Case Analysis | Yuanfudao Winter Vacation Course Promotion Event

The case study we bring today is Yuanfudao’s winter vacation course promotion activity.

1. Case Analysis

[Case Name] Winter Vacation Systematic Class is officially launched to open a new starting point for progress in 2021

——Yuanfudao winter vacation course promotion activities

Event page:

【Disassembly target】

1. Recently, our company also plans to launch new junior high school course promotion activities on the site. After investigation, among the major competitors, Yuanfudao’s activities are the most outstanding. We hope that this analysis can provide some inspiration.

2. Some recent thoughts on the disassembly:

Can we use the growth model to analyze education circle cases that tend to be self-growth-oriented content marketing? From what angles should we consider which model to choose and then build a thinking framework?

Why is it that no one has copied or borrowed from popular activities like Pinduoduo’s 0-yuan bargaining and free delivery of grown fruits, which have very high users’ willingness to participate spontaneously, in educational apps?

【Background Research】

Brand Overview:

-The above picture is the homepage of Yuanfudao Baidu Product Center-

Yuanfudao Online Education, the first unicorn company in China's K-12 online education field, is currently valued at US$15.5 billion.

The company owns a number of online education products including Yuanfudao, Yuantiku, Xiaoyuansouti, Xiaoyuankousuan, and Zebra AI Class. It is committed to using technology to enhance the learning experience, stimulate learning interest, and cultivate scientific learning habits.

The educational services currently provided include online courses, intelligent exercises, and problem solving. The brand vision is to "enable Chinese students to obtain high-quality educational resources more conveniently."

Yuanfudao currently has many branding strategies, including but not limited to becoming a partner of the Winter Olympics, teaming up with top domestic cultural IPs, and collaborating with academic celebrities and popular variety shows to increase exposure.

-The above picture is the homepage of Yuanfudao brand official website-

Development History:

-The above picture is an overview of Yuanfudao's previous financings-

Recent News & Trends:

Capital support + frequent brand actions

-The following is an excerpt from the financing news-

-The following picture is an excerpt from media reports-

Analysis of the three elements of business:

1. Products:

1.1 Product Positioning

The company has a variety of online education products, providing users with diversified intelligent education services such as online courses, smart exercises, and problem analysis.

1. Massive data-based teaching and research, focusing on students’ weak links in learning (such as practicing questions), creating immersive classrooms, and enhancing learning interactivity and fun;

2. Large-class online live broadcast + dual-teacher classroom, committed to creating a closed learning loop.

1.2 Product Architecture:

Yuanfudao, Yuantiku, Xiaoyuan Question Search, Xiaoyuan Oral Arithmetic, and Zebra AI Class.

1.3 Analysis of Yuanfudao APP functions/user demand scenarios:

Yuanfudao’s main users are students, but the payers and managers are parents, so the needs of both parents and students need to be met at the same time.

There are three main scenarios when parents use Yuanfudao:

Learn what you want to know through the APP before buying the course

Learn the details of the course and payment process when purchasing a course

Course learning and subsequent operations after purchasing the course

By analyzing the mind map of the app’s current functions (see the figure below), Yuanfudao’s overall functions are clear in logic, simple and efficient. The product design has good control over details and a reasonable functional layout, which can give users a better experience and meet the needs of users before and after buying courses.

-The above picture is a mind map of the function layout of the Yuanfudao APP-

1.4 K12 User Profile (Parents + Students):

Parents: Those born in the 1980s (30-49 years old) are the main consumers in the industry;

Mostly well educated

Their careers are also on the rise. Whether it is their own economic strength or the pressure of their children's education, all these factors make them pay more attention to their children's education.

Middle-class families have a slightly weaker ability to resist risks and a stronger sense of insecurity, so they attach great importance to their children's education, and often even form collective anxiety;

The vast majority of people highly recognize that online education has significant learning effects and high cost-effectiveness.

Students:

The actual users of the courses have a higher awareness of the content, reputation and services than the parents, and this awareness becomes more obvious as they get older;

1.5 Analysis of Yuanfudao’s course system:

Features: Classic course design, but not much different from competing products such as Xueersi, Zuoyebang, and Xuebajun)

Basic information of the course

-The following picture is from the official WeChat public account of Yuanfudao-

2. Traffic

2.1 Traffic Sources

Early tool software retention:

Through the tool advantages of Xiaoyuan Search Questions and Yuantiqu, we can quickly accumulate customer traffic.

The core value of private domain traffic: high-frequency, close-range, and repeated contact with customers; thereby increasing the course repurchase rate of educational institutions.

Online delivery:

Search optimization, Baidu product special, etc.

Offline delivery:

Subway and Focus Media elevator advertising

Traffic diversion between product matrices

Brand Marketing:

Expand customer acquisition channels from groups accustomed to online consumption to a wider mainstream population.

Referral/Fission New Customers:

For example, the training camp that was dismantled this time

User scale: As of January 15, 2020, Yuanfudao has accumulated more than 400 million users.

3. Monetization

Core business: Online large-class courses with two teachers

GMV (gross merchandise volume) = number of users * conversion rate * average order value.

Monetization features:

1. With traffic as the core, quickly iterate the product, quickly trial and error, and make decisive decisions. When a track with broad prospects is found, test the waters first and then promote it after success, such as Zebra AI class.

