Pick Your Positioning Before You Pick Your Channels
A common marketing question is "which channel should we be on?" It's usually the wrong question to ask first, because channel choice without sharp positioning just spreads a vague message across more surfaces.
What positioning actually means
Positioning answers one question precisely: for this specific person, with this specific problem, why is this the obvious choice over the alternatives — including the alternative of doing nothing? If you can't finish that sentence specifically, no channel will save the campaign.
A quick test for weak positioning
Read your current tagline or homepage headline. If you could swap in a competitor's name and the sentence would still basically work, your positioning is too generic to differentiate on any channel. "Powerful. Simple. Built for teams." could describe almost anything — it's not wrong, it's just not doing any work.
Why this matters more than channel choice
A sharp message underperforms on the wrong channel but still gets some traction, because people who see it understand why they should care. A vague message underperforms everywhere, because no amount of channel-fit fixes a message that doesn't differentiate. Channel mostly affects reach and format — positioning affects conversion, and conversion problems don't get solved by reach.
The order that actually works
- Nail the one-sentence positioning: who, what problem, why this over alternatives.
- Write the core message in that sentence's voice.
- Then pick channels based on where that specific audience already pays attention — not based on where content is easiest to produce.
If step 1 is still fuzzy, more channels just means more places to be unconvincing.