Unlock The Law Of Marketing: In A New Light

Make Your Marketing A Reality

Have you started your dream business?

Did you land up with your first marketing gig?

Are you struggling to decide where to start your marketing efforts?

Looking for strategies to succeed in a competitive marketplace?

If yes, here is The Law of Marketing which is in reference to my learnings from my mentor Deepak Kanakaraju. He always encourages us to share our knowledge which can foster vision in others. When you share with others, it helps to deepen your knowledge and engrains what you know. So let’s deep dive into my learnings on the following topics:

1. WHAT IS MARKETING?
2. HOW TO STAND OUT IN A COMPETITIVE MARKET
3. MARKETING IS A CONVERSATION
4. TRADITIONAL MARKETING Vs DIGITAL MARKETING
5. CATT MARKETING FUNNEL AND FRAMEWORK
6. HOW TO IDENTIFY THE RIGHT NICHE?
7. INTEGRATED DIGITAL MARKETING
8. PERSONAL BRANDING

Future success starts with core principles and solid fundamentals. You need to learn how to develop a strategy around these fundamentals. Marketing tactic changes as per the emerging trends, what has not changed and will not change are the core fundamentals of marketing; this guide is to enlighten you on the key concepts to get you started!

WHAT IS MARKETING?

Marketing is a science; it’s an overall process of sending the right message to the right customer at the right time. The keyword in this definition is “process”; marketing involves researching, promoting, selling, and distributing your products or services. Marketing starts before creating a product by understanding the customer and their needs that lead to creating a perfect product.

No matter which industry you belong just follow the 5 trusted processes

Step 1 Market Research: Understand the customer and the marketplace

Step 2 Strategy: Design a customer-driven marketing strategy

Step 3 Branding: Differentiate your company from your competition

Step 4 Development and Implementation: Build profitable relationships and satisfaction

Step 5 Measurement: Value for customers creates profits

All this process helps you to develop a position in the market and build trust within the target audience. This trust is called #MassTrust, this movement created by DigitalDeepak

Always create an emotional connection, listen to your consumer, and deliver on whatever promises you make. People want to hear from people (personal brand) and not from brands (companies). You need to stand out to be recognizable! Once you have captured a position in the minds of the customer, the requirement of marketing starts going down.

Here is an example of a brand, captured position in peoples mind:

How many times have you said if you could make a “Xerox” copy? Xerox is a generic term we use for photocopying a paper but according to the definition of the Xerox machine maker, “you cannot Xerox a document, but you can copy it on a Xerox Brand copying machine”.

So, Xerox does not keep marketing their brand because the trust is already built, the word of mouth is the biggest marketing asset.

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”~ Peter F. Drucker

HOW TO STAND OUT IN A COMPETITIVE MARKET

Competing in a competitive marketplace is a good thing because you have a clear indication that there’s demand. Also, it forces you to continually grow, innovate, and keep you at top of your game.

Standout from competitors

If you are looking for profit, it’s recommended to enter a competitive market with a unique approach.

Do you agree, the world of marketing has undergone many transformations? Yes, it’s getting more complicated and yet exciting combined with rich data, innovative technology with a fragmented sector. Hence capturing simple, standout customer experiences is ultimate! Customers are looking for simplicity with a short attention span.

Here is an example: How Pinterest carved out a successful niche within this Social Media landscape.

Pinterest a “visual discover engine” has grown within a mature and competitive market through needs-based positioning. It has an engaged base of more than 250 million monthly users just by organizing the world’s hobbies. It brings value to specific types of users who use the network to discover and buy new things. Pinterest is more focused on interest than people they don’t detract from the interest due to image-focused UI.

So what makes Pinterest Unique?

~Picture, of course, is the obvious reason

~Not necessary to have many followers

~No need to follow everything, you have multiple boards to choose

~Well organized, the right content, and easy to locate

I would say that to have a competitive edge you need to share a different or unique story that has never been heard of before. Now that you have understood, marketing is a game of perception and these perceptions can be created only by the human mind and behavior.

“Business has only two functions — Marketing and Innovation.” ~ Milan Kundera

MARKETING IS A CONVERSATION = COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Effective communication in marketing is all about delivering your message efficiently, convincing your customer to buy products, or /and services. To develop a good marketing strategy and interact with client’s you need to have communication skills. This doesn’t mean sophisticated language.

Let's communicate for good ideas

If you are running a new business, you need to understand that, your potential clients have been buying products and services from your competitors. So you have to use communication as a tool to win their hearts. The more you communicate, the more you will come up with an innovative idea. Be a creative extrovert!

