Why a good marketer will not tell you the best startup channel

Ask a good marketer which channel is best for startup marketing and they should refuse to give a straight answer. Gerard explains why: a channel is a tactic, not a strategy, and the right channel falls out of getting the strategy right first. The question is still useful, because the answer exposes the hammer and nail problem. An SEO expert answers every marketing problem with SEO. A website builder answers with a better website. Whatever a marketer knows best becomes their recommendation. Gerard also argues the answer is almost never SEO, for two reasons. SEO is slow, like an ocean liner: if a startup's assumptions change mid journey, changing direction takes too long. And search engine optimisation in its current form is giving way to GEO and AEO, so being sold traditional SEO now is rarely the right answer. Work out the strategy first, then choose the channel that best implements it.