Basics of marketing
In this blog I am going to cover the very interesting topic of marketing. Starting with the laws of marketing, going on to why a great product is easier to market and sell, then touching on the importance of communication in marketing, differences between traditional marketing vs digital marketing, what is direct response marketing, creating a marketing funnel and building a strong brand and finally the all-important subject of the power of a personal brand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Rcc2qsfm4
Let me digress a little, I have seen in many cases that those who learn digital marketing, focus too much on the promotion part of doing campaigns, without being aware of the fundamentals of marketing.
“Marketing as a topic has existed since the dawn of civilization.”
Marketing has been there for thousands of years and will be there for thousands of years to come.
For each and every business marketing is the backbone which reaches the customer and it cannot be ignored.
The marketing field is a dynamic field, because ways to reach the audience keeps changing. But once you learn the basics, the fundamentals of marketing are not going to change.
What is the law of marketing?
Marketing has to start before creating a product. It starts with understanding the customer and the customer needs that leads to creating the product that fits this need.
If you create a product that the customer needs, you don’t need a marketer to promote it, it starts selling itself.
Marketing is about sending the right message to the right person at the right time.
Marketing is not just about selling; it is also about keeping an existing customer happy by communicating with them so that they remain a customer for life. This should happen from the starting still the end of the product life cycle.
As a marketer, be it traditional or digital or any new type of marketing that comes in the future, your job is to create an abiding trust with the customer.
The purposes of marketing are to build a brand and capture a position and build brand loyalty in the minds of the consumers. I can give you many examples: if you think of search engines, google stands out rather than yahoo or Bing mainly because of clever marketing.
In the role of a marketer you need to build trust and loyalty in the consumer’s mind.
Good quality product vs a low-quality product:
Marketing is a game of perceptions. It’s a dangerous skill to learn as well because as a marketer you will use unethical ways to promote a low product.
Good word of mouth publicity, plays an important role in marketing. Once this happens the product will start selling itself. Word of mouth marketing is the best channel of marketing ever discovered.
Once you have a product and service, marketing is just a kick starter for it. once momentum is achieved you just have to maintain it.
A great product converts your customers into brand ambassadors.
You need a great product to sell, but marketing not just helps the targets to discover the product but also have a good perception about it
“Marketing is the most valuable investment in a business, because it gives direct returns.”
Running a successful business is not just about choosing the appropriate market or having a high quality product. It’s also about leveraging the right kind of marketing techniques in order to reach out to your target audience and convert them into leads or customers.
While having a marketing budget is important for any small business, it’s equally important to spend it in the right direction and make the most of it.
Marketing cannot be outsourced completely to an agency. Every business owner or CEO should know the basics of marketing to market their products successfully.
Traditional VS Digital marketing and direct response marketing
Traditional marketing is a type of marketing that is hard to ignore and includes the traditional ads we encounter on a daily basis. Many of the common and most tried offline marketing tactics come under the following five major categories:
- Print (magazines, newspapers, etc.)
- Broadcast (TV, radio, etc.)
- Direct Mail (catalogues, postcards, etc.)
- Telephone (telemarketing, sms marketing, etc.)
- Outdoor (billboards, fliers, etc.)
In India traditional marketing still plays a major role. It reaches a wider audience than digital marketing.
Total number of TVs in India are about 197 million out of the 298 million homes (according to Wikipedia) with an average of 4-5 members per house hold. Tv has a reach of 800 million to 1 billion people in India alone (according to financial express). If a product is generic with a wide target audience, then tv ads can be used to reach millions at a low cost.
Radio also has a wide reach, reaching out to 65% of the population of India.
Newspapers have a reach of 465 million reader households in India (according to business standard).
Traditional marketing is mainly used for the people in tier 2 and tier 3 towns and villages in India, due to the vast reach in rural areas.
On the surface, digital marketing may look different than traditional marketing in a big way as it is all about the fourth P: promotion. However, the fact of the matter is, digital marketing is highly effective because it does not ignore any of the four Ps of marketing: product, price, promotion and place. It rather uses each one of them in a unique manner, and sometimes even better than traditional marketing.
In traditional marketing, which do not give specific and measurable results you cannot measure the return on investment unlike in digital marketing.
One of the biggest and the most obvious limitations of traditional marketing is that there is little or no interaction between the customers and the medium used for marketing.
Traditional marketing is dependent on promotional methods that once executed cannot be updated.
The recurring costs in traditional marketing can prove to be a huge investment that may or may not give a good return.
Traditional marketing offers you little help when it comes to customizing your campaign and targeting specific customers.
one of the strengths of digital marketing is the fact that it can easily be updated and adjusted. Unlike in traditional marketing wherein it takes a lot of effort to change.
In digital marketing, you can effortlessly identify where you are going wrong and if it is successful or not. This alone makes digital marketing much better than its traditional counterpart.
Direct response marketing:
“Direct response is a type of marketing designed to elicit an instant response by encouraging prospects to take a specific action”
Examples of direct response marketing are:
A newspaper or face book sponsored ad which offers 10% discount if you cut out the ad and bring it to the sales outlet or “call now” to get special offers or take part in lucky draws.
A late night commercial with a phone number to call and order.
Communication in the field of business and marketing:
One way to build a strong brand is communication. Good marketing is all about good communication with your customers.
“Always interact with your target audience a lot.” In order to succeed in your field.
Catt marketing funnel
In this internship program Digital Deepak says that ,
his formula for getting richer is Wealth= n^catt.
In this formula,
[n]NICHE= Your success & wealth depends on the niche you choose.
[C]CONTENT= Create useful content that attracts people from your niche. Example: blog posts, lead magnets, live webinars, etc.
[A]ATTENTION= Drive attention(traffic) to your content using seo, social media, paid ads and referrals.
[T]TRUST= Build trust with your audience with trip wires, marketing automation & retargeting.
[T]Transaction= convert your leads into customers with natural sales methods.
Building a strong brand:
Choose a category and become a leader in that category.
Deciding where to compete is half your success. If you cannot be a leader in a particular category be a leader in a sub category.
Example: BMW or Mustangor Suzuki are cars and they are leaders in their respective sub categories.
People always remember the number one or max to max the number two in a category. Eventually this leads to every market becoming a two-player market on the long run.
The power of personal branding:
People prefer to hear from people not from a brand.
A well-known person can always beat the best-known brand in the market.
Example for this is Elon Musk, he as a bigger social media following than SpaceX and Tesla.
A personal brand becomes an influencer and a brand ambassador for the companies they run.
There are two sides of this personal branding.
- Upside: A personal brand can give rise to many brands from his or her influence. Example the Kardashian have turned their personal fame into many profitable businesses in fashion, beauty products, etc. raking in millions of dollars.
- Downside: A personal brand cannot be sold to someone else.
Conclusion:
I hope I have convinced you with data and facts that digital marketing is definitely the way to advertise. If you’ve already tried traditional marketing before and haven’t seen the rapid growth results you wanted, then give digital marketing a shot. There is little risk and great reward. That’s not a combo you see often in the marketing world.