Email, social media — Facebook, Instagram, Threads, YouTube, Reddit, LinkedIn, TikTok, X/Twitter, Pinterest, AirChat, BlueSky, Mastodon —, SEO, blogging, paid ads — GoogleAds, Meta Ads, newsletter ads, display network ads, X ads —, PR, earned media, podcasts.

Hot damn, I’m exhausted just from writing these and I’m barely scratching the surface of what’s out there. Choosing the right channels to promote your business on is H A R D!

No wonder it’s one of the most frequently asked questions in my ​strategy sessions​: “How on Earth do I make the choice and stick to it?” [Note: shiny object syndrome is real.]

There’s no easy answer because it’s a process. Let’s demystify it!

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Growth channels for B2C brands

Ultra-niched companies (think sellers of CBD for pets or beard oil). You’re most likely to have success with:

  • Organic social media, mainly Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, as well as paid ads on the same platforms, plus Snapchat ads
  • Influencer/creator marketing
  • Sponsorships
  • Earned media
  • Emaila marketing

Broad B2C companies. Try these:

  • Organic and paid social media. Same platforms as above plus X/Twitter.
  • Influencer/creator marketing
  • Email marketing
  • SEO/Google Ads
  • Sponsorship
  • Paid media
  • PR

Growth channels for B2B brands

Service providers:

  • Organic or paid social media (LinkedIn, X, Threads, Instagram)
  • Email marketing
  • SEO
  • Guest podcasting and guest blogging
  • Collabs and partnerships with other service providers

Product sellers:

  • Email marketing
  • Organic or paid social media (LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Threads, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest). Paid social media will get you growth faster.
  • Guest podcasting
  • Collabs and partnerships
  • Community building
  • Word of mouth
  • Referral and affiliate programs

Is it that easy, though? No, not really.

Limitations and exceptions

The channels above are where you are most likely to be successful depending on what you’re selling. However, the greatest success is found when you defy the norms.

Risky?

Yes, but the riskiest of tactics yield the biggest rewards.

For instance, I advised a client of mine to try TikTok for their B2B business. Their growth and ROI were insane precisely because very few people were doing B2B on TikTok at the time.

Besides the type of business you run (B2B or B2C), there are countless other factors to consider. A breakdown of all of them is impossible BUT I can show you a formula to figure out if a channel is right for you or not.

Will this channel work for me?

Whether paid or organic, each channel comes with its own characteristics, limitations, and opportunities. Just like your business.

The ideal channel for you is the one with the biggest overlap between its characteristics and your business’s. Let’s break these down into three groups:

1. Content type and format

Each channel comes with its own constraints:

  • Instagram users prefer inspirational photos and reels.
  • YouTube is video only.
  • Email marketing is a great fit if you can write well.
  • LinkedIn users favor long-ish content while X users go for short and snappy.
  • SEO and Google Ads are great IF and only IF your product is being searched for.

Which is a better fit for your product? Can you create inspirational videos and photos without trying to fit a square peg into a round hole i.e. becoming that hustle bro that brags about his lavish lifestyle while selling courses?

If you sell clothing and accessories, you’ll do well on Instagram and Pinterest because that’s what the users there expect to see. You won’t do so well on LinkedIn, where most users are B2B.

Note: although, you can try and break patterns, like my TikTok for B2B example above.

2. Audience/Demographic match

Each channel is favored by a certain type of user, except email and, in most cases, YouTube. A few examples:

  • Instagram is for Millennials and Facebook is for Gen X.
  • Snapchat attracts a younger demographic.
  • Most Pinterest users are women.
  • Most X and LinkedIn users are college-educated.

Who’s your audience?

Here’s ​a good primer for identifying your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)​. And another one for ​making sure you’re talking to a relevant audience​.

Demographics are definitely not the only thing you should factor into your choice. A good solution to get a more granular view of your audience and where they hang out is ​SparkToro​ – even the free version will give you plenty of insights to get you started.

3. Time/money investment

Lastly, weigh all of the above against what you’d need to invest to achieve success on a certain channel. Whether you opt for organic or ​paid growth​, expanding to a new channel comes with a cost and eats away at your ​marketing budget​.

Some examples:

  • Hiring a PR agency is great for almost any business, but it can be insanely expensive → do you have the budget for it?
  • LinkedIn is great for B2B services/product providers, but it takes a long time to make a dent and gain credibility → do you have the time to build an audience there?
  • Meta Ads costs are soaring → do you have the budget and is the CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) still reasonable?

One bonus factor to consider:

Does it compound?

Email marketing and most social media platforms have a decent compound rate. You start ​building an audience​ and the more you grow, the easier growth becomes.

Plus, your community will remember your previous ideas/pitches.

On the other hand, some platforms don’t compound:

  • Reddit
  • Quora
  • Guest posting and guest podcasting
  • Earned/paid media

Don’t get me wrong, they can all have insane ROI. But, in most cases, you have one shot and you’re at the mercy of that day’s competition. If it works, you’re in the home run, if not, your content gets buried deep and it becomes irrelevant. You need to try again tomorrow.

Sure, you’ll get some backlinks out of some of them but that’s about it.

Use these growth tactics if and only if you have the bandwidth and the budget to keep trying.

Prioritize the tactics where growth compounds and funnel most of your budget/time there.

Speaking of prioritization:

The ICE Prioritization Framework

Popularized by ​Sean Ellis​, this framework is designed to help you prioritize ideas, features, and more. Today, we’ll use it to choose channels but you can apply it to most business decisions.

ICE stands for:

  • Impact → what impact will this have on my growth if it succeeds?
  • Confidence → how confident am I this channel will succeed?
  • Ease → how much effort does it take to make this work?

Add a score of 1-10 (it also works with percentages) to each of these three categories.

Example: you’re considering LinkedIn to grow your B2B business.

  • You know most B2Bers hang out there, so it will have a big impact on your growth, say 1 out of 10.
  • You’re pretty confident it will work, despite the mounting competition, so you’ll assign it a score of 8 out of 10.
  • It will, however, eat up a lot of your time, so it only gets a score of 5 out of 10 for ease.

LinkedIn final score: 9 (impact) x 8 (confidence) x 5 (ease) = 360.

Could X score better for you? Or maybe Instagram? Do the math on a couple of these channels and you’ll know which to prioritize.

Limitations: the ICE framework is great to help you avoid shiny object syndrome but it is rooted in guesswork. You won’t truly know if a channel is right for you until you’ve given it a shot.

So experiment for 3-6 months — the minimum time investment to assess whether a channel is right for you or not.

Key takeaways

Do a little digging and some research before jumping on a new channel. And remember that rules of thumb and demographics are just guidelines, not gospel.

Break those rules every once in a while, if you have the bandwidth/budget to tackle a new channel.

By the way, my Guided Strategy Template can help you put order into chaos and prioritize your strategic objectives and growth on all the channels you’re on. ​Grab it here​ and unlock strategic, sustainable growth.

Adriana’s Picks

  1. Gen Z says college is expensive and uncertain, so they gravitate toward ​blue-collar jobs​.
  2. A TikTok ban​ could potentially expand​ to include ByteDance’s many apps that operate in the US, like CapCut, Gauth, and Lemon8.
  3. ​This analysis​ of 5 million gigs on Upwork reveals which jobs are most likely to be impacted by AI.

Need me in your corner? There are three ways I can help you:

  1. Boost your chances of success by 400%: document your strategy with The Guided Strategy Template.
  2. Get my product launch email templates that sell: 5+1 emails you can send to your list in 45 seconds.
  3. Book a 1:1 strategy session with me. Let’s unlock your growth in 60 mins!