Is it only about Marketing a Product or Creating a Brand !

• Why should I learn Marketing, when I can hire people for it ? 

• Why should I go for Digital Marketing why not Traditional Marketing ?

• Have you heard about CATT Marketing Funnels ?

• Why Integrated Digital Marketing ?

• Why is Personal Branding important ?

I have been in the field of digital marketing quite a while now, and interacting with my clients always brings new learning towards the field of Digital Marketing. One thing which I have understood that Marketing is not magic where you rotate your magic wand saying ABRACADABRA and here the product/services sold out immediately. No, Marketing is a science, yes at some extent you may relate marketing as a creative tool which lets you be in the game for long, but eventually Marketing is all about understanding your target customers and meeting their end needs. It includes everything starting from the creation of product to its selling to the feedback received from customers, it doesn’t ends here Marketing is also about building good relationship with the customers and associating them with your brand that lasts long.
There are few questions I have come through during my journey in this field which I am going to share with you all in this blog, so if you are an entrepreneur or an up-coming digital marketer or just a curious learner, this blog belongs to you.

Why should I learn Marketing, when I can hire people for it ?

Before taking up any project I always ask my clients if they know anything about the market they are targeting, and most of the times the answer is NO. Clients comes up with a product which they have created and want to sell in the market, without any idea about their target audience, they just ask me to promote their product. One of my client has even said to me that Why am I paying you if I have to learn about my prospect market. I got speechless for a moment and then started explaining him the reason why I have asked him to know his market. That one experience taught me another new thing about my end users or customers. Well, no matter who your are an entrepreneur, a blogger, or a freelancer, its always important for you to have a fundamental understanding of your target audience or your market. Marketing starts way before creating your product, you can not sell just anything you want in the market, you have to understand what your customer requires, who is your target customer. You need to learn sending right message to the right customer at the right time. Its about making right choice for your target customers, from conceptualizing a product to its feedback from the customers, Marketing is the backbone of any business. For example – Suppose you want to open a pre school, you have your own space, you have teachers, you have all the things that required to open a good school but there are hardly any admissions in your school. You find the need of a Marketing resource who can bring the admissions, even after spending heavy amount on Marketing you get to know that in your target area there is no such need of a pre school of XYZ reasons, and then you find out that the whole amount you spent gone wasted just because of the lack of knowledge about the market.  

So its very important for an entrepreneur to have knowledge about his end audience. Now, here knowledge refers the understanding of the audience, their needs, their mindset, buying capacity etc. Its not safe to start up anything just because you want it, Market is a balance between want and need, understand the need and create the product and then create the want with right marketing tools. Remember, you can always hire someone to do marketing for your products, but a business is successful only when the founder knows his market before launching the product.

Why should I go for Digital Marketing instead of Traditional Marketing ?

Hey! the times are changing, and in this changing era modes of communication has also changed. People now spend more time on their laptops, phones, iPad, Tabs than anything else.  Now you can read newspapers on an average of 5.5″ screen or probably on your laptop while going for a meeting. Feeling bored, let’s have a chat with friends or post a new update on Instagram or Facebook. or any other social media platform. You hardly asks people for the correct direction, because google maps are their to take you through(exemptions are always there). With their busy schedules people want every information fast and relevant, here where Digital Market comes in. You must have noticed, once you search for some information related to any particular product, and from next time you get ads only related to that or similar kind of product or even something related to that product. For example – If you search for PUMA sport shoes once or say twice, from next time whichever site or app (in built ads) you visit, you find ads related to your search or say as per your preference. You don’t have to wait or look for your kind of advertisement to display on your screen. 

I don’t say that Traditional marketing is not worthy, from ages this is the easiest and pocket friendly choice for products having wide range of market. like washing Powders, Spices, Electronic items etc. etc. Traditional Marketing fits where you need to communicate directly to the mass. Reach of TV, print media or radio is still higher in India but that is because when you are watching TV at home probably you have one or more person watching a particular advertise with you. Wanting or not but you are sharing someone else’s interest through Traditional Marketing mediums. Today when people can see everything as per their preference, why would they want to go through those unwanted ads which they never liked.

A sports person who is not at all interested in household things would never go and watch the ads selling such products. Here, where Digital Marketing plays its role. Not only that its affordable, but also it is one of the best medium for an entrepreneur to reach to its end customers at the right time, with the right message. Digital Market focuses on its end customers in a more deeper and personal manner, one more difference which I have found in Digital Marketing and Traditional Marketing is that Digital Marketing is a kind of two way communication, where you can ask your customers for their feedback through different forms and save their data for better understanding and research for your next product/service. Whereas, in traditional market the scope of taking feedback is limited and generalized which doesn’t let your end users feel their importance.

