Test a few marketing channels, then build on what works

It is easy for a marketing plan to add channels faster than it proves them. A webinar series starts, a podcast launches, paid social gets a trial budget, and a new agency takes on search. Each gets a small push. A quarter later, nobody can say which of them reliably produces pipeline, and the team's time goes into launching things while the few that work get less attention than they need.

This essay sets out a different approach for a CMO or marketing leader planning the next year's channels. It covers how many to test at once, how long to give each, what to do with the one that works, and how to keep it working when the next one succeeds.

DisclosureJake Jorgovan is a partner in Fieldtrip, a group of marketing agencies, which this essay links to.

The lesson I learned the slow way

In a 2021 episode on how to think about marketing, I credited this lesson to Russ Perry, who I think first opened my eyes to it, and to Alex McClafferty, my business adviser years earlier. The goal is not to run as many campaigns as possible. Test a few ideas you expect to work. When one produces results, build a system around it and keep scaling it toward saturation. Once that system is running, look for the next channel while the first keeps working.

As I put it then, “most companies that are successful have one or two marketing channels that work really, really well for them.”

I had done the opposite for a long time. I would start a cold email campaign, then a podcast, then some SEO work, then webinars, giving each a single push before letting it die. I put it down to being a naive, early-stage entrepreneur. The result was a lot of marketing that wasn't really working and took constant effort to run. It was expensive or took a lot of my time, which left no room to hire someone else to run it. I described the change to proving a channel first, then building a system around it, as pivotal in growing my companies. I also said I had seen large companies think about marketing the same way, as building a repeatable, predictable channel.

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Jake’s historical account, summarized from this article. These results describe his experience and are not a performance forecast.

The opposite pattern is easy to fall into with a large budget too. When many channels each get a small allocation and a short burst of activity, none has the time or attention to show whether it could become dependable. Renewals are then decided on activity reports, because nobody has evidence of results.

Choose two or three channels to test

I'd pick two, possibly three, ideas to test at a time. The point is to give each test enough budget, an accountable owner and consistent follow-through to produce useful evidence.

An earlier launch plan shows how I narrowed the tests. In a January 2019 episode, I set out the launch plan for a new service. I narrowed its marketing to three primary channels: content, online communities, and cold outreach through LinkedIn and email. I said I wanted to go deep on a few channels, and that I might change one if it wasn't giving results.

I was also clear that the communities work was not something I expected to scale. I valued it at that stage for the one-to-one conversations it allowed, and I said I probably wouldn't be running it a year later. In that episode I reported a few early customers from the community work, and interest and useful feedback from the outreach. That first version of Content Allies, a virtual-assistant service for content marketers, still closed within weeks, as I said the following month. I later reused the name for my B2B podcast company, and the Content Allies examples below come from that business.

For an enterprise team, the useful step is to write the reasoning down before the money moves. For each channel under test, record why you expect it to reach this buyer, who owns it and what it will cost. Note whether you are testing it to scale or to learn something. A channel can be worth running for a quarter because it gets you direct conversations with buyers, even if you never intend to build on it.

Give each test about a quarter, judged on early indicators

Give a channel about three months. By then you should see some early results, or at least signs that it is heading in the right direction. At Content Allies, I ran other tests while our first channel was running. We tried some of them for about a quarter, and when the early indicators weren't positive, we left them there.

Agree before the quarter starts what those indicators are. In a B2B sale that runs longer than three months, closed revenue from a new channel may not arrive inside the test. Earlier evidence can still be specific: conversations with the accounts you are targeting, opportunities your sales team accepts as qualified, or consistent feedback from sellers about lead quality. If the indicators are vague, every test will look promising enough to continue. For how to read channel contribution across a longer cycle, see this guide to multi-channel attribution.

At the end of the quarter, make one of three decisions for each channel:

• Scale it, if you were testing it to scale, the agreed indicators showed up and the work can be repeated. Increase the budget in stages and check that lead quality and cost hold.
• Extend it, for a stated reason and a fixed period, such as a sales cycle that has not had time to show results.
• Stop it, and record what you learned, so the idea is not relaunched next year without that context.

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The approach described in this article, shown as a visual guide.

When a channel works, build a system and scale it

Once a channel produces results, double down: work out how to run it systematically, so that someone other than you can run it or it takes little of your time. Then keep investing until it reaches saturation and returns diminish. In paid search, for example, once your best keywords have the maximum investment, you have set that channel up and can move on to something else.

For a larger organization, the test of a system is that the channel no longer depends on the person who proved it. Document how the work is done, name the owner, set the budget rules for scaling up or down, and agree the reporting rhythm. An agency can run that system, but the company should own the documentation and the results.

Concentration has a cost worth checking before you scale. A channel that depends on one platform's rules carries risk you do not control; the platform risk review covers what to ask before increasing the budget.

Keep the proven channel owned when the next one takes off

Content Allies also showed me what can go wrong next. While our first channel was running, a second one started working well, and we doubled down on it. It worked so well that we started neglecting the first, even though its results had been proven.

When I noticed, I hired someone just to run that first channel. My reasoning was that the second channel performed better, but I knew that money put into the first would still produce a positive return. I was reinvesting in it and building a system around it, while looking at a possible third channel to test.

Success pulls attention. The best people, the leadership reviews and the new budget can all follow the channel that is growing fastest. A proven channel without a named owner can decline quietly while nobody is looking. Keep its owner, budget and targets explicit when the next channel takes off.

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Jake’s historical account, summarized from this article. These results describe his experience and are not a performance forecast.

What this means for an agency roster

The same sequence gives you a way to review agencies. For each channel an agency runs, ask whether it is proven or still being tested. A proven channel needs an accountable owner and documented processes. A test needs agreed indicators and a decision date. If several agencies are each running a small push on a different channel, the roster may be spreading the budget the way my early marketing did.

Before adding an agency for a new channel, check that the channels you already pay for have a clear status. Then the new work starts as one of your two or three tests, with an owner and a date to decide.

Look at your current channels. Which of them could you hand to a new owner tomorrow, with a documented process and results you can predict? If the answer is none, that is the place to start, before funding the next idea.