In the era of video account commercialization 2.0, how should brands seize this opportunity?

This year's "Double Eleven" event is coming, and all brands want to "carve out another piece of land" in this already saturated market. This article takes advantage of the ever-popular video account marketing and analyzes how brands can commercialize video accounts, gain more traffic based on this, and thus expand their brand positions. Are you still wondering how to capture the hearts of users on Double Eleven? Come and have a look.

For brands, the marketing war on Double 11 is not easy to fight - for more than a decade, the popularity and participation of Double 11 have been extremely saturated. Everyone knows what to stock up on Double 11, and it is not easy to innovate on the basis of the consensus. Especially at the moment when consumption is downgraded and consumers are more rational, major e-commerce platforms are focusing on "low prices" and "volume" has reached the extreme.

However, behind the vigorous price cuts and promotions, brands also need to think more rationally: First, in this fairly mature Double 11, how can brands attract more attention and drive more growth in the homogeneous competition? Second, is the low-price strategy really suitable for the long-term development of brands and channels? Can the impressive sales data build up barriers for brands? On this point, Mr. Bingfa glimpsed some new answers from the video account that has just entered the Double 11 event.

01 Drive brand growth with high-quality content, the traffic of video accounts is really "fragrant"

When all products are discounted at the same time, "content" is the key to helping consumers solve the problem of "what to buy on Double 11". However, in the current communication environment, the promotion cost of e-commerce platforms is high, homogeneous competition is very fierce, and short video platforms are too dependent on algorithms and feedback is very unstable. It is difficult for brand output content to reach target users in fragmented attention.

However, in the "decentralized" ecosystem of Video Account, people do not need and cannot use some of the popular "routines" and traffic formulas of other platforms. Everyone is on the same starting line, and brands can let go and explore and use their own advantages. Coupled with the traffic investment capabilities of Video Account, content of different stages and styles does not have to be "rolled" in the same channel.

Take the couple Bao Ge and Bao Sao, who sold 35 million products on June 18 this year. Although they only entered the video account in August last year, they soon regarded it as the main direction of future development. On the one hand, the unique recommendation mechanism of the video account, which combines the social attributes of WeChat and user interests, can increase the emotional temperature beyond the algorithm. There are many experts like them on the video account who attract fans through the warm content of daily family life. These real and sincere contents are not only easier to reach and impress users, but also have stronger stickiness. On the other hand, it is also related to the user portrait of the video account live broadcast. Users on the video account have stronger consumption power and pay attention to product quality and live broadcast companionship. This also adds a differentiated "breathing point" to the competitive environment that focuses on low prices, giving slow-paced content more opportunities. Why not do it?

02What are the new opportunities in the 2.0 era of video account commercialization?

In fact, for a long time, video accounts have left everyone scratching their heads: some bloggers who have few fans have sold out as soon as they start broadcasting; some experienced professionals have not made much splash after a lot of operations. There are no routines or methodologies, but we only know that the operating model here is different from other platforms. However, as the content ecology and product functions of video accounts continue to mature, the attitudes of many brands have also experienced a change from waiting to entering the market.

If we divide it by time, the period before August this year was the 1.0 era of video account commercialization. The more common way of playing was to first import the private domain into the public domain to leverage traffic, then lock the traffic into the private domain for precipitation and monetization, and finally import it into the public domain, and continue the cycle. This is the so-called public-private domain linkage. This stage is mainly to make the video account "move". After the new regulations in August this year, the commercialization of the video account also entered the 2.0 era with public domain traffic as the core from the previous 1.0 era with private domain traffic as the core. This stage cleared the obstacles for non-private domain players and opened a commercial competition stage for everyone. The video account may really "run".

Nowadays, there are three main sources of traffic for video live broadcasts, namely public domain traffic, private domain traffic and paid traffic. As the WeChat ecosystem continues to evolve, the number of orders continues to increase, and user portraits become clearer, if brands want to achieve higher traffic breakthroughs in live broadcast rooms, they need to change from "passive" to "active". What should they do specifically? In Mr. Bingfa's opinion, the traffic strategy in the public domain is different from that in the private domain. In simple terms, it can be divided into two categories:

One is the natural flow approach. It follows the most basic business logic, using good content to retain customers, good products to close deals, and good services to attract repeat purchases. Compared with platforms that focus on young groups, WeChat Video Accounts will pay more attention to diversity in content construction. Whether it is games, animation, or health care, merchants can find corresponding content entry points.

