Channels

Channels are the way that you reach and engage with your target market.

Channels are the way that you reach and engage with your target market. 

  • How are we reaching our target market? Channels include communication, sales, distribution, and customer support. 
  • Channels represent all your organization's touchpoints with customers throughout the customer lifecycle. The five customer lifecycle phases are awareness, evaluation, purchase, delivery, and after-sales. 


Channels can be everything from how you ship physical products to how you communicate with customers online. Write down all of the channels your business will need to use. 


Your business will have channels that it owns and channels that its partners own. For instance, your website is a channel that your company owns. If you sell products in a retail store, then that is a channel that a partner owns. Make a note of which channels are owned by your company and which ones are owned by partners.


You also have two types of channels, direct and indirect. Partner channels are indirect channels. Owned channels can be direct channels, including your website, in-house sales team, and customer support team.


Your goal is to find the right balance between owned channels and partner channels to create the best customer experience and generate the most profit. Partner channels allow you to grow faster by leveraging the strength of other companies, but they tend to have lower margins. On the other hand, owned channels have better margins but can take longer to implement and scale.

Up next

Customer relationships

What kind of relationship do you need to have with your customers?

Course content

Idea to business model
Idea to business model
Business Model Overview
Business Model Overview
Prototyping your business model
Prototyping your business model
Target Market and Customer Segments
Target Market and Customer Segments
Value proposition
Value proposition
Channels
Channels
Customer relationships
Customer relationships
Revenue streams
Revenue streams
Key resources
Key resources
Key activities
Key activities
Key partners
Key partners
Cost structure
Cost structure
Navigating Your Environment
Navigating Your Environment
Proving your business model
Proving your business model
What's next?
What's next?

Channels

Channels are the way that you reach and engage with your target market.

Channels are the way that you reach and engage with your target market. 

  • How are we reaching our target market? Channels include communication, sales, distribution, and customer support. 
  • Channels represent all your organization's touchpoints with customers throughout the customer lifecycle. The five customer lifecycle phases are awareness, evaluation, purchase, delivery, and after-sales. 


Channels can be everything from how you ship physical products to how you communicate with customers online. Write down all of the channels your business will need to use. 


Your business will have channels that it owns and channels that its partners own. For instance, your website is a channel that your company owns. If you sell products in a retail store, then that is a channel that a partner owns. Make a note of which channels are owned by your company and which ones are owned by partners.


You also have two types of channels, direct and indirect. Partner channels are indirect channels. Owned channels can be direct channels, including your website, in-house sales team, and customer support team.


Your goal is to find the right balance between owned channels and partner channels to create the best customer experience and generate the most profit. Partner channels allow you to grow faster by leveraging the strength of other companies, but they tend to have lower margins. On the other hand, owned channels have better margins but can take longer to implement and scale.

Up next

Customer relationships

What kind of relationship do you need to have with your customers?

Course content

Idea to business model
Idea to business model
Business Model Overview
Business Model Overview
Prototyping your business model
Prototyping your business model
Target Market and Customer Segments
Target Market and Customer Segments
Value proposition
Value proposition
Channels
Channels
Customer relationships
Customer relationships
Revenue streams
Revenue streams
Key resources
Key resources
Key activities
Key activities
Key partners
Key partners
Cost structure
Cost structure
Navigating Your Environment
Navigating Your Environment
Proving your business model
Proving your business model
What's next?
What's next?