It is crucial to run Xiaohongshu's grass-roots conversion across the entire network and use this model well

How to use Xiaohongshu to achieve full network conversion? The author of this article introduces the path of Xiaohongshu to achieve full network conversion based on the "crowd reverse funnel model", and introduces the case of converting large promotion volume into brand assets. Let's take a look!

I recently did a round of platform research and found that brand people have a love-hate relationship with Xiaohongshu. On the one hand, they know it is very important and can reach the core group very accurately, especially if they want to promote products now, they cannot do without Xiaohongshu. On the other hand, they think it is difficult to scale up Xiaohongshu, especially for emerging brands with limited budgets, who are under pressure from GMV and ROI, and are even more hesitant.

But during this 618, I saw that both mature brands and emerging brands had some cases of promoting products on Xiaohongshu, achieving conversions across the entire network, and achieving both brand and effect.

For example, Chando’s new freeze-dried collagen mask was promoted all over Xiaohongshu, and its GMV on the entire network exceeded 10 million within one month after its launch, with sales of 800,000+ on the site; PROYA promoted its double-antibiotic essence 3.0, with sales of nearly 20,000 units on Xiaohongshu; Mobang Jewelry’s sales during the 618 shopping festival increased by more than 146% month-on-month, and its ROI on the site exceeded 16.

In order to help everyone summarize some replicable methodologies, I found Xuan Shuang, general manager of the commercial beauty, luxury and fashion apparel industry group of Xiaohongshu, and Louise Zhang, head of Chando Media, to discuss from the perspectives of platform and brand:

1. What new methods did brands use to break out of the circle on Xiaohongshu during the 618 shopping festival?

2. What is the key to opening up the conversion path of Xiaohongshu across the entire network?

3. Can large promotional volumes really be converted into brand assets on Xiaohongshu?

1. Xiaohongshu’s “reverse funnel” allows seeding to be effective with minimal effort

The brands that successfully broke through the circle on Xiaohongshu during the 618 shopping festival all used a "crowd reverse funnel model". This is the key to brands breaking through the circle on Xiaohongshu.

As can be seen from the picture below, the "reverse funnel model" is based on the premise that the brand first finds a "good product", finds the most core group of people to plant grass based on the characteristics of the product, and then gradually breaks through the circle to interested groups, and then to the general population. It can be said to be a "Little Red Book feature" model.

Friends who are familiar with the art of marketing know that I proposed a "crowd strategy" last year. Different from the "category strategy" of large penetration and large distribution, the "crowd strategy" is to develop products based on the needs of a certain precise group of people, and then resonate through the refined operation of the crowd and content, and finally expand the crowd through referral fission. This coincides with Xiaohongshu's "crowd anti-funnel model".

I always believe in "people-oriented". Branding will eventually return to "people" themselves. The interesting thing about Xiaohongshu is that it does not classify people with cold data labels, but puts people in each segmented lifestyle and scenario. What brands see on Xiaohongshu are vivid people. A brand's true understanding of its own users is the basis for the operation of the crowd reverse funnel model, and it is also the underlying methodology for Xiaohongshu.

Specifically, the "reverse funnel model" allows brands to gradually break through the circle along the path of "core population-interest population-general population" on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is also a small-step-and-fast delivery method that can save budget.

The data of original notes, likes, comments, favorites, etc. accumulated in the Xiaohongshu community can help brands find new scenarios, new groups and new product opportunities. After the brand selects the product, it can test it in the "core group" circle. If it is effective, it can quickly invest resources. If the test results are not as expected, it will replace the product as soon as possible to stop the loss in time.

The hair care brand Schwarzkopf has penetrated the hair care market through this model. How does it do this?

First of all, Schwarzkopf chose hair mask and hair care essential oil in product selection. The common points of these two products are: they have specific functions, meet the needs of advanced hair care, conform to the trend of "exquisite hair care", and can carry brand potential.

Based on the product features, Schwarzkopf has targeted the people who use Schwarzkopf hair dye as the core group. First, the Schwarzkopf brand itself has a strong hair dye mentality. Second, compared with the general population, they use hair masks and hair care oils more frequently and have a certain degree of brand awareness, saving the cost of education. Another important point is that if this group of people with severely damaged hair can have a good experience and feedback after using the product, that is the best advertisement.

After the product has accumulated a certain reputation through targeted promotion among the core groups, it is then expanded to the large group of people who perm and dye their hair and those who take care of their hair on a daily basis. Through word of mouth, people who did not use hair masks or hair care oils before have also become their users.

