Tech startups don't need Marketing, right?

So, I have heard, felt, and experienced this in the tech #startup world.

"Anyone can do marketing and messaging nowadays with the tools available, especially ChatGPT."

"We need to cut costs; let's cut marketing first because we can survive without them."

"I can do what marketing does because engineering and development is harder."

I have worked in both #technology/#engineering and #marketing, and I can tell you that both things can be challenging, but I find marketing is more complex. Here is my street cred. I graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in Chemical Engineering and worked as a Chemical Engineer for 10+ years in environmental remediation and semiconductor chemical development. Then, I spent the next 19+ years in product management and marketing for software and SaaS products and got an MBA in Marketing and Finance. So, I have a pretty good understanding of development, engineering and marketing.

Here is my take.

Problem-solving

Both developers/engineers and marketing people are looking to solve problems. Developers are tasked with creatively solving a technical or business problem. They have a specific outcome they need to achieve. Mainly, if it works technically, it will always work that way. If there are new requirements, there will be a new development project to meet that goal, but once that goal is solved, that technical solution will always work. Granted, you can improve on it, but it will still work.

In marketing, we need to solve the problem of creating demand and leads. If we find one solution, that solution will not continue to work, i.e., email outreach. You might have some success with cold email outreach, but buyers start to ignore cold emails when everyone is doing the same thing. Then you have to find another solution for the same problem.

Then, we might move to social media, but everyone uses a different social platform, and people start ignoring ads. On and on, we have to find new ways to reach the same people. The most significant challenge with marketing is people and their behaviors.

In technically solving a problem, you don't have to deal with the end user's change in behavior. Users learn how the software works and change their behavior to fit the software.

In marketing, we have to change the solution to fit the behavior.

One tool or multiple tools

Another difference is the tools developers and marketers use. Developers have an all-in-one multitool for solving their problems. They use the same multitool to develop ChatGPT, create a risk-monitoring app, and develop a digital twin of a supply chain.

Sure, programming languages or integrations are different, but they are very similar. Experts at this multitool can do amazing things, but it is only one very flexible tool.

My toolbox for marketing consists of market, competitor, and customer research; content management; SEO and SEM analysis; website analysis; ad and search spend; social listening; press relations; analyst relations; event and webinar management, etc. Marketing does not have one multi-tool that creates a successful marketing program; we must use various tools to get to multiple solutions for our one problem.

Short shelf life

In addition, Marketing has to take all the market, customer, trend, and competitor data, analyze it, and then find a solution that creates demand for maybe 1-2 years if you are lucky. Then buyer engagement drops, and you start over. We chase the behavior change of our buyers, which leads to a very short shelf life for any marketing solution.

One example that has an extremely short shelf life is content. Unlike writing a SaaS program that may be obsolete in 3-5 years, content gets old in less than five days, and then you must create more content. A content strategy must be entertaining and consistent for it to work. Here is what my content performance looks like for my Linkedin account. My content has a 1-2 day shelf life.

Think about writing a software program that only works for 1-2 days, and then you have to write another one with different goals and requirements. This would drive some people nuts, but for marketers, this is normal.

Technology vs. personality mindset

One of the main reasons I moved to Marketing from Engineering was that I loved working with people and trying to understand their psychology and behaviors. Because every buyer is different, you must try to understand their psychology of buying and what behaviors lead to purchasing. Even with analytics, a large part of it is still soft science.

Making decisions on trends with incomplete data or information. Picking up behavioral and personality queues in customer discussions or feedback, i.e., the customer will not really tell you why they purchased. The customer might say they see the value or love your speed, but the honest answer is always that they trust you and your company. But how did they gain that trust?

The most frustrating part of marketing for an engineer or developer mindset is that there is no one answer for all buyers. If there is one answer, the answer will quickly change. A great marketer is flexible and does not continually use one solution for everyone.

Time and passion

Remember that there is a reason that you developed a technology solution. It was because you love development or engineering. Why would you now want to spend your time doing something you don't enjoy, i.e., Marketing? You are experts in development, programming or engineering, so why take time away from building a great product to working on a less passionate endeavor? How good would you be if you didn't have a passion for your work?

Hiring for your tech startup

Hire marketers who are creative, flexible, undeterred, and passionate about creating trust and loyalty. Things to look for in your first marketing hire:

• They bring experience with many marketing tools, processes, and concepts.
• They have a growth mindset and love talking to buyers and customers.
• They understand how to psychologically and emotionally build trust and loyalty.
• Their marketing ideas are not copying your competitor's marketing ideas.
• They don't say they have done this before at another company and can use the same process for you.

This last point is critical. Every company has a different culture, buyer personas, products, and markets, so each marketing strategy should be customized. What worked at their last company may not work here.

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 to the company he is working for.

Here is my strong bias. Most CMOs at a startup lasts about 1-3 years. A CMO at a Fortune 500 company only lasts 4.2 years on average. So, why spend the time and money hiring a full-time CMO?

Hiring a fractional CMO or executive marketer with more experience at different companies is more affordable for a startup and can bring a team of 3rd party vendors and experts in at will. And because they are a 1099 role, you save on benefits and only pay for completed work. Frankly, if the fractional CMO does not fit your company, you did not spend months on recruiting or money on a severance package.

Let me know your thoughts on this topic, and check out my other articles here.