The Solopreneur’s Guide to Audience-Backed Content Strategy

Audiences are often treated as an afterthought, which boggles my mind. Modern businesses can’t afford to sidestep the very people using their apps, buying their products, and keeping their business alive.

More importantly, audiences give you everything you need to craft a content strategy that attracts even more people like them.

If, like myself, you’re passionate about audience insights…it’s your lucky day. Today, I’ll be guiding solopreneurs like yourself on how to build a content strategy that’s completely audience-backed at every stage.

Let’s jump in!

Solopreneurs: Here’s How to Craft an Audience-Backed Content Strategy

Know Your Audience

Those three words tend to make busy, go-go-go solopreneurs roll their eyes into oblivion. “I already know my audience!”

And I get it. The fact that “getting to know your audience” is often synonymous with one-dimensional, baseless personas isn’t very helpful.

That said, many solopreneurs understand their audience quite well. For example, let’s say I’ve decided to create a task management tool specifically for side hustlers. That’s already a step beyond typical “busy professional” tools, as it’s a tool aimed at a specific audience.

Still, truly knowing your audience requires peeling back even more layers. Sure, I’ve identified side hustlers as my target – people who likely already rely on other task management tools. Now, I need to answer the following question: What story does my content need to tell these folks – and at which stages –  in order to convince them to switch to my product?

To answer that question, you need to…

Find Out Where Your Audience Lives

So…side-hustlers! Where do they hang out? What place do they use to vent, to ask for other side hustlers’ advice, and to celebrate their wins?

If you’re like “I dunno,” then the answer is most likely Reddit. For the most part, Reddit users are anonymous and free to speak their minds and hearts. Plus, there’s a subreddit for almost anything you can think of (seriously, give it a try).

I love Reddit because people don’t need to “perform” there, as it’s often the case with Instagram and X. It’s a massive community – and an audience-heavy one at that!

And because Reddit is so massive, it’s also rabbit-hole material. This is why I created GummySearch: to turn Reddit into your ultimate audience research tool without the overwhelm. It cuts through the noise, making insights digestible, accessible, and actionable in minutes instead of hours.

With GummySearch, I can create a custom audience by cherry-picking specific subreddits. The platform helps me identify the size, activity level, and engagement within each community at a glance, giving me a clear picture of my audience.

To make the tips in this article as actionable as possible, I created a “pretend audience” called Time Management (it could just as easily have been Task Management, but you get the idea). As you can see, it pulls in subreddits where side hustlers are more than likely active – like r/entrepreneur, r/productivity, r/sidehustle, and more.

Find Out How Your Audience Is (or Isn’t) Solving Problems Related to Your Product 

Inside the GummySearch dashboard, my audience section is packed with options to filter and refine the search. It’s designed to massively cut down the time I’d normally spend on user research, while still giving me plenty to dig into.

At the top, there’s a search bar where I can enter any keyword. Right below it, GummySearch offers quick-start suggestions to speed things up. I can filter by subreddit if I’m targeting a specific community, or I can explore topics, themes, and even products.

But my favorite is the Ask ✨ feature.

With this, I can type in a direct question (anything I’d ask my ideal customers) and GummySearch will fetch relevant Reddit discussions, complete with sources and links to the original posts.

Now, if I’m looking for specifics like pain points, there’s an even faster way: the Pain & Anger theme. This AI-powered filter pulls up conversations where people vent about their biggest frustrations.

The cool thing about the platform is the ability to combine features. In order to find my audience’s problems and how they’re (not) solving them, I used the Ask feature inside the Pain & Anger theme to dig into frustrations around time management tools for side hustlers. Here’s what came up:

The AI condensed all relevant posts into a clear, high-level summary: People are frustrated with the rigidity of traditional work schedules, the limitations of the 9-to-5 culture, and more.

Beyond that, it also pulled up direct links to every post that matched my query, so I could dig even deeper into how my audience actually talks about these struggles.

And why does this matter for my content strategy?

Because that’s my audience speaking to me. This means I can craft content that actually resonates with them and their current struggles.

But I wanted to go further. I refined my search and asked: What are people’s biggest frustrations with time management tools?

This time, the insights were even more actionable. GummySearch surfaced complaints like:

• The overwhelming search for the “right” tool
• Wasted time and effort testing different solutions
• Features that don’t fit their needs

While at it, the platform also highlighted the tools these users are already trying. That means I got a competitive analysis as bonus material!

Armed with this, I know exactly how to position my content and improve my product to address real gaps in the market.

