Cabin Neighborhood Accelerator Marketing

[McBain]

Cabin Neighborhood Accelerator Marketing Proposal

Check out the Month 1 Update - Neighborhood Accelerator Summer 2024 to get more context on how the program is going and thus more context on this proposal.

1. TL;DR

Funding for the creation of content marketing to support the fall neighborhood accelerator cohort.

1. Produce content and encourage cabin neighborhood accelerator participants to share user-generated content. This project will create engaging narrative arcs that highlight community life and promote neighborhood building across social media.
2. Provide additional support as an accelerator facilitator under Savannah’s direction
3. Drive registrations to the fall cohort

2. Team

Sponsor: Jon Hillis
Steward: Graham McBain

More Context: Who is Graham?

1. Personal Neighborhood Building Mission
   I have been building a community in my neighborhood in Carmichael, CA for over five years. I have a deep passion for neighborhood-building work and serve as a mentor in the current cohort of the Neighborhood Accelerator program. I’m excited to tell the stories of neighborhoods that folks are building in our program in the hopes of inspiring more people to do this work with us in future programs.

Here’s a shot of my neighborhood on Halloween!

2. Past Experience
   I ran marketing for a cohort-based accelerator program at Galvanize, a coding school in Denver, Colorado. I was able to drop the customer acquisition cost for new students from $1500 to $800 / person.
   I’ve been making content online for over 10 years. Most recently for my company Foreverin.space I have been filming short-form content. I’ve established an efficient workflow that I’ll be able to apply to marketing the Cabin Neighborhood Accelerator Program.

3. Crypto Alignment
   I’ve been building in crypto for many years and most recently have been very active in the Farcaster ecosystem. I currently run the /parenting and /neighborhoods channels and have built up over 100K followers personally on the platform.

3. Goals

Objective 1: Content
Establish a comprehensive content creation process that collects and shares compelling stories from neighborhood accelerator participants and vibrant neighborhoods worldwide.

Objective 2: Results
Increase the number of applicants to the fall cohort by 10x and determine customer acquisition costs (CAC) for the neighborhood accelerator.

Objective 3: Infrastructure
Develop the infrastructure to run a modern marketing funnel, establishing a baseline CAC for the accelerator and future products.

4. Key Results

Content:

• Collect, edit, and publish user-generated content from all willing accelerator participants daily
• Write the Cabin Newsletter
• Produce and publish two pieces of short-form content per day and distribute across major social media channels including onchain social
• Gather and share stories from one non-program neighborhood per month
• Produce one piece of long-form content per week
• Find opportunities for Cabin team members to be on podcasts of like-minded organizations
• Produce at least 10 pieces of SEO-performing blog articles per month.
• Run SEO backlink campaign

Infrastructure:

• Cabin CRM refresh
• Marketing automation tooling
• Analytics/conversion tracking
• Hootsuite type tool & web3 equivalent
• Be available to market the cabin org more broadly as needed!

5. Proposed Budget

Total Budget: $36,000

Salary Costs: $8K X 3 months

Outsourced Production Costs: (all outsourcing will be transparent and done at cost)

• $9K: Outsourced Editor: - 2 shorts /day X $50/short x 90 days
• $3K: Long-Form Editing:
  • Backlink outreach
  • Software costs (CapCut/ChatGPT/etc…)

6. Timeline and Deliverables

Month 1:

• Begin collecting and producing user-generated content
• Lead gen funnels, tracking setup and live
• Written content published
• Host weekly info session calls for prospective future participants

Month 2:

• Add more content types
• Produce and post one to two long-form videos per month
• Begin backlink campaign

Month 3:

• Increase posting frequency as applications to the Fall Neighborhood Accelerator draw to a close
• Publish recap videos for each of the Summer Accelerator participants
• Product a sizzle reel to promote the Fall Program

[jon]

thanks for this excellent proposal @McBain! I am fully supportive of this & excited about the opportunity to work with you to grow Cabin.

I think this proposal makes sense because Cabin has a core growth/attention loop that looks something like this:

Our primary focus right now is on neighborhood building via the Cabin Neighborhood Accelerator - Summer 2024. We are starting to produce content from local neighborhoods and need to get this content out into the world via social channels, our newsletter, etc in order to show the world what we’re up to, highlight local neighborhoods, and recruit the next cohort(s) of participants.

This proposal is clearly aligned with doing that. It has well defined goals, reasonable costs, and comes from someone with a strong background in both local neighborhood building and content creation.

[savkruger]

Yay!

This proposal may feel like it came out of nowhere to some folks in the DAO so I’d love to offer some additional storytelling and context to put into perspective why I’m excited about this proposal:

Cabin Labs Context
Right now the Cabin labs team (@jon, @grin and myself) is focused on supporting the creation of neighborhoods in the Cabin network by running the Cabin Neighborhood Accelerator program. We have a group of amazing neighborhood stewards going through the program. Right now they’re at the stage in the program where they’re knocking on doors, meeting their neighbors, and inviting their neighbors to an event they’re hosting.

