Zhihu marketing promotion strategy!

Many people like it, and I have made many new friends from Zhihu. Everyone generally reflects that the focus is not just on ranking. Is there a more systematic way to market on Zhihu?

In this new article, I will try to share a more systematic approach to Zhihu marketing in the form of questions and answers.

Question 1: What kind of platform is Zhihu and what are the characteristics of its audience?

Question 2: What kind of products are suitable for marketing on Zhihu?

Question 3: What should I think about before writing an article?

Question 4: What should I do if no one reads my article?

Question 5: How to convert the article once it has been read?

Question 1. What are the characteristics of Zhihu’s audience?

Let’s look at a set of data first:

Keywords: Gender balance , young people aged 28-30 account for the majority , first- and second-tier cities account for a high proportion

How do you view these data? At least we can see the following points:

(1) Compared with Xiaohongshu (70% female), which is of similar size, it has a more balanced gender ratio. This means that in addition to Xiaohongshu’s traditional strengths such as beauty, maternal and child products, it can adapt to more types of products, such as digital, real estate, finance, industry, etc. Very imaginative. Of course, for beauty and maternal and child products, if I can only choose one platform, I think Xiaohongshu is more suitable.

(2) Compared with Pinduoduo: the users are younger.

(3) Compared with Tik Tok and Kuaishou: Zhihu has more first- and second-tier (in another dimension of Zhihu data, Zhihu’s first-tier, new first-tier, and second-tier cities account for 66.47% in total) tiers, while Tik Tok and Kuaishou have more third-, fourth-, and fifth-tier cities.

(4) Average daily usage time of 70 minutes: At first glance, I thought this was data from a short video platform. I can only say that my users are really thirsty for knowledge.

I would also like to share some other interesting survey data from the past two years:

More than 80% of Zhihu people have a bachelor's degree or above (are you lagging behind?)
36% of Zhihu users have investable assets of more than 100,000 yuan (although the average annual salary of one million yuan on Zhihu may be a bit exaggerated, it seems that it is not completely groundless)

Key points:

Ability to read long texts, high assets, high education

Having said so much about user portraits, I just want to tell you:

Question 2. What kind of products are suitable for marketing on Zhihu? What kind of products are not suitable for marketing on Zhihu?

Let me briefly talk about two points:

• Suitable for: Products with a long decision time
• Not suitable for: Products that may be considered as IQ tax

How do you understand these two points?

(1) “Long decision-making time”

For example, your product is Inner Mongolia air-dried beef , which is great and has highlights. You asked if I can do marketing on Zhihu? Of course it is not impossible.

However, I think Douyin may be more suitable because the average order value of beef jerky is 90 yuan, and I don’t think this is a “product with a long decision-making time.” Users are unwilling to compare prices and quality on various platforms for a product that costs 90 yuan. Because user time is also a very high cost, I saw a good product on Douyin, and there was a link and a discount, so I clicked and bought it.

So, if this is a mobile phone, even if it is a Xiaomi that costs more than 3,000 yuan, would you buy it directly after watching the video introduction?

Most users would not do so, because the mobile phone is extremely important and determines whether I will be happy using it every day for the next two years, and the price is also relatively high.

So you will definitely think carefully about:

Is the quality appropriate? Is the price right? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Are the advantages what I need? Are the disadvantages acceptable?

Therefore, in most cases, mobile phones can be considered as products with a long decision-making chain.

If Zhihu has a comprehensive analysis article at this time, it will most likely have an impact on your consumption decisions. Here, the value of Zhihu marketing is highlighted.

This matter is not entirely determined by category. Let me give you a few more examples.

For example, the same beauty products,

Perfect Diary’s eyebrow pencil does not belong to the long decision-making chain. La Mer’s facial cream, this is a long decision-making chain.

Maybe your first impression is “high average order value” = “long decision-making time”.

Indeed, in most cases, we can understand it this way. But sometimes it’s not entirely true. There is something that you care about particularly, such as cat food for your cat or milk powder for your baby. The price may be very high, but you care about it very much, so there will be a very long decision-making cycle.

Therefore, in addition to the above fast-moving consumer goods, the products with long decision-making time include:

Most products in many fields such as industrial products, finance, real estate, education, medical care, etc.

Especially in the field of corporate services, because corporate procurement is not decided by one person, it usually goes through many complex links and processes, which further reflects the "long decision-making chain".

In summary, because it is very important or expensive , it means that careful research is required, which results in a long decision time.

Because you need to do careful research, Zhihu's long articles have an irreplaceable advantage.

I often joke with my clients that, apart from Zhihu, there is probably no other platform that can read your 10,000-word advertisement.

So, if your product has many advantages that need to be explained in detail, then Zhihu marketing is a good choice.

The above can also serve as a reference for decision-making when you are hesitating between Zhihu and Douyin.

Of course, you can choose "I want them all".

(2) The problem of “IQ tax”:

Normally, the pricing of each product has its own basis, so the IQ tax in the absolute sense may not exist. The products mentioned in this article that involve "IQ tax" are only used as examples and do not represent my own definition of the product.

