Demand & Channels — AAJ Marketing Blog

Where will customers actually come from? Practical guides to paid ads, ABM, social, and channel orchestration for startups — built on one principle: two channels done properly beat six done halfway.

Related free tools: Startup Marketing Plan (channel scorecard)

Articles

  1. How to Market a Two-Sided Marketplace: Solving the Chicken-and-Egg Problem

    Published: October 5, 2026 — 11 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Go-to-Market & Growth Planning

    Win both sides of a marketplace: recruit the harder side first, concentrate both in one place, and measure matches, not sign-ups. Five steps.

  2. Customer Advocacy, Reviews and NPS: How to Build a Feedback Program That Earns Word of Mouth

    Published: October 5, 2026 — 14 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Retention, Expansion & Advocacy

    Build a feedback loop first, treat NPS as a signal, ask for honest reviews with no reward for praise, keep patient data out, and win references.

  3. Podcasts for B2B Startups: Guest on Shows First, Then Decide Whether to Host

    Published: October 5, 2026 — 11 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: PR, Partnerships & Events

    Guest on shows your buyers already hear before you start your own: pick a role, score shows, pitch a topic, reuse every episode, then test before hosting.

  4. Conferences and Trade Shows for Startups: Which Events Are Worth It?

    Published: October 5, 2026 — 11 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: PR, Partnerships & Events

    Choose events by who is in the room, give each one job, pick the cheapest way to show up, book meetings ahead and judge each event on cost per demo.

  5. Integration Marketplaces: How to Market Your App Where Your Customers' Software Lives

    Published: October 5, 2026 — 11 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: PR, Partnerships & Events

    A marketplace listing is proof of fit more than a lead source. Integrate where customers' data lives, make the listing sell, and manage platform risk.

  6. Review Sites for Startups: How to Earn Honest G2 and Capterra Reviews

    Published: October 5, 2026 — 11 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: PR, Partnerships & Events

    Earn honest G2 and Capterra reviews: check your buyers use them, follow the FTC rule, ask every customer, answer critics and put reviews to work in sales.

  7. Cold Email for Founders: How to Write a Sequence That Gets Replies

    Published: October 5, 2026 — 9 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Sales & Pipeline

    Write cold emails about the buyer's problem, plan four to six touches, and meet CAN-SPAM, Gmail, Yahoo and UK rules before you send.

  8. Referral Programs for Startups: How to Turn Happy Customers Into Your Best Channel

    Published: October 4, 2026 — 15 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Retention, Expansion & Advocacy

    Referred customers tend to be worth more. Learn who to ask, set a modest two-sided reward, and see which FTC, HIPAA and Anti-Kickback rules apply. Six steps.

  9. How to Market to Developers (APIs, SDKs and AI Tools)

    Published: October 4, 2026 — 16 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Industry Playbooks

    Market an API, SDK or AI tool to developers: choose who to reach first, get to a first working call fast, fix the docs, pick one place, and measure adoption.

  10. How to Make Security a Selling Point: SOC 2, Trust Pages and AI Data-Use Answers

    Published: October 4, 2026 — 16 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Industry Playbooks

    Answer the three data questions, build a trust page, decide on SOC 2, run questionnaires as a pipeline and keep claims true. Five steps.

  11. Retargeting for Startups: What Works, What It Really Adds, and What It Costs You

    Published: October 4, 2026 — 10 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Paid Media

    Retargeting adds a real but modest lift that dashboards overstate. Five steps: know what it adds, set a holdout, cap spend, match the message, check consent.

  12. Meta Ads for Startups: Facebook and Instagram After the Privacy Changes

    Published: October 4, 2026 — 14 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Paid Media

    Meta ads suit buyers you can reach as people. Five steps after Apple's privacy changes: check fit, send clean data, test creative, measure with a lift test.

  13. LinkedIn Ads for B2B Startups: When to Use Them and How to Start

    Published: October 4, 2026 — 10 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Paid Media

    LinkedIn ads suit B2B startups with a defined buyer and a high deal value. Five steps: check fit, run a capped test, target accounts, split spend, measure.

  14. Which marketing channels should a startup start with?

    Published: October 1, 2026 — 10 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Go-to-Market & Growth Planning

    Start where your first segment already looks, pick channels whose cost fits your deal size, and test one or two against a pass mark you set in advance.

  15. How to Sell EdTech to School Districts

    Published: October 1, 2026 — 11 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Industry Playbooks

    A district buys through a chain of approvals, not one decision. Six steps to win each in order and get into the budget before it is set, with an example.

  16. The EdTech Marketing Calendar: When Schools Plan, Budget and Buy

    Published: October 1, 2026 — 10 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Industry Playbooks

    Market to districts on their calendar: find the budget year, start talks by autumn, run pilots over winter and be in the draft budget by spring.

  17. How to pitch a journalist when nobody has heard of your startup

    Published: September 23, 2026 — 7 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: PR, Partnerships & Events

    A worked example of a cold pitch that gets a reply: how to find the right reporter, what to put in the opening lines, and what to do when nobody answers.

  18. How to run a webinar that creates pipeline, not just registrants

    Published: September 22, 2026 — 6 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: PR, Partnerships & Events

    Most startup webinars fill a registration list and stop there. How to pick the job, the topic and the format, and why the follow-up is the real event.

  19. The Authenticity Audit: how to tell a real creator recommendation from an expensive imitation

    Published: August 31, 2026 — 11 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Social, Community & Creators

    Polished creator content no longer signals trust, because polish stopped being scarce. Five gates that separate a real recommendation from an ad in a creator's feed - plus what happened when I fact-checked my own sources.

  20. Dark Social: Where B2B Demand Actually Happens Now (2026 Guide)

    Published: July 17, 2026 — 14 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Social, Community & Creators

    Most B2B buying conversations now happen where analytics can't see — Slack DMs, private communities, forwarded links. What dark social is, why gated content stopped working, and a 90-day playbook for creating demand in untrackable channels.

  21. How to Do ABM as a Startup (Without Enterprise Budgets, Tools, or Teams)

    Published: April 22, 2026 — 18 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Sales & Pipeline

    You don't need a giant sales team or a seven‑figure tech stack to run Account‑Based Marketing. A pragmatic, startup‑friendly approach to ABM — from defining your ICP to running your first 1:1 plays without over‑engineering anything.

  22. How Early‑Stage Startups Should Use Digital Ads: A Practical Guide to Meta, Google, TikTok & X

    Published: April 10, 2026 — 24 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Paid Media

    Digital ads can shorten the feedback loop between 'we have an idea' and 'the market is paying for this.' Learn how to use ads as a learning and growth tool rather than just a spend channel.

  23. Beyond the Buzzword: Why Omnichannel is the New Standard for Growth

    Published: February 1, 2026 — 12 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Go-to-Market & Growth Planning

    Your customers don't live in a vacuum—they live in the 'in-between.' Learn why consistency across every touchpoint isn't just a preference, it's a competitive requirement.

  24. Beyond the Feed: Crafting a Social Media Strategy That Drives Real Business Results

    Published: December 29, 2025 — 10 min read — Category: Demand & Channels

    Topic: Social, Community & Creators

    Struggling with social media ROI? Learn how to craft a strategy for business that delivers real results, including platform selection, content planning, and engagement tips.