Kelford Labs Daily: Minimum Viable Marketing

A few days ago, a friend was lamenting that they’d fallen out of their LinkedIn posting habit, and were dreading trying to get back into it.

After weeks of posting nothing, the idea of posting something regularly again was intimidating them.

So I reminded my friend of something Jack Trout and Al Ries wrote in their legendary book, Positioning:

“Anything worthwhile doing is worthwhile doing lousy. If it wasn't worthwhile doing, you shouldn't have done it at all. On the other hand, if it is worthwhile doing and you wait until you can do it perfectly, even if you procrastinate, you run the risk of not doing it. Ever. Therefore, anything worthwhile doing is worthwhile doing lousy.”

This is what I call “Minimum Viable Marketing.”

If you’re not comfortable with marketing, if you don’t like it, or if it’s been a while since you’ve put major effort into it—do the minimum.

There is, of course, doing so little that you shouldn’t have bothered doing it at all. But as Trout and Ries point out, the more common problem is trying to do too much and then not doing anything.

So if you’ve been putting off marketing, avoiding it, or you’re just coming back from a break, remember this:

If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing very little. Just enough to get you back into it, and back into the habit.

Don’t try to do everything. Start with the minimum.

And grow from there.