The author, who was the marketing hat for an early stage startup, emphasizes that writing code and talking to users are crucial tasks for any startup. The plan was simple: get people to learn about Intercom and talk about it. This involved creating content, meeting people at conferences, speaking onstage, etc., which appealed to the target audience of small SaaS companies. However, this approach may not be suitable for all industries or customer types. It's essential to understand the behaviors of the people you're trying to reach and choose a marketing tactic based on those exhibited behaviors. Once an addressable and responsive audience is built, pitching the product becomes easier, and personal emails can be sent with tailored messages that resonate with each recipient's use case. The author advises against relying solely on early tactics, as channels become saturated, competitors emerge, and platforms look to kill new startups before they're out of the gate. Instead, a fatter part of the market needs to be reached through various channels like PR, paid acquisition, and SEO to survive in the long term.