Does every marketing channel *actually* suck right now?
A reaction to Andrew Chen's Substack post: "Every marketing channel sucks right now"
👋 This is an unplanned, bonus edition of MKT1 Newsletter. The free edition is a summary of a conversation and the paid subscriber edition features the full 30-minute conversation between me and community-marketing expert Mallory Contois.
I read a LinkedIn post and an article last week that bummed me out. Andrew Chen’s Substack, “Every marketing channel sucks right now,” as the title suggests, isn’t exactly a hopeful take on the state of marketing. It paints a bleak picture of marketing in 2025—and I only agree with ~33% of it.
No disrespect to Andrew (everyone’s entitled to a POV), but I wanted to offer a more solutions-focused and nuanced response, not just a list of everything that’s broken.
I noticed my friend Mallory Contois, Head of Community at Mercury and founder of Old Girls Club community, also commented on Andrew’s LinkedIn post. So we hit record and chatted all about the article on Friday.
This article and video are for anyone who felt a little bummed out reading the article, and is ready to get fired up again.
Note: Since we recorded, Andrew updated his post with a more positive outlook and a more tactical roadmap for early-stage founders. Our critiques still stand, but we’re glad to see more nuance in the newer version. I’ve pointed out if quotes are from the original or new version!
In this newsletter…
This newsletter recaps my conversation with Mallory and our take on marketing right now. We’ve both been in marketing long enough to know that yes, things are changing, but we think it’s a really exciting time to be a marketer.
🔍 Channel-by-channel breakdown: Andrew’s critiques vs. my take on what’s still working (and what’s not)
👑 Is product king?: It’s not product or marketing—it’s both
🏀 The one-channel myth: Real GTM requires star players, but also a full-team of channels
📉 Are big channels dead?: The channels that “work” are changing and emerging channels are worth focusing on
🌱 Can “little channels” scale?: New tools are making even the “little channels” scalable
🤝 Ecosystem marketing = the next big channel: Try human, creative, trust-driven “channels”
🎨 Art > algorithm: AI made marketing faster, more generic, and commoditized. Now differentiation matters more than ever
Paid subscribers can access the full video of our conversation at the bottom of the newsletter.
This post doesn’t have sponsors, it was that off the cuff, but I do recommend Mallory’s course on Maven ”Community-Led Growth: Unlocking Sustainable, Human-Driven Growth” And you can get $100 off using that link.
Quick note: Andrew mentions this is mostly focused on early-stage startups. Our advice is geared toward early-stage and growth-stage startups in B2B.
Channel by channel state of the world
Andrew kicked off his article with his gripes on each “big channel.” I thought I’d give my impressions based on all my work with marketers as an advisor and investor (and as a marketing-obsessed creator).
Here’s a summary of what Andrew said in his original post:
SEO: Slow, crowded
Influencer marketing: Expensive, small creators require hand-holding
PR/comms: Doesn’t drive signups, not repeatable
Email marketing: Hard to build a good list, spam filters everywhere
Viral loops: Only work with a great product, outdated hacks don’t work
Ads: Expensive, investors hate it unless your unit economics are perfect
Referral/affiliate: High fraud risk, often just as costly as paid
Big launch on social: Algorithm fights you, friends get tired of boosting your stuff
Here’s my take on each channel Andrew mentions:
SEO: Saturated, but it’s still worth covering the basics and ranking for high-intent keywords. Just don’t waste cycles producing generic how-to content that’s better answered by zero-click LLM summaries.
Influencer marketing: Becoming more scalable by the day. The handholding can be worth it if you work with the right influencers.
PR/comms: Traditional publications have been suffering for a while and there simply aren’t enough tech journalists to cover all the news they used to cover. Influencer marketing can help fill the gaps here
Email marketing: Email deliverability is a huge struggle, but building lists of accounts and contacts and using intent signals to target the right people at the right time is easier than ever with enrichment tools (when used correctly).
Viral loops: I don’t think much has changed here. I see AI products and trends go “viral” all the time—just think about all those AI-generated action figure images on LinkedIn last week.
Ads: Should have always been part of your strategy, not the only strategy. Targeting the right people is easier, you just need to break through the noise on content.
Referral/affiliate: If you have something of value to share and offer, this can work. You have to nail the incentives and this may look different today than it did in the Dropbox era.
Social: Social algorithms are mysterious, brand accounts have a harder time gaining traction these. But if invest early in growing personal accounts or work with established influencers it can work well.
Our reaction to the full article
Now I’ll break down Andrew’s key points and our responses—what we agreed with, what we disagreed with, and why we think this is actually marketing’s moment to shine.
1. Is product king?
Product is (unfortunately) King
So I have bad news: Your product actually has to be very good. I wish I lived in a world where you could have amazing marketing and growth strategies, have a shitty product, and you would win. Then marketers would run tech, and they do not. It’s the people visionaries that create the products that run tech, and that’s a good thing!
-Andrew Chen
Our take: You need a differentiated product + differentiated marketing to win
It’s simply not one or the other. It’s become too easy to build product and too easy to build marketing content for this not to be the case.
We reject the framing that marketers aren’t visionaries or builders. Great marketers are just as strategic and market-defining as product leaders. They understand the market, your audience, your product and how to reach the right people at the right time. And your brand and content is another product after all.
Also, I think it would be a pretty good thing if no one “ran” tech. And instead, we all were respected and valued as contributors, even us marketers :)
Video highlights:
“Marketers when they’re great are like product people. They’re visionary. They understand the market. They’re building products themselves.” – Kramer
“The ideal world is a beautiful partnership between product, design, engineering, marketing, and sales.” – Mallory
“Anything that is different is going to be inherently harder.” - Mallory
Apologies that the audio and video quality isn’t top notch here, this was a last minute convo we decided to record and my mic wasn’t cooperating!
More from MKT1
📖 Keep reading: Paid subscribers get my response to Andrew’s 5 other points (and my full video discussion with Mallory).
✂️ Templates and discounts for paid subscribers: Paid subscribers can access our overall template library here. Active discounts on products we recommend.
👁️ Related newsletters: MKT1 Method, Marketing strategy exercises, Channel-startup fit, Guide to annual planning
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