Comments on: News To Startup CEOs: You Can’t Outsource Marketing

By: Evil Marketers | Market By Numbers

Evil Marketers | Market By Numbers — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:57:34 +0000

[...] should avoid hiring marketers, that marketers only do PR, random positioning, and branding, CEOs should formulate marketing strategy are [...]

By: Twitter Trackbacks for Chris Moody - Marketing Strategy for Startups | ChrisMoody.com [chrismoody.com] on Topsy.com

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 04:32:25 +0000

[...] Chris Moody – Marketing Strategy for Startups | ChrisMoody.com chrismoody.com/startup-marketing – view page – cached Chris Moody discusses marketing strategy for startups — From the page [...]

By: sim stewart

sim stewart — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 12:34:55 +0000

Thanks for the post Chris, I can really relate to what you’re saying. We’re about to launch a new website and the marketing is proving to be more complicated than expected. Originally we thought we could outsource marketing but we’ve yet to find anyone that can add real value and direction. We’ve reached the conclusion that we’re going to have to do it ourselves for the short to medium term future.

Another factor that complicates things is that a lot of what we’re doing is trial and error. Just look at Twitter, they’re changing the service in reaction to what the users want. It’s difficult to build coherent marketing strategies for services that are in constant evolution.

Sim

By: Chris Moody

Chris Moody — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 22:59:57 +0000

Joel,

Agree 100%. Chris

By: Joel Andren (@joelandren)

Joel Andren (@joelandren) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:39:12 +0000

Hi Chris,

I’m with you 100% that a startup founder should learn as much about marketing and be as involved as possible in setting direction.

My concern is that more often than not a startup CEO chooses a marketing plan and strategic direction based on the product they want to build (or think they have) rather than the product the customer wants. This happens because they are in love with their idea and their vision.Telling someone like this to take control of marketing is a recipe of disaster.

However, if the startup CEO is interested in customer development and clearly defines a feedback loop and makes product and marketing decisions based on feedback rather than vision, then I think they are much more likely to be successful.

-Joel

By: Chris Moody - Marketing Strategy for Startups | ChrisMoody.com BEC Development Blog

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:49:38 +0000

[...] more here: Chris Moody – Marketing Strategy for Startups | ChrisMoody.com Posted in Object, Outsource, business, software. Tags: a-marketing-person, about, brant-cooper, [...]

By: Chris Moody

Chris Moody — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:27:03 +0000

Mike, totally agree. Thanks.

By: Mike McClure

Mike McClure — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:11:44 +0000

At the very early stages, there are other avenues to pursue that don’t involve hiring a marketing person (totally agree with #3!).

There’s your advisory board, peers, mentors, consultants and even competitors. Someone on that list will surely have advice for helping you build your marketing plan; one that is well integrated with your product and its development.

Using these resources can get you to a place where your marketing hire won’t stand idle or drive you crazy.

Mike

By: Chris Moody

Chris Moody — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:58:47 +0000

Joe, thanks for your comments. I’m not trying to eliminate or disrespect the role of marketers. Actually, all of my customers work in marketing and I have great respect for them. I really think we are talking about two fundamentally different things. The point of my post is that many EARLY stage CEOs won’t even know the fundamentals of who their target customer should be at the time they go to seek funding. Bringing on a CMO at this point is too early. If the CMO is going to make decisions about “who is our customer”, the CMO should be the CEO.

I think your .NET example illustrates the difference in what we are discussing. If you are the CEO of a early (pre-funding) stage tech startup, I believe you should have knowledge and opinion about what technology platform is selected. To decide that you don’t know anything about technology and so you are going to outsource all technology decisions to a CTO would be a big mistake. If technology is going to drive your company, and you are the CEO…you better know something about technology.

Thanks again.

By: Chris Moody

Chris Moody — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:49:58 +0000

Brant, Thanks for you comments. I suspect we agree more than we disagree. My post is really about EARLY stage startups. Ultimately most companies need a CMO as they mature (some much sooner than others). I definitely don’t like the idea of a CEO who acts as the CMO as a long term solution. My main point is that some early stage CEOs don’t even stop to think about marketing. They assume they will outsource it from the start and that is a mistake in my opinion.