# Phase-Channel Fit Map

Which channels typically work in which phase. Use as a starting point — every startup is different, but this captures the patterns from the book.

## Phase I: Making Something People Want

**Goal:** Find product-market fit. Small, highly-engaged customer base.

**Channels that typically work:**
- **Targeting Blogs** — Mid-level niche blogs give Phase I startups an audience without needing scale.
- **Sales (direct/enterprise)** — Personal outreach is expected and necessary. First customers come from relationships.
- **Speaking Engagements** — Small talks in front of the right audience (200 engaged people > 20k unengaged).
- **Community Building** — Seed a community of early believers who become co-creators.
- **Engineering as Marketing** — Free tools that solve one specific problem for one specific audience.
- **Business Development (focused)** — One strategic partnership can define the early story.

**Channels that typically don't work:**
- **SEM at scale** — Paid ads to churning users burn budget.
- **Offline Ads** — No scale to justify cost.
- **Trade Shows (big ones)** — Cost doesn't match the small audience they can actually reach.

## Phase II: Marketing Something People Want

**Goal:** Build a scalable customer-acquisition engine. Growth from repeatable channels.

**Channels that typically work:**
- **Content Marketing** — Compounds over time. Phase II is where the returns kick in.
- **SEO** — If you invested in Phase I, ranks now.
- **SEM** — Unit economics work because product-market fit gives you retention.
- **Email Marketing** — Lifecycle emails convert the audience built in Phase I.
- **Viral Marketing** — Only valuable if baked into the product early.
- **Affiliate Programs** — Need product-market fit so affiliates are willing to promote.

**Channels that may stop working:**
- **Personal outreach** — Hit volume ceiling. Can't scale with 2 founders.
- **Small targeted blogs** — Audience exhausted.

## Phase III: Scaling the Business

**Goal:** Dominate the market. Compound across multiple channels.

**Channels that typically work:**
- **Public Relations (PR)** — Feature stories drive the biggest single-day spikes.
- **Content Marketing (at scale)** — Publication-level content operations.
- **SEM (big budgets)** — Unit economics clear, just buy more.
- **Offline Ads** — TV/radio make sense at this scale.
- **Existing Platforms** — Day-1 presence on new platforms.
- **Trade Shows (major)** — Mass meetups with qualified buyers.
- **Speaking Engagements (marquee)** — Keynotes, not small meetups.

**Channels that typically can't keep up:**
- **Any Phase I unscalable tactic** — The math stops working.

## Source

Chapter 3 ("Traction Thinking") of *Traction* by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares.