Finding your traction channel

Finding your traction channel

read on rasmus.beehiiv.com

What's up, mates and outsiders?

Feeling funky, publishing twice this week 😏

Today at a glance:

• 3 tips for finding the right traction channels for your business

3 tips for traction channels

1. Quality over quantity

If you are just starting out, you might think you'd need to be present on all of the channels out there: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, etc... And there is a lot of content online that might influence you to think like that: "If you're not going full send on TikTok you're missing out."

In reality, it is often impossible to produce so much quality content consistently on multiple channels without having a social media team. If you've done your audience research, you have an idea of which channels your customer segment is consuming content on.

But the channel you think is right for you might not even move the needle after your full wrath of a carefully curated strategy, content, and design. Now we get to the second tip, which is a method called "Bullseye" by Gabriel Weinberg in his book Traction.

2. Finding your traction channel

Gabriel suggests brainstorming every possible traction channel with his three-step framework called "Bullseye". The 19 channels of traction:

Viral Marketing, Public Relations, Unconventional PR, Search Engine Marketing, Social & Display Ads, Offline Advertising, SEO, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Engineering as Marketing, Business Development, Sales, Affiliate Programs, Existing Platforms, Events, Speaking Engagements, Community Building, Targeting Blogs, Trade Shows (inc. Virtual).

1) The Outer Ring: What's Possible

Brainstorm every possible traction channel. Where would you find your ideal audience? "Imagine what success looks like in each channel, and write it down."

Come up with or find one strategy for each channel that would have a chance to move the needle of your core business goals/objectives. For example, organic content is a traction channel - blogging for SEO.

2) The Middle Ring: What's Probable

The second step involves rapid low-budget testing in the previously brainstormed channels that seem the most promising. Run multiple experiments on different channels simultaneously. Run paid ads on both Twitter and Facebook. But keep it to 2-3 channels to reduce the chance of errors and loss of focus.

Design your channel testing around these three questions:

3) The Inner Ring: What's Working

The third step is to focus solely on the channel that brings the most traction to your business. This will be your core channel. After testing a variety of channels, you should now have a good idea of what works where and what does not.

Focus on that one channel and that one channel only. Do not split up your efforts between all those other channels. If you reaped a lot of benefits from influencer marketing, for example, focus all your efforts there. Do not let yourself get distracted by others and suggestions, you've done your homework and testing and you will know exactly what works for you.

If this interests you, I highly suggest you get yourself the book because it packs a lot of helpful content, examples, and guidelines to find your channels of traction. 👇

3. Track, track, track

Track everything you do. Use a simple spreadsheet or more advanced tools, that's up to you. But make sure you track the cost of each experiment with each traction channel, the cost of user acquisition, and the acquired users. Line all of the channels up on a spreadsheet and you should get a pretty good assumption of what works and what does not.

Double down on the best-performing channel and go deeper than just a few experiments. Focus your efforts there, optimize, and capitalize on that traction channel. Squeeze everything you can out of it. And don't forget to track while doing so.

Recommendation Zone

Are you interested in Product Marketing and looking for resources? I found this neat collection of content put together by a helpful person I saw share it on LinkedIn. Unfortunately, I couldn't find their name so I can't give them credit. 😔

"This (long) list brings together high-quality, vetted content from product marketing’s brightest minds!" 👇

Since I'm a big fan... Growth.design has just re-released one of their case studies about the order process on Amazon. It's a nice one and covers multiple psychological UX tips.

And... I heavily recommend subscribing to this newsletter, his content is rad 👇

Jamming Zone

Interesting reading on virality 💡

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with your friends and fam.

Any and all feedback is appreciated! Just reply to this e-mail. 🙌