How to choose marketing channels for a B2B company

Here is how to choose marketing channels for a B2B company when you do all the selling and have a few spare hours a week. Most lists of B2B marketing channels rank a dozen options by the returns large companies get, so a small firm tries four at once and learns nothing. Ask your buyers where they look instead, test two channels for 6 weeks next to your outreach, and keep what brings conversations.

Do these three things

About 3 hours a week on top of your outreach, for 6 weeks. Judge conversations at week 6 and orders at week 12.

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1. 1Today: ask five buyers how they found their last supplier, and write down every place they name.
2. 2This week: pick two channels to test next to your outreach. Give each one a weekly amount, a cost and a stop line for 6 weeks.
3. 3Every Friday: write down the hours and conversations each channel gave you. At week 6, drop any channel with none, and give its hours to the one with the most conversations per hour.

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1. Ask five buyers how they found their last supplier#

The best channel for your B2B company is the place your buyers went the last time they needed a supplier like you, so ask them. Ask your clients and the buyers you already talk to. Do not guess from a list of "top B2B channels".

Ask your one or two clients, plus buyers from the conversations your outreach already brings, until you have five. If a call is already booked, ask these at the end. Write down their exact words.

The last time you needed a new [supplier / partner / tool] like us, how did you find one?
Where did you look first: someone you asked, Google or ChatGPT, LinkedIn, a trade show, a marketplace or catalogue, or a salesperson who contacted you?
Who else do you ask, or read, when you need to buy something like this?

• Tool: your phone and a Google Sheet with one row per buyer.
• Time: 10 minutes per buyer, or the last 5 minutes of a call you already have. One week for all five.
• You will have: five answers, in the buyers' own words, naming real places, people and events.
• It worked if: at least 3 of the 5 name the same kind of place. If all five name different places, ask five more buyers before you pick anything.
• Common mistake: asking "Would you look for us on LinkedIn?" Buyers say yes to be kind. Ask what they did last time, not what they might do.

For running these calls well, see How to do customer interviews.

2. Score the six B2B marketing channels and pick two to test#

Keep your daily outreach and your introductions going, and pick two more channels to test by scoring six on three yes-or-no questions. Outreach stays, because it is the one channel you control every day. If you have not started it yet, begin with How to market your B2B business.

These are the six channels that fit a sales-led company at your size:

Score each channel with one point for each yes:

1. Did at least one of your five buyers name it in step 1?
2. Can you find 50 named buyers there in a month? Names of people, not a crowd.
3. Can you run it in 3 hours a week and under $300 over 6 weeks?

Pick the two channels with the highest score. A channel needs a yes to question 1 to be picked. If two channels tie, pick the one more buyers named.

• If you make or wholesale a product: score trade shows, distributors and marketplaces first. Industrial buyers search for suppliers on Thomasnet, and shows are where your buyers and resellers meet.

• If you sell a service, such as consulting or IT: look hard at referral partners. These are firms that serve the same clients as you: an accountant for a finance consultant, an office fit-out firm for an IT provider.

• If you sell software through sales calls: check LinkedIn and search. In G2's March 2026 survey of 1,076 software buyers, 51% started their research with an AI chatbot more often than with Google.

• Tool: Google Sheets.

• Time: 30 minutes.

• You will have: a score for all six channels, and two picked for testing.

• It worked if: both picks have a yes to question 1 and a score of at least 2.

• Common mistake: picking the channel you enjoy, or testing four at once. With 3 spare hours a week, four channels get 45 minutes each, and none of them gets a fair test.

3. Run a 6-week test for each channel, with a stop line#

Give each channel a fixed amount every week for 6 weeks, write down the first sign it works and when you will stop, then do exactly that. A test with no amount and no stop line runs on until you forget it.

Use these amounts. A "conversation" is a call, a meeting, or a request for a sample or a quote from a named buyer.

For the channels that have a rule or a catch:

• Referral partners: lead with what you give. Offer to send them your clients who need their service. If a partner asks for a fee, agree a fixed amount per first order, paid after your client pays. Software firms often pay partners 10 to 20% of the first year's contract, according to Cello's August 2026 guide. See How to set up referral partnershipssoon.
• LinkedIn: a free account lets you add a note to only a few connection requests each month. Send the requests without a note, and write your message after they accept. See How to do LinkedIn outreachsoon.
• Trade shows: read the show's rules before you go. Many shows ban "suitcasing", which means promoting your business in the aisles or at other companies' stands when you have no stand. The 2027 code of conduct for IPPE, a large food industry show, says "Unauthorized solicitation by non-exhibitors is not allowed." So book meetings by email before the show, and meet in the café or a meeting area. The exhibitor list is also a lead list, even if you do not go. See How to get meetings from a trade showsoon and How to get clients from networking eventssoon.
• Search: it is the slowest channel, so judge it at week 12. Drop it then if Google Search Console shows 0 impressions for your buyers' phrases. If you serve clients in one area, set up a Google Business Profile, which is free. See How long does SEO take to worksoon, How to set up a Google Business Profilesoon and How to get your company recommended by ChatGPT as a suppliersoon.
• Marketplaces: the basic profiles on Thomasnet (industrial suppliers) and Clutch (service and IT firms) are free. Do not pay for a sponsored place during the test. Software sellers should look at the app stores of the tools their buyers already use. See How to get listed in integration marketplacessoon and How to get reviewed on Clutchsoon.
• Distributors: a distributor needs a margin, so work out your trade price before you email. See How to find distributors for your productsoon.

