Sonal Choksi, editorial partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), outlines effective content marketing strategies for startups on the Y Combinator podcast.
“We always counsel people this, to think about data, and data narratives as a great place to start. It's, A, it's instant differentiation, because you have data that uniquely no one else does, and that makes, it forces you to make sure you're having different things that you're saying. B, it's At the core of what your business is, if your business is data centered, which frankly every business seems to be, a tech business seems to be this days. And then see, it does influence how you might hire, because the question then becomes, do you start with a data scientist? Did you start with the data type of journalist? The ideal is to find someone who has the skill to find a story, but who can also understand the data. But I think data is a huge untapped opportunity for a lot of content marketers at startups, and that's not being used nearly enough as it should be.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard
(the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Sonal Choksi
Insight
Choksi: Trying to engage interactive social communities is a strategic mistake
“I think a lot of people kid themselves into thinking like, oh, we're going to interact with our community and grow it this way and that way, and I actually think that's a real mistake because then you don't prioritize or know where to prioritize your effort be…”
Sonal ChoksiOct 13, 2017▶ 14:48Content Marketing Tips from Experts at First Round Capital and Andreessen Horowitz · Y Combinator
Insight
Chokshi: Podcast hosts must interrupt guests to maintain listener engagement
“Unfortunately for better or worse, especially when it comes to voice medium, you do have to interrupt because people can't listen to one voice for a very long time.”
Sonal ChoksiOct 13, 2017▶ 44:41Content Marketing Tips from Experts at First Round Capital and Andreessen Horowitz · Y Combinator
Insight
Choksi: Repurposing the same content across every platform is a mistake
“I think people make the mistake of thinking marketers love this dream of repurposing. I'm gonna repurpose it on every platform, and it's like, actually, no, because what you do, what works on YouTube, what works on SoundCloud, what works on Twitter, what works…”
Sonal ChoksiOct 13, 2017▶ 1:04:03Content Marketing Tips from Experts at First Round Capital and Andreessen Horowitz · Y Combinator
Insight
Choksi: Editors must keep readers hooked through an article's first third
“And I think that data Literally informed how I think about writing and editing and how I think about being an editor. Because you really pay attention to keeping people hooked for every turn, at least in the first third of a piece before they're committed.”
Sonal ChoksiOct 13, 2017▶ 2:45Content Marketing Tips from Experts at First Round Capital and Andreessen Horowitz · Y Combinator
Insight
Choksi: Argument pieces must include a nut graph by the third paragraph
“And for argument pieces, I really strongly believe you need an argument nut graph. Like the argument is not conveyed by having a very provocative headline and just assuming people are going to read. And I like to have a rule of thumb that I like the nut graph …”
Sonal ChoksiOct 13, 2017▶ 5:33Content Marketing Tips from Experts at First Round Capital and Andreessen Horowitz · Y Combinator
Insight
Choksi: Explainer articles succeed because of built-in arguments, not the format
“It's not the explainer that worked well. It's a fact that it was an explainer with an argument built in.”
Sonal ChoksiOct 13, 2017▶ 6:40Content Marketing Tips from Experts at First Round Capital and Andreessen Horowitz · Y Combinator
Made with StarZero
Turn any episode into a week of clips.
This entire site, over 300 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable,
runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the
moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.
We use essential cookies to make the site work. With your permission we
also use analytics cookies (Google Analytics and Mixpanel) to understand
usage and improve StarZero. See our Cookie Policy.