Unleashing the Ideavirus
The book that sparked a marketing revolution. "This is a subversive book. It says that the marketer is not--and ought not to be--at the center of successful marketing. The customer should be. Are you ready for that?" --From the Foreword by Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point. Counter to traditional marketing wisdom, which tries to count, measure, and manipulate the spread of information, Seth Godin argues that the information can spread most effectively from customer to customer, rather than from business to customer. Godin calls this powerful customer-to- customer dialogue the ideavirus, and cheerfully eggs marketers on to create an environment where their ideas can replicate and spread. In lively detail, Godin looks at the ways companies such as PayPal, Hotmail, GeoCities, even Volkswagen have successfully launched ideaviruses. He offers a "recipe" for creating your own ideavirus, identifies the key factors in the successful spread of an ideavirus (powerful sneezers, hives, a clear vector, a smooth, friction-free transmission), and shows how any business, large or small, can use ideavirus marketing to succeed in a world that just doesn't want to hear it anymore from the traditional marketers.
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- Well, if you're willing to throw yourself into the role, somebody has to deal with marketing, PR, strategy, sales, business development, bookkeeping, regulatory compliance, making coffee, taking out the trash, etc.
So yeah.. there are a LOT of places for a non-technical co-founder to add value. Since most techies aren't very marketing-savvy, I'd suggest you go buy every marketing book you can get your hands on, and do a deep dive.
OK, maybe not literally every marketing book. But if you're interested, here are a few items I'd recommend to a budding would-be marketer.
Permission Marketing - Seth Godin
All Marketers Are Liars - Seth Godin
Purple Cow - Seth Godin
Unleashing The Ideavirus - Seth Godin
Positioning - Jack Trout and Al Ries
Differentiate or Die - Jack Trout
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing - Al Ries
Repositioning - Jack Trout
Marketing Warfare - Al Ries
The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding - Al Ries and Laura Ries
The Discipline of Market Leaders - Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema
Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
Trust Me, I'm Lying - Confessions of a Media Manipulator - Ryan Holiday
Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey Moore
If this is a B2B play, I'd read Steve Blank's The Four Steps to the Epiphany first though. Otherwise, I'd suggest starting with The Discipline of Market Leaders and then go to All Marketers Are Liars.
What kind of duties would you be doing in a role like this? Writing web copy; writing press releases; writing whitepapers; writing blog posts; recording screencasts & demo videos; setting up mailing lists; running the Web, Twitter, Facebook, G+, Pinterest, Tumblr, Youtube, etc., presence; talking to potential customers and soliciting feedback; developing a marketing strategy, PR strategy, etc; working with your cofounders to choose a "value discipline" (See The Discipline of Market Leaders) and putting an operating model in place to fulfill that discipline; possibly talking to potential investors; talking to potential partners, doing business development; and SOOOOOOO very much more.
- * Unleashing The IdeaVirus By Seth Godin
* The Art of Start By Guy Kawasaki
- If it's a widely useful startup and a genuinely good idea, it won't be as hard to get noticed. For something more technical/niche oriented, it's going to be harder.
I'd recommend Seth Godin's "Unleashing the Ideavirus" for a good outline on how to make your product viral.
- Unleashing the Ideavirus by Seth Godin
- Do you think this is how: "In 2001 he wrote 'Unleashing the Ideavirus' in five days." ?
Or is that just marketing/exaggeration?
