Nanny-level Zhihu Marketing Strategy [7000 words full process]

Zhihu marketing is an issue that almost every brand, especially service-oriented brands with high customer unit prices, must pay attention to. Why? There are three reasons

First, the growth rate of Zhihu's DAU is terrifying, so there must be your users here;

Second, Zhihu has always been the Chinese community with the highest SEO index, and has always been ranked very high in Baidu. This means that once there are negative reviews on Zhihu, how to evaluate the negative reviews of a certain brand will particularly affect the user's decision-making experience;

Third, content is king on Zhihu. More than 80% of the hot posts come from ordinary users, not experts. When doing Zhihu marketing, you don’t have to pay for the high premiums of experts.

So how can we do Zhihu marketing well?

I will break it down in detail for you from five parts, namely Zhihu's traffic composition, algorithm, topic selection, content, and knowledge+ assistance.

1. Traffic composition

Zhihu’s main traffic entrances are mainly concentrated in four sections.

1. Search traffic

Girls use Xiaohongshu to search, and boys use Zhihu to search. Many male users regard Zhihu as a search engine, searching for various knowledge and questions on Zhihu. With the support of the search engine, search traffic has become an important part of Zhihu.

Example: Search for "camera recommendation" on Baidu and Zhihu:

Baidu Zone displays Zhihu Q&A content:

Advantages of search traffic: accurate and long life cycle;

Disadvantages of search traffic: weak explosiveness and easily affected by ranking fluctuations;

Format: Q&A, articles, videos, etc.

2. Recommended traffic

Zhihu Recommendation is a column that is presented first on the Zhihu website and app. A large number of answers have become popular because of community recommendations.

Recommended traffic advantages: large volume;

Disadvantages of recommended traffic: high requirements for content quality and data feedback;

Format: Q&A, articles, videos, etc.

3. Hot list traffic

Zhihu Hot List is a ranking list for the most popular content on the entire site. It has an overall list and sub-lists in various fields, which can attract the attention of users across the site in a short period of time.

Advantages of hot list traffic: large exposure level;

Disadvantages of hot list traffic: fierce competition, high requirements for topics, and easy to be dragged down;

Format: Q&A, articles, videos, etc.

4. Video traffic

Video is currently a form of content that Zhihu focuses on supporting. It can be accessed from the homepage and is also presented in the recommendation column and hot list.

Advantages of video traffic: initial dividends;

Disadvantages of video traffic: not accurate enough and relying on community support;

Format: Video.

5. Other traffic

In addition to the above traffic sources, Zhihu's focus column, ideas, circles, and live broadcasts still have a certain amount of traffic, but generally there is no first-level entrance and they are not a marketing focus.

2. The Secret of the Algorithm

If you want to do a good job in Zhihu marketing, it is essential to understand Zhihu's algorithm.

1. Search traffic

Zhihu’s search ranking is actually similar to that of a search engine. The content needs to be included first before the search term ranking can be improved.

On the one hand, we need to consider the match between the content and the search keywords. The higher the match, the greater the probability of being included. On the other hand, high-quality accounts have higher weights and can obtain higher search rankings. Finally, the popularity of the content will also affect the search ranking. In short, the more popular the content, the higher the ranking.

Of course, the search also involves the ranking of answers under the question. Generally speaking, after the question is included in the search term, one of the highly-rated answers under the question will be captured and displayed. In addition, because users generally refer to more than one answer out of habit, the answer that is naturally ranked first under the question will also have a greater chance of being exposed.

Therefore, if you can achieve a very high ranking for the search term + question, then the traffic will naturally be better; if you cannot achieve both, then at least one of them should be in the front position.

2. Recommended traffic

Recommended traffic is through Zhihu’s recommendation algorithm, and then the content is pushed to users.

Generally speaking, the recommendation algorithm will first push the content to a small number of people, and then collect feedback data, such as reading completion rate, approval rate, interaction data, etc., to determine whether the content is worth continuing to recommend.

3. Hot list traffic

The hot list is a collection of real-time popular content on Zhihu's entire site. Its dimensions are mainly calculated based on 24-hour views, interactions and field weight.

If you want your content to be on the hot list, you must have a large number of users in the field participating in the interaction within a short period of time. Once a good volume of voice is generated, the popularity of the content will naturally increase.

Of course, for video content, the distribution mechanism is similar to recommendation, and there is a separate list to support it, which you can refer to.

4. Comprehensive Algorithm

Unlike platforms such as Toutiao and Douyin, Zhihu uses the Wilson algorithm, which determines the recommendation and ranking of content based on the Wilson formula based on data such as likes, dislikes, and favorites of the content.

u represents the number of approvals for the content, v represents the number of disapprovals for the content, p represents the approval rate of the content = number of approvals/(approvals + disapprovals), and Z is a number related to the weight.

Although the algorithm formula is very complicated, you only need to remember the most important point: the approval rate is more important than the number of approvals, and the disapproval rate is more important than the approval rate.

Unlike other content platforms, in addition to liking and interacting, Zhihu users can also vote against content they disagree with, and the number of votes will affect the answer ranking to a certain extent.

3. Topic selection and potential exploration

Before increasing Zhihu traffic, exploring potential is an essential step.

Under the premise that the content cost remains unchanged, the choice of different questions determines the number of times the content is displayed. The same content will have completely different effects when answered under two questions of different popularity.

After long-term front-line practice, I have summarized the following three methods, which can help everyone discover potential problems to a certain extent.

1. Data-driven

It is mainly data-oriented, and the main data indicator is to look at the exposure (per unit time) of an issue (or the growth rate of exposure).

The so-called exposure refers to how many users' recommendation pages this question will appear on. The reasons for appearing on the user recommendation page are nothing more than the following:

• The hot issues I’ve been following recently are;
• The people I follow also paid attention to this issue;
• Someone I follow answered this question;
• Someone I follow liked the answer to this question;
• Others (such as inviting someone to answer the question, etc.).

The first four points, which are also the four most mainstream points, can be calculated into relatively specific numbers through the public information on Zhihu.

For example, let’s count the number of times this question appeared on my timeline because someone I follow followed this question.

First, we click on the follower list and we can see everyone.

Secondly, we click on a person’s name, such as mine, and then click on the list of people who follow me, and we can know how many people and whose timelines will see this question because I followed/answered this question.

Finally, repeat step 2 until we get a list of all the people who follow this question, remove the duplicate names, and the number of people we get is the upper limit of the exposure of "appearing in my timeline because the people I follow follow this question".

Why is there an upper limit? Because the people I follow may have performed multiple operations on this question, such as following, answering, liking, etc., these will be merged by Zhihu and appear on my recommendation page, rather than simply appearing again and again.

Similarly, we can calculate the number of other exposure times.

In addition to calculating the final exposure, we can also know the growth curve of these exposures (exposure/time curve) through the time when the answerer answered the question (this has public data) and the time when the followers paid attention to the question (this has no public data, but this rough data can be obtained by regularly grabbing the follower list). With these data, it is simple:

1) As long as this issue is widely exposed, it will definitely be seen by more people;

2) As long as the exposure of this question increases rapidly, it will almost certainly become a hot question.

Basically, the exposure is positively correlated with the number of followers of a question. As long as the number of followers of a question rises to a certain level in a short period of time, it can basically be considered that this question has potential. Of course, the accuracy of this prediction can be adjusted by adjusting the parameters of this magnitude. The stricter the magnitude, the more accurate the prediction.

2. Community Orientation

If you become a Zhihu answerer, the community will invite you to answer some related questions based on your expertise. These questions are all potential questions selected by Zhihu. You only need to choose some questions that are suitable for you to answer. These topics are mainly distributed in three entrances:

1) Recommended for you (https://www.zhihu.com/question/waiting)

The main recommendation factor is based on your area of ​​expertise and recommends potential questions in your area of ​​expertise.

2) Popularity issue (https://www.zhihu.com/question/waiting?type=hot)

We mainly recommend some issues that are currently hot and have received a lot of attention, but they are usually not highly relevant and time-sensitive, and their popularity disappears quickly.

3) Latest questions (https://www.zhihu.com/question/waiting?type=new)

It mainly recommends new questions in the field of expertise, which is the most accurate among the four major entrances. However, most of the questions are still in the cold start stage, and whether they can have higher popularity still needs further judgment.

3. Hot list orientation

It is known that hot list recommendations will bring a lot of exposure to questions. We use the hot list as a breakthrough point and crawl 50 questions on the hot list on a certain day of a certain month (the hot list here refers to the "Hot List" label on the Zhihu homepage).

The indicators include question posting time, hot list inclusion time, number of answers, number of followers, and number of views.

With a little arrangement, we can see the general situation of the hot list issues. There are two types of questions on the hot list: one is hot issues with high timeliness, and the other is classic issues that do not pursue timeliness:

1) Hot topics: 50%, generally hot topics released within 48 hours, similar to news;

2) Classic questions: accounting for 50%. Many old questions were raised several years ago, but because they are highly controversial, they appear on the hot list every once in a while.

Hot issues can be roughly divided into two categories: one is sudden hot issues, and the other is periodic hot issues.

Sudden hot spots, such as the recent death of Mr. Yuan and the Qinghai earthquake, are difficult to predict. If you want to make a layout, you can monitor the changes in the list through crawlers or collectors. If there are questions that rise in popularity rankings quickly, answer them immediately to seize the popularity.