It is worth noting that the “crowd anti-funnel model” does not end here. In the process of expanding its crowd, Schwarzkopf found new crowd opportunities based on the high-frequency scene needs of Xiaohongshu users related to hair care.

The core point of the hair perm and dyeing crowd is the function, and the user experience is another user pain point. Schwarzkopf grasps the fragrance of hair care essential oils and hair masks and expands them by combining them with user life scenarios, such as social dating, etc.

Interestingly, the label of frequent perming and dyeing also helped Schwarzkopf accidentally reach the ACG crowd. According to positive thinking, it is difficult to connect Schwarzkopf with the ACG world. But the crowd reverse funnel model can find the hidden line where the brand and users intersect.

2. If you want to achieve faster conversion across the entire network, first find the “potential energy SPU”

The premise for the crowd reverse funnel model to work is that the product selection is good enough. I have summarized the cases and found that brands at any stage and in different tracks have the opportunity to grow on Xiaohongshu. In particular, high-potential brands in niche tracks, products and categories with emotional and cultural value are more suitable for Xiaohongshu.

In other words, the key to seeding is to find "potential SPU", that is, products with high quality-price ratio, highly satisfying the needs of the core group, and leading the trend. This requires brands to sort out their product structure and know which are "big currency" products that can be promoted to boost sales, and which are potential products that can maintain brand awareness.

"Potential Energy SPU" usually has a high market education cost, and it is more difficult to directly reach the general population, but finding the core group on Xiaohongshu is equivalent to giving the academic master questions first, and then letting the academic master take the initiative to teach more people.

This 618, Chando has achieved just that.

As a skincare brand that has been established for more than 20 years, Chando's marketing strategy has always been based on omni-channel exposure and brand image communication. The most impressive thing about it is the slogan "You are beautiful". But to be honest, its products and positioning are relatively vague.

In the past three years, Chando has gradually attached importance to online communication, with the goal of communicating with users and promoting product strength, brand recognition and favorability. To this end, Chando entered the repair and anti-aging track, seized the trend of sensitive skin care, and developed the exclusive ingredient "Ximoin" after ten years, and launched a new freeze-dried collagen mask.

This is a typical "potential SPU" - it conforms to the general trend of sensitive skin repair, represents the brand's R&D strength, and can also meet the needs of high-end skin care groups such as ingredient lovers and medical aesthetics.

People with sensitive skin and anti-aging needs are the core group of freeze-dried collagen masks. Where do these people like to share their skin care experiences the most? The answer is Xiaohongshu. This is why Chando chose to go all in on Xiaohongshu. Before launching new products, Chando worked with experts on Xiaohongshu to educate people about the "Himerin" ingredient for a year. In Louise's words, Xiaohongshu gathers many advanced skin care people, and communicating with them is like throwing a difficult problem to a "student master".

During the official product promotion phase, Chando targeted people with sensitive skin and anti-aging needs to conduct in-depth product promotion. In order to improve the efficiency of product promotion, Chando further subdivided the population by scenarios after determining the population through search and browsing data, such as staying up late, changing seasons, and after medical aesthetics. In this way, the communication between the brand and the user is not simply saying "my product is effective", but telling stories based on the user's life, making TA feel more involved.

“The data from Xiaohongshu helps us refine the anti-aging scenarios again and again, making the content deeper and broader, so that people will basically buy it immediately after reading it,” Louise added.

After penetrating the core population, Chando's next step is to target the radiant skin care population and the general population.

At the second level of the reverse funnel model, the users that brands encounter may not necessarily have sensitive skin, but they also have anti-aging needs and will pay attention to functional skin care. At this time, the points to be communicated are more about ingredients and efficacy, and the mind is conveyed through KOL evaluation content. At the third level, the population is wider, so it is necessary to promote the mind of the big promotion, and expand the radiation area through live broadcasts and IP cooperation with Li Jiaqi.

With the previous preparation, the conversion effect is improved. Chando not only promoted the conversion of the entire network through Xiaohongshu, but also opened up the conversion path within Xiaohongshu.

Louise told me that the launch of the freeze-dried collagen mask has verified the effectiveness of the conversion link on Xiaohongshu. Therefore, the mission of this product is not only to become a hot-selling product to boost sales, but also to achieve the strategic significance of Chando's business model on Xiaohongshu.

