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©️shen xiang original author｜lv yue

small and medium-sized businesses in all industries almost all have the same feeling: business is not easy now.

on the one hand, the market environment is changing rapidly, consumer demands are becoming increasingly personalized, and new technologies such as ai are being applied continuously, making marketing and operations increasingly complex. however, many small and medium-sized businesses still lack clear business strategies for a long time, face information asymmetry, and are in a state of "taking one step at a time". in addition, their own experience and resources are limited, so conventional marketing methods are often powerless, and they have no time to think about how to achieve sustainable growth.

on the other hand, the intensified competition in the industry has led to the increasing traffic costs of many channels. small and medium-sized businesses with limited financial resources can no longer afford pure traffic methods. many businesses have to follow the crowd and frequently change platforms, but when they arrive at the new platform, they find that they have no brand advantage and it is difficult to create creative content. in the end, they still have to give up profits in exchange for sales.

although in recent years, under the influence of consumption trends, changes in market mechanisms and other factors, small and medium-sized businesses have gradually come into the spotlight and received attention from major platforms, judging from the real feedback above, there are obviously still many details and deep-seated problems that have not been resolved.

small and medium-sized businesses are actively exploring opportunities and trying various methods, but it is still difficult to find a long-term growth method through their own efforts. at this time, whoever can provide low-threshold, high-certainty marketing solutions and referenceable success cases will undoubtedly be a timely help and open up another new growth path for businesses.

first determine the main position:

low threshold, steady progress, long-term operation

as charlie munger said, "you must fish where there are fish." small and medium-sized businesses have limited resources, and every investment must be targeted and used in the right place. therefore, in the face of numerous challenges, the first thing to do is to lock in a main position that does not waste limited resources and can get certain results. before formal action, small problems can be gathered and solved more quickly, which will naturally achieve twice the result with half the effort.

but what does it mean to "choose the right one"? corresponding to the common needs of small and medium-sized businesses, we have summarized several essential features of the main battlefield:

first, it can help merchantsfast cold startwhen merchants start their business, they face the reality of fierce external competition and limited internal financial resources, so they need to find a platform that is suitable for them to take small steps and run fast, so that they can get started with low difficulty and get through the cold start period faster.

the second is to provide merchants withhigh certainty of returnthe current market environment is highly uncertain, and small and medium-sized businesses are small businesses with weak risk resistance. at this time, the platform has clear high-value groups to tap, and can provide clear marketing methods, marketing tools and marketing support policies, which can help businesses avoid detours.

third, it can enable merchants to achievelong-term operationthe platform must have a mature and complete infrastructure and an active commercial ecosystem to effectively accumulate the people and content assets accumulated during the growth process, support the sustainable development of small and medium-sized businesses, and help them gain a longer-term foothold in the market.

a "main position" that possesses all three of the above will provide a starting point for businesses to succeed more easily. after looking around major content platforms on the internet and carefully observing some small and medium-sized businesses that have grown rapidly and successfully broken through the circle in the past two years, "shen xiang" found that xiaohongshu is representative.

first of all, xiaohongshu, which has a unique community ecosystem, provides a good environment for small and medium-sized businesses to quickly start up.

as a lifestyle content community with a ugc background, everyone on xiaohongshu is willing to actively share their lives, are curious about new and good things, and infect each other with rich and diverse lifestyles. as long as they are in such an active ecosystem, merchants can more easily gain influence and the centripetal force to cross circles and break through quickly. in the sincere interaction between you and me, the recognition of brand merchants will naturally increase, and they will be able to open up the market faster.

let’s take a typical example from xiaohongshu. usually, regional photography agencies have two major difficulties: limited market coverage and difficulty in attracting new customers. in addition, the characteristics of the industry determine that their repurchase rate is generally low. but we found that on xiaohongshu, a local photography brand in shenzhen, "sanbu walking family photography", uses unique parent-child photos, family portraits and other finished products to tell customers' real and warm stories, cleverly breaking through regional barriers, quickly becoming popular and attracting more new customers. old customers are also willing to actively share their finished products and feelings on xiaohongshu and interact with the brand sincerely, which not only brings good reputation to the brand, but also inspires their willingness to bring family and friends to try and shoot multiple times, significantly increasing the repurchase rate. in this way, the two major difficulties in the past have been solved.

