Why Most Marketers Suck
Fred Wilson (whose blog I love) wrote a couple of posts last week about startup marketing. The first one ended by stating that “Marketing is for companies who have sucky products.” The second clarified what he meant by marketing (paid customer acquisition more or less) and that he was only talking about the space where he invests (“big breakout companies in the consumer web”). Whether or not I agree with him on that is NOT the subject of this post (I’ve never done marketing at a “big breakout company in the customer web” so I’ll assume Fred knows what he’s talking about there). But something else he said in the second post got me thinking:
…I’ll also say that I have seen “marketing professionals” do a lot of damage to our portfolio companies over the years. Most of the damage has come from outsourced marketing relationships with agencies who charge too much and help too little. But I will also say that marketing hires in our companies have had the lowest success rate of any hire and there are many so called experts who have turned out to be bad and expensive hires.
I’m angry at the marketing profession for these transgressions over the years and it spilled out into my post. I’m not proud of that but it is what it is.
In short – it’s not really marketing that’s the problem, it’s those lousy marketers. Ouch.
My instant reaction to Fred’s post was “I know a lot of great marketers, why are Fred’s companies hiring the bad ones?”
But then I got an email yesterday from a friend looking for a VP Marketing at a very cool venture-backed startup. “Know any kick-ass marketers?” he asked. And I could only think of 2.
I Agree with Fred! Wait, No I Don’t.
In addition to being a career marketer (17 years and counting), I’ve hired, fired and managed dozens of marketers. And yet, here’s an awesome marketing job and out of all the marketers I know, I can only think of 2 I would recommend.
“OMG!” I thought to myself, “I’m just like Fred – I think pretty much all marketers suck!”
But then I remembered who those other marketers are. They aren’t rotten marketers – they just aren’t right for that particular job. Some are branding folks and this job requires skill in lead generation. Some are specialists (writers, SEO experts, etc.), this job needs a generalist. Some have only big company experience, this job needs an experienced startup marketer. Many of these folks are “kick-ass marketers”. Just not for this job.
No wonder Fred’s had such a hard time hiring marketers! There are so many different kinds of them out there, you need to be a marketing expert just to decipher the resumes!
Marketing Skill – It Isn’t Just One Thing
I refuse to believe that there are more bad marketers out there than there are bad programmers or sales people. But I also believe Fred’s right that the failure rate in senior Marketing positions at startups is high (I’ve certainly mopped up after a few). Why? I think companies often hire the wrong marketer for the job and marketers sometimes accept the wrong job. Both problems stem from the fact that “Marketing” means many different things.
The first step to hiring a great marketer (and for marketers to land a job they won’t suck at) is to clearly understand what you mean by “marketing”. It’s a multi-faceted job that can include (but doesn’t always!):
- Advertising
- Branding
- Product Management
- Lead Generation
- Install base/Customer engagement strategy and tactics
- Inbound Marketing and/or SEO
- Sales Support
- Market Strategy
- Messaging/Positioning
- Channel strategy/management/marketing
- Partnerships and partner marketing
- Media and Analyst Relations
- Content strategy and creation
- Other stuff that I don’t even know about
Don’t forget that skill in doing these at a large company is NOT equivalent to doing these at a startup and also how you do these things differs wildly for different types of companies (B2B vs. B2C, complex sales vs. non-complex sales, etc.).
Most marketers will have majored in some of these and minored in others. Determining which skills you want in a marketer is a good first step in narrowing down suitable candidates. Marketers, on the other hand, need to acknowledge that they ARE NOT experts in everything and probe harder in interviews to make sure their skills align with the job requirements.
But Be Careful What You Wish For
Unfortunately even if you have a good grasp of how to identify the marketer you want, they still might fail because what you wanted wasn’t what you needed. I spoke to a CEO recently that wanted a VP marketing with a background ONLY in inbound marketing where I saw a need for someone senior that could think strategically beyond inbound tactics. I talked to another looking for a “digital marketing expert” as their CMO while their current marketing mix included a lot of non-digital tactics that seemed to be working just fine. I might be wrong but I felt like the narrow way they had defined the jobs set the candidates up for failure.
But April, I’m Hiring a Marketer Because I Don’t Understand This Stuff – HELP!
In my opinion the best way to figure out what type of candidate you need is to talk to a lot of people. Talk to CEO’s and VC’s of companies like yours and ask them – Have they hired a bad marketer? What did they learn? Have they hired a good marketer? What made them good? (Aside – I wish Fred would write a post on THAT!) Talk to experienced marketing folks that aren’t potential candidates and ask them – What sort of marketer would be a fit for my company? What skills should they have? What should I look for on their resumes? Do that and I think you will be less likely to end up with a marketer that sucks (for your marketing job that is).
(P.S. Back when I was running an consulting business I created this picture to help clients understand what I could (and couldn’t) help them with. B2B product marketing folks might find that helpful as a starting point to define what they do.)
Category: Startups
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RT @JanetAronica Awesome post. "Why Most Marketers Suck" http://bit.ly/eG26Jm
RT @pveugen Why Most Marketers Suck http://revw.us/fdMvOc
#Marketing Skill – It Isn’t Just One Thing http://ht.ly/47EiA #prodmgmt #advertising #prodmktg #branding #innovation #management #MBA
RT @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck http://bit.ly/ij7jQM
[...] updates on this topic.Powered by WP Greet Box WordPress Plugin The following is a repost from the RocketWatcher Blog on Startup Marketing. But never the less the following material on what a Startup Marketer needs is pure gold and we [...]
