Content marketers are always looking for that edge: that idea that pushes KPIs past normal into excellent. The answer can be as simple as knowing where to look for your audience. In some cases it’s a niche platform — in others, it’s a massive platform that your competition has overlooked.

Let’s talk niche first. Take Clubhouse, the audio-only app that surged in popularity early in the pandemic only for downloads to almost immediately start a steady decline. Earlier this month Clubhouse announced that it was breaking up THE Clubhouse into “private houses” and, as you’d expect, the hot takes continued to roll in: Is Clubhouse a “chatty revolution” and just getting started? Or did it peak shortly after launch, having failed on practically every front?

I posit to you: These are the wrong questions entirely.

With 10+ million weekly active users, the questions content marketers should be asking are: Who are these active users, and are they part of my target audience? Hubris can blind even the savviest marketers, because after all: You’re not the target audience, so who cares about your Clubhouse take?

Supplementing mass audience communications with great targeting can create more intimacy and a sense of relevance. If you show up as an ad on LinkedIn, that is an ad impression. Nothing wrong with that. But when you show up on a segment platform, sub-Reddit, or community board you are making not just an impression but a statement — one that is far more personal. And Clubhouse is just one example.

But you don’t always need a niche platform. You can create the same effect on major platforms if the segment is not being heavily targeted there.

For example, a financial services client of ours wanted to create an awareness campaign for a highly competitive segment: institutional investors. So we looked for a place where institutional investors would certainly be but were not being highly targeted. The answer? YouTube.

We conservatively estimated we’d hit ~5,000 views for the two-month campaign with an average cost-per-view of $0.25. To say we grossly underestimated the numbers is a gross understatement. At the end of the campaign, we’d logged 907,300 views with an average cost-per-view of $0.02.

So, don’t fall into the trap of thinking about your target audience as a monolith. Of course, it’s impossible to develop messaging without first settling on some common attributes, common needs, common challenges, and the like. But when it comes to execution, make sure you’re looking for your audience in all the right places.

Supplement your bread-and-butter with some sweet, sweet targeting. Your audience will be pleasantly surprised you found their hiding spot — in the case of Clubhouse — or that you found them on YouTube, hiding in plain sight. And your content will appear all the more authentic and personal.

Ready to start connecting with your audience in all the right places? Our team is here to help. Send us a message and let’s talk tactics.