[codingdave]

I dislike that people think that landing pages and good copy == marketing. Those are tools that sometimes apply to good marketing, but marketing itself is just getting the right message to the right people. That can be honest communication, just saying that you have a product that solves a problem. It doesn't have to be a landing page... it doesn't even have to be online. Talking is marketing. Radio is marketing. Print is marketing. Conference booths, giving out business cards, sharing your story.

Even online, your web site / landing page are not your marketing... they are where your marketing sends people to convert them into leads to hand-off to sales.

If there is anything I do despise, it is the attitude of "If you build a landing page, they will come."

[XCSme]

The thing is that you should indeed start with the landing page, as it makes it a lot easier to define your target audience, message, benefits, etc. Also, it isn't really worth bringing customers to a landing page that looks awful, as you might lose a lot of customers that you manage to bring at your door step just by showing a low quality website, even though your product might be good. I think it's about 50-50 the importance of on-page optimizations and off-page marketing. I also think it's about 70% product and 30% marketing.