How to Choose the Right Marketing Channel for Your Business

The bet was made at a birthday barbecue, near midnight, when most bets are made.

"Twenty new students by the end of June," said Sandy, who had just opened the second location of her language school. "Twenty new customers by the end of June," answered Dennis, who had just moved his supplement store to a bigger spot.

Whoever lost would pay for the next barbecue. The whole thing.

The two had been friends since college, had businesses of the same size and the same sense of urgency. The difference between them wasn't money or effort. It was something neither mentioned that night: how to choose where to start.

How to choose the right marketing channel

The right channel is one where your customer already is, that brings in people with the intent to buy and that you can sustain consistently for at least thirty days. Choosing well means comparing options by criteria (cost to test, speed of response and fit with your customer) instead of following whatever channel is trending. A channel chosen by criteria and measured for a month is worth more than five channels tested for a week each.

A marketing channel, or acquisition channel, is the path through which a new customer reaches you. It could be Google, a partnership, a referral, a trade show, a video, an ad.

Monday: the trendy channel

Dennis didn't waste time. On Monday morning, his nephew, who worked in social media, gave the verdict: "Today it's short video. Everybody's selling that way."

It made sense. Dennis watched videos from supplement stores all day on his phone. He bought a ring light, shot three videos the first week and thirteen in the first month. The videos got views. Some, plenty. The comments were from people in other states, asking about workouts.

In the second month, a supplier mentioned that the competitor across town was "blowing up with an influencer." Dennis paused the videos and signed a guy from the gym with a lot of followers. The post came out beautiful. Messages came in. Few turned into sales.

In the third month, someone at an event said the future was podcasts.

Dennis recorded two episodes.

Sunday afternoon: the four questions

Sandy did something that looked like a waste of time. On the first Sunday after the bet, she sat down in the kitchen with a notebook and didn't record anything, didn't post anything, didn't hire anyone.

She made a list of every acquisition channel she could imagine. Then she ran each one through four questions.

1. Intent: does this channel bring the student I want, or just attention? A viral video would bring views from all over the country. But her school served two neighborhoods. Attention from people who will never set foot in the school doesn't pay tuition. 2. Predictability: can I get to a formula like "this many actions bring one student"? If the result depends on a stroke of luck, like a video that blows up, there's no predictability. If it depends on something she can repeat every week, there is. 3. Fit: is my customer already there? She stayed on this question for a long time. Who were the students who stuck around the longest? Adults between thirty and fifty who needed Spanish for work. And where were they? At companies in the area. On Google, searching "Spanish classes near me." And in the circle of their own coworkers. 4. Routine: can I do this every week, for thirty days, without dropping the school? Shooting five videos a week, with classes to teach, didn't pass this question.

These four rules aren't Sandy's invention. They're the filter that separates a promising channel from a trendy one. A channel only counts if it brings the right customer, if the result can be repeated, if the customer is already there and if you can sustain the test for at least a month.

The scoring that decided everything

Out of the four questions, eight channels remained. Still a lot.

So Sandy gave each one a score on three criteria: how much it cost to test, how long it would take to give some signal and how well it fit the student she wanted. She added up the scores. The top three were:

1. Partnership with HR departments at companies in the area. Nearly zero cost to test, perfect fit, response within a few weeks. First step: list ten companies within two miles of the new location and offer a trial class for their team.

2. Google Business Profile, complete and with reviews. Zero cost, high fit; it was where the search "Spanish classes near me" ended. First step: complete the profile with real photos, hours and services, and ask students for a review at the end of each module.

3. A referral program with a reward for both sides. The student who refers and the referred friend both get something, like the well-known Dropbox referral program, which gave extra space to both the person who invited and the person who was invited. First step: announce the rule in class and hand each student a card with their code.

Short video came in ninth. Not because it doesn't work (it works very well for many businesses). But for that school, at that moment, it lost on all three criteria.

She started with the first. Only the first. The other two came later, one at a time.

End of June

July's barbecue was at Dennis's house. He paid, as agreed.

Sandy hadn't won twenty students. She had won twenty-some, nearly half from two partner companies that now sent entire groups. But the number that mattered most to her was a different one: she knew where each had come from. She knew that each company visited, on average, produced a few enrollments. She knew what to do in July.

