The budget is reduced in 2024. How to efficiently complete 0-1 on Xiaohongshu?

In the context of tight budgets in 2024, how brands and merchants can achieve a breakthrough from 0 to 1 on the Xiaohongshu platform has become an urgent problem to be solved. The extensive growth model that relied on incremental market dividends in the past is no longer applicable, and now requires a more refined operation strategy. This article will share how to efficiently complete key issues such as product selection testing and low-cost start-up on Xiaohongshu, providing brands and merchants with a practical operation idea.

In 2024, we talked to hundreds of brands/merchants, and everyone’s biggest feeling was:

The rapid development in the past few years is actually due to the extensive dividends of the incremental market: capital dividends, traffic dividends, and cost depression (there were few merchants entering the market at that time, and platform advertising was not priced in a standard way), so many times we succeeded quickly without knowing it! But this year, it is obvious that many of the previous inertial gameplay and actions have failed.

Merchants who entered the market late or have reduced budgets need to start thinking about how to use Xiaohongshu efficiently and how to get results from Xiaohongshu with lower trial and error costs!

Therefore, we focused on 0-1 and shared related issues such as how to complete product selection testing on Xiaohongshu and how to start with low cost, to provide everyone with an operational idea for reference.

01 How to arrange the priority of product online promotion?

Before the product is launched, we can choose products with greater opportunities in the market through the following two methods.

1. Conduct horizontal comparison and testing of multiple products in the same category, and judge the market performance of the products based on the data.

For example, in the field of clothing, there is a very typical product selection and evaluation. New product links are created at the same time, and the same main picture is placed in a certain column. Users are allowed to click on the notes naturally to see which notes have a high click-through rate or a high number of collections. We can basically judge that this product must be outstanding among all the products, and we can give priority to promoting this product.

2. Place products of different categories under the same budget or traffic mechanism (such as eye products, lip products, and scalp care products), let them run naturally, and determine the promotion priority based on market feedback.

We can test this method in different situations:

If you have built a brand before and have accumulated certain resources, you can use your own influencer database to let KOLs and KOCs help you determine whether the product has a market. Because they are more user-oriented, that is, what we often call product selectors. If a product has an advantage in their perception, it is likely to be good.

We can use our private traffic or official accounts to conduct small-scale tests, or use our own stored traffic and self-controlled channels and accounts to conduct tests.

For example, we can use the basic selling points and pain points of a product to create soft advertising content, issue thirty to fifty notes, and let the market help us provide feedback on the product's selling points and pain points.

In fact, the tests we are doing at this stage are to put in advance the things that will be done after the product is launched. We use a small budget to help the brand determine which product to focus on next.

02 With limited funds, how to quickly determine whether a product has a market?

With limited funds, brands need to use time to solve many problems. The team spends time creating their own content, testing it on corporate accounts or their own small accounts, and judging the product's market potential based on user feedback.

When costs permit, you can use external resources (find experts or third-party content teams) to quickly complete the test and speed up the presentation of results.

03 How to quickly complete the 0-1 launch of a product at low cost?

In the current highly competitive market environment, it is difficult for brands to quickly complete the 0 to 1 process of a product at low cost.

Therefore, we will share with you two marketing methods that do not care so much about brand tone and can quickly sell products and increase sales.

1. Typical KOC Marketing

This is the approach adopted by a large number of growing cosmetics brands last year and this year. They did not look for super-head celebrities or influencers with more than 500,000 fans. Instead, they found beautiful amateur bloggers to output a set of makeup methods. Even these methods are repetitive. They use this content format to produce notes in large quantities, gaining opportunities to create explosive articles and drive brand growth.

2. Acquire users through keyword-accurate card search traffic

There are two types of content formats for pet brands to attract targeted users:

1. Use a large amount of product cross-testing content or some product direct promotion content to quickly acquire these precise category search users and achieve the first stage of product growth. (This approach is currently highly competitive and relatively risky)

(Image source: Xiaohongshu)

2. Create content around scenarios. For users who are first-time cat owners, brands can embed product information from the perspective of practical content and provide users with a solution (a guide or list for newbies to raising cats). [It is recommended that you explore more scenario words and user demand words related to the product to produce product content. Competition is not that high and it is easier to get traffic! ]

(Image source: Xiaohongshu)

The reason why the above methods have a low threshold is that they do not require too much investment from experts, and most of the content is completed by the team itself.

04 With a budget of less than 2 million, how to choose between Xiaohongshu and Douyin?

The choice of platform should be determined based on product features, target user groups and budget. For example, cosmetics can be marketed on multiple platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu; for high-order health products for the 40+ or ​​45+ age group, it may be more appropriate to reach target users through content on Xiaohongshu; for low-order anti-wrinkle products with a single unit price of less than 100 yuan, Douyin may be the main platform.

In general, the choice of platform should revolve around where the core users are, their preferences, and the scale the brand wants to achieve.

05 How to balance the general traffic and precise traffic of notes?

The biggest difference between the two is:

General traffic can leave a longer-lasting impression in the minds of users and evoke memories even when there is no strong demand.

Accurate traffic mainly meets users' clear category search needs, with high conversion rates but lacks additional brand precipitation.

For example, we have seen many brands that were doing ranking notes last year. Although their brand word searches are increasing, once the search traffic on the front end stops, the store will also have no traffic. This is because when users consume this product, the path is very simple. They directly search for products with certain effects and then are inspired to buy. The memory of the brand is not that deep, that is, the brand has not been formed. [This is a common scenario for precise traffic]

When we see a beauty profile on the discovery page and click on it, we are attracted to a certain product. We think the product the other party is talking about is really good, and we actively obtain information about the product. Users do not come in because they have category needs, but because they yearn for the figure of this beauty, or the blogger reaches the user in another way and leaves an impression on the product. Although this type of traffic is not as accurate as precise traffic, it has a superimposed effect on brand image and reputation. [How does general traffic affect user decisions]

In the early stages of a brand, it should prioritize the pursuit of accurate traffic to quickly achieve basic sales and verify product quality. As the brand accumulates and strengthens, it will gradually expand in breadth and introduce more general traffic.