I think this article was brilliant. When interviewing potential clients I can give a much clearer structure to what their expectations for what I am to do will be.
Thank you, I totally saved that list to evernote!
Hey thanks Anthony – glad you found it useful
April
Thought-provoking post from @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck http://bit.ly/ij7jQM
RT @michelelinn: Thought-provoking post from @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck http://bit.ly/ij7jQM
RT @michelelinn: Thought-provoking post from @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck http://bit.ly/ij7jQM Agree!
RT @ardath421: RT @michelelinn: Thought-provoking post from @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck http://bit.ly/ij7jQM Agree!
Especially for emerging tech vendors RT @michelelinn: Thought-provoking post by @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck http://bit.ly/ij7jQM
RT @michelelinn: Thought-provoking post from @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck http://bit.ly/ij7jQM Interesting skills list
Very good post from last week by @aprildunford about why most marketers suck (hint: It's not their fault necessarily): http://bit.ly/hP1gLt
RT @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck http://bit.ly/ij7jQM
RT @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck http://bit.ly/ij7jQM
RT @samuraiwriter99 RT @ardath421 RT @michelelinn: Thought-provoking post from @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck http://bit.ly/ij7jQM
[...] Dunford’s Why Most Marketers Suck, I refuse to believe that there are more bad marketers out there than there are bad programmers or [...]
So right on. Great posts. Thank you for fun and approachable, yet valuable content about all things market, marketing and marketer related. -Promise
Thanks so much!
April
RT @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck http://bit.ly/ij7jQM
Why Most Marketers Suck http://bit.ly/ij7jQM (stick with this post, it makes good points!) by @aprildunford
Why Most Marketers Suck http://bit.ly/ij7jQM @aprildunford nails it, thx 2 @barrettrossie for share
Fred is right, most marketers suck, but so do most engineers, programmers, sales people, controllers, CFOs, and all others. I’ve worked with numerous start-ups for more than 15 years, and those exceptional people in any profession are exactly that – rare. You can’t build an company based upon the assumption that you’ll get superstars, you have to build it based upon the average or above average.
The problem in start-ups is it easy to cast the blame on marketing person, after all there is usually only one. Start-ups can’t hire a college hire for marketing, they have no one to guide them and most have no real experience. You can’t hire from big companies because experience tends to have specialized in one small area of the overall marketing function. You need a start-up marketing person and they aren’t easy to find. Less funding over the last few years, means fewer start-ups and hence fewer people with the overall marketing experience needed to be the lone marketing person in a start-up. And finding someone with start-up marketing experience from the bubble doesn;t work either, start-ups in the bubble didn’t have the pressure to perform like today and the operated in a more serial fashion.
Start-ups don’t fail because they can’t develop the product. The first big hurdle is marketing. Yet, how much money is dedicated to marketing versus product development. Most start-ups are 80%+ developers. Yet, marketing is 1 person and sometimes a part-time job attached to the founder. If you look at publicly traded companies, you’ll find marketing expenses are often 1.5x to 3x development expenses, so why is it that marketing gets less the development in a start-up. Saying that marketing sucks may be the easily identified symptom, but I suspect the cause of the problem is deeper.
Thanks for the comment Cynthia,
I agree that there are times when the Marketer is the expendable crew member of the startup team and can take the fall for what is a more strategic problem with the overall business. I also agree that marketing at startups is often under-funded, not so much in terms of programs but definitely in terms of what startups are willing to give up for great talent. Great startup marketing talent is really RARE! It’s not going to be cheap!
On the program spending side, I think the problem is more that startups often don’t know when to put their foot on the gas in terms of spending. They tend to want to start small with the budget and then gradually increase it. In reality, startups often should be spending nothing on customer acquisition in the early days while they are still working on product and figuring out their market. Once they know they have a great product for a market that is willing to pay however, they need to invest as much as they can. That step-wise function increase in spending is often really hard for startups to get their heads around.
Thanks
April
RT @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck http://bit.ly/ij7jQM
When I’m hiring a marketer its not the marketing disciplines/skills experience that is top of my list. It’s their mindset. Do they have a passion, natural curiousity for wanting to learn about and understand their customers/audiences/products? If they are they’ll succeed. Smart people can learn a discipline but it’s harder to change a mindset, especially an experienced one. A lousy marketer will probably not be listening and learning enough. And there are a surprising number out there who don’t exhibit that marketing 101 behaviour.
RT @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck http://t.co/x8uqOkaA
I just like this saying as it's BOLD: “Marketing is for companies who have sucky products.” http://t.co/ym8EM1tl
RT @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck http://t.co/lKnuKWKT
I couldn't agree more! RT @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck http://t.co/z5BQbfCT #in
RT @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck http://t.co/aqnQGc9R
RT @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck? Find out here http://t.co/j3S0KHSV
RT @aprildunford: Why Most Marketers Suck? Find out here http://t.co/j3S0KHSV