Abstract of this article: 2022 is a sluggish year. Financial people have experienced capital market shocks, retrogression under epidemic prevention and control, and extremely difficult performance appraisals. The curtain has come to an end in 2022. Epidemic prevention and control policies have changed, and the market has Things are picking up, and new businesses such as personal pension business are opening up. At this point in time, it can be said that the clouds are clearing and the moon is bright. We believe that 2023 will be a year of recovery and boost, and the industry will usher in opportunities for high-quality development. We hope to think about how to do marketing this year with everyone, so we put forward the proposition of channel expansion VS user operation, hoping to inspire discussion with everyone. Background: Channel expansion VS user operation? Become a required question_Channel changes under the online wave of wealth management. Before the online wave of funds, the sales channels of asset management institutions were mainly offline outlets of banks and securities firms. Asset management institutions could not directly contact users and could only act as channels. expand. Channel expansion is a concept in traditional marketing theory. Enterprises do not directly reach consumers, but establish a dealer network, and their behavior is sales-oriented. The target of channel expansion is dealers, who can obtain better sales through negotiating with channels and establishing business relationships. After the rise of fund Internet sales, asset management institutions have set up direct sales channels to directly attract customers and operate. In order to build an online wealth management ecosystem, Ant, Tiantian and Bank have given some permissions of the open platform to asset management institutions, and asset management institutions can have access to users to a certain extent. Fund sales channels have evolved from the original offline to four parties competing among banks, securities firms, three-party agency sales and direct sales. The role of fund companies has changed from a simple product provider to a dual identity of asset management institution + wealth management. The onlineization of fund sales has given asset management institutions objective conditions for user operations. _The existing era has fallen into a customer acquisition bottleneck. In the era of finding AUM Internet dividends from existing customers, various institutions are racing to seize customers through various channels. If they follow the channel's policies, they will naturally obtain more traffic and increase retention. At this stage, although asset management institutions use various marketing methods to provide user services, they still follow the requirements and ideas of the channels, and are essentially still meeting the needs of the channel parties. Nowadays, the Internet has entered a period of stock competition. The price of acquiring customers is high and the difficulty is increasing. Asset management institutions need to change the crude model of investing resources to grab customers based on channel policies, focus on existing customers, and increase product retention through refined operations to increase unit prices per customer. The operation of existing customers requires organizations to change their thinking from channel operations to user operations. User operation is a concept that only emerged after the rise of Internet companies. The goal of user operation is not to directly lead to sales, but to be user-centered, set up content and activities based on user needs, and finally promote user purchases. Obviously, the strategy of purely channel operation is no longer suitable for the current sales channels and future development trends, but user operation faces many difficulties and pain points. How should we choose in the dilemma? How should fund companies choose when facing the fork in the road presented by the times? Current status of the industry: The openness of agency sales channels has increased, and the Matthew effect of sales channels is obvious_The sales system has been established maturely, and the Matthew effect of sales channels has become apparent. The topics discussed in this article are based on the fact that asset management institutions have formed a relatively mature sales system, and newly established bank wealth management companies, The sales channels of some securities firms’ asset management subsidiaries are not yet complete. Because the sales of institutional customers and private equity products are quite different from the mass retail model, this article mainly focuses on the retail business of public equity fund companies. Banks, securities firms, independent fund sales agencies and direct sales are the main channels for fund sales. As shown in Chart 1, according to data from the China Foundation Association, the proportions of retained scale in 2020 are 27.68%, 9.31%, 14.54%, and 48.03% respectively. In the fund agency channel, industry concentration is very high. According to the data of the top 100 fund sales agencies in the third quarter of 2022, the retention scale of equity funds CR5, CR10 and CR20 are 43%, 59% and 75% respectively. Although it has dropped slightly from the beginning of 2021, it can basically be considered that 20% of institutions sold 80% of the funds. This means that when fund companies operate agency sales channels, concentrating resources on being the leading institution is a choice with a high investment ratio. After years of channel construction, most fund companies have formed a stable and extensive distribution agency structure. More than 30 fund companies have cooperated with more than 200 agency agencies. Only 21 fund companies cooperate with less than 50 agency agencies. Although the overall scale of direct sales channels has always been high, most institutional customers from direct sales counters and the retention scale of retail customers are not high. Short-term direct sales channels are more strategic than profitable for fund companies. In the past two years, as the brands of leading fund companies have emerged from the industry, the significance of direct sales channels has begun to emerge. _Banks and brokerage channels: Channel cooperation is the main focus, and openness is gradually increasing. According to data released by the China Fund Agency, the equity and non-goods holdings of 27 banks among the top 100 fund sales agencies are 3 trillion and 3.9 trillion respectively. Accounting for 52% and 28% of the total scale of the top 100 respectively, banks are undoubtedly the leaders in agency sales channels. Among the 27 bank channels, China Merchants Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and China Construction Bank account for 46% (equity) and 44% (non-goods) of the total size of the 27 banks. Although banks are late in deploying online sales, the marketing strength of major state-owned banks cannot be underestimated. As banks’ digital transformation accelerates, banks have begun to pay attention to online wealth management services. Starting in 2021, some banks will begin to launch bank wealth open platforms, and asset management institutions will settle in.

