What wikipedia can’t tell you about marketing?

We are living in interesting times. The epidemic has turned the world upside down. Toppled the world economy. Many jobs have ended. Many startups have collapsed. Many people are experiencing the ‘work from home’miracle. To some office, it appears exciting.
To whatsoever field we belong at this point many of us are realizing the dire need for alternate sources of income.
Digital marketing has always fascinated me. Little time I could spare to learn the skill with my busy IT job. Thanks to the blessings of the pandemic now I have enrolled myself in a much-celebrated digital marketing course.
Today I am going to give you some insights into marketing and an introduction to digital marketing. After all, knowledge shared is knowledge squared.

Marketing is a timeless skill, an art. At any point in time, this skill can keep your career safe.

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” ~ Peter F. Drucker

What is Marketing?

Let us understand the concepts of marketing first. Marketing is just not about selling or advertising for a product. It begins before the creation of a product and continues even after its sales. A great product is tailored to the needs, expectations, conveniences, hopes, and fears of the customers so well so that it automatically captures the market once it comes into existence.
It is all about understanding the psychology of the targeted audience. The desire to be great and feel important is rooted in human psychology. This desire makes us want to wear the latest styles, drive the latest cars, and talk about our achievements. Once we are successfully able to convince the consumers that they are special, marketing is an easy task.
Even after selling marketing continues. A strong connection, an emotional bond is essential to ensure lifelong trust which translates itself into lifelong customers. Of course, there is no room for compromising on the quality of the product.
Sending wishes on birthdays, anniversaries, a child’s Birthday, and simply a gift on festivals as a token of remembrance or a message of inspiration in the current pandemic conveys a sense of care and the feeling of being special.
The success mantra is to build mass trust. That is simultaneously winning the trust of a whole lot of people that is our target audience for example Google, Amazon, WhatsApp, each one of these has gained the trust of millions. It is hard to imagine life without these services.

“If you just communicate, you can get by. But if you communicate skillfully, you can work miracles.” ~ Jim Rohn

Good communication equals to Good Marketing

Good communication skills are of paramount importance. That send I don’t intend to send a chill down your spines. It only means that you have to organise and put up your thoughts so that you are easily able to transfer it to others. Learn English to a pretty decent level. Think in English. Watch shows in English to learn conversations. Just the tip. Write every day. It improves the thought process and you are well prepared in advance with your words.

“If you don’t understand the language of money, and you don’t have a bank account, then you’re just an economic slave.” ~
John Hope Bryant, CEO, Operation HOPE

Why Marketer should understand the Economy?

Awareness of global economics helps us to predict the trends of the market and our opportunities for growth and profits. Let’s learn some concepts of global economics.
Economic growth is directly proportional to spending and saving. If the average age of the population in a country is young like India and China the economy will grow rapidly because the young population spends and saves more than the old population. In developed countries, the working population is old which spends less. This is the reason developed countries often support immigration.

Is debt a blessing in disguise? How banks create money?

Surprisingly enough debt brings about a sense of insecurity at an individual level but it is good for the economy or this is how the global economy works.
Suppose Mr. A deposited rupees 10 lakh to the bank. Then the bank can loan out Rs 900000 to Mr. B, the rest is the cash reserve ratio. After some time Mr. B will deposit loan money to the bank. Then the bank has total deposited money of rupees 19 lakh (10 lakh + 9 lakh). Bank can give Rs 8100000 to Mr. C after the deposit money of Mr. B, when Mr. C returns the money to the bank the total deposit will be rupees 27 lakh 10 thousand. This cycle goes on until rupees 10 lakh becomes a hundred lakh backed by rupees 90 lakh worth of debt.

Means of Marketing
The traditional way of marketing is word-of-mouth. It still holds true. With the advent of technology, new means and modes have developed. It can be broadly categorized into subcategories based on before and after the internet boom.

