In this short tier‑list style discussion, two speakers evaluate the most effective marketing channels for a business generating roughly $2 million in annual revenue. For each channel they assign a grade (from F to S) and explain why that channel should be prioritized—or avoided—at this growth stage. The conversation covers Partnerships (B), Cold Outreach (C), Podcasting (F), Email (S), Referrals (A), SEO/Geo (B), YouTube (A), Short‑form video (A), Events (A), and Paid Social (grade not stated). The overarching message is that at $2 M you should focus on high‑ROI, scalable channels (Email, Referrals, YouTube, Short‑form, Events, Paid Social) while deprioritizing tactics that require heavy upfront investment or are premature (Cold Outreach, Podcasting). The speakers also note timing considerations, such as the delayed payoff of SEO and the need to build systems for referrals.
Marketing channels at $2 million. Partnerships.
B. Partnerships are great but it might still be a little too early to prioritize it.
Cold outreach.
C. I really think at $2 million, you should have enough systems in place so you're not having to do a bunch of cold outreach.
Podcasting.
F. You just don't need to screw with podcasting yet. I mean, if you're a podcaster and that's your business, okay, fine. But if you're a brand, don't build a podcast yet and don't start doing podcast advertising.
Email.
S. Email is always an S. It is an S early, it's an S late. There's no higher ROI channel.
Referrals.
A. By $2 million, you should start to see referrals come in because you've got enough volume, and you should start to build some systems around creating more referrals. If you're not getting referrals and people talking about you at $2 million, it's probably not going to happen at $10 million. And if it's not happening there, you're going to cap out because there is no cheaper, higher ROI acquisition channel than word of mouth.
SEO/Geo.
B, it matters and now's the time to start investing in it. Again, the concern is the payout isn't going to be immediate so I don't know that you can just put too much there right now.
YouTube.
A, bingers are buyers. If we can create that binge factory in YouTube, that's going to matter and that is going to create a word of mouth within the different communities that you're going to need as you scale from 2 million and up.
Short form.
A, for the same reason that YouTube is, now is the time to start to really begin to build out your online brand presence.
Events.
A, because that's where not only can you go and at this point start finding and attracting new customers, it's where you can talk to vendors, it's where you can talk to other customers, gather the most data possible. If somebody's gonna invest the time and money to aggregate all of your ideal people in one room, you should be in that room.
Paid social.
S. Paid social is the channel that you need to get dialed in at $2 million, and if you're doing organic social, you should know what's working and what you can put some paid behind.
