For a VC firm like First Round, their goal is not traffic, conversions, or leads. Their goal is to be a thought leader and build a brand.
If this is what you want to achieve, here’s how you can emulate their content strategy:
Figure out what problems your target audience are trying to solve
Find experts and interview them
Promote your content
Step 1. Figure out what problems your target audience want to solve
Even if you’re trying to create “thought leadership” content, you have to start by figuring out what problems your target audience are facing. Otherwise, you risk writing about topics that attract your co-workers—like what the other VC firms did—rather than your ideal audience.
The workload like this whatsapp number list allows both the vendor and the affiliate to focus on. Clicks are the number of clicks coming to your website’s URL from organic search results.
For example, Camille Ricketts, the ex-editor of First Round Review, started by asking: “what is the number one thing that all of these early-stage founders want?” Her answer: to be able to go to coffee with somebody who has done the thing they’re trying to do.
And this was how The Review was born—a magazine-style blog of “coffee meetups at scale”.
So before you start planning any content or reaching out for interviews, make sure you know what problems your target audience is facing.
If you’re stuck, reach out and talk to people similar to who you’re targeting. Don’t be afraid to speak to them in person or on a video chat/phone call. As famed entrepreneur Steve Blank puts it, “There are no facts inside the building, so get the heck outside.”
Step 2. Find experts and interview them
The next step is to find experts who you can interview and create a narrative around.
The easiest way to do this is to follow our guide to influencer marketing. Then, use Camille Ricketts’ three-step formula for interviewing people.
Step 3. Promote your content
To promote their content, First Round has two main strategies:
Content syndication
Building their own audience
First, content syndication. According to Camille, First Round has syndication partnerships with publications like Quartz, Inc., and Fast Company. These publications can republish any of First Round’s stories if they think it’s interesting and relevant to their audience.