Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
After working with dozens of startups over the past seven years, I've seen a brutal pattern. Founders spend 90% of their time building the perfect product and 10% figuring out how people will actually find it. Then they wonder why their "obviously superior" solution gets crushed by mediocre competitors who just happened to be everywhere their customers looked.
Here's the uncomfortable truth I learned from helping an e-commerce client break free from Facebook dependency: distribution beats product quality every single time. You can have the world's most innovative solution, but if only 100 people can find it, you'll lose to the average product that 10,000 people discover daily.
Most businesses treat distribution channel mapping like an afterthought—something you figure out after the product is "ready." But I've learned that successful distribution mapping needs to happen before you build, not after. It's not about finding channels for your product; it's about finding products for the channels where your customers already spend their time.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why conventional channel mapping fails (hint: it starts with the wrong question)
The Customer Habitat Mapping framework I use to discover overlooked distribution opportunities
How I helped a client move from single-channel dependency to a resilient omnichannel system
The "Channel-Product Fit" test that predicts which channels will actually work for your business
When to double down vs. when to diversify (it's not what you think)
This isn't about throwing spaghetti at the wall. It's about systematically mapping the customer journey to build distribution that compounds over time.
Industry Reality
What everyone teaches about channel mapping
If you've read any business book or attended any startup accelerator in the past decade, you've heard the same distribution advice repeated endlessly. Here's what the "experts" typically recommend for mapping distribution channels:
The Standard Playbook:
List all possible marketing channels (usually 10-20 options)
Run cheap tests across multiple channels simultaneously
Double down on whatever shows early promise
Build detailed customer personas and map them to channels
Focus on channels where your competitors aren't active
This conventional wisdom sounds logical, and it's what I followed when I started. The problem? It treats distribution channels like isolated experiments rather than interconnected touchpoints in a messy customer journey.
The reality is that customers don't follow your neat channel map. They Google your problem, see a retargeting ad, ask friends, read reviews, visit your website, leave, come back through organic search, and then maybe—maybe—they convert. Traditional channel mapping completely misses this chaotic, multi-touch reality.
Even worse, this approach assumes that channels work independently. But I've discovered that the real power comes from how channels reinforce each other. Your SEO might not directly convert, but it validates the solution someone first discovered through a podcast ad. Your social proof doesn't generate leads, but it converts traffic from every other channel.
The biggest flaw in conventional channel mapping is that it starts with the wrong question. Instead of asking "What channels should we test?" we should be asking "Where do our customers already hang out, and how do they currently discover solutions like ours?"
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The lightbulb moment came when I was working with an e-commerce client who was generating consistent revenue through Facebook Ads. On paper, everything looked solid—they had a 2.5 ROAS, steady traffic, and predictable sales. But I could see the fragility lurking beneath the surface.
Their entire business depended on Mark Zuckerberg's algorithm. One policy change, one competitor bidding war, one iOS update, and their revenue could disappear overnight. They weren't building a distribution system; they were renting customers from Facebook.
When I suggested diversifying their distribution, the founder's response was typical: "But Facebook is working! Why would we complicate things?" That's when I realized most founders confuse "working" with "sustainable." Just because something generates revenue today doesn't mean it's building long-term distribution power.
The real wake-up call came during our customer research phase. I started mapping their actual customer journeys by interviewing recent buyers. What I discovered completely contradicted what their attribution data was telling them.
Here's what their Facebook analytics showed: Clean, linear journeys from ad click to purchase. Simple attribution. Clear ROI calculations.
Here's what actually happened: Customers saw their Facebook ad, didn't click, but remembered the brand name. Later, they Googled the product category, found competitors, compared options, read reviews, visited the website organically, left without buying, saw a retargeting ad, researched again, and then finally converted days or weeks later.
Facebook was getting credit for the "last click," but the real customer journey involved multiple touchpoints, research phases, and validation steps. We were optimizing for attribution theater, not actual customer behavior.
That's when I developed what I now call the Customer Habitat Mapping approach. Instead of mapping channels to customers, we mapped customers to their natural environments.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Traditional channel mapping starts with your product and asks "where should we promote this?" Customer Habitat Mapping flips the script. It starts with your customer's natural behavior and asks "where do they already spend their time, and how do they currently solve this problem?"
Phase 1: Behavior Archaeology (Week 1-2)
I start by becoming a detective in my customer's world. Instead of surveys or focus groups, I use what I call "behavior archaeology"—digging into the actual digital footprints of how people discover and evaluate solutions.
For the e-commerce client, this meant:
Analyzing Google Search Console data to see what questions people were asking before finding us
Mapping competitor SEO strategies to understand the entire search landscape
Reverse-engineering successful content in the space to identify content gaps
Studying review sites, forums, and communities where customers discussed problems
The goal isn't to find new channels—it's to understand the complete ecosystem where your customers already live and how they currently navigate their problems.
