Before the article begins, let's briefly look at the past and present of 'private domain'. Around 2010, leading social platforms such as Weibo and WeChat Official Accounts emerged, and a large number of self-media, including influencers, bloggers, and WeChat Official Account big Vs, rose. This made enterprises realize an awkward fact: the discourse power of brand communication had fragmented. Spending a large budget on TV ads might not be as effective as a call or discussion initiated by a big V, and in reality, it might not even match users' spontaneous recommendations and shares. To cope with the challenge of self-media seizing consumer mindshare, some brands passively registered official Weibo accounts and official WeChat Official Accounts, but the operational results were often unsatisfactory (of course, there were a few dark horses like Durex). It wasn't until the end of 2018 that 'private domain traffic' was formally proposed. Simply put, the early, broad sense of private domain refers to a traffic system that is controllable and repeatedly reachable for the brand itself. It marked the beginning of enterprises realizing that official websites, emails, Weibo, and WeChat Official Accounts didn't necessarily have to be a 'media'; they could also be integrated into the marketing process—many brands began to import existing advertising traffic into a 'private domain traffic pool' and promote conversion within it by offering coupons, event information, and other means. But this was only the 'primitive private domain traffic period': private domain was merely treated as a marketing tactic, usually handled solely by the marketing department, and relied entirely on internet platform operations rather than being an enterprise's own digital system construction. Therefore, its drawbacks were obvious. For example, it conflicted with existing user touchpoints; salespeople, shopping guides, and agents (small B-end) might not be willing to cooperate due to their own commission considerations. Additionally, some functional needs of enterprises might not be supported by internet platforms, such as customer service accounts and batch label management. However, with the continuous advancement of digital transformation trends in Chinese enterprises, and after experiencing the pressure of offline stagnation during the pandemic, a group of forward-looking enterprises began to realize that what they truly needed was not just a marketing tool, but a complete system that could match their own business model. That is, 'enterprise-level private domain'. Ideally, no matter how many shopping guides, KOLs, agents, or other user touchpoints an enterprise has, they should all be covered by its private domain system. Regardless of whether its business has activities like gift cards, membership points, group buying, or distribution, the enterprise's private domain system should support them. This is not a pipe dream; in fact, 'enterprise-level private domain' is beginning to enter standardization and normalization, and mature, effective technology products are becoming increasingly active in the market. Earlier this month, Shanghai Qunzhi Mai Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Qunmai) officially released a new private domain transparency solution, 'Qunmai Youdan', which empowers frontline staff to help enterprises rebuild their private domain. It is an integrated, multi-channel, innovative S2b2C new retail solution. As a well-known marketing technology service provider that has served hundreds of leading brands, Qunmai's entry into this new blue ocean amid the prevalence of private domain raises the question: what fresh power will it bring us? To this end, we interviewed Qunmai's CEO Zhou Ping and co-founder and technical lead Che Chuanli to see their perspective: How is an ideal 'enterprise-level private domain' constructed? What elements should it possess? Qunmai CEO Zhou Ping Qunmai co-founder and technical lead Che Chuanli The following content is based on interview materials and case studies from Qunmai's services for leading brands such as Unilever, Danone, Master Kong, and vivo. -01- Enterprise-Level Deployment 'Private domain traffic = WeChat business = Low' might be one of the earliest views on private domain. Although the pandemic made everyone realize that whether it's WeChat business or not doesn't matter; survival is the key, this question still deserves deep thought. Frankly speaking, if a company's plan to build a private domain system only involves the marketing department, then WeChat business is likely the ceiling of its achievements. There are fundamental differences between online and offline marketing environments. For example, compared to offline, online allows for more content output such as images, text, and videos, but only if the enterprise invests in content management. It also allows for precise recommendations or repeat purchase promotion based on user browsing behavior and historical consumption records, but only if the enterprise invests in technology and establishes an activity matrix supporting check-ins, distribution, and group buying. Behind a group buying link for a product precisely pushed by a shopping guide, there is actually coordination among multiple departments, including product, marketing, sales, and technology. Today's private domain traffic or marketing digitalization is no longer just a matter of marketing planning or software services. According to Che Chuanli, 'Qunmai is built on a mature platform with continuously added services. Our services are not limited to pure software; they also include strategy and operations considerations. This business has its own uniqueness and a huge space for independent development.' In summary, the emphasis on enterprise-level deployment lies in: Enterprises must build their private domain system from a sufficiently high strategic perspective, with users at the core, and carry out reasonable overall deployment. Unlike personal private domains of WeChat