That's great in theory. Unfortunately, many great products aren't by nature viral and need to find other ways to gain awareness.
Getting press is just one component of getting awareness, along with content marketing, SEO and other tools. None of this takes away from building a great product.
I guess you didn't see the Amazon drone on 60 Minutes? Marketing, showmanship, etc are very important for companies and products. Here, I think you should take a business course:
" Marketing is possibly the most important activity a business can partake in. It is the one activity that most directly affects the amount of recognition and sales that a company gets and this determines the level of profitability"
And to quote Edwin Land: Marketing is what you do when you have an inferior product.
LOL. It doesn't matter if you have the most awesome product ever invented, if nobody knows you have it, and your homepage is buried on page 17 of the Google results, beneath 42 competitors with similar products.
Marketing is business. And that's tough for me to say, being an engineer by trade. But since launching a startup, I've come to realize the simple, plain, truth... marketing matters. A lot.
Airbnb and Pinterest are major successes both of which weren't like this. It was a long, hard slog to get traction and that wasn't them sitting back. Sure, the product needs to be great, but don't underestimate what you will need to do to get users to adopt.
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Good info. As a tech founder, this marketing/PR stuff is what I need the most schooling in.
I'm in the same boat as you. Need to learn these kind of things to complement my skills as a tech founder.
Thanks for the article.
If you have a great product it should speak for itself.
That's great in theory. Unfortunately, many great products aren't by nature viral and need to find other ways to gain awareness.
Getting press is just one component of getting awareness, along with content marketing, SEO and other tools. None of this takes away from building a great product.
Sorry but this sounds to me like "if you build it they will come"
I don't understsnd why this person is being downvoted. Even Jeff Bezos said words to the same effect when on Charlie Rose.
To paraphrase he said 70% of your marketing effort should go into building a better product.
It's not some sort of naive idealism. It's reality.
And to quote Edwin Land: Marketing is what you do when you have an inferior product.
Sounds like horrible advice.
I guess you didn't see the Amazon drone on 60 Minutes? Marketing, showmanship, etc are very important for companies and products. Here, I think you should take a business course:
" Marketing is possibly the most important activity a business can partake in. It is the one activity that most directly affects the amount of recognition and sales that a company gets and this determines the level of profitability"
https://www.udemy.com/blog/importance-of-marketing/
And to quote Edwin Land: Marketing is what you do when you have an inferior product.
LOL. It doesn't matter if you have the most awesome product ever invented, if nobody knows you have it, and your homepage is buried on page 17 of the Google results, beneath 42 competitors with similar products.
Marketing is business. And that's tough for me to say, being an engineer by trade. But since launching a startup, I've come to realize the simple, plain, truth... marketing matters. A lot.
Airbnb and Pinterest are major successes both of which weren't like this. It was a long, hard slog to get traction and that wasn't them sitting back. Sure, the product needs to be great, but don't underestimate what you will need to do to get users to adopt.
Any reads relating to this?
Startup School links: Pinterest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JLc2PYyCa0 Airbnb: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOytubycHOg
The product may speak for itself, but what if there is no one to listen? :-)
I wish this were so.