Activity is a marketing tool for customer acquisition growth and product conversion and retention, so what needs to be done to implement an activity plan?

The most complete product solution for the event center, although only 80% of the core content is shared

Activities are very effective marketing tools in the operation and execution of customer acquisition, capital retention, product and service experience, promotion of conversion, sharing incentives, etc., which can help enterprises achieve customer growth and business growth. This article comprehensively analyzes the platform capabilities required for activity operation from the perspective of business definition, business process, system functions, overall architecture, surrounding relationships, ER models, and key applications.

1. Business Definition

In order to achieve DTC implementation, enterprises must ensure that the operational capabilities and tools of activities are implemented in the front-line team, for the following reasons:

1) The ability to operate activities has a very large positive correlation with customer growth and business growth.

2) The whole process of activity operation involves consumers, stores, regions, headquarters, suppliers and other organizations, with long links, many participating roles, and difficult collaboration, which is the touchstone for DTC landing, that is, only the business unit closest to the customer - store - make full use of digital event marketing capabilities, establish connections with users, efficiently interact, serve, and trade, accompany users for a long time, and tap and create user value.

The core of event operation (and creative delivery are the same routine) are five suitable: at the right time, in the right channel, at the right cost, to push the right activity to the right people, to achieve a closed-loop of experience and transaction (for C-end users), a closed-loop operation of activity planning, process and effect, resources, and risk control (for operators), and a financial closed-loop of activity income, activity rights distribution, cost sharing and settlement, activity expense settlement, and activity result rewards (for financial personnel). - If you don't touch the money, you're a mid-level product manager.

From a product perspective, activities can be divided into 3 categories: community activities, marketing activities, and promotional activities. The differences between the three are as follows:

How to play:

Activities: The underlying model of activities is different for different classes
Gameplay: Different gameplay based on a certain activity, that is, the underlying model is the same, but the upper layer presents and participates in different ways. For example, in group buying activities, the bottom layer is to facilitate the delivery and modify the unit price of commodity transactions, and its gameplay includes ordinary grouping, group leader leading the group, and group bargaining.

Campaign Execution Channels and Delivery Channels:

Activity channel: The execution channel of the activity, such as offline experience activities, the activity channel is the store.
Delivery channel: Deliver the event to multiple media to guide the traffic of the offline event, and the media is the delivery channel, which is only responsible for the traffic.

The value proposition of 3 types of activities in the entire marketing service platform, as shown in the following figure: community/marketing activities and promotional activities (taking the automotive industry as an example):

Second, the main process of the activity

Key points in the whole process of the event:

Initiators: brand headquarters, regional business organizations, stores, consumers
Event participants: consumers, stores, brand headquarters/regional business organizations, suppliers
Activity form: independent activities, joint activities
Activity approval: It involves activity approval (whether the activity can be initiated), equity approval (equity issuance approval), expense approval (expense item, expense amount, cost allocation), and listing approval (APP/Mini Program/Media Placement/Ecological Cooperation)
C-end participation methods: registration/registration approval, subscription, direct participation
B-end user participation requirements: Clarify the event invitation, participation, and conversion goals
Associated leads: Community activities, capital retention in marketing activities, and conversion of promotional activities should be considered whether they are associated with leads (applicable to high-priced goods such as automobiles and real estate)

3. System functions

Event management: Support multiple activities (linkage) and multiple waves under a marketing theme, from campaign configuration to event review, as well as release, abort, and end.
Equity fee: Publish active benefits in advance and allocate them to the activity. Budget all expense items and submit them for activity review.
Activity execution: After the event is released, C-end users participate in the event through direct participation, registration and sign-in, order payment, etc.
Expense settlement: After the end of the activity, record the actual expenditure of various expenses of the activity, issue rights and interests to C-end users, generate apportionment details of all expenses according to the proportion, submit the settlement statement, and record the accounts of all parties on the B-end for processing.
Activity effect: classify and analyze the amount of activities, activity participation, lead contribution, conversion, etc., and analyze the ROI and channel contribution of the activity, help the operation staff analyze the activity effect, and summarize which type of activity for which type of group of people has a better effect on which channel.

Fourth, the overall structure

The activity center is a very important, complex and flexible business system in the entire marketing service platform, and the core part is composed of general capabilities, activity models and data services. In the key application section, the basic model and gameplay configuration of each type of activity will be explained for 3 major types of activities. Promotional activities involve the promotion calculation engine of the transaction, etc., which are described in the order section.

5. Peripheral relations

The value proposition of the activity center determines that the activity center is related to most of the business systems of the marketing service platform, so the overall design of the activity center needs to consider the boundaries and collaboration relationships with various business systems.