Graham + Neighborhood Building
Graham McBain is one of the mentors in the program (alongside Shani Graham, Priya Rose, and Phil Levin). I knew Graham through my partner, Jon Borichevskiy, who told me that he was doing some cool things in his neighborhood and we should connect. Turns out Graham knocked on 300+ doors in his neighborhood in Carmichael, CA a few years ago and built an amazing sense of community there. They have annual traditions in their neighborhoods (for example one is called “Summer of Games” where they organize a bunch of outdoor games and activities for the kids to play all summer), they host a weekly front yard happy hour, neighbors are putting up benches in their front yards so people can sit down, parents are taking each others’ kids to school, there’s a book club, people are showing up for each other in really meaningful and personal ways…

Graham is extremely passionate about helping other people do the same thing where they live. I’m asking for permission to share the link to Graham’s first mentoring call w folks in the program so you all can see how passionate he is and how much value and wisdom he has to share with people on this topic. If folks say yes, I’ll share the link here so you all can see what I’m talking about.

Outside of mentor calls, we have a telegram chat for the program and Graham’s been in there every day being incredibly helpful and cheering everyone on. He also gave me a lot of support and great feedback when it came to the design of the curriculum of this program given that he’s helped other people start communities in their neighborhoods already. He’s been super generous and helpful in every context I’ve seen him in honestly.

Why We Need Marketing Support
We’re not charging for the current Neighborhood Accelerator program, but plan to charge something like $200-$600 for the program when we run it again in the Fall (still need to do some more testing to see which pricing is right here). We’re already seeing some amazing results from the participants in the Summer program (folks are knocking on doors, hosting events with the neighbors, and there’s talk of collectively improving common spaces (rooftops + land around their buildings) and making them feel like outdoor third places. It’s happening!

So you might be asking yourself “Why haven’t I been hearing about all these amazing things? Why isn’t Cabin making more of a stink about the progress people in the program are making?” And the answer is: I don’t have the bandwidth to run this program and also market the program. I want to support the advent of many incredible neighborhoods that comprise Cabin’s Network City and this program feels like such a direct and meaningful way to do that. If we really knock our marketing strategy out of the park, I think we can build something amazing.

I feel like we’re on to something with this program. It feels alive and novel. I want to reach a lot of people between now and our Fall Neighborhood Accelerator and I feel confident that Graham can help us do that.

[jxn]

Cool! What will the UGC content be? We’ve struggled before to have useful content from virtual events.

[McBain]

Thank you for the vote of Confidence Jon!

I think it will be really important to test messaging along side the program itself. An important part of finding out what parts of this program people are most interested in is rapidly and regularly sharing their stories!

I’m excited to contribute to the growth of this program!

[McBain]

In this program people are being encouraged to share videos from their IRL events. That video combined with virtual interviews will allow me to create great narrative stories!

[McBain]

+1000 here Savannah!

You’re doing so much to keep this program full of value for participants, it’s so hard to market and run a program. I’m already supporting as an advisor and I’m exited about the opportunity to support more!

[jxn]

@McBain

people are being encouraged to share videos from their IRL events.

Are they sharing enough to justify 2 videos/day for 90 days?

[McBain]

Hey yeah great question, sorry I should clarify. The videos will have different subjects and people. 2X Day is the minimum cadence you want to hit to be able to see if your message resonates.

There will be lots of content from myself, and other members of the team as well.

The common strategy is to pick three different formats, double down on what works and then come up with two more. Repeat.

[Dahveed]

This is a great plan. Looking forward to it. As a neighborhood steward, a structured content marketing plan with a clear owner (Graham) will also help me create more of the relevant content from my neighborhood events. Plus, with the Fall cohort and other initiatives in mind, this gives us something concrete to point potential stewards and neighbors towards to get them excited and learning more about Cabin.

[jxn]

Got it. I’m still skeptical that there’s enough good content to fuel 180 videos.

Could you please link to a few of your best content pieces?

[McBain]

Here are a few different examples of content types to illustrate how 2X day is feasible. I share these to illustrate a few points:

1. There are infinite content formats to try out
2. Each video is important, but what is more important right now is making a video-making engine that is tied into a marketing funnel.
3. We can definitely make 180 videos. The first video will be ok. The 180th will hopefully be great.

Without further ado, here are some videos

Low production value, Casual direct to camera, general observation:

Applying this style to Cabin:
You can easily do 1X day of these covering anything neighborhood/placemaking related. exp “Here is a story today about two neighbors who did something nice for each other” etc…

Higher production value, still direct to camera, internal company observation:

Applying this style to Cabin:
Commenting on observations that we on the team see happening in the neighborhood cohort, easily 1X day of these is possible

Entering the current conversation people are having
link in comment because of my restrictions*

Applying this style to Cabin:
Fourth of July is coming up. You can apply every current TikTok trend to this holiday and make oodles of content:

Block Party guides brought to you by Cabin

• Recipe Guides
• Outfit suggestions
• Tips for organizers
• Amazon deals on cones and street signs
• How to use the opportunity to activate your neighborhood

Please let me know what else I can answer about this!

