The complete guide to marketing for beginners

We all have heard the word ‘marketing’ innumerable times but only a few are able to achieve success in it.

So is there any silver bullet to create a good marketing strategy that actually works and drives more sales?

What sets apart successful marketing campaigns from the unsuccessful ones?

I will answer all such questions in this article and will tell you the best marketing hacks for the beginners!

I will also explain the best tried and tested marketing funnel and framework that most of the marketers don’t know about.

So make sure that you read the article till the end. I double guarantee you, it will be worth your time and you’ll be halfway there to create your own marketing funnel and framework that will actually drive sales.

I feel that if marketing was a person, he would have grown more than 5 hands by now doing different things all in sync with each other.

When I say this, I mean if you ever get a chance to study or observe the marketing strategy of any successful brand; you’ll see that different marketing funnels, frameworks, and strategies work like a machine to attract, engage and convert potential customers into real customers.

What’s applaudable here is that marketers put in their hearts, sweat, and tears in creating such funnels and frameworks.

Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they fail! A lot of time they fail with the skin of the teeth.

But no one said that success comes easy! Isn’t it? As marketers, you take the experience with you and stand up to hustle again!

A lot of people think that Marketing is just selling products. While it is not that way, rather I would say that selling is just one aspect of it.

Marketing has wider horizons and requires a deep psychological understanding of customers, demographics, knowledge of global economics, mediums of marketing, and a lot more.

Successful marketers work hard to level up their marketing skills on a regular basis.

It is the only way they can become more competitive and outclass their competitors. As a marketer myself, I am always keen to learn more and execute more.

So, in week 2, I learned about:

• The fundamentals of marketing
• Digital Marketing and Traditional marketing
• CATT Funnel
• Integrated Digital Marketing
• Personal Branding: Masstrust Blueprint

These are some of the Marketing fundamentals which I believe every marketer should understand and implement in promoting products and services.

These are easy to follow and gives 100% results.

The Fundamentals of Marketing

The fundamentals of marketing are basically the ground principles of marketing that will always remain intact no matter what happens in the world.

People have different perspectives and opinions about marketing.

A management student can give a definition of marketing that experts in some industries like the ‘pharmaceutical industry’ may not agree upon.

Similarly, advertisers who work in the traditional marketing industry may not immediately be convinced that digital marketing is the future of marketing.

Here we have to note that the differences will always be there in the perceptions and experience and not in the fundamentals.

The fundamentals of marketing will always remain the same.

The goal of all marketing activities is business growth and creating wealth. Both of these should be well aligned with customer satisfaction and business ethics.

So let us start with understanding the first fundamental of marketing.

The ideal product fit.

The product you create should have a need in the market and should be innovative enough so that people love using it otherwise the customers at large will not use it and all your efforts in creating the product will go in vain.

For example, one friend of mine thought of manufacturing a tissue paper roll dispenser for office desks so that employees can use it after sneezing or coughing.

This may sound like a good idea but there is certainly a very thin market for it. People do not need it in the first place and if he still continued to create such a product, he would have ended up losing terribly.

Apple created the first touchscreen smartphone in 2007 and was popularly known as iPhone.

Before the iPhone came into existence, mobile phones were mostly button enabled and no one could have imagined that mobile phones could be accessed with a human touch.

But Apple changed the narrative and perspective of people because it knew that there is no other product in the market that offers such a concept of touch screen and people will certainly want it.

Apple was also very much sure about its reliable technology and its target audience.

So from the above examples, we can say that firstly, you should know your ideal product fit. If you are not creating something that people like; they will certainly not buy it.

The ideal product is the one that makes life easier. iPhone was one such product that eased the lives of people and was also very innovative. Thus, Apple revolutionized the smartphone world by launching the first-ever touch screen smartphone.

Meet the customers where they are.

To understand this, we need to go a little back in time when we used to go to malls, grocery stores and supermarkets such as EasyDay, BigBazaar, etc.

