Beware the startup marketer who has a “system”?

Yes, experience and previous marketing success matter, but flexibility, a growth mindset, and intellectual humility matter more, especially for a startup. I have worked with many B2B SaaS startups in various phases, industries, technologies, personas and markets and I have not found one marketing strategy that works for all of them.? And the marketing strategy changes as you move from $0 to $1M,? $1M to $10M, and $10M to $100M+.

I’m sorry to say #founders that there is no one magic marketing strategy that will start, grow and nurture your buyers. However, expert marketers have the building blocks to create and test strategies that will work for your specific company culture, persona, use case, industry, country and market.

When looking for your first or executive marketer, beware of marketers that have only done one type of marketing; SEO, social, ABM, email, content, SEM, video, brand, print, event, partner, word-of-mouth, etc. They may have seen success with their system at one or two companies but each company is different so that experience and success might not translate well.

The right coach for the right players

I compare this to American football coaching. Some coaches come in with an offensive methodology (run and shoot, spread, air raid, and pro-style) and try to fit the players into their offense even though they don't have the players with the right skills. This offense typically fails. A flexible coach will fit the offense to the players he has. A great marketer will fit the strategy of the company he is working for.

Startups need an experienced full-stack marketer

Look for a full-stack marketer who has done many different types of marketing and can quickly understand the company, products, markets, buyers and competitors to craft a custom strategy that works for your company.? This marketer can quickly understand buyer pain points and product benefits and uses closed-won tracking KPIs, so they can tell when the strategy must pivot to maintain growth. In other words, they are a builder and can put many different marketing lego pieces together to build a custom model for you.

This does not mean they don’t come in with templates, checklists, processes and metrics they have used before. That is very much needed as part of the building blocks.? They just need to be flexible in what should be used for your customized marketing strategy.

Their titles don’t matter as much as their experience with the marketing building blocks and their creativity. CMOs who have only done SEO/SEM and Google ads may not be the right fit for a startup that knows the 200 companies they want to target.? This startup might use an ABM strategy.

Consequences of a short marketing strategy shelf life

This marketer will bring in the right marketing specialists when a marketing channel has been found to be successful. However, as I said in a previous article , this strategy has a shelf life and a strategy pivot will need to occur. So, can this marketer pivot and create something new or is going to double down on their “system”?

Because of this short shelf life, some marketing specialists may not be needed as your startup grows and your marketing strategy changes. This is especially true in the seed to Series B stages of a startup when you are looking for your product-market fit and your go-to-market fit .

Bottom line - No perfect marketing “system”

Your first startup marketer should be a flexible, creative builder with intellectual humility and a growth mindset.? Stay away from someone who is pushing a “system” they have used before.? You will save a lot of time and money by not trying to push a “system” that does not work for your startup.