One-to-Three World-Class Channels
You can build a billion-dollar company on two great channels, not ten crappy ones.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 86%
Bodnar's blunt rule: doing ten things 'kind of shitty' is the most common marketing mistake. You are far better off being demonstrably better than anyone else at one-to-three channels. He's seen repeatedly that a company can reach a billion dollars on one or two world-class channels, while ten weak channels can't even build a ten-million-dollar company. For resource-poor teams the discipline is to build a single channel at a time to excellence before broadening. Concentration, not coverage, drives growth.
Origin
Bodnar watched HubSpot scale by going deep on a few channels (a free tool, then content/SEO) and observed across many companies that concentration outperformed breadth 'time and time again.'
Core principles
- 01Most marketers do ten things poorly because they feel they must do everything.
- 02Being world-class at one-to-three channels beats being mediocre at ten.
- 03A billion-dollar company can be built on one or two great channels.
- 04A $10M company cannot be built on ten crappy channels.
- 05When you have no resources, build one channel at a time.
How to run it
- 1
Audit your channel spread
Honestly list every channel you're touching and how well each performs.
Pro tip If you're 'spread real thin,' that's the signal to cut.
- 2
Pick one-to-three to win
Choose the small set of channels where you can realistically be better than anyone else.
Watch out Trying to be world-class at more than three at once usually means excellence at none.
- 3
Cut the rest
Pause or drop the mediocre channels to reclaim time and budget for the chosen few.
- 4
Sequence, don't stack
With few resources, build one channel to excellence before adding the next.
Pro tip Reinvest the wins from your first great channel into standing up the second.
In the wild
HubSpot went world-class on a free diagnostic tool and then on content/SEO rather than dabbling in everything at once.
→ Those few dominant channels drove growth from thousands to tens of millions of visits and a global brand.
Common mistakes
Doing everything at once
Feeling you must cover every channel spreads resources so thin that none reaches a competitive level.
Adding channels before winning one
Stacking new channels on a shaky base prevents any single channel from ever becoming world-class.
Is it for you?
Best for
Early-stage and resource-constrained teams deciding where to concentrate limited effort.
Not ideal for
Large mature organizations that genuinely need a diversified multi-channel presence.
From the transcript
“You're way better off to do one to three things better than anybody else.”
“You cannot build a $10 million company if you have 10 crappy marketing channels.”
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