Can Start-ups Live on Social Media, oops SEO, oops Inbound Marketing…. Alone?

I love the new marketing tools! I use them every day. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, SEO, and Inbound marketing are all essential tools for any Internet marketing program.

But here is my gripe. More and more, I hear entrepreneurs and VCs claiming that this is all they need to launch companies or generate momentum for their young developing companies. I have also heard frequently “Customers will find us…organically” (BTW, I have a bridge to sell you). While I understand that many of these statements are motivated by the fact that new companies don’t have or need to preserve cash, when I hear blanket statements like this, I see a giant red flag waving in the wind.

Back in the day when I did a three-year stint as an analyst/management consultant, I specialized in the start-up world in the area of network convergence (ok – I am really dating myself here!). During that time, my team sat through close to 700 start-up briefings and we quickly became very astute predicting a start-up’s success based on what we heard in the initial briefing. By the end of each briefing, my colleagues and I would confer, count up the number of red flags we could see, and form our opinions on whether or not the company was going to make it. Our track record turned out to be very good.

Each one of my colleagues had a hot button – for me, I wanted to dig into their go-to-market strategy. If I believed that the company had a product that somebody actually needed (you would be surprised how many don’t) and that the management team had the fortitude and passion to see the venture through (this is really about believing in what you do and have the perseverance and know how to make it happen), then I wanted to understand the strategy and tactics of their go-to-market strategy.

I wanted to know how the team was going to help the sales force, the guy on the front lines, holding the bag every day because that person had the biggest mountain to climb. I wanted to know the details of who they wanted to partner with, how they were packaging themselves, how the company was going to generate leads, and how the company was going to shorten the sales cycle. I want to know how they were going to create the “push and pull” needed to generate momentum.

The devil is in the details. This is where we would usually see many red flags.

So, let’s examine the new tools.  SEO and Inbound Marketing allow you to be “found”.  Blogs, Facebook, and microblogging allow you to have conversations with prospects and customers. All are very good things. But each one of these tools serves a particular purpose in the marketing mix.

How can you be “found” or start a conversation if nobody knows that you exist? How can people search on a new product category that isn’t defined? Who is going to read the blog that you have spent days and weeks creating and populating with content? Why would anyone follow you on Twitter if they never heard of you?

I would argue that you need to communicate both broadly as well as in a targeted fashion using all types of tools – that you need to blend the old with the new. Even in this new world where Social Media or Inbound Marketing are without question important tools in your marketing mix, if you tell me these are all you need to market your company and product this is another one of those huge red flags.  I would place my bet that you will not be around next year or will not have had a lot of success to talk about. Good marketers understand that you need a number of activities and communications vehicles working in harmony to generate momentum with the buzz.