Different marketing strategies for products of the same category on Xiaohongshu result in a production efficiency difference of nearly 10 times?

Different strategies for the same category of products on Xiaohongshu lead to a 10-fold difference in production efficiency? Why is this? This article takes the three brands of Fuyuanji, Miklik, and UYZ as examples to find out what determines the difference in production efficiency? I hope it will be helpful to you.

Regarding Xiaohongshu brand operation, we often receive this kind of messages:

1. When choosing influencers for advertising, should we choose influencers from vertical categories or amateurs? Which one is more efficient?

2. A popular article was created but it did not bring effective searches on Taobao. After much effort, there were searches but the conversion rate was very low. Why?

3. Why is it that even though we are advertising on Xiaohongshu in the same way as our competitors, our conversion and sales volume on Taobao are not as high as their competitors’?

In fact, the production efficiency generated by different brands in the marketing process of Xiaohongshu is different, but what determines the difference in production efficiency?

Today, we have selected three brands, Fuyuanji, Miklik and UYZ, which are two typical cases:

One is to work purely with talents in the mid-waist vertical category;

Another way is to directly look for tail bloggers or amateurs to gain natural exposure.

Let's take a look at the differences in sales results under different delivery methods, and give you some thoughts and references on the delivery and operation of Xiaohongshu~

1. Fuyuan Era

1. Brand development history

Fu Yuanji's concealer product was launched relatively early, probably dating back to 20 years. The advertising on Douyin was mainly based on Li Yuetong's three advertising campaigns, and the main focus of advertising was on Xiaohongshu. In May of 2022, Fu Yuanji began to truly operate on Xiaohongshu. So far, in nearly 12 months, there are about a thousand notes involved in Xiaohongshu, bringing a total of 1.62 million interactions. Its total Taobao sales are 4.35 million, and its sales in the past 30 days are 200,000.

From these data, we can clearly feel that Xiaohongshu’s marketing has a huge impact on brand sales.

2. Brand placement benefits

Fuyuanji mainly cooperates with mid-level and junior influencers, and occasionally with top influencers, so its overall influencer fee is relatively high. Putting aside the second or third time and collection gift distribution of the brand, plus some information flow delivery, the total estimated investment of the brand is about 2.5 million, and the overall investment efficiency is about 1.74.

In the past 30 days, the brand's overall sales were around 200,000 yuan, 60,000 yuan was spent on brand promotion, and the total number of interactions was 30,000. The cost was calculated to be 2 yuan per piece, which is relatively cheap in the beauty industry.

2. Miklik

1. Brand development history

The operation time of this brand started from July 2022, and the main promotion time was from December 2022 to now. The overall rhythm peaked in January 2023. The brand's demand for influencers is within the range of signed fans or 10,000 fans, with natural explosive articles and amateur accounts as the mainstream.

2. Brand placement benefits

The brand has a total of 200 notes on Xiaohongshu, with an estimated cost of around 300 yuan. The total advertising cost on Xiaohongshu is 60,000 yuan. Since most of the posts are natural, the brand does not need to place information flow ads. Its cumulative sales are 740,000, so the overall production efficiency is about 12.3.

We haven’t launched any good content in May this year, so there is no data here yet. Therefore, the sales amount in the past 30 days has only been concentrated at 50,000 yuan, which is not particularly ideal.

3. UYZ

1. Brand development history

The peak of UYZ brand marketing rhythm basically started in January 2023. The basic marketing method of UYZ's three-color concealer is actually similar to that of Miklik, but there are some emotional differences in the content.

2. Brand placement benefits

UYZ's cumulative sales on Taobao in the past few months are 720,000. In just five months, the number of Xiaohongshu notes accumulated is about 250, and the cost is 300 yuan, so the total cost of the launch is 75,000. What is eye-catching is that the total amount of interaction brought by the brand is 1.38 million, and there are several interactive hot articles with more than 100,000 interactions. Xiaohongshu also had two or three hot articles in May, and the overall interaction exceeded 200,000. Therefore, the brand sales of 210,000 in May are relatively high. Judging from the data compiled, the production efficiency of this brand is about 9.6, which is relatively high.

3. Factors affecting differences between brands

By comparing the two brands of UYZ and Miklik, we can clearly see the differences between the two:

First: Both sides use self-made content and natural explosive articles, but the efficiency of the results is very different

Second: Both sides use the same gameplay routines, but there are obvious differences in the contribution of final interaction to sales.

(1) Bloggers with different fan bases have different benefits

① Fuyuanji is mainly composed of professional bloggers, and the fan base of professional bloggers is relatively large and stable, so the cost will definitely be relatively high, so its production efficiency is relatively low.

