Why Another Marketing Blog?

A couple of the questions that may arise as you open this first post is does the world really need another marketing blog and isn’t 2014 a bit late to be starting one?

The simple answers are:

• Yes, the world needs a blog focused on what marketing can do to make a start-up successful; which is fundamentally different than marketing at larger, established companies or small business (although there are similarities).
• No, it isn’t too late to be starting one as a blog is an important content marketing vehicle and I should practice what I preach. Plus, this isn’t my first blog, as some of you may know me from Dude, It’s Marketing (more on this below).

Now clearly, there are other marketing blogs for start-ups and several marketing blogs talk about principles that are crucial to start-ups too but putting these together is what’s needed in my humble opinion. So what will make this blog unique?

First, there are several fundamental marketing activities that a start-up must do which a larger company has already accomplished, including everything from creating a brand to developing a marketing toolbox that can be used to help land that crucial first customer.  This blog will explore all of those activities in detail and show how they can be executed as part of a successful corporate launch and integrated into ongoing marketing campaigns.

Second, I believe marketing and sales need to be inextricably linked for a start-up, or any technology company for that matter, to be successful. But this is rarely the case. And even less likely is that the start-up is truly marketing and sales driven preferring to build a cool product and hope that the customers will come.

This dumbfounds me as a company, especially a startup, will not be successful unless it is generating revenue which will only happen by selling product or services that solve problems for your target customers. Seems simple enough but rarely handled that way. Why is that?

These two fundamental points: that a startup is different and that sales and marketing need to be aligned to drive the company are at the core of what I want to talk about on this blog, which draws from my experiences launching several successful startups.

Hope you enjoy. Please leave comments on any post with your thoughts or email me (bziolo “at” yahoo “dot” com) any time.

P. S. For former Dude, It’s Marketing readers, you may be wondering why I decided to relaunch with a new domain and not just a redesign. Well, I wanted to consolidate my blog with my personal website since they are really one and the same while also expanding the scope of Dude, It’s Marketing to cover business development and sales insights for technology startups too. [I do know I’m breaking a number of blogging and SEO best practices by taking this approach but so be it as I want a fresh start.]

P. P. S. Dude, It’s Marketing will eventually be redirected here but don’t worry I’ll transfer, repurpose and/or update the content for this blog.