Doing private domain is like falling in love

This article vividly illustrates the core concepts and strategies of private domain operations by comparing private domain operations to the process of falling in love. It proposes that the key to private domain operations is to establish and enhance trust with users and maintain this relationship through well-designed content and meticulous services.

When you go shopping in a store, the shopping guide will pull you into the group;

When you go shopping in a mall, you will see “online benefits” and “online discounts”;

Even on some food delivery apps, you can scan the code to join the group and get coupons...

In life, private domain practices can be seen everywhere.

However, many of the results were not good.

After a period of time, blocking, collapsing, or simply leaving the group are all common operations.

Why? It's annoying.

In the end, the people who came in left again. This is what happened: if the operation went wrong, the traffic diversion was in vain.

The private domain practices, like the business models, vary greatly from company to company, and many of them work.

However, the core of all methods is the user. All actions in the private domain need to revolve around the "user".

1. The core of private domain is like pursuing your loved one

What is the core of private domain?

If I opened a small shop at the entrance of the village, but there were several other small shops there, and the goods they sold were mostly the same, why would people come to buy things from me?

Because of the good relationship.

He trusts me very much and knows that I will not cheat him, so when he needs something, he will think of me first and buy something from me.

This is the transaction formula in the private domain: demand + trust + emotion = transaction.

Private domain operation is the action of upgrading the trust relationship between each other. This is actually the logic of making friends.

Professor Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist and anthropologist at Oxford University in the UK, proposed that the upper limit of a person's social network is 150 people, among which the closest ones usually do not exceed 5 people.

This answer is also known as the "Dunbar number." That is, there is an upper limit to the number of people a person can maintain close relationships with, and it is really not that many.

From another perspective, everyone will spend 40% of their social time with the 5 closest people. If you add the 10 slightly closer people, that’s 15 people, which will take up 60% of the time.

Therefore, you must seize the few close friends of users. If you cannot be childhood sweethearts, you will become strangers.

Super Shopping Guide CEO Li Zhiyin once shared a personal experience.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he saw a store whose performance had increased instead of decreased, so he went to investigate and found that the store was located in an alley next to the main street and usually had very few customers.

All other stores are declining, and this store has a bad location, so why is it still so prominent?

The answer is to rely on the store manager’s “circle of friends”.

The store manager requires the team to keep interacting with regular customers on WeChat. After becoming familiar with their shopping frequency, the store manager will proactively send a cup of coffee or milk tea to regular customers whenever a shopping cycle is approaching.

When the company arranges for the team to study or travel abroad, the store manager will also think of bringing gifts for regular customers.

Once, after the team achieved their performance goals, they went on a trip to Japan and brought back a large suitcase of facial masks. They gave a few masks to each old customer and even took the initiative to deliver them to their door.

"Autumn is here, and I'm giving you the first cup of milk tea in autumn!"

"I brought you some local specialties when I returned to my hometown this time!"

"Tomorrow is your birthday, so here's a small gift for you!"

A simple gift doesn’t need to cost a lot, but customers can feel cared for and concerned about, and feel that they are important.

Over time, customers and store staff have established an emotional connection like close friends. For example, when customers travel, they will bring back snacks to share with store staff. Repeat purchases and referrals become natural.

This case tells us that only sincerity can be exchanged for sincerity.

In other words, if you want to have an intimate relationship with others and become close friends, you need sincerity and even more initiative.

Doing private domain is actually like pursuing your loved one.

You saw her, liked her, and found a way to get her contact information. But at this moment, she has no feelings for you.

If you want her to understand you, fall in love with you, and make her "start with your appearance, fall in love with your talent, and be loyal to your character", you need to use some methods.

2. Three keys to private domain development

1. Reaching the private domain depends on content

When pursuing your crush, you'd better not be too abrupt. What does it mean?

In real life, when you go to a shopping mall, supermarket or any store to buy something, they always like to post a lot of advertisements or discounts in the circle of friends or group after adding customers into a group or adding WeChat.

The sense of existence is there, but the good impression is gone.

Only when there is a need, these information are what customers are willing to see. When there is no need, these information will only be considered as "harassment".

