As a marketer, I just love watching would-be clients rationalize out loud about why they maybe don’t need to market their product at all. The all-time best reason why they don’t need to spend on digital or content marketing: “this product will sell itself!”

You know what sells itself? Junk food. Junk food pops into your head approximately every 8 seconds…wait, no…that’s sex. But also ice cream. And cookies. And chips and Jello and Oreos and burgers and fries and soda. You know what else “sells itself”? Starbucks. You know how much Starbucks spent on advertising in 2020? $258 million.

So my reply to anyone who claims their (insert product here) will “sell itself” is this: If the most recognized household brand name for a product Americans use multiple times a day and are literally ADDICTED TO still markets their product, then what makes you think you stand a chance in hell of selling one single unit without a substantial marketing and sales strategy? What makes your new-to-the-market brand no one knows about so special?

Find a marketer you can trust who will help you carefully assess your market to create a strategy that speaks to them and, most importantly, sells your product which will (sadly) never sell itself.