Offline Before the internet boom:-

• Newspapers ads
• Radio ads
• Billboards
• TV ads
• Trade shows
• Fairs and conferences

Online or digital marketing

• Email marketing
• social media marketing (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp chat groups)
• Content marketing
• SEO- Search engine optimization. Attracts a lot of traffic.
• Influence marketing
• Affiliate marketing

Traditional VS Digital Marketing

Both are equally effective. It really depends on the type of products you want to promote. Suppose a product is a fertilizer to be used on a farm then the best way to promote it is with traditional advertising, television ads, radio ads, newspaper ads, in the local language. But if the product is a Nvidia gaming processor then you should be promoted with the help of digital media like YouTube ads, Facebook ads, Google ads, information blogs, etc.

Digital marketing is a new future in India and across the globe. India has a population of over a hundred million living in tier 1 cities with an immense purchasing power. Digital marketing is the best medium to reach the affluent English speaking population in India.
But what product or service are you going to market? Will you sell your own product or service or sell some other brands ‘commodity? This is purely your own decision and it depends on your skills and time availability and your needs. Luckily by digital marketing, you can either select one or both the methods simultaneously.

Baby steps to digital marketing

Niche selection: The area of your work defines your niche. You need not have to be an expert in the field but you must have enough passion and talent for the same so that over time you can become a subject matter expert in your area.

Problem-solving:-Mark yourself with the difference. Select a product or service area which has a lot of potential with some unique features and some unique conveniences. For Example Amazon, Flipkart, eBay, all offer unique services to their customers. Life is pretty much unimaginable without these services. When you gain popularity among your audience then you might get some offers from within companies to endorse their products. Promoting other brands will bring earnings to you as well and further broaden your audience.

Personal branding:- It involves the following steps. Learn, Work, Blog, Consult, Mentor & finally a Startup. Learn and master a new skill. Work with other people or in an industry. Start a blog. Give quality content. Share your work experience and learning in such a way that it adds value to others’ lives. Start mentoring individually or in groups.

Startup:- Now that you have become an expert in your field, you are ready to launch yourself. Startups do take time to establish. Patience and incessant work bring the desired results.

CATT Marketing Funnel

A marketing funnel is the journey of a customer with you. From the initial stages, when someone learns about your business, to the purchasing stage, the customer is in your funnel.

The CATT Marketing Funnel:-

Wealth=n^CATT

Where n=niche, C= content, A= attention, T=Trust, T=transaction.

Content:- Write high quality, well researched, and timeless content in your niche. This will keep on generating passive income for a long time. You can also promote good products through your content.

Attention:- Draw attention to your content through SEO, social media links. Just spread the word with as many sources as possible. Read others’ blogs and posts comments. Provide links in your blogs to other blogs.

Trust:-By providing quality content and drawing attention to it, you have automatically gained the trust of your audience. Once trust is gained, it can convert into a transaction at any moment.

Transaction:- Now that you have planted a sapling and nurtured it for quite some time, the fruits start showing up. Offcourse, it’s a happy time to enjoy the harvest.

Keeping Connections:- Being in touch with your audience even after the transaction is the thumb rule of building trust.

Integrated Digital Marketing

Digital marketing calls for a holistic use of all means of marketing, to promote any product or service. The means of marketing are as follows.

1. Content marketing:- Publishing video content and text content to build brand awareness and grow bonds with customers. Eg:- write blogs, posts on social media, infographics, and video.
2. Email marketing:- In this type of marketing a prospective client or customer is kept engaged via emails with promotional messages people willingly subscribe to it.
3. Search Engine Optimisation:- Commonly called SEO. With the help of SEO, content can be optimized so that it attracts more traffic.
4. Social Media Marketing:- With the use of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, the relationships with the customers can be improved. Sometimes these platforms are referred to as digital word of mouth.

Direct Response Marketing

It is the subcategory of marketing that is designed to evoke an immediate response and enforce a possible customer to take some specific action like.

1) Asking for Email

2) Asking for mobile no.

3) Place an order

4) make a call

5)Go to the landing page.

Conclusion

To summarise, marketing is all about creating a good product and then reaching out to people and creating a perception about the product or service that will bring a positive transformation in their lives. Digital is just the evolved technology which increases our reach to the masses.

This article is a part of the second assignment for the DigitalDeepak Internship Program.