After more than a year of operation, the fund company's operations have achieved some results. Taking China Merchants Bank as an example, as of the end of December, 75 asset management institutions had settled in the platform, with a total number of fans of nearly 16 million. The banking and securities dealer channels have not yet formed an operating mechanism for complete market competition. There are still entry barriers. Whether they can settle in and how much resources they can obtain require the maintenance of business relationships. Even if they settle on the open platform, the construction of the bank platform's open platform is slow and the traffic is relatively low. The operations of fund companies in banks are very limited. However, the banking channel is a new traffic entrance, and the open ecosystem is gradually improving, so it is a channel that needs attention. _Internet independent fund sales agencies: Leading fund companies have acquired a large number of users. As of the third quarter of 2022, independent sales agencies account for 20 of the top 100 fund sales agencies, forming a pattern of 2 over 4. The total scale of equity and non-goods products respectively accounts for The total scale of the top 100 companies is 25.8% and 36.5%. Ant and Tiantian, the leading third-party platforms, rank among the top three in fund sales. Their combined scale accounts for 17% (non-goods) and 22% (equity) of the top 100. The third-party platform was the first to be opened to fund companies. In June 2017, Ant announced the official launch of the Wealth Open Platform, and then Tiantian Fund also announced the launch of Wealth Account. Today, Ant and Tiantian Fund have settled in more than 100 fund companies, and the total number of fans of Ant Fortune Account is hundreds of millions. The horse racing in the past few years has allowed leading fund companies to obtain huge amounts of traffic on the Internet platform. The independent third-party sales organization is highly open and has opened up areas such as graphics, live broadcasts, mini programs, and discussion forums. And its operations are fully market-oriented. Ant Platform has launched the FICI system, which relies on the quantitative scores of each indicator to determine which institution gets more resources. Under sufficient market competition, fund companies have become familiar with the characteristics of Internet users and Internet marketing methods on the Ant platform, and accumulated experience in online marketing. In the past two years, the traffic dividends of third-party platforms have declined. Coupled with market fluctuations, investors have lost enthusiasm, the number of fans has slowed down, and the operations of fund companies have turned to refinement. _Direct sales channels: Direct sales channels are differentiated from head to tail, and WeChat channels are higher in production (1) Direct sales APPs. As of the end of September, more than 50 fund companies and brokerage companies operate direct sales APPs, and basically all leading fund companies have direct sales APPs. In the past two years, many fund companies have begun to stop operating direct sales apps. Investment in direct sales platforms has become polarized. Some fund companies continue to increase investment as their scale continues to grow with the support of brand and product performance. Some fund companies continue to reduce investment due to cost issues, and even give up direct sales apps. (2) WeChat platform WeChat domain can realize rich marketing methods. In the WeChat domain, you can create rich marketing scenarios such as account opening, transactions, and user companionship through WeChat official accounts, microsites, WeChat video accounts, mini programs and other positions. WeChat mini programs can further enrich marketing methods and promote fund sales. Service account: Judging from the service accounts of the top 50 fund companies in non-monetary funds, from July to September 2022, an average of 43 institutions published 394 articles per month, with an average number of reads of more than 3,000 per article. The posting trend is stable, and users already have a certain degree of stickiness. Various institutions have become very mature in operating WeChat public accounts. Most fund companies have developed a very complete channel system through early channel operations, and leading fund companies have accumulated a lot of users in various channels and formed a normalized user operation model. The layout of sales channels in the public fund industry has basically been completed, so the next work begins to turn to intensive cultivation of channels. In the future, most of the scale increase of fund companies will come from user operations rather than channel expansion. Industry case: Leading fund companies invest heavily in user operations in key channels_Direct sales channels: GF Fund - Continuous investment in direct sales ecology GF Fund’s direct sales scale has always been at the forefront of the industry, and it has started