Find your smallest viable audience and delight them. It’s a game-changing strategy that flips traditional marketing on its head, focusing on depth over breadth to build a truly remarkable business.
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Meaning
Stop trying to be for everyone. Instead, identify the smallest group of people you can sustainably serve and then focus all your energy on making them ridiculously, over-the-moon happy.
Explanation
Look, we’ve all been there. You launch a product and you cast the widest net possible, hoping to catch… well, anyone. It’s exhausting. And it rarely works. What Seth is saying here is so much more powerful. It’s about focus.
Your “smallest viable audience” isn’t about being small for the sake of it. It’s about finding that core group for whom your work is not just a product, it’s a must-have. It’s the difference between selling lukewarm coffee to a crowd and being the only person who makes a specific, perfect pour-over for a handful of true aficionados. Those aficionados? They’ll become your apostles. They’ll tell everyone. And that’s how you grow—not by shouting, but by creating such a deep connection that your audience does the talking for you. It’s a long-term play, but my goodness, it’s a sustainable one.
Quote Summary
| Context | Attributes |
|---|---|
| Original Language | English (3668) |
| Category | Business (233) |
| Topics | focus (155), marketing (21), niche (4) |
| Literary Style | concise (408) |
| Emotion / Mood | encouraging (304), strategic (66) |
| Overall Quote Score | 86 (262) |
Origin & Factcheck
This gem comes straight from Seth Godin’s 2003 marketing classic, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. It’s a cornerstone of the book’s philosophy. You sometimes see the idea paraphrased online, but the core concept of a “minimum viable audience” is unequivocally his.
Attribution Summary
| Context | Attributes |
|---|---|
| Author | Seth Godin (100) |
| Source Type | Book (4032) |
| Source/Book Name | Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable (43) |
| Origin Timeperiod | 21st Century (1892) |
| Original Language | English (3668) |
| Authenticity | Verified (4032) |
Author Bio
Seth Godin writes and teaches about marketing, leadership, and creative work. After earning an MBA from Stanford, he founded Yoyodyne, sold it to Yahoo!, and later launched ventures like Squidoo and the altMBA. He has authored bestsellers such as Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, Tribes, Linchpin, and This Is Marketing. He posts daily at seths.blog and speaks globally about making work that matters. If you’re starting with the Seth Godin book list, expect insights on trust, storytelling, and shipping creative projects that change culture.
| Official Website | Facebook | X
Where is this quotation located?
| Quotation | Find your smallest viable audience and delight them |
| Book Details | Publication Year/Date: 2003; ISBN/Unique Identifier: 9781591843177; Last edition: 2010; Number of pages: 160. |
| Where is it? | Chapter 34: Smallest Viable Audience, page 156/160 |