Growth activity promotion matrix for online education!

Online education has developed rapidly in 2020 and can be said to be a popular star industry.

The rapid macro growth of online education has benefited from external dividends on the one hand. The epidemic has changed market demand, increased public awareness and demand for online courses, and favorable policies have led to more and more capital and start-ups joining the competition. On the other hand, it comes from internal innovation. The basic technology of online education has become more mature, and the core course products and service models have been proven to be effective and scalable after years of exploration and iteration.

With the right time, place and people, various online education companies, especially the leading ones, have started a "money-burning war". Advertising to attract users has caused the cost of acquiring customers to rise rapidly. Customer acquisition costs ranging from a few hundred to thousands of dollars have become common.

At the same time, more refined and low-cost growth activities have also received attention, becoming a powerful supplement to investment and customer acquisition. For small and medium-sized enterprises that cannot invest high advertising costs, growth activities are more important to customer acquisition than advertising.

A complete growth activity matrix can maximize the use of user growth value, making all types of users willing and able to participate in growth activities in all channels, cycles and scenarios, thereby bringing in more low-cost new users.

This time, I have sorted out the ideas of designing the growth activity matrix for online education (mainly K12) from multiple dimensions and shared them with you:

1. Based on user population stratification

Design activities based on user population stratification to ensure that all users have targeted growth activities.

Due to the small number of course SKUs and low user activity outside the learning process, the way to stratify online education users is relatively simple. The most common way is to divide them according to the courses they purchased:

• Newly registered users: newly added users who have not yet converted
• Trial class users: users who have taken free trial classes and subsequently convert to low-priced classes or directly convert to full-priced classes
• Low-price course users: users who purchase and learn short-term low-price trial courses
• Regular price course users: users who have purchased and studied long-term regular price system courses
• Silent churn users: users who have not converted to the next step in the above four stages (those who have not renewed their subscription for full-price courses)

Users at different levels have different financial investments, usage time, and experience trust in the product, and have different motivations, abilities, and values ​​for participating in growth activities. Except for silent churn users, the value of users in the other four stages increases successively. Therefore, when designing activities, high-value users should be covered first, as their expected input-output ratio is the highest. However, the number of users in the four stages decreases successively, and the number of low-value users is considerable. Therefore, under the condition that the input-output ratio is acceptable, all users should undergo targeted growth activities.

The primary goal of online education is to convert users to full-priced courses and keep them renewing their subscriptions through services. However, without affecting the core conversion process, growth activities can be designed for each user level. Conversion is the increase in the lifetime value (LTV) of a single user, while growth activities bring about an increase in the number of users.

When new users experience the product for the first time, the main focus is to guide them to conversion. For users who have returned multiple times but have not converted to purchasing courses, we can conduct growth activities to reach them and leverage their value to bring in new users before they churn. Participation in activities can help them gain a deeper understanding of the product, which can, to a certain extent, promote the retention and conversion of these high-risk users.

Since trial class users have not yet paid, their risk of churn is also high, and the primary goal is also conversion. However, taking the trial class has already screened the users. These users are already relatively accurate target users. Guiding them to participate in lighter forms of growth activities with less profit-seeking tendencies can often bring in equally accurate users. The most basic form is to guide users to give the trial class to their friends after they have taken it.

Users of low-priced courses and full-priced courses have already paid, and have a certain class period to use the product and experience the courses. They are the main users for growth activities. Users of low-priced courses have a short course cycle and unstable user quality, so simple, low-threshold and profit-driven growth activities are more suitable. Users of full-priced courses have a better understanding and trust in the products and courses, have a long course cycle and are of high quality. They are the best users for growth activities, and more comprehensive and systematic activities need to be designed.

The value of silent churn users is relatively low, and their types are complex. Trial classes and low-priced classes that fail to convert to full-priced classes are churned users, and full-priced class users who do not continue to renew their registrations are also churned users. The advantage is that these users are generally deposited in public accounts or personal accounts of tutors, and are easier to reach. The prerequisite is to understand user characteristics and reasons for churn, and conduct targeted recall activities.

In addition to stratifying users based on the courses they have purchased, grade, subject, academic quarter, frequency and amount of course purchases, parent-student status, etc. can all serve as the basis for stratification. It is even possible to further stratify users based on their performance in growth activities, leading to new additional activities.

2. Based on the user life cycle

Design activities based on the user life cycle to ensure that users have targeted growth activities in each cycle.

Different from the user division at the course purchasing stage in user stratification, the user life cycle focuses on the user's life cycle in a type of course. A relatively clear way of division is before class, during class and after class.

The pre-class period includes the period from when users purchase the course to when they start attending the class. Users have not yet fully experienced the product and the course, and their frequency of visiting the product is low. However, at this stage, student users have not yet used the product, so it is easier to distinguish and reach parent users. At this time, adding simple, direct and profit-oriented growth activities can stimulate the participation of parent users.

The class is the learning stage for student users. It is the process for parent users and student users to gradually understand and experience the product. User activity is high. By combining the externalized content of the effects in the class, the user's intrinsic motivation can be stimulated. Growth activity design that is mainly driven by honor and profit can play a greater role.

After class refers to the time when the course ends. The period during and after class is mainly for conversion/renewal. After class, the next stage of activities will be carried out for users who continue to convert/renew. For users who have not converted/renewed, their growth value can be utilized through growth activities combined with course discounts to reduce silent churn.

3. Based on usage scenarios/channels

Design activities based on usage scenarios/channels to ensure that users have targeted growth activities at each node in each scenario.