Channel: [the channel]Each week I will: [the amount, from the table]It costs: $[X] over 6 weeksFirst sign by week 6: [the number]I stop at week 6 if: [the number]Hours a week: [hours]

• Tool: Google Sheets for the cards, plus the tool each channel needs: your phone, LinkedIn, the show's website, Google Search Console, or the marketplace.
• Time: about 3 hours a week for both tests together.
• You will have: two test cards, and two tests running at a fixed amount every week.
• It worked if: each test hits its weekly amount 6 weeks in a row.
• Common mistake: doing a test "when there is time". A test done by half gives you no answer. The other mistake is pitching people in the aisles of a show you did not pay to exhibit at.

4. Count hours and conversations for each channel every Friday#

Every Friday, write down for each channel the hours you spent, the money, and the conversations it started. Then divide conversations by hours. That one number lets you compare a trade show with a LinkedIn test fairly.

If you already keep the Friday sheet from How to market your B2B business, add these columns for each channel. Ask "How did you hear about us?" at the start of every first call, so each conversation lands in the right row.

Week | Channel | Hours | Money | Conversations | Samples or quotes | Orders | Conversations per hour

• Tool: Google Sheets.
• Time: 20 minutes each Friday.
• You will have: by week 6, six rows for each channel, with hours, money and conversations.
• It worked if: you can name the channel behind every conversation, and no channel has a blank hours cell.
• Common mistake: counting what you did (posts, requests sent, badge scans) as results. The other mistake is not logging hours, so the channel that eats your week looks free.

For a fuller way to trace each deal to its source, see How to track which channel brought each dealsoon.

5. At week 6, drop, keep or double down on each channel#

At the end of week 6, give every channel one of three decisions, using its 6-week totals. Never decide on one week: with numbers this small, one good or bad week tells you nothing.

Use these rules:

1. 0 conversations in 6 weeks: drop it. Search is the one exception: judge its pages at week 12.
2. The most conversations per hour: double down. Give it the hours from any channel you dropped, for the next 6 weeks.
3. Everything else: keep it at the same hours until week 12.
4. At week 12: count orders by channel. An order beats a conversation, so a channel with fewer conversations and one order wins.
5. Then start the next test from your step 2 score sheet in any hours you have freed. Run at most two tests at a time.

• Tool: Google Sheets.
• Time: 30 minutes at week 6, and 30 minutes at week 12.
• You will have: a written decision for every channel, and the hours each one gets for weeks 7 to 12.
• It worked if: every channel has a decision and a number of hours next to it.
• Common mistake: keeping a channel because you already paid for it, or because you like doing it. The sheet decides.

6. Pay for a channel only after the free version works#

Spend money on a channel only when its free version has already brought conversations, and when the orders you can expect from it cost less than you pay. Every channel above has a free version, so test that first.

Check two rules before you pay:

1. At least 5 orders have come from your free channels, and you know which message gets replies. Before that, you pay to show strangers a message you have not tested.
2. Work out the orders you need. Divide the cost by your profit on one order. If a stand costs $4,000 and you make $1,000 profit on an average order, you need 4 orders from that show. Pay only if the free version of the channel suggests you can get them: for example, a visit to that show brought at least 4 sample or quote requests.

• Tool: a calculator and your channel sheet.
• Time: 15 minutes for each paid option.
• You will have: a yes or no for each paid option, with the orders it needs written next to it.
• It worked if: everything you pay for has a payback number next to it, and its free version brought at least one conversation first.
• Common mistake: paying for a stand, ads or a sponsored listing first, "to get the word out".

To set how much to spend in total, see How much to spend on marketing as a B2B company. When LinkedIn passes both rules, see How to run LinkedIn ads for B2Bsoon.

Where Scout7 helps#

Scout7 speeds up the search row of step 2, and gives you your buyers' words for the messages in step 3.

Step 2. Give Scout7's keyword intelligence the phrases your buyers used in step 1. For each one, it shows the monthly searches, how hard it is to rank, and who leads on Google and in AI answers. Scout7's competitor set shows which competitors win those answers, and by how much. If a few large sellers lead every answer, score search low and test it later.

Step 3. Scout7's audience research builds audience segments from public social conversations in your category, with pain points and quotes in buyers' own words. Use the quotes in your partner and LinkedIn messages. It does not replace the five calls in step 1.

Your B2B channel checklist for the next 6 weeks

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Step 1 · Ask five buyers how they found their last supplier

• Ask five buyers the three questions and write down every place they name.

Step 2 · Score the six channels and pick two

• Score all six channels on the three yes-or-no questions.
• Pick the two highest-scoring channels that at least one buyer named.

Step 3 · Run a 6-week test for each channel

• Write a test card for each channel with its weekly amount, cost, first sign and stop line.
• Read the rules of any trade show before you go, and book meetings before the day.
• Every weekDo each test at its full weekly amount.

Step 4 · Count hours and conversations every Friday

• Add hours, money and conversations per hour columns to your Friday sheet.
• Every FridayFill in one row for each channel, and ask every new buyer how they heard about you.

Step 5 · Drop, keep or double down at week 6

• End of week 6Drop any channel with 0 conversations and give its hours to the one with the most conversations per hour.
• End of week 12Count orders by channel and start the next test from your score sheet.

Step 6 · Pay only after the free version works

• Before paying for any channel, check you have 5 orders from free channels and write down the orders it needs to pay back.

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