Case analysis: Uncovering the growth model of Zebra AI class’s 0-yuan traffic diversion course

Zebra AI Class is an intelligent education platform that provides multi-disciplinary online learning for children aged 2-8. It is a product developed by Yuanfudao Company in the enlightenment stage.

1. Case Name

Zebra AI class 0 yuan diversion class (free thinking 0 yuan class):

2. Case Introduction

Songyue summarized it before: training camp = courses + homework + community + activities.

This time, I also want to use this last major assignment to disassemble the entire operational actions and user experience process of the Zebra AI Class 0 Yuan Diversion Class Training Camp, hoping to learn some community activity methods that I have never been exposed to, and even combine it with the community SOP I did in my previous company to see what similarities and differences there are.

In this analysis, I divide the Zebra AI course "English + Thinking" 0 Yuan diversion course into three stages:

• The first stage: attracting customers
• Phase II: Course Service Phase
• The third stage: conversion follow-up stage

According to the AARRR model logic, through further analysis and decomposition of the channels, content, users, communities, products, data and other angles mentioned in the case, we can draw on the full-chain path of this case from traffic introduction to traffic realization.

3. Case Framework Analysis

1. Model Framework

Reasons for new users to choose diversion courses: They can see [English 0 Yuan Course (with Free Thinking 0 Yuan Course)] in the center of the Zebra AI Course APP homepage. They will subconsciously click to place an order and finally register successfully by taking advantage of the mentality of getting a bargain.

Firstly, it allows active traffic within the site to enter the experience course section. Secondly, through the new path of 0-to-low conversion, the 48-yuan low-priced course has an additional channel increase that relies on community conversion, thereby achieving user growth for the low-priced course.

Note: It is important to note that in order to prevent old users from repeatedly purchasing free courses, the Zebra AI Course system has set up a system in which only new users who have never purchased courses can receive free courses. After packaging, the course details page will be specially marked with the words "free courses exclusively for new users" on the free course details page.

2. Advantages and Disadvantages

1) Advantages

• During the 5-day course, AI interactive classes + community operations + tutoring services can enhance users' experience and perception of course content and tap into their inner needs.
• In the atmosphere of sharing orders, community experience classes can use the herd mentality to promote the increase of conversion rate;
• By transferring from a 0 yuan course to a 48 yuan low-priced course, we can screen out more accurate and high-intent users, and screen and direct them for low-priced trial courses.

2) Disadvantages

Because the free threshold is too low, the quality of new users is uneven. In addition, in the case of a shortage of tutors, the efficiency of teachers in class has to be increased, and the service is light, which will inevitably lead to a decline in the quality of service experienced by the user.

However, one of the important factors in conversion rate is user experience (courses + services), so improving course completion rate has become one of the core factors in improving conversion rate.

3. Price positioning

1) Traffic diversion course: 0 yuan

• Course configuration: 4 days of AI courses + 1 day of foreign teacher TV interactive class + 7 days of teacher Q&A tutoring
• Teaching aids design: No supporting teaching materials
• Course activities: Check in after class to get free Zebra coins + share your order to exchange for gifts

2) Trial class: 48 yuan

• Course configuration: 10 AI interactive classes + rich course activities + 10 days of one-on-one teacher review and guidance
• Teaching aids design: A gift package worth 108 yuan (including 6 English picture books + 19-30 word cards + 1 exercise book + 12-18 audio word cards) + 200 Zebra coins for posting an order
• Course activities: Complete the course challenge to get Zebra Coin + recommend friends to get cash back

3) Regular price course: 2800 yuan

• Course configuration: 240 fun animation lessons + 1-on-1 full-course tutoring + 288 sets of supporting materials for free delivery
• Teaching aids design: 288 sets of matching materials, delivered by mail (including 12 sets of learning gift boxes + gift box of reading pen + surprise bag
• Course services: drop out of class at any time + self-adjustment + unlimited playback + free shipping with materials + 1-on-1 tutoring

4. Case Traffic Conversion Funnel

1. Phase 1: Customer acquisition and traffic analysis

1) Course Products

The age range and corresponding course design content of Zebra AI English + Thinking 0 Yuan Course are as follows:

