NIO APP traffic diversion strategy!

Today we disassembled the traffic strategy and refined operation of the [NIO] APP.

High-quality case disassembly:

• Case name: [NIO] APP refined operation
• Case Industry: Content Information
• Disassembly author: fang, dun
• Case purpose: attract new customers, promote activation and retention
• Case tags: APP maintenance referral, cross-industry cooperation and joint venture

1. Private Domain Traffic Strategy

NIO is more than just a car company. By providing high-performance smart electric vehicles and the ultimate user experience, NIO is committed to creating a pleasant lifestyle for users and becoming the world's first "user enterprise".

In just a few lines, we see the word “user” appear as many as three times. NIO’s user stickiness is also as good as it gets , as the data shows.

Zhu Jiang, vice president of user development at NIO, revealed in a speech on August 16, 2019 that the APP’s daily active users are close to 200,000, and the number of downloads and registrations has already exceeded 1 million. No matter how busy he is every day, founder and chairman Li Bin will spend more than an hour communicating with users, not to mention the company's staff.

From this point of view, the nanny-style service APP created by NIO for car owners highlights its important functions. Take my boss as an example. He has three cars in his family, and the main one is NIO. Even our products were once required to imitate NIO. Today, let’s take a look at how NIO has achieved 70% of its business through referrals from old users through refined maintenance of the APP.

To understand this, let’s first look at the relationship between NIO owners and NIO.

For the development of NIO, car owners have contributed both money and manpower. Different from the directly operated NIO House, NIO Space is a directly operated and franchised model, and a large part of the franchisees are car owners. Some NIO owners have turned from NIO consumers into NIO's own people, and even assist NIO at all costs, making themselves investors and pioneers of NIO and becoming store owners.

If investing in building stores is for a win-win situation, then the free feedback from car owners is countless. The NIO advertisements behind 12,000 taxis in Shanghai are also a big investment by car owners. Moreover, free advertisements like this from car owners can be said to be continuous. On advertising screens in core business districts, highway signs, and car owners' own signs, you can see car owners "showing their loyalty" to NIO everywhere.

Currently, there are more than 1,300 NIO owners across the country who use their spare time to go to NIO stores to sell their cars for free . The owner of a restaurant in Qingdao recommended 14 people to buy NIO cars . It should be noted that the average monthly sales of professional NIO salesmen is only 6 units. With such a powerful group of car owners, the fission of old and new is a natural outcome.

According to NIO's 2019Q4 data, the proportion of orders from recommendations from old users reached 69%, far higher than the 2019 annual average of 45%. Even at 45%, it is enough to leave other OEMs far behind.

What kind of magic does NIO’s community have to enable people to transform from an ordinary person to a NIO fan?

The following is the combing framework:

1. App entrance

The picture below shows the apps of traditional OEMs. Most of the apps require registration. If it weren’t for work research, I would probably only download these boring apps when I buy a car. I really can’t afford it and I don’t like it.

Will the new force be better? In addition to Tesla, WEY and Xiaopeng can be browsed as a visitor, but if you look closely at the feed content, you will find that it is all official information, eager to invite you to buy a car~

Below is NIO’s interface. In addition to the official content at the top of the recommendation page, the following parts are dynamic sharings by car owners. From the perspective of potential customers, the experiences of existing car owners are the best catalyst. This is also in line with NIO’s sales philosophy of creating a ripple effect: first cultivate seed users, let them truly feel the high-quality service experience, and then spread it spontaneously.

2. Interactive communication

Moreover, after investigation and browsing, it was found that the updates from these car owners contained not only praises, but also opinions and even criticisms. However, even if they were critical voices, NIO would not delete the posts, which was consistent with NIO's user-oriented corporate positioning.

Users can directly @ executives when posting, and executives will even respond to user feedback in a timely manner . CEO Li Bin once said that it would be easier to find him on the NIO app than on WeChat. Compared with other brands, apart from Weibo, which executives have not updated for several years, I don’t know if there are any more direct channels for the public to contact them.

The car owner submitted a long draft opinion to NIO, which was responded to by the CEO and other senior executives.

