Read time: 3 minutes

Hey there!

Sam here 👋

Let’s face it, every founder wants one thing: to grow their business and to do it fast.

And that often means expanding and testing their distribution channels.

But here's the catch: investing in too many channels at once can actually hurt your growth, rather than help it.

Rushing to test multiple marketing channels at once is a recipe for frustration and confusion.

By only testing on a surface level, businesses risk wasting time and resources without seeing significant results.

Lesson: You only need one channel to win the race. It won’t be easy, but you only need one.

_{There are 6 main channels to consider:}

• 📗 Content

• 📣 Paid Ads

• 👋 Direct Sales (Outbound)

• 🌪️ Virality

• 🤝 Partnerships

• 🎨 Influencers

If you're a consumer startup, there are actually three scalable channels that cover how most companies grow initially:

1.  📣 Paid ads: Meta and Google ads

2. 🌪️ Virality: word-of-mouth, referrals, invites

3. 📗 Content: social media, SEO, blogs

All channels can work to an extent; the tricky part is knowing which one is right for your business.

To choose the right growth driver, you need to focus on two things:

1. Channel-product fit

2. Team-channel fit

Let’s cover each one.

Channel-product fit

Channel-product fit is the cornerstone of any successful marketing strategy.

To determine if a channel is right for your business, you must understand your audience's relationship with it.

I talked about it in more detail in a previous issue here.

At this level, we want to understand what’s our audience’s relationship with the channel to determine if it will help us grow.

Meaning: how does our audience experience this channel?

This means looking into:

• ✅ KPIs impact
  ✅ User intent

• ✅ User reachability

• ✅ The channel’s context

• ✅ Your product’s use case

🧠 Questions you need to be asking in this step:

• Is our audience hanging out on this channel?

• What are users doing in this channel?

• Does this channel make sense for our product’s use case?

• Are users visiting this channel while they are actively solving their problems?

• What is my user’s level of intent (interest, active engagement, near purchase), in this channel?

• What role does this channel play in my KPIs (acquisition, retention, or monetization)?

So many founders miss these three questions, make sure to take the time to answer them and make sure the channel works in your favor:

• Does this channel make sense for our product’s use case?

• Are users visiting this channel while they are actively solving their problems?

• What is my user’s level of intent (interest, active engagement, near purchase), in this channel?

Choose a channel where customers are open to solving their problems, are actively engaging, and the environment creates purchase intent.

Team-channel fit

Your team's strengths in a channel are crucial to the success of your growth strategy.

Mastery takes time, so ensure your team has the strengths necessary to turn it into a powerful growth driver.

Here are a few things to consider for each channel:

• 📗 Content: Do you have rockstar writers on your team who can create content that's both engaging and authoritative? Can they build enough domain authority to rank for it and drive traffic to your site?

•  📣 Paid ads: Is the product so easy to show off or explain in a fast way? Do you have a team that can craft compelling ad copy, scroll-stopping design, and data skills? Can you afford it?

• 🎨 Influencers: Do your potential customers follow and trust influencers in your niche? Do you have a product or founder story that can catch their attention and inspire them to promote your brand?

• 👋 Direct sales: Is your product complex and requires a more hands-on sales process? Do you have a team that can attract and develop a sales and lead generation strategy, and is your product profitable enough to justify the expense?

• 🌪️ Virality: Does your product have the potential to create a viral effect or network effect, where a customer brings in more customers as they use your product? Are users naturally (50%) spreading the word about your product?

• 🤝 Partnerships: Does your product complement or add value to another product? Can you identify potential partners who can help you reach a wider audience and drive growth?

Remember, each channel requires a unique set of strengths and skills from your team.

Focus on identifying the channel that best aligns with your business and team's strengths, so you can build a sustainable growth strategy around that.

Once you find a growth driver that works for your business, double down on it.

Avoid the trap of trying to do too much at once.

A summary to tie it all together:

You’re probably wondering:

“I tested a channel and got poor results. How do I know if the reason for this was my approach or that the channel doesn’t work for my business?”

Here are some questions to help you determine if you’re on the right path:

• Insider channel expertise: Do we have team expertise in growing and scaling that channel? If not, have we consulted with others who have done it successfully for another product in our category/industry?

  • We don’t know what we don’t know, so it’s best to go about it with someone who’s had that experience.

• Winners leave a trail: Have you seen others in your product category use the channel effectively? Check out the meta ads library and other channels to see if you’ve seen your competitors grow through it.

• Goal alignment: How far off are the results from your goals?

  • If payback periods are too long or there isn’t enough search volume to validate the channel, it’s unlikely you can work your way to success.

• Audit before you start: Have you laid the right foundations to make the channel successful? Have you checked that your sign-up flow, onboarding process, and payment process are working as expected?

When it comes to growing your business, remember this: less is more.

Instead of spreading yourself too thin by trying to conquer multiple channels at once, focus on one channel and master it.

You only need to make one channel work.

Once you start getting diminishing returns, layer on other channels.

Until then, focus on validating, mastering, and scaling one channel.

That's all for now!

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or feedback, just hit reply.

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Until next time 👋

Sam