by Usman SheikhMarketing Fundamentals 101
Marketing Fundamentals 101
Finally, Your search for marketing fundamentals has bought you here.
If you think that digital marketing is something modern, then, unfortunately, you would be wrong!
Want to know why?
The term digital marketing gained popularity in the 2000s but is in existence for more than a century (yes, a century), and here the definition will let you know what exactly we mean.
Want a straightforward definition to remember what digital marketing is?
Here is one:
“Using digital technologies/electronic devices for any form of marketing product or services is digital marketing.” Isn’t it easy? Umm-Hmm, it is!
As per our definition, using electronic devices for marketing any brand is digital marketing, so aren’t we using them for a long time ago?
The usage of electronic devices started for more than a century right after the discovery of the first mean of communication invented in 1837 and Boom!
Just with the inventions of electronic devices, the digital marketing strategy was born.
People through radio and television broadcast started marketing their products or services to get high leads.
I hope now you’re clear with your Digital marketing definition and why it is not only about smartphones, apps, Facebook or Google Ads, blogs, and other modern means.
Digital marketing can be done both offline and online and has nothing to do only with the internet.
This means that both kinds matter to execute an effective digital marketing strategy.
In this digital age, when the whole world in on the fingertips, there are still many marketers whose marketing is just not working, and they keep questioning themselves why?
The answer is they are not following fundamental marketing principles and are lacking in the concept of 4 P’s, which has been around in marketing since forever.
While marketing is the science of 4 P’s and here they are:
- Price
- Product
- Promotion
- Place
Want to know about 4 P’s in more depth? You can read it in a post from the Business Development of Canada.
Get one thing clear in your mind, Digital Marketing is still only marketing, and instead of discussing the technical details of digital marketing.
We start our discussion with something more macro in nature; marketing fundamentals 101.
Some reason in the day to day and given how technical digital marketing has become – we forget this simple fact.
We start by reminding ourselves that the end goal with Digital marketing with all the design, the technical SEO, the social activities, the advertising, the writing, the analytics, and the development: Is to help you get more leads.
We talked about having a website in our earlier post.
However, even before we get to that step – these below fundamentals need to be in place before we get to defining yourself online with a website.
Also, if you want to get the fundamentals of digital marketing nailed down, then you need to know the key things that can make your company one of those killing it with digital marketing campaigns.
Before any marketing efforts are undertaken to draw in new customers or satisfy the existing ones, two fundamental questions about your business should be answered:
- Who is your customer, and how will you help them?
- What makes you different from others?
Image Source: Vtiger
Marketing Fundamentals – Creating a Buyer Persona
Most businesses need more customers.
Some need a different type of customer. While in other cases, businesses may even need fewer customers. ⠀
Business needs and customer needs are often ones and the same.
So, to better understand how you can make your business grow, focus on understanding your customer first.
Everything else flows after that, whether it is the messaging, the copyright, the product packaging, the placement, the channels to service them through, the keywords to optimize, etc.
Knowing the preferences, demographics, values, and other traits of your ideal customer will help in creating the necessary borders around your marketing efforts.
All of this will help you create a brand that resonates with your targeted and wanted customer.
This will also help you differentiate from your competitors.
Some places where you can find information online about your customers:
- Facebook Groups
- Google Analytics (if you have a website already, then you have traffic patterns established)
- Run Surveys using Google Surveys (a free service)
- Talk to your family and friends about the idea (we know it is simple – but it helps to have others give you live feedback)
- Go to forums (Warrior Forums, Reddit and other similar forums are a great place to start)
- Ask questions on Quora and tag specific people to answer that you think will be your customer
Help your customers by helping yourself first.
Take the time to understand your ideal customer with as much detail as possible. Conduct research.
Ask questions. Hold interviews. Solicit Feedback. Understand their pain points that your product or solution will solve.
Write it down.
Give this ideal imaginary customer a name, a personality, and a profile. Stick it on the wall.
This is your buyer persona.
A buyer persona is a representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data that your business will target.
