By We’re publishing prior issues of the Audience Research Newsletter here! But we’re not just copying and pasting from the archives — we’re only surfacing what we believe is still salient today. For the newest, freshest advice on audience research and doing better marketing, subscribe here so you don’t miss new editions! We send this newsletter twice per month.
Build a series you can sustain:
One of the best ways to sustain a content series over time is make episodic content. But it’s hard. Think: Distinct episodes in a series of similarly-structured pieces — so it’s a repeatable workflow for yourself and your team. It’s hard to create because it can be expensive (for video production, you need gear!) and tough to distribute.
One way to boost distribution: Add unique value to already-discussed topics. Take new positions or answer unexplored questions about topics that are already interesting to your audience. This is likely to get engagement and shares. Learn more about episodic content in Rand’s blog post.
Short-form or long-form? Here’s how to know…
Why spend all that energy on a 1,500-word blog post that should’ve been a LinkedIn post? Conversely, why waste a great take on Twitter, knowing it’ll die out in a few days? There are three questions to ask yourself…
- Will this content be useful to my audience for months and years to come?
- Are people searching for this content now or in the near future?
- Will this content resonate with folks who already subscribe to my content?
If the answers to two or more of those is “Yes,” then go ahead and publish on your owned platform! Read more about this in Rand’s latest blog post.
Does your marketing need a bad guy?
Yes, it does.
Punching up at a villain builds tension, makes you memorable, and adds depth and purpose. All good stories have villains, and marketing is essentially storytelling at scale. But a villain doesn’t need to be a person or an entity. It can be the status quo, or an outdated way of doing something. Read Rand’s blog post to learn about specific examples.
For the newest, freshest advice on audience research and doing better marketing, subscribe here so you don’t miss new editions! We send this newsletter twice per month.