Subscribe by Email

Your email:

What is HubSpot?

MQLButton_IMA

Connect with Mike

Latest Posts

Marketing with Mike Volpe

Current Articles | RSS Feed RSS Feed

Marketing Comes Before the Product

Posted by Mike Volpe on Thu, Feb 05, 2009
 

cart before horse marketingSeth Godin is a smart dude.  This article talks about how you should start marketing before you have a product.  This is something I have talked about a lot at HubSpot on our blog, in webinars and in interviews.

For startups, you used to spend 1-2 years building a product and then hire a marketing guy or gal.  Now a marketing pro should be part of the founding team.  Build an audience of fans, beta testers, future customers.  No product required.

Start Marketing Before You Have a Product

  • Start blogging before you have a product.
  • Start engaging in social media before you have a product.
  • Start SEO before you have a product.
  • Start building your database and capturing leads before you have a product.
  • There is nothing stopping you, and it makes product launches easy.

HubSpot started marketing before we had finished the product.  Its one of the reasons we got to 1,000 customers so fast.  You should try it too.

PS - If you want to get started, there's a free trial of inbound marketing software at www.HubSpot.com (if you're lucky - it goes up and down as we test some things).

Flickr Photo credit: http://flickr.com/photos/learnscope/  

Tags: , ,

COMMENTS

It's an old trick really. I think Marilyn Manson marketed the scary kids and the lunchbox shows and all long before he learned to even sing well enough to get signed. It's all about presentation and knowing how, when and where to market something. It's amazing, really. I so enjoy hubspot and am watching your tweets now:) Just finished one of your '08 webinars on rethinking marketing: all about new SEO parameters and how they affect business marketing strategies in the online market. Very interesting:)

posted @ Thursday, February 05, 2009 12:02 PM by SPDworks

Amen. I am planning on setting up a call with you Mike in the near future and this posting is very appropo to the conversation I hope to have with you.

posted @ Thursday, February 05, 2009 4:25 PM by Michael Satterwhite

Mike, I am a big fan of Seth's also. When I got Seth's post on this originally I did not look at the clip. But I just did and I noticed how "sticky" the presentation was. Not enough room here to debate the matter, but I think all the SUCCESs principles were achieved. Most of all it was CONCRETE, EMOTIONAL, and told a STORY. And you can easily make a case for SIMPLE, UNEXPECTED, CREDIBLE. 
 
Good luck on your daily post routine. Do you find yourself thinking differently as you work or observe with a "how can I write about this" attitude?

posted @ Thursday, February 05, 2009 7:40 PM by David Moore

@David - Yeah, I do think a little bit more as I go through my day about "could I blog this?" We'll see how I feel after a month of it.

posted @ Friday, February 06, 2009 7:52 AM by Mike Volpe

Comments have been closed for this article.