Every piece of careless content is a reason to be blacklisted or blocked.

Take pictures and texts for example. Pictures and texts are divided into short pictures and texts and long pictures and texts. Short pictures and texts are the most common.

If it is a traditional advertising idea, it is to make a beautiful product picture and add a good copy. The subtext behind it is: XX is very good! Come and buy it quickly!

However, this approach is basically ineffective because it is purely self-entertainment.

From the user's perspective, what kind of content do people usually read carefully in their Moments?

Simply put, it is something that can touch people or make them take action.

Therefore, when creating private domain content, you need to fully understand users at every stage, what they are most anxious about, what they desire, and what they care about most.

For some industries with clear target customer portraits, preparing private domain content is not complicated.

For example, in the maternal and infant industry, the users of products are children, but mothers are usually the decision makers and buyers. They care about how to feed their children healthier and which toys are suitable for children of different ages.

Then, private domain content can provide experience guidance around these issues. When brands impress mothers with their professional experience and even solve their current anxiety, product consumption will naturally occur.

For example, in the pharmaceutical industry, private domain content can start with users’ anxiety about health, such as advice and guidance on healthy eating, disease care, work and rest habits, etc., so that users can trust and even rely on the brand.

Some people may say: The characteristics of my customer group are not particularly obvious, for example, if I want to sell Coke, what should I do?

It’s not difficult. Segment by scene, preference, age and other labels, find the pain points of the segmented groups, and prepare targeted content.

Dong Shaoling, founder of Tuzhan, said that due to different user portraits, (private domain) content marketing must also be tailored to each individual, especially matching the scene touchpoints of different circles for precise distribution.

Take Luckin Coffee for example. They have tens of millions of private users, but the blacklist rate is less than 0.03%.

That is to say, in their private domain, out of every 1,000 people, an average of 997 people have no aversion to them.

How do you do it? Be considerate, but not intrusive.

"Chief Welfare Officer Lucky" will make corresponding push notifications based on the customer's needs and preferences - knowing that you like to order American coffee, he will not push new latte products to you.

For different cities, different temperatures and weather, Luckin will recommend cold drinks to cities with high temperatures and hot drinks to cities with low temperatures; when it is inconvenient for users to go out on rainy days, the company will offer more takeaway discounts.

Becoming a "coffee butler" is the goal that Luckin pursues. Yang Fei, Luckin's chief growth officer, said, "One-to-one service is to help customers solve problems and provide personalized services to customers, rather than harassing users."

In other words, private domain content is "about what users think and what users need."

Just like, when we are pursuing our loved ones, we always have to cater to their preferences. We should give her what she likes and not do things that disgust her.

Only by starting from her perspective can you finally get into her heart.

At the same time, in the private domain with high customer unit price, there is another way to create content - the ultimate service. Use service to produce content.

For example, luxury car addiction. They go to the client's villa to do cleaning, and after completing the cleaning to a very high standard and exceeding the client's expectations, the client will most likely take photos and post them on WeChat Moments.

Lao Ji, the founder of Haochedu, has a classic saying: Only when peers don’t do it can it be considered a service. If a service has already been done by peers, it is not a service, but an obligation.

Here, paying attention to user experience is only part of their goal. What they hope to see more is that users are moved by the service, which helps them spread and split.

In other words, use the ultimate service to produce self-propagating content.

How can we get people to produce content spontaneously?

Two points. First, the service should exceed his expectations and surprise him. Second, it should be done to a high standard so that he can show off.

Just like the circle of friends posted by luxury car addicts, the surprise is reflected in the copy and the show-off is reflected in the photos.

In short, the key to private domain content is to use content to reach and activate users. If your content is not important to users and is dispensable, it will be difficult to impress them.

Any content that users don’t like is considered rogue.

2. The operational goal of private domain is to upgrade

Nowadays, when many companies are working on private domain fan levels, they will follow the membership system, that is, calculate points.

For example, if you spend 100 yuan, you will get 100 points, which is the level of fans you spend as rated fans.

The design concept of membership points is to encourage consumers to spend money. The more money you spend, the higher your level will be. This is a common practice to attract public domain traffic.

