Marketers: Stop complaining and Start building a product

The day where marketers and devs are not at war may never come, but let’s at least take one weapon out of their arsenal: “You guys can’t/don’t/won’t/haven’t built anything!”

I will not go into a knee-jerk argument that building a website, marketing campaign, or brand strategy is every bit as important as building a product for an idea to succeed.

Because that misses the point.

😡Dev’s are angry at us marketers because we😡

• don’t build products or solutions (what they feel is the core reason for existing as a dev)
• sell poorly (shilling)
• yap without value (more shilling)
• pretend we have all the answers and it looks like smoke and mirrors to them
• (often) have pricing that isn’t super straightforward (smells fishy to them)

🙄 And of course we’re irritated that they “just don’t get it” 🙄

• the fact that no 2 businesses’ marketing is ever truly the same, so trial and error is a feature, not a bug
• there are no guarantees in marketing because it’s science and art
• that great marketing is based on great communication (which they often lack)
• the time and skill required to setup, build, and iterate on a marketing strategy
• that some things are rooted in a gut instinct and are hard to quantify with hard numbers - like choosing a great name

😖 And to cap it off, we have no (or very little) common vocabulary😖
And nobody’s about to write a dev-to-marketing dictionary (although someone really probably should).

Marketing is rooted in understanding the customer. Yet for many of us we have been dismissed by the Devs and we, in turn, have thrown up our hands at ever being understood by them.

We should seek to understand instead of being understood.
Show instead of tell by building a product, and join them instead of fighting them in the comments.

You will:

• gain a community as you join builder groups
• understand the experience of building a product from end to end
• build credibility in and out of the industry because you’ve actually done that, not just planned or supported that
• think in terms of the user more clearly than ever before
• understand PLG from the inside out - and by extension PLM
• Find it easier to explain things to devs
• (if you build your product yourself vs outsourcing the actual build) learn new tools
• get out of your comfort zone - I won’t write a treatise on why this helps you brain, mood, longevity, or otherwise, but it will definitely improve your ability to think strategically for your own company, not to mention you as a human

Use the tools that you’ve got and start by fixing your own problems.
That workflow that kicks ass → turn it into a SaaS! 🚀🙌🏾

✨🧝🏾‍♀️ And shine with the skills that makes us marketing and creative types straight up magic to begin with;

• our ability to use practically any tool (build it in no-code!)
• our big picture + immediate detail thinking
• our ability to talk to people easily and get feedback
• our knack for communication and copy to tell a story wherever we show up - website, product, email, you name it
• those wacky marketing ideas you’ve always wanted to try and are never going to get green-lit in the office. Here’s your chance to play in the sandbox (haha, dev lingo!)

Blow them away with your product and by being open with the process and you can earn their respect along the way.

I’m a marketer who’s always wanted to own their own company (and now does as the day job, lucky, lucky me!) and has a habit of building things for the fun of it. I quickly realized once I jumped into the IH world in November (at the same time I started my agency) that my building experience set me apart and I decided to lean into it to grow my company - and my confidence.

I’m doing it with:

• 🤩 info products (Conversion loving copy worksheet)
• ✨micro tools (SaaS Branding Examples)
• 📙 micro SaaS (Tangram marketing plans)
• 💜 ⚡ And my agency (Ignore No More) with weekly updates and building in public (Twitter)

It’s dramatically changed my outlook on how to build a company. It’s gotten me to a salary in <3 months of owning the agency. And building a new product/tool/resource brings me joy much the same way building a brand identity does.

Not to mention it’s transformed the way I approach marketing for my SaaS clients. 😱

In just about every meeting I have (and I do free office hours instead of sales calls now!) the founder I’m speaking with confides how great it is to speak with someone who gets it. Their guard comes down. We both know we’re on the same page even though I can’t write a single line of code and they don’t know how to write head-turning copy.

Yes - there will be devs who are just plain rude and disrespectful no matter what we build, say, or do.

Who arrogantly believe that since they’ve encountered a few bad marketers or understand the fundamentals of a single channel that the entire industry is bogus and a waste of time, energy, and money.

Who, in ignorance, do not realize that their success “without marketing” was really due to “marketing that wasn’t paid ads”.

That level of hubris is true in every profession. And us marketers and creatives are far from immune to having those in our ranks who rankle our last nerve with the blinders of pride.

They aren’t the one you (should) be working to please. And the more lovely, kind, gracious devs I speak with the more I realize the obnoxious devs are the exception, not the rule.

Join the adventure, make friends, AND make money + build your existing business/career? That’s the work-life-side project balance I want.

You might even find something new that sparks a fire. 🔥🚀💃🏾

Dev, Marketers, Makers-at-large - what do y’all think about this approach? 👇