How to leverage marketing in the right direction?
- Are you not getting enough sales or driving enough traffic?
- You are a digital marketer and you have tried all strategies — SEO, paid ads, social media, email marketing but still not getting the desired results?
- Your product or service is great but in spite of that, you don’t have enough customers?
If any of the above is your concern and is robbing you of your sleep, then read on. Within the next twelve minutes, you’ll discover the blueprint of a lead generation machine and how it works every time if you’ve got the basics right.
For any marketing professional or an entrepreneur to achieve success, one needs to understand the fundamentals of marketing.
For instance, people who do digital marketing do not do it in a holistic way. They approach each channel in a siloed manner and they expect results out of it. What they don’t realize is they try all strategies (SEO, paid ads, social media, email marketing) separately and not in a way where they have the opportunity to play to their strengths and complement each other and eventually work in a cohesive way that churns out results.
You should understand the principles of marketing and how it works before jumping the guns to go digital. Digital is just the medium.
By now, you must be thinking, what’s new in it and you might have read this in a thousand other marketing blogs.
There’s no real takeaway from this particular blog, is there??
The truth is, had it been Elon Musk’s or Warren Buffett’s, I’m sure you’d have read this not only with a different mindset but with great enthusiasm.
You know why? — because they are famous. They are no.1 in their respective categories. They have positioned themselves to be the best. No wonder people will be more inclined towards reading theirs than reading any random blog that comes on the internet on any given day.
This is where personal branding comes to make you realize how important it is for your products or services and for your business to grow in the long run.
The importance of personal branding & niche selection
How to develop personal branding? — Start by identifying your niche. Try choosing a niche that is not too narrow or not too diluted or broad.
It’s also important to hold on to your niche when it comes to niche selection. At the same time, you will not want to waste your time & energy on a niche that is not growing.
Pick something specific that you can do better than 90% of the world.
Just because you can probably do a lot of good things, that does not necessarily mean you’re an expert in every single one of them. You see, the idea “jack of all trades, master of none” doesn’t quite fit in here.
“The only way to create a personal brand is by becoming the go-to, recognized authority on a specific topic.”- Neil Patel (Co-founder of NP Digital, Crazy Egg, Hello Bar & KISSmetrics)
Deepak Kanakaraju, who decided to stick to this particular niche digital marketing, is now a successful brand himself.
He’s now one of the most sought after Digital Marketing mentors besides being an entrepreneur and a blogger.
His personal branding is so strong that he doesn’t have to sell his internship program which is a huge success, separately.
But it can take years for you to earn no.1 position. You need to hold on to it and continuously work on that.
Well, you cannot possibly expect it to happen overnight, right?…
If you think you excel in a subtopic like SEO, Google Ads, or maybe Affiliate Marketing, you can work on that area as well instead of biting off more than what you can chew.
Look where you leap
Half the battle is won if you’ve chosen a category and started working your way up to be the leader of that category and understood where to compete.
Sounds like jargon? Let me break it down for you.
Google, Xerox, Zoom — Three established companies. Need no introduction. So popular that they have become verbs. These are the names that come on top of your mind when it comes to search engines, digital documenting & printing services, and video conferencing solutions. BMW is reckoned as a luxury car category whereas Mercedes Benz falls in the chauffeur-driven executive class (E-class) car category. Volvo, on the other hand, entered the market keeping “safety” as their USP.
Got the drift?…
Exactly!…
People remember only no. 1 or max no. 2. Every market becomes a two-player market in the long run. So instead of competing with someone who’s already established in a particular category, try becoming that category and become the only one in that. Ex: Instead of competing with Google, try building a niche search engine, like Zomato for food search engine, or Practo for medical search engine.
Now that you’ve understood how to select a niche, next comes the product.
Understand your target audience and create a product they actually want
You’ll be surprised to know that marketing starts before creating the product. It starts with understanding the customer & the customer’s needs. If you don’t know who your target audience is, who will you cater to?
Once you understand the psyche of your potential customer, then only you create or develop a product or service that fits their needs. Once that fits the funnel, you don’t have to struggle, it will sell itself.
Deepak Kanakaraju from digitaldeepak.com already knew his customers as they were struggling to finish his standalone courses by themselves and that’s how his internship program came into the picture, which has now become very popular.