to build a direct sales system very early. We started from GF Fund Let’s analyze the direct sales channels to see the current situation of direct sales of leading organizations. (1) Direct Selling APP GF Fund’s direct selling APP was launched in 2013. It was one of the earliest fund companies to invest in direct selling APP. From 2013 to 2019, the GF Fund Direct Sales APP built various basic functions and experience optimization around the needs of "selling funds", focusing on account opening, login, and fund inquiry, deposit, and withdrawal. Starting in 2020, direct selling APPs will design tools based on users’ financial management scenarios, such as parent-child financial management and financial management assistants. Especially in 2022, GF Fund has made many improvements and upgrades to the fund investment advisory page, such as investment advisory experience funds, smart education financial investment advisors, super fixed investors, etc. The operating philosophy of direct selling APPs has gradually changed, from selling products to operating direct selling channels in the direction of wealth management. (2) The official website is the earliest direct sales platform of GF Fund. Users can trade directly on the fund company’s official website. Since the website cannot continue to reach users, and user groups’ usage habits have migrated to mobile terminals, the current official website of a fund company plays more of a role in brand promotion than sales. The official website of GF Fund consists of five pages: home page, personal finance, high-end finance, corporate finance and about GF. This design is based on the traditional business module and is also in line with the usage habits of the user groups who use the official website for transactions. (3) WeChat platform GF Fund’s operating positions on the WeChat platform include public accounts, video accounts, mini programs and corporate WeChat. Among them, the GF Fund service account is the main position for direct sales. The service account can be understood as a "lite version" of the APP. The main functions of the APP are extracted and placed in the service account menu bar. After users bind their accounts, they can push messages to users through WeChat.

Weguanjia and Niuji Investment Club provide positioning information and investment education services, and provide comprehensive services to users in the community and WeChat Moments through corporate WeChat. Overall, GF Fund’s direct sales channels have transformed from “selling products through channels” to “improving channels and providing wealth services.” _Agency sales channels: Head companies have wide coverage, and small and medium-sized institutions choose key channel operations. After decades of channel expansion, most fund companies have very wide channel coverage. According to Wind data, as of the end of 2022, 74 fund companies have cooperated with more than 150 agency agencies, and 12 fund companies have cooperated with more than 250 institutions. The largest number of cooperative agencies are Boshi Fund, E Fund, and Southern Fund, with 343, 324, and 300 cooperative institutions respectively. The channel operation coverage of leading fund companies is already very broad, and it is difficult to make major breakthroughs. In order to continue to increase sales in agency sales channels, the next key task in agency sales channels should be to strengthen the depth of cooperation in key channels. In terms of cooperation in key channels, fund companies are also actively staking their claim. Taking open platforms as an example, as shown in Figure 11, statistics show the presence of some leading fund companies in key open platforms. Boshi Fund, Southern Fund, Penghua Fund and other leading funds All companies have settled in dozens of institutions, including third-party platforms, banks and securities firms, and have accumulated a certain number of users after a period of operation. Ant and Tiantian Fund open platforms have high sales scale, so most institutions invest very heavily in these two platforms. Taking Ant as an example, China Universal Fund, China Asset Management, ICBC Credit Suisse Fund, and Chuangjin Hexin Fund published more than 1,500 articles in 2022. 36 Fortune accounts have published more than 500 articles, which shows that the frequency of publishing is very high. Counting the number of live broadcasts, videos, articles and mini programs of the top ten non-stock fund companies on the Ant platform in 2022, the operation frequency is very high and a lot of resources are invested. Outlook: User operation meets the needs of wealth management transformation_User operation is the general trend and requires continuous investment. Under the general trend of wealth management transformation, the asset management industry is transforming from a pure product provision direction to "asset management institutions + wealth management institutions". In recent years, the staffing staffing of the sales business line of the public fund industry has also been