7 sins of startup marketing

Tens of thousands of startups are born each year. Some grow slowly, while others grow rapidly; some fail fast, and others fail slowly.

While many factors cause startups to succeed or fail, one common determinant for success is a robust marketing capability, whether in-house, outsourced or a mixed model of resources. Having worked with approximately 250 startups and as the marketing mentor to Plug and Play Technology Center, the world’s largest incubator/accelerator, we have identified seven of the key mistakes startups make as they grow when it comes to their marketing program:

Among core corporate functions, such as sales, operations and human resources, marketing has the most variance. In some organizations, CMOs strictly manage an “influencer” function, while in others they have P&L responsibility and manage product development, pricing and other core functions. CMOs have the shortest “life expectancy” among c-level officers because many organizations fail to match the job function to the CMO’s areas of expertise.