Can you still recall the chocolates, toffees, lollipops, and candies that used to be placed right at the billing counter (adjacent to billing counters)? Yes?

That is the perfect example of a product meeting you at the place where you actually are.

How many of you bought those candies just in the temptation to have them without any actual intention of buying them purposefully?

You will agree with me on this that you would have not bought those candies if they were not placed that way at the counter or if they were placed at some other place. Isn’t it?

The marketing strategy behind such a placement is customer behavior and human psychology.

The longer you wait in queues, the more likely are you to buy them (or maybe your child will push you to buy those candies for him/her).

Similarly, in the digital marketing space, social media is one such place where people spend a lot of time and brands target them with their fan pages, paid ads, and engaging content.

Marketing is the game of perceptions

Nikon or Canon?

Samsung or iPhone?

The world can be literally divided into two fragments if people were asked these questions to answer.

This is the position every brand tries to be in so that they can have a loyal customer base who won’t leave anyhow.

People have some perceptions about a brand and eventually, they develop an unbreakable connection with the brands of their choice.

The impact of such a connection is so strong that the perceptions turn into preferences and the ‘Word of mouth marketing’ comes into play.

Apple is one such brand that has a robust loyal customer list.

For me, Levi's is better than any other denim brand.

Do you also have a perception or preference for any specific brand? Or Can you recall some more brands that have such followership?

If yes, that is the power of great marketing by your favorite brands.

Though building such perceptions in the mind of the customers is a marathon and not a sprint.

It takes time, effort and consistency to achieve such a position. But it’s all worth it and brands really reap the benefits of all such efforts.

Marketing is a means to the end.

When you achieve success in a great way like if you become a CEO of a multinational company, people will know you more and will trust you more.

Similarly, when businesses achieve great heights, the trust and faith of people in that company tend to manifold multiple times.

At this juncture of success, marketing or deep advertising is not needed for most of the customers as trust is already built and people already have faith in the quality of your products and services.

If you want to buy a good bike that is comfortable, powerful, and is suited for long cruise rides; it is likely that you will consider Harley Davidson bikes as one of your options because it is the market leader in the cruiser bike segment and doesn’t need any justification for that.

Considering the above example, you will automatically reach out to the Harley Davidson dealership if you want to buy it.

Harley Davidson in such a scenario will not need any marketing or advertising activities to convince you to buy a Harley bike.

Reputation Building

A lot of marketers think that once their product or service is sold, they need not care further.

By doing this, they lose the opportunity to build a personal connection that can help them in a great way.

Your customer should be happy even after your business transaction is over. Give them good after-sales service. Tell them about your festive season offers.

Pitch them referral offers and a lot more.

We all have seen such offers during the festive season and it indeed works in a positive way.

Success comes in little packets and such small gestures will help you build a great business reputation in the long run.

A lot of strong brands such as Royal Enfield, Samsung, HP, Dell enjoy their good relations with their customers and people do recommend their friends about such brands and their products.

Traditional Marketing vs Digital Marketing

Marketing that uses conventional ways of advertising such as newspaper ads, television ads is called Traditional Marketing. Some of the primary examples of traditional marketing are Newspaper Ads, TV Ads, billboards, pamphlets, etc.

While marketing methods that use technology and digital mediums are coined as Digital marketing.

Some of the iconic Digital Marketing methods are Facebook Ads, Google Ads, SEO, Blogging, Affiliate Marketing, etc.

Both of the marketing methods exists in the present world but what will suit you the best is a matter of choice, affordability, vision, and goals of your business.

Here I have described both Traditional marketing and Digital marketing with real-world examples and you will certainly agree with me on most of these.

Before stepping into the depth, let us see some figures related to both the marketing methods.

Traditional Marketing:

• Television users in India ~ 197 million. Television has a reach of about 800 million people to 1 billion people.
• Radio has a reach of 60% of India’s population.
• Newspapers have a reach of 465 million people.