secondly, xiaohongshu’s unique and high-value users are the key for merchants to obtain more certain profits.

judging from the user portraits released at the recent growth brand conference held by xiaohongshu,xiaohongshu users are always most concerned about product quality.at the same time, they also pay attention to the emotional value and experience brought by the products. such high-quality people mean that small and medium-sized businesses can clearly obtain higher sales and greater profit margins.

at the same time, nielsen released a research report in august this year, showing that 47% of users were encouraged to buy new products on xiaohongshu, and 46% of users learned about new products there.users come with the expectation of being "planted with grass",this determines that users are very tolerant of commercial content and are more willing to learn about and buy good things. at this time, merchants can use sincere content to meet the needs of the public and dig deep into emotional resonance points, and they can "run in both directions" with users who actively seek to plant grass.

based on the platform's characteristics of high-quality users, content ecology, and strong grass-planting mentality, merchants have actually found a new path more naturally and have naturally started stable operations on the platform.

only by finding the right platform can you have the possibility of long-term operation more easily. nowadays, many small and medium-sized businesses have landed on xiaohongshu. according to the data released at the conference, small and medium-sized businesses on the platform have covered 42 first-level industry categories and 139 second-level industry categories. in the first half of this year, the number of active customers of small and medium-sized businesses on xiaohongshu increased by 379% compared with the same period last year, and the gmv of small and medium-sized businesses also increased significantly by 436% year-on-year. the platform provides opportunities for rapid cold start, ensures high certainty of profit potential, and builds an environment that supports long-term operation. these three elements complement each other and jointly build an ideal soil for the growth of small and medium-sized businesses.

find the solution by matching the number.

progressive growth

finding a business position is only the first step in a long journey. small and medium-sized businesses have a prominent feature - they are in different fields and at different stages of development, and the problems they encounter are very personalized. for example, newcomers must first consider how to break out of homogeneous competition, and after starting out, businesses are more anxious about how to create hot products. when they encounter growth bottlenecks, they have to find transformation ideas...

no one can plan an absolutely standardized growth path for all small and medium-sized businesses. businesses must clearly understand their core issues and marketing goals, and then find the right entry point to form a strategy. given that it is difficult for many small and medium-sized businesses to accomplish all of this based on their own capabilities and experience, we have also seen some businesses that have grown rapidly and achieved significant business growth on xiaohongshu. the challenges they encountered are common, and the solutions they eventually found are very practical, which is very suitable for more businesses to find solutions.

first of all, the biggest feeling of many small and medium-sized businesses in recent years is that it is “too competitive”. the industry is a red ocean, so how can they stand out from it?

at this point, the core issue is to "find a blue ocean in a red ocean." when the new consumption wave was surging, many new brands also followed this idea, but it was very difficult. many brands found it difficult to identify their target groups, and demand insights became a patchwork of hot spots, which ultimately made it difficult to achieve sustained growth.

but we found a new brand "yaoguang" on xiaohongshu, which not only successfully ignited the extremely popular foundation product, but also achieved a high unit price, and finally achieved a monthly gmv of over one million and an annual gmv of over ten million.

there is a complete strategy behind the achievement: previously, yaoguang had a clear product positioning of "skin care with makeup", but did not clearly define the target group. however, xiaohongshu's underlying logic of people-oriented and the content ecology accumulated by real life sharing gave the brand the opportunity to gain insight into specific people and more real and detailed needs. with a small budget, the cold start note horse racing test identified mature skin people as the core group.

after finding the "right person", xiaohongshu's complete content ecosystem also allowed yaoguang to find ideas for creating and integrating the "right content" more quickly: by studying the skin care and beauty content shared daily by people with mature skin, he laid out notes to transform the unique selling point of yaoguang's foundation into a buying point, highlighting the differentiation of the product and brand; and simultaneously started live streaming to efficiently convert the needs of the core group and increase product sales; and through advertising, he expanded his influence in multiple areas within the site.

