This topic has been on my mind lately. It can really be summed up in the “old school” vs “new school” debate. I know it’s not that simple, but bear with me.
The No. 1 question my team has received as we prepare to launch Junta42 is about marketing. How are you going to market? What kind of space are you going to buy? Investing in a sales force? What’s the marketing plan? And so on and so forth.
Don’t get me wrong, these are all good questions, but my fundamental belief is that the marketing and business models (for the majority of us) have changed. Here are some basic observations that I’ve found that relate to the new school of marketing and business development:
1. Traditional marketing goes the way of the dodo. Look at the Web 2.0 launches that are successful (Digg, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon). All of these, as far as I know, did little to no traditional marketing at all.
Old school – You have to target your audience by placing your message in credible publications.
New school – Create a product that solves a problem and get the message to the bloggers and users to try it out. Tell everyone about it.
2. Products are always a work in progress.
Old school – Do as best you can to perfect the product before you launch.
New school – Get the product out there as fast as possible, gather feedback, improve product, continue process.
3. PR is less important than article marketing.
Old school – Hire a PR specialist to execute a public relations program for you.
New school – Create tons of great content, blog about it, talk to others who use the internet about it, send notes to bloggers (even help them write their postings), and maybe send a press release (we must be legit, right?).
4. Staffing up sometimes can hinder execution.
Old school – Hiring good people is a prerequisite to creating a great company.
New school – Passion is the key to execution. Don’t bog yourself down with HR issues. Outsource like crazy until you realize you should have hired someone 6 months ago.
5. Be careful with how you analyze feedback.
Old school – Listen to your mentors. They’ve done this before. Don’t make the same mistakes they did.
New school – From Mark Fletcher (startupping.com): “People will think your idea sucks. They’re probably even right. The only way to prove them wrong is to succeed.”
6. Don’t wait for a new idea.
Old school – A new business needs to create something new and different to catch on.
New school – A new business needs to solve a problem, even if a thousand other people have thought of it and there are 10 other tools on the web that seem to do the same thing. Brilliance is ultimately not the idea anyway, it’s in the execution.
7. Organization is overrated.
Old school – In order for a new business to succeed, the team must be organized and develop a business plan that makes sense.
New school – Screw the business plan. Get out there and get something done. Sell something. Create something. Save the business plan for when you need a loan or are looking for investors. If you really want to create a plan, try a “to-do” list.
Now, go out there and create something that makes an impact!