2) Channels

• Internal channels - resource location on the homepage of the APP

• Word of mouth channel

Invite to get rewards - user sharing path

• Path: Open the Zebra AI Class APP –> Open the 0-yuan class details page on the homepage –> Click the floating window [Invite with Rewards] in the lower right corner –> Generate a unique invitation poster –> Choose to share with WeChat friends/friends circle/save picture
• Highlights: An invitation countdown appears in the upper left corner of the invitation reward screen to increase the sense of urgency; you can view your invitation record in the upper right corner
• To be optimized 1: Invitation rewards will only be displayed when you [click on the 0 yuan course details page]. It is recommended to broaden the coverage, such as floating it on the homepage or displaying it on the details page of the trial course and system course to increase exposure.
• To be optimized 2: The activity rules of the invitation-to-prize landing page are too hidden. Only by clicking the "?" next to the countdown can you know that the activity is only open to users of the 141st English 0-yuan course. This also explains why there is no invitation-to-prize floating window for other 48-yuan trial classes and 2,800 system classes.

Invite to get rewards - new user order path:

3) Creativity

The following is the entire experience process in the Zebra AI course 0 yuan trial course, and then it will be disassembled from [Course Service] and [Conversion Follow-up]:

[⬆Zebra AI-English + Thinking 0 Yuan Course-Mind Map]

2. The second stage: Course service stage deconstruction

1) Pre-class preparation and learning stage - Shoulian adding teacher WeChat process

• Add process step by step 1

At 12:22, I successfully purchased the 0-yuan course –> an invitation poster with prizes popped up –> closed the QR code scan to add teacher Shirley on WeChat –> my first attempt to add the teacher failed; at the same time, I received a text message for adding the teacher at 12:22, and at 14:37 the system sent another text message for adding the teacher.

So I took the initiative to add him again, and it took 5 days before the teacher passed the friend verification. I have to say that the response to adding a friend was not quick.

• Task system adding process 2

How to add English teacher’s WeChat account: Open [My Courses] at the bottom of the app – see the card for adding teacher’s WeChat account – after adding – send your baby’s English name – jump to the [Invite and Get Prizes] activity.

Thinking of adding teacher’s WeChat path: open [My Courses] at the bottom of the APP – see the card for adding teacher’s WeChat – after adding, jump to [Benefit Description], which is the activity of giving away 50 yuan in cash for recommending.

Highlight 1: There are three ways to add teachers on WeChat (①Add in the course purchase process, but the addition fails ②Add in the course card of the APP ③Add via SMS reminder);

Highlight 2: After confirming that the teacher’s WeChat account has been added successfully, you will jump to the activity page. For English, you will jump to the [Invite and Get Rewards] landing page. The purpose is to attract more new users to sign up for the 0 yuan class. For Thinking, you will jump to the [Referral-Recommendation Gift] landing page. The purpose is to attract more users to sign up for the 48 yuan trial class.

Item to be optimized 1: English and Thinking have the same teaching assistant, so why do we need to add the same teacher twice? Why can't we just put them together and let the user add it only once? In other words, the purpose of adding it is to trigger the two activities of [Invitation with Rewards] and [Referral-Recommendation with Gifts].

So from an operational perspective, I am more curious about which activity in the English and Thinking teacher adding paths has the largest PV and UV, or are the landing page views of the two activities basically the same?

To be optimized 2: The participation condition of [Referral-Recommendation Gift] is that users who have purchased any trial course or system course of Zebra AI course can become referrers.

But the prerequisite is that the users who add the teacher's WeChat account are all new users who have just purchased the free course, which does not actually meet the participation conditions. If an entry button for signing up for a trial course can be added to the [Referral-Gift for Recommendation] activity landing page, it will definitely increase the natural growth rate of new users of the free course who will spontaneously purchase the trial course.

For new users who bought the course for free, I first spent 48 yuan to buy a trial class with two people, and then participated in the [Referral-Gift for Recommendation] activity. I can get a 50 yuan cashback for recommending a friend, which is equivalent to the trial class I bought being free. In this way, users are actually more inclined to participate in referral activities in terms of participation threshold and psychology.

【⬆Picture source: Everyone is a product manager】

2) Pre-class preparation and learning stage - community class meeting before the class starts

The contents of the class meeting include:

1. Teacher Shirley introduces herself + baby introduces herself;
2. Class method & course mode - November 23-November 30, the first 4 days of AI class take 15 minutes for each subject, and English + mathematics 30 minutes;
3. What's happening this week? ——After the class, check in and get 800 Zebra coins;
4. Course preview - English & Thinking course schedule pictures.

