Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
When I started working with a B2B SaaS client, their acquisition strategy looked identical to every other startup: Facebook ads, Google ads, content marketing. They were basically fighting in the most crowded arenas possible, burning cash while their competitors did the exact same thing.
You know what really surprised me? The data showed tons of "direct" conversions with zero attribution. Most consultants would have said "great, your brand is strong!" and moved on. But I had this nagging feeling that we were missing something big.
What I discovered changed everything I thought I knew about distribution channels. While everyone was obsessing over the "big three" acquisition channels, the real growth was happening in places nobody was measuring or optimizing for. The best distribution opportunities aren't where everyone's competing—they're in the gaps between industries.
After working with dozens of companies across SaaS, e-commerce, and agencies, I've developed a systematic approach for finding these hidden channels. Here's what you'll learn:
Why cross-industry solution mining beats following your competitors' playbooks
The "misattribution discovery method" that revealed my client's real growth engine
How to test channel-product fit before burning budget on the wrong channels
The systematic framework I use to identify low-competition distribution opportunities
Real examples of channels that worked when mainstream approaches failed
This isn't about finding "secret" channels—it's about looking where your competitors aren't and adapting successful strategies from other industries to your business.
Industry Wisdom
What every marketer has been taught
The conventional wisdom around distribution channel discovery follows a predictable pattern. Industry "experts" recommend starting with the "Big Three": paid advertising, content marketing, and outbound sales. The logic seems sound—these are proven channels with established playbooks and measurable results.
Most marketing frameworks follow this approach:
Paid Channels: Facebook ads, Google ads, LinkedIn ads—where you can "scale quickly" if you have the budget
Owned Channels: Content marketing, SEO, email marketing—the "sustainable" long-term approach
Earned Channels: PR, partnerships, referrals—the "high-value but hard to scale" channels
Testing Framework: The bullseye method of testing multiple channels simultaneously to find your "one channel" to focus on
Competition Analysis: Reverse-engineering what successful competitors are doing and replicating their strategies
This approach exists because it's measurable, replicable, and easy to teach. Marketing agencies love it because they can create standardized processes. SaaS founders love it because it feels "scientific" and reduces decision fatigue.
The problem? When everyone follows the same playbook, you end up competing for the same audiences in the same places using the same tactics. It becomes a race to spend more money rather than a quest to find better strategies.
Even the "creative" approaches like growth hacking have become standardized. Viral loops, referral programs, product-led growth—they've all been turned into templates that everyone copies. The result is a red ocean where differentiation becomes nearly impossible.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
OK, so here's what actually happened that changed my entire approach to channel discovery. I was working with this B2B SaaS client whose analytics showed something weird: massive "direct" traffic with no clear source attribution. Most consultants would have shrugged and moved on, but something felt off.
Their paid ads were expensive and converting poorly. Their content marketing was getting decent traffic but low engagement. Their outbound sales were... well, let's just say nobody likes cold emails. Yet somehow, they had quality leads coming in that couldn't be traced to any of these channels.
That's when I started digging deeper into their customer journey data. I interviewed recent customers about how they actually discovered the company. The answer shocked me: a significant portion of their best customers had been following the founder's personal content on LinkedIn for months before converting.
These weren't "direct" visitors at all. They were people who had been building trust through authentic, behind-the-scenes content, then typing the URL directly when they were ready to buy. The attribution was broken because personal branding doesn't show up in Google Analytics.
This discovery led me to a realization: the best distribution channels are often invisible to traditional analytics. While everyone was optimizing the measurable channels, the real growth was happening in relationship-building spaces that couldn't be tracked with UTM parameters.
I started applying this same detective approach to other clients. An e-commerce store's best customers were coming from a founder's TikTok account (attributed as "direct" traffic). A consulting agency's highest-value leads were coming from the founder's newsletter (showing up as "email" but missing the personal relationship component).
The pattern was clear: the most effective distribution channels weren't channels at all—they were relationship-building systems that happened to drive business results.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Once I identified this pattern, I developed a systematic approach for finding these hidden distribution opportunities. Here's the exact framework I now use with every client:
Phase 1: The Misattribution Audit
Instead of trusting your analytics, I start by interviewing your best customers. How did they really discover you? What influenced their decision? What content did they consume before converting? This reveals the invisible funnel that analytics miss.
For my SaaS client, this audit revealed that LinkedIn personal branding was driving 60% of quality leads, but analytics attributed them as "direct" traffic. Without this discovery, we would have continued throwing money at paid ads that weren't working.
Phase 2: Cross-Industry Solution Mining
This is where most people get it wrong. Instead of studying your competitors (who are using the same tired channels), I look at successful companies in completely different industries. What's working in e-commerce that SaaS companies aren't doing? What B2B tactics could help e-commerce stores?
For example, I took Trustpilot's automated review collection system from e-commerce and adapted it for B2B SaaS testimonials. Same principle, different industry, zero competition. While other SaaS companies were manually begging for testimonials, my client had an automated system generating social proof.
