A staggering 41% of marketers admit they don't do audience research nearly enough, and over half do it very infrequently. In this conversation, SparkToro co-founder Rand Fishkin breaks down why audience research has become marketing's orphaned responsibility and what it's costing companies in missed opportunities.

From Fortune 500s sitting on unused data to marketers relying on ChatGPT for audience insights, Rand reveals the systematic problems preventing teams from understanding their customers. He shares how his own company discovered their biggest growth opportunity by actually talking to users, and why the channels you can't easily measure might be your biggest competitive advantage.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why audience research consistently falls through the cracks
• The hidden dangers of using AI for customer insights
• How to identify the most underinvested marketing channels

Resources:

• Try Sparktoro for audience research: https://sparktoro.com/
• Request a free AI Audit: https://97thfloor.com/ai-audit/
• Connect with Rand on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin
• Connect with Paxton on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paxtongray/
• Looking for an agency that'll be worth the investment? 97th Floor creates custom, audience-first campaigns that drive pipeline and conversions. Get started here: https://97thfloor.com/lets-talk/.

About Rand Fishkin:
Rand Fishkin is the co-founder and CEO of audience research platform SparkToro and indie game developer Snackbar Studio. He’s dedicated his professional life to helping people do better marketing through the Whiteboard Friday video series, his blog, and his book, Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World.

Rand was previously the cofounder of Moz, and Inbound.org, and a co-author on The Art of SEO. He’s keynoted over 100 events around the world on marketing, technology, and startup topics.

Timestamps:
00:08 - Problem with audience research adoption

03:24 - SEO analogy for audience research

10:20 - Who should own audience research

19:17 - AI's role in audience research

31:35 - Serendipitous insights from research

39:51 - Google, AI, and search trends

“I want to know who my potential customers are and what they do on the web so that I can target, reach them with the best possible messaging in the best places at the right time. That's marketing 101.” - Rand Fishkin

Matt Frisbee went from Disney performer to marketing executive, and is one of the best storytellers around. In this conversation, Matt breaks down the art of storytelling in marketing, shares how he built breakthrough campaigns at Little Giant Ladder Systems, and explains why "feeling understood is the sexiest feeling in the universe."

This is a masterclass in taking calculated risks, doing the deep research work that most people skip, and why feeling understood by a brand is what drives real customer loyalty.

What You’ll Learn:

• The "Queen Vicky" Method - Build your entire strategy around one real customer instead of fictional personas
• The Dangerous Jobs Breakthrough - Why respecting your audience beats safety messaging (and how it stole market share from giants)
• The COVID Studio Innovation - How a 9-camera setup got Zoom asking questions and kept sales growing during lockdown

Resources:

"Story" by Robert McKee - Matt's go-to storytelling reference

"So God Made a Farmer" Super Bowl ad - Perfect example of honoring an underappreciated audience

FREE Content Consolidation Tools: https://97thfloor.com/articles/podcasts/how-to-consolidate-optimize-and-finally-see-seo-results/

Request a free AI Audit: https://97thfloor.com/ai-audit/

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewfrisbie/

Connect with Paxton on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paxtongray/

Looking for an agency that'll be worth the investment? 97th Floor creates custom, audience-first campaigns that drive pipeline and conversions. Get started here: https://97thfloor.com/lets-talk/.

About Matt Frisbie:
Matt Frisbie started his career as a classically trained illustrator at Disney, where he learned that a picture truly is worth a thousand words – but more importantly, he learned how to architect experiences that make people want to participate in a story. After a stint in Hollywood selling films, Matt found his way into marketing, where he discovered that brands tell stories just as powerful as any movie – stories about solving problems and transforming lives.

As CMO at companies including Blendtec and Little Giant Ladder Systems, Matt has overseen marketing strategies that don't just move products – they move people. He's currently leading marketing at Axomo, a go-to-mark...

Most B2B marketers are missing a goldmine of audience insights hiding in plain sight. While everyone flocks to LinkedIn, 68% of Reddit users aren't even on the platform—meaning there's a massive chunk of your audience having authentic conversations about their real problems elsewhere.

Deep tech CMO Kiersten Gaffney has cracked the code on mining Reddit for content that actually converts. In this episode, she reveals her systematic approach to turning Reddit threads into pillar content that resonates with technical audiences.

What You'll Learn:

• The Reddit advantage: Why Reddit conversations are more honest and actionable than other social platforms
• Kiersten's listening workflow: Her exact process using tools like Octolens to track keywords across Reddit, Hacker News, and other platforms
• AI-powered content creation: How she uses Claude and ChatGPT strategically—one for research, one for writing—to turn insights into content
• The 70% success rate formula: Her systematic approach that delivers results 7 out of 10 times
• Technical audience secrets: Why developers and engineers hate being sold to and how to market to them authentically

Resources:

Attend a free 60-minute live demo with Kiersten on September 12, 2025 to see her whole in-depth process for transforming tiny insights into incredible content.

Register here: https://maven.com/p/a3bef8/turn-dev-complaints-into-content-gold-with-ai

Request a free AI Audit: https://97thfloor.com/ai-audit/

Connect with Kiersten on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kierstengaffney

Connect with Paxton on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paxtongray/

Looking for an agency that'll be worth the investment? 97th Floor creates custom, audience-first campaigns that drive pipeline and conversions. Get started here: https://97thfloor.com/lets-talk/.

About Kiersten Gaffney:
Kiersten Gaffney is a CMO advisor helping deep tech software companies build their marketing growth engines. She’s advised hundreds of founders from companies like Airbyte, DragonflyDB, and Codefresh to build systematic, measurable approaches to marketing.

Timestamps:
03:05 - Reddit's honest opinions vs. other platforms

07:23 - Keyword monitoring with Octalens tool

08:31 - AI analysis: Reddit threads to content ideas

20:55 - Director vs. directed: controlling AI tools

25:28