How to start online channel delivery from scratch?

Nowadays, most online education industries use online promotion methods. Only through online multi-channel promotion can the user conversion rate be increased. Now that the Internet is well developed, a lot of information is obtained through the Internet, and there are many ways of online promotion.

Last week I went on a business trip to Guiyang to visit an English training institution.

It is understood that the growth of students has always been a problem for this institution. They have been established for 17 years, but currently have only two campuses with a total of more than 700 students. In comparison, another well-known school in Guiyang, CC English, was established two years later, but now has 18 campuses and more than 20,000 students. The gap between the two is staggering.

What exactly is the cause?

The principal told me that they have almost no experience in the field of Internet advertising. Over the years, new students have always relied on old teachers to bring up new ones. In fact, the current situation of this institution also reflects the problems of the entire K12 offline training industry. I have talked with many online advertising media and learned that there are very few offline institutions that do online advertising. According to the data report released by iResearch Consulting - "Marketing Strategies of Advertisers in China's Education Industry in the First Half of 2020", among the top 10 institutions, only 1 is an offline institution, and it is only ranked 10th.

So, what factors have created the "Internet investment gap" in the K12 offline training industry? In addition to geographical restrictions, there are mainly two reasons:

• The institution itself lacks experience in Internet distribution;
• There is no mature talent to carry out this task;

For example, the Guiyang training institution I visited last week had only one person in the marketing department, who was not only responsible for marketing but also took on IT work.

A marketing teacher from an art examination institution in Xi'an also told me that there are not many local institutions doing Internet advertising, and most institutions only do channel (recommendations by public school teachers) and local promotion; even the provincial capitals are in this situation, not to mention some lower-tier cities.

Based on these current situations, and the fact that I previously worked in one of the best information flow advertising companies in the country, I decided to combine my previous experience to tell you how to start online channel delivery from scratch.

These methods are not only simple and easy to implement, but also have low monetary costs (some channels are even 0) and labor costs. They are very suitable for training institutions that are just starting to do Internet advertising and lack manpower and funds.

Let’s get to the point. Last week, a reader who subscribed to my education column talked to me about his recent difficulties in finding a job. He went to a training institution to apply for a new media position, and the boss asked two questions:

• Can the new media you create drive sales?
• Which channel of traffic capture are you good at? How much sales can there be?

Obviously, the boss of this institution has fallen into a misunderstanding, which may also be a common problem of most training institutions: the value of channel placement only remains on a single transaction.

I think this approach is only suitable for fast-moving consumer goods and is not suitable for the training industry. Unlike fast-moving consumer goods, which have low average order value and low user decision-making costs, training products have a higher average order value and users need to go through a certain period of thinking, observation, and comparison before they can finally make a decision.

Here I want to tell you about a concept that has become quite popular in the marketing circle in recent years: link marketing. This means that users do not go from knowing a brand to making a purchase decision in one step, but go through a series of touchpoints:

Users are very cautious during the purchasing process, and this process is very similar to looking for a job on a certain website.

• Note: On the website, know about this company. (User-aware organization)
• Interest: Attracted by the company’s benefits and treatment. (User is interested in institution)
• Search: To be on the safe side, you will search for the company’s leaders, reputation, and profitability to see if the company is reliable. (Users go to the Internet information platform to search for the brand)
• Purchase: After a massive application + interview, although you received several offers at the same time, the HR and boss of this company valued you more, and they offered sincere conditions, so you decided to join this company. (After obtaining all the information, users can complete the transaction through more convenient channels)
• Sharing: After working for a period of time, the company launched an internal referral program. Those who successfully recommend others can receive generous rewards. The company also made sharing posters for everyone, so you forwarded the posters to people in need. (Based on interests, users have simpler and more convenient channels for dissemination)

So, do you understand now? When training institutions are making advertising campaigns, they cannot rely on one channel to close deals, but should focus on a series of user touchpoints to make advertising campaigns.

What are the specific channels and how to do it? Next, I will explain my own approach to you one by one.

1. Pay attention to the contact points

Considering the cost, I suggest you choose various self-media with pictures, texts, audio and video to produce the practical content in your subject area; for example, English institutions can do the content of how to learn English from scratch, and composition institutions can do the appreciation of the most beautiful sentences, etc.
Many friends may have three questions:

• I have been doing self-media, but there are not many readers. What should I do?
• There are so many self-media platforms, I can’t handle it all by myself.
• It’s too difficult to make videos without any basic knowledge.

Let’s answer the first one first: Putting aside the quality of your content and considering it only from the perspective of topic selection (because topic selection is the first hurdle in terms of reading volume), let me ask you, do the topics you choose really hit the user’s rigid needs and pain points?

These keywords are the ones that users search most frequently on Baidu, so this is why I recommend that English institutions choose the topic of “learning from scratch”.

