6 Facts Everyone Should Know About Marketing

Do you want to know how marketing works and what are the fundamentals of marketing for business?

If yes, this article is worth reading.

I will briefly explain everything about how marketing flow works in reality and how to Start your journey and success in marketing.

Before I start, I want to know if you have some questions in your mind, Just like me.

• Do you think marketing is based on creativity?
• Why should you and I master marketing?
• Which is better: Digital marketing or Traditional Marketing?
• Is there any marketing funnel or framework to be successful?
• What is integrated digital marketing?
• What makes personal branding important in marketing?

So don’t worry, you are in the right place. I am here, So sit back and relax and I'll tell you everything about marketing that changes your perception of marketing to achieve success in your life.

In this article, I am going to talk about

• The fundamentals of marketing and Facts about how marketing works.
• Digital Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing. What's the difference?
• CATT Marketing Funnel and Framework
• Integrated Digital Marketing?
• Personal Branding: Mass Trust Blueprint

This article will be useful for Bloggers, Freelancers, Content Writers, and Entrepreneurs.

Let’s Start now

Fundamentals Of Marketing

Everyone knows that if we want to start any business or to run any business we need to do marketing to get people to know about our products and services.

"Business has only two functions - Marketing and Innovation." ~ Milan Kundera

Marketing in simple words is the art of getting customers to our business to buy the products and make profits from the business via any kind of platform.

Marketing is based on rocket science. It is not based on creativity. We do not need much creativity to make a business successful through marketing.

?Everyone thinks marketing is done after the creation of the product, Is it??????

Absolutely not, Marketing comes into the picture before the creation of the product for the business. A good product is developed or created by understanding the customer's needs and researching the market value and whether the product fits into the market or not.

Marketing is not only focusing on selling the product. It is also about keeping the existing customers happy by communicating with them so that they can remain customers for life long.

It is not a point about how much effort you're keeping behind the marketing. It is the point you need to be aware of whether your message on the product is reaching the right person, at the right time.

Every business needs marketing to know the people about our product. But marketing depends on human psychology and the product should be deeply rooted in people's minds. It means you need to build your brand.

If there is a quality product or great product that product will sell itself. Do not make marketing more important than a better product.

“A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all”?~ Micheal LeBoeuf

A good product makes customers happy and converts them into brand ambassadors. If people are satisfied with a product they always share feelings and refer to others. Word-of-mouth marketing is the best marketing ever.

Let me tell you an example

Dropbox is an online storage company that successfully used word of mouth to attract a lot of new customers. It offered 500Mb extra storage space to the new users and the people referred by them.

The point is that people always believe the words of their friends, family, or neighbor if there is something that benefits them. So, this campaign from Dropbox made massive downloads reaching 1 Billion plus, and led to rapid growth in Dropbox’s revenue.

?“Advertising brings in customers, but word-of-mouth rings in the best customers.” ~ Jonah Berger

Every business needs a great product but marketing does not help people discover the product, but also should have a good perception of the product. That means you need to make your product visible and should make it a brand.

Building a strong brand

"Your Brand Isn't What You Say It Is. It's What They Say It Is." ~ Marty Neumeier

To build a strong brand you need to decide where to compete in the market. Make sure to discover the purpose behind your brand. Every successful brand has a powerful purpose behind it. You need to choose the category and should become a leader in that.

If you cannot be a leader in a category, you can be a leader in a subcategory.

Let me describe?

The Tollywood film industry is one of the categories in an Indian movie cinema. If you come into the subcategory Actor, Actress, direction, production, and so on, comes under the sub-category.?

Let me give an example: Baahubali

We all know the movie Baahubali which is a Pan Indian Blockbuster. That movie has made a powerful impact on the entire Indian cinema from the Telugu movie industry, hero(Prabhas) and Director ( S.S.Rajamouli) gained a lot of respect and a fan following from the entire world.

Now, They built their own brand in their categories and got recognized as a Pan Indian actor and Director. That recognition(brand) brought Prabhas and Rajamouli to be leaders in their categories.

"Do Not Be The No 1. Be The Only

One."

People only remain No 1 or No 2 they do not care much about others. So build your brand as strongly as possible.

But why should every entrepreneur be aware of? Marketing?

Marketing has existed for decades. Studying marketing will help entrepreneurs develop a creative as well as an analytic mindset.

If you know marketing you will be able to understand the market scenario and consumer psychology.