Digital Marketing:

• Internet users in India ~ 650 million (~45%) (Source: datareportal.com).
• Social Media users in India ~ 448 million.
• Online shoppers ~ 25 million

From these figures, we can say that traditional marketing methods have a wider reach when compared to digital marketing methods.

However, we should also keep in mind that internet and social media user penetration are increasing rapidly and digital marketing certainly has a bounty of things to offer which traditional marketing doesn’t offer at all.

Let us understand this with the below example.

If you have a shoe shop and want to advertise it with traditional marketing methods such as newspapers. You will go to the Press agency and you will pay the sum and buy a space in the newspaper to display your ad and you will come back home.

The next day you will see your ad in the newspaper.

Following this scenario, think about the following questions -

• How will you measure the number of customers who came to your shop to buy shoes by seeing that particular newspaper ad? Is it even measurable?
• How likely is that people will come to your shop from different part of the city after seeing your newspaper ad? It is likely that only the people who live near your shop may come to buy shoes after seeing your ad. But you have already paid the press agency to publish the ad in newspapers that will be circulating throughout the city. Isn’t it a waste of money to show ads to people who will not even bother to see your newspaper ad because it is neither practical nor convenient?
• Similarly, small brands spend a fortune on buying billboard space on highways. These may be good for branding but considering the present times, people mostly spend their commute time looking at mobile phones scrolling social media, or while listening to music. Even if they want to look outside the window, they will not see your billboard in particular until it is an outstanding one.

All the above points show the contrast of how vague traditional marketing methods have became. It is very expensive considering the fact that it is unmeasurable. No one can measure how many people bought the product after seeing the roadside billboard or TV Ad.

However, traditional marketing mediums such as Radio, television still have a wide audience as they were invented before the internet era.

As a business, you need a mix of both traditional and digital marketing for the best results.

However, when you are a small business and starting from scratch; go with Digital marketing as it will help you create, control and monitor all your marketing campaigns in a hassle-free manner.

Measurable results

Digital marketing gives real time insights. Be it social media, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, YouTube marketing.

Every activity that’s done under the ambit of digital marketing is measurable.

If we refer to the above example, you could have ran a Facebook ad for your shoe shop and would be able to see -

• How many people have seen your ad
• How many people have clicked your ad
• How many people have shop from your ad
• How many people have visited your store who have seen your ad

All ad platforms give real-time insights and analytics of your ad performance such as view rate, number of impressions, total clicks, etc.

Apart from Ads, in other online presence such as websites, Apps, and social media profiles; you can see analytics of how many people visited your website, how many engaged with your content and more.

Digital marketing knows no geographical bounds. As long as people are using the internet, you can show your product or service to anyone in the world irrespective of Age, Gender, and Demographics.

• Affordable

Digital marketing activities are more affordable than traditional marketing. If you want to advertise a product on TV and want to show it to the entire country.

You will have to pay hefty sums without any measurable outcome.

Meanwhile, if you choose digital marketing as your medium; you may literally have to spend only a fraction of what you would have spent on the TV ads.

• Audience targeting

Digital Marketing allows you to target your audience in a much better way than traditional marketing.

Let us assume that you sell women’s products; through digital marketing methods you can simply have an eCommerce website and list all your products there.

It is most likely that women will automatically come to your website and buy their favorite products from there in a hassle-free manner.

But, if we assume that you have to promote the same women’s products through traditional marketing ways; say Television or Newspapers.

You will certainly miss out on your target audience segment as the ad will be seen by everyone who reads the newspaper or watches television irrespective of your audience targeting i.e. the women.

Moreover, there is no clickable link in either of them from which your customers can buy your product.

Digital marketing is a far better way of marketing in the present times as your brand can reach to every digital smart device which your customer is using.

You can show your products to your target audience, give them festive offers, track their behavior and also allow them to buy your product in a seamless manner.