For example,

I wanted to promote one of my "bird's nest" products on Zhihu Marketing, so I happily wrote an answer to a question about beauty tips, and the number of views seemed good.

But within two days, I suddenly found a new answer, which was 20,000 words long and cited 20 papers, and finally proved that "the nutritional value of bird's nest is not as good as tofu." This is embarrassing.

Many questions and answers on the bird's nest category on Zhihu point to a direction that is not conducive to the marketing of this category, similar to:

So I say that this type of product may not be suitable for marketing in the more rational discussion atmosphere of Zhihu.

So, if you are wavering between Zhihu and Xiaohongshu.

In this case, I think Xiaohongshu is more suitable for you.

In addition, here is a potential difference between Xiaohongshu and Zhihu users that is easily overlooked :

Many Zhihu users come with a mentality of just trying to find something new, for example: Are high-priced headphones a waste of money? Of course, in the end, you might end up being tempted.
Many users of Xiaohongshu come here with the intention of trying something new, that is, they want to see what equipment those "slutty bitches" use to make themselves look so good, and I want to get a set too! That is to say, they originally had the intention to buy.

Let’s talk about what is worth buying. This is a contradiction. These users (mostly male users like me) want to both plant grass and pull grass. The subtleties of this are difficult to explain if you don’t play What’s Worth Buying, so I won’t elaborate.

Therefore, if the client has a low tolerance for saliva, it is not recommended to do marketing on What’s Worth Buying…

By the way, I also think that the nutritional value of bird's nest is not quite matched by its price. But I agree with the value of bird's nest, because I saw a Malaysian lady who has been in the bird's nest business for many years on Zhihu said, "Are women of this age buying nutrition when they eat bird's nest?" They buy bird's nest to fight the anxiety caused by aging! For a capable working woman, spending money to solve the problem of anxiety is really worth it. What do you think?

When you decide that Zhihu’s audience is suitable for you, your product is suitable for Zhihu users, and you plan to try Zhihu marketing, don’t rush to implement it. Think about the following set of questions first:

Question 3. What should I think about before writing an article?

• (1) How to choose between an institutional account and a personal account?

Generally speaking, the brand itself does not have a particularly strong appeal. When the same amount of resources is invested, based on our practical conclusions and those of many other predecessors, personal accounts are more suitable than institutional accounts. This is often the advice we give our clients as well.

The main thing is that you write answers under the name of a brand, so readers will naturally think that you have commercial purposes. If you present the same content as an industry expert within your company, it will be easier for readers to feel it is fresh.

Therefore, whether it is the speed of fan growth, the number of likes, or the subsequent sales conversion effect, the marketing effect of personal accounts will actually be greater than that of institutional accounts.

• (2) Who am I? - What kind of personality should be established?

If we plan to use our personal account to try some Zhihu marketing, we must consider the issue of personal setting. We can consider it according to the following figure:

• (3) How to choose a topic?

Many friends who have tried Zhihu marketing will encounter a problem. I have written an article, it is really useful and I feel that the quality is very high, but: why did no one read it despite my efforts before?

It is very likely that you have overlooked the question of topic selection. There are three types of questions suitable for our Zhihu marketing as follows:

In fact, each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Let me briefly summarize:

Pursuing high conversion rates and increasing followers: Write professionally and in-depth
Pursue high reading volume (traffic): Choose popular questions
If you really have very in-depth knowledge in a field that everyone is concerned about, choose a general professional type.

In fact, in my personal understanding, the kind of general professional questions and answers that do not pursue conversion are the cornerstone of Zhihu.

This general professional type may not be easy to understand, so let me give you an example:

We can grasp two key points of this type of problem:

1) The question is universal, meaning that anyone may be interested in it, rather than being targeted at a particular industry.
2) The answer should be based on strong professional knowledge and be elaborated in great detail.
3) It is a long-term problem, not a social hot spot

A new concept "long-term effect" is mentioned here

Zhihu’s content features: long-term

In China, we can compare it with Xiaohongshu. The life cycle of content marketing on Xiaohongshu is mostly one month. If you want good results, it is best to have a new batch every month.

However, Zhihu's approach is very different. On Zhihu, our suggestion is to try to choose long-term questions . High-quality content will have lasting marketing effects, and you deserve to put in more professional effort for a single piece of high-quality content.

If you still don't know how to choose a topic after all this, I can only give you some more specific things for reference. Remember to think clearly based on your own situation. There is no panacea.

重要知識點：問題關注

It is important to emphasize here that when choosing long-term issues, one data that must be paid attention to is the number of issue followers.

This follower is not a follower of a specific author, but a follower of this question.

When a user clicks "Follow the question" or answers the question, they will automatically follow the question, which means:

If you choose a question with 10,000 followers, and you answer this question, all previous followers will receive the new answer (if the answer quality is OK), which means:

Even if you have 0 followers, it is equivalent to having 10,000 followers.

If you don't understand, I suggest you read it again ...

You can recommend popular questions based on the keywords you enter. Currently, you can use it without logging into the performance marketing backend, but it may not be open continuously in the future.