6. ER model

All kinds of activities and joint activities can be configured with rights and activities, activity products, suppliers share the cost of activities, put them on different channels, and some activities have special cost management. According to the effect of the activity, there are business incentives for B-end organizations, as well as distribution incentives. There will be store quotas for joint events.

When C-end users participate in the activity, there will be a detailed list of participation, as well as the flow of rights and interests issued in accordance with the rules.

7. Key Application - Activity Management

Marketing theme: The marketing theme initiated by the brand's headquarters or region, all activities revolve around the marketing theme, such as the launch of a brand's new product, and multiple marketing activities and promotional activities will be launched. The key information includes: marketing topic name, activity time period, associated products (can be multiple), initiator, business status, and 7 management information.
Activity management: Manage the whole process of activities from creation, approval, release, execution, and closure. The benefits configured in the activity have been issued. Using a unified activity model, you can quickly iterate new ways to play based on the main process and enrich marketing methods.

1. Event Management - Basic Information

Activity type: In order to facilitate the operation personnel to quickly create activities, various activities can be presented in the form of icons, supplemented by process descriptions, reducing the use cost, and the operation personnel can quickly apply them.
Activity channel and location: Agree on the final implementation channel of the activity, such as a new car test drive activity at a certain venue, the implementation channel is outreach, and the activity can be put on Autohome, BitAuto and other channels to obtain customers and retain capital, and the venue needs to have a clear address (with navigation).
The main image of the activity, the introduction of the activity, the sharing image, and the advertising word: It is to consider the user's browsing experience and share the content presented.
Activity status: New, Under Approval, Published, In Progress, Aborted, Closed, Closed.

2. Event Management - Event Rules

Total number of activities: Some events require a limited number of people, such as a 40-person conference room with a limited number of participants.
Participation limit: For example, the number of lucky draws and the number of flash sales are limited.
Purchase limit per order: the number of purchases per order. For example, each person can participate in the event 2 times (the number of participation is limited), and only 1 can be purchased each time.
Event Notice: The event that needs to be announced can be presented in the event area during the preview period, and the preview can be set N hours before the event starts.
Activity subscription: Support the activity to which the user subscribes, and notify the user through APP message or WeChat service message before the event registration and the start of the event.
Registration period: Some events require early registration to prepare for the event, and the registration time period will be limited (earlier than the event start time).
Participants: Everyone can participate, or you can set which users can participate in the event based on the audience set by CDP. For example, you must be a car owner to participate in the annual meeting of the brand.
Lead Linking: You can use Lead Linking in an activity rule to control whether there is a form and submit to the Lead Center. This method is suitable for high-priced goods such as automobiles, real estate, home improvement, education, etc., which focus on product and service experience, and need clues to follow up. The product on the lead is derived from the event product and can be associated with multiple items, but only the product with the lead will create a lead.
Event products: Participating products, which can be linked to the event inventory for each product. The event products can be unlimited, specified, and excluded.

Regarding the products in the event, there are event products, apportionment products, and rights distribution products:

There are apportionment commodities in the apportionment agreement, with the following differences:

1) If the scope of the event is greater than or equal to the apportionment of the product, the marketing expenses of the product not included in the apportionment agreement shall be borne by the event initiator.

2) If the quantity of the event product is greater than or equal to the quantity of the apportioned product, the marketing cost of the excess quantity shall be borne by the event initiator.

The scope of the applicable products in the distribution of benefits will also be less than or equal to the active products.

Preferential overlay: Used in promotional activities, there are generally two types of superposition: activities and benefits. If you selected Overlay, you need to specify the activities or benefits that can be stacked. The calculation logic for the offer stacking is explained in the promotion engine calculation in the order (because there are other actions in the order that affect the final settlement amount, such as adjusting the unit price)
Free shipping: Whether or not free shipping is configured according to the product and activity.
Delivery channels: A campaign can be delivered to multiple channels. You can also connect with media platforms through delivery plans to obtain data.
Delivery time: The delivery start time will be earlier than the event start time, building momentum for the event in advance.
Delivery channels: It can be placed on multiple channels, such as video information, vertical media, etc., as well as its own channels, such as APP, applet, store terminals, and product terminals (such as car machines).
Delivery approval: The delivery of its own channels can be confirmed by the corresponding operation personnel on the product side, and the external channels need to be confirmed by the collaborative delivery team.
Delivery plan: If there is a delivery platform, the delivery plan in the platform is mapped to the delivery plan of the media. If not, record the delivery plan ID of the media to facilitate data reception. The premise is to add a subcategory of media placement under the marketing campaign category, and do not need information such as event channel, location, registration, subscription, etc.
Delivery status: The delivery status can be updated through an interface or by manual means.

