How Building A SaaS Marketing Engine Takes 5 Years (Not What Most CEOs/VCs Think)

There are literally zero ways to build a marketing machine in three-month schemes. Similar to those offering get-rich-quick strategies.

If someone is selling you that and you're buying?

You're the fool.

Or perhaps your assumptions are invalid because it's hard to understand how the process works.

See, building a SaaS marketing machine is a long game.

Here's a more realistic path:
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Year 1: Foundations, value proposition, team formation, production and audience building. The assembly of your engine is a work in progress—fewer channels.
Year 2: Operational efficiencies (i.e. using data, managing metrics and growth). The engine has inputs and outputs. You can measure more and add channels to the marketing mix.
Year 3: More robust, complex machine in operation + brand leverage driving inbound.
Year 4: Always-on-marketing includes experimental campaigns, quarterly thematic campaigns, periodic core events (e. g., Weekly Demo), core content, always-On digital and website.
Year 5: Scaling a much larger team and removing yourself from the day-to-day.
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Do some people go faster? Yep.

Do some people do it in a much different order? Definitely.

Have a few built the machine much faster? I've seen it. But often, they have had substantial funding rounds to accelerate the process.

But those are what we call "outliers".

Don't expect to be one.

Don't compare yourself to the Marketing engine of the established vendor who you forget have been doing it for years.

Instead, build for the long game and be pleasantly surprised if it goes faster.

I hope this helps set some realistic expectations.

Are you patient enough to play?