The value of private domain users has doubled! How can a small private domain create a large increase?

This article mainly discusses how a small-scale private domain can create large increments. Through the sharing of the person in charge of the User Asset Operation Center of By-Health, we can understand aspects such as the value of private domain members, omni-domain marketing, user services, community operations, and data systems.

What is the brand’s positioning for users today?

A few years ago, the relationship between brands and users might have been one of being admired and being admired. However, in an era when low-price strategies have swept across all platforms and low-price mentality has dominated the consumer psychology of users, the status of brands and users has undergone earth-shaking changes.

Today’s brands need to understand users better, learn to be their friends, relatives, and even become their “social currency.” As users’ operators, you need to learn to think from their perspective, what users need, what value the brand can provide to users, and how to become a friendly bridge between brands and users.

Chen Chen, head of the User Asset Operation Center of By-Health, mentioned the above observation in a deep chat with Jianshi. This is also one of their core goals when operating and maintaining millions of private domain users - to be a "provider of professional health management knowledge services and emotional value on the road to habit formation" and to help users achieve healthy lives in a companion way.

During the conversation with Jianshi, Chen Chen also shared his thoughts on community operations, data integration and other related issues.

1. How can a small private domain create large increments?

Jianshi: What is the size of your membership? What is the value comparison between public and private domain members?

Chen Chen: The number of omni-channel online members is in the tens of millions, and the number of private-domain members (mainly operating on the Tencent platform) is about several million.

The user value of the public domain can be summarized as follows: We mainly focus on members who have already made purchases. Based on this, we measure the value of public domain members by calculating the annual total value of each user, including their annual total contribution, average order value, repurchase frequency and repurchase rate.

In the public domain, if the value of ordinary purchasing users is set as the benchmark value 1, then the value of public domain members is about 1.5 times, while the value of private domain members can reach about 2 times. This is actually a proportional relationship. In other words, the value of private domain members relative to public domain non-members has shown a certain increase.

Generally speaking, if the private domain users have high engagement and loyalty, the premium ratio may reach 2.5 times or even higher. In other words, as users become more deeply involved in the private domain, their value will increase accordingly.

Jianshi: Compared with the public domain, which private domain user data do you pay attention to?

Chen Chen: To realize the incremental value of private domain, the first task is to expand the private domain pool that we can reach, activate and fully control. Without sufficient pool capacity, talking about the value of private domain is tantamount to castles in the air. Based on the scale of the private domain pool, we can further define the activity, focus on each link of valuable interaction between users and brands, and promote the process of private domain.

Combining scale and activity, we finally look at "user growth" from the most practical perspective, that is, how big a difference there is in the annual contribution of private domain users compared to public domain users. This difference mainly comes from the increase in repurchase rate and the extension of product categories.

We focus on analyzing all factors that affect repurchase, including average order value, same-product repurchase, cross-product repurchase, etc. For example, whether users will increase their purchases after their first purchase, or whether they will try to buy products in other categories. We also pay attention to whether users will expand their focus from personal needs to family needs, or even cross-brand needs.

In short, we value repurchase and the deep value behind it. By building a comprehensive platform, we provide consumers with a full range of services from nutritional matching to knowledge and popular science, and ultimately increase each user's annual contribution to the brand by deepening the user's repurchase behavior.

Jianshi: How do you define omni-channel marketing?

Chen Chen: The core of omni-channel marketing is to meet the needs of the brand itself. It covers online and offline as well as various channels. The first task is to establish the brand's "field".

In the global concept, the public domain and the private domain complement each other. The private domain in the public domain, such as the membership organization, is not only a reflection of the buyer-seller relationship, but also a deep-level interaction. Brands enhance their connection with consumers by providing membership privileges. For example, the e-commerce platform's member day IP activities, member centers, and fan groups in the live broadcast room are all forms of private domains in the public domain.

For brands, the private domain in the public domain can promote sales and marketing on the one hand, and also help increase the incremental sales of stores on the other. Brands will pay attention to the contribution ratio of members, because members may be more willing to join because of the additional benefits.

For brands, whether to attach importance to the membership system depends on whether their business needs to lock in consumers for a long time. If not, the brand may not overemphasize the membership system or not all categories need a heavily operated private domain, because this may conflict with immediate sales and lead to an imbalance in investment and production. In a market environment that emphasizes benefits and efficiency, there is no need to follow the trend of private domains.

At the same time, partners who are doing private domain also need to pay attention. As the hard costs of private domain operations increase year by year, brands need to weigh the input and output of private domain development. Although the expansion of private domain may save a lot of advertising costs in the future, brands need to clarify how to achieve steady development of private domain before that, and clearly show consumers the differentiated value of brand private domain, which is a compulsory course at all times.

2. Achieving user success is more important than sales promotion

Jianshi: What kind of services will you provide to users?

Chen Chen: We are committed to providing more communication and contact opportunities through private domains to help consumers better understand the products and themselves, learn to choose and consume products correctly, and gradually build up the ability to manage their own healthy lives.

But this is a long process, so we need to find a balance between professional guidance and sales.

Therefore, no matter what products the users in the private domain buy, we will provide some eating tips, such as the best time to take, how to make the product easier to take, etc. In addition, we are also equipped with a professional team of nutritionists who can provide accurate nutrition matching plans according to the specific circumstances of consumers.

When a user joins our private domain and is willing to participate in activities such as the check-in plan, we will also provide some specific methods to guide him to develop the habit of self-health management.

On the one hand, they will be encouraged to keep taking the products, so that they can experience and develop the habit of taking them. On the other hand, special groups will be set up according to the specific needs of users, whether it is to enhance immunity, whiten, lose weight or meet the needs of mothers, a corresponding communication platform will be provided.

