flying plane during golden hour

The Overview #11

Hi, I’m James. Thanks for checking out Building Momentum: a newsletter to help startup founders and marketers accelerate SaaS growth through product marketing.

What *is* marketing?

Strategy? GTM? Demand gen. Branding. Positioning. Messaging. ICP. Persona. Value. Narrative. The deck. Campaigns. Projects.

So much of marketing is communication, but we don’t agree on the foundational terms that we use in our day-to-day. Not only does alignment help internally and lead to better results, but it helps us learn from our peers and together, push the industry forward.

It’s one of the reasons why I started this newsletter: product marketing is still relatively nascent and misunderstood by product marketers, let alone by peers in marketing, sales, and product.

The concepts we use – and the practices we use – should be built and defined collaboratively.

Be everywhere, knock on the door

One of the most important things I took away from my previous role is that successful marketing and sales really is about being everywhere. This post reminded me of that: sales conversations depend on who has knocked first.

The first person gets to define the landscape, educate the buyer, and plant their position – whether that information is right, useful, or objective is another story.

Anyone knocking the door after that first conversation has to work harder. Existing paradigms create a headwind that’s hard to overcome.

Be first, be everywhere.

Focus on your audience

Did your company too rush to get on Clubhouse? Is your website full of ‘ensure’, ‘all-in-one’, and ‘best-of-breed’ platitudes? Do you track vanity metrics, or those that actually represent the value your audience and customers are gaining?

If so, you’re probably relying too much on your internal biased view of the world, and not enough from your customers.

My first post on here was about how positioning by assumption doesn’t work. Similarly, marketing by assumption doesn’t work (or at least, is a waste of time, effort, and money). Sure, you might be lucky and strike gold: but the chances are much, much less likely than relying on objective qualitative and quantitative insight.

Remember, NOHITO: Nothing Important Happens In The Office.

That’s the Overview for this week

Hope you found some interest in this edition – number 10!

Help shape Building Momentum: Shall I continue this format, or switch it up? Let me know on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading, and here’s to momentum.

James