6 Useful Insights in to Marketing Fundamentals — A Beginner’s Guide
Are you afraid that your job is at risk ? Are you stagnating in your career and your future in your industry is now looking doubtful?
If your answer is “YES” then this article will give a new perspective to your vision.
Hello & welcome once again & thanks a ton for appreciating my previous article..
In this article, I am going to talk about some marketing fundamentals. We will talk about the few major tips that marketers can use. This article will be useful for all marketers,bloggers, professionals, freelancers, mentors and entrepreneurs.
In today’s scenario,we feel excited about short term gain but forgets the long term perspective of building Trust in consumers’ minds. Trust can be built over a period of time with marketing efforts..
I have covered various basic topics like traditional offline marketing,Digital marketing channels,Importance of Integrated Digital marketing in today’s scenario,Marketing funnel to generate sales & Role of marketing in Digital Customer experience…
Marketing is all about the way to understand & reach your customers OR audience regardless of medium,techniques,strategies, products & services. So always in Demand…
So today we will understand more about few fundamental principles of marketing
So let’s get the ball rolling now…
- Fundamentals of Marketing
” Stay hungry,Stay foolish & Always Remain Curious”
In marketing — never get satisfied & keep trying,keep exploring until you succeed.
Marketing is the process of getting people interested in your company’s product or service. This happens through market research, analysis, and understanding your customer’s interest.
Marketing is a science not only creativity…Marketing starts before creating the products…Marketing is more related to human psychology & consumer behavior patterns, human communications .
Any technology will come & go but Marketing will never go out of fashion & long shelf life.
Marketing is all about understanding the need & wants of the customers, that it leads to product fit
Example of Solar Roof top system ..It is such a beneficial product for any household..its best example of Product market fit. It helps in over all GHG emission & use of natural energy
The product will start selling itself..so keep on trying to make your product 100% market fit.
Marketing is about creating the right message & sending it to the right person at the right time.
Marketing is all about how a prospective customer feels about the product & services during their journey cycle.
We need to build trust with the Marketing funnel …Create mass trust..like we do with friends / relatives..similar way we have to develop mass trust with strangers.
Marketing is about building a brand & understanding the emotions of the consumers.
Marketing is a about perception…product is a reality..we need to have a match between marketing & product quality..we have to equally focus on both..If quality is bad then good marketing is very dangerous for the company.
Word of mouth is one of the best channel.customers become your brand ambassadors.
Sales, advertising are few components of the marketing.
For success & branding — Choose any particular category / sub category & become a leader. Like i want to become a business consultant for digital marketing companies across India.
I am entering this consulting market but with a unique angle like I have positioned myself as virtual CEO..So i believe that any founder should be a marketing person — which is a key to success. So he can create a road map easily.
Marketing communications is all about transferring the thoughts effectively to your prospective customers.No need of sophisticated English. Normal Talk with your target audience..Join ongoing conversation with your target audience.
Optimizing for mobile friendliness like ease of navigation, look & feel of content. Take reviews & feedback across all channels to create MassTrust.
2. Digital marketing vs. Traditional marketing.
While taking about the difference between various types of marketing happening now a days like Traditional & Digital Marketing; i would like to elaborate here that,
If a product is generic, Traditional marketing like Tv ads / Radio ads can go to a very wide audience..so you can not underestimate the importance of traditional marketing. In India, 197 million homes have TV. so TV has a reach of 800 to 1 billion people..which is nowhere near to Digital marketing.
But Digital marketing is the best way to reach English speaking people in india with spending power.The major benefits of digital marketing is to have a personalized conversations, Sales, & feedback mechanism, analyse trends, etc. Such thing are not possible in Traditional marketing
Even up to certain extent Direct response marketing can be effectively managed by DIgital marketing
So every type of marketing has its own benefits & limitations. We have to carefully select the same depending upon product,place,Customer segment,Brand image etc.
Considering the current pandemic situation, organisation marketing budget spending has increased for Digital marketing.
Digital Marketing can have targeted reach, better brand awareness to target audience,cost effective & measurable.
3.CATT Marketing Funnel
While taking more about digital marketing, we all know that “the content is the king”
Creating a marketing funnel around content generates wealth & success.
