THE FUNDAMENTALS OF MARKETING EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW

Marketing has been the main focus for many businesses since ages. Doing Marketing the right way is equally important as learning it. Sometimes, even experienced marketers ignore some basic things which may change their idealogy and perception. 

A great product will always sell itself. But a great product with the right marketing strategies will explode in its growth faster and efficient. 

Let me explain a few things in Marketing which are necessary yet basic. 

What you will learn in this article: 

1) Basics of Marketing

2) Building a strong personal brand 

3) Digital vs Traditional Marketing

4) The CATT marketing funnel

5) Integrated Digital Marketing

6) How to make 1 crore- cutting down to basics

Let's get started and learn about each topic clearly and carefully.

1) Basics of Marketing

You know, Marketing is all about sending the right message, to the right person at the right time. It starts even before you create a product. You need to research your customers and their needs to create a product they require.  

Also, Marketing is not completely about selling to new customers. It is also retaining the customers who already purchased your product. This can be done by communicating which turns them into loyal customers. You need to give equal value for both acquisition and retention.

The main purpose of Marketing isn't about closing more deals, it's more of gaining trust from your customer, like building brand value.  

2) Building a strong personal brand 

Personal branding is quite important because people believe more in a person rather than a brand. 

You need to choose a category in which you need to be a leader. Your name should resonate in the people's mind when your category is conversed about. Suppose, you wanted to the no. 1 marketer in India, then brand yourself in the same way so that people will remember you like that. 

If there is more competition in the field you chose, try becoming a leader in the subcategory like no. 1 digital marketer, no. 1 SEO, no. 1 content creator, etc.. 

When you become the leader, you become influencer and brand ambassador for that category. Any company you start gets easily advertised due to your influence and brand value. 

It takes years of hard work and perseverance to build a strong personal brand and become a leader in your category but it's worth it. 

Here is a Masstrust blueprint which shows the evolution of a personal brand. It is a cyclic process from where you learn a skill, then work on it, then you create a blog, then you start consulting, and then you mentor others and then you start your own startup. You again learn even when you have a startup. Hence, its a never-ending cycle. 

3) Digital vs Traditional Marketing

Traditional and Digital aren't two types of Marketing but they are just platforms you work on. It changes with time and customer's psychology. Your marketing platforms change where most of your customers are. 

Traditional Marketing has more reach because not everyone has access to the internet. There is only 100M population which has access to the internet but 800M population has access to TV. But the only disadvantage in traditional is that you cannot calculate the metrics and also you cannot reach your target audience which is not the case in Digital Marketing. 

Traditional isn't dead yet. If it is dead, the biggest companies like Apple, Coca-cola, BMW wouldn't have advertised. If your product is generic with a very wide targeting, then TV ads can help you achieve it. But if you are starting now, Digital is the main platform you need to concentrate because you can reach more of your target audience with fewer budgets.  

Digital Marketing is the best medium to reach the English speaking audience with internet access and spending power which is nearly 100M population.  

4) The CATT marketing funnel

A marketing funnel is nothing but the customer's value journey where he goes from a stranger to becoming a loyal customer.

There is a simple process to follow to acquire a loyal customer.

 The formula is Wealth = n^ CATT

where,

n= Niche, Your success and wealth depend on the niche you choose. It's an intersection between your talent, passion and market needs. 

C = Content, Content creation attracts people from your niche. It builds credibility in your audience that you are expertise in your niche. It can be anything like youtube videos, LinkedIn articles, own blog articles, social media posts, live webinars, etc..

A= Attention, You need to drive people's attention(traffic) to your content using SEO, social media, youtube, Paid ads and referrals.

 T = Trust, You need to gain trust from your audience with authenticity, tripwires, automation and retargeting. 

T = Transaction, You need to finally convert those leads into clients or customers through natural sales methods. 

This is how you need to take your audience through the funnel to gain more customers. This process is used by mostly every business in the market right now.  

5) Integrated Digital Marketing

Integrated Digital Marketing is the right use of all the components of Digital Marketing to gain more customers and increasing your brand value. 

Investing your time, energy and money into Integrated Digital Marketing framework will only help your business grow.  

If you are into business, you need to work on all components like SEO, social media, paid ads, email marketing and content marketing. You can see in the above framework on how each component is interconnected. Here, the CATT funnel needs to be used along with Integrated Digital Marketing for your business to gain customers.   

6) How to make 1 crore- cutting down to basics

I know making 1 crore in business is a bit difficult if you haven't started yet. But if you cut down to basics and understand it from each level, it doesn't seem that hard. 

1 crore revenue = product price x no. of customers req

Let's go through the bar chart shown here. 

In the first bar, If your product price is at 100rs, you need to sell it to 1,00,000 customers.

In the second bar, If your product price is at 1000 rs, you need to sell it to 10,000 customers.

In the third bar, If your product price is at 10,000 rs, you need to sell it to 1000 customers.

In the fourth bar, If your product price is at 1,00,000 rs, you need to sell it to 100 customers.

This chart can simplify the approach you take while making one crore in revenue. If you break it in such a way, it looks more simple and achievable.  

Concluding this article, I would say everything seems impossible until you start. Start right now and enjoy the process, your goal looks more achievable. Marketing is an easier process if you cut down to basics and understand it at each level. 

Do comment your thoughts below if you've learnt something new today. :)