Everyone knows marketing plays a major role in establishing the brand. It is a skill that is needed by every business man.

Every entrepreneur should not depend on a marketing agency for marketing their business. The founder should be a marketer.

?Founder + Marketing + Sell = Safe Career.

If you start a business everything which you invest for production, Manufacturing, Accounting, Administration? that doesn't give immediate ROI. But when you invest in marketing for business after everything is arranged that investment gives direct returns.

?"Marketing is not anyone's job...It’s everyone’s job.” ~ Jack Welch

So every entrepreneur should do their own research in any marketing field to succeed in their business.

We have learned the marketing fundamentals, but how do they work??

Traditional Marketing Vs Digital Marketing

Traditional Marketing

Traditional Marketing refers to the marketing that uses traditional channels or media, for the purpose of marketing communication.

If a product is generic with very wide targeting-Tv ads can reach millions at a low cost.

Television is always big in India. Tv is now watched by 800 millions Indian people that the reach of digital marketing is nowhere close to Tv based numbers alone.

In traditional marketing Consumers cannot skip the ads, as they are bound to see them and hear them.

But the problem is ?

In traditional Marketing the conversion is slow and the engagement will be low.

In this traditional marketing we can only target local audiences .

We cannot measure the return on investment easily and the results will be delayed.

It is only one way communication and it is less effective and more expensive.

Do you think Traditional Marketing is Dead?

Absolutely No, Traditional marketing has its own unique way and its own trend.

?Let me clarify.

Kiran Kumar M Jain is chairman and Managing director of Lalitha Jewellery.

?????????? Lalitha Jewellery is known for its brand in the Jewellery section that made a great impact on traditional marketing. When everyone is moving from offline marketing to online marketing such as( SEO, Google ads, Facebook ads etc).

But he has chosen completely traditional marketing to his brand such as Tv ads, flex banners, hoardings and targeted his audience who are above 35 years.? image source

Because he knows that 90% of people who buy gold are from above 35 years old who never much use social media.

So that's why he used traditional marketing for the visibility of his brand to his target audience. He also went in a unique way with his slogan called “Dabulu urike ravu” that striked into peoples mind, And right now lalitha jewellery is one one top most jewelleries in the country with turnover 15,000 crores(approximately).

So the way of marketing approach has changed but traditional has been proven to reap more benefits than a one-dimensional approach. It has its own trend.

?Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is the marketing of products and services via digital channels, such as the internet, smartphone, display ads, and other digital medium.

In digital marketing, The Internet plays a major role and companies make use of all the digital channels to reach the existing and potential customers.

India has the second largest internet user base with 560 million users whereas China stands first place with 854 million internet users.

Digital Marketing can engage the audience globally and very effectively.

It is very cost effective and it can be implemented very fast and easily.

In Digital marketing we can target global audiences.

Digital Marketing Allows the consumers to avoid or skip the ads which do not interest them. It is a two way communication.

We can measure the return on investment easily and results will be quick and real time results.

In Digital Marketing the conversion is fast and the engagement will be high.

And Today's Trend

Digital Marketing is giving a great deal of competition around the world to Traditional Marketing. Both the ways are different but the common goal is to target their audience and make sales.

But how the digital marketing works in reality to make sales, So here comes into picture Marketing funnel.

?The CATT Marketing Funnel and Framework

This is a framework called CATT Marketing Funnel that will help you analyze the impact of your product or services on digital channels of internet based users.

CATT stands for Content, Attention, Trust, Transaction.

[N] Niche : Niche is nothing but a product or service which you choose by researching the market for what people are hungry for. If you choose a perfect niche, success and wealth comes to you that depends on how good at your niche. Below figure gives you how you can find your niche.

[C] Content : Content is a creation and power that gives to your niche. Content is your asset to attract people for your niche. If you create useful content from your niche that attracts people to your business. Blog posts, videos, lead magnets, live webinars etc are the platforms for creating content.

[A] Attention : If you have great content you need to make it visible to your target audience. You need to drive attention(traffic) from your target audience to your content using digital channels(SEO, Social Media, Paid ads and so on..).

[T] Trust : Once you? drive traffic you need to build trust in your target audience. If you do not build trust there will be no sales and no one would buy your product. Build trust with your audience like they should never go or check to alternate person to buy similar product from them.