This work initially will save countless hours in all forms of marketing (digital or otherwise), and it will minimize waste.
Now every time you run any kind of marketing initiative, always refer back to this ideal customer.
Ask yourself, will this new product, feature, promotion, advertisement solve the problems of the ideal customer?
If yes, then you know the marketing initiative is worth considering.
Otherwise, you risk ending up with customers that you did not want in the first place.
Source: MarketingInsider
Your Unique Selling Proposition
The question you are trying to answer at this stage of the marketing development plan is how your product will serve the customers successfully?
Unique Selling Position defines your value proposition in the market you are looking to operate in.
You want to take care in defining this correctly as it will mean you are different and stand apart from the crowd.
Do not sell yourself short here.
Know that this is an important part of marketing fundamentals.
Take the time to assess the marketplace.
Do a SWOT analysis on your competitors (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats).
Then do it on your brand that you are defining. Find the points of differences and focus and expand on them.
Answer these questions in defining your Unique Selling Proposition:
- Where are your competitor’s weaknesses?
- Where are your competitor’s strengths?
- Can you cover their weakness with your offering?
- Where are there untapped opportunities in the market as it stands today?
- What threats do your competitors face, and how can you deal with them better?
This is not the easiest exercise; it will take time.
It is not an easy thing to define. You will need to conduct research online and offline, primary and secondary research, to help gather intelligence.
To make your business different and better, you can contact us.
Image Source: Klipfolio
Vision & Mission
After you have done the work in defining your unique value proposition and understanding your customer.
It is crucial to go through the steps of defining your vision and mission statements.
If you have a mission & vision statement already, then hopefully, the above steps will help you refine it a bit better.
Both of these are highly important and serve different purposes for a company.
The goals of the vision statement are to articulate clearly what difference your company will make in the lives of your customers.
This statement should be inspirational both for internal and external stakeholders (i.e., employees vs. investors or customers).
Some examples of a vision statement from proponent companies are:
Airbnb: “We will help you belong anywhere.”
Starbucks: “To establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles while we grow”(not clearly defined – but on their website).
Habitat for Humanity: “A world where everyone has a decent place to live.”
Mission Statements
A mission statement focuses on the purpose of the organization and is more specific.
They have a scope of the company’s operations in the statement, what kind of products and services the organization provides, and what its primary customers are.
A couple of good examples that you can use to help create a good mission for your own company (or refine existing one):
Nike: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”
Amazon: “Our vision is to be earth’s most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”
Again, both of these have something inspiration – but Amazon’s is a lot more specific.
It also combines the vision and mission statements a bit.
However, both of them work. Both are very successful companies. Both are effective and creating the necessary borders to help create the inspiration and call to action for its employees.
You can use either approach.
However, we recommend that the more specific you are, the more focused you become, and it is a lot easier to steer a ship that has a more precise direction than one that does not.
Let us know how focused you are and what are you trying to achieve better leads?
Closing Thoughts
Ultimately, a business can be run without the above fundamentals in place.
However, to help yourself, and carve out your niche, these steps in the initial stages of the business are vital.
If your business is running successfully, taking a step back and going through the above exercise is essential.
This approach will define your customer, and your business can open new doors for you.
At Web Worx Labs, we take the time to work with you to define your brand, your business before we get into marketing it for you digitally.
You can find out about our mission and vision on our About Us Page.
If at any time, you feel you can use our assistance in understanding your business better, we encourage you to reach out, and we will help in any way we can.
Stand out from the foray, and make better-informed decisions that help you create the necessary focus to move ahead in marketing your business successfully!
From a start-up helping local small businesses, over a span of 5 years, Usman has built Web Worx Labs to be a leading provider of digital marketing solutions that employs 15+ full-time employees and has customers in over 30 countries.
Outside of work and his passion for all things digital, Usman is a proud father of three, loves running and is an avid reader.
Follow Usman on LinkedIn or Twitter as he is always sharing tips on strategy, branding, marketing and analytics.