Growth Nest Proposal [Season 1, 2022]

Authors: @Metfanmike @caf @marshmellow @Mringz @Static121 @LemonadeAlpha @MrMadila @lee0007 @DevOnDeFi

Reviewers: Index Council, Finance Nest

Introduction

This proposal outlines the key objectives, strategies, and success metrics for the Growth Nest. This proposal has also been shared with the Index Council and Finance Nest, and the feedback provided by these groups has been incorporated into this proposal.

The Growth Nest supports two key pillars of the overall Index Cooperative strategy:

• Increase the availability and accessibility of Index Coop products.
• Generate global awareness and understanding of Index Coop products and brand.

Primary Objectives

In order to deliver on those two key pillars of the Index Coop strategy, the Growth Nest has the following primary objectives for Season 1:

1. Awareness. Increase brand & product awareness through ongoing social media, content marketing, SEO, brand communications, and language amplification.
2. Acquisition. Increase acquisition through experiments with advertising, paid search, display & remarketing, and continuous improvement of the website user experience.
3. Activation. Increase activation by listing products on DeFi protocols, L2 solutions, and CeFi platforms (CEXs, custodians) to help convert leads to product holders.
4. Retention. Increase retention of buyers through engagement and communication that keeps Index Coop front of mind and by striking DeFi partnerships that create yield opportunities.
5. Revenue. Increase revenue through the development of key business and institutional relationships and purchases.
6. Referral. Increase referrals through customer testimonials/shares and by developing content to activate strong viral loops.

Structure (Pods)

The Growth Nest is broken down into nine pods, each led by a core contributor tasked with both designing the pod strategy and managing the execution of the pod strategy. Each pod’s strategy is expected to be executed by a mix of core and flexible contributors. The nine pods of the Growth Nest are:

1. Brand Communications Pod
2. Content Pod
3. Business Development Pod
4. Design Pod
5. Growth Grants Program (GGP)
6. Institutional Business Pod
7. Operations & Analysis Pod
8. Performance Marketing & SEO Pod
9. UX & Analytics Pod

The following sections will detail the overall mission of each pod, its Season 1 projects & responsibilities, and its success metrics:

1. Brand Communications Pod

Core Contributor: @caf

Mission: The Brand Communications Pod establishes an elevated brand strategy for the Index Coop and drives consistent messaging to increase brand awareness and product understanding across our various channels (Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Google Display Network).

Projects / Responsibilities

• Index Coop Branding Strategy
  • Develop an elevated brand in collaboration with the Design Pod: Brand Guidelines Document, Brand kickoff workshop, templates, and asset repository.
  • Monitor community content output to ensure brand guidelines are being followed, especially on official Index Coop assets.
• Social Media Content Strategy
  • Manage content across owned Social Media platforms
  • Establish and maintain content pillars and initiatives.
  • Manage incoming promotion and repost requests and set up a clear and accessible framework around those requests.
• Paid Promotion
  • A/B test paid promotion on social channels (collab with Performance Pod)
  • Develop ideal target audiences per product and content type for future promotions.
• Campaigns
  • Plan and develop marketing campaigns for integrations, partnerships and product launches. Work and align with third parties to ensure cross-promotion, brand consistency and campaign effectiveness.
• Public Relations
  • Develop a PR contact list and build relationships with key outlets.
  • Devise PR strategy and outreach for campaigns.

Success Metrics

The success of the Pod in supporting Index Coop’s primary objective will be validated using the following success metrics:

2. Content Pod

Core Contributor: @marshmellow

Mission: The Content Pod drives growth by communicating the Index Coop’s mission, value and product offerings via high-quality editorial (written) content, including articles & quarterly whitepapers. We develop and distribute high-quality content on the blog, social channels, and via our newsletter. These efforts establish IC as a trustworthy thought leader, generate organic search traffic, help IC rank well for targeted keywords, and manage content across the org.

Projects / Responsibilities

• Blog articles - Our seasonal content slate outlines the blog articles that will be published in any given 6-month period. Our target is at least (2) original blog posts per week. The seasonal content slate will be developed with input from our Performance Marketing Pod, as well as methodologists and other core IC stakeholders.
• Whitepapers - We will publish (1) whitepaper per quarter. The purpose of a whitepaper is to establish the Index Coop as a thought leader in the DeFi structured product space, as well as to educate potential investors.
• Index Coop Newsletter - Our weekly newsletter will highlight IC news, product launches, product performances, events,
• Off-site link building opportunities - We will support the Performance Marketing Pod by repurposing our editorial content for offsite link building opportunities. Our Season 1 goal is to create 100 links.
• Editing - We will support other working groups.

