---
title: "How Should Food Merchants Do Content Marketing? Here's a Handy Guide"
description: "Tao Jie, project director of Quentin Technology's food line, and Mei Xiaopai, founder of Xunzhao Tianye, share their insights on content marketing for food brands. They discuss strategies for precise targeting, creating viral content, and building a content-driven e-commerce model."
author: "何承轩、梁周倩"
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published: "2017-04-08"
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# How Should Food Merchants Do Content Marketing? Here's a Handy Guide

> Tao Jie, project director of Quentin Technology's food line, and Mei Xiaopai, founder of Xunzhao Tianye, share their insights on content marketing for food brands. They discuss strategies for precise targeting, creating viral content, and building a content-driven e-commerce model.

**Narrated by Tao Jie, Project Director of Quentin Technology's Food Line: In charge of Wei Long food content marketing**
**Mei Xiaopai (formerly Zhu Zhen), Founder of Xunzhao Tianye: Founder of the origin-based gourmet e-commerce platform "Xunzhao Tianye"**
**Photography by Bao Bao**
Is pure traffic still effective? Yes, but as costs rise, food merchants are increasingly trying to use content marketing to drive traffic. Beyond building brand, off-site traffic, and nurturing sales, there are many benefits to content marketing, but what's the right approach? Let's hear from two project leaders with unique insights and successful cases in content marketing...

**Tao Jie: Don't be bound by marketing theories; focus on precise targeting**

**1. An internet-native team**
The team behind Wei Long's flagship store is mostly from the 90s and 95s, the mainstream internet demographic. Our daily work sounds fun: browsing Weibo, watching videos, and finding memes. In my view, including myself, making great creative and marketing cases doesn't necessarily require work experience or marketing theory, nor high education.
We often call ourselves a "grassroots team" without advertising or media experience, but we are active on the internet with an internet-native mindset. We know what netizens like, what's happening daily, and we're harmonious and playful.
Among us, there are esports enthusiasts, meme lovers, creative video fans, Kuaishou and Miaopai users, anime fans, some who like funny things, some who like boring things, and we gradually attract and influence each other, sharing what we find good for everyone to see.
The purpose is to grasp users' preferences and control content direction. We look at case studies the least; I believe once you're familiar with traditional operating models, you get bound by so-called experience. What Wei Long wants is to be non-traditional and differentiated.

**2. Consumers are also disseminators**
A person's role can be divided by tags like relationships, circles, hobbies, profession, gender, etc. We have many identities—I'm a son, a colleague, a husband, a male—and everyone has their own circles. So you can't just treat "TA" as a consumer or someone receiving information, but as someone who has a relationship with the brand, and more importantly, as a disseminator, letting users receive and spread information.
We want content to relate to users and turn them into disseminators within their own circles. For example, among LOL players, we did a childhood memory-themed event to create a connection and encourage them to spread it. Or, we want to turn disseminators into users; there's a group we can't ignore—media professionals. When we did the Apple-style and store-hacked marketing events, many media outlets wrote articles spontaneously because we created news they needed. Creating content for disseminators is one direction.
Freshness, curiosity, and herd mentality are the three psychological traits of disseminators. Things that haven't happened before are what disseminators love most; when unexpected events occur inexplicably, disseminators need answers, forming a spread; when more people discuss something, more are willing to spread it, like a planting and pulling process. So marketing content needs to relate to disseminators, be fresh, curious, fun, and shareable to resonate.

