Every marketing channel sucks right now

Andrew Chen argues that today's major marketing channels are largely exhausted for startups, and that early-stage companies should rely on small, hands-on channels instead. He lists SEO, influencer marketing, PR, email, viral loops, ads, referral programs and social launches as slow, expensive, fraud-prone or one-time-only, and he ties this decay to his earlier "Law of Shitty Clickthroughs," which holds that marketing strategies lose effectiveness as competition and customer fatigue grow. He suggests startups focus on channels such as small events, a Facebook group, or outreach to former colleagues, and use new technology and bold brand positioning to stand out. He also says product quality matters most, since marketing multiplies whatever product quality already exists.