At the same time, we will hold small lectures or sharing sessions regularly or irregularly to share nutritional knowledge, conduct nutrition science popularization, and regularly organize small quizzes and exams to increase user interaction and participation.

Through these methods, consumers are guided to understand the correct nutritional knowledge and more in-depth communication and conversion are carried out based on their interests.

Jianshi: What is the underlying logic for increasing the activity of community users?

Chen Chen: The underlying logic of community operation includes providing professional knowledge, emotional value, etc. Our community is not a single place for checking in, chatting or promotion. We encourage members to share their eating experiences and product experiences in the group, forming a "partner-like" interactive atmosphere in the group. This atmosphere is not only guided by the brand, but more of a support between users.

Take our previous 100-day collagen drinking check-in activity as an example. During this 100-day challenge, participants not only persisted in action, but also invested emotionally. When they made efforts and successfully completed the task, they not only gained the oral beauty eating experience, but also felt emotionally happy and satisfied, and even made good friends from all over the world.

"TA and his partners" completed a "difficult and beautiful" challenge together. During this process, many users made a wish to us to "keep urging for more updates".

In addition, the discussion among users in the group is not limited to collagen, but also extends to whitening skin care, other products, and even nutritional supplements for home use. This natural way of communication not only promotes interaction between users, but also allows them to endorse the products they use, which is a more effective way of communication.

This practical and emotional interaction not only enhances user stickiness, but also brings practical benefits, such as increasing purchase volume, shortening repurchase cycle, and even promoting positive changes such as cross-category purchases.

3. Strategy needs to be parallel to data

Jianshi: Can you tell us about your thoughts on community operations?

Chen Chen: We pay special attention to two key indicators within the group: retention rate and activity.

The retention rate of a group is very critical, as it reflects whether members choose to stay in the group. If members do not quit, for whatever reason, this is positive in itself. Currently, our retention rate is able to stabilize at more than 80%.

The measurement of activity is more detailed. In addition to the check-in activity itself, we also focus on the depth of members' participation in the group. We design check-in plans with different days to test and promote users' continued participation. For those users who can persist and go beyond the basic check-in activities, we will provide points and phased rewards as incentives to encourage their continued participation.

In addition, we also pay attention to the participation and feedback speed of community activities. For example, when we need to conduct product research or collect consumer satisfaction, the community can respond quickly and provide a lot of feedback. This method is not only efficient but also low-cost. Compared with traditional research companies, we can complete the research quickly and at a lower cost.

Our community management strategy is digital and precise, and the data obtained through the community is not available through other channels. All operational activities will be data-collected, and this data is crucial to us. It helps us better understand user needs, optimize products, and improve operational efficiency and sales conversion.

In community operations, we are always goal-oriented to ensure that each activity has a clear purpose and expected results. Our team members are project managers who need to have a clear understanding and plan of the goals, data analysis, influencing factors and verification funnels of each activity.

Jianshi: You mentioned a lot of data content earlier. How much investment have you made in your data system? What challenges are you facing now?

Chen Chen: The key to omni-channel marketing lies in the integration and application of data, which is a technical challenge. Building a omni-channel data system requires a lot of investment, which may be as high as millions or even tens of millions of yuan.

This investment depends on the size and complexity of the data and is a long-term project. As new data continues to increase each year, the required server storage and hardware facilities will also increase accordingly. After the system is established, continuous operation and maintenance and development of new functions, such as user tags and systems, are required.

However, having a data system is only a prerequisite. The key lies in how to apply this data to improve the user's LTV. If the amount of data is insufficient, even if the data system is established, it will not play its due role. If there is only data but no data operation, it is also a bunch of "dirty data".

Therefore, from "collecting data-cleaning data-applying data" requires logical thinking and business thinking, as well as the ability of practical verification.

In global user operations, public domain data mainly revolves around shopping behavior. Order data can be used to understand users' preferences for when, how, and what products to buy, thereby providing strategic direction suggestions for public domain membership operations. Users make purchasing decisions based on personalized reasons such as what needs they have or who they are buying for. These in-depth insights need to be obtained through private domain communication.

Public domain data is about finding commonalities among hundreds of millions of users, while private domain data is about conducting precision marketing among a small number of core user groups that have already made purchases.

The challenge facing the private domain is how to find a replicable and scalable model while being refined. Since each user's needs and preferences are different, each user can be labeled with hundreds or thousands of labels. Private domain marketing needs to find a "common" engine among many personalized services and crowd project tests to ultimately drive quantitative changes.

This is not just a problem that can be solved by having a data system. It tests whether the IT team is capable of building the system and whether the operations team is capable of effectively applying the data system and managing it iteratively. Data acquisition + data integration + data application are the next bigger challenges.

Jianshi: What other investments are there?

Chen Chen: Personnel organization and operational investment are key factors that must be considered to determine whether user operations can be done well.

The positioning and goals of the enterprise user operation team determine the organizational structure and talent model.

How to build a team that can quickly respond to market changes, provide differentiated user services, and undertake large-scale and multi-brand tasks is a test of every trader's ability to manage upward, layout downward, and integrate resources.

I have also been constantly adjusting and exploring through practice in the past two years. The specific talent training and organizational structure building will be further discussed with you at this sharing session.

The investment in operating costs must take into account the basic operating expenses of the user scale, including the costs of attracting new users, activating users, and the costs required for software and hardware deployment. On the other hand, it is necessary to consider some growth experiments or expansion experiments of test projects, such as AI projects.

User operation is an asset-based project that requires long-term investment and layout of a brand. It requires the concerted management of the entire enterprise and long-term co-creation with users. Its layout itself determines that this is not a short-term event marketing job, but a lasting, long-term, and changing career. If there is any other investment, it is probably the original intention and patience of the operator.