②We can find that the interaction volume of Fuyuanji and UYZ is more than 1 million. Fuyuanji’s 1.62 million interactions brought 4.35 million sales, while UYZ’s 1.38 million interactions only brought 720,000 sales. This is a very direct comparison.

This also tells us that the interactions between bloggers who promote content and those who promote content are valuable and can bring economic benefits. These bloggers can actually monetize their content.

As for the economic benefits brought by those amateur recommendations and naturally popular articles, they are only popular in terms of content. Perhaps users are attracted by the exquisite appearance of the video, so the degree of recommendation directly to vertical users of the brand will not be that high.

(2) Why did Fuyuanji adopt the strategy of using vertical influencers to promote products?

Here I would like to share with you the data dimension of brand influence.

When we click on the Taobao search box and search for Fu Yuan Ji or Fu Yuan Ji Concealer, we will find that a large number of amateur stores are selling small samples of Fu Yuan Ji concealer. Some brands that make small sample products are basically popular on the entire network, and users have a certain preference for this brand.

Some products are priced too high and have too much capacity, which may cause new users to hesitate for fear of being cheated. At this time, the emergence of samples can satisfy users' desire to try low-priced products. Once the product meets their expectations, users will be interested in buying it.

(3) Samples and counterfeits that have similar functions

There are two aspects to the existence of samples:

The first is that the brand itself has spread, the product has been deeply rooted in people's hearts, and many users are willing to try it.

The second is that the price of the product itself is relatively high, and the entry threshold for users is high, which leads users to actively look for sample products.

This also indirectly proves why there are many counterfeits rampant in the market, but brand merchants do not take action. For example, the shipment volume of counterfeits of Nike and Adidas on the market is actually much higher than that of genuine brands, but brand merchants have not increased measures to obviously boycott counterfeits. The reason is that this batch of counterfeits on the market has fundamentally inflated the market surplus of these brands.

The existence of counterfeits represents the market demand, people's recognition and pursuit of the brand. The more counterfeits there are, the greater the brand.

Source: Taobao platform

summary

From the comparison of the above three brands, we can see that different forms of delivery bring different efficiencies. Fuyuanji’s cooperation with influencers has also had a huge impact on its own brand benefits. Even though the delivery cost is indeed higher than others, it has also increased the brand’s popularity. Ordinary users’ learning trend of following influencers and the spread of good products after using them can also push the Fuyuanji brand to the wave of public opinion.

Miklik and UYZ did not spend a lot of money on brand communication costs. They relied on the natural growth of explosive posts and also reaped the benefits, giving the public a wave of goodwill.

But the sales data of the three brands are in front of us. We can see that the transaction volume of natural hot articles is far less than that of cooperation with influencers, and there are still many uncertainties in natural hot articles.

The differences in content clicks among the three brands and the comparison of click-through rates on Xiaohongshu:

1. Fu Yuan Ji

I have made three types of summary in the overall content form:

① Recommendations from experts, most of which are concealer tutorials;

② Tutorials on dark circles;

③Some makeup tutorials.

Mainly bloggers and influencers. The simple structure diagram of Xiaohongshu shows mostly close-ups of influencers’ faces. Makeup influencers have more visual impact of their own images, and mainly rely on their own advantages or the endorsement of influencers to sell their products.

The cover format of Xiaohongshu is mostly featuring the faces of influencers, and it belongs to the category of high-profile book content. Here are some typical background data of influencers. The click rate of "Chunyou" is as high as 58%, but the data of a single influencer cannot be relied upon, as there may be some randomness in it. The click rate of "Le Le is a Fat House" is 13%, the click rate of "Moosee" is 10.10%, and the click rate of "Qianye Yao" is 13%. Overall, it is higher than the 8% or 5% we know.

Most of the titles on Xiaohongshu are typical titles, which are convenient for the screening logic of Xiaohongshu users, such as keywords such as dark circle concealer.

2. UYZ

Among the cover content formats of UYZ's Xiaohongshu popular articles, there is basically no full face like Fu Yuanji's cover. Most of them are based on partial facial materials or product materials, and some atmosphere materials. I also have some typical background data of experts here.

For example, the click-through rate of the first picture of "林山风" is 20%, the click-through rate of the first picture of "taylor sweet" is 24%, and the click-through rate of the first picture of "快乐星球" is 22%. By comparing Fu Yuanji, we can see the huge difference in the click-through rate of the first pictures of the two.

3. Miklik

The underlying logic of this brand content format is not much different from that of UYZ, such as sharing of collection-type goodies, concealer tips, and local concealer methods for tear troughs.