However, this goes against the core of private domain - enhancing trust relationships.

For example, I often buy drinks, snacks, and daily necessities at the convenience store downstairs, but I spend at most about 200 yuan a week. However, I went to a mobile phone store on a certain street and bought a mobile phone, spending 3,000 yuan at one time.

Does this mean I trust this mobile phone store more? No.

Repeat purchases are a sign of trust. Large purchases can only be a sign of necessity.

Private domains require low-cost traffic. Just like the convenience store downstairs, I can’t spend much money at one time, but if I accumulate month by month and year by year, the amount will be huge.

In other words, the private domain is like water, pursuing endless flow.

Let’s get back to the topic of fan levels. Since the traditional membership points system is not applicable to private domains, how should the fan levels of private domains be judged?

Use different levels of trust relationships to grade.

For example, we divide the fan level into 6 levels.

L0, is a stranger.

L1, is someone who knows me. The iconic behavior is seeing my Moments. User behavior is to like, comment on my Moments, or @ me in the group.

L2, are people who know me and have two-way interactions with me, such as chatting with each other.

L3 is the person who recognizes me, has paid me once, and is the person who places an order with me for the first time.

L4 is someone who trusts me and buys from me many times. The signature behavior is that they place orders more than 3 times. And they take the initiative to put forward the demand and place the order.

L5 are the people who follow me and make repeated purchases from me, for example, they place orders more than 10 times within 3 months.

Therefore, all operational actions should be centered around improving fans’ trust level.

Just like pursuing your sweetheart.

At the beginning, your relationship is L0, strangers. If you don't talk to her, it's usually difficult for her to take the initiative to talk to you.

After your unremitting efforts, taking the initiative to chat, finding topics, and sending gifts, now she will not ignore you and will like your Moments. Your relationship has become L1.

When she takes the initiative to chat with you, congratulations, you have been upgraded to L2.

If one day she takes the initiative to give you a gift, it means she has recognized you. L3.

When you have been on several dates and you can talk about anything and are no longer reserved with each other, it means that she trusts you. L4.

Then, when she is willing to change her plans for you, such as taking a leave to accompany you on a trip when you are on vacation, it means that she has given you the initiative between the two of you. This is L5.

In order to upgrade from L0 to L5, you must have more contact with her, chat, follow her on WeChat Moments, send her gifts, go on dates...

At each stage, there are different things to focus on and do. The more points of contact you have, the faster the trust relationship will improve.

Therefore, for enterprises (merchants), if they want to upgrade private domain users from L0 to L5, they must proceed step by step.

Specific steps.

From L0 to L1: Like 200 friends' posts every day, comment on 30 friends' posts, like Moments once a month, free delivery within the group once a month, and interactive activities within the group once a week. If you do these 4 activities well, you can raise your fan level from L0 to L1.

From L1 to L2: Do two things. Set up a hook in your friend circle once a week to guide him to chat with you privately. Conduct group activities once a week to guide private chats.

To continue to move up, you need to do two things: hold a weekly welfare flash sale in the group, and a limited-time group purchase event every day from Monday to Friday.

All of the above actions are not aimed at selling things, but are centered around building a trusting relationship.

The core of private domain operation is to build trust relationship touchpoints. This touchpoint can be a regular touchpoint such as social group, circle of friends, private chat, live broadcast, etc., or it can be a very clever touchpoint.

For example, there is a restaurant called Tai Er Pickled Fish. If anyone wants to eat at this restaurant, it is best to learn the "secret code" first.

What does it mean?

When a customer sits down to order food, the waiter may suddenly say to the customer, "Let us keep each other company in this world."

Hmm? What do you mean?

This is the "secret code". If the customer looks confused, then order normally. If the customer answers "eating in a carefree manner", then the waiter will say "one of us" and then serve a small dish exclusively for "one of us".

So, how do you become one of their "own people"? Where does the code come from?

Join an organization - Tai Er Universe Base, which is actually the fan group of Tai Er Pickled Fish. This group will release the code of the month every month. With this code, fans can receive a special side dish when they eat at the restaurant.