Here are 4 proven ways to improve your communication skills

1. Write as you talk, the more you write the better you improve, try to expand your vocabulary. Crossword puzzles, word games, and Scrabble are excellent tools to help develop your language.
2. Understand the target audience and join the conversation in people minds
3. Keep reading, this will transform the way you communicate your ideas
4. Watch English movies, stand-up comedy shows, and sitcoms

Misunderstood = Miscommunicated, follow these tips and I am sure you will get the skills to customize marketing conversations to fit each client’s needs. Communicating is one of the most effective skills you can cultivate as a business leader.

“For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate”~ Margaret Heffernan

TRADITIONAL MARKETING Vs DIGITAL MARKETING: WHICH ONE IS MORE POWERFUL?

You have seen a huge market transformation in recent years, where no longer has control over the buyer’s journey. So it comes important to communicate our product and /or services through different mediums to attain the buyer’s attention. Are you confused, which methods to apply? , Here’s everything you need to know?

Traditional Ads

Traditional marketing involves traditional channels, like Outdoor (Billboards, posters, etc) Broadcasting (TV, Radio, etc) Print (Magazines, newspapers, etc) Telemarketing (Phone, text message). Since the development of the internet in the 1990s, traditional marketing was pretty much the only type of marketing. It is easy to reach out to a wider set of audience if you have a generic product and your consumers can hardly skip the advertisements that are causing interruptions. This medium is :

1. Impactful and easy to understand
2. Printed marketing materials are more permanent
3. More memorable

But you cannot do a personalized communication, deep marketing, or natural sales. It is said that you need to always Measure Monitor Report and Learn. You will find a difficult to measure the campaigns so you’re more or less in the dark about your audience’s reaction to your marketing efforts. If you are an early brand you may not have enough funds for advertisements like a 4 page covering in the listed publication.

Digital Ads

Digital marketing is using digital channels such as websites, social media, Content marketing, Affiliate marketing, Inbound marketing, PPC (pay per click), SEM (Search engine marketing) as tools for marketing communications. This medium is very handy for you to grab the attention of consumers along with a highly automated process which is another boom. Also, you get a quick result in real-time for your marketing efforts. This medium is:

1. Easy to measure your campaigns
2. Providing more options for engagement
3. Making a clever targeting possible and cost-effective

This medium is heavily dependent on technology, you have a couple of posts scheduled to go live and the site goes down, the only solution is to wait. Also the google ads, banner, social media ads are intangible if your target audience clicks to the next page your ad is gone for them. Each channel in Digital marketing has its specialist you need to learn and constantly evolve.

You must be wondering, what works best for you?

Traditional Marketing channels are more welcomed by Gen X people but Digital Marketing is a surprisingly suitable route for all ages, not just millennials and Gen Z. The key is to understand your specific marketing needs, considering your budget and understanding your target audience.

Both digital and traditional marketing can work for you, as long as you know what your audience wants. Through your traditional marketing approach, if you notice a decline in performance, it might be time to incorporate some digital marketing tactics into your strategy.

Digital Marketing is an increasingly important revenue driver. Recently, 50% of marketers said they believe this medium has an edge over traditional because of the flexible interaction it opens with customers. While digital marketing constantly evolves, traditional marketing is still a realistic way to market certain businesses also acts as a secret weapon for interactive, face-to-face, and skilled marketing.\

“Traditional marketing talks at people. Content marketing talks with them”~ Doug Kessler

THE CATT MARKETING FUNNEL AND FRAMEWORK = PERSONAL BRANDING

Do you remember, earlier there used to be an AIDA funnel — Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. It’s more of a sales funnel that was practiced by an individual salesperson for client conversion (1:1 Sales). If you are doing Digital Marketing you need to build trust i.e #Mass Trust System, an amazing movement created by DigitalDeepak. One of the best ways to build trust is through Personal branding. So building Mass Trust System is through CATT Funnel

CATT funnel to create wealth

The effectiveness of the funnel determines how much wealth is created; let’s see, how is wealth created through the equation for CATT Marketing Funnel

Wealth = n^CATT

Where n = Niche: Identifying to create awareness amongst specific people/market who will be interested in your product or/ and services offered.

C = Content: Creating unique, relevant, and engaging content to attract your niche market. These are through the blog post, live webinar, videos, lead magnets

A= Attention: Drive attention i.e traffic to your content using SEO, Social Media, Paid Ads, and Referrals.

T = Trust: Build trust with your audience with tripwires, marketing automation, and retargeting

T=Transaction: Once the trust is developed, convert your leads to the customer through natural sales (i.e. you are not pushing your sales) but at the same time you need to have a sales page or a sales webinar. Without sales, you are not able to convert your leads into customers. So it is important to complete the entire funnel to create wealth for you. Once you have saturated the niche you can go ahead with those profits for another niche.

