One article to solve private domain traffic

This article is divided into two parts:

1. The theoretical part mainly discusses the concept, characteristics, evolution process and necessity of private domain traffic.
2. In the operations section, we mainly discuss the cognitive update of private domain traffic, how to attract users, promote activation, user stratification and repurchase

1. Theoretical Part

1. Concept

What is private domain traffic?

From the "private domain" perspective of private domain traffic, private domain traffic is relative to public domain traffic.

Public domain traffic includes online Douyin, Baidu, Taobao, etc., and offline traffic includes core business districts, merchants, etc. "Public" means that everyone can have it, and "private" means that the traffic can only be owned by a certain enterprise or individual.

From the perspective of "traffic" of private domain traffic, private domain traffic needs to have the characteristics of free reach, IPization, and stickiness. That is, traffic with these characteristics is called private domain traffic.

2. Features

Free reach, IP-based, sticky

Free reach: Private traffic owners can interact with users directly without going through the platform;

IP: If you want to gather private domain traffic, you need a more personalized IP. This IP is the central point where private domain traffic gathers;

Stickiness: There is a trust relationship between IP and users, which makes weak relationships stronger and transforms strong relationships;

3. Evolution

How has private domain traffic evolved to this day?

Before the rise of the Internet, CCTV had a monopoly on traffic. In that era, as long as a few seconds of advertising was inserted on CCTV, a product would quickly become a household name. Brands like Moutai and Love Island DVD became popular because of advertising inserted on CCTV.

Later, mobile Internet began to rise, and Weibo and WeChat created a large number of self-media people. These kols began to use the platforms to build their own private traffic pools.

Later, WeChat launched official accounts (Ali’s corresponding account is brand account), and later launched mini-programs. The decentralized design and WeChat’s national status greatly shortened the communication path between users and KOLs, and made it easier to monetize private domain traffic. As a result, many brand merchants moved in and started their own private domain traffic operations.

In recent years, C-end traffic has begun to peak and the cost of acquiring customers has increased dramatically. At the same time, companies that rely on mobile social gameplay, such as Pinduoduo and Yunji, have begun to rise, which has made merchants that rely on Taobao and JD.com pay more attention to private domain traffic operations. Along with this, third-party private domain traffic operation tools such as Youzan and Juketong have begun to appear, promoting the maturity of private domain traffic.

At present, the WeChat for Business and WeChat for Personal ecosystems have been connected and more CRM capabilities that are suitable for the B-side have been built, pushing WeChat for Business to the forefront of private domain traffic. With the help of WeChat for Business, companies such as Chenfeng, Tanma, and Qidian have risen up.

4. The necessity of doing private domain

The inevitable choice for enterprises.

(1) The Internet dividend is fading

According to QuestMobile's 2021 China Mobile Internet Spring Report, the overall increase in the scale of monthly active users of China's mobile Internet was 10% from March 2017 to March 2019, while the overall increase from 2019 to 2021 dropped to 2%.

(2) The cost of acquiring customers in the public domain is increasing

The GroupM Think Tank report "Forecast and Response to Media Price Increases in 2021" shows that the influence of various factors will lead to an increase in media prices in 2021, with the upward fluctuation range of prices reaching as high as 38%. Similarly, taking the traditional channel centralized e-commerce platform as an example, it is estimated that the increase in customer acquisition costs of centralized e-commerce platforms has made public domain traffic increasingly expensive, and the economic burden passed on to merchants has increased. For brands, continuing to spend money to purchase public domain traffic is a bit like "drinking poison to quench thirst".

(3) Enterprises have a stronger demand for refined user operations

The "WeMall Report" mentioned that in the new consumption environment, brand investment has shifted from the mindset of achieving "high exposure" to a greater emphasis on conversion results. Taking the "retail and e-commerce" industries as an example, according to WeMall's own data, the scale of their performance advertising accounts for 83% and 92% respectively.

The change in delivery strategy reflects that brands are increasingly inclined to achieve “effective connections”, which is also the disadvantage of public domain marketing. Due to the centralized design of the public domain traffic platform, the platform has weaker control over merchants, resulting in low user loyalty.