Have you heard about CATT Marketing Funnels ?

I know the terminology must be new to some people, but most of you who want to learn about marketing or how to sell their products in the market may be aware of this easy to understand and effective terminology of Marketing. CATT, where you can refer C as Content, A as Attention, T for Trust and T stands for Transaction. It seems more like a new vocabulary you are learning, but, how is it related to Marketing!

Well, as I say the terminology is easy to understand and effective only if you use it properly before starting your business, or before the conceptualization of your product. We have already seen in previous paragraphs that why it is important for an entrepreneur to learn the basics of marketing, now after understanding the basics the second and most important thing is to choose your niche. Niche is something which keeps you unique from other people in the market, and in marketing we learn how to convert this niche into a profitable business. There is a very simple formula to understand the concept of CATT :

wealth = n^ CATT

it says to earn money you need to work on your niche giving it a power of creating good content, dragging people’s attention, building their trust in your brand and then converting them into your customer by asking them to invest their money through Transaction. For any business this is one of the very basic thing. These five points are easy to remember and to apply :

1. Niche – Choose a category where you know you are unique and the only one in the market, if not the only one then atleast the second best in the sub category of your chosen niche.
2. Content – Deliver a content that touches the needs of your target audience. Make them believe that you can understand them the best in the Market.
3. Attention – Sometimes a good content may also be ignored by the target audience, drag their attention towards your product through different kind of activities to be in the market. Keep them engaged with the content you have created.
4. Trust – For any business, its always important to build a trustworthy relationship with your customers. Don’t make fake promises, try to deliver 99.9% (even hand wash give this much of guarantee ) of your words, and make sure to be their for them when they come up with their doubts or issues.
5. Transaction – The last and very important point, no matter if any of your customer feel the association with you following the above mentioned points, transaction sometimes becomes tricky from both the sides. Here, you have to assure the transaction by different means of marketing which I will share with you in my future blogs.

Hey! it doesn’t ends here. The circle is on going, and you have to keep working in the order to earn more and give more.

Why is Integrated Digital Marketing important ?

Integrated digital marketing is, as it sounds, the integration of multiple marketing strategies to form a cohesive online approach for your business.

Source – hurrdatmarketing.com

As the definitions explains it all, Integrated Digital Marketing is the usage of different marketing strategies together to give better approach towards our target market, it even helps us to understand which strategy is effective to the different genre of audience. In IDM content works as a leader and it helps you to approach your target audience with different platforms like, Email Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Paid Advertising etc. It is better as it gives clear vision to our marketing strategy through different analytics provided by the Digital Marketers. Integrated Digital Marketing focuses on the best possible interaction of your brand every time a customer comes across. 

Why is Personal Branding important ?

Had it ever happen to you that you are gone to the grocery shop, you know the owner very well, did your purchasing, paid him and came back. Suddenly you find that something is missing, you forgot to take the money back or anything else, which reminds you of that grocery shop, you have the number saved of that shop but you forgot the name of the shop, you calm yourself and dial the number of that owner whose name you remember because for you he is the brand, you call him and resolve your issue.

Another example, of an entrepreneur who started with scratch, made his association with his target customers, gave them their share of trust and profit and made a place for him in the market where nobody knew him before. Late Shri Dhirubhai Ambani created his own history, people trusted him with all his heart and they believed him and invested their hard earned money in his dreams.

This, is the power of personal branding. People remember you better than your brand, and once you create the strong association with them they start trusting you with their money and keep your brand in their priority list before investing their money in future. People want to talk to the real people , they want to hear from you, they talk about your brand because of who you are. It is not enough to be good at something, people should know you, they should trust you, People are ready to invest their money, but first you have to show them your worth by creating your personal brand.

With all this I conclude my write up here saying that Marketing is a vast area and there is a lot to unfold. In this article I have tried to clarify the term Marketing by giving a glimpse of its usage and implementation. To know more about it you may read “This is Marketing”, written by Seth Godin.

Well, I hope I have covered the answers of your questions in this blog, if not do write to me on comment box and let me know what you liked about the blog and what more you want to hear from me in my next blog. For more such interesting reads do subscribe my blog. Do Share it if you like it.