Product-Channel Fit: Finding the Right Growth Strategy for Your Product

Hello and welcome to The GTM Newsletter by GTMnow – read by 50,000+ revenue professionals weekly to stay up-to-date and scale their companies and careers. GTMnow is the media brand of GTMfund – sharing go-to-market advice from the top 1% of revenue operators including the 350 executives behind the fund, news, and our viewpoints from working with hundreds of portfolio companies.


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Help your team close more deals. Check out Attention.


Product-Channel Fit: Finding the Right Growth Strategy for Your Product

We often hear product-market fit, but not often enough is the importance of product-channel fit emphasized. We teamed up with Chang Chen to break it down – let’s get into it.

Product-channel fit explained

Product-Channel Fit measures how well a product aligns with its distribution channels to effectively reach its target market. The goal is not to test every possible channel but to focus on the one or two that maximize your resources and scale your product for hypergrowth.

For example, an AI-powered video creation tool designed for viral social media content thrives through influencer and organic campaigns. Meanwhile, a collaboration tool with a high NPS can scale rapidly through Product-Led Growth (PLG) and word-of-mouth. On the other hand, an AI customer service platform targeting enterprise clients performs best in offline events or VIP dinners where relationships drive trust.

By narrowing your focus, you can concentrate resources where they matter most, making it easier to achieve sustained growth.

Three Approaches to Finding Product-Channel Fit

There are three primary ways to identify product-channel fit:

1. Identify Channels That Suit Your Product

Focus on what makes your product unique.

  • Does it follow a PLG or Sales-Led Growth (SLG) model?

  • Does it support single or multi-user collaboration?

  • Are you targeting consumers or decision-makers?

Each factor influences which channels will deliver the most growth.

Differentiate between keyword-based channels that target active searchers and interest-based channels that engage users passively. Prioritize channels that align with your product’s strengths and have the highest potential for success – this is key to avoiding wasted time and effort on channels that won’t work for your offering.

2. Adapt Your Product to Fit Major Channels

Some companies can adapt their product to make better use of high-potential channels. For instance, a video editing platform might release a suite of free, lightweight tools that scale SEO traffic, or an SLG company could create a self-serve option to generate leads more efficiently.

When you adapt your product to fit key channels, you not only make it easier to reach your audience but also increase the likelihood of channel success.

3. Create Your Own Channels

In some cases, companies can leverage their product’s unique strengths to create new channels or use existing channels in innovative ways. This might include integrating your product more tightly with other platforms, using your data to create valuable lead magnets, or finding creative distribution methods that go beyond traditional marketing.

Channels can be benchmarked by ARR stage:

The Benefits of Product-Channel Fit

Finding product-channel fit allows you to move faster and avoid wasting marketing budgets on channels that aren’t suited for your product. By bringing focus to your team, you enhance operational efficiency and set the foundation for long-term growth.

This approach isn’t about following a prescribed playbook – it’s about identifying the channels that work best for your specific product and market, then doubling down on them to achieve scale.

You can also read this here on the GTMnow website.


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🚀 Startups to watch 

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🔥 Hottest GTM jobs of the week

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🗓️ GTM industry events

Upcoming go-to-market events you won’t want to miss:

  • Spryng by Wynter: March 24-26, 2025 (Austin, TX)

  • Pavilion CMO Summit: April 17, 2025 (Atlanta, GA)

  • SaaStr Annual: September 10-12 (San Francisco, CA)

  • Pavilion GTM Summit: October 14-16, 2025 (Austin, TX)


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This newsletter was entirely written and edited by Sophie Buonassisi and Scott Barker (not AI!).
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Sophie Buonassisi  is the Vice President of Marketing at GTMfund, overseeing GTMnow – the media arm of the GTMfund brand – and the internal community. She’s passionate about empowering go-to-market leaders and founders with access to insight through GTMnow’s channels, such as the podcast, the newsletter, and more. Before joining the GTMfund team, she spend over four years building and scaling GTM at a predictive conversion optimization company. She enjoys advising SaaS companies as they build out and optimize their marketing and overall GTM strategies.

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