In addition, private domain marketing can achieve refined user operations and make the user pool more brand-sticky. Taking many factors into consideration, in the new consumption scenario, private domain operations are becoming the core growth driver of brand smart marketing.

2. Operation

1. Update your cognition

Perception is more important than choice. Before building private domain traffic, you need to update your understanding of it.

(1) Adhere to long-termism

Compared with advertising on public domain traffic, the effect of private domain operations has a significant lag. The reason for the lag is that the essence of private domain operation is the relationship between operations and users. It takes a long period of time to go from unfamiliarity to familiarity, and from familiarity to trust. However, the cost of acquiring customers in the private domain is lower than that in the public domain, and users are more loyal. In the long run, this is a healthy growth for companies.

(2) Providing long-term value is less important than providing short-term benefits

Short-term benefits refer to one-time services provided by companies to users, such as red envelope rebates and rewards for forwarding. Such activities can bring huge traffic in the short term, but because everyone needs this kind of red envelope reward, it is impossible to screen out suitable target users for the company. Moreover, when the short-term benefits disappear, users will disperse and user loyalty cannot be cultivated.

Long-term value refers to the long-term discounts and services that a company can provide to users, which should be at least one year, such as lifetime after-sales service, no waiting in line, etc. Companies must provide long-term value that can hit users' pain points based on the characteristics of their products and services in order to form their own barriers and competitiveness.

2. Attract users into the private traffic pool

(1) Attract users selectively; more users is not necessarily better

Not all customers will generate profits for the business, so we should stop investing in non-profit customers. Because, on the one hand, attracting users into the private domain has a relatively high customer acquisition cost, and on the other hand, non-profit customers in the private domain environment will reduce the confidence of operators. Therefore, we must try our best to find the right users to enter the private domain. For example, the priority of a purchasing customer must be higher than that of a potential customer, the priority of a repeat customer must be higher than that of a purchasing customer, and so on.

(2) Let users who have just entered the private domain know as soon as possible that they can obtain long-term value

Users can know the long-term value they can obtain as soon as possible, and non-target users can be screened out as soon as possible. At the same time, a very good first impression can be given to target users, thereby improving user stickiness.

3. Promotion of private domain

Many private traffic pools are like stagnant water. Without activity, there is no stickiness and no conversion. Therefore, private domains must work hard to promote activation.

The purpose of activation is to continuously strengthen the trust and memory between the company and users, and then monetize it. In terms of specific operations, companies are required to provide value and have sufficient exposure. To provide value, we must interact with users and remember to speak for ourselves, and we must be able to help users. For example, when publishing an article, we have to think about what it can bring to users, whether it is discount information or knowledge growth; as for sufficient exposure, I know a study room owner who posts two Moments every morning and evening without fail, announcing the opening and closing of business. According to her, each Moments post will have a good number of likes, and there are even comments from students in the study room to cheer her up. This is a good example of sufficient exposure.

As for the means of promoting activation in private domains, there are two in summary: content operation and user interaction.

(1) Content Operation

On the one hand, content operations can remind users to consume. Sometimes it’s not that they don’t have needs, but they may have forgotten you, so a timely and accurate push becomes very valuable.

On the other hand, compared with straightforward and rigid advertising, content operations are easier to narrow the distance and gain user trust.

For example, the "Alipay" official account is very good at content operators. The official account will not promote Alipay's new features and coupons in a forced way, but will edit the copy from the user's perspective, and the copy is very down-to-earth. The comment section jokingly calls the operator "dog". Users will think that they have a friendship with the Alipay official account. This way of operation obviously brings users closer.

Content operation has three target entities, namely you (user-related), me (IP-related), and him (product-related).

You: refers to information content that is related to enterprise users and beneficial to users. It is best if this part of the content belongs to the same field as the product or service, but is not directly related. For example, a food company can post information that users care about, such as "Check the nutritional information table", "Why do you like sweets?", etc. In a few cases, the content has nothing to do with the product or service, but is important information, such as epidemic situation, weather, city car restrictions, etc.

