Truth be told, many startups are afraid of marketing. While they have no problem spending money on product development and sales, marketing is regarded as a necessary evil.
Here are six reasons why they think twice about marketing.
1. They don’t understand it. As Stuart and Francis make abundantly clear, most startups don’t understand marketing. It’s not part of their skill-set, experience or DNA. In other words, they don’t know what they don’t know. This makes it difficult to understand the role and value of marketing. It has nothing to do with knowledge or expertise but, rather, a grasp on a different, but important, topic.
2. It costs money. Let’s face it, marketing costs money to make happen – whether you’re doing it in-house, through freelancers or via consultants. When given the choice between hiring a salesperson, who generates revenue, and a marketing person, who eats revenue, it is easy to understand why it’s easier for startups to pick the former. The key thing startups need to understand is marketing works when the amount of new business coming in outweighs the amount being spent on marketing. Of course, it is impossible to see how this would work if you don’t do any marketing.