9 Masterstrokes one can do to excel in Marketing in 2021 and beyond..

 Why is that some brands are so popular and some brands are not even unheard of? Why is that one owns a Billion dollar company and other is struggling to get the startup working? The best and simple answer is Law of Marketing, People say, “To build a strong building we must have a strong Foundation”, Yes you guessed it right, Marketing is that Foundation and we are going to discuss 9 best methods through which you can become best in Marketing. This is specially for those readers who want to start their company or are entrepreneurs who need direction in Marketing.

The fundamental concept of Marketing

Marketing is a science based on results and analysis of Data, Lot of people think Creativity is Marketing , the more creators we are, the better marketers we will be, but that is not true, Creativity is important but you need to research a lot in each and every aspect. Marketing is all about understanding the customer's needs, If I am trying to market or sell something which no one is willing to buy, I am not only wasting my money but also my time, You need to understand the people’s perception regarding your product, There is a very famous case study given by the motivational Speaker, that Colgate a number one brand in toothpaste industry failed terribly in India, The Marketing people of Colgate could not understand why this happened, they sent the research team to India and they realized that , People used tooth powder, and the concept of toothpaste is an alien term for them, Then they changed the marketing strategy and for the first time in the world, they made tooth powder, and launched in India and it was a super hit product. The basic fundamental law of marketing is such that you need to make a product in such a way that it sells on its own at the right time and at the right price.

Why do we need to Master Marketing?

Why should we invest our time, energy and money to learn marketing, what is so great about it? You must have thought that marketing is a concept which was invented in the 19th century, But that is not true. Marketing was there 1000’s of years ago, Did you know that all our religious books teach about Marketing, shocked right? Let me give you an example :-  the text Yajurveda is all about yagya meaning transaction, and to perform transactions you need strong fundamentals of marketing. The point I am trying to make is that Marketing was before we were born and will remain after we die, though the terms used will be different. So in order to know the fundamentals of transactions between you and the world, and to perform businesses in the materialistic world we should definitely master Marketing.

Importance of Communication skills.

Once we know why we should learn Marketing, it is very important , how can we start , there is one simple solution to that, you need to improve your communication skills, According to the recent survey conducted by Harvard University, 75 % of people agreed that, if they had good communication skills, they would have landed with better salaries and better positions in the company. In order to market any product, we need to make sure that we are able to convey to the person what we think about the product and why you should buy it. You must be familiar with the “ Sell me this pen” Question, Right? The employer is not looking for features of the pen, nor is it looking for the cost of the pen, it wants to know are you able to create a supply and demand in your answer, and how effectively can you communicate. There is a straightforward formula -> Good Communication Skills -> Good Confidence -> Good Presentation -> Good Results -> Will eventually lead to success.

The Inter Connection between Global Economics and Marketing.

There is a deep interconnection between Global Economics and Marketing, I cannot give the best example of the Covid pandemic situation faced by the whole world in 2020. If you a share market investor then you must have noticed how did the marketing trends changed during pre-covid , covid and post covid era, there was a sharp increase in cloth market in the covid era due to use of masks, and  there was a sharp drop in flights and travel and tourism, even big brands like mcdonalds, pizza hut and dominos had to change their marketing strategy to convince people their food is safe, food delivering partners company like swiggy and zomato had to come up with safe and secure delivery. “ Vocal for Local” was clearly understood as local shops saw a boom in product selling as there was huge demand for consumer products , so it clearly indicates from going online shopping to buying locally how, global economy plays a deep impact on marketing.

Traditional vs Digital Marketing

Previously before the dawn of the internet, traditional marketing was one of the best methods to influence your customer, In 19th century people used to read newspaper in the morning ,  commute to office and watch TV,  so the brand had to influence people to during these times with billboards, commercial ads and radio, an advertisement in the newspaper was very common. So the brand and the company has a limited window and time gap to influence the customer, But now things have completely changed, In this internet age, brands and companies have endless ways to reach the customer, Social media ads, Youtube, Google Ads, Blogs and the list goes on.  In the near future with the invention of artificial intelligence it will open a whole new dimension of marketing. Traditional Marketing is important but not to that level which it was 50 to 60 years ago, As trends change we need to adapt to the new ways of marketing techniques and digital marketing is trending now.

Direct Response Marketing
Direct response Marketing is that marketing technique which allows people to take specific action on it. There are many such scenarios where people market their products and they do not encourage customers to take any specific action. This may be beneficial for the long term, but there are people who are willing to take immediate action and if they are not given that opportunity then you could lose potentially heavy customers. Hence Direct Response Marketing is very important to make sure you are not missing out an audience who are action takers in life.

The CATT Marketing Funnel

Now when you know how to start marketing and from where you can start marketing, you need a proper method to make sure what you are working can lead to success in the future. Here comes the CATT marketing funnel

Wealth = n^ CATT

[n] = niche selected :- You need to select a proper niche in which you are interested.

[C] = Content :- Content plays a very important role, You need to have right content related to your niche topic and which can hook your audience very well, You need to make sure your content is simple, straight to the point and precise.

[A] = Attention :-  Researchers say that when a person is scrolling a blog or a news feed or a youtube channel, it has only 3 seconds to grab the customer attention, So you need to gain attention of the right audience and at right time, this can be done by organic reach and paid ads.

[T] = Trust :- Once you have their attention you need to build trust , and how to build trust, to deliver valuable content, that's what matters the most. You need to make sure the time your customer is investing in reading your article is adding some value to his or her life, or the product which your customer is purchasing is making their life simpler. Trust does not end there, you need to make sure you are keeping your promise day in and day out. It takes time to build trust, but once done, your battle is almost won. You can do marketing automation and retargeting to build trust.

[T]= Transaction :- Once the trust is built , you have a very good chance to convert the lead into a sale. You need to know how to sell a product, if you have built strong trust among your customers then, product will sell for itself.

Integrated Digital Marketing framework

People usually follow only one way of Digital Marketing either social media or SEO or Google Ads or Email Marketing, This used to work for a certain amount of time but it does not seem effective in the long run, here is where Integrated Digital Marketing helps to reach customers in unimaginable ways. Using all the Digital Marketing Techniques in an Integrated way such that it flows as an ecosystem in the customer journey is called Integrated Digital Marketing. Integrated Digital Marketing has these modules

• Search Engine Marketing(SEM)
• Search Engine Optimization(SEO)
• Email Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Digital Display Marketing
• Social Media Marketing.

The Connection can be best described in the following Diagram.

Personal Branding

All these marketing efforts will slowly evolve into personal brands, Personal Brand is when people start to say your “Brand Name” rather than the technical name, for example Google, ParleG etc. Now to pursue personal Branding, Learn to write, learn to optimize, learn to blog, Once people started trusting you, give them immense value Be consistent with your content, There will be times when life will knock you hard but you need to get up and keep it doing consistently, Once you cross that barrier then you evolve into Personal Brand, Once you Develop into personal Brand, then start mentoring and when you become capable enough, you can start your own startup. This is also called as MassTrust BluePrint

So that is a summary of action steps you should take to excel Marketing, People with Marketing fields excel in every part of the world according to their capabilities. So buckle up and take the adventurous journey into the field of marketing and explore new dimensions. Please let me know which technique did you find the best and what immediate action you are willing to take. Please do comment in the comment box and do remember one thing in life “ There is no success and failure , it is how much effort you put to make your dream manifest into reality”