Success Metrics

The success of the Pod in supporting Index Coop’s primary objective will be validated using the following success metrics:

3. Business Development Pod

Core Contributor: @Mringz

Mission: The DeFi Business Development Pod aims to grow awareness and increase accessibility for IC products by 1) listing those products on Defi Protocols, wallet providers, L2 scaling solutions, and L1 side chains, 2) creating extrinsic yield opportunities to support retention, and 2) increasing the TVL of our products held in DAO treasuries. The BD pod also serves the broader IC community by leveraging its relationships to help nests and pods achieve their goals.

Projects / Responsibilities

• Ecosystem Partnerships on L2 scaling solutions and alternative L1 blockchains
  • Partner with L2/L1-specific DEXs, yield aggregators, and lending/borrowing protocols to create liquidity, yield, and LP opportunities.
  • Source potential new product partners in these ecosystems.
• Extrinsic Productivity
  • Drive buyer retention by listing products on lending & borrowing protocols and yield aggregators to create yield opportunities; partner with V3 liquidity managers to maximize LP fee revenue; partner with options protocols to facilitate call-writing and insurance strategies.
• Crypto Wallet Listings
  • List IC products on crypto wallet apps.
  • Coordinate co-marketing campaigns to increase awareness of listed products.
• Investor Relations
  • Serve as the monthly touchpoint for updating IC investors.
• DAO Treasury Distribution
  • Develop a repeatable process for increasing IC TVL held by DAO Treasuries.
• Index Coop BD contact list
  • Working with C.Nest Ops Pod to set up a database of key contact contributors have with other communities, protocols and DAOs.

Success Metrics

The success of the Pod in supporting Index Coop’s primary objective will be validated using the following success metrics:

4. Design Pod

Core Contributor: @Static121

Mission: The Design Pod is responsible for the creative vision and execution of Index Coop. We contribute to the development of brand definition and support the broader DAO by unifying our approach and by ensuring every piece of content generated by our team promotes a premium brand. We believe premium brand association will ultimately contribute to conversions.

Projects / Responsibilities

• Index Coop Branding Strategy
  • Collaborating with Brand and Comms Pod to establish Index Coop as a world-class, premium brand
  • Ongoing monitoring of community content output to ensure brand guidelines are being followed
• Supporting Product Launches
  • A core priority for design will be to support product launches via logo design, launch videos, educational material, and additional assets
• Build out YouTube Strategy
  • Design will be responsible for building out video content that builds brand awareness and educates our audience about Index.

Success Metrics

The success of the Pod in supporting Index Coop’s primary objective will be validated using the following success metrics:

5. Growth Grants Program (GGP)

Core Contributor: @LemonadeAlpha

Mission: The Growth Grants Program (GGP) aims to bootstrap growth initiatives via soliciting and requesting proposals targeting metrics around specific points in the AAARRR funnel.

Projects / Responsibilities

• Language Expansion Grants
  • Fund efforts to amplify growth initiatives into key non-English speaking languages and communities (social media engagement, translations, etc.)
• Small-scale experimentation
  • Fund small grants for minimum viable experimentation against some portion of the AARRR funnel.
• Larger-scale experimentation
  • Fund larger-scale projects which can drive outsize ROI.

Success Metrics

The success of the Pod in supporting Index Coop’s primary objective will be validated using the following success metrics.

6. Institutional Business Pod

Core Contributor: @Metfanmike

Mission: The Institutional Business (IB) pod is the primary resource for high-net-worth and institutional investors (HNW/II) interested in the Index Cooperative product suite. The pod develops partnerships with CeFi platforms (custodians, centralized exchanges, market makers) to support Index Coop products and drives education and awareness of the crypto themes to which Index Coop products provide exposure.

