9 models to teach you how to quickly master content marketing

This article summarizes the 9 major architecture models for content marketing : establishing concepts, setting IP, user circles, establishing marketing scenarios, enhancing experience, telling stories, channel construction, communication exposure, and data penetration, and shares them with you.

In the Internet age, with the rise of WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Bilibili, and Xiaohongshu, we will find that any social platform is full of various content marketing. Even Taobao’s popular anchors Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi are constantly exploring brand content.

No wonder many KOLs in the marketing industry are shouting: This is the best era for content marketing.

So the question is, in this best of times, how can we stand out through content marketing? And really impress users?

The author has sorted out his own experience in content marketing over the past decade and compiled nine architectural models to share with you who are reading this article.

1. Tree Concept

The first step in content marketing is to decide on a strategy and clarify the conceptual differences in order to create differentiated content.

We can explore from the differences in models, but it is best to explore based on the product’s own advantages (this is the best strategy). The differences can also be discovered from standards, such as large quantity, high efficiency, etc. (this is the middle strategy). If the comparison is made from an imaginary direction that cannot be measured, such as adjectives such as the best and the most beautiful, then this is a bad idea and is not recommended.

After deciding on the strategy, try to elevate the description of "product thinking" to "marketing thinking."

If we want to describe a car with a large trunk capacity, it would be more three-dimensional to emphasize that "the space in this car is enough for a mother to change her child's diapers", rather than directly declaring that the car's "trunk capacity reaches 900L". If you add emotion, warmth, etc., you can advance to "brand thinking".

Common methods are:

1) Difference method (different model, different measurement)

For example: When all music apps are “increasing their music library reserves”, NetEase Cloud Music plays the emotional card - “each song’s message board represents a story”

2) Make an analogy (compare with a familiar reference)

For example, it’s a headache to think about spending so much money on a car, but the price of 500g of “Crayfish” is 88 yuan, while the price of 500g of Alfa Romeo is also 88 yuan, which makes people feel that the car is not that expensive.

3) Downgrade (remove complexity and abandon the ugly aspects of the industry)

For example: Xingkeduo - no card application, no sales, no perming or dyeing, to simplify services

4) Straightforward expression (highlighting the core selling points)

For example: Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 phone - the front is almost all screen

5) Deepen the impression (impression is often more important than who you are)

For example: Red Bean Light Goose Down - light, so light that your life is stress-free

2. Set IP

After the concept is clear, IP should be set according to product characteristics or corporate personality to "concretely express who I am." Respecting the principle that everything can be IP-based, we can start from the following directions:

1. Brand category: Logo (e.g. Nike), slogan (e.g. Keep: Self-discipline is freedom), theme color (e.g. Hermes: orange-yellow), mascot (e.g. Tmall, Suning Lion, Ctrip Dolphin)
2. Characters: Boss (e.g. Gree: Dong Mingzhu), Employee (e.g. Ele.me deliveryman, JD.com deliveryman)
3. Product category: company name (such as "You are right", "Call a duck"), product (such as Xiaomi mobile phone), content (such as Durex)
4. Virtual category: tonality (such as MUJI: cold style), spirit (such as UPS: mission accomplished)

3. User Circle

The third step requires selecting user groups and conducting precision marketing, including analyzing user consumption habits and precision marketing scenarios.

There are three common methods that can be used as reference for content production:

1) Three-dimensional positioning around the subject: Who is it? Where is it? Like?

For example: Xiaomi 8H mattress - Who: First-tier city drifters; Where: Zhihu; Hobbies: Moving

2) Find super users and attack them directly (to combat competitors)

For example: China Merchants Bank - any bank's VIP is my VIP

3) Promote user-centricity (make users feel valued)

For example: MAC - Tribute to you behind the scenes

4. Establish marketing scenarios

The establishment of all marketing scenarios is centered on "people" and has a wide radiation range. It is necessary to first meet the needs of "users" and then circle them to become "customers."

