Resonance over reach: the marketing metric that actually matters
Most marketers are optimizing for the wrong metric.
They're chasing reach when they should be chasing resonance.
Reach is vanity. Resonance is sanity. One fills your dashboard with pretty numbers. The other fills your pipeline with perfect customers.
The Resonance Framework
Resonance happens when your message meets someone exactly where they are — not where you think they should be.
Here's how to build it:
1. Shrink Your Audience
Stop trying to speak to everyone. The tighter your focus, the deeper your impact. Would you rather have 100,000 people scroll past your content or 1,000 people save it? Always a good reminder to remember the 1,000 True Fans framework.
2. Go Deep, Not Wide
Surface-level content gets surface-level engagement. Dig into the messy, uncomfortable truths your audience faces. Share the stuff they think about at 2 AM but never say out loud.
3. Measure Connection, Not Clicks
Clicks are easy. Connection is everything. Track replies, saves and shares over impressions. Monitor how often people reference your ideas in conversations.
Watch for the moment someone says, "I saw this thing that made me think of you."
4. Create Moments of Recognition
The best marketing doesn't teach—it reveals. It shows people something they already knew but couldn't articulate.
The Three Levels of Recognition
Problem Recognition "I didn't know this was actually a problem, but now I can't unsee it."
Solution Recognition "I've been doing this wrong, and here's a better way."
Identity Recognition "This person gets me. They see the world the way I do."
Most marketers stop at problem recognition. Great marketers aim for identity recognition.
The Real Metric
Your content resonates when someone forwards it to a friend with the words: "This is so us."
That's worth more than a million impressions.
Because resonance doesn't just drive awareness—it drives action. And action is what turns content into customers, followers into fans, and messages into movements.
Stop optimizing for the crowd. Start optimizing for the nod.