Highlights: The course model is introduced through a 1-minute promotional video, which finally mentions the accompanying teaching materials of the system course, setting a point for subsequent course promotion. This is a very good idea.

To be optimized: The self-introduction part can be put at the last part, otherwise it will affect the situation where the tutor's message is interrupted; or a WeChat group can be created one day before the class meeting to introduce yourself + announce the class meeting tomorrow night. This way, the self-introduction speech and the class precautions mentioned in the class meeting can be separated, which will have a better experience.

3) Start learning during class

• Service account push reminders for classes

Highlights: The system function of using service accounts to remind users of the start of classes/end of classes/end of courses is very efficient, which saves the work efficiency of tutors. However, tutors also lose a link in communicating with users to urge them to attend classes.

Item to be optimized 1: The wording of [Course Expiration Reminder] is not appropriate. Although users know that the course can be replayed permanently, the use of the wording of course expiration will not give users a good impression.

To be optimized 2: [Course expiration reminder] The note has a link to guide the purchase of a system course worth 2,800 yuan, which does not conform to the initial course promotion logic: the learning path from 0 yuan–>48 yuan–>2,800 yuan.

If the push message templates can be more targeted and the content can be kept consistent with that of the community tutors, the effect of user experience and final conversion may be better. One of the principles is not to give users multiple choices.

• 13:00 class reminder for the day / 15:00 tea party / 17:00 video homework

Highlights: It is hard to imagine that a 0-yuan course can have so many community activities. In addition to the regular group announcements to remind students to attend classes, there are also interactive contents such as tea parties (pictures + text) and video assignments. The teacher wears a Zebra AI class T-shirt to increase brand exposure.

To be optimized: Maybe because there are few people in the class group, although special links such as tea party and video assignments have been added, the activity level in the group is very low, and almost no one participates and responds.

It is recommended to add a learning points section, and give certain praise and encouragement for completing a task assigned in the WeChat class group. You can also arrange for water troops to warm up the group in advance. For example, only when students participate, other parents who are waiting and watching will take action, rather than just putting the learning environment in the Zebra AI Class APP.

3. The third stage: conversion follow-up stage breakdown

• Conversion tool 1: After class, punch in and get a gift bag (9 items, 1 gift at random)

Activity time: Monday to Friday, lasting 5 days.

Activity rules: Complete the 4-day English + Thinking course and check in on WeChat Moments, take a screenshot and send it to the class group to receive a lucky bag.

• Conversion tool 2: Course Q&A session

① Question and answer session

Highlight 1: When the tutor announces the Q&A session, he/she guides users to reply in the group "confirm to attend the Q&A session at 7:00 p.m." This can not only preliminarily screen out users who intend to purchase the course (why would they reply in the group to confirm to attend if they are not interested?), but also allow parents who come later to see directly that there is a Q&A session at 7:00 p.m. tonight, thus avoiding users from having to climb the stairs again.

Highlight 2: There are 3 entrances for purchasing downstream experience courses to improve coverage (① The service account reminds you to sign up for annual courses ② The APP homepage can open the page for forming a group of 2 people ③ The downstream course poster issued by the tutor during the class group Q&A session).

To be optimized 1: It is recommended to set up the Q&A meeting notice as a group announcement + set up group to-do items to increase the user viewing rate of the group.

Item 2 to be optimized: After the Q&A session, the Q&A content was not packaged and organized, and the desire for convenience of other users was not taken into consideration.

Things to be optimized 3: The text content of the thinking Q&A session is a bit thin, and the text layout is not optimized enough (you can refer to the text layout format of the Changtou Xiaobai Training Camp). It can be made more refined. You can refer to the PPT picture format + text + voice explanation. Because the teacher’s avatar is a cartoon character, it can increase the authenticity of the teacher.

4 Things to be optimized: There is a lack of step-by-step diagram on how to group together on the APP. This step is critical. In addition, parents need to find courses on the APP to group together and share them to the class group. There are many paths, so a step-by-step diagram or a short video can be made to guide parents to group together smoothly.

②English Q&A session

The highlights and areas for improvement are the same as the Q&A session: the content is simple, lacks layout, and the group is not very active.

Additional highlights: At the English Q&A session, we found that the Zebra Teaching Method BANMAS was added, and we were told what the content of the accompanying learning gift package was covered. This supplemented the content of the Thinking Q&A session more.