In the traditional model, the business chain is OEM-dealer-user, and users have very little communication with OEMs during the entire process. Therefore, it is difficult for traditional car companies to reach users' opinions. However, NIO House's direct sales model and the real user experience information on the APP allow NIO to obtain first-hand feedback from customers in a timely manner, which in turn promotes product upgrades and service improvements, forming a virtuous circle.

2. Private Domain Operation Strategy

If you ask what supports the retention and DAU of NIO App? My answer is "two membership systems".

1. Membership system

NIO Points : A virtual currency that can be used to redeem various gifts and offline products in the NIO Mall.

NIO Value: determines the user’s contribution to the NIO community. The higher the NIO Value, the higher the level.

The two systems have different functions and their scoring models are independent of each other. They essentially meet two different needs. Points are a more common membership model that not only satisfies car owners but also allows non-car owners to get some benefits. NIO Value is more of an evaluation system set up for car owners, which encourages them to contribute more to the community and NIO and enhances their sense of ownership.

1) NIO Points

I tried searching for "NIO sign-in" on Weibo, and actually found a lot of relevant user reviews, including quite a few from non-car owners - "wool-pulling" users who specifically sign in on the NIO App to accumulate points and redeem gifts. They have made outstanding contributions to the DAU of the NIO App.

Although they are not car owners, they have gradually become "NIO fans". Even for those users who accumulate points but do not know how to buy a car, they can get exquisite free redemption products. The concept actually conveyed by the brand and its service attitude to users are truly impressive.

Points Earning:

It can be seen that there is not much difference between car owners and non-car owners, and non-car owners can also accumulate enough points to use.

There is no difference between car owners and non-car owners in the exchange of premium products, but only NIO owners can redeem vehicle accessories. The products that can be redeemed in the online mall are shown in the first row of the picture below. Signing in for one year can get a hand-brewed coffee set.

2) Weilai Value

NIO’s value is similar to holding shares in a company. The higher the share you hold, the greater your voice will be. According to the level of NIO value, users are divided into 9 levels. The higher the user level, the greater the say they have in major NIO events or incidents , including additional voting rights for major community events, such as voting in the election of user trust directors. As well as eligibility to participate in popular events, such as the annual NIO Day ticket draw.

The following shows how points are earned in four major sections. It can be seen that community interaction and community development account for the majority. As an exposure for obtaining points, the community still takes into account the interests of non-car owners. Everyone has equal rights and interests in the community, and non-car owners enjoy many ways to obtain NIO value. NIO is trying its best to unite and develop all potential users in the early market. Regardless of whether these users purchase NIO cars, NIO is trying its best to reach this group of people through membership system operations, content operations, and event operations .

2. Social culture

I regard social culture as another way for NIO to increase user activity . It meets users' needs for social life and club social interaction from these two dimensions.

CEO Li Bin said, "We want to create a warm, free, and friendly place for users. Here, NIO will grow together with its users." And NIO House is such a place.

Currently, NIO House covers more than 10 cities, and its locations are all core landmark buildings in the cities. The annual rental of NIO House in Shanghai IFC exceeds 100 million yuan. Its owner center is divided into several areas, such as Living Room, Open Kitchen, Library, Joy Camp, etc.

Currently, NIO relies on NIO House and combines the online communication of APP. It has held more than 10,000 offline activities that are not aimed at selling cars. Without specific user feedback data to support me, I dare not jump to conclusion, but it can be seen that many users have found the joy of socializing here.

1) Life and social activities

In the exquisite scenes provided by NIO, users can talk about life, business, hold proposal parties, parent-child activities, or go on self-driving trips with people who have the same car as them. NIO does save users a lot of socializing costs, and people are more likely to meet people with the same level and preferences as themselves.

I have done a lot of research on automobile OEMs. From "Lincoln Way" to "Mercedes-Benz Mar2020", high-end manufacturers are currently transforming to the concept of serving users, and stores are gradually beginning to be renovated in full swing. There are many that can provide similar projects for car owners, but dealers who can achieve such exquisiteness and such high owner participation are really rare.

2) Socializing in clubs

If the above-mentioned “lifestyle activities of eating, drinking and having fun” provided by NIO are not enough to differentiate it from similar brands, then the lectures and sharing sessions provided by NIO with many big names do make NIO stand out.

NIOseeds was born in 2016. At first, it was just an internal presentation platform for NIO employees. Now, seeds has developed into a product that continues to attract various big names and can be broadcast live on the NIO app. In 2018, seeds became a permanent activity in every NIO House.

Social networking like clubs has become an important expected product for NIO users . Li Bin announced that 49 seeds were successfully held in 2018 alone, covering more than 2,200 people. Those who participated in the sharing included 2012 Nobel Prize winner in Economics Alvin Ross, Dr. Roland Berger, founder of Roland Berger, Yu Minhong, founder of New Oriental, young and cutting-edge architect Zhuang Ziyu, and cross-border supermodel Chen Bige.

3. Private Domain Conversion Strategy

1. Service-oriented to build close relationships

For sales conversions of high-priced products such as cars, users often have a long decision-making cycle, and only by maintaining a close relationship with users can we convert them into customers.

Direct reach is the prerequisite for intimate user relationships. The fellow is the individual closest to the user and is responsible for meeting the user's service needs throughout the entire life cycle.

Within the community, fellows will gain in-depth understanding of every valuable detail, including who the fans are, where they come from, what they like, why they make decisions, etc.

From the state of attention to the initial contact that leads to purchase, to user feedback after the first purchase, we can understand the user's consumption status, and then determine what kind of method can be used to further deepen operations to make users "loyal" to the brand, retain them, and then repurchase.

Before purchasing a car, a one-on-one fellow will have an in-depth understanding of your usage scenarios and then make configuration recommendations. For example, are there children in the family? Are there any other cars? Is it a daily commute or a long distance trip? Even before buying a car, you can try out the post-purchase experience in advance.

In addition, NIO’s boss and senior executives are active in the user community. Various users and city managers are in the same group with users . The car product manager and event manager have contact information, and red envelopes are sent to everyone every day. Through fellows, city business teams, and app online communities, company leaders can build closer relationships with users and even activate new users through relationship chains such as users' relatives, friends, and partners.

2. Self-built community: Build private conversion funnels with UGC content in the APP

With the support of the points system, NIO quickly built its own "Little Red Book" community within its system. In order to obtain points and NIO value, car owners will do their best to promote their own NIO stories.

In the APP, the most common content we can see is the car owner’s car pick-up diary and various blockbusters of car owners driving their own cars to enjoy poetry and distant places. In the comment section of some of the best posts, we can even often see messages and rewards from Li Bin and Qin Lihong, the two founders of NIO.

Perhaps in the eyes of NIO car owners, the NIO community at this time is more like a circle of friends of like-minded, high-net-worth people. These users who have received rewards again and again and actively post articles are like KOCs one after another.

Driven by the points system and encouraged by NIO’s CEOs, the content production system, which is mainly based on personal UGC content of car owners, has a strong self-generating ability. The pressure on the authorities to produce content suddenly decreased.

Most importantly, the real car-using experience of car owners is the most lethal process for registered users who have not yet become NIO owners.

Products and services - building user reputation - points incentives - users recommend products on their own - potential users place orders - products and services promote word of mouth...

It seems that NIO has not only established customer loyalty through its very heavy services and long-term operation of the APP community in this seemingly "silly" way, but has also completed a business closed loop of bringing in new customers, which is difficult for competitors to imitate.

From another perspective, NIO has built a private conversion funnel that cannot be replicated by outsiders through users' UGC.

1) Points to be optimized

Too much marketing has turned it into a "fan circle", and there is an obvious trend of polarization between "fans" and "haters".

The behavior of NIO owners is indeed confusing. They pay for the car owner day themselves, plan the events themselves, buy the advertising space themselves, take on the PR responsibility themselves, fight against the trolls themselves, go to auto shows to help sell cars, there are car owners who recommend NIO to others more than 300 times in a year and sold 19 cars, and there are car owners who set sales KPIs for themselves, even if all this will not be rewarded... huh?

The fan circle is too strong, and they almost shouted "We want to help our brother (Nio) debut."

NIO operates its users, allowing them to spend time and money on itself, and allowing them to build emotional connections in every aspect, which inadvertently competes with rationality.

Moreover, they have been “raised” to believe that NIO’s services are valuable. Combined with this sense of value, users’ psychological price for NIO is high. If users think it is worth it, then we can sell it at a high price.

Those who participated in NIODAY must have thought, "I am willing to do it." But they may not have thought that this was not something they were willing to do, but a "plot" set by NIO.