Activity Fee:

Expense items: There will be more offline activities, such as venue fees, entertainment expenses, performance fees, transportation costs, printing fees, etc. Delivery fees need to be linked to delivery items. Each expense item must be associated with the merchant (vendor).
Budgeted Amount and Actual Amount: The budget before the start of the campaign and the settlement fee after the actual execution.
Expense voucher: Receipts and invoices issued by the supplier to prove the actual fees to be paid.
Activity Images: Used for forensic activity effects, which can be taken from several images in the event gallery.

Sharing Agreement:

Independent activities: There are two parts to the sharing agreement, one is the amount and proportion of the cost to be shared by the supplier of the goods, and the other part is the amount of the cost of the activity (subject to approval).
Joint activities: In addition to the two parts of the independent activities, there will also be activity quotas, and the number of activities for each store is agreed through the quota set for each store.
Split products: You need to record the brand and product. Brand linkage activities support the preferential cost sharing of different categories (by brand), and only need to record the brand.
Cost sharing agreement: The sharing agreement in the event addresses who will share the cost of the user's participation in the activity and in what proportion. For example, if you spend 100 yuan minus 10 yuan, 10 yuan is the activity fee, and the cost needs to be split according to the sharing agreement. After the end of the event, the settlement will be made by the event organizer and the person responsible for the expenses.
Allocation of issuance rights: The reward rights and interests given by users after participating in the event have been clearly allocated by who and in what proportion at the time of equity issuance, or settled according to the settlement cost (according to the actual write-off amount). After the equity is consumed, the settlement is made by the consumer and the equity issuer. For more information, see the Benefit Center.

Event Participation:

Event participation: Users directly participate in the event, or join a team or join a group. For offline activities that are set up for registration, there will also be registration approval and offline QR code sign-in.
Team grouping: The user initiates a team or group group.
Status: The activity to which the subscription is enabled, and the user is subscribed after subscribing. Users who need to register will be "Registered" after registration. Those who participate in the activity are "Participated".
Activity evaluation: After users participate in activities, some activities will ask users to give feedback on their feelings about the activities, and the activities can be evaluated in terms of activity form, activity content, activity organization, service attitude, overall experience, etc.

Event Summary:

Activity summary draft: After the event is completed, some activities will issue a summary draft for the C-end to further guide users to pay attention to and interact, and attract more users to participate in future activities.
Operation summary: a summary of the highlights, experiences, lessons and other operational aspects of the event, continuously improve the level of activity operation, and gradually grasp which type of group of people are suitable for which type of activity, and can be promoted to other stores.
Activity interaction: Interaction with similar content will include favorites, likes, comments, and forwards.
Activity Incentive: The distribution incentive center will provide related services. There are two types of excitation, which are oriented to the B-side and the C-side.
Business reward (for B-side): In order to motivate the store to actively guide the user to experience the product or service, the brand will reward the store, such as a test drive and a reward of 50 yuan.
Distribution incentives (for the C-end): It will be associated with the distribution incentive policy to reward the old with the new, employee marketing, and maker marketing to bring experience users (some businesses will be associated with clues).

Interested students can list the three categories of activities, sub-activities, gameplay, initiators, initiation forms, basic information of the above-mentioned activities, and activity rules, and abstract them into unified service capabilities. Marketing themes and joint activities can also be sorted out if they belong to the basic activity gameplay.

8. Marketing Activities

Use product experience, product exhibition, product promotion experience, etc. to acquire customers or retain capital, and obtain customers by scanning the code and other methods, and generally use forms to record information and associate with clues when retaining capital.

Parent-child activities, public welfare activities, fan salons, performing arts events, self-driving tours and other forms are adopted to interact online and offline to further enhance the activity of fans. Most of the offline activities will have registration and sign-in links.

There are prizes for bringing customers: there are three categories: old and new, employee marketing, and maker marketing, corresponding to 3 channels. Higher unit price items are also paid in phases.
Old with new: old customers invite new customers to make transactions, and both parties have rights and interests. Some of them will give cash to old customers, which can be connected and withdrawn from the settlement center through the ability of distribution incentives.
Employee marketing: Employees of non-marketing sales lines bring customers to make transactions, give cash rewards, and deal with the settlement center.
Maker marketing: After the C-end user is certified as a maker, the customer will be brought to the transaction, and the cash reward will be given in accordance with the distribution policy, and the settlement center will be processed.

9. Promotional Activities

Rich and diverse promotional activities, by satisfying consumers' psychology, such as taking advantage, showing off, and surprising expectations, help merchants to effectively attract new customers, promote activity, sell inventory, sell new products, and increase the number of customer orders/unit price. The promotion directly affects the unit price, quantity, order amount and order amount of the product on the order. Promotional activities and coupons can be divided into two dimensions: single product and order category (store level, platform level - cross-store).

