Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
OK, so here's something that completely changed how I think about business: Distribution beats product quality every time.
I learned this the hard way through a client project that started as a simple SEO overhaul but ended up teaching me one of the most important business lessons of my career.
Most founders I work with are obsessed with building the perfect product. They'll spend months perfecting features, optimizing user experience, and getting every detail right. But here's what they miss: a mediocre product with great distribution will always beat a great product with mediocre distribution.
This isn't just theory—I've seen this play out with real numbers. I've watched businesses with inferior products completely dominate markets simply because they figured out distribution first. And I've seen incredible products die in obscurity because their founders believed in the "build it and they will come" myth.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why product-first thinking kills most startups
The real cost of single-channel dependency
My 3-month distribution mapping framework that increased client revenue by 340%
How to embrace attribution chaos instead of fighting it
The "customer habitat mapping" approach that reveals hidden distribution channels
This isn't about testing random channels and hoping something sticks. It's about building an antifragile distribution system that gets stronger under pressure. Let's dive into how distribution strategy should be the foundation of your entire business model.
Industry Reality
What most founders get wrong about distribution
The startup world loves to talk about "channel testing" and "finding product-market fit." Every growth guru will tell you to "test channels fast and cheap" or "focus on your core channel first." Sound familiar?
Here's what the conventional wisdom typically recommends:
Perfect your product first - Get to product-market fit before worrying about distribution
Find your one winning channel - Double down on what works and ignore everything else
Track attribution perfectly - Know exactly which channel drives each conversion
Optimize conversion rates - Focus on making your funnel as efficient as possible
Scale gradually - Add new channels only after mastering your current ones
This advice exists because it feels logical and safe. It gives founders a clear sequence to follow and makes complex business problems seem manageable. The problem? It's exactly backwards.
Distribution isn't something you figure out after building a great product—it should inform how you build the product in the first place. Every product decision should consider: "How does this make distribution easier or harder?"
The "one winning channel" approach is particularly dangerous. It creates single points of failure that can kill businesses overnight when algorithms change, costs spike, or platforms decide you're not welcome anymore.
But here's the real kicker: the idea that you can "track attribution perfectly" in 2025 is pure fantasy. Customer journeys are messy, multi-touch, and happen across devices, platforms, and timeframes that make clean attribution impossible.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
This lesson hit me during what seemed like a straightforward project. I was working with a B2C e-commerce client who had built a solid business around Facebook Ads. They had over 1,000 products, decent traffic, and a respectable 2.5 ROAS. On paper, everything looked fine.
But the founder was smart enough to see the danger. Their entire growth engine depended on Meta's algorithm and ad costs. One platform change, one policy update, one cost spike could kill their business overnight.
When they came to me, the brief was simple: "Help us reduce our Facebook dependency through SEO." What I discovered completely changed how I think about distribution.
See, most businesses get trapped in what I call "single-channel thinking." They find one thing that works—whether it's paid ads, content marketing, or partnerships—and they optimize the hell out of it. They become experts at that one channel while remaining completely vulnerable to any changes in that channel.
My client's challenge wasn't unique. Their product catalog was massive and complex—perfect for SEO but terrible for Facebook Ads' quick-decision environment. They had a fundamental product-channel mismatch but hadn't realized it.
The real eye-opener came when we started implementing SEO. Within a month, their Facebook's reported ROAS jumped from 2.5 to 8-9. But here's the thing—their Facebook spend hadn't changed at all.
What happened? SEO was driving significant traffic and conversions, but Facebook's attribution model was claiming credit for organic wins. The customer journey wasn't linear "see ad → buy product." It was messy: Google search → social media browsing → retargeting ad → email nurture → multiple touchpoints across channels.
This is when I realized that fighting attribution is pointless. You need to embrace the chaos and build systems that work despite it.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of trying to optimize single channels, I developed what I call the "Distribution Coverage Model." The goal isn't to track every touchpoint—it's to ensure you're visible everywhere your customers might discover you.
Here's the 3-month framework that took my client from dangerous single-channel dependency to resilient omnichannel growth:
Month 1: Customer Habitat Mapping
Before touching any marketing channels, we mapped where their customers actually lived online. Not where we thought they should be, but where they actually spent time. This meant:
Analyzing customer support tickets for language patterns and pain points
Running brief surveys asking "Where did you first hear about products like ours?"
