Distribution channels

Long-form tweet threads (5–25 tweets) that compress a founder's expertise into a single shareable artifact. High virality ceiling.

Daily public MRR posts + behind-the-scenes building updates that grow a founder-led following into free distribution.

Run your own podcast interviewing customer-shaped guests. Distribution + lead-gen + research in one motion.

Own-domain longform articles ranking on Google for high-intent product-comparison + how-to queries.

Direct-to-inbox owned subscriber list. Compounds — every issue grows future reach.

Daily 200-word posts mixing personal stories + B2B operator tactics. Comments become lead-gen.

Free open-source tooling drives brand + funnels to paid hosted version. The PostHog/Plausible/Cal.com playbook.

Founder + senior staff speaking at category conferences. Pairs with booth presence for full top-funnel coverage.

Appear on existing podcasts in your category. Faster ramp than launching your own; borrows host's audience.

Peer recommendations from a beloved product. Compounding effect of every satisfied user.

Coordinated one-day launch for the daily-best badge + downstream SEO from the listing.

10–25 min videos. Highest watch-time payoff per channel; only works with consistent uploads + thumbnail A/B testing.

Programmatic 'X vs Y' pages targeting bottom-of-funnel switching searches. Highest-intent SEO move available.

Short-form vertical video — 15–60 second hooks, mass-distributed via the For You feed.

Paid community platform built for creators. Lower ops burden than Slack; better discovery than Discord.

Free design files + plugins. Drives brand for tools-for-designers + funnels to paid plugins/templates.

Standalone free utility on your domain. Drives SEO + email captures + brand. The HubSpot Website Grader playbook.

Free single-purpose tools/sites that promote the main product. Pat Walls / Marc Lou playbook — every side-project funnels back.

Major outlet coverage. Hard to land — usually requires funding event, hire, or genuinely novel product angle.

Vertical video repurposed from TikTok + Reels. YouTube's algorithm favors hooks + retention.

Commission-based referral program for verified sales. Pays out 20-40% on first-year revenue.

Gated content download in exchange for email. Lower-intent than tools but cheaper to produce.

Bootstrapped-founder community publishing. Lower volume than HN but extremely high-intent for SaaS audience.

Mail free product to 10–20 micro-creators, no contract. Trust their algorithm to find the 2–3 who'll post.

Host-read mid-roll ads on niche podcasts. CPMs higher than display but audience trust-transfer is unmatched.

Hosted newsletter with built-in discovery + paid-tier monetization. Lower ops burden than a self-hosted list.

Promoted tweets + Follower Objective campaigns. Best for tech/dev audiences and brand-building.

Keyword + screenshot + review optimization. Compounds with every install (review volume = ranking).

Newsletter platform built by Morning Brew alums; native referral program drives the cold-start audience.

Books + magazines published by the brand. Long-game brand authority; only works once the product is established.

Personalized outbound to a tight ICP list. Highest signal channel for early B2B; Lemlist / Instantly / Smartlead automate the volume.

Hire creators on 5–10% equity instead of cash. They become co-founders; output volume is 10× a paid relationship.

Existing customers refer new ones for credits/cash. The Dropbox/Airbnb early-stage playbook.

Owned community of customers + prospects. Drives retention more than acquisition, but high-trust word-of-mouth source.

Co-marketed integrations with adjacent SaaS. 'Better together' campaigns + listing on partner's marketplace.

Subscriber-style longform that LinkedIn surfaces to your follower base + suggests to lookalikes. Owns its own distribution within the platform.

Account-based outbound via LinkedIn DMs + InMails. Lower volume than cold email but higher reply rates.

Sell Notion templates with built-in discovery. Easlo built $500K+ ARR on this alone.

Pin product screenshots + tutorials. Works for home/craft/template verticals where Pinterest search drives intent.

Targeted value-first posts + AMAs in subreddits where your ICP already gathers. Mods ban anything that smells like marketing.

B2B distribution to Shopify merchants. Best channel for plugins targeting e-commerce SMBs.

In-person booth presence at vertical conferences. Highest spend / highest signal for verticals like construction, healthcare.

Coordinated marketing + sales motion against a tight target-account list. Best when ACV justifies the investment.

Structuring content so Perplexity, Claude Search, Google AI Overview, and ChatGPT cite you. New playbook, low competition.

Crowd-sourced alternatives directory. Easy place to harvest switching-intent searches for established categories.