Additional supplements to be optimized: Although the end of the Q&A session mentioned that the registration trial class has a total of 14 days of learning cycle, and there is not only a challenge to win Zebra coins but also a [Recommendation Gift] activity, there are no promotional posters to stimulate users or provide some screenshots of user cashback examples to increase authenticity. After all, the stickiness of 0 yuan users is not strong, and they need these externalized things and physical objects to stimulate them.

• Conversion tool 3: Creating a personal image in the circle of friends

①Personality: A careful, responsible and motivated tutor.

②Speech style: cute, considerate, no very AI-like speech (friend-like language), send a voice message first in private chat.

③Friends Circle: Friends Circle reminds users to attend classes/remind them of discounts/help users spread group links/send warm wishes on holidays.

To be optimized 1: The circle of friends can show more content and materials that externalize the students' results, and stimulate users' desire to buy through word-of-mouth effect. After all, other people's children are so outstanding at a few years old and can speak fluent English or have fast and accurate thinking and calculation, so I have to continue learning.

To be optimized 2: Add a countdown poster for discounts to increase the sense of urgency (but the 99-yuan trial class in the APP may always show that a group of 2 people is 48 yuan, so it is impossible to give 0-yuan users other more differentiated preferential benefits, and thus it is impossible to do discounts... Then the urgency of buying the trial class is lost, and the conversion rhythm is extended indefinitely...)

• Conversion tool 4: Limited-time order sharing event

Highlights: Utilizing the herd effect (group conversion) of WeChat groups to stimulate users' impulsive and irrational consumption, this course uses the method of posting orders to stimulate other waiting users to place orders as soon as possible, and students who participate in posting orders can also receive an additional 200 Zebra coins.

To be optimized: We can learn from the registration chain method. For example, Walnut Programming adopts the method of accumulating greater discounts when a certain number of people make reservations. This way, people in the community can be drawn together to buy courses in a group through the herd effect (the premise is that the number of group members must be guaranteed to be between 50-100 people).

5. Reusable Points & Things to be Optimized

1. Reusable points

1) Product perspective

• Rich teaching aids

• The role of virtual currency

100 Zebra Coins can be used to deduct 1 yuan, which can promote course completion rate/increase APP usage rate/promote conversion rate through order sharing activities.

[⬆Zebra Mall Partial Display]

2. Points to be optimized

1) Product perspective: no invitation/no personalized poster

• Invitation with prizes

It will only be displayed on the details page of the 0-yuan course. It is recommended to expand the coverage, such as floating it on the homepage or displaying it on the details page of the trial course and the system course to increase exposure;

In addition, the generated poster does not have an invitation message that can be copied with one click or a personalized poster with uploaded pictures. This requires submitting corresponding requirements to the product. You can refer to Spark Thinking.

• Recommended Gifts

There is a lack of synchronization and relevance, and the invitation-based prize-giving activity is only limited to users of the 141st English free course.

However, I did not see any notifications from the tutor in the 141st class community about any invitation-based prize-giving activities in the community/friend circle/private chat. Apparently, this action did not achieve effective synchronous coverage, which inevitably led to a significant decline in the early publicity of the event.

2) Service perspective: Selfless chat/camp meeting action

At least when I was lurking as a user experience, apart from adding a friend and sending a voice message, I did not receive any private chat scripts from the tutor. I don't know if there is a standard and unified private chat script sop in this area.

After the 5-day learning cycle ended, I thought there would be a closing class meeting on the weekend, but I didn’t expect to receive a notice on Sunday to disband all groups.

I checked my tutor's circle of friends again and found out that she would start teaching a new class of 1 yuan courses next Monday. I felt that the entire 0 yuan course process was not complete. At least she could summarize and organize this week's learning materials and send them to the class group.

Later, I asked the teacher privately and found out that Sunday was the last day of the discount. Before disbanding the 141st class group, no notification reminders of the discount were made within the group, which made me, as an operator, feel that the conversion was very Buddhist.

3) Community activities perspective

The content of the tea party and the pictures of the materials can be beautified. They feel a bit rough and the content is not eye-catching. During the Q&A session, the picture of the accompanying learning gift package sent by the tutor turned out to be a picture of an English experience class...what a low-level mistake.

In fact, there are many ways to organize community activities, whether it is a tea party or Q&A session centered around the course, or an activity centered around community activity where you can get lucky bags by checking in after class, or get Zebra coins by posting your orders for a limited time.

