Marketing is a lot like throwing a hook into a stream and hoping with every ounce of your soul that something takes. Of course you know which fish you are after, you know what bait is likely to be more appealing and more, but there’s only so much you can control. Marketing at a startup is even harder as you don’t often have the luxury of extensive research, pilot studies and so on.

2. Marketing, Fishing and Startups
Contents!
• Targeting
• Build castles in the air
• The knowledge curse
• Perfection is a myth
Marketing is a lot like throwing a hook into a stream and hoping with every ounce of your soul that
something takes. Of course you know which fish you are after, you know what bait is likely to be
more appealing and more, but there’s only so much you can control.
!
Marketing at a startup is even harder as you don’t often have the luxury of extensive research,
pilot studies and so on. Here’s some of what we learned.

3. Targeting
• We always try to sell to our worst critic. That way we get to ensure a strong customer
acquisition focus to everything we say or do.
• Start with the assumption that most people are looking for an excuse to leave or drop out
and do the best you to ensure they don’t find one.
Build castles in the air
• Build all the castles you want, just ensure that you’ve at least got the bricks you need.
• Getting an early start with the marketing efforts while the product is still in the works is
usually a great advantage, especially if you need some hype to increase your visibility.
• Be careful not to go overboard with it and market something you don’t intend to build.

4. The knowledge curse
• Marketing at its core about getting a message out to a target group of people, but it doesn’t
stop there. Like every good marketer knows, the interesting bit is what happens to the
message as it spreads on. Build castles in the air
• A simple enough message might be perceived very differently by two people.
• Pull in outsiders to take a look at what you do, this will give you an unique outsider
perspective. What you think is amazing copy or a great idea might elicit surprising and often
insightful observations.
• The familiar Einstein quote “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough”
often applies perfectly to marketing as well. Bring in a lay person and test your copy or idea
on them. If they don’t seem to get it, maybe it is time to go back to the drawing board.
Perfection is a myth
• There’s always something else you can add or change, the trick lies in knowing when to
stop.
• Building up to a release with incremental a/b tested changes is a better approach

5. Find out the “why” behind your marketing data
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