When the market faces incremental transfer volume, what should Xiaohongshu do in marketing?

How to do marketing on Xiaohongshu? The author shares two strategic directions: "consolidating one's own user pool" and "seizing the user pool of competing products". It is suitable for niche tracks with low ceilings, brands and users with growth bottlenecks in their own fields, with high education costs and long education time, and unable to expand new categories in a short period of time. Read together!

When we face a growth bottleneck that we cannot break through, the situation is actually worse than it appears.

The market share you have may be divided or occupied by other brands at any time. The market is always a situation where you either advance or retreat.

However, the cost-effectiveness of marketing is getting lower and lower. We can no longer maintain the previous customer acquisition costs. If we want to make continuous progress, we need more efficient customer development strategies.

When I was talking with many brands recently, I found that everyone had this kind of anxiety to a greater or lesser extent, so today I would like to write a separate article to talk about my experience and thoughts.

Today's content is more suitable for -

Niche track with low ceiling

Brands that have encountered growth bottlenecks in their own fields

User education costs are high, education takes a long time, and it is impossible to expand new categories in a short period of time

1. Two main strategic directions for achieving growth

In this case, we have two paths that need to be pursued simultaneously in order to reverse the current situation.

1. Consolidate its own user pool

Given our limited energy, consolidating our own user pool is the most important and essential thing.

When market demand is very saturated, building user loyalty is a continuous process and users will not become our stable long-term users just after using our product once.

Continuously inspiring and deepening the connection between us and our users and avoiding churn are the foundation for our growth.

2. Seize the user pool of competing products

The competitors mentioned here include upstream and downstream and vertical competitors in the same track, as well as the target population pool of these competitors.

In actual operation, we also found that sometimes it is much easier to seize the upstream and downstream competitive markets than to seize the markets of competitors in the same track.

Our strategies for seizing these two types of competing products are completely different.

Upstream and downstream products

Focusing on consumption upgrade or replacement demand targets, we turn upstream and downstream demand groups into our own users.

I will explain how to replace it in detail later.

Horizontal competition

For direct horizontal competitors, we should focus on highlighting our advantages. On the premise of meeting the pain points and urgent needs, it is not recommended to make a more in-depth comparison with competitors.

Because what the user chooses is not the "optimal solution" in an objective sense, but the product that best meets his existing needs.

Next, let’s focus on these two steps and see what we can do in Xiaohongshu marketing and what we need to pay attention to in content layout.

2. Consolidate your own user pool

I divide my user pool into two parts:

Already a brand user

Anyone who is already using our products, whether he is a loyal user who has repurchased the products many times or a new user who is buying the products for the first time, is considered a user of our brand as long as he is currently using the products.

Former brand user

Another type is users who have purchased our products, but in terms of the product life cycle, they have not repurchased from us and are considered former users.

For example, if a user last bought toothpaste a year ago and has not purchased our toothpaste again in this year, then he can only be considered a former user of ours.

Because it is impossible for him to use only one toothpaste for the whole year, he must have used our toothpaste and then chose another brand when he bought it again.

With this distinction, the existing value and difference of each type of user segment to us become very clear.

Let’s take a look at what we should do for these two types of users.

1. Existing brand users

Since he is already in the process of using the product, there is no need to magnify the user experience too much. Instead, you should spend more effort on establishing his needs and brand recognition, and even strengthening the memory points of the product and brand, so that he will have a deep impression of you and establish a bond with himself imperceptibly.

In this way, repeat purchases can be promoted, thus cultivating usage habits and ultimately converting them into long-term users.

First, repeatedly reinforce your main selling points in the content you use to promote your products, such as Wang Xiaolu’s one-second boneless food, Mo Xiaoxian’s real ingredients for less than ten yuan, and Lan’s cat food made with all fresh meat.

Of course, in addition to selling points, strengthening pain points and usage scenarios can also help us bind users.

For example, the familiar slogans such as “Drink Wanglaoji if you’re afraid of getting a sore throat”, “I won’t accept any gifts this Chinese New Year, the only gift I’ll accept is Naobaijin”, “Bring the joy home”, etc., all use this method in content dissemination, helping us to recover memories in specific pain points and scenarios, thereby promoting repeat purchases.

Of course, brands can have different communication focuses in content marketing as they develop and the market changes, but I still recommend maintaining consistency as much as possible, whether it is a single product or an entire brand.

In previous marketing, most brands pursued the greatest common divisor, using content to reach the largest possible number of people in order to generate conversions, but few would delve into targeting precise groups of people.

I always feel that precision means less.

But we have overlooked one point: no matter how small the precise segment of the population is, it is still a very large market given the existing population base, and this market is a scale that most brands cannot reach.

In addition to strengthening product binding, brand customer maintenance is also one of our focus areas for this user group.

Simply put, it is to upgrade the user experience, strengthen the emotional connection, and at the same time frequently show your presence so that he will continue to repurchase and refer customers.

But when it comes to content, my strategy is divided into two categories based on the different product characteristics.

①High frequency products

High-frequency products are divided into consumables, such as toothpaste, paper towels, sanitary napkins, laundry detergent and other daily necessities, and non-consumables, such as air fryers, baby bottles, electric cookers and other daily necessities.

Users of high-frequency consumables are likely to repurchase, whether out of habit or through the recommendation mechanism of e-commerce purchasing platforms. But at the same time, due to the low decision-making cost, users are also easily attracted to other brands.

At this time, the content gameplay of our corporate account is very important.

Membership days, gifts for posting orders, and check-in activities are all the ways of playing that I recommend. They can not only help brands promote their products, but also increase the user's sense of participation.