**3. Wei Long practical case: The store-hacked event**
During the 6·18 mid-year promotion in 2016, Wei Long teamed up with Baoman (a meme platform) to launch a custom spicy strip. At that time, we were thinking about using different marketing tactics to announce it, not just a simple new product launch.
When selecting the audience, we chose onlookers. Whenever something bad happens, people gather, take photos, post to Moments and Weibo, even call friends—that's the effect of spreading. When looking for circles, we found that if you can quickly and precisely find a group doing the same thing online, it's e-commerce sellers. Their work hours, content, and chats are similar, and there are 8 million+ of them. They spread information fast. What do e-commerce people talk about most? Activities, sales rankings, etc. So we needed an accident, especially a non-natural one.
In the content creation phase, we focused on details to make the store-hacked event more real and substantive. Because proactive marketing is off-putting; most people are tired of ads. So we chose not to use the store's template, but a crude, text-only visual effect to make it more authentic.
▲ "Store Hacked" page phase one
First-stage spread: We spread the hacked news through Aliwangwang food merchant groups and QQ groups, asking for help and guiding merchants to follow and spread, while customer service responded that the store was hacked, confirming the news. Since same-category merchants are most sensitive to information, fooling them is like fooling the "hardest-to-fool group."
Second-stage spread: Secondary spread by buyers in the same industry. Through the first stage's momentum, content reached the second layer of disseminators—"sellers of all categories in the same industry"—further adding event details, exposing hacker chat logs, and increasing authenticity.
Third-stage spread: When content reached the third layer, i.e., all netizens, we exposed the full story, hinting at hacker attacks, increasing readability, and planting the "32nd poplar tree" fun point, which quickly became a hot search on Weibo.
Summarizing these three stages, we believe content creation requires not only thorough preparation but also real-time content upgrades to sustain topic continuity, like a TV series with plot, giving users a desire to keep following.
At 1:30 PM that day, we switched to a Baoman-related page, still in the crude hacked style. Because by 1 PM, the store had reached peak traffic, and after reaching all netizens, to maintain topic attention, we added a temporary battle with the hacker. At this point, the spread channel was no longer Alibaba's ecosystem but Weibo. To cater to Weibo users' preferences, we created a second hack using Baoman meme elements and planted a hint of collaboration with Baoman.
▲ "Store Hacked" page phase two
The rhythm of the whole hack event was: store hacked (throw out topic), store response (start momentum), expose hacker (introduce topic), and negotiate with hacker (maintain heat). Before the topic cooled, we threw out the main event, leading to the 6·18 activity.
We also designed how to present the main event. Using the escape room concept, we created suspense with hand-drawn images. For five consecutive days, we updated one drawing daily, asking netizens to find clues, sparking curiosity, and eventually guessing the collaboration with Baoman. So the 6·18 activity's rhythm was: store hacked, provide clues, announce Baoman collaboration, and 6·18 activity explosion.
According to Tmall store data, on the day of the hack, store visits reached 680,000, 20 times the daily average, with 3.659 million visits, surpassing Tmall Supermarket and ranking first in the industry. On the internet, over 40 Weibo influencers and e-commerce insiders followed and reposted, even alerting the police's official Weibo and Alibaba's security executives. Total exposure was nearly 60 million. The event went viral in the e-commerce circle, with customer service inquiries exceeding 30 times the daily average. It ranked third on Weibo's real-time hot search, surpassing the #2016 Gaokao# topic that day.
Summarizing this event, we also had shortcomings. Although the outbreak phase exceeded expectations, the introduction phase was somewhat forced, crisis public relations was mishandled, and the overall marketing time was too long, making it difficult to carry traffic to subsequent activities.

**Mei Xiaopai: Content isn't just storytelling; it must also showcase product details and advantages**

[Editor's note: In June 2016, Mei Xiaopai founded "Xunzhao Tianye," a content-marketing-focused e-commerce platform for selected origin foods. He hopes to discover more high-quality domestic products at their origins, so users' taste buds "no longer take risks." During the Dragon Boat Festival in 2015, Mei Xiaopai sold over 10,000 zongzi; on May 11, 2016, the new version of Sixi Liangzong went on sale again. Before the Dragon Boat Festival, "Xunzhao Tianye" sold over 50,000 zongzi, with sales exceeding one million yuan.
In early November 2016, the Gannan navel orange "Wangpo Liangcheng" went online, selling over 8,000 boxes in the first week and over 20,000 boxes by the end of December. In February 2017, they operated Fengjie navel oranges under the same brand, selling 12,000 boxes in two weeks. Currently, in "Xunzhao Tianye's" Taobao and Weidian stores, besides seasonal fresh items like Fujian live white fungus and Hainan tree-ripened mangoes, there are also popular regular products like braised foods, barley green juice, and Jenny Flower cookies. Precise but not excessive marketing, a healthy cost structure, stable supply chain support, and a unique brand philosophy are the secrets behind these "internet-famous" products.]
▲ Mei Xiaopai, founder of Xunzhao Tianye

