Marketing 101 For Product People

The right distribution channel will:

• Be where your product stands out
• Cost less than your revenue brings in

Products are more malleable than channels. You can change your product to better fit a channel - but a channel won’t change to fit your product. That’s a can of worms that I’ll dive deeper into in future editions.

But essentially - your product, your channels and your revenue model must all fit together like a BLT. No one wants a Bacon Tomato roll.

Some channels will just resonate better than others for your product:

• A product won’t work in every channel (e.g. a product needs very specific mechanics to truly go viral - most don’t have them)
• If the product solves a specific problem or fulfills the needs of a high proportion of the audience frequenting that channel, it is more likely to stand out and gain traction
• When the channel is not oversaturated with competitors, it allows your product to gain more attention
• Timing can be important too. Channels are always changing. If you can be one of the first to own a growing channel you can do very well.

And some channels will make more sense in terms of unit economics:

• High-cost channels may only be profitable after you’ve spent some time and money optimizing the marketing and sales funnel to ensure the highest possible conversion rate for the lowest possible cost.
• The quality of users is really important - if you’re getting leads for $1 but they only use your product a couple times, you’re a lot better off spending $2 for a lead who uses your product for 6 months.

Product-channel fit comes down to attention.

• The reticular activating system in our brains filter relevant stimuli. Relevant product activate the system more strongly, bringing more attention to it.
• Our brains are also able to pay more attention to a product when it’s in an environment that isn’t oversaturated, as we have a lower cognitive load, making it easier for our pre-frontal cortex to process and recognize the value of a product.