What are the best ways to prioritize your startup's growth channels?

1 Define your goals and metrics

Before you explore different channels, you need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and how you will measure your success. Do you want to increase awareness, conversions, retention, referrals, or revenue? What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect your goals? How will you track and analyze them? Having a goal-oriented and data-driven approach will help you narrow down your options and focus on the channels that align with your objectives.

2 Use the ICE framework

One of the most popular and simple frameworks to prioritize your growth channels is the ICE framework, which stands for Impact, Confidence, and Ease. Impact refers to how much a channel can contribute to your goals. Confidence refers to how certain you are that a channel will work for your startup. Ease refers to how easy and fast it is to implement and test a channel. You can score each channel from 1 to 10 on each criterion and then calculate the average score. The higher the score, the higher the priority.

3 Experiment and iterate

Once you have a list of prioritized channels, you need to test them and see what works and what doesn't. You can use various tools and methods to run experiments, such as landing pages, surveys, ads, email campaigns, webinars, etc. The key is to have a clear hypothesis, a minimum viable product (MVP), and a way to measure the results. Based on the feedback and data you collect, you can then iterate and improve your channels or pivot to new ones.

4 Learn from others

Another way to prioritize your growth channels is to learn from other successful startups in your industry or niche. You can study their strategies, tactics, and best practices and see what channels they use and how they use them. You can also look for gaps and opportunities to differentiate yourself and offer something unique or better. However, don't blindly copy what others do. You need to adapt and customize your channels to your own startup's value proposition, audience, and goals.

5 Be flexible and creative

Finally, remember that prioritizing your growth channels is not a one-time or static process. It is an ongoing and dynamic process that requires you to be flexible and creative. You need to constantly monitor your performance, learn from your experiments, and adjust your priorities accordingly. You also need to keep an eye on the market trends, customer preferences, and competitive landscape and be ready to explore new or emerging channels that can give you an edge. The best growth channels are the ones that match your startup's stage, vision, and mission.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?