Periodic hot spots, such as the recent League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational and spiritual involution, are predictable. For example, the schedule of the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational was known to everyone long before the start of the game, and some predictions about the results of the game could be made before the start of the game.

For example, highly controversial topics like spiritual involution will attract lasting attention. Every time a related hot topic emerges, it will trigger new heat on this issue, which can also be planned in advance.

If you find it difficult to screen out periodic and highly controversial questions, you can judge by the growth rate of page views, because the three data points of page views, number of answers and number of followers are almost completely proportional.

Whether or not a question can be on the hot list cannot be used as the main reference factor, so in the future we will no longer pay attention to the number of answers or the number of followers, but only focus on one indicator - the number of views of the question. Here is a very important data. The median growth rate of views of questions on the hot list is 30,000/hour. Questions that exceed this value have a chance of being on the hot list.

If you don’t know how to use crawlers, you can use some third-party collectors to capture data, such as Octopus Collector, Houyi Collector, etc. Most of the functions are free and can be used to assist in judgment.

4. Create high-quality content

As mentioned at the beginning, content is king on Zhihu, and content quality determines traffic. How to create high-quality content suitable for Zhihu is one of the things that brands must master.

First of all, Zhihu itself welcomes practical content. Compared with short content with few words, Zhihu also diverts more traffic to high-quality in-depth content.

Generally speaking, Zhihu content can be divided into the following types:

1. Storytelling

Typical questions:

• How did you make the career change? Was it easy?
• What interesting things have you encountered when visiting relatives and friends?
• How are you doing three years after graduation?

Real experiences are more likely to impress others and thus receive high praise.

The first type of story: You have to be someone that others envy

For example:

At the age of 30, he changed his career and his monthly salary doubled to become the operations director of a company;

Start by playing the victim (telling a few of your miserable experiences) + mend your ways halfway (realize your own shortcomings) + start working hard to become stronger (the beginning of transformation) + face many difficulties ahead (plot twists and turns) + finally reach the peak of life (climax) + spread your own life philosophy.

The stories of the big guys all have something in common:

For example, Liu Qiangdong was admitted to Renmin University, but he had no tuition fees, and his fellow villagers contributed money to make up the tuition.

In order to survive during college, he worked, started a business, and opened a restaurant. His money was embezzled by his employees. He started a computer business (selling CDs), but when SARS hit, he had to close the store. However, he unexpectedly sold a batch of goods through the Internet.

Thus the road to counterattack began, and the initial prototype of JD.com appeared. It stepped on Li Guoqing, punched Jack Ma, married a beautiful and rich woman, and reached the peak of its life.

Chu Cheng, Chu Shijian; Jack Ma - selling socks; Bill Gates, starting a business in a garage. These stories are widely known not only because they are celebrities, but also because of the bumpy experiences behind them.

People want to see a story with twists and turns, rather than a simple smooth story.

Of course, the story also needs to pay attention to the description of the writing style, and use more scene substitution techniques. If it is not used well, then use pictures instead.

For example, to describe a poor family, don't use:

My family is very poor, and we often have no food to eat. Sometimes when I see my neighbors eating meat, my mouth almost waters.

Instead, use: My family is very poor, how poor are we?

The most valuable thing in my house is a black and white TV that my relatives threw away. Every time I turn it on, I hear the sound first, and then it takes a while before I can barely see the picture on TV.

The house was a thatched house. Whenever it rained heavily, water would drip from the house uncontrollably, and the whole room seemed cold and damp...

The second type of story: Playing the victim to gain sympathy

For example, you can write about your miserable childhood experiences to gain sympathy from others. Of course, this approach is not suitable for brand placement, so it is omitted here.

The third type of story: evokes emotions of emotion, awe, anger…

Key point: Pay attention to the creation of the storyline - don't write a bland story.

Create suspense - how you start, what happens, and the reader wants to see your next move.

There must be periodic climaxes rather than just narrative plots, and the focus should be on changes in the characters' emotions and thoughts.

2. Sharing

Zhihu personal IP creation, fan attraction, and traffic diversion tools, such as:

• How do great people analyze problems?
• What abilities are important but most people don't have?
• How to maintain long-term, continuous and stable efforts?
• How do college students learn self-discipline?

This kind of problem generally bothers many people, but only a few people know how to solve it, and there are even huge differences between the solutions.

The easiest way to answer this type of question is:

Have sufficient breadth and depth of knowledge, and have rich practical experience in the things the answerer has experienced.

If you want to quickly learn knowledge in a certain field, or even become an expert in this field, the best way is to teach and help others. In this process, you will force yourself to learn a lot of things and systematically organize the knowledge that you don’t understand enough, so that you can become more and more powerful.