at the same time, xiaohongshu's unique reverse funnel model of the population also allows yaoguang to avoid the inefficiency of traditional marketing that requires large-scale flooding and heavy investment. starting from the core group of people with mature skin, to office workers who need to streamline their skin care when traveling, to people with sensitive skin in outdoor environments who need repair, the coverage is expanded layer by layer, breaking the circle more efficiently.

in fact, many small and medium-sized businesses feel that it is "too competitive". the main problem is that there are too many similar competing products, and the products are very standardized and similar. at this time, how can businesses start to make differences to attract consumers?

although business management theory often talks about distinguishing a company from its competitors with a unique product image design, the real difficulty lies in how to clearly find this "uniqueness" - if it is not innovative enough, it will still be lost in the crowd, and if it is too unconventional, it will become a brand "self-entertainment". the key is to find this balance point.

romoss, a brand that has been operating in the power bank field for twelve years, found the key to controlling the balance point of innovation after coming to xiaohongshu: taking "people" as the core starting point.

first, through market insights, the brand identified the target group of female college students with high demands, and made a more detailed insight into their needs. it was found that people not only wanted power banks to be efficient, safe, and fast, but also to be good-looking and easy to carry. taking the more comprehensive and detailed needs of the population as a starting point, romoss reversely deduced the direction of product innovation and launched a new single product "little ice cream".

at the same time, the brand has also found the right content marketing strategy: daily layout of tail bloggers and order notes, presenting product selling points in a scenario-based and native sense, and continuously improving the power of seeding; and focusing on daily seeding and big promotion investment, through blogger seeding, information flow and search (i.e. kfs) to jointly create a stronger product mindset. this not only increased the brand's nps on the site by more than 7 times, but also made the new product top the best-selling list of other e-commerce platforms, becoming an influential hot product on the entire network.

when a single product becomes a hit and sales get on track, it is not the end of a long-term business. merchants still have to think about one question: how to make consumers remember them, build loyalty and trust, so that they can still quickly drive purchases when the product line is expanded or the original hit product is upgraded in the future?

the generally accepted answer in the marketing industry is "building a brand". but this is not easy for small and medium-sized businesses: dr. george miller, a psychologist at harvard university, found that consumers can only remember seven brands in a category at most. many big brands in the industry have already accumulated brand assets, and it is conceivable that it is difficult for brands surviving in the gaps to be seen and remembered by consumers.

the outstanding advantage of small and medium-sized businesses lies in their products. with the support of strong supply chain, they are able to produce and iterate popular products more quickly according to changes in market demand.for this crucial leap from a hit product to a brand, the furniture brand grado used xiaohongshu's unique "product-led brand" strategy - that is, creating a hit product and then enhancing brand power.

first, the brand found a top designer buyer who matched the style of the furniture category to cooperate in live broadcasting, changing the simple and crude promotional style of traditional live broadcasting, and taking into account the output of brand tone while selling goods. secondly, the brand also presented the brand concept and attitude in multiple dimensions through evaluation, scene display and various notes of cooperation with experts, and continued to influence the people who have purchased the product under the logic of planting grass, so that they gradually developed the mentality of "buying brands" from "buying products", which increased the brand's natural search volume by 8 times throughout the year, and the sales of core products exceeded 10 million.

the brand also paid special attention to the importance of private domain operations, using private domains to preheat live broadcasts on xiaohongshu and conducting targeted operations for new and old customers in the community. this also enabled the brand to continue to accumulate brand assets in the private domain.

another issue we cannot ignore is: in the context of highly competitive industry and continuously upgrading consumption trends, how can merchants who encounter bottlenecks find the second curve to maintain their market competitiveness?

in fact, many businesses encounter bottlenecks because their original core products have not been able to keep up with new trends and new demands for upgrading and iteration, or they lack targeted target customer reach strategies through traditional channels, resulting in limited business growth.

