In typical 37signals fashion, the wisdom in these pages is edgy yet

Marketing is not a department
Do you have a marketing department? If not, good. If you do, don't think
these are the only people responsible for marketing. Accounting is a
department. Marketing isn't. Marketing is something everyone in your
company is doing 24/7/365.
Just as you cannot not communicate, you cannot not market:
Every time you answer the phone, it's marketing.
Every time you send an e-mail, it's marketing.
Every time someone uses your product, it's marketing.
Every word you write on your Web site is marketing.
If you build software, every error message is marketing.
If you're in the restaurant business, the after-dinner mint is marketing.
If you're in the retail business, the checkout counter is marketing.
If you're in a service business, your invoice is marketing.
Recognize that all of these little things are more important than choosing
which piece of swag to throw into a conference goodie bag. Marketing isn't
just a few individual events. It's the sum total of everything you do.

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The myth of the overnight sensation
You will not be a big hit right away. You will not get rich quick. You are not
so special that everyone else will instantly pay attention. No one cares about
you. At least not yet. Get used to it.
You know those overnight-success stories you've heard about? It's not the
whole story. Dig deeper and you'll usually find people who have busted
their asses for years to get into a position where things could take off. And
on the rare occasion that instant success does come along, it usually doesn't
last--there's no foundation there to support it.
Trade the dream of overnight success for slow, measured growth. It's
hard, but you have to be patient. You have to grind it out. You have to do it
for a long time before the right people notice.
You may think you can speed up the process by hiring a PR firm. Don't
bother. You're just not ready for that yet. For one thing, it's too expensive.
Good PR firms can cost upward of $10,000 per month. That's a waste of
money right now.
Plus, you're still just a no-name with a product no one's ever heard about.
Who's going to write about that? Once you have some customers and a
history, you'll have a story to tell. But just launching isn't a good story.
And remember, great brands launch without PR campaigns all the time.
Starbucks, Apple, Nike, Amazon, Google, and Snapple all became great
brands over time, not because of a big PR push upfront.
Start building your audience today. Start getting people interested in what
you have to say. And then keep at it. In a few years, you too will get to
chuckle when people discuss your "overnight" success.
*
Pilar Viladas, "The Talk: The Slow Lane," New York Times Magazine,
Oct. 9, 2005, 
www.tinyurl.com/ychqtup

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