The Problem with Picking a Channel
Stop Guessing. Start Testing.
If you’ve ever talked to me, you know I’m passionate about how data impacts marketing strategy. I’ve worked at too many companies where “strategy” is a big guessing game, and we walk away from campaigns with no more knowledge than we had before.
This week’s newsletter is about making strategic marketing decisions, acting on them, and learning from them.
Most founders don't struggle to brainstorm potential marketing channels. Rather, they struggle to commit to one. There's always a reason to question your choices–maybe LinkedIn will work, or maybe email is better, or maybe we should try ads. The result is a little bit of everything, none of it done well enough to get real results.
The Bullseye Framework, developed by Gabriel Weinberg in the book Traction, solves this by turning channel selection into a structured, testable process instead of a gut-feel debate.
How It Works
The framework has three rings:
Outer ring (Possible): List every channel that could work for your business. Don't dismiss anything yet.
Middle ring (Probable): Narrow to your top three based on buyer behavior, budget, and capacity. Write a hypothesis for each one.
Inner ring (Proven): Run cheap 30-day tests. The channel that delivers the most qualified leads becomes your bullseye.
The Golden Rule of the Bullseye Framework is that once you find a channel that works, you need to stop testing the others and put all your energy into that one channel until its growth levels off.
Remember: Focus compounds, but spreading out dilutes.
Continuing Education
Everything we read and loved this week
Action of the Week
Fill out the Bullseye Framework Worksheet for your business.
Up Next: In Part 7, we shift from channel selection to conversion tracking. We'll introduce the six milestones every customer passes through on the way to a closed deal, and show you how to build a mini-plan for each stage of the pipeline.
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About This Series: This post is part of The Startup Marketing Playbook, a 12-part newsletter and blog series for tech and SaaS founders. Each installment covers one core concept in depth, with actionable frameworks you can implement immediately.