Distribution channels: one route to test first

LinkedIn, Reddit, email, search, Product Hunt: it's a helpfully long list for anyone staring down the barrel of a go-to-market calendar. But choice is the killer - where do you start, and what do you say?

Here, we'll start with the buyer, then work out how we can reach them.

Find evidence of where the buyer goes

Your customer record should tell you where people ask questions, compare products, seek advice, search, and/or discuss the problem you're solving. Interviews, sales, referrals, search terms, public conversations, and marketplace reviews can all supply evidence to validate this.

“Small-business owners use Facebook” is an assumption. “Three independent groomers said they ask a private Facebook group about booking problems” gives you somewhere to investigate. You still need to check if and how you can join the channel, and what you're allowed to do there.

That place, or routeThe sequence from a customer's first encounter with the product through recognition, proof, next action, payment, delivery, and result. The distribution channel is one part of that sequence., is your distribution channelThe place or route through which you reach a customer. Examples include direct email, a community, search engine, marketplace, partner, event, publication, or paid placement.; the action inside it is the tacticThe specific action you take inside a distribution channel. Answering a question is a tactic; the community where it appears is the channel.. Reddit might be the channel, while answering one groomer's question about deposits might be the tactic; keeping both in your record stops a bad tactic making a viable channel look useless.

Check whether you can get in

A channel can contain the right people and still be unavailable to you; accessWhether you can reach your chosen customer through a channel. Rules, eligibility, cost, format, existing relationships, and the trust needed before an approach is welcome all affect access. depends on rules, cost, eligibility, relationships, and how much trust your approach needs.

Reddit is a good example. You can find a subreddit where people discuss the problem, write a promotional post, and have it removed almost before you've hit 'post'. Reddit prohibits repeated or unsolicited mass engagement, asks people who mainly link to their own business to consider how often they post, and tells users to check each community's rules; moderators decide what their community considers unwanted. (Reddit Help, updated May 19, 2026)

The subreddit rules are part of the channel, however annoying that might seem (though if you're on the receiving end of sales posts, you may have a different opinion). A removed post tells you the post or comment was against the rules, but it tells you nothing about whether the buyer has the problem, understands the offer, or would pay. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

The same check applies elsewhere. A marketplace may require approval; a partner may have no reason to introduce you; an event may cost more than the test budget. A public email address gives you access to the person you want to contact, while relevance, timing, law, and the buyer's expectations still apply (just ask X what they think about GDPR).

How much trust does the next step need?

People judge how a product reached them alongside what it actually is: a recommendation carries the trust of the intermediary's relationship (the most trust you could ask for); search and marketplaces meet someone already looking. A direct message interrupts them, so it needs a credible reason to arrive now (like replying to somebody who's already described the problem in public), and publishing your writing gives people a record to inspect, although creating it takes time.

The more you ask someone to risk, the more trust you need before they act. An email entered for a free guide or a lead magnet can arrive from a Reddit answer or short video because the level of trust needed is low, whereas $20,000 software that holds sensitive data needs budget, security approval, and several colleagues (i.e. trust to the max).

Where we should start

Let's investigate where to begin when you have no audience and need enough information to decide where to start, and whether or not to keep going.

Educational content can serve two purposes, and serve them really well. TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube helps somebody recognize a problem they weren't looking for - and, if you create content yourself on these platforms, showing your face and expertise is a quick shortcut to building that trust. Search and AI answers meet somebody where they're already asking a question.

GEO helps the same content appear in AI answers, and Google says its AI features use normal search requirements without special GEO markup. (Google Search Central, accessed September 2026)

What happens after the manual test

Your first attempts to reach your customers in the channel you select can - and should - be manual; then we must consider whether reaching more suitable buyers will always require the same number of hours. Research and writing may get faster, a partner may repeat an introduction, and a page may appear in search more than once. So that means that once proven, we look at how we can effectively scaleReaching more suitable customers without adding the same amount of personal time for every additional person. A route may get faster through repeated research, a template, partner, recommendation, indexed page, marketplace listing, paid placement with working economics, or another person running a known process. the route.

The above are starting points, but your future customer still needs to be on the platform, and the process must carry enough trust for them to take action. And you need a replicable way in. Starting with 1-2 options which you can realistically test is enough for now.

Put the dog-groomer routes side by side

Suppose you're continuing with the booking platform from Pricing, which takes a customer's deposit when they book an independent dog groomer. You've kept the illustrative $39 monthly subscription, need one paid account, and have three possible routes:

The five personal messages are the first test because it's quickest and easiest (building an elaborate search strategy as your first task may be a sophisticated form of procrastination). The buyer, $39 offer, reason for writing, and requested next step stay consistent in your outreach, and you should record any replies, questions, payment, time, and where each person stopped responding, or gave affirmative answers. We'll go further into the strategy of cold email shortly.

