An analysis of how Xiaohongshu’s 618 promotion works: what’s different this year?

618 is about to start, and all platforms are preparing intensively. It is known that JD.com and Taobao have cancelled the pre-sale system, and Xiaohongshu has also released its own 618 rhythm. We interpret it from the live broadcast side and the e-commerce side, and have given some suggestions to the author.

This year’s 618 is a little different.

Both Taobao and JD.com will cancel the pre-sale system and return 618 to a user-centric shopping model by simplifying the shopping process, improving service quality and emphasizing price advantages.

In addition, a Taobao investment document revealed the marketing rhythm of Taobao's 618 this year. Among them, the momentum period is from late April to early May; the first wave of activities will start in mid-to-late May, and transactions will be achieved by recalling users; the second wave of activities will be from 8 pm on May 31 to June 20, and the 618 activities will be fully launched. According to the document, the Taobao 618 activities will last nearly two months, which is significantly longer than in previous years.

JD.com plans to start selling spot goods at 8 pm on May 31, and then combine special sales, return sales and other promotional activities to extend the influence of 618.

The change in the gameplay of Taobao Jingdong 618 is actually expected, because the competition among several platforms has actually started a long time ago. Under the impact of Pinduoduo and Douyin, Taobao Jingdong has also been deploying daily low-price promotion strategies. After the normalization of low-price promotions, 618 will inevitably gradually lose its uniqueness...

If there is any platform that has not been affected by "low-price competition", Xiaohongshu is probably the only one left.

Therefore, compared with other platforms, Xiaohongshu’s 618 this year is more worthy of merchants’ attention!

1. Xiaohongshu’s 618 promotion rhythm

1. Interpretation of the gameplay on the live broadcast side

In terms of cycle, Xiaohongshu has a relatively short cycle, but this is only the rhythm cycle of the big promotion. It would definitely be more appropriate to plan the relevant content in advance.

It can be found that Xiaohongshu's traffic during the 618 shopping festival this year mainly focused on live streaming and interactive gameplay.

The live broadcast sector, which has been criticized for a long time, has also ushered in product updates and the largest-scale traffic support.

1) Live broadcast breathing light

At the product level, a new live broadcast breathing light gameplay has been added. When users browse notes, the account avatar has a "red circle" and displays the "live broadcast" status. Clicking the avatar can go directly to the live broadcast room. It has become a strong tool for merchants to achieve the highest conversion rate for live broadcasts and increase viewership. It is also one of the largest sources of traffic for live broadcast rooms.

2) Store broadcast ranking competition

If you have plans for store broadcasts, you must participate in this year's store broadcast ranking competition.

During the promotion period, you can get traffic incentives by increasing the broadcast duration and frequency and achieving designated GMV tasks. High-quality live broadcast rooms can also enjoy large platform voucher subsidies.

Gameplay 1

Climbing Challenge: During the promotion period, merchants who complete the GMV and broadcast duration tasks will enjoy corresponding traffic incentives.

Gameplay 2

Qualifying bonus: During the promotion period, there are daily and weekly rankings, and the top 10 merchants on the list will receive exclusive traffic support and exclusive platform coupon subsidies.

Threshold requirements

Merchants need to sign up for the 618 promotion, and can sign up for either direct discount or cross-store discount for every purchase over a certain amount (it’s equivalent to no threshold, haha).

3) Store Broadcast Rising Star Program

This is an exclusive incentive provided for new merchants who have never launched a live broadcast.

Four incentive tasks are provided. After completing the tasks, you can get corresponding traffic quota coupons. The tasks are relatively simple and almost all merchants who want to participate can receive them.

1. As long as the merchant broadcasts during the promotion period and the single live broadcast lasts more than 3 hours, he can get a traffic voucher with a quota of 2,000
2. If you broadcast live for more than 3 hours twice within 7 days, you can get a traffic voucher with a value of 2,000.
3. If you publish more than one note before three consecutive live broadcasts, you can get a traffic voucher worth 2,000 yuan
4. Create a group chat and you will get a 2000-capacity traffic voucher

Are the above tasks simple? If you take all of them, you can get 8,000 traffic quotas, which can be worth at least 10,000-20,000 yuan when converted into Juguang's live broadcast room.

4) Superstore Broadcast Day

This is an official resource traffic package customized for 618, which is equipped with customized resources such as traffic investment, buyers, opening screen pages, exclusive sea view rooms, etc. I haven’t learned about the quotation yet, but I think it should not be cheap. Store broadcast merchants with sufficient budget can learn about it.

5) Store broadcast coupons

During the promotion period, the more traffic you consume for live streaming promotion, the more coupons you will get.

You can get a coupon of up to 50% of your spending amount, which can only be used during the 618 promotion and can only be used for "Bidding-Live Broadcast Promotion".

2. Interpretation of e-commerce gameplay

1) Direct price reduction of single product

The conventional way of playing is to directly reduce the price. There is no limit on how much the platform can reduce it, but as long as the price is lowered, you can sign up.

2) Cross-store discounts

The platform gives exposure and merchants share the discounts.

It is not mandatory for all products in the store to participate. At the time of settlement, the cost is shared according to the amount of the goods ordered by the consumer. The platform provides hundreds of millions of traffic exposure and exclusive field resource exposure.

3) Freight

Shipping Fee Bao is a new tool to enhance users’ after-sales experience.

After activation, merchants can provide users with claims, return and exchange services.