(5) What should I pay attention to when writing an article?

In fact, as long as you produce high-quality content, any form you like or are good at is acceptable. If you ask me for advice, I would give two points:

1) Content beginning
2) Article structure

The content begins with a long article of tens of thousands of words. Why should users read it? How to arouse the user's interest is something that many friends ignore. Here are 6 types:

If you want a specific example, you can refer to the introduction of my own article, which uses the second method in the figure above:

Professional experience endorsement

Next is the content structure. I really don’t want it to be too rigid or formulaic, but it’s better to have a formula than to have no idea where to start. For some of my friends’ reference, this structure is also the recommended content structure shared by Zhihu officials:

Know how to write, then the biggest problem comes:

Question 4. What should I do if no one reads my article?

1. Reflect first: Is the content really high-quality?

What are the criteria for high-quality content?

To put it simply, it means "professional, rigorous and serious"

To put it in a more complicated way, please see the following picture:

That’s right, it’s written in the growth level in the background of your creative center.

Therefore, continuously outputting high-quality content is what we ultimately pursue and the result that the Zhihu platform hopes to see. No matter how the algorithm changes, you can remain constant in the face of change.

If you really want a particularly simple way to tell whether the content is high-quality, I will also give you a small method for reference:

每100個閱讀，是否有1個贊？

This 1% like-to-read ratio is also the official reference value recommended for Zhihu content marketing.

If the quality of the article is confirmed to be ok, then you should consider taking necessary measures to promote the article.

2. Three main ways to increase the number of readers of articles:

1) SEO and ranking

The top 10 factors that affect rankings:

The sorting is determined by:

High-quality content
The question and search term are highly relevant
Answers are highly relevant to search terms
Add 1 like
Weighted Approval
-Weighted opposition (negative effect)
-Weighting does not help (negative effect)
The ratio of (number of approvals ÷ number of disapprovals) is high or low
Additional weighting of Zhi+ delivery
Other weighted votes such as professional badges

2) Launch Zhi+

The push mechanism is very complex, and we can roughly understand two points:

Content with a higher proportion of positive interactions (such as likes) will be pushed to more users.
Content with relatively broad topics may be pushed to more users. (Because push notifications need to take user interests into consideration, there is a small chance that otaku will receive push notifications of beauty products)

Then, here comes the point:

The content released on Zhi+ will definitely be pushed to the user's homepage first

So what is Zhi+?

In layman's terms, it is a paid promotion product provided by Zhihu for purchasing incremental content exposure.

If you are a friend who is more knowledgeable about marketing, you can simply understand it as the "French fries" of Xiaohongshu, or the "Douyin" of Douyin.

The biggest difference between Zhi+ and "French Fries" and "Doujia" is

"French Fries" and "Doujia" are both paid products that users can purchase in the background to increase exposure, but Zhi+ needs to find an authorized Zhihu agent like us to open an account. The account opening process is similar to "Baidu Marketing" (formerly called Baidu Promotion).

After opening an account, you will have a backend where you can pay to purchase a portion of the traffic and serve as a promoter of high-quality content.

There are 3 displayed positions:

You read that right. In addition to recommending to the user's homepage,

You can also jump directly to your answer when users click "next answer" on popular questions.

Even: directly improve the ranking of keyword search results on Zhihu

Of course, this increase is also based on the quality of your content and user interaction data.

3) Choose a KOL with a certain number of fans

There is no need to elaborate on buying KOLs. The strategies and discussions on various platforms are quite similar, you know.

Question 5. How to convert the article once it has been read?

The premise is that your content really provides unique value and has the trust of your readers.

And you also have the ability to provide some substantial help to readers.

If the above is ok,

There are a few key points I want to emphasize:

1. Don’t just post on WeChat just because a big V does it.

We asked the real-life version of "Zhihu Butler" about this issue and made it clear that this behavior is a violation of regulations. As for why the big Vs were not punished for their violations, we can only say that the monetization of the big Vs on Zhihu is weak, the rules are not that strict, and the enforcement is somewhat loose.

However, if you do the same with a newly created account, you will almost certainly be punished if you are discovered by "Wall-E" (Zhihu's intelligent robot) or someone reports you.

2. Recommend free players to get a "good stuff recommendation"

3. Paid players can directly use the "marketing plug-in"

This is a function that comes with opening an account. You can directly put product purchase links to any store, or guide downloads, guide adding WeChat (automatically call up WeChat), enter a QQ group with one click, etc. The functions are as follows:

4. If you are brave and your article is relatively soft, you can consider making a hyperlink

In other words, hyperlinks linking to outside the site can be inserted in the article. But there must be a very reasonable non-advertising reason for placing this link. This degree is indeed difficult to grasp. I need to use more trumpets to get a feel for it...

Related articles:

Analysis of Zhihu marketing in men’s skin care products

Zhihu product analysis!

Tips for building and monetizing a big Zhihu account!

Zhihu brand promotion skills and cases

Author: Yu Jie

Source: Yu Jie