Keep benchmarks in their place

An industry percentage describes somebody else's campaigns; it can't decide whether your buyer, message, proof, price, or route is right. Belkins analyzed 7.5 million cold emails sent during 2025 and reported a 0.45% average reply rate, calculated as replies divided by all emails sent. The study counts replies and doesn't measure purchases, while agency campaigns at that volume are a long way from five personal messages to groomers who've discussed the problem. (Belkins, 2026)

This 0.45% reply rate sounds precise: we must look at it through the lens of Belkins being a lead-generation agency sending cold email at volume, so we can assume the emails sent were blanket rather than personalized.

Understand what the evidence says

At the review, we should be able to pin down one of the next steps:

• Continue when suitable buyers are reachable, and the customer actionWhat you need the route to produce now. That could be a suitable customer replying, agreeing to a conversation, paying a deposit, buying, renewing, or referring somebody. begins to repeat within the cash and hours available.
• Change one part when replies, refusals, or customer behavior point to a specific problem with the timing, message, proof, offer, or next step.
• Pause the route when the buyer isn't present, the rules prevent continuing, or building enough trust takes more time and money than you've allowed.
• Return to earlier work when repeated conversations challenge the customer you chose, the problem, how you explain the product, the price, or the product itself.

One purchase or one silence doesn't make for a conclusion, however a repeated objection gives you something to examine and tweak in your approach before changing channels.

By the end, you've written down the choice, first attempt, limits, review date, and what would change your mind; Chapter 11 turns that route into a tactic.

Prompt: choose my first distribution channel

This prompt works after you've completed your distribution brief. Your customer, positioning, pricing, previous route records, and links to current platform or community rules all belong in the input.

I need to choose one distribution channel to test first.

Purpose
Compare the routes I can realistically use and produce one channel choice with
a bounded first action. Keep facts, assumptions, missing information,
benchmarks, and recommendations separate.

When to use this
I have completed my distribution brief and know which customer action I need
now. I am choosing where to reach that customer before planning the detailed
tactic.

My context
- Product or service: [what I sell]
- Customer group: [who I am concentrating on]
- User, buyer, and approver: [who uses, pays, and approves]
- Problem and the moment it becomes urgent: [customer evidence]
- Customer action I need now: [conversation / paid pilot / deposit / purchase /
  repeat purchase / renewal / referral]
- Positioning: [how I currently explain the product]
- Price and what the customer pays for: [amount and charging model]
- Gross profit available from the first sale or conservative first year:
  [amount / I don't know]
- Proof I have: [results, demonstration, references, reviews, or none]
- Cash available for the test: [amount]
- Hours available each week: [number]
- Date by which I need an answer: [date]
- Existing access: [people, audience, list, community, marketplace, partners,
  or none]
- Routes I have already tried: [action, buyer, result, cash, hours, and date]

Possible routes
For each route, include the evidence I have that the customer spends time there
and a link or note about any access, promotion, eligibility, or advertising
rules.

1. [route and evidence]
2. [route and evidence]
3. [route and evidence]
4. [optional]
5. [optional]

Your task
1. Extract only the facts I supplied. Keep source names, links, and dates.
2. List my assumptions and missing information. Don't fill them with likely
   answers or invent communities, search behavior, relationships, platform
   rules, customer evidence, or results.
3. Compare three to five plausible routes using four questions:
   - Where does my selected customer spend time when this problem appears?
   - How easily can I reach them there before they know or trust me?
   - How could I build enough trust for the customer action I need?
   - How could the route eventually reach more suitable customers without the
     same increase in my hours?
4. Separate the distribution channel from the action I would take inside it.
5. Check whether each proposed action is allowed. Use only the rules I supplied;
   mark every unknown rule for research.
6. Compare the cash, hours, proof, buying steps, and time to an answer with my
   distribution brief.
7. Treat every external benchmark as context. Give its source, date, customer,
   measured action, sample, and denominator. Don't use a benchmark as my target
   or invent a guaranteed number of attempts.
8. Recommend one first channel and one manual action. Explain the choice using
   my buyer, access, trust, possible later reach, time, and cash.
9. Create a review rule with four possible decisions: continue, change one part,
   pause the route, or return to earlier customer, problem, positioning, pricing,
   or product work. State the observed evidence that would support each choice.
10. Identify the information that could change your recommendation.

Output
# My first distribution channel
## Facts from my distribution brief
## Routes I can plausibly use
## Missing information and rule checks
## Comparison
## My chosen first channel
## My first manual action
## What I will record
## Continue, change, pause, or return
## Evidence and assumptions
## Next review

Use standard Markdown. Write the record in my first person. Don't invent
customer evidence, rates, results, platform behavior, or quotations.