Dennis had won customers too. More than zero, fewer than twenty. He just couldn't say where from. Maybe the videos. Maybe the influencer. Maybe people walking past the new location.

"I tried everything," he said, popping open a beer. "That was the problem," she replied.

The most common mistakes when choosing a channel

Dennis's story is the rule, not the exception. The mistakes repeat:

Choosing by what you consume, not what your customer consumes. You watch videos all day. Your customer may not.

Confusing reach with intent. Lots of people watching isn't the same as the right people wanting.

Switching channels before thirty days. Most channels don't show what they can do in the first week.

Not recording where each customer came from. Without that data, your next choice will be in the dark too.

If you're starting to organize your marketing from scratch, the piece on marketing for small businesses: where to start helps put order into your to-do list.

Which side of the bet are you on?

Think about the last channel you started testing. Did you choose it because someone said it worked? Or because you compared it with other options and it won?

The gap between Dennis and Sandy wasn't talent. It was a longer list and a criterion for cutting it down. Dennis knew three or four channels, the ones in the conversation of the moment. Sandy knew dozens, and had a way to choose among them.

That is exactly what The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide delivers. It's a hundred channels in ten parts (referrals, partnerships, content and search, social media, ads, outbound prospecting, communities and events, marketplaces, offline and public relations), each with what it is, a practical example, the first step to test it, who it works best for and the cost to test. Before the channels come the four rules from this story: intent, predictability, fit and routine.

And it comes with the same tool that decided the bet: a scoring worksheet to rate each channel by cost, speed and fit and arrive at your first three. Along with it, a 30-day test plan, day by day, to launch the first one and decide whether to keep it, adjust it or swap it.

Next step

Don't depend on a single way to win customers

Everything in this article works better when new customers arrive every month. Most businesses depend on two or three channels and suffer when one of them slows down. The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide shows 100 ways to win customers, a practical example of each one and the first step to test it spending little or nothing.

• ✓The 100 channels, one by one, from the best known to the ones almost nobody uses
• ✓A practical example and a low-cost first step for each channel
• ✓A simple way to choose the channels that fit your business now
• ✓Bonus: Channel scorecard
• ✓Bonus: 30-day test plan

Get the 100 acquisition channels guide for $49

One-time payment · Instant access · 7-day guarantee

Access is immediate through Hotmart, as a PDF. It costs less than a single month testing the wrong channel, and the 7-day guarantee takes the risk out of the decision.

You don't need all hundred channels. You need the right three. Dennis paid for a barbecue to find that out.

Dennis and Sandy are characters created for this text.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best marketing channel for small businesses?+

There's no single best channel for everyone. The best one is where your customer already is, that brings people with purchase intent and that you can sustain for at least thirty days. For a neighborhood business it might be a Google profile; for a business selling to companies, a partnership or direct prospecting.

How do I compare marketing channels before investing?+

Give each channel a score on three criteria: cost to test, speed at which it gives a signal and fit with your customer. Add up the scores and start with the top one. Before that, eliminate the ones that don't pass the rules of intent, predictability, fit and routine.

How many marketing channels should a business use?+

Start with one, test it for thirty days and only then add the next. Over time, having three channels working gives predictability: if one drops, the others hold up sales. Testing too many at once usually prevents any of them from being tested properly.

Is there a tool to help me choose an acquisition channel?+

The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide includes, as a bonus, a scoring worksheet to rate each channel by cost, speed and fit and choose your first three. It comes alongside the hundred described channels and a 30-day test plan for the first channel you pick.

Does it work for my type of business?+

Yes. The channels cover local businesses, service providers, online stores, B2B companies and professionals. The guide helps you pick the ones that fit your case.

How do I receive the guide?+

Right after payment, Hotmart sends the access to your email. You can read it on your phone, computer or print it.

What if I don't like it?+

You have a 7-day guarantee. If it isn't for you, ask for a refund through Hotmart within that period.

The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide

100 ways to win customers without depending on a single source of sales

Get the 100 acquisition channels guide for $49

One-time payment · Instant access · 7-day guarantee