Xiaohongshu 7 types of business operation strategy V1.0

If you are confused and lost about the marketing operation of Xiaohongshu, then this article will be helpful to you. This article describes the various ecosystems of Xiaohongshu merchants, gives thoughts and provides new perspectives for each type of merchant. You can take a look if you need it.

We have all heard the story of the blind men and the elephant. The blind man who touched the elephant's leg said, "The elephant is like a big pillar!"

The blind man who touched the elephant's trunk said, "No, no, the elephant is thick and long, just like a giant python."

The person who touched the elephant's ear interrupted hurriedly, saying: "You are all wrong. The elephant is smooth and slippery, just like a fan."

In fact, the phenomenon of "blind men and the elephant" exists in any industry. The essence is that everyone stands at a different position, looks at things from a different angle, and outputs different opinions.

Xiaohongshu's marketing operations are also in a blind and groping state.

Matrix account players want to make a matrix for everything they see. Brand merchants think that the matrix is ​​too utilitarian, and private domain merchants think that brand merchants are too hypocritical! Therefore, various contempt chains have been derived.

Today I tried to describe the merchant ecosystem of Xiaohongshu, and gave my own thoughts on each type of merchant. I also hope that this framework will give you a new perspective on Xiaohongshu.

Figure 1: Panoramic view of 7 categories of merchants on Xiaohongshu

1. Individual merchants: natural flow + ROI on-site delivery

Individual merchants are the most numerous merchants on Xiaohongshu. They rely on advantages such as origin, supply, and price. They have no advertising budget, but only the urgency to sell goods.

For individual merchants, the core is to get more natural traffic, and matrix + on-site conversion is the core. In matrix account operation, you can start a batch of accounts, see which accounts have high weights, and focus on selecting operations.

Example: Miyi Loquat

I have personally seen that its sales volume has increased from 1K to 18,000 in just two months. In addition to its product features, I think there are two other reasons:

1. It is the continuous posting, two posts a day, of the execution of the appraisal;
2. The account weight is really good. Once you click on a note, its newly posted content will be refreshed. This is the metaphysics of account weight.

Similar fruit businesses include Zhaotong Fruit Girl, Xunwei Shanjian, Glowing Orchard, etc.

Figure 2: Miyi Loquat Natural Account

Individual merchants include not only fruit merchants, but also a large number of beauty, clothing, home furnishings and other categories.

After obtaining natural traffic and generating sales, you can use Matrix + Payment to directly deliver Qianfan product sales and make direct conversions on the site.

For example, the recently launched XIAO Zhan Original Studio relied on natural flow + advertising to achieve over 5 million sweatshirt sales, becoming the top sweatshirt brand on Xiaohongshu. Taobao instead became a function of displaying its prices.

Figure 3: XiAO Zhan’s original studio

Summary: Individual merchants operate through a combination of matrix numbers (individual + enterprise) + KOS accounts + product notes + Qianfan placement + live streaming sales + spotlight placement.

2. Private Domain Merchants: Matrix Account + KOS + KOL

Private domain merchants focus on the conversion cost of customers, and their types are concentrated in the decoration, wedding photography, jewelry, housekeeping, car rental, and printing industries.

• How to play: Matrix account + KOS + amateur + KOL + spotlight placement (customer information) + brand zone
• Matrix account: The core is quickly replicated and expanded, and different professional accounts are set up for different groups of people and different price points. ≥12 notes are produced per month. The enterprise account serves as the carrier of conversion and the base for conversion leads.
• KOS account: the brand’s shopping guide, sales staff, and managers;

Figure 4: Xiaohongshu’s dental industry matrix layout

• Amateur accounts: Amateur account matrix, write reviews and purchase experience;
• KOL placement: Private domain merchants can also report to influencers on Dandelion to write notes and get customer leads through direct advertising;
• Focus on delivery : collect customer information, quickly increase volume and monitor delivery costs;
• Brand Zone: Purchase the "Brand Zone" in the search box as shown below, intercept user search traffic, and note that you can consider it after the above is completed;

Figure 5: Xiaohongshu brand zone

Private domain strategies like Cloud Weight Loss, NIO, Chaohongji, and Platinum Travel Photography are all good examples.