"We need to understand what kind of products and what style of content have high conversion rates on Xiaohongshu. Xiaohongshu is not a place to play with traffic, but a content-driven logic," Louise concluded. "We will not invest a large budget all at once when launching a new product. We must first see that it is effective among the core group of people, and then expand it little by little. When sales and word of mouth accumulate to a certain amount, half of the traffic may be obtained for free. This free half is very important to me. Compared with mass media placement, the reverse funnel model is a more deterministic marketing method."

This statement made me see the possibility that brands at different stages of development and in different tracks can find new growth on Xiaohongshu. In fact, some brands have already achieved good results.

Relying on the reverse funnel model of the population, Yuze radiates from young oily and sensitive skin to people in need of repair, creating a matrix of people with sensitive skin types, while strengthening the brand's positioning as a barrier self-repair expert, helping Yuze's oily and sensitive cream to successfully become a hit and take the top spot on Tmall's new face creams; Tianlufen launched the essence oil category in the midsummer season, taking advantage of the new trend of "whitening with oil" to capture the opportunity group. During the 618 period, sales across the region soared, and the Xiaohongshu self-closed loop GMV reached 1.5 million+.

Mobang Jewelry has taken advantage of the new Chinese jewelry trend, turned the owner into an IP, launched high-order jewelry, and used content to drive sales. Its sales during the 618 shopping festival increased by more than 146% month-on-month, and its ROI on the site exceeded 16%. There is also a high-performance yoga vest brand. It built a content matrix around hot scenes such as anti-body anxiety and dopamine dressing, and accurately targeted the general sports and fashion crowds, breaking through the red ocean track of yoga vests. The sales of the product in the store during the 618 shopping festival increased by 500% month-on-month, becoming the store's top sales item.

3. Find the right people and "potential products" to turn big sales into brand assets

It is generally recognized that Xiaohongshu is one of the few channels suitable for branding, but brand potential is something that is difficult to estimate and it is not as intuitive as calculating GMV and ROI.

In response to this pain point, Xiaohongshu is also constantly optimizing indicators and tools. For example, Xiaohongshu's data platform Lingxi can see category opportunities, user needs, content trends, etc.; Dandelion's "Content Square" can summarize content trends and the characteristics of high-quality notes through data. There is also KFS, which has been invested heavily this year, to help brands amplify their potential based on finding content trends.

I believe that most brands use Xiaohongshu not just to create hits. The goal of Xiaohongshu's big promotion is not just instant GMV, but to convert single product sales into brand assets.

Proya is a typical example of successfully converting single product sales into brand assets. During the 618 shopping festival this year, Proya promoted the Double Anti-Aging Essence 3.0 on Xiaohongshu. Relying on the accumulation of the Double Anti-Aging Essence’s audience, the company used the “old” to lead the “new” to penetrate multiple circles, and sold nearly 20,000 units on Xiaohongshu.

The double-anti-aging essence is a traditional hit product of PROYA. PROYA's path to expanding the audience is from old fans of the brand to new customers of the brand to people interested in anti-aging and whitening to the skin care market. The key to the breakthrough of the double-anti-aging essence 3.0 is to let old customers spread word of mouth and achieve fission based on the iterative upgrade of the ingredients, technology and formula of the big single product.

As for the transformation of brand assets, it is a combination of punches. After PROYA's dual-antibiotic essence and ruby ​​essence consolidated the early C and late A groups, it successively launched the source essence, advanced to the "skin care ABC formula", and strengthened the brand's ability to lead trends. Then expand the categories of face creams, masks, eye creams, etc., and extend the use scenarios. After the product consolidates the track advantage, the image and potential are established through brand content.

So to sum up, the key to accumulating brand assets and creating potential on Xiaohongshu is to first find the right people and "potential products" and then output product value.

Product value can be divided into use value and emotional value. Both Chando and Proya emphasize the emotional value of products when selecting and recommending products, and this is exactly why users are willing to pay a premium. This logic applies to many categories, such as laundry detergent. If you say that it washes clothes clean, it is use value, and if you say that the clothes smell good after washing and you feel good all day, it is emotional value.

Back to the original question, is it really difficult for Xiaohongshu to break through the circle and achieve scale? I think some brands have already given the answer. Xiaohongshu can break through the circle from one scene to another, or it can dig out the marketing value from the pain points of crowd needs, break through from the core crowd, and break through the circle layer by layer. Every scene and every core crowd requires one-on-one in-depth cultivation. Find the right product and use the right method, even with a small budget, you can achieve surprising results.

Author: Jingmin; Editor: Daojie Doris

Source: WeChat public account "刀姐doris（doriskerundong）"