The 9-word principle of event operation: be able to implement, spend less, and don’t have an abortion! This is the 9-word principle used by Wu Junpeng, who masterminded the NetEase Cloud music review train, when planning events.

1. Why do e-commerce platforms love to do activities?

Peaks during events are often “artificial transaction peaks that suppress the purchasing power during the warm-up period and overdraft the purchasing power after the event.” The values ??before and after this peak are often lower than the average sales of the store when there is no activity. Each event also consumes a lot of energy from the merchants. So, what is the significance of the event to the platform, merchants, and consumers? Can activities really impress consumers?

1. For the platform, doing activities is a training for the whole team, and it is also an encouragement and improvement of team morale. Ali was particularly convinced of this. When there is no large flow of traffic, many problems (including system stability, product experience, merchant cooperation, operational efficiency, etc.) are not exposed. For operation personnel, they are in a state of high tension during activities. Operation personnel's grasp of processes, details, and handling of crisis events are a great test and exercise for them, and they can also make great progress.

For the platform, organizing activities can also increase user activity, increase sales, and enhance brand influence. However, for a mature platform like Alibaba, training the team again and again has far-reaching significance. It is the traffic peaks one after another that have gradually pushed up the overall operational level and platform size, establishing Alibaba’s well-deserved position as the leader in the e-commerce field.

2. For merchants, organizing activities is the most efficient way to acquire new users. This is talking about new users rather than new customers. There is a difference between the two. Customers refer to those who place orders to buy, and users include people who place orders, browse, collect, add to shopping carts, etc. and are interested in products!

Today’s businesses are increasingly understanding that consumers need to be cultivated! “Take out some benefit points, and package them into greater benefit points by the platform together with the benefit points of other merchants, and work together to attract potential users (in this way, you may also enjoy the platform’s traffic subsidies (free traffic) or red envelope subsidies (the platform issues to consumers) Red envelopes or allowances are used in a certain store))" is better than "usual accumulation of a little bit"! Even if the profit from the current activity is not large or even a small loss, in the long run, you will be in contact with more potential customers, and they will repurchase in the future, or some customers will purchase goods later because of a certain Weitao content or other activities. Alibaba’s algorithm will remember the products that a certain type of person likes and make automatic machine recommendations multiple times. These positive impacts are far greater than the actual results on the day of the event and should not be underestimated!

3. For consumers, giving themselves a reason to buy something is an endless emotional need. E-commerce companies should undoubtedly provide fresher reasons, cooler products, and better prices for this demand, so that consumers can happily "buy".

Every time I think the activity goal is impossible to achieve, after trying my best, I can basically achieve it, and it will be surpassed next time! The team and myself are growing! It feels wonderful, magical, and very fulfilling!

2. Definition and capability requirements of activity operations.

The definition of activity operations: refers to activities of different natures (usually including conversion orientation and communication orientation. In layman’s terms: selling goods or creating tonality) and different purposes (including: increasing transaction volume, promoting new Operational work for activities such as user volume, increasing daily activity, increasing UGC volume, increasing customer unit price, improving brand favorability, etc.), including planning, preparation, implementation, and review. Compared with content operation and user operation, which are "moisturizing and silent", activity operation is more explosive and can improve a certain indicator in the short term.

Each activity has a primary priority purpose. The purpose of this activity serves operational strategy. The wise thing about formulating KPI is: don’t want everything, keep an eye on one indicator for a period of time. In this way, operations personnel will not be at a loss.

Capacity requirements for event operations.

Event operation is usually the easiest operation method for ordinary users to perceive. It is rich in form, integrates a wide range of resources, is powerful, can provide instant feedback, and easily gives people a sense of accomplishment. Therefore, it has become a position that young new operators are more willing to try and like.

The difference between Xiaohongshu’s maternal and infant category activity operation positions and Mobike’s activity operation positions is that the former is more online-based, while the latter is a combination of online and offline activities; The former is mainly responsible for sales and conversion rates, while the latter is mainly responsible for user growth. Combined with the activity operation capability requirements of other companies, keywords can be extracted: creativity, planning, resource integration, data analysis, communication skills and stress resistance. For companies with large self-owned traffic, activities can be run by relying on existing users and self-media dissemination, but for start-up companies, event operations also require extradition capabilities. Free or low-cost renditions are often done on social media.

