Marketing Concepts: A Guide to Everything You Need to Know

Do you want to understand the concepts and fundamentals of Marketing? Do you want to draw your customers attention? Do you want to understand the importance of personal branding? Do you want to know how Traditional marketing is still effective? Do you want to become a successful marketer? Are you baffled by the question, “Is marketing a good career?”

If you have answered “YES” to any of the questions above, then this article is for you. In this article, we are going to talk about the concepts and fundamentals of Marketing. We will discuss about the necessity of Digital marketing vs. Traditional marketing.
You’ll discover what is the CATT Marketing Funnel and how effective it is. You’ll also realize the importance of personal branding.

The majority of marketers have no idea whether their strategy will work or not. Many of them market using ineffective ways, resulting in financial losses and poor results. If you’re one of them or don’t want to be one of them, keep reading because at the conclusion of this piece, you’ll know how to effectively promote your business.

This article will be beneficial to anyone who want to become a successful marketer, effectively sell their products/services, have a deeper understanding of marketing, or expand their company’s or personal brand.

What are Marketing Fundamentals?

Let’s begin with a definition of marketing.

Marketing is the process of presenting the right product or service to the right person at the right time so that the target audience becomes aware of or takes the action as aimed by the marketer.

It begins with an understanding of the customer’s needs, which leads to the creation of a product/service that fits. As Peter Drucker says

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

Marketing is a tool for achieving a goal. eg. building a brand, selling a product/service, capturing the leads etc.

Advertising, Copywriting and Sales are the components of marketing.

It’s not just about selling; it’s about keeping existing customers happy through communication so they become customers for life.

Never allow marketing to become more than just a means of selling a product. A great product sells itself. Tom Fishburne also said

“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.”

Great products turn customers into brand ambassadors and word of mouth is the most effective marketing channel ever. You need a great product, but marketing not only helps people discover it, but also helps them have a good perception of it. Exactly like Apple.

Product, Price, Promotion, and Place are the four pillars of marketing. Tactics and channels change, but these are the fundamental principles around which everything else revolves, and they are timeless.

Product: This is what a company sells, whether that means a physical good, or a service. You’ll need to consider how you’ll package or present it. Marketers must be well-versed in all of the features and specifications of the products they sell.

Price: This is simply how much that product/service costs. Do some research on how your competitors price their products and learn how much consumers are willing to pay.

Promotion: There is a wide range of channels for promoting the products. From radio ads to social media banners, you must determine which are appropriate for your brand.

Place: Your customers must be able to find and purchase your product. Is it possible for them to buy your product online, or do they have to go shopping? You must also consider how much inventory to keep and where to keep it.

Digital marketing vs. Traditional marketing

Many people believe that digital marketing has surpassed traditional marketing. Because of the invention of smartphones and their convenience, traditional marketing has declined over the years.

Due to this advancement of the digital age, marketers should begin investing in digital campaigns. The traditional market still has an audience, but it is shrinking as a result of the digital world.

If a product is generic and has a broad target audience, Television ads can reach millions at a low cost such as the Apple iPhone.

India has televisions in 197M homes out of 298M with an average of 4–5 members per household, Television has a reach of 800M to 1B people.
The reach of Digital Marketing is nowhere close to Television based on numbers alone. (Source: Wikipedia)

Digital marketing is the most effective way to target India’s fluent English-speaking population, which has a spending power ~100 million people.

65% of India’s population listens to radio.
The newspaper reaches 465 million people.

We live in a world where having a website and using the internet to engage with your audience is essential. As a result, businesses should continue to promote themselves in traditional ways while also ensuring that they are present digitally and plan to expand their online presence.

CATT Marketing Funnel

n- Niche
According to this funnel, your wealth is directly proportionate to your Niche. CATT describes how your products or services function on the Internet. It is entirely dependent on your niche. How good and extensive is your niche’s knowledge?

CATT stand for C- Content, A- Attention, T- Trust and T- Transaction.

Niche: The niche you choose determines your level of success and wealth. Choose a niche and stay focused on it until you make millions.

Content: Create useful content that attracts people that are interested in your niche. Everything you do prior to selling a product/service is to create content and tell people that their product/service can solve your problems or assist you in some way. Blogs, videos, webinars, and other types of content can be used.

Attention: It’s time to attract the attention of an audience that genuinely needs your product or service after you’ve created content. More users are aware of your product or services as a result of increased attention. You can drive attention using SEO, Social Media, Ad campaigns etc.

Trust: This is an extremely crucial stage. Digital marketing requires a high level of public trust. You develop an atmosphere of trust with your audience after catching their attention. Testimonials and positive results from prior customers can help you do this. People automatically come to you when they trust you. It’s challenging when it’s not. There will be more transactions if there is a greater level of trust.

Transaction: Now that individuals have gained confidence in you, it’s time to market your products or services. Convert them into transactions. Use a natural sales strategy to convert your prospects into customers.

This CATT marketing funnel and framework will assist you in determining where you are lacking in terms of transaction volume.

Integrated Digital Marketing

Integrated digital marketing is a strategy of engaging customers and prospects with your company or brand that integrates all aspects of marketing communications to help the customer progress from awareness to loyalty and advocacy.