During the event, merchants can receive premium subsidies at different rates. The newer the merchant, the higher the subsidy rate.

The above is a summary of the interpretation of how to play Xiaohongshu’s 618 promotion this year.

Here are some general content layout suggestions:

2. Xiaohongshu 618 promotion content layout suggestions

1) Water storage period

Time: Early May

Budget: 25%

Bloggers’ recommendation: effective advertising = 8:2

Purpose:

a. Comprehensive testing content and products;

b. Develop content/hot article models and hot products/potential hot products;

c. Accumulate high-quality notes for subsequent use in advertising;

d. Screen bloggers who need to cooperate with Jianlian in advance to avoid lack of schedule

content:

a. Product selection

In terms of product selection, it is recommended to classify existing products and make choices based on actual demands/current conditions.

Assuming there is a hit product, the recommended budget planning for different types of products is:

Hot sale: potential sale: supplementary sale = 3:6:1

Assuming there is no hit product yet, it is recommended to focus the budget on potential products

b. Refine product selling points

I have talked about the product selling points before, so I won’t elaborate on them here.

c. Determine the content direction and brief

Plan the content direction suitable for the product based on the product selling points and the current popular trend of Xiaohongshu, at least 5 or more; then write relevant briefs around different content directions

d. Screen and contact bloggers for cooperation

Select suitable bloggers for cooperation based on content direction and budget planning

Content Direction → Blogger Type

Budget Planning → Blogger Level

During the water storage period, it is also necessary to screen the bloggers who will be needed for the subsequent cooperation in advance to avoid bloggers having no schedule or being unable to meet the relevant plans.

2) Sprint period

Time: Early May – 05/24

Budget: 30%

Blogger recommendation: effective advertising = 5:5

Purpose:

a. Continue testing content;

b. Run the content/hot article model;

c. Accumulate/amplify existing high-quality notes

content:

Organize the data of the water storage period for review, adjust the content direction, etc.; enlarge the existing high-quality notes, or re-invest in cooperative business reports. The standard for high-quality notes: click-through rate > 15%

The criteria for reinvestment: 30%, good cooperation notes data, willingness to cooperate in business reporting, high degree of cooperation. If you are not satisfied, just magnify it through French fries.

If the conditions are met, the cooperation will be reported again. The content of the notes can reuse the original high-quality content and make some minor adjustments. In this way, it can be scaled up through performance advertising.

Traffic type notes → Information flow advertising

Conversion Notes → Search Ads

Of course, some notes with more potential can also be enlarged by purchasing French fries, and just keep adjusting during the enlargement process.

Potential Notes Criteria:

Click-through rate > 10%; the content feels good and there is room for optimization

Finally, starting from mid-May, the proportion of content related to the 618 shopping list can be appropriately increased.

3) Weeding period

Time: 05/24 – 06/20

Budget: 40%

Blogger planting: performance advertising = 2:8

Purpose:

a. Zoom in on existing high-quality notes for weeding;

b. 618 related direction notes continue to be released to cooperate with weeding

content:

Arrange the data of water storage period for review;

Only the content/hot article models that have been successfully implemented and the 618 related directions will be released, and no further testing will be carried out;

According to the existing high-quality notes, the French fries are enlarged, or the cooperative business report is reinvested to enlarge using effect advertising

4) Return period

Time: 06/21 – 06/30

Budget: 5%

Blogger recommendation: effective advertising = 5:5

Purpose:

a. Enhance user mindset;

b. Lay the foundation for subsequent deployment.

content:

Arrange relevant data and review 618;

Resume regular/new product launches;

Start increasing the proportion of unboxing/review content

5) Other supplements

There is not much other content mentioned in the strategic plan, so I will add some targeted content.

1) Although Xiaohongshu brand professional accounts can now reprint blogger notes, the review for placing performance ads on reprinted notes is relatively strict and the probability of passing is not high. Therefore, the strategy recommends reinvesting in bloggers to cooperate with commercial reports. Commercial reports can directly place performance ads to amplify the notes

2) Regarding budget allocation, this is just my personal experience and is for reference only.

3) Because content/bloggers strategies need to be developed around brand budget, product average order value, product selling points, etc., so there is not much mention

Product selling point/average order value + platform content trend + consumer insight → content strategy

Content Strategy → Blogger Types

Brand budget + product unit price + consumer insight → blogger level

4) Keyword strategy

Because different brands and merchants have different demands/situations, I will only explain some misunderstandings of keywords by many friends.

In fact, the keywords we understand are different from the keywords understood by the system.

For example, if you recommend a lipstick as a gift to your girlfriend, most people will think that this is a long-tail keyword and a whole, so it should be put together when mentioned in the content.

But in fact, the keywords understood by the system are like this. It will segment the so-called long-tail word "lipstick recommendation for girlfriend" into "lipstick", "recommendation", "send", "girlfriend"

Therefore, it is not necessary to integrate slightly longer keywords. Instead, you can segment them first, just like the system segmentation, and then embed these keywords into the content multiple times.

5) In the actual implementation process, we need to pay attention to

a. Timeliness

b. Task scheduling conflicts

…

3. Final Thoughts

Generally speaking, during big promotions like 618 and Double 11, traffic/effects will decline due to the surge in content, so it is not recommended for low-budget brands (less than 300,000 yuan for 618) to join in the fun. It is better to maintain the usual placement, do not increase the budget, and do not simply stop placing, just maintain stability; focus your time and energy on placing content and optimizing the Taobao/Tmall site.