E-commerce platforms create their own private domain traffic?

Private domain traffic is not a new term, nor did it appear for the first time. However, with the continuous development of the Internet, it has new interpretations. Of course, there are also many misunderstandings. It is like "Schrödinger's cat". Before opening the box, you never know whether the cat is dead or alive. But at this time, some people bet heavily or even go all in on private domain traffic. Is it a bluff? We’ll find out below.

Additional knowledge points:

"Schrödinger's Cat" is a famous thought experiment proposed by Austrian physicist Schrödinger in 1935 about the superposition of life and death of a cat. The experiment is like this: there is a cat in a box, and a small amount of radioactive material. Afterwards, there is a 50% chance that the radioactive material will decay and release poison gas that will kill the cat, and a 50% chance that the radioactive material will not decay and the cat will survive.

1. What is private domain traffic?

Do we need to define private domain traffic? In my opinion, this is still necessary, because if we don’t understand the definition and boundaries of private domain traffic, we will not be able to accurately know whether this should be done or not. It is a question of direction and decision-making.

Baidu entry:

Private domain traffic is a concept relative to public domain traffic. Simply put, it refers to channels that can directly reach users at any time and frequency without paying, such as self-media, user groups, WeChat accounts, etc., which is the circle that KOC (key opinion consumers) can radiate. It is a concept in the field of social e-commerce.

According to this definition, QQ groups are obviously the first private domain traffic. Now Weibo, Zhihu, Douyin, Kuaishou, self-media, APP, and even store traffic have become private domain traffic. If private domain traffic is so simple, then what are we still discussing? And going All in? Isn’t that crazy? The result obviously shouldn't be this way.

Private domain, literally understood, should include two meanings, "scenario" and "relationship".

(1) Scenario

It can be QQ, WeChat, Douyin, Kuaishou, stores, or PC. These are all scenarios with private domain attributes. The scenarios are like large-scale infrastructure. We will not discuss whether the infrastructure is perfect for now. At least when we set up the net, there must be fish. To put it in a more vivid way, public domain traffic is a large chicken farm. We not only need to catch the chickens, but also let them lay eggs and hatch more chicks.

Catching chickens is drainage, laying eggs is transformation, and hatching chicks is fission.

Because everyone has different foundations, I will be a little more detailed here so that newbies won't be confused.

(2) Relationship

Whether enterprises or individuals start a business, build private domain traffic, or sell products or services, there is a problem of "Who do I see you?", that is, the relationship. If this relationship is not handled well, there are only two consequences: either users flee, or choose to remain silent. This is undoubtedly a double whammy for those of us who plan to start a business with private domain traffic.

Originally, we sold products on public domain traffic such as Taobao, Tmall, and JD.com. We did not need to handle user relationships ourselves. Large amounts of marketing investment and economies of scale formed a natural credit endorsement. Users could place orders and achieve conversions without having to think too much. However, when we pulled the fish back to private domain traffic, this problem became apparent.

In other words, if we only build a platform for private domain traffic but do not establish a strong credit endorsement and do not handle the user relationship well, then your traffic cost (CAC) will still be very high, the traffic revenue (CLV) will still be very low, and the return on investment (ROI) will still not increase.

With the elements of "own", "repeated reach", "free of charge", "scenario" and "relationship", the definition of private domain traffic seems to be more reliable, but are we still overlooking something very important?

We will find that every industrial revolution is accompanied by a great improvement in efficiency. Whether it is the first industrial revolution, which replaced manual labor with machines, or the ongoing fourth industrial revolution, artificial intelligence, they are all improving the efficiency of work and production. Even the new retail proposed by Jack Ma is essentially an improvement in efficiency.

If the private domain traffic that has been discussed so hotly does not bring about an improvement in efficiency, then the future will be a waste of time and effort. However, judging from the current cases, the improvement in efficiency is not a small amount.