Integrated digital marketing communications include Paid advertising, Email Marketing, Content Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Posts as well as customer support and customer relationship management.

It’s similar to speaking in a single language in various situations.

It’s a strategy that blends all your marketing tactics, approaches, channels, media, and tools which work together toward a clear purpose that is based on the demands of the client or consumer.

Have you ever wondered why McDonald’s is always promoting themselves? Everyone is familiar with McDonald’s. Everyone is familiar with McDonald’s, and there is one on every street corner. So, what’s the point of advertising? Because there is power in reminding consumers about your brand, even if they are already aware of its existence.

Investing time, energy, and money in developing an integrated digital marketing process for your company is similar to purchasing a machine that will magically multiply the effectiveness of each component within it.

However, integrated Digital Marketing involves having a well-structured and well-defined marketing strategy.

Content is the leader of Integrated Digital Marketing, while the numerous other digital marketing strategies are the team members. Integrated Digital Marketing will take advantage of each member’s capabilities to deliver a result that is greater than the sum of each member’s individual accomplishments.

The above flowchart describes the process of integrated digital marketing. Each one serves a unique function:

• Content Marketing: Content marketing is a wonderful technique for generating more leads and revenue. Content quality and relevant content aids in the establishment of authority, the development of trust, and the engagement of the audience with the brand.
• Email Marketing: Email marketing is another important aspect of digital marketing. You know people are interested in your products and services because they opt-in to receive your emails. Helps prospects remember about the product or service they want to acquire by sending them information about new content and following up with them.
• Social Media: You can use social media to engage with present and potential customers, as well as build connections with them. People may not be in the mood to transact in a social environment, but it is a good way to gather honest feedback on a product or service and listen to client demands.

• Search Engine Optimization: Allows potential clients to find your content and services by searching for them directly. Doing basic on page SEO and then doing all the other things right should be enough to higher search ranks mean more leads, phone calls, and income for your business.
• Ads: If you want to improve your rankings quickly, paid advertising may start bringing qualified leads to your site right away, and it’s a cost-effective solution for most organizations. The integrated digital marketing approach acts as a trigger for ads, maximizing the dollar’s return on investment.

Personal Branding

Personal branding is the process of influencing how the public perceives a person. Building your reputation, developing an image of yourself for the outside world, and marketing yourself as an individual are all part of personal branding.

In simple words, The practice of promoting people and their careers as brands is known as personal branding.

“Personal branding is the art of becoming knowable, likable and trustable.”
— John Jantsch

It is the continuing process of establishing and sustaining a person’s reputation and image.

It’s how you tell your narrative and how people perceive you based on your online reputation.

Why Personal Branding is Important?

“It’s important to build a personal brand because it’s the only thing you’re going to have. Your reputation online and in the new business world is pretty much the game, so you’ve got to be a good person. You can’t hide anything, and more importantly, you’ve got to be out there at some level.”
– Gary Vaynerchuk

Here are some points telling why it’s important to build your personal brand:

• The best known will always beat best one.
• People want to hear from human not from brands. Foe example, Elon Musk has a bigger following than SpaceX and Tesla as they connect with human not brands.
• Personal Branding can’t be invested and sold but it can give rise to many brands from own influence.
• Personal Brand becomes an influencer and a brand ambassador for the companies that they run.
• You get your name out there.
• Your ideal people begin to seek you out.
• Builds relationships for you automatically.
• You’re exposed to a larger group of people.
• Create a sense of trust and confidence.
• You Increase Your Online Visibility.
• You Develop a Memorable Persona.
• You Develop a More Relatable Persona.
• Your business starts to sell itself.
• You have complete control over how others perceive you.
• Develop a sense of consistency.
• Allow yourself to express yourself.

Evolution of a Personal Brand: The MassTrust Blueprint

The above MassTrust Blueprint describes the looping process of evolution of Personal Branding. Let’s get deeper into each steps of it:

• Learn: Learn a new skill through concepts, facts and procedure. Understand the concepts, remember the facts and practice the procedure.
• Work: Put your skills to work. Go from practice to implementation. It’ll give you better understanding.
• Blog: Write about what you have learned and experienced through your work. When you write, you understand better, also start building Personal Branding.
  I also worked upon this MassTrust Blueprint and wrote a review article of one of the Affiliate Program booming now a days. You can Read it Here.
• Consult: Start Consulting other businesses instead of working for them.
• Mentor: Mentor others who want to become like you. It’ll help you scale your understanding to a whole new level.
• Startup: Start your own product/service with understanding that you developed about the market, problem and your own skills.

Conclusion:

So it was an outlook of marketing guide that includes the fundamentals of marketing, Digital marketing vs. Traditional marketing, CATT Marketing Funnel, Integrated Digital Marketing and Personal Branding.

I hope this post has attracted your interest in marketing and helped you to properly understand marketing concepts.

There is still a long way to go before you can become a good marketer or properly understand marketing, but I hope this article has pointed you in the correct path to get started.

Please leave a comment below if you enjoyed this article and let me know what you think. Also, pass it on to your friends who might benefit from it.