Indispensable Marketing Principle of the Future: Go Digital

Finishing a bachelor’s degree in microbiology and then shifting the route entirely towards a different industry; event management and public relations was not an easy task owing to my tam bram stereotypical family of bankers and engineers. But here I was pursuing my passion against all odds. 

After 5 years of managing the reputation of many clients, I took a special interest in the digital platform way back in 2012 and completed a certification in Digital Marketing. Since then this subject is my favorite and I have been only more obsessed about it. 

Cut to 2019, I discover Digital Deepak, simple writing but profound knowledge, he was an instant hook for me to satiate my obsession of Digital Marketing and also someone who could give a direction to the path I wanted to follow. My purpose to join the internship is to get more hands-on with the various tools and most important discover my niche.

The first class of the internship for me is a comprehensive package of what anyone needs to know if they want to have a successful stint in the field of digital marketing. He has in that few minutes touch-based a lot of points that gives a step by step approach to achieving success.

GOAL SETTING & FINDING YOUR NICHE, YOUR CALLING

Beginning with “Goal Setting” for the internship program he helped to channelize the efforts towards a focus area that can be achieved through this internship. He then guided on how one can find a niche that will help one to stand out in the market and cater to the demands. Many may think why is finding a niche so important. Well, the market is always in an expansion mode and as and when there are solutions to specific needs, new needs erupt up and it keeps progressing. Hence the best strategy to succeed and make it big is not to go out into the competition and be lost in the clutter but to find a niche, which helps you carve your own path.

Further, he broadly classified the niches into three categories:

1.Health

2.Wealth and

3.Relationships.

Based on a mix of passion, talent, and market opportunity one should identify their niche and take planned action towards achieving success. Few tools that can help find one about market demand are Google Autosuggest, Answerthepublic, quora.com, etc.

UNDERSTANDING ECONOMY ECOSYSTEM FOR BUSINESS GROWTH & SUSTAINANCE:

Sharing wholesome knowledge has always been the USP of Digital Deepak and here too he insists on learning about not only digital marketing but also global economics as it would help in being a successful entrepreneur.

The basic point to focus here is that demographics determine the fate of a country's economy. As the working-age population decreases the economy starts to decline. Hence many developed nations where there are many retired professionals as compared to the working population there is a setback to the economy. The good news here is that the next 100 billionaires are going to be from young aged countries like India and others like South East Asia, China, Africa, etc as compared to the developed ones.

Another interesting theory that will help us understand why a budding entrepreneur always is in the watch of the markets, the loan interest rates, etc is “Debt creates money”.When one takes a loan from one bank and deposits in another there is a circulation of money and that enhances the economy. Even a 10% cash ratio can increase the cash circulation by 10 times and when one starts clearing the debts, the cash circulation starts shrinking and leads to recession. This is the point when the central bank reduces interest on loans to encourage people to take loans and again run through the economic cycle. The relevance of economy to business is what one needs to understand.

As Economics is a vast subject, he referred us to few good reads like Economic 101 by Alfred Mill, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Books by our Indian economist Raghuram Rajan.

NECESSARY COMPONENT OF MARKETING- COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Communication is crucial and effective communication is the important skill set of a successful entrepreneur. Effective communication provides clarity which in turn fosters trust and helps achieves the objectives. Deepak’s high-ranking keyword is the standing example of effective communication. Now effective communication necessarily does not mean that one has to use fancy words or jargon. 

Simple, well-illustrated communication can penetrate the minds of your target audience. But it is always an advantage to keep working on your communication skills and few easy tactics to improve are as below:

•    Reading for 30 minutes daily. Reading is a good habit to develop as it opens up an entirely different world to dive into. Starting from simple books you can get hooked on to complex ones gradually.
•       Writing a few words daily. This could be about personal experiences or a review of your favorite brand, movie, etc but write
•    Thinking in English, while this may sound funny it is an important tactic as it helps build vocabulary.
•     Watching English content like movies, sitcoms, even news can help you get the hang of the language and help you communicate in local slang.

Further, as we have now built upon the base, the next step is to understand Digital Marketing as a business. For that we need to first understand the components of Integrated Digital Marketing:

                 

As you can see from the above image, Content sits at the center of an effective digital marketing plan. If you have quality content, that can drive you to generate a good amount of leads through high page rankings on search engines. And through the content, you can build email lists, put it up on social media and create your community, and generate sales.

As we all know that marketing as a concept will never die, and thanks to the technology boom one cannot ignore but go digital. So the future of digital marketing is only more promising than ever and hence developing and nurturing your digital marketing skills will help you succeed in the future.

PERSONAL BRANDING-BUILD TO RULE

Building your personal brand is as important as building your business. When you create a brand, you create a space of your own in the minds of your consumers. And once you do that, you build trust. This can be useful in building your own tribe, create your own style and all this can help close deals. 

But more importantly, it can help you build value for others. You can get speaker opportunities, you can be a thought leader in your industry, you can train people and create more workforce for the industry and the list is endless. 

To be on top of a brand recall it is suggested that you have a prefix of your expertise before your name, eg: Digital Deepak. 

Some of the top qualities to possess will be to Be authentic, to show your true character, and be real and transparent. The process to build your personal brand is simple though. You have to create content in all forms and own the internet. Participate in knowledge sharing forums, publish a book, etc.

FILTER YOUR PROSPECTS- CONSTRUCT YOUR FUNNEL

Creating funnels is like creating a map to your destination. It is mapping the journey of your customers and getting them to the destination you desire.

It is a framework that helps you analyze your business and identify areas that can help optimize your strategies for better results. You start by providing free but useful content to your prospects and then move them down the funnel by charging for more valuable content. 

Building trust is important as that would lead to filtering the right leads. So if your target is 1000 conversions which are the bottom of the funnel, then you must make sure you have at least 1 Million possible prospects on the top of the funnel. Charting your own funnel is the game-changer for your business. So go ahead and start up with mapping your customer’s journey!

Though I would like to keep writing…(the bug just bit me hard now to last forever ;) I would like to just conclude by saying that every budding entrepreneur needs a mentor and choosing the right mentor is game half won. I have chosen mine and if you too would like to make the right decision just log on to digitaldeepak.com and take the deep dive into the ocean of his knowledge.