Content Marketing Methodology A Required Course for Web3 Startups

Content Marketing Methodology A Must for Web3 Startups

In the past thirty years, the inherent connectivity of the Internet has brought about earth-shaking changes in the dissemination of information. On the one hand, the dissemination of information has taken the form of point-to-point network propagation. On the other hand, the speed of information dissemination has accelerated, and the impact of information has become larger after fermentation. The benefits brought to startups by the Internet are: “The Internet has made the cost of content distribution lower, the rapid expansion of Internet information makes the dissemination of information faster, and the emergence of social media gives small businesses the opportunity to build their own brands and achieve low-cost marketing.”

Indeed, if the brand is the best traffic pool for a company, then content is the best reservoir for the brand. For most small and medium-sized enterprises, content marketing is the most efficient and cost-effective method. Think about the content operations of Xiaomi in the early stage on various forums, or the role of content marketing in the competition between 360 and Rising antivirus software. Continuously producing good content can establish a relationship of trust with users. For users, the brand is a standard, and using a product must come with certain expectations. These expectations are based on trust in the product, and this trust needs continuous content output to establish a connection with users.

In Web3, the transmission of information presents the characteristics of “bottom-up, community fermentation, rapid expansion, and proactive acquisition”. This has two advantages for early-stage Web3 startups. One is that the circle is still small, so the dissemination of content is faster. The other is that good content does not have high dissemination costs. For startups, through valuable, interesting, and consistent content communication, they can maintain effective and long-term connections between the brand and the audience, thereby driving profitable user behavior.

What kind of content is good content for users?

What are the characteristics of good content? Let’s consider a question from the perspective of users: what are users looking for when reading content: a sense of value and a sense of identification.

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Users need content that is valuable and readable. It is difficult for us to find an audience more diligent than Web3 users. Users actively seek valuable articles. However, this does not mean that users like complex, obscure, and profound words. It is because Web3, which is technology-oriented, is still in its early stage and is still at the time point of consolidating infrastructure. Users have to learn a lot of technical professional articles to understand what the project is doing and make judgments about whether to use the product. But if the content can be more readable while maintaining professionalism, the dissemination and conversion effects will be better. “Clickbait,” “summary-style,” and “plain language” are the forms of content that users welcome.

By improving empathy with users, good content can definitely make users feel a sense of identification. The dissemination and conversion of content must meet the user’s mentality of “showing off.” Humans are social animals, and everyone needs to find their own position in their social network and package themselves through a series of social behaviors. When the audience recognizes the content and the content can reflect the user’s “style,” such content can provoke users to actively share and forward it, and it can help users shape their “personality” for better dissemination.

3 Types and 5 Characteristics of Content, and the 70/20/10 Rule of Content Investment

In the Internet era, content has become more fragmented, and the media has become more decentralized and intelligent. Web3 is an industry with significant information overload. How can we keep users focused on brands in a massive amount of information? This requires us to classify different types of content when doing content operations, and manage content based on different types, and maintain continuous output at different frequencies for a long time.

We divide content into 3 types: continuous content, hot content, and real-time content:

Continuous content: Continuous content usually accounts for the largest proportion. Startups educate the market, cultivate users, and build brand loyalty by providing valuable information. This type of content includes product stories, brand stories, event content, user stories, industry reports, etc. Continuous content usually does not lose value with hot topics and can continue to generate long-tail value. For example, it is very helpful for startups to have SEO on search engines like Google. Continuous content requires medium to long-term planning, fully understanding user needs through sufficient research, and formulating corresponding content output plans. For example, if you are a Web3 security company, you should continuously output knowledge and content related to Web3 security. Different types of content will have audiences who like them, whether it is for consumers or businesses.

Hot content: Hot content is mainly used for content operations on social media. Durex in the Internet era has created many classic cases of chasing hot topics. This type of content operation requires a high demand for operators and requires finding the relevance between brand and social hot topics, and has a long-term pursuit of “chasing hot topics.” Web3 has hot topics almost every day, and many hot topics can be scheduled in advance (p.s. it is recommended to prepare a Web3 hot topic calendar). In addition, during timely and highly time-sensitive hot events such as the World Cup and the Olympics, if utilized well, valuable and attention-worthy content can be created. Among these hot topics, some are naturally occurring occasional hot topics, and some are artificially created hot topics. “Creating hot topics” is obviously a higher level of content marketing than “chasing hot topics.” It usually requires finding points of convergence and launching them at the right time through meticulous planning.