Projects / Responsibilities

• Centralized Exchange Listings
  • Obtain (1) Tier I Centralized Exchange Listing
  • IB partnered with a U.S. law firm in Q4 to obtain a legal memo on the status of DPI in the U.S. With the legal memo in hand, IB will reach back out to all major Tier I exchanges to secure a listing for DPI and/or for INDEX.
• Custodian Listings
  • Secure asset support for Index Coop products at (2) global custodians (ideally one in Europe and one in Asia-Pacific) to complement existing partnerships (BitGo, Coinbase, Komainu, and Fireblocks).
• Education / Awareness
  • Conduct at least (6) webinars/presentations/conferences during the course of Season 1. We already have OnRamp, CFA Institute, J.P. Morgan, BitGo, Sygnum, and Permissionless teed up. We will aim to capture emails and provide POAPs, wherever possible, for attribution.
• For exploration:
  • Off-chain distribution
  • Family Office outreach
  • Gain regulatory clarity on compensation, marketing language, and incorporation.

Success Metrics

The success of the Pod in supporting Index Coop’s primary objective will be validated using the following success metrics:

7. Operations & Analysis Pod

Core Contributor: @MrMadila

Mission: The Operations & Analysis Pod exists to support nest-wide functions: reporting, infrastructure, analysis, and events.

Projects / Responsibilities

Operations will include coordination and/or management of:

• Analysis
  • High-level nest KPI monitoring + dashboards
  • Reporting (internal to nest + to the community)
• Ops, Op-Sec, Payments, and Expense Tracking
  • Multi-sigs (Parcel, parent+child multi-sigs + polygon)
  • Payments and expenses
  • Reporting to F. Nest
• Events
  • Sponsor 1x Tier 1 event per season + Organise 1x Tier 1 event attendance (not sponsored)

Success Metrics

The success of the Pod in supporting Index Coop’s primary objective will be validated using the following success metrics:

8. Performance Marketing & SEO Pod

Core Contributor: @lee0007

Mission: The Performance Marketing Pod aims to deliver Nest-level objectives for awareness, acquisition, and retention through SEO by increasing website visibility, authority, and trust and through paid advertising to increase audience size and engagement while minimising costs.

Search Engine Optimisation (80%)

To deliver on nest level objectives for awareness and acquisition the primary objectives for SEO are to increase website visibility, authority and trust by establishing and following well established SEO best practices for content on owned channels. In Season One SEO will focus on three SEO tactical implementations - SEO content, technical SEO and link building with performance measured by the following metrics.

SEO Content (30%): SEO review new and retro-fitting back catalogue for blog with the primary aim to increase the number of pages we rank for in positions 1- 10 and have of ALL current Product Landing Pages appear as Featured Snippets (Position 0) in the organic search ranking on Google

SEO Technical (20%): Implement best practice and ongoing performance monitoring and improvement of the website’s Technical SEO performance. The marketing website is performing but as new products come on technical SEO will need to be applied

SEO Link Building (30%): Building the website back-links is a data and labour-intensive process involving identifying opportunities (bounties) data-wrangling to collate, organise and prioritise opportunities (ongoing) and publisher outreach (bounties or ongoing).

Paid Advertising (20%)

Advertising, paid search, display and remarketing will be tested to discover if these web 2 drivers of awareness and acquisition can be successfully leveraged for web 3 purposes. This will also include paid SEO link building opportunities to drive Domain Authority. We will apply best practice to paid search accounts to test return on investment for paid acquisition. To deliver on nest level objectives for awareness, acquisition and retention the primary objectives of the paid ad function is to increase audience size and engagement while minimising costs as measured by the following KPI’s

9. UX & Analytics Pod

Core Contributor: @DevOnDeFi

Mission: The UX & Analytics Pod optimizes Index Coop web properties and manages its analytics and measurement processes.

Projects / Responsibilities

• Web Experience
  • Ensure the marketing and app sites provide a delightful experience, enabled by quality content, UX, and features. This involves reducing bounce rates, increasing session durations, and increasing page depth/visits.
• Tracking infrastructure
  • Configure Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager (GTM) to better capture the purchasing funnel and bolster our analytics. This will be done in-house w/ Eng.
• Marketing Mix Modeling
  • This is an effort to understand our narrow and macro marketing analytics to identify what is working across various Growth Nest campaigns.
  • Marketing Mix Modeling will help us decide what marketing investments we should increase, maintain, or reduce.
  • Build the necessary infrastructure to automate and repeat the process.

Success Metrics & Deliverables

The success of the Pod in supporting Index Coop’s primary objective will be validated using the following success metrics:

Next Steps

We’d greatly appreciate any and all feedback on the outlined proposal. We will be hosting a community call on February 17th at 8 pm UTC to answer questions and dig into greater detail on specific strategies and tactics.

Once all Nest proposals are Finance Nest-approved and live, we will move to IIP for a final community vote.