2) Staged thinking

Users can interact with each other, organize activities, publish daily news, and even communicate directly with NIO manufacturers and NIO executives on the NIO app. The content of this community is not "praising praises and boasting", but rather it creates a space for consumers to provide feedback , including long suggestions and sharp criticisms.

NIO’s attitude in handling these customer issues is also positive. This attitude of learning from the past is impressive. First-hand customer information can help the company avoid many detours. It is precisely because of this authenticity and down-to-earth approach that consumers are willing to integrate into it. It can be seen that “restoring the original truth” is what people want. The operation of the two membership systems and differentiated and sophisticated social activities have contributed to stronger App user stickiness.

Of course, NIO’s fan-attracting strategy goes far beyond this. Its core competitiveness still lies in the quality of its cars and the subsequent services it provides , such as the anti-cognitive marketing of “charging is more convenient than refueling”. I have only briefly talked about some of NIO’s efforts on the App side, the NIO App and its many online and offline social attributes.

As the central service end, it is constantly iterating along the user-driven philosophy pursued by NIO. The current iOS version of the NIO App has been iterated 25 times, with the most recent update being two weeks ago. The iOS score is 4.6, which is much higher than its peers (Lynk & Co 3.0, and Wey only 2.9).

At the same time, I also see the polarization in the evaluation of NIO. Currently, "NIO fans" and "NIO haters" are evenly matched. How to alleviate the gap in user cognition is a question worth considering for NIO.

3) Extended thinking

There is still a long way to go to complete customer conversion and experience closing loop.

Under the new round of marketing changes, car companies have spent a lot of energy to build an online potential customer pool to achieve accurate reach and retention. At the same time, they have increased their online marketing efforts and continuously explored new consumption scenarios to expand their user base.

Live broadcasts, online press conferences, cloud auto shows, VR car viewing, e-commerce, etc. have become the mainstream forms of online marketing competition among many auto companies. In addition to new car-making forces with strong Internet attributes such as NIO, Ideal, and Xpeng, traditional car companies such as GAC, Geely, and Dongfeng have also entered the online marketing battlefield and invested a lot of costs. However, judging from the market feedback, how to convert online traffic into conversions is still a difficult problem faced by many car companies .

User relationship management and corporate responsibility need to be strengthened.

In addition to investment in online marketing, as the cost of acquiring customers becomes increasingly higher, car companies have begun to focus on car owners who have already purchased their cars, eager to find a "second growth curve", that is, to enhance user brand loyalty through car owner operations, obtain more car life-related benefits, and spread through car owners' circles to generate more potential customers and realize the activation of private domain value.

NIO took the lead in car owner operations, bringing new retail and private domain gameplay of fast-moving consumer goods into the automotive industry, building a growth path centered on user word-of-mouth communication, and allowing more and more car companies to see the importance of car owner operations.

Car name auditions, product crowdfunding, direct stores in supermarkets, cultural and creative peripherals, BOSS and users becoming friends on the APP... If it's not specifically pointed out, you might subconsciously think this is the way the new car-making forces play. In fact, in terms of car owner operations, traditional car companies have caught up and are even playing more wildly. After all, how to maintain resonance with users is the biggest issue at present, and no one wants to be absent.

However, while car companies are cultivating good relationships with users, they often neglect the education and guidance of user values. In some cases, users' blind support becomes a double-edged sword that causes internal injuries .

In the second half of 2021, the fatal car accident involving NIO's L2 assisted driving caused a lot of controversy. In fact, this is not the first time that an accident related to assisted driving has occurred, and NIO is not the only brand to have such problems.

Originally, a considerable part of everyone's focus was on the discussion on the application of autonomous driving technology, but because more than 500 NIO owners were eager to protect the brand, a joint statement against NIO NP/NOP once again pushed the company to the forefront of public opinion.

On WeChat Moments, this statement caused many people to regard NIO owners as a brainwashed or irrational group. At a time when they should have remained silent, they chose to issue a statement and teach the media how to report. But unfortunately, the final effect was counterproductive. Not only did the vast majority of the public and media unanimously dislike such a statement, but the opposition to the statement from more than 8,000 NIO owners dealt a greater blow to NIO's brand image.

Author:fang dun

Source: Daily Operation Case Library