In the era of private domains, why are brand mini-programs starting to build content communities?

In recent years, private domain traffic has changed from a "concept" to a "standard configuration" for enterprises. Brands rely on private domain traffic for communication and promotion. Among them, mini programs are quite critical. They are not only a transaction purchase platform, but also a link to consumer social interaction functions. In the era of private domain, why are brand mini programs starting to become content communities? This article takes Jiang Xiaobai and Jiangnan Buyi as examples for analysis. Let's take a look.

As the cost of public domain traffic continues to rise, private domain traffic has also evolved from a "concept" to a "standard configuration" for enterprises.

The brand’s own official accounts, mini programs, social networks and other channels are all touchpoints that can achieve continuous repurchase from users at a low cost. Among them, “mini programs” are quite critical, usually including shopping malls and membership modules, and play the role of conversion and retention.

After studying many brand cases, we found that in recent years, brands have quietly changed their mini programs. Many brands have added content communities to their mini programs, such as:

• Jiang Xiaobai@Bottle Planet-Wine Talk
• Pure Cotton Era@Pure Cotton Era Official Mall-Community
• Jiangnan Buyi @JNBY Official Mall - Fashion Community
• …

Many brands have begun to seek differentiation, trying to start with content, attracting and retaining consumers through high-quality content and unique forms.

This represents a trend that mini programs are no longer just a single transaction and purchase platform. They need to take on the role of promoting products to consumers and operating them, and also include social interaction functions between consumers.

Why is this trend occurring?

01 Why is content community a trend?

In the past, the industry was centered on “goods”, with clear user needs, screening the goods they needed, and a long decision cycle. Today, the industry is centered on “people”, with unknown user consumption needs, easy to be “planted”, and a short decision cycle.

This shows that the current user consumption path has completely changed, and the factors influencing consumers' shopping decisions have shifted to more dimensions such as content and social interaction.

In order to adapt to this change, brands are also gradually transforming, building content communities, and achieving a close integration of social scenarios and content marketing, thereby driving transaction conversions.

Especially for the brand's private domain traffic operation, building a content community in the mini program can fill the operating form between the official account and the community, establish a continuous and stable relationship with users, improve service efficiency, and precipitate private domain content. It is the best carrier for active users.

Specifically, there are three benefits and advantages:

1) Explore user value and optimize products and strategies

Content communities can directly tap into user value because within the community, brands can communicate directly with consumers, understand their feedback and preferences on products, and continuously upgrade and iterate products.

It can also develop targeted marketing strategies and deeply understand customer needs to promote conversions.

2) Build trust and promote word of mouth

On the platform, it is not very convincing for merchants to say how good their products are. It is like Wang Po bragging about her own products. They are often more willing to believe consumers like themselves.

The community can give consumers a voice, allowing other consumers to be reached more quickly and accurately, and can also enhance consumers' sense of brand identity.

Brand fans can also communicate more often, solve each other's problems related to products or shopping, and recommend products to each other.

3) Enrich gameplay and improve user stickiness

If ordinary businesses want to establish their brand reputation, they cannot do without various marketing activities. In the mini program community, there are more marketing methods, such as participating in topic discussions, winning prizes based on reading rankings, and allowing users to participate in activities spontaneously.

You can even link up with public domain platforms to organize activities, such as sharing your product experience on Xiaohongshu, signing in to the community to win rewards. In addition, you can also start a group purchase with multiple people, do community group purchases on mini programs, and form fan fission.

According to official WeChat statistics, there are dozens of entrances to mini programs, including the "Search" entrance. This also allows the content in brand mini programs to continue to receive higher exposure.

Smart brands have long ceased to regard mini programs as simple "electronic shelves", but rather as new content platforms carefully operated by the brand officials.

So how can brand mini programs play a good role in content communities? Perhaps the following cases can give you some inspiration.

02 Case Analysis: Jiang Xiaobai Bottle Planet

Jiang Xiaobai, a liquor brand famous for its marketing, has always liked to "play" with consumers, and this style is more obvious in the mini program.

Jiang Xiaobai's mini program "Bottle Planet" was established in 2020. In addition to the wine mall and membership system, it also focuses on the "Wine Talk" and "Wine Review" communities.

As long as users purchase and use Jiang Xiaobai products, they can taste the wine, share their feelings and ratings about it in these two communities, and interact with other users.

Through this form, we can form all-round contacts and marketing interactions with users, strengthening users' awareness of the brand's products and image.

The following is a breakdown of the Pingzi Planet Mini Program community module, which is mainly divided into three dimensions: drainage, activity, and retention:

1) Drainage

Jiang Xiaobai has invested huge resources both online and offline to attract traffic to the content community.

A QR code is directly attached to Jiang Xiaobai's "Expression Bottle", and users can scan the code to directly access Jiang Xiaobai's membership mini program "Bottle Planet" and participate in the community activities of the Tucao activity. And the one-item-one-code method is adopted to accurately reach users across all channels.

In the public account "BottlePlanet", users will be automatically sent a link to the mini program after following it, and the cover of the mini program also states the activity of "One Million Cash for Wine Reviews" to stimulate user participation. In addition, there is also a diversion of community topic activities in the menu bar.

