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Ask HN: Build it and they will come or 50% marketing?

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Re: Ask HN: Build it and they will come or 50% marketing?

#11

Post by siquick »

Slightly off topic but very relevant:

A lot of products fail because the entrepreneur built a product that noone wants.

You'd be better off validating your idea before you spend any time building.

Analyse any existing products in your space and contact your target market and ask them if they want your product and if not, why not. You'll learn so much more doing this than you will spending 90% of your time building. :-)

I'd also add that building a pre-launch presence is essential. The more people you can get to sign up to your email list/social media accounts, the bigger audience you will have to launch to.

Re: Ask HN: Build it and they will come or 50% marketing?

#12

Post by chadholt »

MalcolmDiggs wrote: post #10

IMHO: In most cases, dedicating 50% of your time to marketing is a good idea. The notable exceptions would be: * Your growth model relies on virality. (In which case, as long as you have some traffic, that should be enough to test your model and potentially start growing). * Your growth model relies on SEO (in which case, you should spend time on that, not direct marketing) * Your growth model relies on referrals. (T…

Even if your growth model relies on virality, seo, referrals, you should run some marketing tasks to validate your idea.

For example SEO takes a really long time to kick in. You do not want to build a product and work on SEO, only to realize a few years later after site has gone up in the SERPs that you built something no one wants. A better approach is to run some ads before (and during) you build your product to validate it. Even if the ads are not cost effective, initially it is worth paying for validation.

Re: Ask HN: Build it and they will come or 50% marketing?

#13

Post by siquick »

chadholt wrote: post #12
MalcolmDiggs wrote: post #10

IMHO: In most cases, dedicating 50% of your time to marketing is a good idea. The notable exceptions would be: * Your growth model relies on virality. (In which case, as long as you have some traffic, that should be enough to test your model and potentially start growing). * Your growth model relies on SEO (in which case, you should spend time on that, not direct marketing) * Your growth model relies on referrals. (T…

Even if your growth model relies on virality, seo, referrals, you should run some marketing tasks to validate your idea. For example SEO takes a really long time to kick in. You do not want to build a product and work on SEO, only to realize a few years later after site has gone up in the SERPs that you built something no one wants. A better approach is to run some ads before (and during) you build your product to va…

this x 10

One of the most effective ways I've found to validate is to put up a landing page with a brief overview of your offering and, explain that you'll be launching soon and ask the user to enter their email address into a Mailchimp-linked signup box.

Then spend $30 on super-targeted Facebook/Google ads for your niche and make sure you ad links to the landing page.

If 25-30% of visitors enter their email address then you're onto something.

Re: Ask HN: Build it and they will come or 50% marketing?

#14

Post by davismwfl »

The reality is that 70% is marketing and 20% is customer service and 10% is product. We could argue the actual percentages, but the majority is getting the word out, the next part is taking care of people and the least part is the actual product.

I have been part of products that were in all ways were superior to others but failed miserably either from a lack of marketing or a lack of taking care of the clients. But I have never been part of a product that had superior marketing and customer service that failed. Not that I think it is impossible, it is just that you get so much opportunity to succeed that it would take a serious effort to fail IMO.

Re: Ask HN: Build it and they will come or 50% marketing?

#15

Post by siquick »

davismwfl wrote: post #14

The reality is that 70% is marketing and 20% is customer service and 10% is product. We could argue the actual percentages, but the majority is getting the word out, the next part is taking care of people and the least part is the actual product. I have been part of products that were in all ways were superior to others but failed miserably either from a lack of marketing or a lack of taking care of the clients. But…

Are you classing Sales under Marketing here?

For so many B2B products, direct sales will beat most other acquisition channels.

Re: Ask HN: Build it and they will come or 50% marketing?

#16

Post by Gustomaximus »

Evidence for both exist in the wild. 'Build it and they will come' seems the more elusive, so in a generalist sense I would go with the 50% marketing. That said I'm a marketer so what can you expect!

In my sphere I've seen so many companies over focus on the product and be dismissive of marketing when It's clear they can grow there business cost effectively via advertising.

I've also seen business throw money down the drain trying to buy their way to success and unreasonably overcome the product weakness.

IMO the key is measurement of success/failure with marketing. And balance in product/marketing focus. I read a great book that covers some of this call 'In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters'.

Re: Ask HN: Build it and they will come or 50% marketing?

#17

Post by zuckerei »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #16

Evidence for both exist in the wild. 'Build it and they will come' seems the more elusive, so in a generalist sense I would go with the 50% marketing. That said I'm a marketer so what can you expect! In my sphere I've seen so many companies over focus on the product and be dismissive of marketing when It's clear they can grow there business cost effectively via advertising. I've also seen business throw money down th…

Thanks. Looks like there is broad consens for the 50% formula.

Re: Ask HN: Build it and they will come or 50% marketing?

#18

Post by rajnikant »

Never waste your time to make the product perfect, Always follow the steps of lean startup. Launch MVP (minimum value product) first and that too don't launch directly. firstly beta launch it. there are many platforms which will provide you the beta testers and early adopters.

Trust me once you beta launch your product early adopters will give you many useful tips and most important the subscribe button and review of early adopters will give the idea that whether your product is needed in the market and upto what extent and what changes needs to be done

There review will help you to determine the direction of development and they can even help you to determine the reasonable cost of the product(if you ask them for it)

I have made this mistake so please never spent countless hours in development just because you think its needed in the market take the review and idea validation from experts.

Re: Ask HN: Build it and they will come or 50% marketing?

#19

Post by davismwfl »

siquick wrote: post #15
davismwfl wrote: post #14

The reality is that 70% is marketing and 20% is customer service and 10% is product. We could argue the actual percentages, but the majority is getting the word out, the next part is taking care of people and the least part is the actual product. I have been part of products that were in all ways were superior to others but failed miserably either from a lack of marketing or a lack of taking care of the clients. But…

Are you classing Sales under Marketing here? For so many B2B products, direct sales will beat most other acquisition channels.

Yes, just as broad groupings. Marketing in this case would cover Bus Dev, Sales etc, where Product would cover engineering, R&D etc.

In my experience it is all about getting the word out and taking care of the customers you get. Doesn't mean you can ignore the product just that you have to be out focusing on clients more than product usually to get traction. As you scale then the mix gets more balanced in my experience, but still favors Marketing & Customer Service.

Re: Ask HN: Build it and they will come or 50% marketing?

#20

Post by PerfectElement »

siquick wrote: post #13
chadholt wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if your growth model relies on virality, seo, referrals, you should run some marketing tasks to validate your idea. For example SEO takes a really long time to kick in. You do not want to build a product and work on SEO, only to realize a few years later after site has gone up in the SERPs that you built something no one wants. A better approach is to run some ads before (and during) you build your product to va…

this x 10 One of the most effective ways I've found to validate is to put up a landing page with a brief overview of your offering and, explain that you'll be launching soon and ask the user to enter their email address into a Mailchimp-linked signup box. Then spend $30 on super-targeted Facebook/Google ads for your niche and make sure you ad links to the landing page. If 25-30% of visitors enter their email address…

Is $30 statistically significant? Depending on the keyword, this could bring only 10 people to your website.
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