One-time lifetime-license blast to AppSumo's 2M+ deal hunters. Trades long-term ARR for an early cash injection + reviews.

Pre-launch waitlist surface for early-adopter capture. Good for landing-page validation before the product exists.

Gartner-owned SMB review aggregator. Pairs with G2 for full review-site coverage.

Free distribution for browser-extension products. Search + category browse drive most installs.

Developer-focused publishing with built-in tag-based discovery. The right channel for technical tutorials.

Meta's full inventory. Higher creative-volume requirement than Google; broadest audience targeting.

Conference-keynote-circuit speaking. One memorable talk seeds press, podcast invites, and inbound leads for 6–12 months.

Schedule 10–20 podcast guest spots around a launch. Repurposable into clips + LinkedIn + newsletter content.

B2B SaaS review aggregator. Badges + comparison pages drive consideration-stage buyers; bottom-of-funnel SEO halo.

Group-chat focused community platform. Lighter-weight than Circle for early-stage communities.

Gartner SMB software directory. Filtered category pages that buyers research with intent.

Automated cross-Google campaign (search + YouTube + Discover + Maps). Best with first-party conversion data.

Android equivalent of App Store ASO. Higher impact internationally where Android share is dominant.

Bottom-of-funnel intent capture. Highest-intent paid channel; CPCs reflect that.

Respond to reporter requests for expert quotes. Most cost-effective way to land mid-tier press mentions.

Personal-blog platform popular with devs. Custom domain + native AMP make it a soft replacement for a self-hosted blog.

Public ML model + dataset hosting. Default distribution channel for AI products in 2026.

Run paid ads through the creator's account. Higher trust + lower CPM than running through brand's account.

Reels-only Instagram strategy. Posts go to non-followers via Explore; bypasses the followers-only algorithm of feed posts.

B2B targeting by job title + company. Expensive CPMs justified for high-LTV enterprise.

4-option polls that doubles as algorithmic-engagement and qualitative research. Comments are the post's real value.

Multi-month exclusive partnerships with 3–5 creators. Higher LTV than one-off shout-outs.

Free distribution for paid Mac apps with Apple's quality halo. Trades 30% rev share for trust signal.

Editorial-style longform on Medium. Cross-publication distribution; works best for thought-leadership essays.

Sponsor or host local meetups in your ICP's city. Builds community + brand + sales pipeline in lower-cost markets.

Self-hostable Zapier alt. Drives technical-audience integrations + brand among DIY automation crowd.

Public JS/TS package distribution. Brand exposure + drives traffic to docs site + paid hosted offering.

Discovery-focused ads to predominantly female DTC audience. CPCs underpriced vs Meta for craft/home/fashion verticals.

Retargeting + lookalike audiences via DSPs. Most useful for upper-funnel awareness at scale.

Templated landing pages × thousands of long-tail keywords. Scales fast; risks Google's spam filter if done lazily.

Python package distribution. Drives ML/data audience funnel; pairs with HuggingFace for AI distribution.

Question-targeted ads for high-intent searches. Niche channel but underpriced for educational verticals.

Promoted posts targeting subreddit interest. Underpriced inventory vs Facebook/Google for technical audiences.

Enterprise distribution to Salesforce admins. Long ramp; highest LTV per install once you land.

Technical-audience launch surface. Front-page placement drives 10K–100K visitors and 6–12 months of tail traffic.

Owned community for high-intent professional audiences. Higher quality than Discord for B2B SaaS.

Broadcast channel for time-sensitive product + community updates. Popular for crypto + dev tools.

Meta's X-competitor. Lower competition, higher organic reach for text posts in 2026.

Creator-style ad inventory at scale. CPMs underpriced vs Meta for consumer products in 2026.

Consumer-trust review aggregator. Important for D2C / SMB where trust signal matters more than feature parity.

IDE distribution to 14M+ active developers. Built-in install + update; highest activation rate of any dev channel.

Topic-led webinar → email nurture → demo book. Classic mid-funnel SaaS motion; works best with educational topics.

Earning Wikipedia citations for your product or founder. Drives authority that LLMs and Google's AI Overview lean on.

Bots replying to high-intent keywords with product mentions. Effective but high ban-risk; one DM/day max.

Live audio rooms hosted on X. Repeatable interview format that turns into evergreen clips + new followers.

Pre-roll + bumper + in-stream video ads. Best paired with retargeting from organic Shorts/long-form content.

Integration listing for SaaS products. Drives 'X integrates with Y' search traffic + qualified leads.