business, celebrities, and influencers (often dominated by internet platforms), an enterprise as an organization essentially needs a private domain that it can dominate, i.e., 'enterprise-level private domain'. Whether a private domain belongs to the 'enterprise level' can be viewed from two aspects: First, is it fully controlled by the enterprise? Enterprise-level private domain should form effective connections centered on the brand, not on the personal charm of small B-end, and each user touchpoint can be reviewed, replaced, or optimized at any time according to enterprise needs. Second, is there technology empowering operations? For example, relying on the enterprise's overall data insights, each user touchpoint should be able to grasp precise user tags and access functional modules such as group buying, distribution, and coupons at any time, thereby achieving 'contacting the right user at the right time in the right way' and improving overall marketing efficiency. It may not make every shopping guide achieve 100 points, but it can definitely make a large number of 30-point shopping guides achieve 60 points. When a shopping guide opens a user's profile in WeChat Work Qunmai CEO Zhou Ping also mentioned that the biggest obstacle for Chinese brands in building private domain systems is the lack of overall direction. 'Although for relatively leading enterprises, exploring this matter has been going on for several years, even for them, it has only been about a year since they truly formed a relatively stable system. After these leading cases, some brands have reached a consensus that building a private domain system should be placed at a strategic height. That's why we believe the current market is actually in a very early stage. Of course, after a period of development, the benefit now is that we no longer need to tell people 'why we need to do it'; most enterprises have realized the necessity, but the core difficulty lies in not knowing how to do it correctly. A common problem is that they may mistakenly think that having a partial solution means mastering the whole. For example, if they say they already have a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, does that mean they have completed the private domain system construction? In our view, that is definitely not enough, because to truly be user-centric, you must shift the entire company and all its various business departments to focus on this, not just a system in the marketing department. What everyone needs most now is a 'correct direction', and then a correct assessment of whether they 'have the corresponding capabilities' in execution, so they can plan to fill gaps.' -02- Transparency and Order After the enterprise-led 'enterprise-level private domain' is built and operational, what will daily marketing look like? Che Chuanli gave us a simple example: 'For Bosideng, which we serve, they have over 4,000 offline stores. Every day, before starting work at 10 o'clock, the shopping guides receive a list of business opportunities. What is this task list? For example, it will tell you: "Several customers in your customer list came to the store yesterday but didn't make a purchase; you can push a coupon to them. Another few customers have birthdays this week; you should send the prepared greetings and benefits to them, which may help you achieve conversion. And these people, based on our big data analysis, are willing to participate in our ongoing referral rewards program; please send them the activity link along with a pre-written greeting." The most valuable part is that during this process, whether it's consumer behavior or the behavior of 'small B-end' (broadly referring to extended roles in enterprise marketing activities like shopping guides), it is deposited as data in a very transparent and orderly manner, allowing continuous optimization based on data to make overall operations more efficient.' Looking at specific store operation scenarios might make it easier to understand. In the early days, traditional clothing stores carried private domain traffic by having consumers add shopping guides' WeChat. This was understandable because, according to multiple statistical reports, the average open rate for WeChat Official Accounts is currently below 2%, while frontline operators' practical feedback generally indicates that the open rate for personal WeChat messages is between 20% and 40%, which is 10 to 20 times that of Official Account messages. But if employees use their personal WeChat, when they leave, the customers they accumulated over time basically go with them. If they happen to go to a competitor next door, the consequences are unimaginable. Of course, besides this, there were many other early practices, such as providing employees with work phones or using one computer to control hundreds of phone numbers to spam... As for why not thousands or tens of thousands, we have to thank the fact that computers were originally designed with only 127 USB ports. Although growth hackers have come up with many creative ideas for this 'last mile' of marketing, each has its own fatal flaws. The ultimate reason is that social platforms were not designed for merchants to build enterprise-level private domains. Theoretically, this is an important part of the merchant's marketing process, but in reality, merchants simply cannot 'see' what happens in this link—what attitude does the shopping guide have, what did they chat with the consumer about? How did they answer the consumer's questions? Did it ultimately satisfy the consumer? An extreme case: a brand might spend millions on image upgrades, but a consumer might lose interest in the brand because of a low-quality shopping guide. This is opacity. And the result of opacity is the disorderly management of 'small B-end' by the enterprise. For example, a brand can see that ten shopping guides have poor sales, but they often have different reasons for poor sales: some are lazy, some are too diligent and annoy consumers, some recommend