Me: That is, content related to brand IP. IP can be a person, such as a founder, internet celebrity, or store manager, or it can be a non-tangible image. For example, Lei Jun has a large number of fans on WeChat official accounts and Douyin, and is Xiaomi's IP. It can be seen that operators often post content about Lei Jun's meetings, meals, etc. to attract users' attention; for example, the liquor Jiang Xiaobai, from its packaging, copywriting to price, all show that he is an image of a literary youth. Young people who have just entered the workplace or university dormitories will regard Jiang Xiaobai as a friend.

He: Information related to the product. For example, the selling points of new products, process design, promotional activities, charity activities, etc.

(2) User interaction

There are two types of user interaction: user-initiated and enterprise-initiated.

Most of the messages that users proactively leave for companies are to express questions and empathy. Businesses need to answer questions and encourage empathy. In this regard, the timeliness and accuracy of the company's responses must be guaranteed.

For proactive situations, enterprises need to establish standardized and automated SOP processes based on user stratification.

The SOP process summarized and refined by operations staff and top sales can help companies build trust with users and prevent interference with users that could lead to resource loss. At the same time, third-party operations tools can be used to save manpower to the greatest extent possible to promote activation, allowing staff to focus more on the conversion process. The following figure is an example of the sop page of a third-party scrm system.

4. Stratification of private domain users

The so-called user stratification is to classify users. Through stratification, we can distinguish the importance of different users and concentrate resources for operations; at the same time, we can also extract user tags to know the user's characteristics, preferences, and interests, so as to carry out targeted operations.

In summary, the establishment of user stratification and labeling systems can help companies achieve the following goals in private domain traffic:

(1) Improve conversion rate

For example, through labels extracted from channel IP addresses and user's mobile phone models, we can learn about the user's payment ability, and thus focus on recommending products and services that are suitable for the user, thereby improving conversion rates.

(2) Reduce harassment to users

If an activity is only valid for Hangzhou, then we can push sop messages only to Hangzhou users to avoid harassing users in other cities such as Shanghai and Suzhou.

(3) Reduce marketing costs

Targeted marketing resources will naturally reduce marketing costs, which is needless to say.

(4) Increase brand satisfaction

Targeted user operations after stratification, because the content released is what users need, can strengthen the IP image and make users feel that the platform is both friendly and professional, thereby increasing brand satisfaction.

About how to layer:

We can use the RFM model to implement user segmentation:

R (recency) refers to the most recent consumption time. The closer the last consumption time is, the more active the user is and the more impressed he is with the company. On the contrary, it means that the user has been dormant for a long time and needs care and activation before conversion.

F (frequency) consumption frequency. The higher the consumption frequency, the higher the user's recognition of the company's brand. On the contrary, if the user only consumes once, then the company needs to consider which link makes the user dissatisfied, or whether the user is a freeloader.

M (monetary) refers to the amount of consumption in a certain period of time. The higher the amount, the greater the value of the user to the company, and it also indirectly proves the user's ability to pay and recognition of the company's brand.

Companies can set standards to measure users based on the three dimensions of the above model (such as what kind of users are "high-frequency consumers"), and then stratify users based on the measurement results of the three dimensions.

About the construction of tag library:

Tags are used to extract commonalities, facilitate memory, and perform data analysis. First, you should establish a standardized tag library, and then apply the tags to users. Remember to isolate custom tags from the standard tag library.

For most fields, the tag library can be designed from the following dimensions:

(1) Channel sources

The channel source can clearly determine the user's consumption capacity and familiarity with the company. I was previously in charge of the CRM system at an online education company. It was obvious that among the advertisements launched, the user conversion rate obtained through the Douyin channel was greater than that of Baidu and other channels. And in the retail industry involving offline store channels, users' clear channel sources become even more important for fair sales stratification.

(2) User level

This is the basis for judging whether the user needs to be treated as a priority. According to our user stratification principle, we need to know which users contribute the most to the company, and we need to give priority to serving these users.

