The Market of One
Build content for one real person who represents the audience you want
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 99%
The Market of One replaces a generalized persona with one identifiable person whose work, ambitions, questions, and constraints embody the desired audience. The creator keeps that person's profile in view, studies what they discuss publicly, and researches similar questions in communities such as subreddits. Each prospective topic is judged by whether it would help that person learn, grow, solve a problem, or look more capable in front of others. Lieberman selected HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar because Bodnar combines senior leadership responsibilities with an appetite for tactical, emerging marketing ideas. Performance is then assessed by audience quality: the critical metric is not raw follower growth, but the percentage of new followers who resemble the Market of One.
Origin
Extracted from Marketing Against the Grain. Alex Lieberman described choosing Kipp Bodnar as the single representative audience member for his effort to become a leading marketing creator.
Core principles
- 01A real person creates more clarity than a broad demographic
- 02The target person should represent a commercially meaningful audience
- 03Content should solve the person's recurring questions and challenges
- 04Success means attracting more people who resemble the target person
- 05Specificity can produce broader relevance without generic positioning
How to run it
- 1
Select a real person
Choose one actual individual who closely represents the professional audience you want to serve. Keep their public profile available during planning.
Pro tip Pick someone whose needs are advanced enough to be valuable but tactical enough to inspire actionable content.
Watch out Do not select someone merely because they are famous.
- 2
Map their ambitions
Identify what the person wants to accomplish, how they want to be perceived, and what knowledge would help them grow.
Pro tip Distinguish personal status goals from operational challenges; useful content can address both.
- 3
Research their questions
Ask the person directly when possible, review their public conversations, and inspect communities where comparable people discuss problems.
Pro tip Capture the language the audience uses to describe its own problems.
Watch out Do not infer every need from a job title alone.
- 4
Create for their future needs
Develop topics that help the person understand what is relevant now and what may matter several years ahead.
Pro tip Combine emerging ideas with practical applications the person can use in their organization.
Watch out Avoid content so high-level that it cannot influence a decision or action.
- 5
Measure audience fit
Track whether new followers, subscribers, and engaged users resemble the selected person rather than optimizing only for total reach.
Pro tip Review the roles and profiles of net-new followers each month.
Watch out Large engagement numbers can disguise an audience that will never need your work.
In the wild
Lieberman selected HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar as his Market of One. Bodnar runs a large organization but also actively pursues tactical ideas and emerging marketing trends. Lieberman therefore develops content, such as his drop-marketing playbook, that can help Bodnar see where marketing is heading and translate the idea into HubSpot's context.
→ The target produces specific topics while still representing a broader audience of ambitious marketing leaders.
Common mistakes
Targeting a fictional average
A composite persona often contains conflicting needs and produces generic content. Use an actual individual as the anchor.
Choosing an unrepresentative celebrity
The Market of One must stand for enough similar people to support the creator's broader goals.
Optimizing for total followers
Follower volume is weak evidence if those followers do not resemble the people the content is meant to serve.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for creators and B2B marketers who know the type of professional they want to attract but struggle to choose useful topics.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when the selected person is an outlier who does not represent a viable wider audience.
From the transcript
“you have to have a market of one”
“your Market of one should literally be a real person that you have their LinkedIn URL pull up pulled up”
“what percentage of my net new followers are Kip or Kip like people”
From the episode
Alex Lieberman on Building A Personal Brand & Influencer Marketing Trends
Alex Lieberman