How to choose the right marketing channels for your startup
Part 2 of 3 in Growth Marketing Strategy Series
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“Are we are using the right channels?”
“What channels should we try next?”
“We’re only doing paid search. Is that okay?”
“We’re only doing cold outbound. Is that okay?
These are some of the most common questions I get about growth marketing strategy from B2B startups of all sizes. And when I’m asked these questions I typically have to give the worlds most annoying answer: “It depends.”
But that’s the truth, you need to pick channels that will work for your startup specifically.
So, I ask some follow up questions and usually when I dig into gather context it becomes clear: Most startups have fallen into the random acts of marketing (R.A.M.™) trap.
Sure signs you’re doing random acts of marketing when it comes to channel strategy:
Picking channels somewhat randomly off a checklist
Checking the boxes and doing SEO, SEM, and outbound in equal measure because that’s what everyone else is doing, right?
Launching channels, but not having the right “fuel” (content, messaging, creative) to make these channels work
Selecting channels without thinking about funnel coverage & segment coverage
Trying to launch every channel possible, and not leaving enough time to drive impact from any single one
Doing random acts of marketing is the opposite of having a high-impact strategy. So in this newsletter mini-series, I’m covering how to go from zero growth marketing strategy to picking channels and running campaigns that are the perfect fit for your audience, market, stage, creative, and marketing advantages.
As you’re thinking about your plans for next year, remember to avoid the RAM trap. Instead do the necessary planning and strategizing first to prioritize efforts that can actually work for your startup.
This is part 2 of 3 of my growth marketing strategy series
You may remember last month that this was going to be a 2 part series, but I changed my mind. It turns out there’s a lot to say here, so it’s now 3 parts!
Part 1: What drives your growth marketing strategy?
This newsletter covered all the inputs you need to look at quarterly to lay the foundation for your growth marketing strategy.
Stack ranking the 4 high-level ways to drive growth
Analyzing and understanding the 3 marketing strategy drivers (your inputs)
Identifying and making room for big bets
Part 2: What the best channels for your startup? This newsletter
How to choose channels that are a fit for your growth marketing strategy
How to determine if a channel is working
Part 3: How to plan and execute campaigns?
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Channel selection & prioritization process
Different channels work for different audiences, for different markets, for different products, for different companies. So, before picking channels you need to design a strategy that fits with your stage business, your audience, your market, your GTM motion, and your marketing advantages. Go back to last month’s newsletter to dive deeper.
Channel selection template
Once, you’ve done the pre-work, it’s time to pick some channels. The below diagram is what you’re striving for in this process. It’s a truncated version—your list of channels will be longer! This particular example of channel selection & prioritization is for a hypothetical vertical SaaS startup, with a hybrid GTM motion and marketing advantages (including a wedge in, an audience that seeks community & content, and a compelling founder story).
If you’re a paid subscriber, there’s a template for all of these steps, linked at the bottom of the newsletter. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, subscribe to get this template.
Here are the steps to select and prioritize channels:
1. Make a list of all possible channels.
Yes, this is me telling you to do something I expressly told you not to do at the top of this newsletter: list out all channels. But, the difference between this process and the one I advised against, is that making the list is step 1 of many, and not the entire process. And this is the easy part because I made a fairly comprehensive list for you already:
2. Add the status of any existing channels
It’s important to know which channels are in test mode, scale mode, and core mode. These statuses represent the level of effort you are putting into each. If you don’t do this, you may focus on the wrong things, end up with way too many channels to mange, or have the wrong success metrics for each channel—since new channels take a while to be as efficient as core channels.
The diagram below works for setting the status for almost all types of marketing activities, from channels to campaigns to content types, but I’m focusing on channels here.
Definition for each stage:
Note: For each of these stages, make sure you have a clear goalpost for when a channel is successful and therefore moves to the next stage.
Up next: As it sounds, channels you that fit with your growth marketing strategy that you’d like to try in the near future.
Testing: Channels you are dipping your toes into. Maybe you’re doing a small test spend on a new paid channel like LinkedIn ads. Maybe you’re doing a test with one partner before building out a whole partner program. Maybe you’re testing using other communities or hosting a series of events before building your own community. Etc.
Scaling: Channels that have shown signs of working through testing, that you are trying to scale up. You’re trying to scale while not losing efficiently or hitting diminishing returns.
Core: Channels that are driving most of your growth today. Typically these channels will be driving 50-80% of your growth.
Big Bets: These are initiatives that you want to double down on—you think these channels could change your growth trajectory. Maybe you knew this channel could be a big bet when you began testing it; maybe you realized it when scaling it. Either way, you want to identify these big bets so you actually focus on them. Make sure you have at least one big bet in the works across all of marketing at all times.
Not working: Some channels don’t work right away. Some channels work for a while and then you start seeing diminishing returns and scale back. Know what you’ve tried; and indicate your hypothesis as to why they failed when you move them to this stage.
Pet peeve when a startup refuses to try something EVER AGAIN because at one point it didn’t work. Lots of things can change that may make a formerly failed channel viable again: from the “fuel” (content messaging, creative) you have available distribute through the channel, the market, the channel itself (changes to algorithms etc), competition, etc. So know what didn’t work, but always detail why the channel “failed” so if something changes you can test it again.
3. Determine if the channel is a fit with your 1st strategy driver: PMM Research
Steps 3-5 all relate to making sure the channel is a fit with your marketing strategy. This is critical to avoid falling into the R.A.M. trap mentioned at the top of this newsletter.
Based on what you’ve learned from product marketing research about your audience, ecosystem, competitors, etc, indicate if this channel is a fit (based on just this research).
The obvious question to ask your audience to determine channels is “how do you find out about new products?” But this isn’t enough. You need to understand as much as possible about their work generally–what do they read, what do they search for, who influences them, what products they love and rely on, etc.
For example, some individuals may work exclusively out of email, while others may rarely check it as part of their job. Or if there’s a trusted product your audience loves, consider co-marketing efforts with them.
A note on segmentation: Depending on your audience and sophistication as a marketing organization, you may have multiple segments. Do this exercise for each segment if that’s the case. Different channels will likely work for different segments.
More from MKT1
✂️ Templates for paid subscribers: Paid subscribers can find all templates here, including the channel selection template—so you can easily determine if your channels are a match for the 3 strategy drivers.
🧑🚀 Job board: See roles from the MKT community. Paid subscribers can add jobs to our job board for free.
👁️ Related newsletters: Growth marketing strategy, Running campaigns, Marketing analytics, and Growth marketing orgs
📖 Keep reading: Paid subscribers get access to the rest of this newsletter which includes how to know if your channels are a fit with your GTM motion and marketing advantages, prioritize and set goals, and know if a channel is working.