You should understand it now. This is how Tai Er Pickled Cabbage Fish “favors” its private domain users—using this exclusive benefit to increase the touchpoints of trust and improve fan stickiness.

Does this trick work?

It really works. Tai Er Pickled Fish has calculated that in 2020, a total of 150,000 exclusive side dishes were delivered through "secret code". Calculated based on the average customer unit price of 88.4 yuan, this interesting secret code brought them more than 13 million yuan in revenue.

3. To do private domain, you need multi-talents

There is a company that does online training and is currently recruiting private domain sales. But strangely, the sales they recruited are all quiet girls born in the 2000s.

Shouldn't sales be the kind of person who is as aggressive as a wolf? Shouldn't sales be the kind of person who is able to talk freely?

"No. The private domain pursues continuity and stability, and the talents needed are patient and down-to-earth." The boss of this company replied.

Private domain cannot be achieved overnight, it takes time.

Ruan Wenkai, operations director of the consumer health category at Jingli Technology, believes that a qualified private domain talent must first have a strong user mindset and be able to understand users; second, be able to find a "social sense" and understand communication channels; third, be able to think deeply about their own brand, how to reflect the value of the private domain, and how to bring value to users.

The private domain is not a “one-time deal” but a “silent and effective one”.

It's like pursuing a sweetheart. Right from the start, you're extremely enthusiastic and eager to confess your feelings, which can easily scare her.

Everyone is wary of strangers. If you keep talking, it is likely that the girl will reply to your messages less frequently or even stop replying.

Therefore, we must have a "user mindset". We must not only understand our loved one's birthday, zodiac sign, hobbies, living habits and other information, but also be able to think from her perspective, know what she is thinking, and understand the development of her psychological stage.

When you are at the stranger stage, don’t say the same things you would say when you are with people you know.

Secondly, in the private domain, polygonal talents are more needed.

Why?

Attracting new members and promoting activity, community maintenance, live broadcasting, user classification, business consultation, valuable services...

The work content of private domain operations is relatively broad. Not only must you understand the brand and the business, you must also understand the users and the content. You must also be able to provide consultation, after-sales service, and even go on live broadcasts.

Just like pursuing a sweetheart. A person with a rich reserve of knowledge in all aspects can talk a lot about any topic with a girl without any dull moments, which makes it easier for the girl to be favored.

For example, the men's fashion brand GXG, their shopping guides now have to do live streaming, community operations, product promotion, etc.

Specifically, on the one hand, shopping guides must make good use of digital tools to achieve warm connections with users based on behavioral analysis such as user interaction and consumer insights, thereby comprehensively improving shopping guide service capabilities and efficiency.

On the other hand, we focus on cultivating shopping guides in different regions, and even build them in the direction of KOC and KOL, to enhance the shopping guides' ability to acquire, retain and convert customers.

Judging from the GXG case, the work content of shopping guides has evolved from a single dimension to multiple dimensions, which has forced shopping guides to become "all-rounders".

From this perspective, the talents needed in the private domain are those with as many skills as possible.

Third, be meticulous and patient.

Unlike instant transactions in offline stores, you cannot expect users to frequently buy your products as soon as they join the community. This is unrealistic unless the user comes in for a clear need.

No matter how close two people are to each other, they cannot become true “brothers” after just one or two days together. The development of emotions and the upgrading of trust require time, care and patience.

Isn’t there a saying that goes like this? When pursuing a girl, reading her Moments is like doing a reading comprehension exercise.

This is how the refined operation of private domain works. Excellent girls have no shortage of love. Today's consumers have no shortage of products.

Why doesn't she choose someone else but you?

You must give her a reason to like you.

3. Conclusion

Doing private domain is like pursuing your sweetheart. Private domain operation is to maintain and improve the level of trust.

The formula for closing a deal is: demand + trust + emotion = closing a deal.

There are three very critical points: create content that she likes, increase her trust level in you, and become a polygonal talent.

Editor | Wei Zhuang This article is written by the author of Operation Party [Note Man], WeChat public account: [Note Man], original/authorized to be published on Operation Party, and any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.