Studying competitor mentions across platforms
Identifying the actual search terms people used (not the ones we wanted them to use)
The results were surprising. While the business was focused on Facebook, customers were actually discovering similar products through Pinterest, YouTube, and specific industry forums we'd never considered.
Month 2: Channel-Product Fit Testing
This is where most businesses mess up. They try to force their existing content and messaging into new channels. Instead, we tested how their product naturally fit different channel "physics." Just like with SaaS acquisition strategies, each channel has its own rules.
Facebook Ads demanded instant decisions with limited product comparison. SEO rewarded patient discovery and detailed research. Pinterest thrived on visual inspiration. Each channel needed completely different content approaches.
Rather than creating generic content and pushing it everywhere, we created channel-specific content that played to each platform's strengths. For SEO, that meant comprehensive buying guides and comparison content. For Pinterest, it was visual product styling ideas.
Month 3: Three-Layer Distribution System
This is the framework that changed everything. Instead of thinking about channels in isolation, we built three reinforcing layers:
Layer 1: Discovery - Where potential customers first encounter your brand (SEO, social media, partnerships)
Layer 2: Validation - Where they research and compare options (content marketing, reviews, email nurturing)
Layer 3: Conversion - Where they make the purchase decision (optimized landing pages, retargeting, customer service)
The magic happens when these layers work together. Someone might discover you through organic search, validate through email content, and convert through a retargeted social ad. Each layer supports and amplifies the others.
The Attribution Solution
Instead of fighting attribution chaos, we embraced it. We stopped trying to track which specific touchpoint "caused" each conversion and instead focused on coverage metrics: Are we visible at every stage of the customer journey?
We tracked leading indicators like branded search volume, email list growth, and social mention sentiment rather than trying to perfectly attribute every sale to its "first touch" or "last click."
Customer Habitat
Where your customers actually spend time online (not where you think they should be)
Product-Channel Fit
Testing how your product naturally aligns with each channel's "physics" and user behavior
Three-Layer System
Discovery, validation, and conversion layers that reinforce each other instead of competing
Attribution Reality
Embracing measurement chaos instead of fighting it with complex tracking systems
The results spoke for themselves. Within 90 days:
Revenue increased by 340% - but more importantly, it was now coming from multiple sources instead of one vulnerable channel.
Facebook's "reported" ROAS jumped to 8-9 - not because the ads got better, but because other channels were warming up the audience.
Organic traffic grew 10x - from under 500 monthly visitors to over 5,000, providing a stable foundation that couldn't be turned off overnight.
But the most important result was resilience. When iOS 14.5 privacy changes hit a few months later and many e-commerce brands saw their Facebook performance tank, my client barely noticed. They'd built an antifragile system.
The unexpected outcome? Customer lifetime value increased significantly. People who discovered the brand through multiple touchpoints became more loyal customers than those who converted immediately from a single ad.
This wasn't just about adding more channels—it was about building a distribution system where each component makes the others more effective.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the key lessons that completely changed how I approach distribution strategy:
Distribution should inform product decisions - Don't build first and figure out distribution later. Consider how each feature affects discoverability and sharability.
Customer journeys are messier than your analytics show - Stop trying to create perfect attribution models. Focus on coverage and presence instead.
Channel physics matter more than channel popularity - A platform might be "hot" but completely wrong for how your customers actually behave.
Single-channel success is single-channel vulnerability - If more than 60% of your growth comes from one channel, you're building on quicksand.
Content needs to match channel context - The same message delivered differently across channels always beats the same content pushed everywhere.
Start with where customers already are - Don't try to change customer behavior. Meet them where they naturally discover solutions.
Systems beat optimization - A mediocre omnichannel system outperforms a perfectly optimized single channel.
The biggest mistake I see is treating distribution as a growth tactic instead of a core business strategy. Distribution isn't something you do after building a great product—it's how you decide what product to build.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS businesses implementing this distribution approach:
Map where your ICP actually discovers tools (not where competitors advertise)
Build integration partnerships as distribution channels, not just features
Create channel-specific onboarding flows that match discovery context
Focus on product-led growth that amplifies other distribution efforts
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores building distribution systems:
Start with customer habitat mapping through support ticket analysis
Test product-channel fit before scaling any single channel
Build three-layer discovery, validation, and conversion systems
Embrace attribution chaos and focus on coverage metrics instead