A lot of startup unicorns have achieved great success with their digital marketing efforts. Some of the examples are WhiteHatJr, Byju’s, Zomato, Practo, etc.

Brand Building

Brand building is an essential part of business marketing activities. Every business wants to be remembered with its name.

If you were asked to name 5 biggest car brand names; the certain answers could be Mercedes Benz, Audi, BMW, Toyota, and Volkswagen.

However, there are hundreds of other automobile brands that are in competition to reach such brand positions. But, these 5 are still apart because of their quality products, customer loyalty and brand recognition.

To build a great brand, all you needs is some really great marketing strategies, vision, ethos and devoted people who are committed to the goal.

By now, I hope you are with me and on the same page. Also, you will agree with me that digital marketing is better than traditional marketing in many ways.

What are Marketing Funnels?

Marketing funnels can be simply understood as a step-by-step sales process where people enter the funnel and know about your brand first. Then they goes throughout the funnel and turns out to be an actual customer at the end of the funnel.

In the middle of the funnel, we try to convince the potential customer that we care for you! we have the best products for you and it will make your life easier.

One great marketing funnel which is tried and tested is the CATT marketing funnel. It is designed very well and works in sync with the Integrated Digital Marketing framework.

Let us know more about the CATT Marketing funnel below

CATT Marketing Funnel

Marketing funnels are imperative to successful marketing campaigns.

CATT marketing funnel is one of the most admired and trusted marketing funnel and is widely used by Digital Deepak for his Digital marketing training business.

W= n^CATT

Here,

[W]= Wealth

[n]= Niche

[C]= Content

[A]= Attention

[T]= Trust

[T]=Transaction

Let us get a wider perspective of these here -

Wealth:

The CATT marketing funnel is the ultimate funnel that you must adopt to create good wealth and a prosperous business in a short span of time.

Niche:

Niche is the specialization of your business. For example, Digital marketing itself is a niche.

There can be more sub-niches in digital marketing such as Social media marketing, SEO, Performance marketing, and more.

It is very important to choose a niche that is best suited to you. Do not fall for niche which you think can create infinite wealth in a short span of time. It doesn’t work that way.

Your niche should be special; it should lie in between your Talent, Passion and Market.

If you just have Talent and Passion but no market; you will struggle with managing your finances as you cannot sell anything.

If you have Passion and market, but no talent, you will not be able to sell either.

If you have Talent and market and no passion, you will get tired, you will earn some money but somebody else with passion, talent and market will outclass you.

Your niche should be according to the market needs and you must choose a hungry market because then only you will be able to serve your customers on a large scale.

If you try to create a tissue paper roll dispenser as I mentioned at the starting of the article, your dreams of creating wealth will always remain a dream as there is no visible market for such a product.

Narrow niches work better because the suppliers in such niches are less and people are ready to pay more.

If you think that your narrow niche is very thin and you do not have much to offer, learn, execute and observe that niche thoroughly and once you are successful, you can later widen it into another niche as well.

Example: Digital Deepak was first a motorcycle blogger and later turned into a Digital Marketing mentor.

After all, ‘It’s never too late to do the right thing’

Content

The first part in the CATT marketing funnel is the Content.

Amazing content has always been the key ruler in a brand’s success.

Remember Amul’s mascot girl who always comes up with innovative ads?

Even when digital mediums weren’t so popular, Amul used to nail the other ads with its appealing advertisements in the newspapers.

That’s the power of good content.

We can recall a lot of such brands who play brilliantly with their content. Isn’t it?

See this amazing Range Rover Evoque Ad that is very simple and unique. See how it grabs the attention of the pedestrians with its off-roading capabilities without putting in any rocket science. It all looks so natural.

Amused? If you witnessed this live, would you consider owning this Range Rover with such capabilities?

Content does not necessarily mean the written content; Instagram reels, tweets, blog posts, infographics and videos are all types of content through which you can attract, and prompt your viewer to engage with you.

Attention

Attention is very important!

