In the small but noisy universe of technology startups, there has been a growing chorus of voices about the utility and value of marketing.
This peaked over the last few days with Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures eviscerating the function and its practitioners followed by a similar post from Foundry Group's Brad Feld – Why a New Startup Shouldn't Have a Marketing Budget. Fred went on to issue a 'bug report' on the first post with some amendments but of similar negative tone and smart folks like Rand Fishkin and Ben Casnocha weighed in with thoughtful counterpoints. Also, be sure to read the comments across all these posts. Lots of opinions from all sides.
I have enjoyed Fred's writing for many years and always respect his point of view including this post. I have also worked with Brad and didn't notice him vomiting in his mouth in my presence although I must admit I wasn't specifically looking for it (to be clear: Brad is one of the best VC board members I have ever worked with and I am a huge fan).
But even before all of this, I had been thinking about it after reading Rebecca Lynn's post about why engineers make better marketers.
People, developers + designers do not equal a business. Just ask the gnomes.
What I find most distracting about all of this is that it is devaluing the role one group of people play in a startup. If marketing folks aren't worth the air they breathe, what about financial-types, HR folks, or even salespeople?
I am not trying to defend the marketing profession or those who profess expertise in it. I disdain experts. And yes, there is no shortage of morons that want to sell you marketing services or any other business or technical service for that matter.
I do believe this conversation needs to elevate a bit beyond job function to skill set.
The best and most effective marketers have an analytic approach – numbers, spreadsheets, metrics, etc. I have a degree in finance, an MBA, worked as a consultant for many years, and never sought a career path to become a Vice President of Marketing. I was intellectually curious about the problems the products I was part of were trying to solve and managed to be somewhat good at explaining what it did and why you should care (product marketing).
I have written code. Yes, it was many years ago and no it was not my life calling but I have done it. And, more importantly, I respect the people that do it. It is a very, very different role in a startup compared to those who have to take what is developed to market, find the people who care about it, and extract payment.
Writing code definitely requires brains but also delivers immediate feedback in a highly controlled environment – it compiles or it doesn't. If it doesn't work, debug it line by line until there are no more bugs. Then figure out a way to improve it by doing it with less lines of code. This is a focused activity where you are working to a definitive answer where no ambiguity remains.
Taking a product to market couldn't be more different..especially a new product. Create a hypothesis (these people will care), figure out a way to test it (ask them/create an offer), and measure the results.
Oops, we were wrong. Let's debug it and compile again. Oh wait, we can't. Was it the wrong audience, the wrong message, was the offer not compelling, too many alternatives, not a big enough problem, missing features, wrong time, etc., etc?
Marketing in a startup is about two core things:
- Awareness – getting the word out so people will try your product and getting those same people to describe their own experiences with it. These days it is definitely harder to keep someone's attention than to get it so new approaches and engagement models are essential.
- Distribution – how do you get more traffic, more download volume, more registrations, more referrals, etc? Building it is only the first part, getting it into people's hands at scale is where you need to focus.
What is most ironic about Fred is that he is really, really good at what he clearly doesn't respect – marketing. He has an audience, interacts with it often to promote what is important to him, and pushes his message to the market. His post even lays out an eight step startup marketing plan.
So, let's stop with the marketing bashing, agree that an analytic approach is best, and understand that we are all trying to build great products and make them market successes.
Venture Vice 