Some typical data of influencers: "sharon" has a click-through rate of 16%, and "Kara" has a click-through rate of 14%. We actually found that its overall click-through rate is also higher than that of Fuyuanji.

summary:

This is the most obvious difference between natural explosive articles and vertical bloggers at the data level. In the Xiaohongshu content that is purely self-made by natural bloggers, they will grasp the needs of the public and cater to the public's tastes. They can make their own materials as they please. Some of them may be exaggerated, but the core is to obtain high click-through rates so that their content can enter a larger traffic pool.

Influencers have their own fan base, so they will consider all aspects, especially the audience needs of their fans. Therefore, they will be less eager for data and produce the first cover picture than natural bloggers. That is why it is easier to produce treasures in many direct influencer collaborations than in white-label collaborations.

How can brands improve the efficiency of content delivery on Xiaohongshu?

1. Consider a few questions from the perspective of consumers

Do users really understand the product knowledge we are familiar with?

What is the level of awareness of the product among most users?

In daily life, do users really understand that they should choose niacinamide 377 for whitening?

Or do you need to do some follow-up oiling after applying the acid?

Is it worth knowing the face sandwich method?

2. Get out of your comfort zone

These questions actually need to be questioned. It is possible that the content that we think has a very high level of market awareness and education is not well known to the general public.

The reason may be that our brand has spent a long time researching the cosmetics category, and often puts ourselves in the shoes of ordinary users. We are curious about whether white-label products with the same content will have user appeal. If we switch to a category we are not familiar with, such as franchising electrical appliances, where opinions are echoed by others, our judgment standards will be lowered. We may place an order if we see a blogger say that a certain product is good-looking and cost-effective, and the price is acceptable.

This is what happens when a brand feels that users understand the deep-level content after being in business for a long time, but when it wants to further convey information density, it finds that user awareness has not increased.

3. Cooperation model with experts

When brands and service providers communicate with influencers about their products, they mainly tell them about the product's core efficacy, suitable groups of people, and skin types, which are the aspects that the public is most interested in. The rest is up to the influencers themselves.

It is not difficult to understand from the user's perspective. As an ordinary user, what we are most interested in is the efficacy of the product and whether the product can solve our own problems. We are not interested in the underlying logic of solving the problem. Only those experienced users in the skin care market will study it carefully, but 90% of users are universal users.

Source: Grey Pig Data

summary:

The marketing content of the two brands, UYZ and Miklik, helps users provide emotional and practical content. They attract users through titles like "How to dress your roommate". The experts package themselves as users to share directly, and then insert one or two advertisements into the content. In this way, users are not disgusted but feel more authentic. This also tells users in another direction that if you have problems like dark circles that have not been solved, you can try the products I recommend. This is user sharing thinking.

In fact, most of the white-label content materials on Xiaohongshu are developed around this idea. Because users mainly want to find solutions or useful information, white-label products are more likely to be successfully promoted.

Are white-label products very effective in promoting products on Xiaohongshu?

Some teams think that white-label grass-roots products have a high investment rate and can quickly make profits when they start their businesses, so they all choose white-label grass-roots products. In fact, when starting a business, you need to consider your core advantages. Different core advantages have different direction choices.

The interaction volume of Fuyuanji and UYZ is similar but there is a huge difference in sales volume. UYZ does not have a high average order value, which is basically within the ordinary average order value of this category. Once the average order value is higher than the mainstream consumer price, vertical bloggers are needed to drive market transactions. The multiple value of bloggers can bring premium to the brand.

Source: Grey Pig Data

We know that the productivity of UYZ and Miklik is relatively high, and the proportion of human resources behind them cannot be underestimated. If the number of human resources is added, the productivity will gradually return to a normal level. At this time, there will be high requirements for the team. We have to consider whether we have the ability to produce suitable content materials.

When working with influencers, you can be given a fixed and stable output estimate, but naturally popular articles like UYZ and Miklik are prone to data gaps. Its instability requires brands to be mentally prepared. Brands have to think about the length of time their products will take and whether they can become popular during the beta test period. Otherwise, they should choose the more reliable channel of vertical influencer promotion.

Summarize

Brands should have their own unified style on Xiaohongshu and should not blindly follow the crowd. Although influencers’ recommendations can spread quickly, their fan base has limitations and will restrict the impact of the brand’s products. Although there are few popular posts, the click-through rate will increase once the public is interested. The public’s diverse acceptance will increase the promotion of brand products.

Nowadays, people are more inclined to believe in the real feelings of bloggers and are skeptical about the purposeful output of some influencers. Therefore, the effectiveness of unofficial marketing is sometimes more effective than that of influencers. However, since influencers often use money to buy a fixed amount of exposure from their fans, the output brought by influencers is stable and effective. In short, every brand should have its own marketing style.