Of course, if you don’t want to spend money to buy tools, you can also go to the omnipotent Taobao. Just search for "keywords" and many stores will pop up that can provide this service. Generally speaking, it costs 1 yuan to buy one keyword, which is very cheap.

Now let's talk about the second problem, which can also be solved with tools. I am the brand public relations of School Butler. Every time I write content, I will use a one-click distribution tool from some self-media to distribute the article to more than 20 platforms, which can save 80% of the workload. Here is a reminder that there are many self-media distribution tools, but most of them are particularly useless. I have stepped into many pitfalls myself, so everyone should be cautious.

The third problem is actually not difficult to solve. You just need to make a video out of the article you wrote.

2. Interest points

The commonly used channels here are information flow ads, such as Moments ads, Weibo Fans, etc. After background settings, the ads will be pushed to precise groups of people.

Here we need to focus on advertising optimization. Let me give you an example of how a well-known domestic thinking training institution optimizes user interest points.

Version 1.0: Explain the importance of developing mathematical thinking

Result: The click cost is normal, but the number of customers (orders left) is too low, resulting in high customer cost.

Version 2.0: Highlight the popularity of mathematical thinking courses + free courses

Result: Customer costs dropped sharply and the number increased significantly, but the conversion rate of full-priced courses in the later period was not ideal.

Version 3.0: Original long text (users write their class experience) + free class

The final ROI (conversion rate of regular courses) met the target.

Seeing this, someone may ask again:

• We are an offline organization and only need to radiate locally or within a 5-kilometer radius. The scope of information flow is too wide.
• Is this kind of investment very expensive?
• Optimization and delivery are too complicated, and I don’t know how to do data analysis. What should I do?

For the first question, don’t worry. Now many channels can be targeted based on LBS: Weibo, Moments, Bilibili, Douyin, Zhihu, Xiaohongshu, Zuiyou, Douyu, Huya...

The second question is that advertising is paid based on performance, and the cost is much lower than Baidu bidding, so you can try it out with a small cost. Currently, many channels allow trial investments of 5,000 to 10,000 yuan. For example, Douyin can start with an investment of more than 100 yuan.

The third question: You can find a reliable advertising service provider and pay a small service fee (mostly 2K for lifetime service), which can help you save a lot of trouble; however, it is very important to find a reliable company. I have worked in one of the best information flow advertising companies in China before, and I know that there are many people who take advantage of the situation in this industry, so everyone must keep their eyes open.

3. Search touchpoints

1) Baidu Encyclopedia

Baidu Encyclopedia is a must, why? Yesterday when I was having dinner with a few teachers, someone introduced his uncle to me. He proudly said that my uncle’s name could be found on Baidu Encyclopedia.

Do you understand after reading this? Baidu Encyclopedia is the best endorsement of your brand influence.

2) News Marketing

The main purpose of news marketing is to let users know about your company's dynamics, educational philosophy, corporate values, cases, etc.

If you do points 1 and 2 well, the HR department will thank you.

3) Platforms that have accumulated user reviews, such as Meituan and Zhihu

Before we order takeout or go to an amusement park, do we first check Meituan’s ratings and user reviews? When asking about and choosing certain paid tools, you should check out the discussions on Zhihu, so these platforms also play a key role in users' decision-making.

I know what you want to ask. The price is not expensive. If you don’t understand, you can also find a service provider. Baidu Encyclopedia starts at 2K, news marketing starts at 50 yuan, and Meituan pays based on the proportion of the transaction amount.

4. Purchase touchpoints

I suggest building your own online mall (browsing page on mobile phones) and embedding the link into your own media accounts such as official accounts and Toutiao to facilitate users' purchases.

5. Sharing touchpoints

This is generally about private domain traffic fission sharing. I will explain the specific steps of fission in detail in the next article.

Here I would also like to recommend a sharing channel that is "silent and effective": student evaluation sharing.

What does it mean? After the class, the teacher will evaluate the students. After receiving the evaluation on their mobile phones, parents will share the evaluation on their Moments based on the desire to show off their children. When friends and relatives click on it, they can see the evaluation page. At the same time, the page also includes an introduction to the training institution and an order form. Such sharing reduces the incentive cost for the school and saves parents from the embarrassment of forwarding "hard advertisements" on Moments.

What is particularly convenient is that the system can automatically enter potential students and automatically record source channels and referral relationships to help schools review enrollment.

I have finished sharing. Finally, I want to remind all the newbies that once you start, you must stick to it, just like digging a well for water. Don’t dig 2 or 3 meters and then say there is no water in this place, so change places or simply give up. Instead, you must conduct continuous trial and error, and iteration. The devil is in the details, so everyone must be prepared for a tough battle.

Author: Auntie Cai

Source: Auntie Cai