Relationship between event operations and marketing department.

In daily work, event operators often serve as the interface between the operations department and participate in event planning together with the marketing department. Event operators are the type of people who have the closest relationship with the marketing department and are easiest to change jobs. The main differences between them are:

1. The activity levels are different and the leaders are different. Tmall has an activity grading system, which is divided into S, A, B and C levels from large to small. The integrated marketing group in the Tmall marketing department only undertakes S-level and some A-level activities. Other regular activities are handled by event operators of various purposes, and through activity ratings, traffic resources allocated by the marketing department are obtained.

2. The types of activities they are good at are different. The integrated marketing team of the event operation and marketing department is good at converting traffic into purchasing power during events. They pay special attention to data and have very specific goals. Most of the activities are online. The brand marketing team of the marketing department pays more attention to activities and activities that promote communication and reputation. In event marketing, activity positions include online and offline, and pure events have a trend of increasing proportion. The Marketing Department is responsible for long-term brand value and continues to create, deliver and enhance these intangible values. Alibaba is increasingly pursuing the integration of quality and performance. When a brand advertises externally to attract traffic, it usually has on-site activities to undertake conversions, and the two are very closely integrated.

Most people have a more obvious perception of what the marketing department does. It is easier for these security to spread on social media, and it is easier to see the real value offline in landmark buildings or lively neighborhoods. Many of the cool cases we see are also led by the marketing department, which even spends a lot of money to hire external creative teams or event execution teams to complete. If you are doing activity operations in a startup company, it is recommended to be down-to-earth first and start with online or offline conversion activities. Those screen-swiping cases can be used as a reference (but in reality, the workload is huge, so don’t try to try the screen-swiping cases easily. ).

There are four basic elements for holding an event (in any company, as long as you run an event, you need to master these contents): event rhythm, event gimmicks, event benefits, and event gameplay.

3. Activity rhythm: No activity only needs to be released on the same day. Even for traditional offline activities, flyers or text messages will be released in advance to announce the upcoming activities. Senior operations staff have a good sense of rhythm - one of the arts of operations. The operation of an event is like laying out a plan. The first few tricks have no effect, but in the end it comes naturally and receives applause and flowers. However, it is difficult for outsiders to see every detail in this process.

The activity rhythm is usually divided into: momentum building period (optional), warm-up period, formal period, fermentation period (optional), and ending/returning/review period. There is something to be done at every stage, and each event operator has their own important responsibilities, rather than following a process.

Building period: usually 5 to 10 days before the start of the warm-up period. Work focus: Reveal some event highlights, and put the complete preview in the next stage to whet the appetite of users. You can also conduct warm-up activities to arouse users' speculation and attention. If the company does not have such great appeal, it can generally last or weaken this stage. After all, in the online world, there is too much information and users’ patience is limited.

Warm-up period: usually 3 to 5 days before the official period.

Work focus: Announcement of event highlights and points of interest. On the e-commerce website, the performance is as follows: exposing event products, playing games, drawing draws, receiving coupons, collecting, adding to shopping carts, etc. Among them, the most concerned are the collection and shopping cart data, because this is the most likely to be converted into official sales. For other types of activities, this stage may involve registration and ticket sales to strive for all-round exposure. The more important the event, the more efforts will be made during the warm-up period.

Official period: usually 1 to 3 days, focus of work: improving conversion rate. For e-commerce websites, controlling product selection and smoothing the shopping process will help maximize the conversion of traffic into sales. For offline activities for brand communication, the main purpose is to turn users into fans and make the on-site experience more effective than expected. Note: It’s not about meeting expectations, it’s about exceeding them that will inspire people in attendance to spread the word on social media. Offline events are never just for the dozens or hundreds of guests present, but we hope that through this event, it will spread online and form a secondary spread.

Fermentation period: E-commerce activities usually do not have a fermentation period. When doing event marketing, special emphasis is placed on the fermentation period. Compared with general activities, the biggest difference between event marketing and general activities is whether it can be done in a small way, catch fire at a moment's notice, and cause big spread at low cost. The official period only ignites the fire. If the fire does not spread, the influence will be too limited. Therefore, during this period, many opinion leaders and commentators will be invited to package the aspects worth spreading in the official period and use them from all angles. The online voice is likely to be louder than the live event, and the purpose is achieved at this time.

Ending: The event must not stop at the official period! Even if there is no fermentation period, there should be an ending! The significance of the epilogue cannot be ignored! Internally, it is reviewing and summarizing, learning from experience, and externally, it is announcing the successful conclusion of the event, packaging the highlights and explosive points in the entire event, and creating a beautiful public relations. Tmall's "Double 11" did a great job. Not only did it have enough highlights, the site also used the remaining traffic for return promotions.

In Alibaba, except for S-level and A-level activities, other regular activities generally only have a warm-up period of 4 days and a formal period of 3 days, which can be completed in one week. The official period will be scheduled from Wednesday to Friday when the website traffic is the highest.

4. Gimmicks and benefits: They are a natural pair and always star together. But divided into two words: follow-up and benefit point, I mainly want to remind everyone: the theme of the activity must be "both soft and hard"!

The gimmick is the "soft" part that gives the event a reason to attract attention. For example: festivals (Valentine's Day), anniversaries (anniversaries), milestones (1 million registered users), event hot spots (World Cup), etc.

The benefit point is the "hard" part, which represents the benefits that users can enjoy. For example: discounts, cash rebates, two people traveling with one person free of charge, increased user rights, etc. The benefits should be attractive enough within the scope of not breaking the law!

In Alibaba, one of the things that Xiao Mayu, the author of this book, often does is: lay out the budget and gather relevant people to brainstorm how to spend the budget. attraction. The choices we often face are: small benefits that everyone can enjoy, and big benefits that only few people can enjoy. Although some friends will say that the former will make people feel that there are tangible benefits that can be obtained, while the probability of the latter is too low to be willing to participate. However, through many experiments, it was found that in most cases, the latter can attract more people. Example 1: “10% off the entire site” is not as good as “0.1 yuan flash sale”, and “10 yuan off when spending over 100 yuan” is not as good as “the highest spender will get an iPhone 8 Plus”. Example 2: On Weibo, Internet celebrity bloggers often give out prizes to attract fans to repost them. Different delivery methods have great differences in the effect. A: Repost on Weibo and get a brand-name lipstick as a gift to 100 lucky winners. The brand will be chosen randomly. B: Repost on Weibo, draw a lucky fan, and contract you with lipstick for a lifetime, and give away 100 brand-name lipsticks. B usually works better. It is topical and can easily attract more people to watch.

Using both soft and hard tactics is also the golden rule of being a banner! The banners we see on web pages are basically a combination of the two. Gimmicks, profit points, and popular pictures are the guarantee of the banner’s click-through rate.

5. Activity gameplay: It is the link between gimmicks and interest points, and it is also the amplifier of activities. A good gameplay should be: novel, fun, and easy to operate! The gameplay actually shows the influence of "scarcity", one of the "six elements of influence", on people. The gameplay of the activity is: users are not allowed to get benefit points in vain, but are given the benefit points after doing something fun and interesting.

Examples of gameplay: shopping in brand streets, catching cats, raining red envelopes, collecting five blessings, collecting likes, quizzes... In fact, many activities are old wine in new bottles, not particularly innovative or original gameplay, just The visual effects and copywriting have been changed from the previous logic, making it easier for users to get started.

In the first few years of Tmall’s “Double 11”, there was no such method as “going to the brand street” to collect coupons. At that time, coupons were placed on the page to collect them at will. Now, “Shopping on Brand Street” has almost become the standard feature of Tmall’s “Double 11”. In fact, the people who proposed this gameplay were under great pressure: on the one hand, "Double 11" needed new growth points, highlights and gameplay; on the other hand, they were worried that this gameplay would lose some users. The result? This effect is surprisingly good! Later, Tmall developed many mini-games for merchants to use in their stores. The principle is the same: coupons and red envelopes are issued only after users participate in interactive activities. In this way, not only will the same person play more times, but they may also share it with people around them to play together, which greatly arouses the enthusiasm of users during the warm-up period. Coupons received by users after they have put in the fruits of their labor are easier to use during the official period.