The other is the paid traffic strategy. On the basis of providing good content, products and services, the official traffic investment tools (currently there are two types of traffic investment in the video account live broadcast room, one is WeChat Beans and the other is Tencent ADQ advertising) are used to amplify traffic and improve business efficiency.

Of course, the two methods of natural flow and paid flow are not mutually exclusive. Hu Yongmin, the founder of Teller E-commerce, chose both methods at the same time. After all, natural flow is a great test of product selection and anchors. Suitable anchors may be one in a hundred. In comparison, the threshold for paid flow is lower for anchors, and it is easier to achieve large-scale development. So his approach is to put the verified hit products into the paid live broadcast room to make them popular while doing pure natural flow live broadcast. In specific practice, two flow tools were also selected at the same time - first use WeChat Douyang account, small amount and multiple transactions, label the live broadcast room, obtain accurate users, and then use ADQ to amplify it, so that it can obtain the target population faster and more accurately. Although the two parallel methods in the commercialization 2.0 era of video accounts have their own advantages, if multiple methods and multiple tools can cooperate with each other, it may be surprisingly effective and achieve results far beyond expectations.

03Video accounts are not only about “videos”, but also a long-term brand position

Another very important point is that the process of selling consumer goods is not the same as the process of building brand barriers. Many products that sold well on Double 11 may have hit a temporary blank spot in the market or hit a period of traffic bonus, which may not bring long-term benefits to the brand. So what is so special about the transactions formed on the video account? What benefits can be gained by establishing a brand position in the Tencent ecosystem?

First of all, the "connector" role of the video account is the basis for obtaining high-quality traffic. When understanding the value of the video account, we cannot just start with the word "video". It is more like an important connector, connecting different sub-businesses in the Tencent ecosystem, connecting the public domain + private domain, and connecting merchants, users and creators. It is this special role that allows traffic to circulate repeatedly in the ecosystem and more easily bring long-term benefits to the brand.

Secondly, the dual flywheel position of video account + mini program makes business growth faster and more stable. Although the live broadcast and short video trailers of video account are mainly completed through video account stores, for merchants, mini program is not just a "shelf", but a "bridge" between private domain and video account. Merchants can activate private domain through the fission function of mini program, and can also introduce private domain social relationships into the video account ecosystem, and can also maintain high-value customers in a targeted manner and generate continuous repurchase behavior through services.

Finally, explore the long-term impact of the promotion on the brand and expand the brand position of global operation. In the comprehensive promotion of the entire network such as Double 11, the attention allocated to each brand is not much. Brands need to have their own independent plans and build their own global operation positions, so that each link can become a key window for reaching conversion. The many tools of the WeChat ecosystem, such as Tencent Video, WeChat official accounts, mini-program malls, shopping guide communities, etc., these positional infrastructures have provided a good soil for the brand's global operation and laid a good foundation for each e-commerce promotion.

In conclusion:

When an industry begins to operate in a refined manner, it not only means that it has entered the red ocean, but also means that the industry has passed the extensive stage and has begun to truly mature. But at the same time, the more accurate the platform's traffic algorithm, the more perfect the delivery tools, and the closer the merchant's ROI is to the average level, then relatively speaking, the smaller the dividends will be. So while some people complain that ADQ and WeChat beans are not accurate enough, Mr. Bingfa thinks that this is the best time to enter the video account. Because uncertainty means that competition is not sufficient, it means that dividends are still there, and it means that ordinary players also have relatively fair opportunities. And what is certain is that the commercial efficiency of the video account commercialization 2.0 era will be higher, and the scale and speed at which players make money will be greatly improved. I believe that those forward-looking and strategic brands will also highlight their true value at this stage, so let's wait and see.

Author: Mr. Bingfa

Source: WeChat public account: "Marketing Art of War" (ID: lanhaiyingxiao)