Why learn the fundamentals of digital marketing?
In this Digital era, driving deep into Fundamentals of Digital Marketing differentiates you from your competitors.
Mastering Digital Marketing fundamentals will keep you out of trouble. So, you should make it a priority.
Today, Marketing fundamentals are used by me, you, and each one of us on this planet earth.
I would call marketing a LIFE SKILL rather than a professional skill.
Because Marketing is not just for your product or service but it is also for you. What I mean to say by this is, Where-ever you go and whatever you do in your life, you need to market yourself.
Let’s say you are going to your dream job interview, you should market yourself to get that job. The better you market yourself, the more the chances of you getting the offer letter.
It is as simple as that.
I have seen many Businesses failing miserably. This is sole because the owners lack basic knowledge of marketing.
Before you actually understand Digital Marketing, you should understand marketing and its fundamentals at 1st place.
So, let’s quickly jump into the fundamentals of marketing.
What are the fundamentals of marketing?
Digital marketing is a dynamic field. To master digital marketing, you need a solid grasp of the marketing basics because success starts with understanding the solid fundamentals irrespective of what discipline or area you are in.
Knowing marketing fundamentals is like knowing the secret ingredient of your recipe.
Marketing your product or service will not be difficult when you know your secret ingredient. And have a product or service that gives value to your consumer.
But how do you create value for your customer?
That is the question that remains unanswered!!
To understand how to create value for your customer and scale up your business, you should first understand the Marketing Mix i.e., the 4 basic Ps of marketing.
- PRODUCT
- PRICE
- PROMOTION
- PLACE
The concept of 4 P’s has been around marketing forever. So, marketers should never lose sight of them as they never change.
Every entrepreneur needs to begin with the basics to market their business effectively. And to do that you should be able to find answers to the following questions:
PRODUCT:
- Is your product or service solve your customer’s problems?
- Is your product or service delivering value to your customers?
- Does your business have different customer segments which have different customer needs or wants?
PRICE:
- Is your pricing attractive to your customers relative to the perceived value you provide?
- Do you need a discounting or promotion strategy to increase your new customer base?
PROMOTION:
- What are the key things that will help attract your target customers to consume your product or service(USP)?
- Which are the channels, platforms, or tactics you can use to reach out to your target customers (Keep the price constraint in mind) to reach your target numbers?
PLACE:
- Will characteristics like age, gender, income, location, etc., have an impact on the effectiveness of the sales campaigns you create?
- Is your product or service easily accessible by your customers?
Good market understanding leads to increased sales. But understanding the market right is what breaks your head. So, you should take time and create a perfect framework.
Marketing: The Art and the Science
People say Marketing is an ART.
Yes! I agree.
But more than art, it is a SCIENCE.
The science of marketing is the marketing mix i.e., Price, Product, Promotion, and Place. Which I have already talked about.
The ART, however, is actually taking time to
- Understand who your customers are.
- Figure out what they really expect from you.
- Determine how your targeted customers are inclined to purchase your Product or Service. And then
- Keep your product or service so attractive that they can’t resist buying it.
Get the fundamentals nailed down and then learn how to be attractive to your target customers.
Traditional marketing V/S Digital marketing
How to select the right marketing type is an age-old question on every marketer’s mind.
The main difference between Digital and Traditional marketing is the medium through which the audience encounters a marketing message.
Traditional Marketing involves Traditional media like Radio, Magazines, Newspapers, TVs, Pamphlets, Billboards, etc., for marketing.
Whereas Digital Marketing uses Digital media such as Social media, Search engines, Websites, etc., for marketing.
Digital Marketing came into existence post 1990s after the development of the internet whereas Traditional Marketing existed since the day 1.
By saying this, I certainly doesn’t mean that traditional methods of marketing has no place or it is Outdated.
But what I mean is Digital Marketing is way more powerful and cost-effective.
As a Digital Marketer what I would advise you is – You should have a good balance between both the methods.
Many marketers spend the majority of their marketing budget on traditional ads and then use the extra money from Ad budget on a Digital Marketing Campaign. But I suggest you to do the other way round.
That is, use digital platforms in the first place and then consider using traditional methods.
Being said that Digital marketing is cost-effective, the balance you strike between Traditional and Digital Marketing ultimately depends on the type of business you are into. Because not same marketing methods work for every business.
For example: if you want to market an FMCG product (Products which will be used by all), then you will have to use TV ads(Traditional method) which will help you reach millions of people at a time.
But if you are an entrepreneur who is catering to a particular segment (let’s say you have a job consultancy) then it is advised to go for Digital methods to reach targeted customers.
Integrated digital marketing
Now What is Integrated Digital Marketing?
In simple words, Integrated Digital Marketing means combining two or more marketing strategies to build a system of advertising in order to maximise your sales.