6. BD partners

BD (Business Development) itself is a position alongside operations. However, since event operations require the integration of multiple resources, here is “BD” partners also serve as one of the important skills for event operation.

With the previous elements, the event is basically taking shape, but sometimes you still feel that there is a lack of resources (perhaps it is a lack of attractive prizes, perhaps it is a lack of good ideas, perhaps it is a lack of perfect venues, perhaps it is a lack of some content that makes the event richer), and the most common one is: lack of ability to reach the target group! You must know that the more BD things are not the better. If there are too many, the main line of activities may not be clear and the energy will be distracted. Therefore, you must use your strongest to exchange for the strongest of others and join forces. Startup companies mainly use creativity and content to exchange for each other’s users. P113-P114 gave an example: Xiaomayu joined Dongjia APP (an e-commerce platform for craftsmen’s handicrafts. The resources it has are: craftsmen’s works, craftsmen’s stories, craftsmen’s on-site demonstrations, etc.) and then achieved their goals through BD (quick access Precise users. The users it requires are a group of people who have money, leisure, taste, experience, and have requirements for quality of life).

BD’s core skills: win-win! Before discussing cooperation, understand in advance what the other party's KPIs are and whether the proposal is helpful to both parties' KPIs; preset the questions that the other party will ask in advance, role-play in the team, and practice simulated scenarios; make a list of your own resources, It's not much, but it's sincere.

7. Leverage effect in activities: key person marketing.

During the activity execution stage, "key person marketing" needs to be emphasized. At each stage of the activity, key people are needed to amplify the effect. This is also one of the most profound manifestations of the "leveraged thinking" among the four operational thinking. When it comes to key people, many people can easily think of KOL (Key Opinion Leader). The purpose of replacing KOL with key people here is to expand the scope of this group of people. KOLs mostly refer to those people who are already relatively popular, have been monetized in business, and need to be hired with money. Key people are more extensive, including those KOLs who are in the rising stage, have potential, and are being formed, as well as loyal users, Star employees, etc. For companies without money or resources, it is particularly important to impress key people without spending money when conducting activities.

There are three main roles of key people: 1. Invite key people to try out products or visit stores and produce experience reports; 2. Invite key people to participate in the brand’s offline activities and interact with the media and ordinary users , share experiences; 3. Invite key people and brands to distribute benefits together to expand the scope of influence (for example, users can enjoy discounts or benefits by entering the exclusive discount code of key people when purchasing).

Why are key people willing to do this for free? Any cooperation is a win-win situation! Those key people are willing to participate in some brand activities for free through resource replacement during the free period. First of all, if they are willing to become a commercial KOL, they need to accumulate content, and accumulating content also costs money. If no one invites them, they will have to spend their own money to experience the product. If a brand happens to sponsor the product at this time, it will naturally save money. Secondly, they need brands with the same tone to leverage each other's strength to increase exposure. Through offline activities, they can also get to know some people in the circle and expand their network. Finally, after they have some fans, in order to maintain the stickiness of the fans, they need to provide fans with some benefits and incentives. Sharing the discounts given by the brand with the fans can enhance the stickiness of the fans. Key points in cooperating with key people: be attentive and find the point where your needs meet!

Four-step method of key person marketing:

The first step: find key people; the second step, direct contact to promote experience; the third step: stimulate sharing; the fourth step, Events amplify.

Chapter 6 will introduce the mining and maintenance of key people. Key people are so important that we should pay attention to maintaining key people in daily work and treat them as the small group of users at the top of the pyramid.

8. How to write an activity review report

What is review? It is to re-interpret the completed project to gain a deeper understanding of the matter. The structure of the review report can usually be divided into six parts: activity background, activity goals, process review, activity data, experience summary, and follow-up plans.