Phase 2: Channel-Product Fit Testing (Week 3-4)
Not every channel works for every product. Just like product-market fit, there's such a thing as channel-product fit. I developed a simple framework to predict which channels would actually work for my client's specific business model:
The Complex Catalog Problem: My client had over 1,000 products with different use cases, price points, and customer types. Facebook Ads worked for their bestsellers but was too expensive for their long-tail inventory. Most customers needed time to browse, compare, and discover the right product for their specific needs.
This revealed a fundamental mismatch: Facebook Ads excel at promoting specific products to specific audiences, but they struggled with discovery-based shopping behavior. We needed channels that supported exploration, not just conversion.
Phase 3: The Three-Layer Distribution System (Month 2-3)
Based on the habitat mapping and channel-product fit analysis, I built what I call a three-layer distribution system:
Layer 1 - Discovery Layer (SEO Foundation): We completely revamped their website architecture and content strategy. Instead of product-focused pages, we created solution-focused content that matched how people actually searched. This included:
Comprehensive buying guides for each product category
Use-case specific landing pages that addressed real customer problems
Technical content that positioned them as the authority in their space
Layer 2 - Validation Layer (Social Proof System): We systematized their social proof collection and distribution across multiple touchpoints. This wasn't just about getting more reviews—it was about making sure potential customers encountered validation no matter how they found the business.
Layer 3 - Conversion Layer (Multi-Touch Nurturing): We built email sequences and retargeting systems that guided prospects through their natural research process instead of trying to force immediate conversions.
The key insight was that each layer reinforced the others. SEO brought in researchers, social proof validated their solution, and nurturing sequences converted them when they were ready—not when we wanted them to be ready.
Habitat Research
Deep customer behavior analysis to understand natural discovery patterns
Channel-Product Fit
Testing framework to predict which channels will actually work for your business model
Multi-Layer Systems
Building reinforcing distribution systems instead of isolated channel experiments
Dark Funnel Mapping
Tracking real customer journeys beyond last-click attribution
The results spoke for themselves, but not in the way traditional attribution would suggest. Here's what happened over the 3-month transformation:
The Attribution Paradox: Facebook's reported ROAS jumped from 2.5 to 8-9, but we actually spent less on Facebook ads. Why? Because SEO was driving significant traffic and conversions, but Facebook's attribution model was claiming credit for organic wins.
Traffic Diversification: Within 90 days, organic search went from 15% of traffic to over 40%. Email marketing, which barely existed before, became their second-largest revenue driver. Social proof systems started generating referral traffic we'd never tracked before.
Revenue Resilience: Most importantly, the business became antifragile. When iOS 14.5 destroyed Facebook attribution for many e-commerce stores, our client barely noticed. Their distribution system had evolved beyond single-channel dependency.
The Real Numbers:
Total revenue increased 340% over 6 months
Customer acquisition cost decreased by 60% as organic channels scaled
Customer lifetime value increased 45% due to better-qualified traffic
Time to profitability for new product launches decreased from 6 months to 6 weeks
But the most important result was psychological: the founder stopped checking Facebook Ads Manager obsessively. He finally had a business that could grow beyond the whims of algorithm changes.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
This project taught me lessons I wish I'd known when I started mapping distribution channels for startups. Here are the insights that changed how I approach distribution forever:
Map habitats, not channels: Customers live in ecosystems, not isolated platforms. Understanding their complete environment matters more than finding the "perfect" channel.
Attribution is broken by design: Last-click attribution isn't just inaccurate—it's actively misleading. Focus on business metrics (revenue, LTV, market expansion) rather than channel-specific vanity metrics.
Channel-product fit is real: Not every channel works for every business model. Test the underlying mechanics, not just the surface metrics.
Distribution compounds over time: The best distribution strategies get stronger with age. SEO content keeps working, email lists keep growing, social proof keeps accumulating.
Diversification isn't about spreading thin: Smart distribution builds reinforcing systems where each channel makes the others more effective.
Start with behavior, not tools: Understand how customers currently discover and evaluate solutions before choosing platforms or tactics.
Build for resilience, not optimization: The goal isn't finding the perfect channel—it's building a distribution system that can survive algorithm changes, competitive pressure, and market shifts.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies mapping distribution channels:
Focus on educational content that demonstrates expertise and builds trust over time
Build use-case specific landing pages that match exact search intent
Develop integration-focused content for ecosystem distribution
Create trial nurturing sequences that guide users to "aha" moments
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce businesses approaching distribution mapping:
Build discovery-focused SEO for product exploration and comparison
Systematize social proof collection and distribution across touchpoints
Develop email sequences that nurture browsers into buyers over time
Create content hubs that position your brand as the category authority