for example, in the tourism industry, the trend of consumption upgrading has made it impossible for many businesses' traditional tourism products to meet the needs of tourists. on xiaohongshu, you can also see that more and more people are looking for high-quality, customized travel experiences. this is both a new opportunity, but it also brings the challenge of "how to grasp the new advanced group".

shenzhen ocean international travel has been deeply involved in the outbound travel market since its establishment in 2000. high-end island tours represented by the maldives have always been one of its core products. although the company is very strong, it has also experienced a slowdown in growth in recent years.

on xiaohongshu, the high-value users gathered on the platform are highly consistent with the high-end tourists needed by shenzhen ocean international travel. based on this, the company has more accurately positioned more detailed high-end consumer groups on the platform, including luxury consumers and wealthy housewives, and is ready for the subsequent output of seeding content and upgrading of innovative products.

after identifying the target groups, the company quickly further identified the popular demand scenarios of these high-end consumer groups on the site, such as honeymoon trips and parent-child trips, so as to create targeted note content and achieve efficient promotion. at the same time, the company also customized a top luxury route exclusively for xiaohongshu. the order volume of the top luxury route of qixing island alone increased by more than 75%, with a single customer unit price of more than 120,000, which significantly improved the company's overall profit margin and operating efficiency.

in the past year, shenzhen ocean international travel has achieved a gmv of over 50 million on xiaohongshu, and the number of high-end island orders has increased by more than 50%. finding the right direction for new content, accurately capturing and serving high-value user groups, has enabled small and medium-sized businesses represented by ocean international travel to successfully find the second curve of their business.

continue to grow,

entering a stable operating track

growth is an eternal topic. a group of small and medium-sized businesses have taken the lead in completing the leap from obscurity to industry leaders, and a new group of players have entered the market, taking the path of testing the waters, cold start, and growth. this means that there are always many small and medium-sized businesses looking for a platform with stable business and guaranteed growth to start their business.

small and medium-sized businesses initially chose to join xiaohongshu because of the platform's unique value proposition, which is to build a bridge of trust between businesses and consumers. now that there are targeted solutions based on business case summaries and clear action guidance, it will undoubtedly further attract more businesses to join.

when more merchants of different categories and characteristics come here to really take action, they will inevitably use the powerful "workbench" - the most basic function is high aggregation, which is convenient for merchants to control the overall situation and improve efficiency through integrated operations. the more advanced function is precise navigation, which allows merchants to choose the most suitable tools according to their own characteristics.

therefore, at the xiaohongshu growth brand conference, we can see that from market insights to content seeding and seeding effect measurement, merchants can already find various commercial products for the entire growth cycle on the platform. at the same time, xiaohongshu has also launched a quick delivery tool "juguang lite" that is more suitable for small and medium-sized merchants and an e-commerce marketing delivery platform "chengfeng" that better helps merchants operate in a one-stop manner on xiaohongshu. merchants can choose according to their needs and improve efficiency in a targeted manner, making their business stable and controllable in the long term.

in addition to products, the icing on the cake is the growth plan and incentive system: in order to address the problem of small and medium-sized businesses that lack traffic in their initial stages, the incentive system released this time includes a variety of traffic exposure support policies that can empower businesses. for example, new customers can get a maximum of 100,000 returns for cold start, and within 30 days of the first broadcast of the store broadcast, there is a chance to get a maximum of 60,000 traffic exposure support, and businesses operating in the private domain can get up to 65,000 traffic exposure support per week, etc. in order to meet the desire of small and medium-sized businesses to balance growth stability and growth certainty, there is also a full-cycle growth plan from entry to long-term operation, which can give businesses more "reassurance".

small and medium-sized businesses have taken center stage, but have also entered an era of fragmented traffic. now, it is no longer a matter of investing resources aimlessly, but a new stage of selecting suitable platforms and achieving deterministic growth. on xiaohongshu, merchants use the platform's marketing and business methodology, product tools, incentive and support policies, service systems, etc. to launch a whole set of combined punches to make good business more certain. we have reason to believe that more small and medium-sized businesses on xiaohongshu will become new benchmark cases in their categories in the future. for small and medium-sized businesses, now is the best time to enter xiaohongshu to seize the initiative.