Why (Startup) Marketing?
Ever get asked why you work in or for startups?
If you’re involved in Marketing, here are (5) reasons I personally wake up early, stay up late and generally speaking live and breathe startup marketing versus pursuing the 9-5 job.
1. Startup marketing drives powerful, immediate connections amongst three core audiences: peers (first degree), influencers (second degree) and end users (third degree). There’s no separation of church and state between B2B and B2C or division of labor between departments. It all happens, under one roof and often with only a handful of individuals.
2. Marketing is everything. It’s part BD, it’s part Operations, it’s part Product Development, it’s part Sales and so on. It’s the hub in the wheel to profitability or failure and gives a marketer instantaneous horizontal perspective with regards to business planning, execution and leadership.
3. Smarter marketing is more about Earned Media, less about Paid. If you can’t accelerate word-of-mouth, get back to the drawing board. Right? And while that approach presents unique pressure points and challenges, it harvests real friends (customers) versus temporary or fake ones.
4. Marketing isn’t just a quarterly business plan with x budget, x headcount to get the job done, or xyz distribution channels at your disposal. It’s an exciting, conversational, real-time, socially driven initiative that resides at the heartbeat of a new business.
5. Learnings happen every single day in startup marketing. Be prepared for it, even embrace it. As quickly as you succeed, double down. As quickly as you fail, retreat and leave no residue behind. Tomorrow will always bring new insights and best practices to apply directly to your efforts.
Follow @getscrappymktng or Like Us on Facebook to follow the job of a Bay Area startup marketer: the work, the case studies and the larger (startup) marketing landscape.
