7 THINGS YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT MARKETING

Have you started a new business ? Are you new to the marketing environment ? What is Marketing Who should know or do marketing ? Is Marketing essential ? What all should I know about Marketing ? What is digital marketing ? 

If your answer is a ‘BIG YES’ to the above questions, this article will answer all your questions. 

This article will cover the 7 essential topics of marketing and will make you confident about the subject ‘Marketing.’ This is helpful for students who want to take up marketing jobs, anyone who has just entered into business or anyone who is already in marketing field but wants to know more about it. 

SO LETS GET STARTED !

1. Fundamentals of Marketing : 

Marketing is communication or awareness or promotion of particular product or service to help people understand about the product or service. Marketing gives details like what is the product or service, additional benefits, who needs it and why they might need it. 

        Marketing is the core of every business because only when you communicate (market) about a particular product or service, the respective consumers will know about it and then decide to buy the product or avail the service. 

        Marketing involves mathematics and science. Mathematics - Transactions during the purchase of product or service can be communicated only in numbers. Science - Like every action has equal and opposite reaction in Science. Whenever there is a need for some product or service to overcome a challenge, there is a creation of product or service. And this communication of a particular product or service to overcome a challenge is called marketing. 

       Why should you do marketing ? You have to market so that the consumer knows about the product or service. You might be having a product or service which is badly needed by a consumer but if there is no marketing then not only will you lack business but the consumer will also settle down for whatever is presently available. So, marketing will help for consumers in need and also to other related businesses who could be of mutual benefit. Even if your product/service is existing in the market there might be others who are not providing good quality product/service. 

          The 2 major types of marketing - B2B and B2C. 

B2B - Business to Business marketing is the marketing that one business (company) markets about a product/service to another business (company).

B2C - Business to Consumer marketing is the marketing that one business (company) markets about a product/service to individual people. 

           The other major components of marketing are advertising, copywriting and sales. 

          If you are new to marketing, the above portion has given you the basic details of marketing. The further part of article will help you understand the other important topics related to marketing.

2. Communication Skills : 

Marketing is all about communication. The communication can be in various ways like verbal, print media, broadcasting in television / radio and digital media. At the same time, it doesn’t mean that your communication should be high-level English or oxford English with usage of complex words or statements. Because this will sometimes leave the consumers confused. Hence, the communication whether verbal or visual will need basic english but the most important thing is it must clear all the questions of the consumer. Sometimes, the communication of the product/service is more difficult than developing the product/service itself. 

      If you are wondering how to develop good communication skills ? Don't worry. It is not difficult at all. To develop good communication skills you must just start speaking more and writing blogs. Speaking with friends, family, colleagues, teachers, mentors, clients etc. Speaking more doesn't mean unnecessary speaking but speaking whenever there is an opportunity or requirement, without any hesitation. When you do that, you will eventually learn better ways to communicate or improvise in few aspects based on others feedback. Always ensure that this practice is with positive people who will give proper feedback and not those who will bog down your spirits. Similarly, when you write blogs, you develop a better thought process which further helps in communication skills. For this you can get feedback by ensuring others get access to your published article.

      So, start communicating without hesitation as hesitation will never let you grow or improve.

3. Digital marketing vs. Traditional marketing : 

Digital marketing - It is the marketing that uses digital media. Digital media utilizes internet and devices or technologies like mobiles, computers, tablets etc. In simple terms, digital marketing is the marketing that happens on your emails, whatsapp and social media platforms like Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, instagram etc. 
        Digital marketing definitely is the most trending topic in the world. Not just that, it is one of the fastest growing fields as life is very much digital these days, Smartphones have become a default in majority of people's lives. According to the research from the techARC, India alone had 502.2 million smartphone users as on december 2019, which means 77% of Indians use smartphones and that's a lot. So, its quite natural that digital marketing is fast growing and will be there in the future as well. Digital marketing is in trend right now but traditional marketing also exists. This is because marketing is everlasting and both have its own merits and demerits.
         The pros and cons of digital marketing and traditional marketing are listed below which helps in understanding the differences between them.

Digital marketing :

Pros : 

1. More options for engagement. 

2. Easy to measure your campaigns.

3. Makes clever targeting possible.

Cons :

1. Digital ads can be deemed as annoying.

2. Less permanent.

3. Constantly evolves.

Traditional marketing : 

Pros :

1. Impactful and easy to understand.

2. Printed marketing materials are more permanent.

3. Traditional marketing is more memorable compared to digital marketing.

Cons : 

1. More difficult to measure campaigns.

2. It is often expensive compared to digital marketing.

3. No direct interaction with the consumer. 

So, you must choose the type of marketing for your business based on several factors like target customers, cost-effective, easy to follow and so on. 

4. CATT marketing funnel : 

CATT marketing funnel is an easy formula to grow your wealth.

