An unexpected disaster in early 2020 has impacted the education and training industry, and online education has ushered in an explosion. Then, how to make this model continue, I have summarized three monetization models.
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “Wild operator community” (ID: dugu9bubai) , Author: Wild solitary bacteria.
01 Preface
An unexpected disaster in the beginning of 2020 did not make the Chinese people have a good New Year, and it also affected the education and training industry. Because of the severe epidemic situation, most cities require winter training to stop offline training. This has chilled many educational institutions. Fortunately, there is a form of online education, and peers have launched offline-to-online strategies in order to continue to survive and to Students provide necessary teaching services.
Anyway, online education will usher in new changes in 2020. Will it continue to burn money for traffic wars, or bet against offline giants to compete with traditional giants, or use this external force to integrate with offline? It takes time for inspection.
I have been thinking about describing online education since I joined the industry. Is it simple to move offline training to online? The author believes that the essence of online education is education, but it is a business model based on the new infrastructure of the Internet. The benefit is to improve business efficiency, and the delivery to users is still based on “content + service” as the core solution. It is also the rigid demand for social selection, skills transfer, and personal growth.
Since the essence of online education is an Internet-based solution with “content + services” as its core, this means that there are many monetization models and growth strategies.
In terms of monetization mode, especially for the C-end, there are three main modes of online education, namely one-to-one mode, training camp system and live lesson system. In terms of growth strategy, it depends on how to combine traffic channels, product systems, pricing strategies, marketing methods, and other factors, and also depends on the development period of online education companies. It is difficult to directly classify them. However, based on my own experience and industry observations, the author believes that there are four types of combined growth strategies that can be used for a long time, which will be explained in the next article.
02 3 mainstream monetization models for online education
In the past, some people asked what to do for online education. The author ’s first suggestion was to make clear what the monetization model is, because online education is not a pure Internet business model. You can do traffic first and then find the monetization direction. Traditional education has a stable monetization model itself, such as large classes, small classes, dual teachers, etc. After transferring to online education, there will be live large class classes, recording and training camps, and so on. The benefit is that it helps you get cash in advance before you can consider expansion and financing.
So, it is very important to think about what kind of products you can use to collect money. of courseThere are one or more monetization models in different segments of education. Some monetization models are very easy to use, and some monetization models are difficult. Then, according to the author’s classification criteria, the advantages and disadvantages of various monetization models and their application are explained in detail Race track.
1, one-to-one mode
The one-to-one model is a relatively primitive monetization model for the education industry. Especially for the offline education and training industry, the one-to-one model has created a golden age for the industry. The most typical one is a large university. For a long time, the company that has formed the three giants with one party and one thought can benefit from the initial standardization of the one-to-one model in the long-term competition with two industry giants.
The benefits of the one-to-one mode are obvious. There are two main reasons: First, the teaching mode is simple. A teacher only needs to deal with this student. The effect is visible and it is easy to land quickly. Second, the money comes quickly and the teacher treats a student. Can provide higher and more personalized services, resulting in very high unit prices, recruiting a small number of students can see the cash flow.
However, the one-to-one model also has disadvantages, and in the long run, the disadvantages outweigh the benefits. This has caused the one-to-one model to be uneconomical in scale. At present, the online one-to-one model has entered this bottleneck. Since the beginning of the year, I have rarely seen online one-on-one news. Although a door 1 to 1, a talk, a kid, etc. are still alive, they are no longer as beautiful as before, and they are trying to tear off online one-on-one. Label, and in turn develop new business models.
So, what are the disadvantages of the one-to-one model? The same is twofold.
The first aspect is that it is difficult to truly standardize. Although Xueda has innovated the one-to-one model, it joins teaching consultants. The relationship between the consultants and students is reduced to reduce the importance of the teacher, and the preliminary standardization has been achieved. But law cannot be solved by unified teaching and research like class lessons, because personalization is the advantage of one-to-one mode. Even if the teacher’s standard is lowered, such as one-to-one college students in a certain department, it is difficult to solve it. Teacher training is the most. Standardization of teaching methods depends on teaching and research in the core teaching methods. The best way is to use very detailed teaching and research sections and use big data to assist teachers in tutoring students, but this places high demands on growth and investment costs. Also higher.