How to produce high-quality content:

1) Be an integrator of excellent answers;

2) Learn it yourself first, then teach others (value transfer);

3) Discover the problem - research the problem - solve the problem (writing a paper), write the answer as if it were a paper;

4) Personal practice - transformation - sharing;

5) Use other people’s thinking to serve yourself.

Key elements:

1) Focus on the expression of opinions - A powerful and attractive opinion is the top priority for this type of article. (Core argument)

2) The logical structure of the article. (If you don’t know anything, then just sum it up, which is also good)

3) The matching degree between the evidence and thesis. (The argument and the evidence must complement each other)

3. Inventory-type answers

• What are the truths that you only understood after entering society?
• What free educational resources are available on the Internet?
• What are some books that can help improve emotional intelligence, judgment, and conversation skills?

The key point of the answer routine is the most.

The most comprehensive, the strongest, the most complete, the most essential...

In short, you must let the readers feel that your answer is the best~~

For example, Yu Haohao’s answer has been on the hot list many times. What did he touch on?

The most attentive and the most essential, right?

How to show the most——

Recommended by 3,000 senior designers, answers collected by 100,000 people, and a book list collected by 2 million people on Weibo.

A list of books hand-picked by a professor from Tsinghua University, and a collection of websites over three years spent in 10 days.

1) The data reflects how popular the answer is, or how much effort you put into it;

2) Take advantage of authority and use it to serve yourself.

Finally, here are some tips on writing:

1) Sentences should be short, paragraphs should be short, and a complete paragraph should not exceed 7 lines. (Improve reading fluency)

2) Try to use easy-to-understand language, and the language should be logical and coherent. (First order, last order)

3) Try to construct scenarios as much as possible rather than express them in a rigid manner.

5. Knowledge + Assistance

Zhi+ is Zhihu's official content acceleration tool.

After large-scale content delivery, there will definitely be answers with more eye-catching data performance. This kind of high-quality material must not be wasted. It can be used with the help of commercial traffic to accelerate exposure and improve conversion.

Of course, if there are no answers with good data performance, don’t use commercial traffic to increase exposure. Commercial traffic is a tool that adds icing on the cake, and it will only produce good results when applied to content with good data performance.

Through Zhi+, we can establish content promotion orders and set promotion budgets in the background. After passing the community commercialization review, the content will be directly recommended to Zhihu's "Homepage Recommendation Column" without any advertisements or promotional logos. The content is native and friendly.

At the same time, the interaction data obtained through Zhi+ promotion can also be fed back into the natural recommendation of the content, helping the content gain more exposure.

Moreover, after opening a Notification+ account, we can configure the conversion plug-in in the background, and then implant the plug-in into the content, which can realize various forms of jumps such as mini-programs, web pages, product purchases, adding WeChat, etc., directly realize traceable conversions, and effectively monitor ROI.

Currently, all Zhi+ orders are charged on a click-by-click basis and can be city-targeted. Compared with some other acceleration tools, data analysis is more controllable and the overall situation of the content can be easily calculated through the number of clicks, click costs, plug-in clicks, conversions, etc., so as to make timely adjustments and optimizations to the content.

Compared with other platforms’ information flow tools, Zhihu’s Zhi+ has several core advantages:

1. With a convertible plugin

As we all know, Zhihu’s control over external links is relatively strict. If you want to promote products, you can only do so through product recommendation cards and Zhi+, otherwise you will face the high risk of violations.

So, in comparison, although Zhi+ is a paid product, it supports conversion plug-ins and landing pages in various forms such as WeChat and websites. For many products, the conversion path has been realized and shortened.

2. No advertising logo, and paid promotion traffic can be fed back to natural traffic

Unlike information flow ads, although the content promoted by Zhi+ is less targeted (currently only city-targeted), the content promoted is the original answers or articles in the community, without any advertising logos, so users have a stronger sense of trust.

Secondly, according to the price per click, the click cost of content of +0.25-1 is not very cheap, but the natural traffic feedback brought by payment can accelerate the circulation of content, and the promotion cost of high-quality content can be reduced exponentially.

According to my own practice, the comprehensive cost per click can even be reduced to a few cents, which is still very cost-effective in comparison. After all, according to the AARRR formula, the cost of purchasing front-end traffic will ultimately be directly fed back to the final conversion cost.

After our long-term investment, we can roughly summarize the input and output:

For a collection of multi-category products, the ROI can be over 1:3;

For single products, it is more suitable to launch products with medium to high prices, and the ROI can reach more than 1:2;

For attracting followers on WeChat, the overall cost can be controlled to a small single digit per follower;

For low-priced, non-essential products, Zhi+’s direct ROI may not be high (after all, the click cost is there), but the content sedimentation traffic and brand promotion traffic it brings can bring more secondary conversions.

Author: Trader Vic

Source: Zhao Zichen Vic (ID: yunyingfxb)