2. Use tools as a guide to incubate product matrix, "Use high-frequency tools to drive low-frequency course purchases.

3. Capture users’ minds through aggressive marketing and advertising.

[Specific disassembly]

1. Activity Introduction

Activity theme:

Winter vacation system class officially launched to open a new starting point for progress in 2021

For users:

Users in the first, second and third year of junior high school

Activity carrier:

APP

Purpose:

Promote continued reporting

Event page:

2. Use the MGM model to analyze the user participation rate of the activity

MGM stands for “Member Get Member” in English and is abbreviated as “客转客” in Chinese. It refers to acquiring new customers through existing customers. Here we use M1 to refer to existing users and M2 to refer to newly acquired/recalled users.

There are four key points in the design of this mode of gameplay: M1 reward, M2 reward, M1 threshold, and M2 threshold.

MGM was previously most widely used in financial enterprises such as banks, and was highly praised for its good growth effect. For online education institutions, this model can be applied to two business scenarios: "old promoting old" and "old bringing new".

-The following figure is the basic flow chart of MGM (passenger to passenger)-

As far as the winter and spring course release event is concerned, it can be said that all users who enter the event page during the event period are M1, and their successful sharing is the basis for the establishment of this model. Therefore, I will mainly disassemble the M1 next.

M1 User Experience Map

Map Overview:

Map detailed analysis:

2.2.1. Click on the header image to receive the "50 yuan coupon"

2.1.2. Click the floating window on the right side of the "Click to select courses" page

2.1.3. Click and slide the P2 big move solution navigation component

2.1.4. Click "Click to learn more about Yuanfudao's powerful teachers" btn

2.1.5. Click "Click to learn more about the Yuanfudao disintegration system" btn

2.1.6. Click the "50 yuan coupon" btn at the bottom of the collection page

2.1.7. Click "Click to go to the course selection page"

2.1.8. Scroll down to view selected comments and click “Like”

2.1.9. Send a message

M1 user participation rate analysis

For M1 users, interest stimulation, high-frequency pop-ups, and gamification experience are the three major prerequisites for them to participate in and share an activity. Let's break them down one by one:

Interest incentives: To be optimized

The only incentive for this activity is a "50-yuan course purchase coupon", which is a bit thin.

No copywriting to guide sharing

High-frequency pop-up windows: To be optimized

There is no pop-up window in the activity page, and it is only displayed in the APP opening screen advertisement position, which needs to be optimized

Gamification experience: To be optimized

The page is too long, which may cause content overload for users.

Too many page jumps can easily distract users and weaken their attention;

The page components are not properly matched, there are too many BTNs, and the promotion section of the Hanchun gift box with video materials is not embedded;

2. Use the “three principles of triggering points” to analyze the communication effect of the event

The essence of an activity is a communication behavior. The ultimate purpose of operational actions and related materials is to amplify the communication effect. Below, I will combine the user experience map and try to use the classic "three principles of triggering points" to break down the communication effect of the activity.

Personal character rules

The law of individual characters means that a certain type of people can become a very important communication node and play a role in fueling the communication. We generally call this type of people kol or koc.

In this activity, the tutor played such a role.

This has both advantages and disadvantages. The good thing is that they will know the courses better than the student/parent group, and their recommendations can generate very strong trust.

The bad thing is that their influence is limited to old users and their scale is small.

Adhesion Factor Law

This item is the analysis of the impact of posters and promotional copy on the promotional effect. They should reflect the information that users need most.

Here we use the six elements of the poster for analysis: user identity, main title, outline, trust endorsement, sense of urgency, and short-term benefits.

1) User identity

This item is not exposed

2) Main title

3) Outline

Clear sense of gain

User demand awakening

4) Trust endorsement

Brand: logo + sponsorship + cooperation, creating a sense of big brand

Teacher: Famous school + teaching experience + high-scoring student cases + student evaluations

5) Sense of urgency

6) Short-term benefits

The Law of Environmental Power

This item mainly refers to the presentation of user groups in poster copy, which is used to create anxiety.

【Disassembly conclusion】

There are many things to learn from Yuanfudao’s course promotion activities, and it is a very rewarding analysis.

【Reusable】

1. The MGM mode gameplay is reused, but optimization needs to be made for M1 rewards, M2 rewards, M1 thresholds, and M2 thresholds;

2. Reference to the message board function;

[To be optimized]

1. Optimize the content of the activity to avoid content overload;

(It is recommended to adjust the rhythm of the activities, have different main promotion contents at different nodes, and coordinate resources accordingly)

2. The gameplay of the activity is not attractive enough.

【Personal Thoughts】

Some optimization ideas to improve M1 user participation rate:

1. The first step is to clarify the purpose of the activity and then establish a user portrait.

The first step is to stratify M1 users and establish corresponding user tags to support subsequent refined operations. For example, if you want to recall old users, the effect of SMS reach will most likely be better than push within the APP.

2. The second step is to stratify users according to their profiles to improve operational efficiency;

The stratification can be considered from aspects such as paid records and recent active time.

3. The third step is to increase the temptation of shared content; physical rewards + spiritual satisfaction, such as some altruistic emotional expression copy, some prizes that students are more interested in, red envelope rebates, tuition refunds, etc.

4. The fourth step is to increase the frequency of pop-up windows, and add group buying, lucky draws, distribution and other gameplay

Author: Wild Operation Community

Source: Wild Operation Community (dugu9bubai)