In 2015, Kidsland began to explore private domain traffic. This maternal and infant brand now has over 27 million members across all channels, including 500,000 paid Black Gold members. In 2018, its sales volume exceeded 10 billion yuan, with an annual compound growth rate of more than 100%. It has 300 maternal and infant stores nationwide, over 5 million followers on its WeChat public account, 15 million installed apps, and over 5 million registered users of its mini-programs.

In three years, Xibei has grown from 17 personal WeChat accounts to more than 1,000 personal accounts, serving millions of diners.

The beauty blogger teamed up with the makeup brush brand Daimo. The sales of his personal IP makeup brushes, priced at 149 yuan per unit, exceeded one million in 30 seconds, and his personal online store had a revenue of about 3 million in half a year.

There are too many cases, you can search on Baidu yourself.

We cannot give a definition of private domain traffic, but we can summarize its six core elements, which are uniqueness of the entity, repeated reach, lower cost, application scenarios, user relationships, and production efficiency.

Note: The above views are from "Jianshi" and further from "Shuishou Planet". Please indicate the source when reprinting.

2. The best private domain traffic ecosystem at present

In fact, it is true that private domain traffic has always existed. In the past, SMS marketing invited customers to register + QQ through SMS, QQ groups pulled people to sell goods, short videos, live broadcasts, self-media, and stores could all generate private domain traffic. However, due to incomplete infrastructure and weak system openness, the conversion rate of private domain traffic was greatly reduced, and the value of private domain traffic could not be fully utilized.

When talking about private domain traffic, about 90% of people will say WeChat ecosystem, which is actually not wrong at all. As for achieving seamless connection and integration between public and private domains, WeChat ecosystem can do it at present.

WeChat has over 1.1 billion users, almost everyone has one, and it is the only indispensable communication tool. This means that WeChat has extremely strong depth capabilities. Through the six degrees of separation, you can contact almost every user you want on WeChat.

But there is a problem here. WeChat is fundamentally a social software. The official is opposed to selling goods on WeChat. In June 2019, WeChat blocked a large number of marketing accounts. This is undoubtedly bad news for friends who are doing private domain traffic, but it is understandable. In order to maintain the stability and healthy development of the ecology, this is right.

So why do we still say that the WeChat ecosystem is the best private domain traffic ecosystem? Because the authorities took action.

In April 2018, WeChat for Business was connected to WeChat for Personal, which means that employees can use WeChat for Business to add each other as friends on personal WeChat accounts, and the other party can exchange information between the two products without having to download WeChat for Business.

In August 2019, WeChat for Business adjusted the upper limit of the number of friends a single employee can have to 50,000. At the same time, the conversation archiving function (chat history saving) is also open for internal testing. This function makes it easy for enterprises to unify user tracks in corporate WeChat, mini programs, official accounts and other scenarios.

In October 2019, WeChat for Business updated its version, and the upper limit on the number of friends became "double zero", that is, there is no upper limit on the number of friends a single employee can have on WeChat for Business, and there is also no upper limit on the number of friends a company's WeChat for Business account as a whole can have. Compared with the 5,000-friend limit on personal WeChat and the phenomenon of using dozens or hundreds of mobile phones to operate private domain traffic, the "double-no" limit is obviously more convenient.

In November 2019, WeChat for Business was conducting internal testing of two major functions: Moments and Large Groups. It is said that after an enterprise posts information on WeChat Moments, the word "Enterprise" will appear, and it may also link to a mini program.

Enterprise WeChat is essentially an online process for marketing, sales, and customer service. The iteration and internal testing of new functions will go a step further in helping to form, promote, and manage relationships between enterprises and their massive users.

The private domain combination formed by official accounts, mini-programs, enterprise accounts, Moments, groups, private chats, and corporate brands, as well as the seamless connection and mutual promotion of conversion between private and public domains, cannot be achieved by any other ecosystem. The current basic capabilities of Douyin, Kuaishou, QQ, live broadcast, APP, etc. are still far behind. This is why more than 90% of private domain traffic projects are based on the WeChat ecosystem.