**1. My understanding of the content e-commerce industry**
I started working in 1995, did sales for seven years, entered media in 2002, left in 2013, and spent over three years in the internet industry learning product, marketing, and operations. Xunzhao Tianye was an idea I had early last year, and then I got angel investment from Chenhai Capital.
I've been doing content for over a decade and strongly feel that friends in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen have higher demands for quality of life. But the essence of Xunzhao Tianye isn't just e-commerce, although more and more e-commerce-savvy colleagues are joining. We're building a communication channel. My decade-plus of experience isn't just content; it's also about researching how information spreads across different media.
When I started Xunzhao Tianye last year, I felt there was no more dividend in social media and content. When selling online, our products are particularly unknown. Only through content shaping can the product image become full. I used to love traveling and could find great ingredients on trips. Now I see that information acquisition has changed greatly compared to five or six years ago, and product circulation has become easier, so I wanted to do origin-based fresh food e-commerce.
The term "content e-commerce" has been popular for a year or two. Currently, there are three forms in the market: 1. Content first, then e-commerce (like well-known Yitiao, Ergeng, Wu Xiaobo Channel, Niangao Mama, etc.) 2. E-commerce first, then content (traditional e-commerce expanding user experience) 3. Content and e-commerce integration (content is product, product is content).
Originally, in media, advertising was the most efficient way to profit. Now, interacting with users or readers via the internet is more direct and conversion is more efficient, so content e-commerce is done this way. Many big media accounts initially created quality content, then invested in Guangdiantong to grow quickly. At that time, Guangdiantong costs were low, and they could reach millions quickly. Now they can build e-commerce. But now Guangdiantong costs have multiplied, and doing that would be suicide.
Now it's our turn. I think our company's self-sustaining ability is stronger, and we use more CPS placement (note: placing on big accounts, paying commission per sale) to control traffic costs and avoid constantly seeking investors. Actually, I tested the waters four years ago, selling oranges on Taobao, writing 4,000-5,000-word articles on Weibo, with decent spread, and sales reached one million in the second year.
My idea is to do the third type of e-commerce mentioned earlier—content and product integration.

**2. Content isn't just storytelling; it must also showcase product details and advantages**
When I started the business, I kept looking at Taobao sellers, all talking about origin: Gannan navel oranges, Sunkist oranges. Looking deeper, I found they were playing number games. For example, 19.9 yuan with free shipping oranges use the cheapest "65 fruit" standard, while fruit stalls don't sell below 70mm. But just playing the origin card, with low brand awareness, playing number games, and low costs, you can brush your way to first in the category.
We, coming from media, want products to be more real, credible, and reliable. People might think that having standards in material selection is storytelling, but it's not; these are real product details. Now Wi-Fi is more widespread, data costs have dropped, and users read less text, so we use more images, text, and video to tell stories, which aligns with the overall internet trend.
For selling, we directly show the growers' techniques at the origin. Although videos are edited, they show product details very intuitively. Since last year, we've made nearly 20 videos. When we started with zongzi, we had someone write over 10,000 words of copy, asked old colleagues to make three videos worth 200,000 yuan, and then found 20-30 self-media accounts to promote.
Our approach is: precise customer acquisition - lower acquisition costs - higher product premium - less reliance on brand awareness - improved point-of-sale conversion.

**3. High-end doesn't automatically mean high price**
As a fresh food e-commerce, our costs and average order value are completely different from similar products (note: we take the mid-to-high-end route), making it easier to find precise users. In contrast, Zhitongche is more broad-spectrum, and some cooperative accounts we've invested in have low conversion rates.
It's not that raising the bar automatically allows for high prices. I think you need a deeper understanding of WeChat, Taobao, and Tmall users. Previously, a colleague wrote a kiwifruit article saying it came from the most beautiful village, and I was angry. What does deliciousness have to do with the most beautiful village? You might as well say it's plump, weighs 140g, and has a certain sweetness—that's more valuable to users.
I think content building is complex; deep product understanding, target user identification, and improving conversion rates are all knowledge. We spread on WeChat. Once, our own public account had only 10,000 followers but achieved over 20,000 reads. Of course, community operations and e-commerce operations helped a lot.
However, our marketing is mainly on WeChat now. In the second half of last year, Taobao and Youzan sales were about 60-40, but later it reversed, and now Youzan accounts for the majority. We haven't done much on Taobao. Given our current total sales, we could actually do Tmall. I think users on WeChat have stronger purchasing power, but Tmall requires a different mindset, which is our next task.

**Source: Food Commune (foodcommune), by He Chengxuan and Liang Zhouqian.**
**Food Commune is a vertical industry media under Tianxia Wangshang, focusing on food industry business reporting. New Distribution republished with authorization.**
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