Marketing Dollar
Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software in response to Cabel Sasser of Panic’s post on their expansion to 13 staff from two man beginnings:
It struck me while reading Cabel’s post, for instance, that Panic apparently has no marketing staff. And yet they’re one of the best known brands in indie Mac software. Paradox? Is there something about Panic’s product and staff that does its own marketing? Or would they be an even bigger success had they hired a marketing person from the start? Smile On My Mac, by contrast, consists of just three people, one of whom is completely dedicated to marketing. Is this a waste of revenue or a brilliant component of their plan for world text expansion domination?
I’m a believer in the maxim: make a great product and the marketing will take care of itself. A fantastic press release, email newsletter or advertising campaign, no matter how brilliant, can’t make a mediocre application popular.
Everyone who’s ever worked at Panic has taken care of the marketing indirectly by building something great and genuinely useful.
Hiring a marketing person is pre-internet thinking. It made sense when making someone not in your immediate geographical area aware your product existed was a serious hurdle. Now everyone has global reach at their fingertips and word of mouth is literally multiplied by the million.
Is it a paradox that Panic, with their 13 staff, none of which are marketing, have a website that feels more down to earth, friendly and useful despite Smile on my Mac’s much smaller team of 3 that includes one fully dedicated to marketing?