3. Fragmentation and renewal of traffic thinking

If the second point is good news for enterprises, then the next point is good news for startups and newbie entrepreneurs, and it is also an opportunity for KOCs (key opinion consumers) and KOLs (key opinion leaders).

Traffic is not data. Traffic is actually living people with emotions, including you and me.

I strongly agree with this statement. Don’t we often joke that “I treat you as a friend, and you treat me as your private traffic”? ^_^ Private traffic is actually a change in thinking and an upgrade in cognition.

If we still use the thinking that traffic * conversion rate = GMV to generate private domain traffic, then no matter what we do it is the concept of small public domain. The private domain traffic we are talking about today is actually more refined and humane.

The essence of man is the sum of all social relations.

Establishing, building, and developing relationships with users are the core of private domain traffic operations. Traditional WeChat businesses are criticized because they skip and ignore relationships and go straight to the transaction stage. As for the fraudulent behavior under the regulation of the market economy, we will not consider it for the time being.

Trust relationship is the root of all transactions. This is what we said earlier. When we jump out of public traffic pools such as Taobao Tmall and JD.com, we cannot convert quickly because of the lack of credit endorsement and trust relationship. This is also the first and most important thing to consider when building private traffic.

The creation of a personal IP is a good solution, which is why Kidswant requires all its employees to obtain nationally certified parenting qualifications. This move is indeed a smart one. When all sales staff become industry experts, in addition to huge benefits to the brand, it also confirms the teacher-student relationship with users. This is what we call expert marketing in the Weibo era.

4. Use social e-commerce platforms to create private domain traffic

As mentioned earlier, private domain traffic is an opportunity for KOC and KOL. This is not nonsense or empty talk. Let me share with you my operating experience.

Today's social e-commerce is nothing more than a strategy to convert private domain traffic into the public domain, focusing on the sinking market. This is the thinking of e-commerce platforms, but our thinking is just the opposite. We use the platform's credit endorsement to build our own private domain traffic. This problem seems like a paradox, but there is the possibility of a win-win situation.

In February, I came into contact with a new product of Taobao, the community e-commerce platform Taoxiaopu. The platform adopts a master-apprentice system, where a class teacher leads the class, and the service directly invites the shopkeeper, who receives corresponding commissions. In other words, upgrade the mentor first. The more shopkeepers the mentor has, the higher the income will be. The shopkeeper needs to invite 5 people before he can become a formal shopkeeper.

This is a free model. As for the high commission model that is a scam, we will not talk about it, nor do we bother to talk about it. You can read the article "Taobao Shop, the reason why I don't adopt the high commission model" for a detailed explanation.

I use all self-media channels to direct users to official accounts, convert them into WeChat friends, create groups, and complete the establishment of private domain traffic.

All users who see this article want to open a Taobao shop and have a basic understanding of my personality. This is also a process of creating a personality and establishing a relationship, the relationship between a mentor and a student.

Deepening relationships through high-quality articles and courses and providing students with a lot of help is a people-centered thinking shift, because not many friends can become my customers, but they will definitely become my friends. Because I will selflessly provide them with learning assistance and entrepreneurial guidance.

So, regardless of whether Taobao has put effort and energy into the Taobao Shop project, I have established deep and lasting user relationships through the Taobao Shop platform.

Back to the shopkeeper, regardless of whether he can do a good job in the Taobao store project, he has built his own private traffic pool through clear personal creation and Alibaba's endorsement. In the future, he can do JD.com, Tencent, and even bring goods himself. What he does here really increases the potential for future explosion, which is incomparable with the one-time deal of Gaoyong model.

In addition, there is a process of mutual transformation and assistance between the public domain and the private domain. WeChat groups can introduce friends and operate within the group to push private domain users to the public domain, enhance influence, and then split and bring in new users. This is a virtuous circle.

Having said so much, I wonder if you have a good feeling about the usage of private domain traffic~

Author: Sleeping Planet

Source: Sleeping Planet