A good quality product goes a long way
Focus more on the quality of the product rather than the marketing of it right in the first place. If your product is good, people will refer other people to buy it. If it’s not, all the marketing that you did will go to waste. If you have a bad product or service, marketing or good marketing will only accelerate the death of the product in no time.
Timing
It’s also crucial to send the right message to the right people at the right time. Your customer should feel you are talking to that person directly and at the time when he/she needs it.
Maintain a good relationship with your customer & be consistent
It’s also of paramount importance to keep existing customers happy by communicating with them so that they can remain customers for life. Lots of people do a great deal of marketing only until the transaction stage. It should be an ongoing activity starting much before the birth of the product and should continue in the post-transaction stage as well.
MassTrust Blueprint
In today’s day and age, the creation of funnel is very important because the scarce product is trust. You as a marketer should build trust not only with your target audience but also with a tonne of other people involved in the process.
#MassTrust. Once you understand the logic behind the MassTrust framework, your personal branding evolution begins.
Start with learning, implement/practice/work, write what you’ve learned (blog), start consulting, mentor other people in your field, and then gradually build your own startup. And repeat the cycle.
When you are teaching others, you are forced to understand the concepts on a ground level and it lets you organize your thoughts in a better way. The idea behind this is to get a thorough grip on your subject or niche.
And during this journey, you’ve already created your personal brand which also helped you gain MassTrust since you’ve touched all the points in the circle.
People know you now. And hence can trust you. Interesting?
Enough of theory. For the love of God, show me the money.
***eyes rolling***
Yes, yes…I hear you.
I’m glad and elated that you’ve made it this far and I know it’s a long read but stick around as I’m about to reveal something that would make you believe that earning 1 Crore is not that difficult either.
Excited?…so sit back, have a cuppa piping hot tea/coffee, grab a pack of chips, and keep scrolling.
The very reason why you are investing your time and energy in this blog is because, let’s face it, you want to know how to make money at the end of the day. It all boils down from one M-word “Marketing” to the other, “Money”.
For starters, having a financial goal of Rs.1 Crore in savings over a span of one or two years is a pretty decent deal. Right?…But is it possible?…It sure is.
Let’s say, a) if you have 1,00,000 customers and if you’re selling a product worth Rs. 100, then you’ll make a crore. But this is going to be just the revenue, not profit. But imagine you are doing it 2X over where your profit margin is 50%, then you can make 1cr in profit.
Or you make sure you do something where you’re acquiring customers organically without having to spend for it.
b) Similarly, you generate a revenue of Rs.1 Cr. with a product worth Rs. 1000 being sold to 10,000 customers.
c) In case of bigger ticket products or a niche that doesn’t have too many customers, for a product price of Rs. 10,000 you can earn a crore with just 1000 customers.
d) And lastly for an elite product worth Rs. 100,000, you just need 100 customers to earn a crore.
You can churn out more profits in the later stage after you’ve gained a lot of experience and know exactly how to run this wheel of fortune.
Still not convinced?…Sounds surreal?…A little believable?
Well, for that you have to take action and see for yourself.
CATT Marketing Funnel Framework
Another important analogy that will give you a headstart in this context is the concept of CATT funnel framework, similar to what I’ve already discussed during discussing niche. If we are to put it in a little formula, it’d be something like this. The credit goes to the Marketing guru Deepak Kanakaraju from digitaldeepak.com.
Wealth = n^CATT
[n] Niche: Your success and wealth depend on the niche you choose.
[C] Content: Create useful and engaging content that attracts people from your niche. Ex: Blog posts, videos, lead magnets, live webinars, etc. Give it a personal touch as if you are having a one-on-one conversation. Your content should look like a welcomed guest and not as an unwanted pest.
[A] Attention: Drive attention (traffic) to your content using SEO, Social Media, Paid Ads, Emails, and Referrals. Add value first. Send free content.
[T] Trust: Build trust with your audience with tripwires, marketing automation, and retargeting.
[T] Transaction: Convert your leads into customers with natural sales methods without having to be pushy.
Communication skills
There’s a myth about communication skills when it comes to applying it effectively to writing content.
Effective communication skills do not mean that you have to write in a Wordsworthy language. It’s not Literature. You don’t need heavy words. Rather, chuck jargon as much as possible.