The simple idea behind an Integrated Digital Marketing is that, while each of the Digital Marketing strategies like,
- Web development and design.
- Search engine optimization (SEO).
- Search engine marketing (SEM).
- Content marketing.
- Social media marketing.
- Paid advertising (or pay-per-click advertising) campaigns does not give expected results, integrating (combining) them with each other will create more influence in your customers hence giving you better results.
Wealth creation Formula: CATT Framework
Who doesn’t want to create wealth?
Nobody right!
Everyone wants to create wealth, become popular and achieve financial freedom.
The best way to generate leads and convert them to sales is through CATT Framework.
If you want to create wealth, then you should understand this framework so well that even if someone wakes you up in the middle of the night, you should be able to tell them.
And here I am unlocking the wealth creation formula to you.
Wealth = N CATT
Where,
N – Niche
C – Content
A – Attention
T – Trust
T – Transaction
This is the most powerful formula to create wealth.
Now let’s understand this one by one.
N – Niche:
Niche is basically the segment of people you are targeting to create products or services for. Niche selection plays a very important role in your Success and Wealth creation.
You should be very careful while you choose your niche.
You should select a niche where your Talent, Passion and Market for your product or service has a good mix. If you choose a niche where you have skills and passion but there is no requirement for that product or service, then u will not succeed. Same way, if there is market and you are talented but you are not passionate about it, then also u will not succeed in the long run.
C – Content:
Once you choose your niche, you should start creating very useful content to your targeted audience (i.e., for people in your niche) through your blog posts, videos, webinars, lead magnets etc., which attracts them to read or go through it.
Your content creates lot of impact to your prospective customers.
That is why I call Content as the King in this Digital World.
A – Attention:
Grabbing people’s attention is not easy anymore in this era where people are busy with their own work and busy schedule.
By creating and delivering good content to your audience, you can grab their attention and drive traffic to your content using SEO, Social Media Marketing, Paid Ads & Referral Programs.
T – Trust:
Once you attract customers to your funnel, then you should build a good rapport with your audience using Trip Wire Marketing (where you influence your audience to buy fewer cost products from you which gives more value than expected).
Once the value is created, trust will be built and now you can Retarget them to sell your other premium products using marketing automation tools.
It is always important to send personalized messages to your customers in such a way that they feel connected as if you are talking to them personally. You should never give fake commitments and should always keep up the promises in order to build trust.
T – Transaction:
Once the trust is built, then it is easier for you to make sales naturally.
Here what I mean by Natural Sales is that you can target the customers who are already in your funnel, who are interested in your product and getting value from your product, and sell them your products.
It is easy to make sales this way rather than struggling to get leads, do cold calling, and then following up with them and hardly make a few sales.
(PS: I am very grateful to my digital mentor Deepak Kanakaraju for teaching me this formula)
Personal branding
Now let us talk a little bit about Personal branding.
Why is it necessary for you to build your own personal brand?
Have you ever seen companies talking to you?
No Right!
It is always people or influencers who speak and influence you. Not brands!
People love to hear from people, not from brands.
For Example: Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma promotes the wedding clothing brand Manyavar. Here Kohli and Anushka are the ones speaking to us. Not the brand Manyavar. People create more trust and influence than a brand does.
That is why many companies advertise their products through celebrities by paying them a hefty amount.
To sustain in business for the long run and have fast and consistent growth, it is important to build your personal brand.
And, Building a personal brand is a continuous process and takes a lot of time. It doesn’t happen overnight.
If you are good at something, then you should make sure that the world knows it. Because the best known will be at the best.
If you are a very good singer or musician or a speaker and anything for that matter and if you don’t exhibit your talent to the world, how will people even know you are good at it and recognize you.
On the other hand, if you exhibited and showcased your talent and got recognition in society. You will become more popular than the one who is more talented than you but failed to showcase his/her talent to the world.
But again, there is both Upside and Downside for Personal Branding.
The downside is that you cannot get people to invest in a personal brand because it is you. A person. Who cannot be sold? Which means no money can be made.
The upside is that you give rise to many other brands by having your influence on people.
Neglecting personal branding is not a good idea just because you cannot get the investors. Rather it is advised to leverage it and build other brands by using the influence of your Personal Brand.
This can help you sell your brands for huge profits when you wish to discontinue them.
Evolution of Personal Brand – The Mass-Trust Blueprint?
To build a personal brand 1st you need to learn and acquire new skills in a specific niche
Then you should practically work on different projects to enhance your knowledge of the acquired skill.
Once you have got the hands-on experience you should write about it and create unique content by which you can acquire customers.
Then you can start a one-to-one consulting with your clients rather than working for other companies.
You can then start mentoring others (a group of people) who want to become like you.
Finally, you can have your own start-up. And the circle continues.
For more on personal branding check this
If you want to know how to make 1 crore with digital marketing then check this.