How To Find Your Content Market-Fit When You Start Building Audience Online
I’m no expert at this.
But I know who is. A YouTuber pro.
Samir is one half of the Colin and Samir duo that specialize in breaking down the business of the creator economy. Here is what I learned from Samir’s workshop on content market-fit.
But what is content market-fit?
This is when you manage to hit the right balance between what you want to make, what your audience wants to watch and what the platform wants to serve to people.
The moment you hit content market-fit you will know it. The engagement will start growing rapidly. People will DM you to show appreciation. You will get job offers. Bands will want to partner with you.
Unfortunately, every start as a content creator is slow and tedious. It feels like you don’t know what you are doing and you are wasting your time.
Content creation at the start feels like a waste of time.
Little to no engagement, 2–3 Likes per post. No new followers. You start questioning your decision. But there is a proven way to approach this so you find your content market-fit faster.
Here’s how, step by step:
Step 1: Start creating for yourself
Make the content that you wish existed.
Create for yourself, two years ago. Create for your future self.
For example, I’m a solo UX design consultant who wants to leverage content to move away from hands-on work. So I do the research for myself and publish my findings in posts like this.
Step 2: Pair identity with emotion
What’s the feeling you want your audience to feel after it consumes your content?
For example, if I’m making content for freelance designers, I want them to feel confident and empowered that they can do more than just serve clients.
The emotion you are aiming to evoke is your value proposition to your audience.
Step 3: Pick the format
What’s the content format that you can deliver the emotion but also sustain to produce even on a busy schedule?
For example, I want freelance designers to feel empowered to explore different monetization methods. One format is case studies featuring success stories. The format that I can sustain at the moment is short-form writing.
Proof this works is that my most popular post at the moment is “$1M/Year One-man Design Agency — a Breakdown”. It has 10 times more engagement than everything else I’ve shared in this 30-day writing sprint.