Here’s what Wikipedia CAN’T tell you about Marketing

Here’s what Wikipedia CAN’T tell you about Marketing

“If you have a good product, it will sell automatically.”

Is it?

Nope. Just having a good product cannot ensure its success. How you market it, equally matters (if not more).

But why?

Suppose you create an A1 quality product but nobody knows about it. Would you be able to make sales? Maybe a few. But, to scale your business, you need to market it.

And mind you. Marketing doesn’t equal sales. Sales are just a small part of marketing and marketing starts way before and ends way after selling.

For the past few years, I’ve been learning about marketing (mainly digital marketing) –  both theoretically and practically.

And in this article, I would tell you some interesting things about marketing, which Wikipedia or any similar website can certainly not.

So, let us begin with some basics of marketing

Fundamentals of Marketing

digital marketing

– What is marketing?

Marketing helps create the demand for any product by increasing awareness about its existence, building a favorable image in the market, and persuading the target audience to take an action.

– Law of marketing

Below are a few laws on which Marketing is based.

  • Marketing starts before creating products

Yes, that’s true. But how?

Marketing starts with researching the product that has to be created, its competitors, and the market demand. Because these factors are essential to produce a product that addresses the pain points of the customers and stands out from the competitors.

  • Marketing involves targeting the right people, at right time, with the right message & products

For a successful marketing campaign, all the above-mentioned factors should be present.

Not convinced?

Let me give you an example:

Marketing an oxygen cylinder with a pitch like “save your lungs from pollution” to someone residing in a non-polluted area, would be ineffective.

But doing the same around in Delhi during Diwali can make it a success.

You got it, right?

  • Serves existing customers to make them your forever customers

Marketing doesn’t just involve getting new customers. It also focuses on keeping the existing customers happy by providing them after-sale services or in some other forms, so that those customers don’t remain their one-time clients and instead stick to them forever.

  • Develops people with a lot of trusts

Marketing is based on #MassTrusts (building trust among people). It involves activities that make people trust the brand.

  • Aims to bring marketing to an end by building a brand & positioning them right 

A surprising objective of marketing is to bring itself to an end.

Sounds crazy?

But it genuinely aims at reaching a stage where the trust has been built among people to an extent that the brands don’t need to market the products or services anymore.

  • High-quality product, not cheap

Marketing can help sell a product, but if the product isn’t good in itself, it can’t be a success in the long run.

  • People act as your brand ambassadors, spreading a word for you through word of mouth

If and when a product wins the trust of the people, they become its unofficial brand ambassadors and promote it through word of mouth.

Not sure, how?

For example, I studied tuitions at Premier Education and really loved the way Shrinivas sir and Neha ma’am taught the concepts of Accountancy and Economics respectively.

It’s been over 3 years since I’m no longer their student, yet whenever someone asks me for the best institution for commerce, I always mention “Premier, period.”

Of course, they aren’t paying me for saying that. But, it is their services and the market positioning, that makes me say that.

 

Digital Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing

While marketing is a broad concept in itself, it has two broad sub-categories, which are traditional marketing and digital marketing.

I’m sure you must have heard of these two terms.

To be precise, traditional marketing uses traditional media to promote services or products. These include TV, radio, newspaper, billboards, etc.

Whereas, digital marketing uses digital platforms to market products and services. It includes websites, social media applications, eBooks, etc.

In the era of the internet, digital marketing is used commonly and not just by brands, but also by individuals. However, that doesn’t imply traditional media is no more active or worthy.

But I’d still say, digital marketing has many more advantages, one being that it uses deep marketing (personalize it, making it seem like it’s talking to you)

Direct Response Marketing

Direct response marketing is a type of digital marketing that is designed to elicit an instant response by persuading the target audience to take an action.

Basically, it aims to generate leads quickly and it makes the marketing campaign easily measurable.

How?

For instance, if I advertise a free digital marketing workshop and ask the audience to fill out a form to get themselves registered, I’d get the stats in real-time and would get to know the exact number of people who were positively impacted by the ad. And that would help me make better changes.

