Reach–Resonance Spectrum
Match the size of your question to the audience and relationship you want to build.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 98%
The framework treats content as occupying a spectrum between reach and resonance. Broad questions such as becoming happier or more productive apply to many people and can generate large distribution, but they usually create a weak bond between writer and reader. Narrow questions aimed at a particular role, situation, or painful transition reach fewer people while producing much stronger relevance. The writer first chooses the desired audience and relationship, then adjusts the size and specificity of the question accordingly. A balanced publishing strategy can use broad pieces for discovery, but those pieces should still lead relevant readers toward specific, experience-based work that establishes trust and long-term attention.
Origin
Extracted from Marketing Against The Grain, where Dickie Bush contrasted viral Chrome-extension threads with specific founder lessons about solving difficult business problems.
Core principles
- 01Broad questions attract larger audiences.
- 02Specific problems create deeper reader resonance.
- 03Viral reach does not automatically build relationships.
- 04Useful specificity attracts people who value your experience.
How to run it
- 1
Choose the target reader
Identify the role, situation, or experience shared by the people you want to attract. Define them more precisely than a generic demographic.
Pro tip Describe the reader through a current problem rather than age or job title alone.
Watch out Writing for everyone usually produces a commodity message.
- 2
Set the relationship goal
Decide whether the piece is meant to generate discovery, establish expertise, or create durable trust. Let that objective determine the appropriate position on the spectrum.
Pro tip Use reach-oriented pieces as entry points rather than as your entire strategy.
Watch out High engagement can disguise weak audience affinity.
- 3
Size the question
Frame a broad question for reach or a narrow situational question for resonance. Make the scope explicit in the headline and opening.
Pro tip Add a role, constraint, stage, or concrete transition to increase resonance.
Watch out Excessive specificity can make a piece irrelevant to the audience you need.
- 4
Add differentiated experience
Explain what you observed, attempted, or solved instead of merely aggregating familiar advice. Give the reader a reason to associate the insight with you.
Pro tip Use a problem you have personally faced as the anchor.
Watch out Generic lists make the writer interchangeable.
- 5
Evaluate the right signal
Judge reach pieces by relevant discovery and resonance pieces by trust, replies, subscriptions, or qualified opportunities. Do not apply one success metric to every piece.
Pro tip Track whether the people engaging resemble the audience you intended to attract.
Watch out Optimizing every piece for likes pushes content toward maximum reach.
In the wild
A software founder could publish a generic list of productivity tools for broad reach, then publish a detailed account of how the company moved from three to ten million in recurring revenue. The second piece would attract fewer readers but speak directly to operators facing the same transition.
→ The founder builds stronger relationships with a smaller, commercially relevant audience.
A marketing leader writes about time management specifically for executive CMOs rather than offering universal productivity tips. The narrower framing limits distribution but makes each qualified reader more likely to save, share, and follow the writer.
→ Lower reach produces greater relevance and reader loyalty.
Common mistakes
Confusing virality with audience building
A viral commodity list may generate attention without giving readers a reason to remember or trust its author.
Making every topic maximally broad
Continually expanding the addressable market removes the situational detail that creates resonance.
Ignoring audience relevance
Broad content can attract followers who have no interest in the writer's experience, products, or future ideas.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for founders, experts, and creators deciding how broad or specific each piece of content should be.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for anonymous entertainment accounts whose only objective is maximizing impressions.
From the transcript
“all content lives on a spectrum of reach and resonance.”
“the size of the question dictates the size of the audience.”
“You want to strike. I mean, yes, you can write things that have a lot of reach and those are good, but make sure it's…”
From the episode
How To Get Your First 10,000 Followers On Twitter w/ Dickie Bush
Dickie Bush