Product growth marketing is a process, not a magic bullet

Founders understandably tend to underestimate the importance of hiring marketers . Therefore, many startups often only consider promoting their products when it is too late (of course, there are counterexamples. The mysterious AR startup Magic Leap is one of them. Magic Leap has aroused everyone's appetite before even a shadow of the product is seen, but the side effect is that everyone begins to doubt the company's strength). That's what happened to Dave Bailey of Downing Ventures, who thought long and hard about why this was happening. Here is his summary.

Builder's Dream

As CEO of my last company, I was on a mission to build great products. I wanted it to be like something fresh out of an Apple store—simple, elegant, with attention to every detail. I dream that users will tell their friends about it and write to thank us for improving their lives.

So, I set out to do the right thing with the product. I read everything I could about product management. I spent hundreds of hours interviewing customers to understand their motivations, pain points, and day-to-day activities. I prototyped it through our agile development lifecycle. Then we measured acquisition funnels, user activity goals, retention rates , and user journeys to figure out how the product was performing.

Finally, my dream came true. Our app has a higher stickiness than any other app of its kind. Users write to tell us how much they love our app. They even recommended it to their friends. There's just one small problem.

User growth is still too slow.

We never made it to Series A, and in the end, all our money was gone.

Confessions of a Builder

Growth is a big problem for early-stage technology companies. Curiously, when I ask other founders if they’ve hired a marketing person, the response is often “not yet.” It’s so much easier to spot your own mistakes when you witness others making them…I answered this way all year. This is a huge mistake.

What’s worse is that I knew it was a mistake at the time but didn’t correct it. Here’s why I never hire a marketing person. I hope this inspires other founders to make marketing an early priority and avoid the typical fate of most startups.

Myth 1: Marketing is deceptive

I used to believe that good wine will sell itself, as long as you have a good product, it will sell itself. That would be great if that were the case. But it’s not.

Great products deserve great marketing

Vincent Dignam, a growth hacker based in London, said: “The first rule of growth hacking is don’t talk about growth hacking.”

Successful companies have good reason to hide the actual drivers of their growth. In response to questions about how they are growing, they often respond with “We’re just focused on building great products for our users.” And we all tend to believe it. Not anymore.

Myth 2: Marketing starts after launch

How much can marketers achieve before a product is even launched? To me, this seems inefficient, even ineffective. Looking back, I am daunted by the length of the list of critical activities that were needlessly postponed.

For example, creating and promoting content for future customers, capturing leads with email lists, keeping leads warmed up with email newsletters, cultivating an online fan base, forming distribution partnerships, building relationships with influencers, speaking out at events, setting up evangelist programs, testing the responses of different market segments, etc.

“Market expansion” activities do not require product launches at all

I just regret that I didn't know it earlier.

Myth 3: Most marketers don’t understand products

During my first year, I interviewed a dozen marketers. I asked them to draft a marketing plan based on my experience and then explain it to me in detail. I'm waiting for someone to tell me how to generate tons of high-quality traffic to a landing page, almost instantly.

But no one gave me this silver bullet. So I didn’t recruit anyone.

Most marketing plans seem boring. One marketer told me that “Brands aren’t created overnight — it takes many months of messaging to build a reputation.” Many months? I want growth now! My money wouldn’t last “many months.” There must be a solution to this problem.

There is a solution… but it’s not the one most founders imagine. Hire a marketer before you launch your product and start marketing early.

Myth 4: Marketing too early is a recipe for disaster

What happens if users sign up early but the product launch is delayed? What if they go to the site and it crashes? What if the whole world laughed at me and said, "Dave, you quit your $150,000 job to make this crap?"

I have never said any of the above out loud. But this fear of backlash conflicts with the confidence that marketing requires. This confidence is not about me or my product, but about helping clients achieve their goals. It's the kind of confidence that my message is worth spreading sooner rather than later.

Myth 5: Hiring marketers takes too much time

Have you ever tried to articulate what a product means to a founder, only to hear “Well, that’s only one part of it, but it can do so much more.”

I used to think that effective communication of a product required detailed knowledge of the product and the business model . I am the only one who knows everything about the company, so it takes a lot of time to convey this knowledge to you.

This assumption is flawed. In contrast, someone who has less clarity on how a product actually works is often able to communicate better with others.

What happened next

After the company closed, I spent a few weeks writing down everything I had learned from the experience. I challenge myself to try to make every post I write have the biggest impact I can on other founders.

After countless hours of marketing each article, I realized that growth marketing is a process, not a magic bullet.

Every day I look for new publishers to help my ideas reach a larger and more meaningful audience. I'm constantly trying to figure out which headlines are the most effective. I keep making it easier to tweet, like, and share articles. I constantly promote my articles to relevant online communities. I do my own mailing list every day. And keep engaging with the right people on social media.

The list of ways to gain momentum is endless. Every time you think you have exhausted all your options, the situation may change or you may come up with a new solution.

Some personal advice for founders

Your startup should have someone in charge of marketing activities from day one. This matter is not to be taken up after the release. Nor is it carried out in a public relations campaign. It’s something that needs to be done every day. Building a great product is hard, but marketing it well is also hard, and you absolutely need both to win.

It requires smart, endless persistence, communication skills, the ability to forge partnerships, and of course, products are the icing on the cake. And just like product development and customer acquisition, market development takes longer than you think. Find the smartest person you know, because you need all the help you can get.

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The author of this article @ Anne compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!