Real-time content: This part of the content tests the content operator’s ability to react quickly and their depth and breadth of industry knowledge. It involves expressing attitudes towards hot topics in a timely manner. I believe this part of the content is more suitable for the founder of a startup. After all, the founder is the person who understands the industry the most and can accurately express their thoughts and insights on events.

In the process of creating content, we also need to maintain 5 characteristics: interactive, standardized, high-quality, interconnected, and divergent:

Interaction: In the era of social media, interaction is essential. It is important to interact with fans, KOLs, especially in social media content operations. All available time should be spent on social media. Social media accounts should be personified rather than just being a cold corporate blue V. Gather high-quality influencers in the industry and maintain close interaction with them for a long time to establish connections. In summary, social media content should be engaging.

Standardization: Regardless of the platform, maintaining a consistent visual format and language style is crucial to deepen the impression.

High Quality: Ensure the high quality of content and do not waste fans’ time. In the era of information overload, low-quality content only consumes users’ goodwill towards you. Produce your own content, while also paying attention to high-quality content within the industry, interact with it, and express your own insights (if any).

Linkage: Linkage refers to the establishment of partnerships within the industry. Web3 is one of the best entrepreneurial circles. The interaction and cooperation between social media accounts of startups can empower each other to gain higher attention in the market. Additionally, high-quality partnerships also serve as endorsements for startups.

Divergence: Divergence requires in-depth analysis and research on the target audience to understand what type of content they like. Even if the content is not directly related to the business itself, the advantage of divergent content is that it can attract users’ attention horizontally. Divergent content also means a wider audience and a broader potential user base.

In the overall planning of corporate content operations, different types of content should be given emphasis, and the allocation of resources and time needs to be appropriately adjusted. In this regard, the 70/20/10 content investment rule of Coca-Cola can be referred to:

70% of the content is the foundation of content marketing. This type of content is similar to continuous content and is the main content that any brand/product needs to produce in the medium to long term. It gradually builds reputation over time. This type of content has a low risk, but it does not mean that it is boring or meaningless. It is more practical for users and does not cause user aversion. Invest 50% of the effort in this 70% of the content, explore valuable content for users, think about what problems they need to solve, what issues they care about the most, and what storytelling methods you can use. Consider the tone and information you want to convey to users.

20% of the content is more innovative and in-depth, mainly for communication with the most core user group. Invest 25% of the effort in this 20% of the content to produce more in-depth research reports and insights, or more creative content that can arouse user interest, or keep up with the rhythm of new communication channels, and make full use of videos, podcasts, and other means of content output.

10% of the content is entirely new ideas and interactions. This part requires a lot of effort and careful planning, and leans more towards marketing-oriented operations. This content has the potential to become a breakthrough, but be prepared for failure. Allocate 25% of your resources to this 10% of content. This part involves cutting-edge exploration and high creativity in fine-tuned operations. It will be more interesting and have a higher chance of becoming a market hotspot if done well.

The effects of content marketing may not be immediate, but rather a long-term, subtle influence. The core of content marketing lies in its “softness”. Content that is too explicit may easily provoke audience backlash. Through a series of content marketing efforts, the target audience can be influenced in a long-term and immersive manner. Coca-Cola’s 70/20/10 content investment rule is a relatively good allocation rule. Teams can formulate plans and carry out content output in an orderly manner based on this rule.

How to do content marketing well

01 First, it is necessary to clarify the marketing objectives. Marketing objectives can be approached from two dimensions: one is to clarify the desired effects to be achieved through content, and the other is to identify the target audience to whom the message should be conveyed. Find a precise audience, establish the uniqueness of the brand through content, and convey the reasons for the audience to choose “you” instead of “them”.

02 Be user-centric and adopt a perspective that considers user needs in order to formulate plans. Content operators need to have strong empathy and think from the audience’s perspective, understanding the types of content the audience desires through research.

03 Branding through media and socialization is essential. Leveraging the power of the media for dissemination is necessary, but it is better to transform the enterprise into a media entity, building an enterprise media matrix and reducing the distance between the enterprise and the audience.

04 Maintain consistency, continuity, and rhythm. Regular social connections are important. External communication channels for companies are not advertising platforms, but platforms for managing relationships with the audience. Regular content output can cultivate user habits.

05 *Repetition, repetition, and more repetition. Consistent visual identity is crucial. It can effectively strengthen the audience’s recognition of the brand across different channels.