Alibaba people attach great importance to review, and can even use review to expose their personal brand. Both inside and outside the team and the bosses need to see what the operators have paid for the event, what are the highlights, what are the data results, what is the impact, and what is the unique value. In general, review reports should pay special attention to activity data.

1. Contents included in the review report: Generally there is no fixed template, and everyone has his or her own structure. However, structured data reports can be precipitated for easy retrieval next time, or for horizontal comparison. . Xiaomayu, the author of this book, has an Excel sheet that is specially used to compare key indicators of previous activities. Once you have data from dozens of events, you will gradually be able to see some patterns. For example: browsing conversion rate (IPV_UV/UV, the ratio of independent visitors from the activity page to the product details page, reflecting the attractiveness of the activity page), purchase conversion rate (purchase UV/IPV_UV, the rate of independent visitors from the product details page to the transaction) ratio, reflecting the attractiveness of the product), etc.

Glossary: ??

UV: The number of visitors to each page of the store. An IP that visits the store multiple times within 24 hours will only be counted as one PV. The number of visitors to all pages in the store within 24 hours The total number of views can be accumulated. IPV: refers to the number of times a buyer clicks to enter the product details page after finding the product in your store, which can be accumulated. IPV_UV is a unique visitor who viewed product details. Note: IPV_UV cannot be accumulated.

Sales e-commerce activities usually include the following data when reviewing:

(1) Draw the traffic curve during the activity and mark the momentum building period and warm-up period , formal period, end. See if the traffic follows the expected rhythm.

(2) Data related to gameplay.

For example: how many people participated, how many people won, how many people shared, how many coupons/red envelopes were issued, the proportion of users in the official period, what is the total amount of orders using coupons/red envelopes, etc.?

(3) Traffic, browsing conversion rate, purchase conversion rate, customer unit price, GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume, total transaction volume within a certain period of time) during the official period, and normal times (usually monthly and daily average ) compared to how much it has increased, which channel has more and more accurate traffic, etc.

(4) Grasp typical tree benchmarks. At the product level, what are the best-selling and fastest-growing products? Similarly for merchants, what are the top GMV rankings and the biggest improvements?

(5) Excellent banner display. Each activity will put several sets of banners on the resource positions, and you can also see the click status of each banner. During the review, we will display banner ideas with high click volume and try to find out what they have in common.

(6) Data related to communication. How much exposure and forwarding volume have been brought by key people, and which key people can you continue to cooperate with next time.

A good review report is not only a good opportunity for oneself to appear, but also a bargaining chip when doing activities and expanding businesses next time. Some difficult merchants usually look at previous activity cases. Some representative performance data can be made into H5, which can be used as a strong brand endorsement in subsequent investment promotion to attract large merchants to sign up.

What we need to learn is: the data display logic from surface to point and the clever data display angle. The same results look at the data from different angles, giving people different feelings. You can use different data display angles to maximize strengths and avoid weaknesses, and seize the most prominent points in the case, and the effect will be very obvious.

9. Advanced: Learn to do event operations with Ali - Ali’s activities have been polished and evolved frequently over a long period of time, and are ahead of most companies. There are three major directions for the advancement of event operations: event serialization - event productization - event branding.

1. Representative works of the series of activities: Global Top Country Week, the magical Juhuasuan, the omnipotent Taobao, etc.

The meaning of event series is: when planning an event, think about whether it is possible for your event to be made into a series? Is it possible to continue? Compared with those sporadic activities, series of activities can receive more resource support, have greater momentum, and are easier to be remembered by users.

2. Representative works of event productization: Juhuasuan, Made in China, and Tmall International National Pavilion.

Is Juhuasuan an event or a product? For merchants, most of them will think that Juhuasuan is an event with a lot of traffic; but for Alibaba insiders, Juhuasuan is already a mature product. In the early days, it was used by operators to recruit investors, screen products, and fill in the pages one by one. It was a series of activity pages. Nowadays, it can basically be separated from manual operation and a series of tasks are completed by machines.