"Content builds Relationships, Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue." ~ Andrew Davis

[T] Transaction : If the people build trust on your product there will be a transaction happening to buy products. The leads which come through trust on your products will turn into customers and natural sale will happen automatically.

Wealth = n ^ CATT

If you have good niches you can multiply with CATT funnel and you get a lot of wealth.

?Now lets see how CATT marketing is connected with Integrated Digital Marketing.

Integrated Digital Marketing?

In Integrated Marketing all the components of digital marketing complement each other. There are different modules that overlap each other often with no boundaries.

Integrated Digital Marketing can be considered as a cricket team. Here, Content at middle will be the captain and the other digital marketing modules(Email Marketing, Sales, Social Media, SEO, Paid Ads) will be their team members.

Integrated marketing will use each module as their strength and will combine together to produce a great result which is the sum of the individual result of a modules.

Instead of achieving its own individual result by individual modules, if we combine all the methods together in a unique way it will boost the marketing strategy and automatically business will go so high.

How does it work in real time?

People will come to your content at different levels through different digital modules. Some will come through paid ads, Some will come through Email Marketing, Some will come through SEO and some will come through Social Media. It's our duty to make sure the platform is well-integrated.

It is like your content is a key here, where it drives people's attention to your content through some different digital modules and it will build trust on your content and it will convert trust into sales.

It is the same as a CATT funnel the way that CATT funnel is executed? through Integrated Digital Marketing.

CATT funnel is the framework for how an individual goes through different stages.

Integrated Digital Marketing is how you execute it. It is like a machine that runs a CATT funnel.

Check out SEO and Digital Marketing differences briefly.

Now let's move into..

Personal Branding

Personal branding is nothing but building your personal image in the world and making trust among the people rather than your brand.

In this world no one will hear you if you know everything unless you build your own personal image or trust among the people.

People always want to hear from a person and not from brands. Because people are always connected with a person.

"Personal branding is not about you. It's about putting your stamp on the value you deliver to others." ~ William Arruda

If you establish your personal brand, People will remember you as a person and talk about your story rather than a company's story.

Because you can see bigger following for Chairpersons and CEO rather than company following.

Ex. Elon Musk has a bigger following than SpaceX and Tesla.

Personal brand cannot be invested in and it can not be sold in the market, but it is more powerful, Why?

Because personal brand can give rise to many brands by your influence.

For Example

You all know the famous personality in Stock Market i.e. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.

Rakesh jhunjhunwala is an Indian stock trader and business magnet.

In recent days we have seen a lot of news circulated on Rakesh jhunjhunwala. Every stock pages and Meme pages started posting his pictures and about his portfolios.? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??Image source

But why suddenly he got that much brand in the market?

Because, Later we got news that Rakesh jhunjhunwala is going to start an airline business. It became too much sensational news for one week.?

Just imagine if he had not created that much awareness among people and if he would have started his business directly no one would have cared about his airlines. That is the magic of personal branding.

A personal brand becomes an influencer and a brand ambassador for the companies that they run.

I hope you all got to know how important personal branding is.

But how to build it ?

The Evolution of Personal Brand

Learn : Learn new skills through Concepts, Facts and Procedures. If you do not focus on learning new skills you cannot become a personal brand. You need to understand the concepts, Remember the facts and practice the procedures.

Work : Learning new skills and Practice will not make you a brand. You need to put your new skills into work. I mean you go from practice to implementation. Implementing what you learnt in the real world will give you a better understanding about the market.

Blog : Now, Create your own blog to write about what you have learned and experienced through your work. The importance of creating a blog is When you write you will understand better, And this is the moment where you start to build your personal brand.

Consult : ?Now, you have built your personal brand through your blog, And you have got work experience and have learned the fundamentals, Start consulting other businesses instead of working for them.

Mentor : There are so many people who want to learn something like you. Mentor other people who want to become like you. When you start mentoring it will help you scale your understanding to a whole level.

Start Up : Finally, start your own product or service business with the understanding that you have developed about the market. When you start it you will get into the market as a personal brand.

At last if you are consistent at every point of your journey, you will be successful in building the brand in the market. "Consistency is key"

That's it for this article.

I hope this article is useful and has given you a whole idea how the marketing flow works.

This article has been documented from the learnings of the Digital Marketing Internship by Digital Deep

List of other articles by me :

The Essential Guide To E-Commerce

Do share your thoughts in the comments.