Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Mistakes are inevitable when building a startup. That’s okay, so long as you learn from them and bounce back better. But if you make the following startup marketing mistakes, you may not get the chance:
1. Spending money on marketing before you have product-market fit
“Product-market fit” essentially means you’ve proven that buyers in your target market are willing to pay for and use your product.
You absolutely should be marketing your company from the time of launch, or earlier if you can manage it, but you likely won’t have product-market fit yet. Market organically. Do it for free. Talk to as many potential customers in your target market as possible. What do they want and need? How can you help? What are they willing to pay? Crowdsource those answers, and invest in the research and development to create the offers that