Then why a kid can do standardization so well, it is because the foreign teachers are the same for the students. The children’s English needs have not reached the level of the exam and they only stay in the interest stage. It is difficult for the students to pass a certain stage. Keep learning, this dilemma has begun to highlight.
Looking at the second aspect of the disadvantages of the one-to-one model, that is, the cost of acquiring customers is too high, which is mainly because the unit price of one-to-one is too high, the cost of user decision-making is high, and the sales staff needs to track and maintain a single lead. Only in this way can we have a stable conversion rate. In order to expand the number of users, we also need to train and motivate sales. In addition to traffic-based methods such as advertising, the overall customer acquisition cost has surged. This is a lot of online one-to-one institutions. Loss, layoffs, runningThe direct cause of the road. A kid who has done a good job in acquiring customers is its kid. Its referral system helps its customer acquisition costs stay at a relatively low level for a long time. Although it will also increase, from 1,000 yuan in the early stage of the wind to 4,000 yuan in 2019, but Still better than other players on the track.
However, no matter how low the cost is, it wo n’t solve the growth dilemma of the one-to-one model. Once the dividend is over, the one-to-one model loses the chance of sustainable and independent development. As a supplement to class lessons, class lessons are used for one-to-one diversion, which not only solves the problem of model development, but also reduces customer acquisition costs. At present, many online one-to-one players develop small classes and even large classes for this purpose. As for their success, let us wait and see.
2, training camp mode
The training camp model is a monetization model that the author believes has been created since the birth of online education. It is significantly different from other models in terms of operations, teaching and research, and coaching. For example, most of the training camps match the community, and the requirements for community operation are higher than one-on-one and live lessons. For another example, the training camps require concentrated classes in a certain period of time, unlike periodic and fixed time classes like live classes. Unlike one-to-one, time is random as long as the class can be eliminated.
The author wants to focus on the composition of the training camp model, which can be expressed by a formula, that is, “training camp = ceremony + community + course + activities”, and then dismantle according to this formula.
Rite first. For everyone, there is a process of transition from one stage to another. This process often requires a ritual to reflect people’s wishes and needs, or help self-realization, or bring identity. This feeling is a sense of ritual . For the training camp model, once the user decides to participate, it is a change to a certain extent. Although this process is relatively short, by creating a sense of ritual, the user’s desire to participate in the training camp can be greatly increased. That is why training camps often have opening and closing rituals.
Community is the second essential element of the training camp model. Communities can perform operational actions on users centrally and efficiently. After all, people are group animals. Blind following and emotionalization are typical features. Use these to perform specific actions on the community and affect the minds and behaviors of group members.
For the training camp, the class community is the most suitable form of community, with two obvious characteristics, one is strong regularity, and the other is the learning atmosphere. The so-called strong regularity means that members in the group must follow certain rules, otherwise they will be punished. By establishing rules and punishment measures, they can serve as a warning to users in the group and lay the foundation for the establishment of a good learning atmosphere.
What is a learning atmosphere? The core performance is that students can actively initiate topics and discussions about the content of the training camp, which is too difficult for the short-term community. Even if the content of the training camp is very painful, the probability of causing spontaneous discussion is not high. Strategically citedChannel and share incentives.
The course is the core part of the training camp model and the key to unite users. The design of the course mainly includes the following three parts:
Course purpose: The purpose of the course determines the purpose of the training camp. Generally speaking, there are two types of training camp courses. One is to focus on a specific ability, and the other is to focus on a specific knowledge. And “informational courses.”
Course content: The learning content of the training camp presents three characteristics. The first is a system framework, that is, a content outline that is complete, clear, and consistent with the logical progression relationship. The second is the advanced system, which can be used as an introductory course for the advanced system of abilities. The third is acceptability, that is, the completion of the study. Boot camp users can be retained in other products.