(3) Population attributes

Such as place of origin, age, marital status, interests and hobbies, occupation, etc. For example, in the catering industry, users’ eating habits can be inferred based on their place of origin, and whether they have children can be inferred based on their marital status and age, so that targeted marketing can be carried out based on the push results. Another example is in the hairdressing industry, users can be helped to design a more satisfactory hairstyle based on their age, occupation, marital status, etc.

(4) Consumption information

For example, the user's product usage, consumption frequency, special service requirements, etc. It is best to crawl the user's consumption information on third-party platforms such as Taobao and JD.com while ensuring privacy, so that the best fit can be found between the company's products and users.

About how to tag:

Labels can be added based on the user's data records in the enterprise. For example, the form information submitted by users, the chat records in the corporate WeChat, the consumption records purchased by users, etc., can also be labeled by the staff. We often encounter this situation where, when registering or signing up as a member in a store, some store managers will ask us to fill in personal information that is not related to membership. For example, I once complained about the poor soundproofing after staying in a hotel. The next time I stayed in another hotel chain of the same company, the receptionist took the initiative to arrange a room with better soundproofing for me.

5. Repurchase of private domain traffic

Repurchase Methodology:

In addition to basic consumption needs, users who choose to repurchase also need to be satisfied with and remember the product, that is, repurchase behavior = demand + trust + exposure. Many businesses use good enough products and services to gain user trust, but often neglect to create memories for users. "I won't accept any gifts this year, the only gift I will accept is Melatonin" is a good example. This simple rhyming slogan puts Melatonin into a specific "gift-giving" context, so that people will think of Melatonin when giving gifts, and think of giving gifts when they see Melatonin.

Several scenarios for repurchase:

(1) Content repurchase

Content that touches users' minds can often achieve a significant effect in attracting repeat purchases. For example, at the iPod launch event, Jobs did not first introduce how good the configuration of the iPod was or how novel its design was. Instead, he said, "Put 1,000 songs in your pocket." This promotional statement had a very good effect.

For example, computer advertisements. I still remember seeing a MacBook advertisement at a bus stop. The advertisement picture was very simple, with only the words "To you and me behind the Mac" which immediately left a deep impression on me. It can be seen that Apple’s logic is: first focus on computer users, products are for people. When you are happy, frustrated, decadent in front of the computer or even want to buy a new computer, which one would you think of buying? Other advertisements, such as those for Lenovo products, only focus on promoting product configuration and performance. The content of the advertisements is redundant, unoriginal, and has no memorable points. Therefore, good content and copywriting play a very critical role in product repurchase.

(2) Repurchase

Activities can both guide sales and increase user stickiness. For example, you can organize a new product trial event, offering discounts or free trials, which can achieve a promotional effect and obtain accurate user feedback. You can also create small games during the event to increase the fun and achieve a fission effect. You can also create a fan festival, or follow a hot social event. In short, there can be many forms of repurchase activities, and the scale can be large or small, but it is worth noting that the number of activities should not be too many and the forms should be varied as much as possible, otherwise, like the Double Eleven today, people will begin to get tired of mahjong, which is not conducive to conversion.

(3) Consultant-style repurchase

The characteristic of private domain traffic is free interaction. We can communicate with users on WeChat like friends (of course, we must avoid harassing users). If the staff captures user needs in a timely manner and then exposes the product, it is actually one of the favorable ways to encourage repeat purchases.

For example, online education companies all have "course consultants". A course consultant partner of the company, the general process of the matter is: seeing a parent who has purchased the course post on WeChat Moments complaining that his child was playing iPad games in the name of learning, the course consultant observed the family's ability to pay and their trust in the company's products, and recommended the company's learning tablet to the parents, and the deal was successfully completed. This incident was used as a case study by the company's operations team and was presented within the company. Of course, consultant-based repeat purchases do not necessarily wait until the user explicitly states their needs. The user's needs can also be inferred through details such as chats with the user. This requires staff to have strong empathy and sales skills.