②Low frequency and high price products

As for low-frequency, high-priced items, although the frequency of repurchase is not high, the purchase of such products is highly dependent on user word of mouth and referrals.

From this perspective, maintaining customer relationships is also something we must do.

In addition to daily promotions and the content mentioned above, it is also necessary to establish the brand’s humanities and personality.

Ultimately, it is still based on the product, giving users a stronger and deeper emotional connection and a continuous sense of freshness, so as to deepen the bond with users.

Let him "like it more and more" instead of "want to try something new next time".

2. Former brand users

For former brand users, our marketing difficulty is actually no less than that for new users.

There are two reasons for switching to other brands: other brands are more closely matched to their needs, or we do not meet their expectations for the product, or even create a negative impression.

At this time, in addition to the customer maintenance mentioned above, we also need to do two things:

Product upgrades based on market feedback

Some friends may feel at a loss as to where to start in this regard, and don’t know in which aspects their products should be upgraded or where they need to be optimized.

When we at Xingyuan make recommendations in this regard, we will focus on two aspects.

E-commerce platform asks everyone

It brings together the confusions of users with precise purchasing intentions.

It may be a problem with the user's basic understanding of the category and product, or it may be some functional issues that we did not mention in the promotion or that make him still confused.

E-commerce platform comment area

In addition to influencing potential purchasers, feedback from existing users can also help us think about upgrade directions, rather than simply removing content that we consider negative as if it doesn’t exist.

Xiaohongshu Comment Area

The population portrait here is broader than that of the e-commerce platform, which also reflects the demands of a larger base of users, whether they are deep users of the category or friends who are learning about the category for the first time.

At the same time, we can also plan content direction based on the issues that these groups are concerned about.

In addition to looking at the feedback on our own products, for these three parts, we can also look horizontally at the feedback on competitors and categories to understand what a large number of users are paying attention to and what unresolved user pain points exist in the track.

Of course, product upgrades are still based on our brand and product positioning, rather than having to make it a top-level hexagonal warrior in all aspects.

Adding leverage he again chooses our hook

Activities targeting old customers such as group buying, low-price promotions, new product trials, etc., coupled with our product iterations, or his long-term attention to us, can encourage him to try us again!

Especially for high frequency consumables!

3. Seize the user pool of competing products

Seizing the user pool of competitors is probably what every brand continues to do, and it is even placed on a higher level than consolidating its own user pool.

As mentioned earlier, the competitors mentioned here, in addition to our direct competitors, the upstream, downstream and horizontal competitor user pools are also worthy of our attention.

For example, if we are a milk tea brand, in addition to paying attention to users of other milk tea brands, brand users of coffee and tea, solid instant beverages and even cold drinks and ice cream are all worth expanding and exploring.

At this time, the strategy in content marketing is very important.

1. Basin layout

Judging from the traffic pool of the Xiaohongshu platform, we need to divide the browsing domain and search domain into different sections, although a note cannot be seen in only one traffic area.

In the browsing domain, we need to focus on interest and scenario-based reading, downplay in-depth explanations of the product, and instead highlight the highlights, providing users with a memory point to encourage them to enter the search.

In the search domain, the in-depth evaluations and grass-planting content we create must also pay attention to the reading experience and multi-faceted coverage. Simply put, the content should be diverse, so that the reader will find it interesting and have different understandings after reading more articles, thereby deepening their understanding and impression of us and even being attracted to the content.

Instead, all notes have the same style and the same rhetoric. Not only will the persuasiveness of the recommendation be greatly reduced, but users will also have no desire to read in depth. They will just read one article and leave. We may therefore miss out on a convertible user.

2. Selling point layout

With the goal of seizing the user pool of competitors, we need to have more changes in the layout of content selling points, rather than a single vertical main memory point.

Of course, for the same product, no matter how we expand it, it is not recommended to change the main memory point. We cannot lose our original things in order to expand our customer base.

Here are a few content directions for your reference.

Expand usage richness and usage scenarios

Simply put, it means that your product can do more than just what it was originally designed to do.

For example, a yogurt machine, in addition to making yogurt, can also be used as a water warmer for cats, to heat rice and milk in the dormitory, and even steam cakes, etc.

These are not intended to confuse or even replace the usage scenarios of the product itself, but to allow users to realize that "it can do other things" based on the original functions of the product. This will greatly enhance the value of the product and greatly increase their expected frequency of use, thereby increasing their psychological bargaining chips in purchasing you, and even leading them to place an order directly!

CP combination to extend selling points or increase population coverage

This is a commonly used method in the beauty and skin care industry. Even many brands are not limited to their own brands when bundling and matching.

For example, the double-antibiotic essence that brought PROYA back into the consumer's attention in the past two years was used in conjunction with Clinique's laser essence before its ruby ​​essence came out.

As Clinique's flagship product with quite active users, Clinique Laser Essence played an important role in promoting the exposure of PROYA Double Anti-Aging Essence and driving conversions in the early stage.

Based on the characteristics of the product itself, jump out of the original target group for marketing and improve the adaptability of the crowd

For example, a dad shirt on Pinduoduo directly converted the target audience into JK girls during marketing, and it sold out immediately!

This is because the dad shirt and JK cardigan are very similar and can be used as a "substitute" for JK girls.

This marketing direction directly jumps out of the original limited scope of the product during design and production, but it does not change the properties of the product itself, it only improves its adaptability to the population!

In short, when our overall market growth is limited, we should prioritize the existing user pool and then find ways to seize the competitive market. All of this requires us to spend more energy on content communication.

Author: Bobo, public account: Bobo's cooking class