Unveiling the lesser-known aspects of marketing and brand building

Many people have the misconception that marketing is about promoting things that people don’t need and then tricking them into buying them with the help of deceitful advertising. However, the truth is: Marketing comprises of a strategy that helps to run a business by catering to the well-researched, well-understood, and genuine customer requirements. Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customer requirements profitably. (UK Chartered Institute of Marketing)

Having shared that overview of marketing, let’s delve deeper into it.

Setting a Financial Goal

First of all, we must set a financial goal according to which you must work on your marketing strategy. Without having a clear goal in your mind, you would not have the right direction to channelize your efforts. 

For instance: If you want to make 1 Crore Rupees in 1 year, you must either have a product worth Rs. 100 and sell it to 100000 people or have a product worth Rs. 1000 and sell it to 10000 people. Alternatively, you can get 1000 customers to buy your product worth Rs. 10000 or 100 customers to spend Rs. 10000 on your product. 

Based on your financial goal, you must choose the niche of your product and its position in the market. It is advisable to have a niche that is neither too narrow nor too broad so that you can stand ahead in the competition and increase the likelihood of making more money. 

If you ask me my strategy of making 1 crore in a year, it would go something like this. 

I would have to sell my IELTS mentorship program for Rs. 15000 to more than 600 students in a year or sell it for Rs. 20000 to 500 students annually. The kind of pricing depends on my financial goal and also the industry I want to get into. Of course, I have to bear in mind the marketing expenses too. 

This brings us to the most important question: How marketing works?

Mechanism of Action of Marketing

To start with, it is the customer who determines what a business is. It is the customer alone whose willingness to pay for a good or service converts it into wealth, things into goods. With that being said, marketing is about following the TRIAD of reaching the right person at the right time with the right message. To demonstrate this point, let me ask you something: How many times have you made an impulsive purchase from an ecommerce store just because you received an email or a push notification or a text message enticing you with a 50% OFF? Quite often, right? That’s how marketing works. 

It is based on the “science” of understanding your customer’s psychology and tapping on the right emotions. If I want to start an IELTS mentorship course, I will have to understand my target audience and their challenges. The main challenges of this target group would be fluency in the English language, lack of confidence, and inadequate guidance. Considering these pain-points, I must create a product that would address all their concerns. Furthermore, I must make sure that I can create a strong personal connection with them so that they are happy with my services and help me with “referral marketing” without being asked. I should also be able to instil a sense of trust and delight them. Remember that my product should not get superimposed by marketing. My product should be able to sell itself once I have reached that level of popularity. 

The first step to effective marketing is to build a strong brand. It is not important to be the first, it is more important to pick a category and try to be the best in that. To climb the ladder of success, the very first milestone is to determine who you are competing with. To illustrate this point, let’s consider the example of social media channels - Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Now, the beauty of all these platforms is that all three have different kinds of features. While Twitter is a microblogging site, Facebook is more of connecting with people and Instagram focuses on letting people show off their edited photos, food photographs, and travel diaries. Their target audience is also different and that’s why they are at the top in their respective brand positioning. 

Today, we live in a world of digital marketing and many businesses have transcended from print media to online press releases. That doesn’t imply that traditional marketing has turned obsolete. It simply means that marketers can reinvent new possibilities of promoting their products with the advent of new channels of marketing.

Differentiating Between Traditional Marketing and Digital Marketing

If you have a product that can create a bigger impact through television advertisements or print media, traditional marketing is the right choice for you. Mobile phone companies mostly prefer a TV ad to impart a better experience with enticing visuals and pretty faces endorsing the product. On the other hand, digital marketing is great for ecommerce stores, SaaS companies, and businesses that have a specific target audience to reach. 

While digital marketing efforts are intangible and temporary in nature, traditional marketing is more memorable and leaves an indelible impression on the viewer’s mind. If you are running low on budget and your product does not demand traditional marketing, digital marketing can go a long way for you. However, if you want to render an unforgettable and immersive experience for the customer, traditional marketing with a noticeable hoarding or TV commercial is a better option. 

This is about marketing for businesses. So, what about your personal brand? How can you build a strong personal ground in the marketing world? Here’s the answer

Personal Brand Building

Personal brand building is all about following the CATT marketing funnel. Let me explain how it works with the help of a real-life example. 

At the outset, I pick my niche and create content according to my knowledge and expertise. Subsequently, I will have to draw the attention of my target audience and try to build their trust with my products. That would ultimately translate into money for me. People would be willing to spend money to buy my product if it helps them. 

Integrated Digital Marketing 

More often than not, marketers do not take a holistic, omnichannel approach with marketing. They work with siloed strategies that does not prove to be as effective as an integrated digital marketing approach. 

Let’s say, you browse an ecommerce store for red stilettos and then add them in the cart without completing the purchase. Now, within an hour or so, you will receive an email that reminds you of the product you have left behind in the cart, a push notification offering you a discount coupon code, and a retargeting ad on social media. This would reinforce your buying decision and encourage you to complete the purchase. That’s how integrated digital marketing works. 

Personal Branding

Let me share my journey of LinkedIn with you. I’ve not yet aced the game but I am on the way to build a personal brand “Disha Bhatt (Dave).

I share my personal stories that would inspire people and get them to talk to me. 

I tag my connections in my posts and they tag me too, in relevant posts. Such a collaborative approach can help you a lot in building a personal brand. 

I let my connections know about my achievements, my promotion at the workplace, and how my juniors see me as the most approachable team member at work.  

I want to do something with respect to IELTS mentorship, so I share posts that would enlighten people about the modules of this test.

All these are baby steps towards building a strong personal brand. 

Over to you...

To recapitulate, the first thing you need to do is create a profitable niche and try to be the best in whatever you choose. Build yourself as a brand because people look forward to hearing from other people and not from “brands”. Subsequently, you will be able to garner trust from people, which will ultimately boost your business growth and bring you money. 

So, what do you think about this path? Have you thought of personal branding and marketing, yet?

I would love to hear from you in the comments. Or DM me :) 

Let’s connect and discuss!