HOW TO IDENTIFY THE RIGHT NICHE?

Niche selection is a combination of Talent, Market, and Passion.

Identify your niche

You need to evaluate your passion and figure out if there’s a market for your niche otherwise your work will stay a hobby, never growing into a lucrative business. You can further narrow down your niche. For instance, you may have found that “freelance writing” is a popular niche but further you can define your niche as “freelance science fiction writers”.

“Very narrow areas of expertise can be very productive. Develop your own profile. Develop your own niche” ~ Leigh Steinberg

INTEGRATED DIGITAL MARKETING FRAMEWORK

As search engines continue to change, likewise our strategy needs to change for a powerful online presence. You need to provide your user with an all-encompassing online experience, for that you need to have a combination of all the digital strategies “integrated digital marketing” campaign.

Integrated approach

Integrated digital marketing, as it sounds, the integration of multiple marketing strategies to form a cohesive online approach for your business. You should elevate your customer journey through this framework that is cost-effective and increases ROI.

Here is an example of Southwest Airlines Transfarency — Integrated marketing approach. (Source: https://online.aurora.edu/)

Southwest Airlines has launched an integrated marketing campaign called “Transfarency.” The airline uses television, radio, print, and digital assets to demonstrate how customers will pay for things like checked bags, flight changes, and snacks and drinks.

The airline has a microsite for its Transfarency campaign that showcases the value customers will receive by choosing Southwest over other airlines.

It includes several sections of informational and fun content.

1. A #FeesDontFly comparison of Southwest and other airlines like American, United, Spirit, Delta, and more.
2. A “Fee or Fake” game that tests customers’ knowledge of surprising fees they will encounter with other airlines.
3. A “Dear Southwest” Mad Libs-style letter that boasts Southwest’s status as the only U.S. airline that doesn’t charge checked bag or change fees.
4. A “Fee Hacker” section that parodies how customers can avoid fees with other airlines.

“It’s safe to say that the buzz the campaign has created on both Twitter and Facebook is positive signs,” according to Wright.

Referring to the example, while each strategy doesn’t have a huge effect on its own, when used in conjunction, you can make a more powerful online presence. This framework drives the CATT Funnel.

“Integrated marketing communications are a way to examine the entire marketing process from the point of view of the receiver”~ Philip Kotler

PERSONAL BRANDING:

Earlier days personal branding was limited to celebrities, actors, musicians, and famous company’s. However, those days are gone! Now, the best known will always beat the best. If you have a unique combination of skills, experience, personality, and willingness to dedicate your time and effort in your niche to tell a different story to the world, then go ahead and create your brand.

What makes you unique?

It gives you a chance to highlight your strengths and your passions. It helps people believe they know you better, and people have a lot of higher trust in those they believe they know. Building a brand with your blog, website, and other work help to define not only what you do but who you are. A personal brand also becomes an influencer and brand ambassador for the company they run.

How will your journey look if you want to evolve your Brand?

1. Learn: Your Learning should be through Concepts, Facts, and Procedures which means understand the concepts, remember the facts, and practice the Procedures.
2. Work: You have practiced your skills now, next is to work on it i.e Implementing in the real-world through the job, freelancing, or working on your project.
3. Blog: Tell your learning story by Writing, this will help you to understand better and this will help you to start building your brand
4. Consult: Now that you have a personal brand through your blog and work experience, its time to start Consulting the business.
5. Mentor: Start Mentoring people who want to become like you. This will scale your understanding to the next level.
6. With the understanding that you have developed about the market, now it’s time to establish your STARTUP.

The summary of all the above points which is an endless improvement cycle is called MASS Trust BluePrint, building trust with a lot of people.

“Your personal brand is a promise to your clients… a promise of quality, consistency, competency, and reliability” ~ Jason Hartman

CONCLUSION:

The objective of my article is to enlighten you, the fundamentals of marketing and concepts of evolution, digital marketing has bought into your lives.

Picasso was asked once how he sculpted a lion. “That’s simple” he answered, “I take a slab of stone and remove everything that I don’t need.” Art, he added, is the elimination of the unnecessary.

That’s how Smart Marketing! Making the complicated simple, awesomely simple.

I attempted to provide inspirations and provoke you to take action on these concepts, put them into practical application. The practical skills which you gain through these exercises will make you feel empowered. You should feel ready to apply these skills to produce measurable results.

Success isn’t just about what you accomplish in your life. It’s about what you inspire others to do. Do let me know with your comments if my article influenced you to practice the law of marketing with a thumb rule — Learn, Grow, Succeed, Inspire, and Repeat.

Do check my article : 5 Reasons For Startups To Invest In Content Marketing