The CATT marketing Funnel & Framework is about Select your Niche market, Creating
content which adds value , Get attention of the prospects, Build trust & Get transactions..
So Wealth = n^CATT, where n is your niche market.
I have found my niche as a business consultant for the ITES sector & find an audience related to it.
Now create contents for the target audience.Drive attention thru SEO, Social media, Paid mktg & referrals..
Need to build trust with re targeting & automation….Sending personalized communications to build trust.
The most important part is transaction..do it naturally ..dont push..but you need to have lead magnets to get help during the lead nurturing process.
4. Integrated Digital Marketing
Lot of Digital marketers are trying to get results through one channels but does not try holistically, that is where Integrated Digital marketing approach will become more meaningful in getting sales transactions.
Integrated Digital Marketing is like a team with content as the leader and the various other digital marketing methods are like its team members. Quality content which drives the process & people finds useful information from it. Share it on social media..Good content has a potential to earn back lings & SEO objectives can be obtained.
Publishing useful content on blogs & sharing links thru email can drive more traffic & build trust & more shares. With Email mktg, lead can be followed up to generate sales.
Lot of people do content mktg / SEO / Email mktg / SMM & expect sales to happen but nothing happens.
When you try to integrate all components in such a way that it becomes a machine..i run paid ads..for content..share content on various platforms & get attention thru all channels
Advertise free content & ask for attention. Paid advertisement is boosting momentum. Then People build trust..using all channels.
After trust, we can transact with them. So content mktg is the center of all.
So CATT funnel is executed through Integrated Digital marketing [ IDM ] Framework. CATT is a funnel of how different users go through it & IDM is a framework — how you execute CATT.
5. Personal Branding: MassTrust Blueprint
You have to be known then be the best..So personal branding requires you to be visible. Establish yourself..
For example Ankur warooku has a bigger following than nearby.com..Prahlad kakkar is a bigger personal brand then his ad agency.
Personal branding can become a brand ambassador for any brand. It can give rise to many brands through his/her influence.
So I believe that a business consultant as a brand can lift many other small brands.
To build a personal brand , learn new skills, practice it & implement it to have stronger understanding. Create case studies & write about it thru blogs. Start doing consulting.
Teach / mentor other people..Start your own startup.
For example, Learn Evaporative cooling technology, start blogging, create attention & do consulting..After more understanding start mentoring groups of people. Generate trust.
This is what the “MassTrust” blueprint is all about.
6. Digital Customer experience [DCX]
Consumers today buy an Experience not only the Products.Delivering a great customer experience is hugely important for any business. The better experience customers have, the more repeat customers and positive reviews.
- A Leading car brand sends service reminders & product notices thru App.
- A leading bank send account updates & financial goal / spending habit to customers which generates friendliness approach
- A doctor diagnoses patients thru data he feeds in App for vitals/ Food intakes/ Medicines etc..
- A retailer with an online community always ensures to get reviews/feedback/updates on new products thru Digital platforms.
Above are a few examples of how important DCX nowadays is for us to create a world class customer experience.
Digital experience, on the other hand, includes how customers perceive their interactions with you on strictly digital channels (like Social media channels, websites, apps, and emails.)
Digital customer experience is the sum of digital interactions between a customer and a company and the resulting impression that a customer walks away with.
Consistency & reliability of digital platforms to garner trust of the customer becomes key to create customer loyalty in any organisation.
Great digital experiences can be created in four steps: collecting customer feedback, analyzing customer feedback, designing for improvement steps w.r.t speed, ease of usage
To conclude;
Philip Kotler defines marketing as “the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit. Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires”
Marketing is the way through which it offers better value to customers than its competitors & increases Sales plus Profits for any brand.
So as a marketer, we should always pay attention to customer needs,wants, create products / Service, communicate through the right medium & build trust to transact.
Mindset change is the most important element to understand all these marketing fundamentals.
Right then..i hope this article will give you more insights about the fundamentals of marketing & right direction.
In the coming weeks, I will be writing more about the future of digital marketing & its importance in customer experience — a new marketing concept focuses on customer centric environments within the organisations to drive the growth.
Please let me know what you think about this article in the comment section below & share with your friends..Till then Stay tuned, Stay safe & stay at home…