Effective operational actions should be designed based on the needs of the target group (children aged 2-8 who experience the class and parents who make the purchasing decisions), and data should be used to verify whether the activities are effective. How much do children feel immersed in learning and how much do parents feel involved?

4) Conversion angle

Why not promote a combined English + thinking trial course? Why do we have two separate Q&A sessions?

Mingming’s daily courses include learning English and thinking together, 15 minutes each, and half an hour of study a day.

However, in terms of guiding community conversion, I am a little confused as to why English and thinking are not discussed together in the Q&A session on the same day, so that the price of the biweekly English + thinking course can be promoted to 78 yuan. Otherwise, users only buy one subject the day before and another subject the next day, and the best choice is not made for users to place an order from the beginning.

The Q&A session will include some content that targets pain points, rather than just stating what courses we have. The core of the Q&A session should be to tell users what problems I can solve for them.

It is recommended that before the formal conversion (before the Q&A session begins), appropriately increase the screenshot materials of the externalized effects of students who have signed up for English or thinking experience classes, and send them to the community to guide users of the 0 yuan courses to place orders.

The setting can also add unboxing videos of the gift packages that come with the learning package, which can increase users' desire to buy the gift packages and make them subconsciously choose to purchase the courses (in simple terms: giving away courses in gift boxes).

There is a lack of service commitment. Generally, educational products have policies such as a refund within three days if the user is not satisfied with the lessons. This is the finishing touch that stimulates users to make the final purchasing decision.

I found the question of whether I could get a refund in the Q&A section of the trial course details page. The answer is that as long as you cancel the course within 3 days of purchase (and before the class starts) and pay for the postage of the course gift package to be delivered to the designated warehouse of "Zebra AI Class", you can get a full refund.

In fact, this point can be added to the question-and-answer session or the end-of-course meeting, especially for trial classes that cost more than 40 yuan, parents will not carefully scroll to the bottom to read the details page.

When forwarding the group purchase link in the circle of friends, the tutor can remind the high-intent tagged users separately (the prerequisite is that the unconverted high-intent user tags have been established in advance: such as 141 unconverted high-intent).

This can save the time cost of privately asking whether someone wants to join a group, but do not set too many times, once is enough; add a countdown poster for the discount in the circle of friends to remind users who have not registered to hurry up.

Timely posting of orders by the water army, and creating an active atmosphere for registration through group-buying and chain-playing (such as circle of friends scripts/water army scripts, etc.).

Before the group is disbanded on the last day, you can add a community or privately inform the group that by becoming a trial class user, you can participate in the [Recommendation Gift] 50 yuan cash rebate event, which is equivalent to letting users buy a trial class + a supporting learning gift package worth 108 yuan for free. How can you not be tempted?

6. Personal Thoughts

At a time when traffic is becoming increasingly expensive, Zebra AI Class, the core product of Yuanfudao, a leading K12 company, is also working hard to acquire customers at a low cost. It uses a unique conversion funnel model: 0 yuan class -> 48 yuan trial class -> 2,800 yuan full-priced class, giving the 48 yuan trial class an additional channel for user growth that relies on community services + conversions.

As one of the users, I found that although the entire 0-yuan course has some remarkable operational actions, the measures to incentivize or praise students after each lesson are still insufficient; if the role of Zebra Coin is only used for the purpose of referral or improving conversion rate, it actually ignores the unique characteristic of educational products that "learning effect takes time to take effect."

I also did some research and found out that the tutors of the free courses will basically stop contacting the users for a period of time after the course ends.

It was not until the second week after the course ended that we tested the parents’ intention to enroll again through private messages. In this regard, unlike most other enlightenment products, Zebra's community service is more like "after-school tutoring for children", mainly providing services, and the conversion rhythm is relatively slow (group buying was carried out in the last few days.

But even though the number of people participating in group buying in the community was small, the tutors let them stay and did not further privately chat with non-converted users to take conversion actions (such as me). Compared with other similar products, it seemed like a "breath of fresh air".

The purpose of operation is to allow users to move forward "along the goals they set", step by step until conversion.

If we can consider more abundant in-group activities to promote activation and retention, design "surprises" for users, and allow users to continue to feel the value of the group, it may be a more effective supplement to improving conversion rates.

[Picture from Everyone is a Product Manager: Training Camp/Experience Class Thinking Template]

Author:Sally

Source: Sally