Why Marketers Need To Think Like Startups
Startups are a perfect case study for marketers.
The ones that make it are 100% focused on growth. They’re consumed with results. And there’s a very good reason why.
Because they have grow exponentially to survive.
Incremental improvements are insufficient to keep the lights on.
This means startups have an unlimited tolerance for risk because they have no choice but to grow quickly. And if they don’t, everyone is eating Ramen and living in their car.
I call this the “Results or die!” mentality. And it’s one marketers everywhere must embrace if they’re going to grow results by tenfold on short timelines.
You can’t expect 10x results by doing the same things you’ve always done. But 10x marketing mandates a change not just in methods, but in mindset.
Marketers need to think like startups.
Marketing With A Results-Or-Die! Mindset
I take a deeper dive into what this looks like, and what resistance you should expect, in my book, The 10x Marketing Formula. Here’s an excerpt:
As a startup, it’s not simply “ship or die!” It’s “results or die!” If you don’t get real results with dollar signs and zeros attached, it’s the ultimate death march. You die at the end. But those stakes are exactly why startups are the perfect blueprint for marketers.
Most marketing sucks. It looks like marketing, smells like marketing, and acts like marketing — but there are menial returns. It mimes the techniques around them, creating an advertising echo chamber. Everywhere you turn, it’s more of the same.
This book is your guide to pressing the reset button and learning to think like a scrappy, results-or-die! startup. Before you read on, adopt the three-month runway position.
In your wildest dreams, what kind of growth could you accomplish in the next quarter? If you had your pick, but could only choose one, which metric would you apply these kinds of results to?
Now, your wildest dream is going to take a risky turn. Put yourself squarely back in the three-months-to-live scenario. Imagine that hitting this 10x metric within the next 90 days will result in staying afloat or going belly up.
What would you do? Where would you start? Who would you go to for advice?
The zero-fluff formula for executing 10x growth is what you’ll find in the rest of the book. But before you press on, commit to the paradigm shift of the startup-mentality framework. This results or die! lens is key to achieving serious growth.
Here are the obstacles you are likely to face:
Pushback
Office bureaucracy will rear its head — especially if you work in an established company. You will face pushback to new ideas that are high-risk, high-reward. And will likely hear statements like:
“Our company does it ‘this’ way. Always have, and it’s gotten us to where we are today.”
Reset One: Are you willing to fight through to pursue 10x growth via risky, failure-fraught avenues?
Status Quo
Startups that get comfortable are the ones that suffocate from lack of results. Getting scrappy and moving quickly is uncomfortable because it forces you outside of the status quo. Beyond pushback from others, you must embrace taking different actions than ever before.
Here’s the truth: to get different outputs, you must try different inputs. Trying more of the same things will not lead to 10x growth.
Reset Two: Are you willing to get uncomfortable and work in radically new ways?
Put Everything on the Line
Thinking like a startup requires that you put everything on the line. In a new venture, there is no fallback system. There is no one else to do the work.
Reset Three: Are you willing to attach your name, reputation, and even career on achieving your 10x-growth goal?
Now, let’s go.
If you want to transform your mindset, methods, and results by learning to think like a startup, The 10x Marketing Formula is for you. So, get on our early access list to start right now.
Don’t wait until 2018 to start changing. Today is when big things happen. The sooner you start, the sooner you will achieve the most incredible results of your career.
Plus, everyone who signs up for early access will get:
- Exclusive 10x Marketing interviews with experts like Joanna Wiebe, Noah Kagan, and Ash Maurya.
- A free copy of chapter one.
- Personal invite to our private LinkedIn Group filled with 10x marketers.
- And first dibs on pre-ordering the book!
