> [!meta]- Document Info > **Author**: [[Andrew Chen]] > **Full Title**: Every marketing channel sucks right now > **Category**: #articles > > **Summary**: Marketing channels are currently struggling, making it hard for startups to gain traction. Established methods like SEO and influencer marketing are no longer effective due to high competition and consumer fatigue. New startups should focus on innovative, smaller marketing strategies instead of relying on traditional big channels. > > **Source**: [Original URL](https://andrewchen.substack.com/p/every-marketing-channel-sucks-right) ## 📄 Full Document → [[Every marketing channel sucks right now]] ## 🔦 Highlights & Commentary - This is the natural end state for things, and maybe we’re in a bit of a lull due to the technology super cycle as we’re 15+ years into the mobile wave, we’ve had various kinds of paid ads for 20+ years, and so on. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jrga2z5q6nb61ktnqyvesjns)) - you should just know that all the aforementioned big, mature channels will suck for you. These channels have mostly all been bid up by bigger companies, and they are mostly stale to consumers, and you don’t have the same LTV and financial strength as an established product. Instead, a new startup has to be asymmetrical — what you can do that they can’t? The natural solution points towards Little Channels, which are all the smaller marketing strategies that are tried in the early days and abandoned over time. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jrgagx28nc7v5mavwsrewh3e)) - Running mini events with cool speakers, organizing a Facebook group, going after a single college/company/town, emailing your ex-colleagues/friends to try a new thing ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jrgahf34ynmktbkpv2damyg6)) - A lot of marketing tactics that work in the early days only work once — like a social media launch — but that’s OK. If you can prove that a few unscalable tactics work, and it helps you gain momentum via funding/hiring/otherwise, then over time you’ll have more time to try additional strategies. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jrgahvb73dsq5bq37d5e36cb)) ## New highlights added April 24, 2025 at 8:07 AM - maybe AI one boxing will kill your traffic next year anyway ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jsksq6c9jb9faprkxq82ktf4)) - Tags: [[gtm/aeo]] - Note: Shift from seo -> aeo - your competitors will just copy your copy ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jskst8h6bjczh6q8wmryytqf)) - Note: Fast-follow marketing - as a marketing channel scales and ages over time — and yes, we’ve had SEO as a concept for 25+ years now — consumer engagement goes down, costs go up, competition goes up, ROI drops like crazy. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jskswpt3q9nwhygdj0mgw4mm)) - What does AI allow you to do in marketing that previously couldn’t happen? Whether it’s rapidly creating personalized creative, or generating concepts faster, or creating an interactive bot — what can you do different than no one is doing, using the new tech? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jskt1kk9qbw4x6q0qhg50m8b)) - Tags: [[questions]] - So I have bad news: Your product actually has to be very good. I wish I lived in a world where you could have amazing marketing and growth strategies, have a shitty product, and you would win. Then marketers would run tech, and they do not. It’s the people visionaries that create the products that run tech, and that’s a good thing! ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jskt2rvg31zqkv70ffxr9rbb)) - Note: This started a bit of a stir with the marketing influencers. In particular, that a shitty product with amazing GTM can’t win. I think this is fundamentally true. I’ve seen teams with mediocre products succeed on novel GTM, the distinction here is that these products have to evolve rapidly to catch up or they will eventually fail. This will be interesting to track as we see this broad shift/consolidation toward [[Composability will define the next SaaS era|composable outcomes]]. - I’ve come to think of great marketing strategy as a multiplier effect on your inherent product quality. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jsktagg8vt5k0np4qhb9wase)) - Note: Probably mostly true