The content you created in the first step may become useless if you fail to grab the attention of your audience.

Use social media, blogs, and paid ads to reach out to your audience and grab their attention.

It is imperative that you build an email list in this step because it will help you communicate with your potential customers on a regular basis and will help you to build trust with your customers in the next step.

Trust

Trust is one of the most important things that a business should create in the minds of the customers. And, the trust must be genuine and not just for the sake of minting money from the people.

People do not trust others easily because there is always a chance of duping and no one wants to fall into such a situation.

This is the reason people cannot grow themselves in a significant way because they think that every opportunity offered is a scam.

Businesses should definitely work on developing trust with people because it will help them reap a lot of benefits in the long run.

To generate trust in the hearts and minds of people, businesses should adopt personalized communication very often with the people who are in the CATT funnel.

Once done successfully, you can successfully make natural sales.

Transaction:

The transaction is the last step in the CATT marketing funnel. It is certainly the most important step for a business.

People at this juncture have completed the entire funnel and are from your target niche. They are here because they are impressed with the content they are seeing from you.

Further, they trust you because you genuinely care for them and are now buying some product or service from you because they think that all the communication you did throughout the funnel makes sense to them and will somehow add value to their lives.

Once they complete all the checkpoints of the CATT funnel in a seamless way, they will buy your product naturally without much effort now.

All you need to focus on is creating the ideal product for your niche and follow the CATT marketing funnel in the best possible manner.

CATT Marketing funnel is amazingly structured but is just one part of the whole mechanism.

Think about a car or a bike. In order to move further, you are required to accelerate. Just turning on the ignition will always keep you in the same position.

Similarly, to execute the CATT funnel in the best way; you need an Integrated Digital Marketing framework. It has to work in sync with the CATT marketing funnel to get the best results.

Integrated Digital Marketing Framework

Integrated Digital Marketing framework or IDMF is basically the steps of execution where your customer will cruise from one stage to another in a seamless way.

It works in sync with the CATT marketing funnel and the viewer will eventually move from the Content stage to Attention to Trust and then to the Transaction stage.

If you have a robust CATT marketing funnel and have synced it with the Integrated Digital Marketing framework; your doors to brand success have certainly opened.

Let us see how it works.

Step 1. Create free content. (CONTENT)

Create great timeless content and in great quantity so that you can use this content in the future as well.

Step 2. Run paid ads for the free content and add people to your email list first. (ATTENTION)

Run paid ads like Facebook Ads, and Google Ads to attract them to your content and offer them content for FREE. Use lead forms to get their email ids and create an email list.

Step 3. Once they are in your email list, build trust with them by sending them personalized communications. (TRUST).

Step 4. Drive them to your website through your emails and keep a check on how many of them visited your website using the link in the email.

Simultaneously people who are driving to your website are also increasing the overall dynamics of your website. It will also help you gain better rankings on the Search Engine Results Page. (TRUST)

Step 5. Also share your content on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube so that it simultaneously builds your followership and more people would join in.

People tend to share only good content on social media so you are required to be strong at the Content part. (TRUST)

Moreover, when you have a good social media followership, it also works as a social proof for your new users/viewers.

Step 6. Organize sales calls, webinar sales, and create a sales page to convert your customers. (Transaction)

Both CATT Marketing Funnel and Integrated Digital Marketing framework should work simultaneously like a machine as I said in the starting of this article.

CATT funnel is a framework of how an individual goes through different stages of the funnel and the Integrated Digital Marketing framework is the way you execute it.

It is important to have a strong funnel and framework because once the process is started, people will always stay in some stages every time so if you lose control there; all the efforts will go in vain.

So is there anything else that can transcend the above strategies for business success?

Of course! You can add value to your brand’s success with personal branding.

People are always curious to know about the face behind a successful business.

We already know some great examples of personal brands such as Elon Musk, Founder of SpaceX and Tesla. Similarly, Ritesh Agarwal, Founder of Oyo.

