[visakanv]

This. The most important part of marketing your X is building a X that matters. This applies whether you're doing a startup or playing in a band. The best promotional tactics will flub on a bleh product that nobody cares about. You'll waste time and money trying to sell something that people aren't interested in buying.

A lot of good marketing is about figuring out how to position your offering in a way that allows people to talk about your stuff. The marketer is really a facilitator- you have as little and as much influence as that sounds.

The promotional stuff at the end, that's the victory lap, that's the easiest bit. The million (or billion!) dollar question is- who does this matter to, and why, and how do we put it in front of them in a way that makes them agree? The rest is just elbow grease.