Channel choice

Short answer: channel choice is deciding which few channels let you best reach, convince and keep your customer, with the budget and people you have. The best choice follows from how your customer buys, not from what's popular. Pick few channels and do them well, rather than a little bit everywhere.

There have never been so many channels. Google, LinkedIn, Meta, TikTok, YouTube, email, SEO, AI search engines, marketplaces, podcasts, events, trade shows, partners, print, radio. The temptation is to be a little bit everywhere, because you don't want to miss anything. The result is almost always the same: average everywhere, good nowhere, and nobody knows what works.

What channel choice is

A channel is the route by which you reach your customer. Channel choice is the decision about which routes you use deliberately, for what purpose, and which you deliberately leave alone.

That last part matters just as much. A good channel strategy is equally a list of what you don't do.

Channel choice comes after positioning. First you know who you're for and why. Only then can you decide where those people are and what they need there.

Start with how your customer buys

Every buyer goes through roughly three phases. The names differ per model; the principle is the same:

The mistake we see most: putting everything into phase two. Search ads are measurable and deliver quickly, so they win every budget discussion. But you then only catch people who are already searching. That group is small, and your competitors are fishing in the same pond. If you never do anything in phase one, you pay more for the same click every year.

Long and short term

Les Binet and Peter Field studied hundreds of campaigns (The Long and the Short of It, 2013). Their conclusion remains one of the best-supported insights in marketing:

• Activation (direct response: click, lead, purchase) delivers fast results, but also fades fast.
• Brand building (awareness, preference, recognition) works slowly, but makes your activation cheaper over time and means you compete less on price.

For consumer brands they found a rule of thumb of roughly 60% brand and 40% activation. For B2B, later research puts it closer to half and half. Don't copy those numbers literally. Use them as a warning: if almost all your budget goes to direct response, you're eating into your future.

The five questions that decide

Use these questions for every channel you're considering:

1. Is my customer here, in the right frame of mind? A buyer of industrial parts is on LinkedIn, but isn't buying there. On Google, he is.
2. Does it fit my product and price? You don't sell a €30 product through a sales team. You don't sell a six-figure contract through an Instagram ad.
3. Can I be the best here, or at least good enough? A channel demands knowledge, content and persistence. Without those three, it's money down the drain.
4. How fast do I need results? Ads work in weeks. SEO, content and brand in months. Both fine, with different expectations.
5. Can I measure what it delivers? Not everything is measurable to the euro, but you do need to see whether it's heading the right way.

The main channels, honestly compared

A widely used method: test broadly, then narrow down

Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares describe the Bullseye framework in Traction (2015). The principle is simple and works in any kind of business:

1. Think broadly. List every channel that could work, including the unexpected ones.
2. Pick the best three to five based on the five questions above.
3. Test cheaply and quickly. A few weeks, a small budget, a clear goal per channel.
4. Go all-in on the channel that wins. There's usually one channel that clearly works better than the rest. That's where most of your time and money goes.

The insight behind it: most growing companies owe their growth to one or two channels they master, not to ten channels they do a little.

How online and offline reinforce each other

The split between online and offline exists mostly in budgets, not in the customer's mind. A few examples of how they work together:

• A trade show produces conversations. Retargeting and email keep those conversations warm.
• Radio or outdoor makes you known. You see it come back as more searches for your brand name.
• A trade article or podcast builds trust. Your website and LinkedIn make it concrete.
• A client event produces stories. They become content for social, email and your site.

So don't only look at what a channel delivers directly. Also look at what happens to your other channels when you switch it on or off.

Measuring without fooling yourself

Every ad platform reports its own success, and they often count the same customer twice. Three things help:

• Look at the total. How many leads or how much revenue comes in overall, and how much did you spend overall?
• Ask your customers. One open question in your form or intake call ("How did you find us?") often tells you more than your dashboard.
• Test by switching on and off. Turn a channel off for a few weeks in one region or period and see what happens.

See measurement as choosing direction, not as proof to the cent.

Common mistakes

• Choosing channels because a competitor is there. Maybe it doesn't even work for them.
• Too much at once. Five channels with a fifth of your attention each rarely beats one channel with full attention.
• Stopping too soon. Writing off SEO after two months, or a campaign after a week before the algorithm could learn.
• Steering only on the short term. The same search ads every year, and more expensive every year.
• Not building owned channels. If you only rent (ads, marketplaces), you have nothing when the rent goes up. Your own email list and a findable website belong to you.

When channel choice isn't your problem

Sometimes it looks like a channel problem but the issue lies elsewhere:

• Your proposition is unclear. Then no channel works well. Start with positioning.
• Your website doesn't convert. Then every channel leaks. Look at conversion first.
• Your product doesn't fit the market (yet). More reach won't help; it only makes the problem visible faster.

Further reading

Not yet sharp on who you're for? Start with positioning. Want to turn the choice into a plan? Continue with strategy. Or go deeper per channel: Google Ads, social media marketing, content marketing or SEO.

Frequently asked questions

What is channel choice in marketing?

Channel choice is the decision about which channels you use to reach, convince and retain your audience, with a goal per channel, and which channels you deliberately skip. It follows your positioning and depends on how your customer buys.

How many marketing channels should you use?

For most companies, two or three channels you master work better than five or more done halfway. Start small, test, and scale the channel that demonstrably delivers most.

Which channel is best for B2B?

There's no fixed answer. SEO and content, Google Ads, LinkedIn, email and personal networks (events, partners) often work well in B2B. What works best depends on your deal size, your audience and how long the buying process takes.

How do you split your budget across channels?

Split by phase and time horizon. Part for brand building (awareness among people not yet searching), part for activation (people searching now). Research by Binet and Field shows that too much focus on the short term ends up costing more.

Does offline marketing still work?

Yes. Trade shows, events, print, radio and outdoor still work, especially for trust and awareness. They work best combined with online channels that follow up the contact and make it measurable.

How quickly do you see results from a new channel?

Ads give a first picture within weeks. SEO, content and brand building usually need months. Agree up front when and on what you'll judge a channel, so you don't stop too early.

How do you know which channel works?

Look at total leads or revenue against total spend, ask new customers how they found you, and test by temporarily switching a channel on or off. Don't blindly trust the figures from a single ad platform.

Sources

• Les Binet & Peter Field, The Long and the Short of It (IPA, 2013) and The 5 Principles of Growth in B2B Marketing (LinkedIn B2B Institute, 2019)
• Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares, Traction (2015)
• Byron Sharp, How Brands Grow (2010)

Unsure which channels will deliver most for you? Book a no-obligation call. You'll hear what matters, what can wait and what your best next step is.