“Once our [infrastructure/business plan/product line/funding] is finished, then we’ll look into marketing.”

 

This has been the fundamental business approach for 60 years. Marketing is what you do after everything else is in place. Once you have all your ducks in a row, then you can think about spending money on marketing.

This thinking is especially true among start-ups. Marketing is the final frontier they try to conquer after the product is stable, or the board of directors is set, or the office space is furnished.

 

This thinking is outdated, and can cost you a lot of time and money.

 

Now that we are in the Connection Economy, you need to stop thinking of marketing as throwing ads at strangers, hoping they will stick. Smart marketing in the modern age is about building your reputation in a specific community.

 

The book-publishing world provides a great example. First-time, well-qualified authors used to be able to submit a book to a publisher, and distributers were able to market the book to strangers and sell lots of copies.

That doesn’t happen anymore.

Now publishers won’t listen to you unless you already come with a large audience in hand. They seek out bloggers who lead communities in the tens of thousands and ask them to write a book, because they know that the audience is the asset.

 

In the business context, imagine pitching your new start-up to an investor. You have a fabulous idea that meets an important need and a solid core team.

Now imagine the same situation, except that you can also say you have a list of thousands of people who are excited about your launch. You’ve just gone from being a promising idea to a surefire success that no investor would pass up. [And, if you are smart in how you build your reputation in a community, you may never need to approach any investor.]

 

What we are really talking about is ‘community marketing’. Content happens to be the smartest way to build a great reputation in that community.

If you are doing mass media marketing, by all means wait until everything is set up and perfect. But if you want to tap into the potential of the kind of marketing that builds communities, you can never start too early.