Figure 6: Cloud weight loss professional account + KOS account + amateur account

3. In-store merchants: matrix account + amateur + expert

In-store merchants focus on offline stores, and merchants are concentrated in industries such as tea, SPA, and restaurants;

• How to play: Matrix account + amateur account + KOL + Qianfan placement + spotlight placement + brand zone
• Matrix number: Brand number and region number matrix + internal business line matrix
• Amateur account: Amateurs are recruited to visit the store and serve as real evaluation experience; KOL: KOLs are invited to visit the store and check in
• Qianfan delivery: For merchants with group purchase coupons, delivery can be done through the backend of a single store;
• Spotlight delivery: Use information flow to hit the expert notes and intercept keyword searches; Brand zone: Brand name intercepts user searches

Representative brand: Bawang Chaji

Figure 6: Farewell My Concubine on Xiaohongshu

4. Build a brand from 0 to 1: Copy high conversion notes

The brand here mostly refers to businesses that have trademarks and want to invest in brands for the long term.

Merchants who go from 0 to 1 can be divided into those with budgets and those without budgets. To measure whether you have a budget, you can instantly understand how much money you have in your pocket.

1. Merchants with small budgets

• Strategy: Professional account + New Sprout cooperation + Customized cooperation + Spotlight
• Professional account: Post product recommendations or recruitment notes, call on everyone to try out and distribute products, and constantly adjust product selling points;
• New Sprout Cooperation: The official recruitment of suitable experts, the experts will evaluate the experience based on this, and the brand will find out whether there are any selling points to adjust
• Customized cooperation: 1V1 to find experts, customize communication needs, and look at notes for interaction and conversion
• Spotlight delivery: deliver notes with conversions to see the conversion effect within the site;

2. Build a brand from 0 to 1 with a budget

For this type of merchants, the key is to find the selling points of their own products, combine professional accounts and influencers, especially influencers, to see the conversions on and off the site;

How to play: Professional account (product + brand introduction + promotion) + expert placement (vertical placement + general interest placement + direct original + amateur recruitment) + spotlight placement (planting grass + commercial sales) + Qianfan placement (commercial sales) + live broadcast (self-broadcast + Da broadcast)

Platforms such as IS, Guanxia, ​​and Her Research Society also belong to this type of clients. As new brands with budgets, we can analyze how they play on Xiaohongshu.

Figure 7: Brands with brand budgets from 0 to 1

5. Brands from 1 to 10: Seizing Category Opportunities

At this stage, the brand has become familiar with the rules of Xiaohongshu, online sales have exceeded 100 million, and the closed loop within Xiaohongshu has been completed.

At this time, the brand needs to seize the category. That is, when users search for category words, whether it is expert notes or advertising notes, there will be brands. First occupy the market share, and then seize the category in the user's mind.

Why seize the category?

Category = demand. Occupying a category means getting greater demand. To occupy a category, you can use professional accounts and expert notes to focus on search, and gradually penetrate from product-category-scenario-crowd.

Figure 9: Schematic diagram of Xiaohongshu’s race to seize the market

• Marketing strategy: Matrix professional account + influencer placement (expanding the circle) + advertising placement + live broadcast (self-broadcast + Da broadcast) + brand advertising + IP placement
• Matrix professional number: matrix number of different business departments
• Expert advertising: The essence is to expand the circle and attract new customers. Home appliance advertising is not only for home furnishings, but also for fashion, sports and other groups.
• Advertisement placement: Increase the search share and intercept more user decision-making needs
• Live broadcast: Dabo increases brand potential, and self-broadcasting gets more results; Brand advertising: Brand zone + business topics; IP placement: set aside part of the budget to participate in official IP marketing activities

Representative brands: PMPM, HBN.

Take HBN’s Xiaohongshu strategy as an example.

Figure 9: HBN seizes the retinol category and endorses the retinol category

6. From 10 to 100 brand customers

At this stage, the core of brand customers is to increase brand potential, strengthen user awareness, and build a brand moat;

• How to play: professional account + expert placement (specialized placement + general placement) + advertising placement + live broadcast (self-broadcast + expert broadcast) + brand advertising + IP placement;
• Focus on influencer placement and brand advertising;
• Talent placement: conventional placement + head and celebrity event operations; brand advertising: commercial topics + IP operation placement, the core is to continue to increase brand potential and guide user decision-making;

Representative brands: Bananain, Dyson, and PROYA. The brands at this stage are subject to further research.

7. 100-N Brand Customers

Purpose: Selling goods + cross-border new categories

How to play: Professional account + expert placement (transparency) + advertising placement (search) + live broadcast (self-broadcast + Da broadcast) + IP placement cooperation

Representative brands: Estee Lauder, Lancome, Feihe, OPPO

Example: OPPO’s Little Red Book gameplay

Figure 10: OPPO Xiaohongshu gameplay

The above is a summary of the operating methods for 7 different types of merchants. There are more detailed contents that need to be discussed regarding the specific operations of each type of merchant.

Author: Jiang He, WeChat public account: Jiang He Talks Marketing