When budgets are tight you need to find smarter ways to reach your customers and grow your business
One high impact growth strategy… Distribution.
This isn’t just about reaching more customers…
It’s about creating efficient, cost-effective go-to-market distribution channels that drive growth while reducing operational costs.
In an era marked by low productivity and rising costs, we cannot afford to overlook or dismiss low cost, high impact growth opportunities, nor should navigate these challenges in isolation. Which often happens.
You might have started to notice the traditional growth pathways are no longer yielding the desired results, making it imperative to explore alternative and diverse distribution channels.
And you would likely be aware our social interactions aren’t what they used to be.
An effective distribution strategy means you reduce the risk of missing out on significant growth opportunities and you’ll set your business up for successful outcomes.
So let’s unpack the various types of distribution channels that can boost your go-to-market strategies and walk through some ways to take advantage of them.
We’re all told, create content, put it out on socials. Do it constantly and consistently and you will gain followers and reap rewards.
Most people are familiar with social media. So we’ll explore in a bit more detail.
This is because you’re borrowing a distribution channel. A powerful one too, given the volume of people you could reach.
But it doesn’t fully explain why using social media as part of your distribution strategy matters.
And frankly, relentlessly creating content for socials can be a slog, or worse, wholly unsuccessful if your purpose is not clear.
Social media can also be risky.
Platforms are prone to algorithm changes that you have absolutely no control over and having a ton of followers doesn’t necessarily convert into revenue or business outcomes.
If LinkedIn disappeared tomorrow, would you still be able to reach your audience?
That’s the problem with building your business on borrowed ground. The algorithm shifts, your reach drops, and suddenly your “engaged audience” forgets you exist.
Further, social media also won’t give you access to the hidden markets and opportunities that other distribution channels can provide.
Other Distribution Channels to Consider
Let’s look at some distribution channels you can use to accelerate your growth. I’ve done the analysis for you – in the table above and in more detail below:
- Social Media: A powerful tool for reaching and borrowing audiences to gain exposure, but risky due to algorithm fluctuations and poor strategy. Leverage this channel but don’t depend on it exclusively.
- Newsletters: A newsletter gives you control. It’s your direct line to the people who actually care about what you do.
- Collaborations: Engaging in less formal partnerships such as small projects, guest contributions to podcasts, articles, events, even training programs can help build visibility with new customer segments and increase credibility.
- Conferences: A great way to be in the room, meeting and talking with people, conferences can be extremely beneficial provided you’re highly strategic about it. They can also be very expensive and take a lot of time.
- Joint Ventures and Partnerships: Collaborating with other businesses can open new markets and enhance resource sharing, driving growth without incurring substantial costs.
- Sponsorships: Co-branded campaigns and events can amplify reach and create win-win scenarios.
- Industry Associations: Active involvement with industry groups can expand reach, build influence, provide access, strengthen advocacy, foster stronger networks and provide business critical insights into market trends.
- Search Engines: Google processes 8.5 billion searches every day, having the right presence here is essential to any business with growth ambitions.
- Speaking Engagements: Positioning yourself and your team members as thought leaders helps scale key initiatives, fosters strategic relationships and builds credibility.
- Strategic Relationships: This alone might be your best strategy if you scale it via your teams. Develop a structured approach where teams actively cultivate relationships with key stakeholders and become ambassadors and information gatherers for your business.
Picture this:
You have 4 teams of 10 people. Each person has a strategic relationship development plan that’s aligned with your business objectives and their KPIs.
Each of those people meet with 2-4 key stakeholders each week over a 12 week period.
That’s 240-480 meetings with people who can:
- Help your business to grow
- Enable access to invisible opportunities
- Help progress projects
- Influence outcomes and industry thinking
- Provide vital feedback on early-stage initiatives
- Inform your thinking and decision making
- Achieve key outcomes
- Refer business to your organisation
- Provide platforms for market reach beyond what you’ve already thought of
- Create win-win opportunities to expand your reach, build trust and drive sales
- Help you tap into existing communities and networks to accelerate growth
- Ensure your products and services reaches the right people through multiple channels
All for the price of a few cups of coffee ☕
You truly will not believe this difference this kind of activity can make to your business.
Understand this:
- If you don’t have an effective distribution strategy for your products or services, you’re missing out on massive growth opportunities.
- If you’re trying to tackle low productivity, streamline costs and still build market share, you should know by now you can’t do it alone.
- With so much uncertainty and change, the pathways you’ve been using are probably not working well anymore.
We’re living in a highly uncertain, competitive and low productivity environment, it’s more important than ever to find ways to adapt and access stronger market engagement opportunities.
And it needs to be sustainable – particularly if you’re grappling with back-to-back meetings and being pulled from pillar to post.
A well-crafted distribution strategy is crucial for helping you achieve this.
What other growth or distribution challenges are you dealing with? 👇Let me know in the comments
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