Activity serialization is usually the predecessor of activity productization. Operations first try through activities, which have relatively low development costs. If the effect is good, it may be made into a product. For example, Xiaomayu was previously responsible for the series of global national week events. After many attempts, it settled into one channel.

3. Representative works of event branding: "Double 11" and Super Brand Day.

Every company hopes to create its own holiday. Tmall has taken the lead in "Double 11", Taobao has seized the "Double 12", JD.com has seized the "618" mid-year sale, and Suning has seized the "Double 11" 818” Shopping Festival. How to create a trump card event of its own is a question that every company that is beginning to take shape should consider.

For an analysis of Tmall’s “Double 11” in 2017, see the next article.

10. Project management written for newcomers.

Project management is actually a ubiquitous and wide-ranging knowledge. Our daily work and every task can be regarded as a project. Because activities involve many people, often time is tight, and tasks are heavy, the essence of project management is best reflected in activities.

After many activities, you will find that the most difficult thing among the activities is not creativity, but project management. Especially when you become a PM (Project Manager), the pressure and challenges are unimaginable.

1. Responsibilities and powers of PM:

(1) Plan, organize, lead and control projects;

(2) Establish, unite and motivate projects Team;

(3) Be given the responsibility and authority to manage the project;

(4) Determine the project management procedures used throughout the project.

From the moment you become a PM, you must know: if the project succeeds, the PM gets the greatest credit; if the project fails, the PM shoulders the greatest responsibility. Risks and benefits coexist. The PM has no umbrella and cannot live in the cracks. He must stand up and be the backbone of the team. When you really can't handle it anymore, you need to move your boss out, confess your difficulties, and seek support. Don't make a fool of yourself! If you struggle to support it, your boss may miss the best opportunity to intervene and be unable to recover.

2. PM communication mechanism:

(1) Three key time points that must be communicated and confirmed: definition stage, planning stage, and execution stage.

Don’t do anything that is not confirmed. Once it is confirmed, go all out.

(2) Communication form: Which ones require meeting communication, which ones need email confirmation, which ones can be communicated by phone, which ones can be confirmed verbally, and what is the latest deadline for reply.

(3) Communication objects: What content should be known to the boss, brother departments, customers, etc.; what content should be known to all members of the project team.

3. PM communication misunderstandings:

(1) Don’t assume that the other party thinks the same as us, and don’t assume that the other party knows it in advance.

(2) Don’t feel that you are insignificant and dare not speak up.

(3) Do not use the same communication method to communicate with people of different styles.

(4) Don’t passively wait for the other party to take the initiative to speak.

(5) Don’t easily think that the other party will think that you are repetitive. Double confirmation is better than omission.

4. Essential PM tool - Gantt chart: You can see major items, sub-items, responsible persons, timelines and other information on one chart, clearly. It is particularly widely used in project management, especially in the execution phase involving complex issues, such as cross-department complex scenarios where many subtasks are performed simultaneously.

The PM needs to let the person in charge of each sub-project know their start and end time, the personnel connecting them, and urge the person in charge to complete the task before the deadline and push the project forward.

5. PM project summary report: The main part is similar to the review report mentioned above, but it adds an evaluation of the performance of project members.

(1) Determine whether the goals set by the project have been achieved.

(2) Evaluate the performance of individuals and groups participating in the project.

(3) Consolidate into a formal project summary report, including: complete project plan, results achieved, main lessons learned, highlights and suggestions, etc.

New event operators need to pay attention to:

1. For those glamorous activities, there must be a history of blood and tears behind them, and it is not easy for anyone!

2. Pursue perfectionism in the process, but don’t be too demanding about the results. From the planning to the final presentation of a large-scale event, it is already very good to achieve 70% to 80% of the expectations.

3. Wu Junpeng, who single-handedly planned the NetEase Cloud Music Review Train, has a 9-word principle when planning events: be able to implement it, spend less money, and don’t have an abortion! There is no other reason!

4. Practice with small activities in daily life. After becoming familiar with the process, you should deliberately participate in big activities, where you can break through yourself and grow. This is also a necessary process for promotion and job-hopping!