Basic of Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is more about Marketing than Digital.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

Peter Drucker

The quote mentioned above by Peter Drucker reminds me of how marketing doesn’t begin after you are ready with your product. The journey starts way before that. It begins the day you find a need in the market that you can fulfill with your services. Like every other great thing in the world, Marketing is also pretty simple actually. You speak to needs and demands, and your customer reaches out to you. But it will be stupidity if you make a product/service which is fulfilling and satisfying, but people do not know about it. It’s like making a fantastic app but not launching it. That’s where marketing comes in the picture for the 2nd time. 

Wondering when it came in the picture for the first time? 

Before creating the product, you need to figure the need of your target audience, the place where you are going to promote it, the time you are planning to promote it. So when these three factors combine Right Product + Right place + Right Time, that’s when you are done with the first half of your part. 

An essential thing about marketing is your product. Before you hype the product and present it in the market, make sure the product itself is of good quality and serves the core needs of your target audience. While performing marketing activities you cannot stick to just the visuals or only the content. 

Content Writing, Advertising, Sales, is all a part of the marketing platter. 

“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room”

Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO

Brand building is not done overnight. It is the result of a series of efforts and contributions that you have made towards building that brand image every day. Well, if you are thinking that there are already so many existing famous companies out there and that you do not hold any chance to uplift your company in this competitive market. Let me tell you that YOU are WRONG! 

All you have to do is look for a subcategory. 

Let’s say I want to become a social media marketer and I am aiming to promote myself as a freelancer, and I am actively approaching different brands and companies. But I am a little confused because I might get leads, but I am not able to convert them into my clients. I question myself that there are so many social media managers already existing and are probably excelling at what they do? 

What is my subcategory? What can I do differently?

Now, think of it this way. I am a social media enthusiast, and my subcategory is handling accounts of different NGOs and Clubs out there. I will start researching what their need is and will develop strategies based on the same. Now in this process, I can also associate with them and take up a few free social media webinars, coaching sessions in different cities/states. This will result in lots of promotion and will continue to build my brand value. There is a good chance if I am taking a session for 100 students, 10% might get me leads, and out of 10%, 10% will be converted as my client until and unless I am giving excellent quality services. 

So that means, one conversion after conducting a session with 100 people. 

That also means, when I will conduct a session for 1000 people, I will get 100 leads out of which ten will be converted. 

Out of this 10, even if I have three recurring clients, I will be sorted with my base income. Not to forget, word of mouth still remains to be the sharpest tool in marketing for ages. So when these ten conversions do word of mouth to at least three people per person, i.e., new 30 people tapped without making any effort. So, always remember, every person you talk to is your potential client, so chose your words and actions wisely. 

DID YOU KNOW? 

Only 54.29%in India are internet users. This means if you have customers beyond people who consume content from the internet, you will have to get back to the basics. 

Source: Statista

Getting back to Marketing Basics? 

Yes, I am talking about Traditional Marketing here. And yes, it proves to be effective to date regardless of all the new trends and technological advancements that we have witnessed over the past few years. Not a lot of people know this, India has TV’s in 197 million homes out of 298 million households. So in case, you have a product that is generic and can be used by anyone and everyone like a toothpaste, consider spending on TV commercials because it can give you a lot of eyeballs. Apart from TV, radio & newspapers also prove to be fruitful if your target audience is generic and you think it consumes that product. We can’t deny the fact that traditional marketing does come with a few cons too like it does not have a personal touch, limitations in retargeting remarketing. So, if you are looking forward to selling a product which has a small ticket size and is used by people on a day to day basis, it is recommended to try traditional marketing methods. 

It’s time to talk about my favorite part, THE CATT FUNNEL 

I remember Deepak Sir saying, “If you become everything to everyone, then you will be no one to everyone.” 

This reminds me of how important it is to find a niche before taking your first step towards your new blog/ business/ page. It is really important to answer these 3 questions, 

• Who is your target audience? 
• What is the need of the market that you are fulfilling? 
• Why do you think the audience should buy from you? 

So jumping onto CATT

Content + Attention + Trust + Transaction = Sales!

• Content – While making content, make sure to answer people’s questions. For eg:- If you are reading this blog post till here, it clearly means that I am able to provide some answers to your questions. It could also mean that it’s just the way I am transferring this information is something that is keeping you interested. 
• Attention – Have you noticed by how I started all the topics, with a question mark? with an attention-seeking headline? Or with a famous quote? Obviously I did it to gain your attention and I am hoping I could do it well. You can also drive people’s attention using digital marketing services like SEO, Social media campaigns, ads. 
• Trust – Building trust is like Building Blocks. You put together all the pieces one by one with lots of effort and then BOOM, one mistake, and the blocks are all scattered. Similarly, developing trust within your customers is very crucial and we should avoid taking decisions that can hamper that trust. 
• Transaction – The most important and the most difficult part arrives. This is where you actually convert your leads into your customers. In simple language, getting sales from potential clients.  We have all heard that content is king, but it’s very important to remember that follow up is the queen. Without following up, you will never be able to achieve sales. 

That’s all folks about the CATT Marketing Funnel. 

Tell me something, have you ever seen someone making a tasty dish without adding a few core ingredients? 

No right? People know the importance of every ingredient and that the dish will not be a successful one without adding them. 

Similarly, Digital Marketing is not only about doing SEO, Social Media Ads, or Email Marketing. All these tools are interrelated to each other and serve a purpose, which is why they exist. 

The day we start broadening our approach towards these tools is the day we will understand how

• Social Media Marketing
• SEO 
• Paid Ads 
• Email Marketing 
• Content Marketing is all dependent on each other in some or the other way. 

Lastly, I want to mention something that everyone knows but they tend to forget about it amidst their busy schedules. I am talking about Personal Branding. You could be a great architect, designer, model, accountant, digital marketer, but until and unless you don’t put it out there that, “HEYY! I am good at this and I am looking forward to bigger opportunities in this particular industry“, nobody will get to know about it.

I would like to end this blog with a quote by Digital Deepak, “Do not be the No.1. Be the only one.” and this is how no one will ever be able to replace you.