When you enter the Bottle Planet mini program, you can find that in the carousel banner at the top of the homepage, the first two pictures are community topics. You can click to jump to participate in the topic. The "Wine Talk" community section is also placed after the homepage.

Scrolling down the homepage, from the second screen onwards, the two and a half screens are all community content about "Wine Talk" and "Wine Reviews". All of the above are enough to prove that Jiang Xiaobai attaches great importance to the content community.

2) Active

The most effective way to keep users active is for them to provide UGC content themselves. What Jiang Xiaobai does is to guide users to post spontaneously.

In the "Jiuhua" community, the content attributes are very clear. The official will provide topics (all of which are award-winning topics), most of which are related to wine, and users are encouraged to post content through rewards.

The posting process is also very simple. Click the "Write Drinking Talk" pop-up window in the lower right corner, select a topic, and start creating.

Regarding the selection of topics, many topics can resonate with users. For example: #2022 Mood Review, #2023 Have a Good New Year, #2022 Most Wanted to Meet People, etc., which increase user participation.

By setting discussion topics and activities as well as collecting selected content, we can stimulate users with content production capabilities to produce valuable content.

The homepage of each topic is attached with the list of winners and event rules, which clearly state the rules and prizes. The list of winners will also be posted after the prize drawing to ensure fairness.

In addition, high-quality topics and UGC content will also be disseminated outside the site, which can not only enhance users' sense of honor, but also endorse the circle.

For example, the #2022 Mood Review topic article recently released by the Bottle Planet official account specifically posted user-generated content.

For some brands that build communities from 0-1, if there is not much traffic and exposure in the early stage, they can also consider vest operations, using vests to create community activity, increase user popularity, and mobilize user participation enthusiasm.

The operation of vests is a key point in community products. In order to make users feel that there are many players participating in your circle, it is the critical point to retain the first batch of seed users, and it is also the key to whether a real user is willing to be active in your community.

3) Retention

A high-quality content community should constantly create a sense of belonging for users and retain loyal users. The key lies in what kind of value is created for users?

Bottle Planet provides users with two kinds of value: social value and point rewards.

Social value is reflected in the social attributes created for users within the community. Every update posted by a user can be liked, commented on, and shared.

In addition, each user in the community has his or her own unique "personal homepage" that can display every update and the number of likes received.

In addition, users can earn points (Planet Coins) to redeem rewards. First, daily sign-ins can earn "Planet Coins", giving users a reason to return to the community every day, which is also an important means of retaining users.

Secondly, when users publish content, they also have the opportunity to obtain Planet Coins and limited edition peripherals. Planet Coins can be used to offset orders, which also shows that retained users are Jiang Xiaobai’s real consumers.

03 Case Analysis: Jiangnan Buyi

If Jiang Xiaobai's community is designed to be closer to users, then Jiangnan Buyi's community is more about solving users' actual needs.

Compared with traditional offline clothing purchases, online purchases face the pain points of not being able to try on clothes and not knowing how to match them.

Seeing this point, Jiangnan Buyi launched the "More than a Box" mini program in 2018. Users can pay and choose professional stylists to tailor their outfits for them. Professional outfit cases will be displayed in the mini program.

At present, the mini programs of the parent brand of JNBY and its sub-brands have basically built a "dressing community" module to facilitate users to learn dressing experience, spontaneously upload their own dressing experiences, and facilitate communication between users.

For example, the women's clothing brand mini program "JNBY Official Mall", the men's clothing brand mini program "CROQUIS", and the children's clothing brand mini program "jnby by JNBY" all have similar dressing community functions. Let's take the women's clothing brand mini program as an example for a brief understanding.

When entering the fashion community, there is a "search box" at the top, where users can search for corresponding fashion content based on keywords, such as coats and spring. There is a floating "+" button in the lower right corner, and users who meet the order conditions can click to publish content.

The content is posted by individual users and official accounts. When you click on the content, in addition to the text introduction, the corresponding product link will be attached, which makes it convenient for users who are "planted" to purchase directly, improving the efficiency of placing orders.

Like Jiang Xiaobai, everyone will have a corresponding homepage that displays published works and favorite works. When certain conditions are met, the personal label of "fashion expert" will also be displayed.

Overall, the content of the fashion community in Jiangnan Buyi is relatively high-quality, enough to meet the fashion needs of ordinary users. Nowadays, this fashion community model has become the norm in the clothing industry, and with the development of technology, it will further meet the needs of users.

Final Thoughts

Today, product competition and advertising marketing have become very homogenized. In order to sell products, in addition to the value of the product itself, how to trigger emotional resonance among consumers and how to create emotional value, marketing content and socialization have become differentiated competitive trends.

The content community of Jiang Xiaobai mentioned here is one form, and other brands also have other forms and highlights. But in the final analysis, we can deeply see that to attract consumers, products alone are not enough, and marketing content and socialization are obvious trends.

Therefore, brand mini programs should also change with the trend and should not just be a "transaction counter" but also become a social space.

Author: Yan Tao Sanshou

Source: WeChat public account "Yan Tao Sanshou (ID: yantao-219)"