Write like you talk. Join a conversation that is already there in your customer’s mind. Are you able to transfer your thoughts to your customers seamlessly? Interact with your target audience often to know them, to understand them.
Write a lot. Writing slows down your thought process and gives you clarity. The more you write, the better writer you become, and the more ideas you garner with time to attract your audience.
I’ll give you a classic example of Netflix. You know when Netflix’s audience isn’t streaming, what are they doing? They indulge in Netflix memes.
Yes, you read it right. Memes.
Netflix communicates with their audience like a friend. They slip in humor in their content so effectively that it generates the most engagement. If you’ve ever stalked Netflix’s Twitter account, you’ll notice how casually they send out tweets and get people talking about them.
Take a look at this meme. Everyone knows people share Netflix passwords among friends and family. And the way they have come up with the relatedness in this meme is absolutely genius. So simple, yet so humorously engaging. Pretty cool, huh?
In the digital world, everything is inter-related. The way the CATT framework gets executed is through integrated digital marketing.
Integrated Digital Marketing
When it comes to putting your content across and reaching your target audience, email is still the most effective way for some. Does this mean you should ignore other forms of marketing, like social media marketing?
Absolutely not. If you go back to the opening paragraph of this blog, you’ll understand I’ve already hinted at the idea behind Integrated Digital Marketing. Various digital channels like SEO, Paid Ads, Social Media along with Email marketing play in unison and feed off each other resulting in a rock-solid full-proof tried & tested result.
Let's take a closer look at these components. As discussed, some of the familiar digital marketing methods are —
1. Search Engine Marketing (PPC or Google Ads)- This has the potential to generate quality leads because It’s targeted and measurable. Your ‘red stiletto’ ad will be shown to only those who are actively searching for it and you pay only when they click on it.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO or Organic Traffic)- You acquire traffic organically if you rank in the top 5 for a highly paid keyword. You can expect long-term results if you are consistent with it.
3. Email Marketing- This is nothing but sending your marketing content to your subscribers.
4. Social Media Marketing- Targeting your customers on various social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin where you can show your custom-intent ads.
5. Display Marketing- You may have come across banner ads while browsing websites. This is an outbound marketing technique. The targeting is done based on keyword, topic, interest, demographics & placement. Ideal for remarketing purposes.
6. Content Marketing- This one’s my favorite. I second the quote below which is pretty self-explanatory.
“It is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”- Content Marketing Institute (CMI)
Once you integrate the means of communications, you start reaping the benefits in terms of brand awareness, ROI, Conversions. Turn the ice-cold website visitors to hot leads by unifying all channels and getting them to work simultaneously.
Traditional vs. Digital Marketing
Does this mean the world is shifting completely to digital when it comes to marketing?
Yes & No.
Well, arguably the buyer’s journey has changed tremendously over the last decade. How and where we view information is majorly digital nowadays. However, if the product is generic with a very wide targeting, such as mobile phones, TV commercials are unbeatable in reaching millions at a low cost.
Digital marketing is the best medium to reach the English speaking population in tier 1 & tier 2 cities in India having high purchasing power.
Digital marketing is measurable and can be optimized in real-time whereas there's no such opportunity in the traditional way of marketing.
But can they work together?
Since we are focusing so much on integration, I say why not.
For instance, I follow Rado, the luxury Swiss watch brand on Instagram & FB while my mother who’s not so tech-savvy still prefers print ad— that way both the mother and her millennial daughter, receive the same information. In cases like this, it’s a win-win situation for both marketing mediums.
Ok fellas, that’s a wrap. Before you exit, let me demist the gist one last time.
Marketing is an art. Don’t cut corners, play your game ethically. Do not take content for granted because no matter how effective your traffic generation skills are, you won’t win if people don’t understand why they should buy from you and not from your competitors. If done right, marketing is a means to an end. Build your personal brand in such a way that it captures your customer’s mind. Eventually, word-of-mouth will be your greatest marketing asset when the product sells itself and your customers make it happen.
What’s the latest marketing tactic you have embraced recently? Is it working? If not, what are the obstacles you are facing?
Let me know if this blog helped you in any way, or not. Also, leave a comment below about what you want to discuss next.