Wealth = n^CATT

[n] Niche : The success and wealth of your business definitely depends on the niche. Easily relatable example in India is the Ola Cabs. Public transportation facilities includes buses, trains, taxis and auto-rickshaws. But Ola Cabs, though falls in the category of taxis, has a niche in terms of personalized service, approach, safety and measurable.

[C] Content : The development of content about the niche plays a major role. Blogs, website, mobile applications, photos and videos.

[A] Attention : Driving the traffic to the content is the next important step and it can be easily done using SEO, Social media, Ads and referral programs, especially when that particular service is related to the online or digital field. Ola cabs is completely operational and effectively usable in a smartphone and hence driving attention to the content is also easier.

[T] Trust : Develop trust in consumers by showing how it works and how it simplifies a problem or challenge. Once the trust is built, the final step is easier.

[T] Transaction : The final step would be convert the consumers who want to avail the product/service.

5. How to choose the right Niche ? 

After reading about CATT Marketing funnel, the only question on your mind is how to choose the right niche. It is very simple. Just remember the above pic and apply it whenever you feel you have found the right niche for you. Your Niche should be something that comprises of talent, passion and market. 
If your niche is based on your talent and passion but there's not many consumers in the market, then its not a right niche as it wont be profitable. If your niche is based on only your talent and market (has good demand in the market) and no passion, then you will not enjoy doing it for a long time. If your niche is based on only your passion and market and no talent, then you won't excel in that niche. 
Hence, always check if you have talent in that particular niche, you're passionate about that niche and there is a good demand (market) for it.

6. Integrated Digital Marketing :

Integrated Digital marketing is the integration of multiple marketing strategies to form a cohesive online approach for your business. The above image summarizes the integrated digital marketing framework in a simple way and is also based on CATT funnel.
IDM Framework : The Content[C] of the business is the core and always at the centre. Attention[A] to this content or driving the consumers towards this content using several ways but paid advertising is the best way to drive more people in less time. Trust [T] can be built using email marketing, SEO & Social media. Emails are personalized, SEO drives the users to the content and vice versa, Social media again drives the users to content and content to the users and this definitely builds up the trust. Transact [T] The final step of transaction can be achieved by converting the traffic (users) who are ready to avail the product/service. 
              IDM is important because having the integration of all the components helps in the growth of business easily than compared to growing the business by using the individual components of digital marketing. When you dont integrate, your consumer is not fully satisfied and looks for other options. Hence, always plan for an Integrated Digital Marketing. 

7. Personal Branding : MassTrust Blueprint :

Personal Branding is the process of branding yourself - It involves finding your uniqueness, building a reputation on things that you feel you should be known for and eventually allowing yourself to be known for them. Personal branding is important because it always builds a natural connect with the consumers than Company branding which cannot build a natural connect with the consumers. Though a personal brand cannot be invested in or sold, it can definitely give rise to many other brands from his or her influence which can have a tremendous effect. One example of great personal branding is 'Digital Deepak' who is the No. 1 Digital marketer in India. 
          Personal Branding / Self-Positioning / Individual branding were first introduced in 1937 in the book Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill. 
         

The evolution of a Personal Branding is evident in the above image. It is also called as the MassTrust Blueprint by my digital mentor - Mr. Digital Deepak. Let me explain in detail about the steps involved in the evolution of a personal brand : 

• Learn : Learning a new skill is always through Concepts, Facts and Procedures. Concepts are understood to ensure you know about the skill in depth, remembering facts will help in understanding what works well and you master the skill only when you take action by practicing the procedures.

• Work : Once you have learnt a new skill, you have to put your new skills to work. Work is implementation of the new skills in the real world by doing a job or taking up a freelancing opportunity or start a project yourself. Only when you put your skills to work you will become knowledgeable and experienced.

• Blog : The next process is to write blogs. Writing develops your though process. But always remember you can write effective blogs after working with the newly learnt skill. If you only learn a new skill and write a blog, it surely wont be effective as you cannot share about the experiences which the readers would want to connect with.

• Consult : After having good work experience, your blogs become very effective and you develop a personal brand through your personal blogs. With this, you can get into consulting and help others to become like you. Consulting will help you evolve to the next step of Mentor.

• Mentor : After successful consulting sessions, you get a better hold of the subject and you can start teaching or mentoring individuals as well as group of people. The step of being a mentor is not easy as you have to create the content in a very detailed way that can help those who want to learn. Mentoring gives a whole new clarity about the subject because who would have put a lot of efforts to create content that can help in mentoring.

• Startup : Once you have understood the subject very well by following the above steps, it is the right time for you to start a product/service with the knowledge and confidence you have developed about the new skill. And the cycle repeats as there is no end to learning. Though you start your own startup, you will have to again learn new skills, work with those skills, write blogs about it, offer consultation to others and eventually start mentoring. 

So, these are the 7 Things YOU MUST know about marketing. Hope this article has instilled confidence in you about marketing. 

Now having learnt so much about marketing, follow the further steps of MassTrust blueprint - Work, write blogs, consult, mentor and start a new marketing based product or service with your personal brand. 

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