Learning link design: The learning link of the general training camp follows this process, that is, “learning-practice punch-review summary-test evaluation”, can effectively improve the completion rate with the help of addictive models.
In addition to courses, corresponding activities are also essential. There are three common types of activities in training camps. The first is student sharing, that is, inviting outstanding students, previous students, etc. to share learning experiences. The second is team competition, which allows students to form teams to study freely, and to give material rewards to the groups that have been studying for the longest. The third is welfare activities, that is, adding some small benefits to increase community activity.
It can be found that the training camp model has very high operational requirements, especially the standardization of community operations is the key. This is the first monetization model for online education companies that use WeChat as the main traffic channel, such as playing English.
3. Live lesson mode
The live lesson mode is currently the closest online education monetization mode, mainly due to the launch of the summer 2019 war. Several k12 online education institutions are competing for low-cost class traffic, which allows capital to see online education. New giants are likely to be born on the track, and they are considering betting heavily.
However, the live broadcast mode is not a new monetization mode, but it has existed for a long time, and includes several major subdivisions such as live broadcast classes, live broadcast dual teachers, and live broadcast classes, and the one-to-one mode and training camp mode Will involve live streaming. Among the types of live broadcast mode, the live broadcast class is the easiest to land, but the effect is the worst. The live broadcast class is the closest to offline, but it is the most difficult to operate and it is not easy to completely standardize. The investment is also high. A model that is closer to the effect of offline teaching, and has relatively mature operations, a relatively high degree of standardization, and a relatively easy landing. At present, the head unicorns of the k12 online education track all use live dual teachers as the core of profit.
So, why will the live broadcast dual division break out in 2019? It is necessary to interpret the advantages of the live broadcast dual division. First of all, live streaming is currently the best way to learn online. You can only watch it at a fixed time. You ca n’t adjust the speed and progress like recording. You can also interact with the teacher and gamify the answers to increase the immersion of online learning. importantIs able to take up user time. Secondly, there is a dual teacher configuration. One lecturer teaches all students a unified content, and the tutor instructs the students in the class to follow the guidance. The entire standardized operation can be solved through training to ensure that standardization and personalization can be achieved. Basic balance.
Good live broadcast experience and dual-assurance configuration to ensure the effect allow this model to develop rapidly, and the industry can continue to iterate to form a reproducible operation plan. As long as excellent teachers, content and services are guaranteed, it will exceed the offline effect. It can be expected that the current repurchase rate of k12 online schools is almost close to offline, reaching more than 70%, and several large online education institutions can reach 80% or even 90%, which shows the power of this model.
Of course, there are also drawbacks to the dual live broadcast mode.
The first is the live broadcast experience and effect guarantee. Although it has great advantages compared with other online learning methods that cannot be scaled, the live broadcast is stuttered, the attendance is low, the playback rate is high, and the student’s self-control Poor and unequal stratification of students are obvious problems. These are the key factors restricting the expansion of the audience of the live broadcast model.
Second, the high turnover rate and uneven service level of tutors are also major problems. Although the tutor’s training cycle and screening thresholds are much lower than those of the lecturer, the quality of the talents introduced will inevitably vary, and the narrow growth space of the profession is the key factor that can’t keep the tutor. The pure material It is difficult to attract or attract real talent to seduce. Providing diversified capability models and job channels will be necessary measures.
In reality, many people would think that the training camp has a dual teacher mode similar to the live broadcast class. In fact, this is a misunderstanding. There are actually no dual teachers in the training camp, only “one division + n assistant teachers”. It is called a class teacher, who is basically not responsible for answering questions but is responsible for group operations. Most of them are part-time. The true dual teacher is that both sides have teaching skills, but one of them is responsible for teaching the other and the latter is often a full-time employee. Requirements and selection standards are higher than teaching assistants, answering questions and group operations are basic tasks.
The above are the three mainstream monetization models summarized by the author. At present, the live broadcast mode and training camp mode are relatively clear and easy to land. The industry also has a consensus operation plan. Post-entrants can give priority to these two modes. As a starting point for monetization.
The following table is a comparison of the main features of the three monetization models of online education, which are for reference only.