2 million cards were sold and the repurchase rate of Lao Xiang Ji increased by more than double.

If you want to get even more sophisticated, you can set up membership levels so that consumers can invest more time in their membership cards, just like leveling up by killing monsters.

For example, HEYTEA membership levels are divided into six categories: silver, gold, platinum, diamond, black gold and black diamond. Different levels correspond to different rights and interests, which stimulates consumers to spend more time to obtain points in order to obtain higher-level memberships and enjoy a rare sense of satisfaction.

3. What else should catering operators pay attention to when doing private domain business?

1. Private domain traffic is a systematic project

Many restaurant operators have a wrong perception that generating private domain traffic means attracting people, creating groups, and posting advertisements. This misunderstanding caused them to spend a lot of time on private domain traffic, but in the end they failed to achieve conversion, and many groups became dead groups.

The reason for this perception is that many people in the catering industry do not regard private domain traffic as a systematic project. Private domain traffic is a set of traffic solutions designed for different purposes. There are at least six purposes for using private domain traffic, namely, traffic generation, retention, active fans, monetization, repeat purchases, and self-propagation. Behind each purpose is a series of methods, and the methods are different for different purposes.

After several years of exploration, the market has provided us with many complete cases for reference. For restaurant owners, what they need to do is to clearly distinguish the stage they are in when doing private domain business and the goals they want to achieve, and then look for reference cases and develop methods in a targeted manner.

2. When doing private domain business, you cannot imitate others, but learn from them with a purpose

When restaurant owners operate in the private domain, they must be clear about what purpose they want to achieve and what goals they want to accomplish. They should avoid making the mistake of copying other people’s methods just because a certain brand or store is very popular in the private domain.

Just like many hotpot restaurants in the past, when they saw Haidilao’s service became popular, they copied it, but ended up failing to match it and it actually delayed their business.

3. Private domain is not just an “opportunity” for big brands, small and medium-sized brands and stores can also play

Many restaurant operators see big brands doing private domain business and want to try to imitate them. However, after imitation, they find that they cannot afford the funds and manpower invested by big brands in private domain. So they have this perception: private domain is an opportunity for big brands, and small and medium-sized brands cannot play.

The fact is that private domain is an opportunity for everyone. Big brands have a huge market and need even more traffic to support profitability. Playing in the private domain requires more complexity and sophistication, requiring more costs and manpower.

What small and medium-sized brands need to do is to start from the actual situation of their own stores, clarify what goals we want to achieve through private domains, and develop private domain gameplay that suits their own. There is no need to be too complicated or invest too much at the beginning. Start with small steps and fast runs, iterate repeatedly, and then like a snowball, it will roll bigger and bigger until it grows into a towering tree.

Author: Red Can

Source: Red Can