Now, how does that differ from traditional marketing?

In traditional marketing, there’s no instant lead generation or response, it aims at building long-term brand value. Whereas, in direct response marketing, the response and ROI are instant.

 

n ^ CATT Marketing Funnel and Framework

digital marketing

CATT funnel is a framework that decides how your audience would go through the entire journey with you.

Here’s to simplify:

[N]— Niche. Niche is the category you choose to serve your audience through your products or services. Your niche should be based on the area of your expertise/interest. It is important to pick a niche wisely.

[C]— Content. Content is the king. By creating informative or attractive content, you can make people aware of your existence and affect their lives positively, It can also be in the form of podcasts, webinars, videos, and eBooks.

[A]— Attention. It means driving traffic to your content using SEO, Social media, and Paid Ads among other ways.

[T]— Trust. It refers to building trust among your audience through personalization, retargeting, automation, etc.

[T]— Transaction. Once your audience develops trust in your brand, it is easier to convert them into your customers.

 

The Integrated Digital Marketing Framework

digital deepak marketing ddip

As the name suggests, an integrated digital marketing framework is the integration of various forms of digital marketing together.

All these channels work with a single goal of generating more leads or sales. Some of its components are:

  • E-mail marketing
  • Content marketing
  • SEO
  • Social Media
  • Paid Ads

But why?

It works on the belief that individual strategies don’t have a huge impact on their own. When used together, they can create a more influential online presence.

 

Personal Branding: MassTrust Blueprint

digital marketing

Personal branding can be a game-changer for your business. Because let us accept the fact that we love talking to individuals more than businesses. When there’s an identity attached to a brand, it makes it easier to trust it.

In fact, I also have my personal brand as a content writer and coach.

Wondering how to build trust through your personal brand?

Here’s a 6-step process:

  • Learn

Learn a skill or niche by reading books, watching videos, or enrolling yourself in courses. (mainly through theories and concepts).

  • Work

Work in the industry for some months or years to gain practical knowledge about the same.

  • Blog

Start your own blog to share informational or educational content. It would help you show yourself as an expert and build authority using your free content.

  • Consult

Start consultancy services to help our people or brands with similar problems. Yes, you don’t need to be perfect or the most successful person in your industry.

But, you can certainly need to know a little more than your ideal customers, so that you can solve their specific problems.

  • Mentor

Mentorship is another great way of helping those who want to reach where you’ve already reached. So, once you believe you’ve achieved something great and built trust among your audience, you can start off with your group mentorship programs.

  • Startup

After you have adequate knowledge, practical exposure, and a community that trusts you, it’s time to build a start-up or a company to make money. It would make more people trust you.

 

So, this is it about marketing that Wikipedia won’t tell you 😉. To summarize it for you, here are the key takeaways:

 

Key Takeaways

✅ Marketing is based on research about the product and the audience, serves the right audience, and is focused on keeping the existing customers happy by providing them with after-sales services.

✅ The world (especially the biz world) is incomplete without marketing.

✅ Marketing starts before the manufacturing of the product and ends way after the sales are made. Because it understands the needs and pain points of the customers.

✅ Marketing involves experimenting. There are no hard and fast rules of marketing.

✅ Mere creation of products doesn’t help. You need to market them well to make sure it reaches the right audience at right time. For the same, you can use either traditional media and/or digital media.

✅ For instant response on your marketing campaigns, you should go for direct response marketing.

✅ You can integrate various digital marketing methods online to showcase your products. Automation really helps save time and effort.

✅ Having a personal brand is quite significant as it builds credibility & trust. This can also affect your enterprise positively.

 

If this article has been successful in teaching you a bit of marketing, do comment down and let me know. 🙂

Aastha Kochar
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Aastha Kochar

Aastha is a freelance writer who helps brands rank on the 1st page of Google, generate organic traffic and get leads. She also helps freelancers start or scale their business by mentoring them.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Sachin sharma

    Amazing post , with lot of knowledge . Great work Aastha 👍

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