We can start from the two scenarios of "pain points" and "trust points":

1) Active mode

Taking the initiative to find customers and explore their real needs is not as simple as just filling out a survey questionnaire. It requires actually addressing the needs and continuously iterating and digging deeper. For example: Huizuche - solving the pain points of foreign car rentals and foreign language communication problems

2) Passive mode

Establish deep relationship barriers, such as trust scenarios between brands and users, companies and users, and products and users, that is, attract people with similar values ​​through word of mouth. For example: Yanjiyou Bookstore - a buyer's store model, all the books sold are good books, you can buy them with your eyes closed

5. Enhance the experience

That is, to increase the contact between the brand or product and the user, and enhance the sense of experience. It can also be a sense of participation, a sense of ritual, a sense of substitution, etc.

There are five common methods:

1. Game interaction: Haidilao - provides interactive services while waiting for a table.
2. Target: Chaos University - If you want to transform your enterprise, come and study at Chaos University.
3. Lower the threshold for participation: For example, Fragrance House uses holiday hotspots to create pop-up stores, expands to various business districts for social marketing, and moves from fixed stores to outside the stores to cover more traffic.
4. Sharing value: Alipay - annual bill; Air Travel - annual flight record.
5. Enhance the sense of participation: Wuzhen Purses - from simply selling purses, to "filling" your own purses, giving different ingredients to different people to show different values ​​and enhance the sense of ritual.

6. Storytelling

That is, content packaging. A good story is often inseparable from "pain points" and "authenticity". Doing the following can help you tell a better story:

• Grasp the pain points and tell stories accurately, such as: JD.com - What to give as a gift after ten years of marriage? (Grasp the pain points of wedding timing and gift giving).
• Set the inversion to catch the eye.
• Real case interpretation enhances persuasiveness.
• Let KOLs become story producers rather than broadcasters.

7. Channel Construction

Choose appropriate communication channels based on brand tone and product attributes. In the early stage, you can try several platforms and monitor the data simultaneously. If there is no effect after 3-6 months, it is recommended to stop; so as to avoid wasting unnecessary manpower and increase content production and delivery on good channels.

The mainstream channels are:

• WeChat ecosystem: public accounts, mini-programs, micro-mall, personal accounts, communities, and Moments
• Traffic system: Baidu, Toutiao, Douyin, Kuaishou...
• Platform: JD.com, Tmall, Taobao...
• Social: Pinduoduo, Momo...
• Grass-planting system: Weibo, Xiaohongshu...

Mainstream channel content operation direction:

• WeChat and WeChat account: in-depth content + user CRM (technical implementation required)
• Weibo account: event marketing + wide-area influence
• Douyin account: youthful content + viral content
• Toutiao: official content + advertising conversion
• Himalaya: Audio content + fragmented content
• Others: Select appropriate communication channels based on brand positioning, product features, and different user attributes, and perform data monitoring

8. Spread and Exposure

Consider the industry you are targeting and adopt an appropriate "content tone" to express your content.

• ToC: Let users see, the focus is on products, services, uses and scenarios.
• ToB: Let partners see how to make money by focusing on it.
• ToVC: Let the government and investors see, focusing on how to quickly replicate and how to invest.
• ToM: Let the industry see, with emphasis on "I" being the boss in the industry or qualified to be the boss in the industry.

For example: Amap - Entertainment Interpretation of the Annual White Paper, Big Data Travel Shows that Cadillac Owners Like to Go to "Bath Centers" Most, Which Arouses Interesting Points and Forms Self-propagation in the Circle

IX. Data penetration

Data is the "eyes" of marketing and operations. We must make good use of data and combine it with content to fight a coordinated battle.

In the early stage, user portraits and marketing scenarios are determined through data guidance; in the later stage, through data review, content quality issues and whether the publishing channels are high-quality are judged, and optimization is continued.

Author: Zhang Bancheng

Source: Zhang Bancheng