quietly changing. The number of personnel in the e-commerce department (mutual finance department) continues to expand, and positions such as financial live streaming and content operations continue to expand. The entire industry tends to focus on the operation of online channels. We believe that next, asset management institutions must spare no effort in user operations. First of all, user operation is an inevitable trend in the transformation process of wealth management. The model in which asset management products rely on management fees to make profits requires fund companies not only to look at short-term sales, but also to look at long-term retention. The sales brought about by obtaining high-quality traffic through business relationships alone are not long-lasting, and cannot guarantee the user's holding period. We believe that most of the future increase in fund size will come from user operations, which requires fund companies to improve after-sales services and in-depth companionship. Secondly, fund companies have very limited control over channels. Fund companies have not had strong bargaining power in the channels since their establishment. The sales capabilities of the channels themselves and their policies towards fund companies are in flux, and business relationships cannot fully guarantee sales. On the contrary, user operations can establish in-depth connections with users through long-term work, and user operations can be copied and promoted, and the accumulated working methods can be promoted to various sales platforms. In addition, user operations play an important role in the fund investment advisory business. The differences in fund investment advisory products will be narrowed, and the competition will be more about the ability to “consult”. If you want to find a place in the fund investment advisory business, you need to cultivate your user operation skills in advance. _There will be a long period of time when channel expansion and user operation will be carried out simultaneously. Although we believe that user operation is an inevitable trend in the transformation process of wealth management, facing reality, it is still difficult to do user operation: (1) Independent operation of agency sales platform Limited, it is too difficult to collaborate across platforms for user operations. (2) The fund company has many service departments for users and subdivided business modules, making it difficult to coordinate operations. (3) The core of a fund company is its products. The sales department’s own responsibilities need to be operated according to the company’s product rhythm. It is difficult to truly use user operation thinking for operations. Although user operation is a long-term trend, the short-term awareness of channel emphasis in the industry is difficult to change. What we need to do for a long time is channel expansion and user operations at the same time. During the period when the two are parallel, institutions need to invest some resources in advance to try and layout, and gradually change strategies. _Three trends in user operations in the short term (1) Specialization: Make full use of platform openness capabilities and build differentiated channels. Key channels need differentiated user operations. As we mentioned earlier, the fund agency industry is highly concentrated, and fund companies focus on Investing in head channels is highly productive, and the platform capabilities of head channels should be used for differentiated operations. (2) Completeness: The sales system is fully deployed to fully cover customer needs. The three functions of fund product sales, customer service, and user investment education are the same for users, but they are separate within the fund company. It is necessary to have a comprehensive deployment of users and an internal system platform to carry out user information sharing and user service planning under the premise of compliance. On the premise of meeting user needs and covering the entire life cycle of users, do not over-market and disturb. We should not only pay attention to front-end content output, but also pay attention to effect analysis and review, and do a good job in long-term user marketing. (3) Technologicalization: Strengthen digital means and strengthen investors’ companionship with thousands of people. The application of artificial intelligence and big data in user services requires more personalized and intelligent user services, such as intelligent assistants for investors, Intelligent customer service and more.

At the same time, the organization also needs to use technology to improve the compliance, security and efficiency of marketing, such as establishing a marketing center to improve the efficiency of internal marketing material review, production and release. The financial digital marketing platform Leda developed by Daole can intelligently produce and publish marketing content, help asset management institutions improve efficiency, and provide content and services for different users.