Personal Branding: Masstrust Blueprint

When you have a personal brand of your own; your human existence and not just of your company; people will relate your company with your face and you will be more trusted than ever.

People will have faith in your company because they can now see a face, a human being, and will certainly follow you and your business in the same vein.

I personally feel that when your intentions are very much clear; then only you can create a great personal brand. No one can fake intentions and genuine care for others so have clear intentions towards your people, customers, and followers.

Why Personal Branding?

‘The best known will always beat the best’

If you are good at something like painting but no one knows about it! You aren’t capitalizing on it. In such a case, you may have to give up your painting skill sooner or later to meet your living expenses because you are not earning from your painting skills.

To meet your living expenses, you will have to join a job and will have to spend at least 8 hours a day working under someone. This is how dreams are killed.

Before your skill and dreams die, do something about it and make sure that people know you well for the skills you have. This is called personal branding.

In the business world; personal branding works for companies in a great way. Elon Musk, Steve Jobs are two of the great examples of personal brands. People recognize these people as great leaders and trust them and their brands.

Such personalities also become inspiration and mentors for a lot of young entrepreneurs and students.

The perks of Personal Branding

When you have evolved as a successful personal brand, people will trust you and your brand. They will have faith in your products and service.

It is human behavior that people always want to hear from people and not a company logo.

If you are sending personalized emails and sending them with your personal name; it is more likely that people will read your email.

If Elon Musk starts another company, he will be able to make it successful in very less time because trust is already built in the minds of people. This is another benefit of personal branding.

Evolution of a Personal Brand

Learn:

The first and the foremost step in the process of building a personal brand is to Learn a skill. If you want to learn something, make sure you are following the below steps -

• Understand the concepts
• Remember the facts
• Practice the procedures

Work:

Practice your learned skills in the real world. Implement the skills you have learned and experiment with them. You will have an insight into what works and whatnot. Have a job, work as a freelancer and practice the procedures.

Blog

Blogging is a great way to showcase your work to your audience. Writing is also an amazing way to remember the concepts.

Consulting

Once you are good at your skills; start consulting people and try to solve their problems with consultations.

Consultation is one of the best niches and helps you and your customer grow simultaneously.

But, it is essential to gain practical knowledge before consulting.

Mentoring

Mentoring refers to training other people who are junior to you and want to learn from you.

If you think that you are not good at something and how you will train others; remember, you do not have to teach the experts.

No one is perfect and you can train people who have fewer skills than you.

You will gain a lot of experience in the process of mentoring others.

Startup

When you have successfully scaled up as a renowned personality in some field; you will need to have an organization.

Reason being people will want to see some tangible organization associated with you otherwise your great personal brand will look vague to them.

Conclusion

Change is the only constant and marketing is not untouched by it.

Marketing strategies are ever-evolving and brands come up with robust digital marketing strategies every day.

Some succeed some fail but experience always stays.

To prove its mettle, a brand should have a deep understanding of the fundamentals of marketing.

Then only will it be able to survive and outclass others. Creative logos, slogans do not work in the long run if a business does not provide good products, services and value adds to its customers.

Brands develop better strategies and framework that brings success to them.

In modern times, Online marketing is one of the successful ways of marketing. It offers better reach, better insights, and better engagements.

Still, digital marketing has a long way to go because the traditional marketing penetration is still higher than digital marketing.

But nevertheless, startups highly rely on digital marketing strategies, and a lot of them have achieved tremendous success with it.

In addition, the CATT Marketing funnel is one of the most admired and trusted marketing funnels.

The funnel helps in creating attention, trust with the best quality content, and personalized communication through emails. Further prompts the viewers to transact.

CATT marketing funnel works best when synced with the Integrated Digital Marketing framework.

This is the actual place of action where people tend to move in different stages on several platforms according to the CATT marketing funnel.

In addition, a personal brand dazzles the business’ success and people have more faith in the brand where they can see a human face behind a brand.