Marketing Lessons Learned

[kexej28769@nongnue]

If you instead build it internally, build that MVP internally, test it with your beta group, and wait until it reaches that level of quality where, “Wow, this is really cool,” and a lot of people who are using it say, “Gosh, I can’t live without this. I want to share it with my friends. I want to tell everyone. Is it okay to tell people yet?” Maybe it’s starting to leak. Now, you’re here. Now, your launch can really do something. We’ve seen exactly that happen, both with MVPs here at Moz and MVPs where we sat on them and waited. I talk about some of them in the book.

MVPs are great for testing internally with a private belarus number data . They’re also fine if you’re really early stage and no one has heard of you. But MVPs can seriously drag down a brand’s reputation and perception of quality and equity, which is why I generally recommend against them, especially for marketing.

Living the life of your customer/audience is a startup + marketing cheat code.
Last, but not least, living the life of your customers or your audience is a cheat code. It's a marketing and startup cheat code. One of the best things I've done is say, "You know what? I'm not going to isolate myself in my office dreaming up this great thing that I think we should build or that I think we should do. Instead, I'm going to spend real time with my customers."

from 16 Years of Building Moz - Whiteboard Friday
So you may remember, back in late 2013, I did this crazy project with my friend Will Reynolds, who runs Seer Interactive. They're an SEO agency based here in the US, in Philadelphia and San Diego. They do a lot more than SEO. Will and I traded houses. We traded lives. We traded email accounts. I can't tell you what it's like to respond to someone's email, to respond to Will's mom and be like, "Oh, Mrs. Reynolds, this is actually Rand. Your son Will, in Seattle, is responding to my email and living in my apartment."