Buyer-Week Media Map
Map recurring content across the buyer’s week to compound brand touches
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 96%
The buyer-week map visualizes how a target person encounters the brand across a normal week. Instead of listing assets by internal team or channel, the company draws the buyer’s schedule and places recurring experiences into it: perhaps a newsletter in the morning, a podcast on Wednesday, and another show for a different problem. The map reveals whether programming serves distinct personas, creates useful repeated touches, or merely duplicates itself. At network scale, the team can monitor the average number of shows consumed and how repeated exposure creates opportunities for relevant advertisements, events, and product discovery. The objective is to become a trusted source of education and inspiration throughout the buyer’s life, not only when the buyer performs a search.
Origin
Kieran Flanagan used a weekly target-buyer slide while planning HubSpot’s media strategy, and Campbell explained that ProfitWell independently used the same model. Extracted from Marketing Against The Grain.
Core principles
- 01Audience relationships accumulate through repeated weekly touchpoints
- 02Different personas may prefer different shows and channels
- 03A network should coordinate formats rather than publish isolated assets
- 04The goal is sustained education and inspiration, not only search capture
How to run it
- 1
Model the buyer’s week
Create a simple timeline showing when the target buyer works, searches, reads, listens, and watches.
Pro tip Ground it in customer development rather than the marketing team’s own habits.
Watch out A fictional schedule based on stereotypes will misdirect channel choices.
- 2
Place existing touchpoints
Mark where newsletters, podcasts, videos, events, and other recurring programs currently reach the buyer.
Pro tip Include frequency and the promise of each touchpoint.
Watch out Do not count internal publication volume as buyer exposure.
- 3
Assign distinct jobs
Ensure each program serves a persona, problem, format preference, or recurring moment rather than duplicating another show.
Pro tip Use separate shows when personas require genuinely different programming.
Watch out Too many interchangeable programs create fatigue rather than influence.
- 4
Fill strategic gaps
Add programming only where the map reveals an underserved moment, format, or audience need.
Pro tip Start with the highest-value gap instead of attempting daily coverage immediately.
Watch out More touches are not inherently better if they lack value.
- 5
Measure network depth
Track repeat consumption and the average number of programs used by audience members over time.
Pro tip Distinguish casual one-show listeners from highly engaged multi-show users.
Watch out Channel totals alone can hide whether the same audience relationship is deepening.
In the wild
A planning slide mapped the formats a target buyer consumed across the days of the week, including a morning newsletter and a Wednesday podcast. The view made the desired audience experience understandable to decision-makers.
→ The company could explain and coordinate a media network around the buyer rather than around internal channels.
A SaaS company maps one founder show, one practitioner clinic, and one weekly newsletter to different needs and moments. It then measures whether audience members begin consuming more than one property.
→ Repeated useful exposure strengthens brand familiarity without making every program identical.
Common mistakes
Mapping the publishing calendar
An internal schedule is not the same as the buyer’s lived experience across channels and days.
Maximizing touch frequency blindly
Repeated low-value or redundant contact creates fatigue rather than trust.
Ignoring persona differences
A single format or show may not fit every audience segment in a broader media network.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for brands operating several shows, newsletters, podcasts, or other recurring channels.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for teams that have not yet established one useful recurring content property.
From the transcript
“you'd made a slide that was a slide that represented our target buyer's week. And it was the formats of content they created and like…”
“And we were mapping to like how do we engage with that person differently every day?”
“All of a sudden, what is the average number of shows someone's watching, right?”
From the episode
Growing Your Brand Through Inbound Media with Patrick Campbell
Patrick Campbell