The user scenarios of online education are generally divided into: live class scenarios, self-study scenarios, and non-learning scenarios. More processes and subdivided scenarios can be explored in each scenario.

Users pay the most attention to live classes, and growth activities combined with learning can bring growth while ensuring user experience.

Autonomous learning scenarios include pre-study/homework, as well as the use of other learning content and learning tools. Student participation is high in autonomous learning scenarios, and growth activities that consider student user needs more are more suitable.

In non-learning scenarios, users do not have a clear purpose, and the activity participation effect is lower than in learning scenarios. However, the learning scenario duration in the user life cycle is relatively low, and non-learning scenarios occupy a large amount of user time. In addition, growth activities in non-learning scenarios have less impact on user learning experience, and more direct reward activities are more easily accepted.

In addition, the user scenarios of different platform channels may be different. The two main types of platform channels, their own apps and WeChat (mini programs/official accounts/personal accounts/video accounts), have obvious differences, and it is necessary to consider scenarios and growth activities in combination with specific channel characteristics.

4. Based on user behavior threshold

Design activities based on user behavior thresholds to ensure that users with different preferences and abilities can participate in growth activities.

The core goal of growth activities is to bring in new users, but there are many situations. Whether the growth comes from registered users, users of trial classes or low-priced courses, or even users of full-priced courses, there is still a big difference. The earlier the stage of new users, the lower the acquisition cost, but it also means that the conversion cycle is longer, the service cost is higher, and the loss is greater.

The more common growth activities are to bring in new trial classes/low-priced classes, where old users invite new users to take trial classes or purchase low-priced classes. The quality of trial class/low-priced class users is more controllable, and there are few direct conversions to full-priced classes. If growth activities bring in registered users, user quality cannot be controlled, the service conversion cost is high, and it is difficult to design activity rewards and gameplay; similarly, if growth activities directly bring in users of full-priced courses, the threshold is too high, resulting in poor participation and conversion in the activity.

In addition to bringing in new registered users/APP downloads, trial class users, low-priced class users, and full-priced class users, growth activities also include an activity with a lower threshold, which is a simple sharing activity. Sharing activities further lower the threshold of the activity.

Sharing activities are more common in enlightenment/quality education products with higher average order value. VIPKID, Spark Education, Coding Cat, etc. all have two growth activities in parallel: invitation gifts and sharing gifts. Xueersi Online School has also launched a sharing gifts activity. The basic rule of the invitation-gift activity is that old users can get rewards by inviting new users to purchase low-priced courses/full-priced courses. The basic rule of the sharing-gift activity is that old users can get rewards by sharing learning-related theme posters to their friends circle.

There are three reasons for the rise of sharing gift activities:

First, different users have different abilities to invite new users, and sharing rewards allows more users to join growth activities. Invitation-based gift activities with high thresholds will directly screen out some users with weak invitation willingness and ability, but sharing-based gift activities are simple and have low thresholds. Old users only need to share posters and can get rewards regardless of the behavior of new users.

Second, the cost of acquiring customers is rising rapidly, and the cost of acquiring customers through sharing gifts is lower than that of placing orders. In terms of activity ROI, the invitation-gift activity is higher than the sharing-gift activity because the cost of the invitation-gift activity is paid for the actual new user orders, and the cost is very controllable. However, the cost of the sharing-gift activity is paid for the sharing behavior of old users, and the new user orders are less controllable. However, as long as the cost of sharing gift activities is lower than the customer acquisition cost of the campaign, it is a good deal for online education companies.

Third, online education courses and services are mature and can ensure an acceptable conversion rate of new users. The promotional posters for the Sharing Gifts campaign will include a QR code for a trial class or a low-priced class, which relies on new users to collect and purchase the class on their own. Then the tutor or operations team will intervene to guide the new users to convert. More mature courses and services ensure a higher conversion rate for new users, and Sharing Gifts can be carried out sustainably.

Invitation behaviors (invitation to register, trial classes, low-priced classes, full-priced classes) and sharing behaviors are typical user behaviors with different thresholds. Due to different user attributes and characteristics, high-threshold invitation-to-order activities make some users unwilling to participate. At this time, low-threshold sharing activities can be a good supplement. Education emphasizes teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, and activities should also be targeted at the symptoms.

5. Rewards based on activity motivation

Design activities based on activity motivation rewards to ensure that users with different reward preferences can participate in growth activities.

Starting from the user motivations and rewards of the activity, the feasibility of the growth activity can be guaranteed.

Activity rewards are divided into internal benefits and external benefits. Focusing on online education, internal rights and interests mainly include courses, learning materials, course coupons, peripheral gifts, etc., while external rights and interests mainly include gifts, cash, etc. Currently, the rewards for online education’s growth fission activities are also included in these rewards.

Growth activities that use internal equity as rewards have more precise target users and can directly drive active user retention.

Growth activities that are rewarded with external equity can cover more users, but there is also the possibility of cheating by non-target users.

The above are the five design ideas for the online education (K12) growth activity matrix. With user stratification and life cycle as the main framework, an activity framework covering the entire life cycle of all users is built. Then, starting from scenarios, behaviors, and rewards, activity types are enriched, the activity matrix is ​​improved, and stable user growth is achieved.

The division method of each dimension needs to be adjusted based on the analysis of specific products and users. Moreover, the growth activity matrix starts from the growth goal and needs to be combined with other business goals to achieve healthy user growth.

Author: Wu Yijiu

Source: Wu Yijiu