I have worked with leaders of some of the most prominent businesses in the country. When we discuss the launch of a new product or service and who it’s for, you’d be surprised by how often the response is “everybody.”

Digital innovation has democratized marketing and given us access to a massive audience on the internet and through social media – but it’s made us lazy.

It’s tempting to aim for everyone. The average person. But if you’re creating content for everyone, you’re targeting no one. More importantly, you rarely delight anyone. When developing your content strategies, it’s important to start with your smallest viable audience: The smallest possible market you can serve that can sustain your business as it grows.

Finding the average pilot

In the early 1950s, the US Air Force commissioned the largest study of its kind to determine the average size of its pilots. The data would be used to help improve the standardized size and design of the cockpit. The findings of the study shocked researchers – there was no such thing as an average pilot. If you’ve designed a cockpit to fit the average pilot, you’ve actually designed it to fit no one.

7 steps to creating marketing content for the smallest viable audience: 

1. Frequent the channels where your audience lives. If they’re not on TikTok why are you?

2. Find out what their pain points are and the problems they’d like to solve.

3. Create “bite-sized” content and share insights on how to solve their problems.

4. See if your insights resonate with your audience. Measure it. If it’s successful…

5. Build a more comprehensive piece of content (e.g. blog, video, podcast, report, thought leadership).

6. Keep sharing your content in other forums and places that your audience frequents.

7. Scale up the content if it gets engagement and drives conversion.

By building your content marketing strategies around the smallest viable audience, you're able to engage and connect with your customers at a much deeper level. You’ll own your specific niche because your product or service is designed to solve the specific problems of your customer.