💒 Who worships at the church of monogamy?

Happy Trends Tuesday!

Ever fantasized about a supermarket meet-cute? Singles in Spain are taking that serendipity into their own hands.

They're congregating at Mercadona, a chain supermarket, and performing what I can only describe as choreographed rituals to signal that they're, well, on the market. 

What's involved? An upside down pineapple, cart bumping in the wine aisle, and lettuce or lentils... depending on if you're here for a good time, or a long time. 

The dating world is truly ripe for innovation, y'all. 🍍

In today's email…

• An alternative dating lifestyle is picking up steam
• Six steps to acing your startup's content strategy as a founder
• What we’re surfin’, from strawberry AI to cash cow business ideas

Let's dive in! 

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The rise of ethical non-monogamy

We wrote about the waning interest in dating apps last year — shrinking user base, a dip in revenue, and just overall bad rap.

Not much has changed since then, but one particular app seems to be bucking the trend. 

Feeld, a UK-based dating app, nearly doubled its revenue last year from $27m to $51m+. 

It’s secret? Catering to alternative dating styles — such as ethical non-monogamy (ENM), which is surging in popularity. 

Source: Google Trends, six-month rolling average

Over the last three years, Feeld saw a 500% increase in the number of users who include the terms “ethically nonmonogamous” and “polyamorous” in their profiles. 

What the heck is ENM?

It’s an umbrella term that refers to any type of arrangement where you can have “multiple consensual romantic, sexual, and/or intimate connections.” Polyamory and polygamy fall under this umbrella.

Emphasis on “ethical” — because everyone involved has agreed to the setup (There are, of course, nuances to this interpretation).

When she drops the bomb on wedding night so you kinda just have to go with it… Source: YouTube

So far, Feeld is still the gold standard for the ENM community. We could see more disruptors emerge now that the practice is becoming less taboo and more mainstream. 

You can tackle this opportunity in a variety of ways: 

👩‍🏫 Education: There’s a lot of curiosity (and misconception) about how this works. So content that educates the public on ENM, and other open relationship models, will be in high demand. 

“ENM” gets searched 80k times per month globally, but the keyword difficulty is only 9/100, which means it’ll be pretty easy to rank in the top 10 results on Google. Similarly, “polyamorous” gets 158k searches/mo., and has a medium-low ranking difficulty (13/100). 

🛋️ Counseling: The more people involved in a relationship, the messier it can get. More couples are seeking professional help these days, and we could see ENM folks head in that direction, too. 

You can offer tailored guidance to ENM couples, help them set boundaries, handle complex emotions, and navigate family dynamics.

Source: Google Trends, six-month rolling average

📱Legal service app: Long-term ENM relationships could have complex legal implications, and legal tech is a hot field to get into. You can build a software that specializes in helping unorthodox “couples” settle matters of money, inheritance, and estate planning. 

🔐 Data protection: Dating apps are notorious for collecting your personal data. Privacy is a concern for many users, and we could see a future where alternative lifestyle apps are built on the blockchain. 

Sidenote

You know who’s not so down with ENM? Gen Z.

According to a joint survey between Feeld and Kinsey Institute, Gen Zers are actually suckers for monogamy (gasp!), whereas Millennials and Gen X often fantasize about open relationships.

That might tell you something about your target customers...

Although, the survey found that Gen Zers are the most open to sexual fluidity and kinks, both of which offer a plethora of other business possibilities — but I’ll leave that for another time. 😉

📜 FROM THE ARCHIVE

Six steps to acing your startup’s content strategy

Kris Hughes is a content strategy and storytelling wizard. 

He —

✍️ Wrote (and sold) blogs before it was cool

👻 Spent years ghostwriting daily social content for clients, from agencies to CEOs

🖥️ Runs his own digital strategy consulting firm (on track to hit 30% YoY revenue growth)

Here are Kris’ six tips for nailing your content strategy — to generate solid, authentic leads.

1.If you don’t tell your brand’s story, someone else will.

As a founder with a million priorities, content like blogs and social media posts can seem like low-priority items.

But if you don’t tell your brand’s story, someone else will make assumptions and tell it for you. 

Don’t sit on your hands when it comes to content. Your story and voice need to:

• Be authentic
• Feel natural to you
• Make sense to your target audience

Hot tip: Take a look at your competitors — if they’re not doing a strong enough job of telling their story, they’re leaving content gaps on the table for you to capitalize on.

2. Before you launch headfirst into content writing, do a thorough brain dump.

Spend ~30 days on a “brain dump” exercise, using voice notes and free-form writing. Record every thought you have on your brand, then pass it on to someone who is close to, but not a part of, your business.

Ask them what they see from the outside looking in. What words are used over and over again? What topics keep returning? This deep-dive step is vital for two reasons.

One: “People are their own worst marketers,” Kris says. “There’s probably a ton about your own brand story you’re not telling. The deep dive and outside perspective brings this to the surface.”

Second, this exercise will spin off aligned talking points so that you can hit the ground running with a clear strategy and bank of great content — in your own words.

3. Extrapolate four key pillars for your content.

Sift through your brain dump and organize each idea, spicy quote, or topic into one of four pillars:

Source: Kris Hughes

Each pillar gives rise to specific types of content, and alternating between them will ensure the topics you speak about remain varied and fresh, but also on brand.

For example, one week you may talk about the results you’ve driven for a client (Pillar II), and the next share some of your founder story (Pillar IV).

And if you ever get writer’s block, you can return to your pillars as inspiration and a reminder of what you want to convey to your audience.

4. Focus on community-building before you put out content.

Create a community from the get-go by interacting with your ideal clients, competitors, and peers through value-driven comments and messages.

This step gets you comfortable with how you write, how you portray yourself, and how people receive you.

Keeping track of comments you make (e.g., in Notion) will also ensure you have a content ideas bank; most valuable comments can usually be bulked up into a post.

Keep reading to get Kris’ two other tips, including how to stay motivated on content creation as a busy founder.

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