Ask where they already look
List the places your buyers gather. Do not guess. Ask five recent customers: where do you read about this topic, who do you follow and which communities are you in? Look at the "how did you hear about us" field in HubSpot or your signup form.
Write down every place that comes up more than once. Typical answers are a LinkedIn feed, a newsletter, a YouTube channel, a Slack community or a podcast.
Score each place on two axes
For each place, give two scores from 1 to 5. The first is audience presence: how many of your buyers are active there and how often. The second is format fit: can you produce what works there at a steady pace? If you think in writing, a newsletter or LinkedIn suits you. If you think out loud, a podcast or short video suits you.
Multiply the two scores. The highest number wins. A channel that scores 5 on audience and 1 on fit will be abandoned in a month, so it loses to a 4 and a 4.
Choose one and write it down
Pick the winner and write a single sentence: "For the next 90 days I will publish on [channel] for [audience]." Put it in your planning doc. The other channels go on a "later" list. Seeing them there makes it easier to ignore them.
This also keeps you from the trap described in Publish a point of view, not content and the failure mode in Dominate one channel before adding the next.
Set a minimum output you can hold
Choose a minimum that survives your worst week. Examples: two posts and ten comments a week on LinkedIn, one newsletter a week, one video every two weeks. Put the slots in your calendar. For the rhythm itself, see Consistency beats brilliance, so build a publishing rhythm you can hold.
Track the output in Google Sheets or Notion: date, topic, link, and one line on how it was received.
Set three checkpoints before you start
Write down what you will check at day 30, 60 and 90. At day 30, check that you hit your output. At day 60, check for signs of relationship: replies, direct messages, repeat commenters. At day 90, check for business: calls booked, enquiries, list signups.
Decide in advance what you will do if the numbers are low. A simple rule: if output was held and relationships grew but business is slow, fix the offer or the call to action. If output was missed, fix the rhythm. Only if both held and nothing happened do you change channel.
Repurpose when the first channel works
Do not start a second channel from scratch. Reuse what you made. A long piece becomes a newsletter, the newsletter becomes five short posts, and the posts become talking points for a podcast or video. Use Claude to cut the long piece into drafts, then edit them yourself. When the first channel is steady, the process in Test a new channel each quarter tells you how to add the next.
Common mistakes
- Picking the channel you enjoy instead of the one your buyers use.
- Running five channels at ten percent effort.
- Judging a channel after two weeks.
- Changing the minimum output every time you feel busy.
- Starting the second channel before the first one has a result.
How you know it works
- You can name the one channel and the one audience in a single sentence.
- You have published at least 90 percent of your planned output.
- Buyers mention the channel when they get in touch.
- By day 90 the numbers give you a clear keep, change or stop decision.
- Fresh pieces take less time to write, because the format and the audience now feel familiar.