[McBain]

(example of 4th of july content to review and contextualize for the neighborhood community audience)

[jon]

Proposal is now live on Snapshot and open for voting for 5 days

[grin]

@Zakk would love to hear your thinking around the Reject vote, and also what (if anything) could be changed about the prop to move you to Approve it?

[Ktando]

@McBain thanks so much for putting this together. I agree that Cabin can do a better job in telling it’s story to the world and test if its able to activate people beyond web3 to participate as Stewards. This will be important for validating if there’s a business to be built.

As good hygiene, I do think this proposal would be stronger if it had more content that would help set up context for the community. I’d love to better understand what’s been going well, what has been challenging in the current cohort. What’s driving conviction to continue to invest in this? After asking, @jon shared a bit more in Discord, but I think it is a key piece tied to this proposal that was missing.

@McBain- your involvement with this first cohort and the work you’ve done in your own neighborhood demonstrates alignment with the vision and values of Cabin, and that makes your interest in driving this experiment exciting. But reviewing the proposal and the previous comments, I’d love to better understand some examples we can see of how you’ve driven top of funnel through social channels (beyond Farcaster since we’re trying to expand outside web3 too). The 2 examples of context on TikTok you shared were helpful to demonstrate the types of content you envision putting together, but have relatively low engagement across those posts. I understand Cabin is unique, but it would be helpful to better understand your track record to execute on a project like this.

Thanks for reading and taking the time to reply thoughtfully to all the comments- look forward to learning more.

[jxn]

Glad to have Graham in the accelerator!

I voted no because I’m skeptical about putting this much $ to a cohort-based course business model. If we must do a course, a digital course seems more interesting and scalable. I don’t buy that CBCs are worth the time unless there’s a more concrete vision about other reliable revenue models that might be aided by the CBC, or evidence that there is high willingness-to-pay for the CBC among the Cabin community (I haven’t seen evidence of this). Compared to CBCs, Citizenship seems like a much better product for our desire for becoming default alive.

And I’d like to see what 5 videos look like before we fund 180.

[McBain]

Thanks for the conversation and consideration!

You make two different points here I want to make sure to address:

1. CBC v.s. Citizenship: I don’t know enough about the citizenship model to argue against it. But no matter what product you’re going to sell you need to learn how to build an audience.

2. To the point about the investment size. This is a common trap many in the consumer space make. Not spending enough on advertising and wondering why it doesn’t work. You have to consistently put out content and test to be able to see what message sticks with your customer. Five videos won’t do that, it’s too small a sample size to test.

Absolutely understand and respect the concern here, I just see if differently!

[jon]

First of all, thanks for voting & sharing your thoughts!

I wouldn’t consider this proposal to be “putting money into a CBC business model”. Regardless of Cabin’s business model, telling the story of our neighborhoods is key to driving attention & growth.

I think that having a consistent flow of content from the accelerator cohort and UGC content from neighborhoods that is being converted into social posts across channels makes sense as the core growth loop for Cabin. This content, and our ability to drive attention and engagement with it, is one of the most valuable parts of the accelerator. I don’t expect fees for participating in the accelerator are likely to be the core long term business model for Cabin, but I do think it’s valuable for both Cabin and participants to charge for the program.

We haven’t seen much success with Citizenship (in its prior forms) as a revenue driver, but even if it were the way we monetized (which it could be, in some new form), it would still rely on us driving more engagement, which would likely come from social content about neighborhoods. That’s what this proposal is ultimately about.

I think your comments above re: having enough content may be valid, though we currently have 2 group video calls + mentor calls + steward content generated each week—so I think there’s a lot of material to get started with.

[jon]

Appreciate you sharing your perspective, @Ktando!

@Ktando

I’d love to better understand what’s been going well, what has been challenging in the current cohort.

I think this is a reasonable ask—I know @savkruger is working on it

@Ktando

@McBain- your involvement with this first cohort and the work you’ve done in your own neighborhood demonstrates alignment with the vision and values of Cabin, and that makes your interest in driving this experiment exciting. But reviewing the proposal and the previous comments, I’d love to better understand some examples we can see of how you’ve driven top of funnel through social channels (beyond Farcaster since we’re trying to expand outside web3 too). The 2 examples of context on TikTok you shared were helpful to demonstrate the types of content you envision putting together, but have relatively low engagement across those posts. I understand Cabin is unique, but it would be helpful to better understand your track record to execute on a project like this.

This all feels like a fair assessment to me; @McBain it sounds like folks would love to see some more examples of your work, could you share some?