Align Content With Your Audience’s Journey

There’s that classic Awareness, Consideration, and Decision funnel, right? It gives me a general idea of the types of content you’ll need at each stage.

However, it’s up to me to figure out… 

• What type of content to create
• The stages my audience goes through before taking action
• The messages to lead with

Let’s expand on this.

Awareness

I need to start by understanding where my audience first learned of my product. Was it through a blog post, an ad, or a Reddit comment? If people are constantly finding me on one channel over another, it’s time to double down on the winner.

To figure this out, I’ll need data. Tools like Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will help me massively.

For example, GA4’s Funnel Explorer feature lets me backtrack the customer journey. I can see the steps they took before converting, like landing on my website or looking at different pages.

Now, I’ll also want to survey my users directly, asking questions like:

• What was happening in your life that made you search for this type of solution?
• Where did you first hear about us?

I can also use GummySearch to triangulate that data. It’ll help me find what’s driving people towards products like mine.

All I have to do is ask a question such as: Can you fetch me side hustlers who are looking for time management tools?

And here’s the output:

Having an AI summary with sources is awesome, but I always like to take a look at the specific results that show up. For example:

If my task management tool has both features – a to-do list and a calendar – that’s an incredibly persuasive insight I can use for top-of-funnel content.

Consideration

The consideration stage is often where people start comparing my product to others. Or, it’s where they start considering whether changing the status quo is worth their time. That’s why I need to understand what my audience is actually comparing my product to.

The most important thing at this stage is to find out what alternatives your audience is genuinely considering. If you already have users, ask them questions like:

• What solutions did you try before this?
• What would you have used if our product didn’t exist?

I remind myself to be open-minded. Sometimes people will compare my product to something I didn’t expect!

In GummySearch, I can switch to the “Products” tab and instantly understand the productivity and project management tools side hustlers are already using. I can then read their open, honest reviews to fuel my audience research.

Purchase

The content people see right before they decide to try (or abandon) my product is what drives either action or inertia.

So, how can I create a slippery slope towards action?

• Using tools like Hotjar or CrazyEgg, I can analyze user behavior on key content pages. Where are they hesitating? Are they rage-clicking on something? Are they scrolling but not taking action?
• Usability testing is also super helpful. It’s one of the most audience-backed validation tools out there because I’m watching real users navigate the content and make decisions in real time.

If they struggle to understand my product’s value, hesitate on a call-to-action, or get lost in a sea of options, that’s where I need to optimize.

Craft Relatable, Engaging, and Personalized Content

According to a study by SmarterHQ, 72% of consumers say they only engage with marketing messages that are personalized and relevant to them – as they should!

Mapping the audience journey, as I’ve already discussed, can help me personalize content by discovering what my audience is more likely to respond to. But, I can always go deeper.

Using GummySearch, I can dive into real conversations on Reddit to capture sticky, authentic language. This will help me create relatable content that mirrors the thoughts, feelings, and day-to-day of my audience.

Take a look at the raw, ultra-specific post the platform brought up. This is the type of language that mirrors real pains – one that my product can help with:

Beyond messaging, there are a number of other ways I could personalize my content, which include…

• Creating different landing pages for each audience (If I happened to have more than one audience)
• Segmenting email lists
• Letting users self-segment through interactive quizzes, custom onboarding forms, or preference centers

Use Data and Feedback Loops to Optimize Your Content

If I’m passionate about what I’m building, I’ll want to stay tuned in to what my audience is saying so my content can always serve them better. Can you relate?

GummySearch has a fantastic tool for that.

All I have to do is type in any keyword I’d like to track using the “Keyword Search” field I’ve mentioned at the beginning of this article. Then, I’ll click “Track” (the bell 🔔icon) to start tracking the keyword. I can even ask AI to filter down my searches so that only relevant results come up.

By tracking relevant keywords, I can stay in the loop about what people are saying about topics that matter to my product. No need to log into the platform every hour – whenever there’s a new mention, you’ll be able to see it on the “Conversations 💬” page.

(Placeholder because the tool still hasn’t collected enough data for the screenshot)

Talk to Your Audience. But Most Importantly, Listen to Them

My mom was right when she told me I have two ears and one mouth because I should “listen more than I speak.”

Now, back to you.

Your audience holds all the answers you need to create content that converts and products that stick. Keep the loop open, and keep talking to real people. If you can’t talk to them, passively observe them as they talk to one another – even if it’s behind a computer screen.

When you ground your strategy in real insights, every piece of content serves a purpose. And with GummySearch, anyone can make this process manageable – even side-hustlers. 🙂