06 The inverted pyramid structure of content is a rule followed by most content writers. Place the most important and captivating content in the introduction, and the most exciting content at the beginning. The importance of the content body decreases gradually, with the upper part being large and heavy, and the lower part being small and light. This structure allows the audience to understand the key points of the content from the very beginning. The top-heavy structure helps optimize audience understanding and reduce their reading costs, while not affecting the presentation of details. If readers stop reading at any paragraph, the main idea of the content is still conveyed.

Image source: Content Explosion

Creating content using the psychological line of user product experience

All marketing revolves around users, so designing scenarios and layout content around the psychological lines of user experience can result in more targeted content and the opportunity to achieve better brand conversion and interaction.

01 Perception: The first thing that impresses users must be a good slogan and visual presentation. A good slogan should be able to condense the product’s features and user value, while conveying the brand’s value proposition. After contacting the content, the audience should be able to feel the emotions conveyed by the brand. For example, Coca-Cola’s “Happiness”. A good visual presentation can quickly attract the attention of users. Users like classification and symbolism, and visuals with tension are more likely to be classified in users’ minds. First impressions are very important. Perception is reality. Doing well in the “perception” part of the content can create empathy with the audience from the beginning and further guide the user to experience the product;

02 Contact: This stage can be further divided into demand scenarios, media scenarios, and usage scenarios. In other words, we need to layout and output content in scenarios that may inspire audiences to use the product and media scenarios that target audiences can access. At the same time, we cannot ignore the content design of the product itself. The product is one of the best channels for showcasing content. It can clearly allow users to perceive the product’s features and value. It is essential to set prompts in the product to guide users to experience its functions;

03 Touch: Deeply touch users with PR content. This may be the best way to soft launch a brand. It has a low budget and can achieve deep communication with users. Web3 likes good storytelling, and project parties need to create products based on user needs and tell good stories. Whether it is product storytelling or entrepreneurial stories, “storytelling thinking” is essential when outputting content;

04 Action: When users take action to use the product, trial experience is particularly important. If content prompts users to further use the product (Token rewards are, of course, a direct and straightforward method), adding a sense of gamification can be considered. For example, motivating users to collect badges/NFTs by completing tasks would be a good choice to encourage user experience;

05 Experience: A good product experience can strengthen users’ awareness of the brand. The experience stage is the real test for the product. Don’t rush to market the product before it is “smooth” enough;

06 Sharing: Social viral potential should be considered in every stage of the product. Find the driving force for users to share, which could be driven by interests (bilateral rewards, leaderboard rewards, honor rewards) or empathy;

Choosing channels for content marketing

McLuhan once said, “The medium is the message,” which means that information conveyed through different channels has its uniqueness. In the era of the Internet, the attention of the audience is mostly torn apart by different channels. The carefully crafted content by project parties can only influence a small portion of the audience on different platforms. Therefore, content distribution must be done through multiple channels, and content should be optimized based on the characteristics of different channels, with targeted content layout.

01 Self-owned Voice Platform: Continuously operate private domain traffic through self-owned voice channels, including but not limited to Twitter (X), Facebook, Instagram, Discord, Medium/Mirror, EDM, Youtube, Podcast, etc. Different channels have different attributes and popularity in different countries and regions. For example, Twitter is more personified and fragmented, Discord is community-oriented. We should also not ignore Chinese social media platforms like WeChat Official Account and Jike;

02 Paid Media: Investment in communication and content operation are equally important. Paid channels can play a better role at major event nodes, concentrating limited funds on targeted communication at the right time, just like a whirlwind, until users form a reflexive recognition of the brand. At the same time, for paid media channel placement and KOL selection, screening should be done for each activity and an effect tracking system should be established. Customized content should be created for different types of media and KOLs. The worst scenario is when all KOLs post the same content or all media outlets publish the same press release. Maintaining a close relationship with the media in the long run for soft marketing can also achieve advertising effects subtly and attract audiences unconsciously;

03 User-generated Content: Good content must have interactivity, and user-generated content and interaction are also part of content operation. For channel placement, the measurement of effectiveness should be more comprehensive. It is difficult to track and evaluate the effectiveness of content operation solely based on quantification. It is important to listen to users’ voices. The feedback from early users and core users is crucial for project advancement. Web3 attaches great importance to community culture, and building a good community foundation is the first step for a project to enter the market;

The most prominent characteristics of information in the Internet era are information overload and fragmentation. Information changes rapidly. In order to establish continuous communication with the audience, it is necessary to continuously produce content, gradually cultivate trust in the brand through accumulated content output and repeated reinforcement of viewpoints. Content marketing has become an essential part of corporate marketing in today’s changing media environment and information dissemination methods.

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