Hi everyone, good morning!
Last issue, I shared that positioning actually means "you see the world in a way different from others, and you see what you believe to be an opportunity," discussing this through NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang's speech and Keyhole, the predecessor of Google Earth.
This issue will start with the strategy and positioning of Acquired, a very famous tech podcast in America that's well-known throughout Silicon Valley, to examine how you will get the audience you expect.
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Although I send out newsletters late at night, I still habitually say good morning to everyone, imagining the scene where everyone opens their inbox the next morning to receive the newsletter. Or are there many friends staying up late just to receive the newsletter as soon as possible? (Probably overthinking! 😄)
I wonder how everyone spends their daily commute time. I listen to podcasts while driving to absorb new knowledge. This issue's theme, "Building Your Expected Audience," introduces an English podcast I really like called [Acquired]. I'll share how they found their product positioning and attracted the audience they wanted.
"You will get the audience you expect" isn't some New Age movement or manifestation explanation, but rather that your strategy and positioning will attract the audience that's right for you.
Acquired's Background and Achievements
[Acquired] is a podcast hosted by two men that started in late 2015, producing about 2-3 episodes per month, with each episode averaging 2-3 hours. They've even had episodes over 4 hours long! This is quite lengthy content.
Currently, most podcasts are under 1 hour (at most 90 minutes) because human attention spans are limited, and most podcasts are designed for commuters or people doing chores during leisure time. Most shows pursue consistent updates, updating at least once a week at fixed times. But [Acquired] goes against the grain—they don't update weekly but every update lasts several hours. You can see how peculiar their approach is!
"Every company has a story" is the core theme of this podcast. Acquired provides incredibly detailed introductions to companies' stories, both big and small, with very logical emphasis on chronology and causality, ultimately providing their analysis of each company. They've covered most well-known companies, such as Nike (4:03:28), VISA (3:43:24), Costco (3:01:33), NVIDIA (three episodes, each over 2 hours), Nintendo (3:17:29), TSMC (2:32:36), and more.
Beyond this, the show has managed to interview NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Uber CEO, Spotify CEO, and Zoom CEO—these CEOs are basically the Hollywood superstars of American tech!
From the beginning, [Acquired] took a very different path from other podcasts. So what achievements have they reached?
- Each episode averages 300,000 downloads within 180 days
While this might seem quite small compared to any famous YouTube show, if you seriously consider such long-form content averaging 300,000 downloads per episode within 180 days, this number is quite impressive! This show has no stimulation, gore, sexuality, or craziness—not even any visuals—yet achieves such high download numbers! - Almost doubling growth each year
The chart below was posted by [Acquired] hosts on X (Twitter), showing almost double growth each year! - High-quality audience
40% of [Acquired]'s audience are C-level executives (CEO, CFO, COO, or any C-something-O positions) or VP-level executives. 23% are current company founders, 12% are former founders (people who've sold their companies and made big money). By profession: 17% are engineers, 15% are current CEOs, 12% are product managers.
Positioning: We Don't Want Millions of Listeners, We Want...
[Acquired] creates content for themselves and listeners like them—a group of people who, like them, want to understand company growth, strategy, and stories. They don't want millions of listeners because there simply aren't that many people interested in their topics.
In interviews, [Acquired] mentioned they don't pursue rapid growth for [Acquired]. Even if growth is slow, they don't mind. They only hope to gain growth in the market they're pursuing. Because people like [Acquired]'s audience are the world's most valuable listeners—this is the audience [Acquired] pursues.
One host specifically described their audience:
"I think our audience is people like us—highly educated in business. Very smart. They don't like things being oversimplified and are quite averse to simplification. And 90% of business content on the market is worthless to our audience. Our audience actively wants to learn, improve, grow, and build great things."
Strategy: Focus
If you want to achieve the above goals, what's your strategy?
1. Quick-response YouTube videos or TikTok short videos?
The answer is no.
[Acquired] mentioned in interviews: "We struggle on YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter. We're not good at these platforms and can't create any viral content or viral explosions. Although we edit some exciting short clips from our shows for YouTube or TikTok, we still struggle because we weren't designed that way from the beginning."
2. Focus on long-term growth, focus on content creation
Each [Acquired] episode might take hosts up to 100 hours to prepare. They read every piece of available material—print, video, interviews. Their goal is that when someone questions whether they've prepared thoroughly, they can very directly say, "No, I've reviewed all the materials."
This type of growth-focused podcast naturally doesn't hype any trending topics, current news, elections, politics, race, gender, or provide any sensational, nutritionless content. They don't create inflammatory topics or become popular through controversy. This isn't to say podcasts or YouTubers can't create such content, but it's about different goals and strategies. When your positioning is finding this valuable audience, your strategy naturally must align with this positioning—not seeing short videos trending and making short videos, or using short video logic to create podcasts (requiring an explosive moment every three minutes, special effects, etc.).
In one speech, [Acquired] mentioned they emulate Bezos's spirit: "If you're not on my bus, get off!" Bezos insisted on reinvesting every dollar earned, so Amazon decided early on not to pay dividends even when profitable! For Taiwan's dividend-focused investors, Amazon didn't pay dividends for over 20 years, insisting on reinvesting every dollar earned to continue investing and expanding advantages, telling shareholders, "This is our way."
Reflection
Positioning and strategy will attract your expected audience.
If your strategy is hyping the latest topics, most controversial content, and being deliberately provocative, then you'll attract audiences who only follow the latest, hottest topics, unable to attract audiences who seriously contemplate things. This was like a wake-up call for me—I need to seriously consider each step. Do I want to gain millions of viewers, or do I want to gain audiences like [Acquired] has? What strategies should I adopt accordingly?
What about you? How do you view your positioning and strategy? Welcome to share with me!