The core content of the promotion includes activity configuration, activity priority and overlay, activity benefits, cost allocation, return processing, promotion and coupon, modification of unit price and other related calculations, and calculation logic, which will be explained in the promotion calculation section of the order center. In addition, some platforms also regard the return of rights and interests in promotional activities as an activity category, which is reasonable from a business perspective, but cannot be included in the activity from a product perspective. The issuance of rights and interests should be a public service, in addition to activities and orders, content interaction, member tasks, etc., can be called.

Promotions should be set as single product promotions or order promotions. The event impacts, gameplay classifications, mutual exclusions and overlays of different activity types are as follows (common promotional gameplay is listed for reference):

Single Product Promotions:

Activities that affect the unit price are mutually exclusive with all single product category and order promotions, and can only be stacked with coupons for the total amount of the order. If the unit price of the unit price activity is already low, and then the other activities are superimposed, the profit will be very low or loss-making.
The activities that affect the amount of the sub-order are mutually exclusive with the activities of unit price and quantity, and the full discount and full reduction of the sub-categories of the activity are mutually exclusive. It can be superimposed on single product coupons (vouchers) and order-based activities and order coupons (full reduction or full discount coupons + vouchers) to achieve the effect of discounting on and reducing again, making users feel very discounted.
The full bonus activity that affects the quantity is mutually exclusive with all promotions, and can only be stacked with order coupons (vouchers). Full gift is also a type of gameplay with large discounts, and when superimposed on other activities, the profit will be very low or loss-making.

Order Promotions:

The full reduction and full discount activities that affect the total amount of orders are mutually exclusive, and order coupons (full reduction or full discount coupon + deduction coupon) can be superimposed.

Mutual exclusion and superposition are conventional plays, which can control the risk of loss by superimposing specified activities or coupons, and can also estimate the level of profit through calculation.

The pre-sale event is special, take it out and share it, the other 10 kinds of promotional gameplay are more conventional, and they are introduced on most platforms.

10. Pre-sale

Pre-sale is applicable to the sale of new products of high-value goods, and the deposit is used to enjoy the rights and interests of the deposit before the official sale of the goods, and the balance is made up later. Pre-sale can be divided into 2 or 3 stages, divided into small order, large order, and final payment.

Small orders are small deposits, and canceled orders can be refunded. Small orders will also be used in blind booking business, that is, consumers are not told the price of goods, and the market reaction is tested according to the user's small order, and the price strategy and delivery strategy are adjusted. Some companies will also set a hesitation period, that is, after a certain time after a small booking, it will automatically turn to a large order to start the subsequent fulfillment process. There is also a specific time for clarifying the final payment or final payment.
After the large deposit is confirmed, the subsequent fulfillment process, such as production, will be carried out, and if you want to get a refund, you will have to go through a more complicated return and refund process.
After the final payment is completed, the delivery process will be executed.
Different rights and interests can be configured in the three stages of small order, large order, and final payment, and the effectiveness and use of rights and interests can be predetermined. For example, for the pre-sale of the car, the Dading stage will give away the rights and interests of the intelligent driving experience for 1 month, and the car can only be activated after the car is delivered, and the experience can be experienced, as well as coupons, etc., which can also be issued first and activated only after a certain business is achieved. For the rules for the issuance, validity, and consumption of benefits, see the Rights Center.
The pre-sale is special, and it is mutually exclusive with all activities and coupons, and cannot be stacked.

It should be emphasized that promotional activities and activity rights are two different things, participating in activities and users can perceive them immediately, while activity rights and interests are the rights and interests obtained after participating in activities, which are perceived in the future.

We can have coupon rebate activities in the activity gameplay, but the product function should be separated, can not be mixed into one, the activity can have no rights, can also have rights, and there are many kinds of activity rights, such as participating in a certain activity, you can issue points, growth points, coupons, medals, etc. at the same time.

Columnist

Wang Jianru, WeChat public account: Wang Jianru marketing digitalization, everyone is a product manager columnist. 20 years of experience in the digital transformation of large automobiles/large real estate and other industries, the planning, construction and operation of digital platforms for research, production and supply + marketing services, focusing on the marketing digitalization of B2B2C model, new retail C2M/OTD, and global digital operation. He used to be the product director of a new energy vehicle company, the CPO of a technology company, the person in charge of user operation and C-end products, the person in charge of IT, and a senior expert in CRM.

This article was originally published on Everyone is a Product Manager. Reproduction without permission is prohibited

The title image is from Unsplash and is licensed under CC0

The views in this article only represent the author's own, everyone is a product manager, and the platform only provides information storage space services.

The most complete product solution for the event center, although only 80% of the core content is shared