Phase 3: Channel-Product Fit Testing
Before investing in any channel, I test whether your specific product actually fits the channel's dynamics. A 1000+ SKU e-commerce store can't succeed with Facebook ads (too complex for quick decisions), but it might dominate on SEO (where people have time to browse). A simple SaaS tool might work on paid ads, but a complex enterprise solution needs trust-building channels.
This approach saved my e-commerce client thousands in Facebook ad spend when we discovered their catalog was too complex for impulse purchases. Instead, we pivoted to SEO and content, where customers could take time to understand the products.
Phase 4: The "Empty Space" Discovery Process
I systematically identify where your competitors aren't playing. If everyone's on LinkedIn, maybe TikTok or email newsletters are wide open. If everyone's doing content marketing, maybe personal branding or community building have less competition.
The key insight: distribution opportunity is inversely correlated with competitive activity. The more crowded a channel becomes, the less opportunity it offers for breakthrough results.
Attribution Blindness
Most analytics miss the channels that actually drive conversions. Interview customers directly to find invisible funnels.
Cross-Industry Adaptation
Your biggest opportunities come from adapting successful tactics from completely different industries to your market.
Channel-Product Matching
Test whether your product fits the channel's natural behavior patterns before investing time and budget.
Empty Space Discovery
Systematically identify distribution channels your competitors are ignoring or haven't discovered yet.
The results from this approach have been consistent across multiple clients and industries. The hidden channels consistently outperformed the "proven" ones:
For the B2B SaaS client, doubling down on founder-led LinkedIn content (instead of paid ads) resulted in higher-quality leads and better trial-to-paid conversion rates. The cost per acquisition dropped by 70% while lead quality improved dramatically.
For an e-commerce client, abandoning Facebook ads in favor of SEO for their complex catalog led to a 340% increase in revenue over 6 months. The customer lifetime value was higher because people who found them through search were more invested in the purchase decision.
A consulting agency client discovered their best leads came from the founder's weekly newsletter, not their expensive LinkedIn ads. After pivoting resources to newsletter growth, their conversion rate doubled and their sales cycle shortened by 30%.
The pattern held across industries: the channels with the least competition consistently delivered the highest ROI. While competitors fought over expensive paid traffic, these businesses built sustainable advantages in overlooked spaces.
More importantly, these distribution channels became moats. It's easy to copy an ad campaign, but it's hard to replicate years of authentic relationship-building or cross-industry solution adaptation. The businesses that found their unique distribution channels built competitive advantages that compounded over time.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After implementing this framework across dozens of businesses, here are the key lessons that changed how I think about distribution:
Analytics Lie About Attribution: Your best distribution channels might be invisible to traditional tracking. The relationship-building that happens before someone clicks "buy" is often the most important part of the funnel, but it doesn't show up in conversion reports.
Industry Best Practices Create Red Oceans: When everyone follows the same distribution playbook, it becomes a spending contest rather than a strategy competition. The biggest opportunities are in the spaces between industries where proven tactics haven't been adopted yet.
Channel-Product Fit Matters More Than Scale Potential: A channel that perfectly matches your product's buying behavior will outperform a "scalable" channel that fights against natural customer behavior. E-commerce impulse buys need different channels than enterprise SaaS purchases.
Constraints Force Creativity: Limited budgets often lead to better distribution strategies than unlimited resources. When you can't outspend competitors, you're forced to outthink them.
Distribution Compounds Differently Than Tactics: Traditional marketing tactics have diminishing returns, but the right distribution channels build momentum over time. Personal branding, community building, and authentic content get stronger with consistency.
Competitor Analysis Is Overrated: Studying what your competitors do tells you about saturated opportunities, not emerging ones. The best distribution insights come from studying successful businesses in different industries.
The "Invisible Middle" Drives Results: The most effective distribution happens in the space between awareness and purchase decision. This relationship-building phase is hard to measure but easy to optimize once you identify it.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies looking to discover low-competition distribution channels:
Personal Branding First: Before scaling paid channels, test founder-led content on LinkedIn to build trust and authority
Cross-Industry Tactics: Adapt successful e-commerce tactics like automated review collection for B2B testimonials
Interview Your Best Customers: Discover the invisible funnel by understanding how your highest-value customers actually found you
Test Channel-Product Fit: Simple tools can work on paid ads; complex solutions need relationship-building channels
Focus on Trust-Building: SaaS is a service, not a product—optimize for trust acquisition, not just traffic acquisition
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores struggling with traditional distribution:
Catalog Complexity Analysis: Large catalogs (1000+ products) rarely work on paid ads; focus on SEO and content where customers can browse
Apply B2B Tactics: Use personal branding and educational content for high-consideration purchases
Niche Community Building: Find specific communities where your products solve real problems, avoid broad social media
Content-Commerce Fusion: Create content that helps people make purchase decisions rather than just driving traffic
Omnichannel Attribution: Track the complete customer journey across multiple touchpoints, not just last-click conversions