inappropriate products... However, the brand only knows the 'results' and has no data feedback on their respective 'marketing processes', so it naturally cannot effectively optimize and manage. This is disorder. But with the accumulation of experience from numerous leading cases and the maturity of internet platform ecosystems marked by the release of WeChat Work 3.0, it has become possible to help brands efficiently connect with customers across all channels through marketing technology and build a 'transparent and orderly' enterprise-level private domain. This is the example mentioned earlier. In the interview, regarding WeChat Work as one of the important carriers in this private domain traffic system, Che Chuanli commented: 'I think Zhang Xiaolong is a product manager worthy of great respect. His WeChat Work has four characters: People are Service. His idea is to use the frontline sales personnel such as channel agents, shopping guides, customer service, employees, KOLs/KOCs, and small store owners on WeChat Work to present to consumers. WeChat Work will become a window for the enterprise to demonstrate its external value. Overall, I am optimistic about WeChat Work's capabilities and applications in external interconnection. To use an analogy, it's like building a highway where enterprises can transport what they want, and at the same time, they can develop their own fleet, that is, carry out various applications.' -03- Long-Term High Efficiency A common question people ask is, 'How much does it cost to build an enterprise-level private domain?' Cost calculation is a complex issue. On the expensive side, for retailers, a complete system needs to cover SCRM (Social Customer Relationship Management) systems, OA (Office Automation), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems, front-end POS (Point of Sale), WeChat Work development, mini-program malls, and other construction expenses, plus management and human resource investments. But on the cheap side, if they don't do private domain, do retailers not need these investments? Can they use an abacus for cashiering? This project extremely tests a brand's understanding of 'how marketing technology combines with its own business'. The more mature the system architecture, the higher its cost-effectiveness. However, in reality, most small and medium-sized brands may not have a CMO with a strategic vision, so there is an extremely realistic situation: Most bosses' predictions of their enterprise's future marketing technology needs are indeed not as comprehensive as those of some marketing technology institutions. For example, many enterprises invest in technology products with a large budget in the early stage, but when the enterprise develops to a certain scale, they are no longer applicable and have to be discarded, only to spend another huge sum on rebuilding. A life analogy: It's like buying an energy-intensive air conditioner early on because it's cheap, only to find after a year that the extra electricity costs enough to buy ten energy-saving air conditioners. At that point, should you throw away the old air conditioner? Enterprises have different needs at different stages. How to ensure that technology products are reusable, assemblable, and upgradeable in the long term is not difficult technically, but rather in the insight into business. Therefore, the level of problem solvers highly depends on the accumulation and precipitation of frontline practical experience. A common situation is that when a clothing chain has fewer than ten stores, it tends to prefer 'low-cost, quick-to-deploy' enterprise-level private domain solutions, because problems can be adjusted in time at that stage. But when stores exceed a hundred or even a thousand, enterprises focus more on refinement, i.e., improving 'marketing efficiency', and at this point, it's hard to turn a big ship around. Details such as user experience, risk management, and specific scenarios (like order surges during Double 11) are all taken into consideration. But why can some marketing technology institutions foresee the new needs of clothing chains when they grow to hundreds or thousands of stores, and modularize various functions when they only have ten stores, ensuring their technology products can be continuously reused and quickly iterated, avoiding additional investment, and thus establishing a long-term, high-efficiency enterprise-level private domain? Because while serving brands with ten stores, they are also serving leading brands in the same industry with thousands of stores. In fact, there is no shortage of extreme examples: one day, due to a hot topic, an enterprise's online sales explode, but the server cannot handle such high concurrency and crashes, stopping the enterprise's momentum. Or one day, due to an accident, the database is deleted or even physically destroyed, and because disaster recovery was not done, the data cannot be recovered... In any case, in a marketing digitalization field that includes both marketing understanding and technical services, being a long-termist who prudently manages investment and improves efficiency is a core capability that everyone intending to build an enterprise-level private domain must possess. Finally Finally, it must be said that the above-summarized 'three essential elements for an ideal enterprise-level private domain': enterprise-level deployment, transparency and order, and long-term high efficiency. Since the first point is a major premise, for enterprises that can truly step into the threshold of private domain traffic, enterprise-level deployment is often a natural thing that doesn't need much consideration. If you already have a plan, then remove the first point and take this 'new three elements' as the standard: And this is also the core selling point of Qunmai's new product 'Qunmai Youdan'. Long press to add Qunmai Little Fairy Click 'Read Original' at the end of the article to apply for a trial! Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted.