The right digital marketing strategies and tools to start seeing results in 3 months and keep growing your profile

You have a new business idea. The rush of energy, and excitement is running through your veins because your idea can be the ‘Next Big thing’. 

You clearly see the utility of your product/ service and how it can benefit the masses or even a small niche. 

However, you don’t know how to go about it. How to start? How to reach the right customers? How to ensure that your idea REALLY takes off the right way? And going forward, gets the scale it deserves?

Or

You have been sustaining your business offline but recently came across the idea of taking your business ‘online’ and are intrigued by the immense growth other small businesses have witnessed using digital marketing.

But you don’t know where to start! You would love to scale your business but jargon like BOF, ROAS, CTR are too complex to handle. How much time do you really want to ‘invest’ on marketing for it to work? What is a website? Why is it necessary? What platforms should I advertise on? You want a simple, beginner friendly roadmap to ‘ace it online’ WITHOUT the overwhelm. 

Is this you? Then this article is exactly for you. 

Let’s start from the VERY BASICS of  Marketing, its processes and  techniques you can utilize to build, scale and ensure success for your company followed by a step–by-step simple way to start seeing results within 3 months. No fluff, no overwhelm. Sounds good? Ok, let’s go!

Digital Marketing is a form of marketing and in order to understand the Digital aspect, we need to first understand the core i.e Marketing.

The Fundamentals of Marketing

What is Marketing ?

If I squeeze the essence of most of the ‘shakespearean’ sounding definitions available for Marketing today, it will simply boil down to this-  

Marketing is the process of getting your potential customers interested in your products or services.

However, contrary to popular belief, this process is not just limited to showing ads to your customers and informing about your offering. The process is much deeper and starts much before advertising.

The process ideally should start way before you even make your product- with research. 

Summing up- a simple Marketing process looks something like this:

Marketing Process

As you can see, marketing is so much more than just ‘informing about your offering’ and starts even before the product/service is created and repeats itself as you understand the insights gained from your marketing process and perfect your product.

Marketing can either be done through traditional channels or digital channels. An integrated marketing campaign usually combines the two.

What is Traditional Marketing?

Traditional Marketing refers to following the marketing process  using channels like newspapers, magazines, television, radio, outdoor hoardings etc.

Usage:  Traditional Marketing works best when your product caters to  the masses. TV has the reach of 800 million to 1 billion people according to wikipedia. Newspaper has the reach of 465 million people ( source: business standard) whilst radio reaches 65% of the Indian population (approximately 897 million) according to Indian Express. 

Traditional media can help you reach a very wide set of audience at low cost. Its only drawback is lack of measurability and personalisation  compared to Digital. The measurements are based on assumptions and approximations. Moreover, you have to shoot a very generic message, you cannot tap into the effectiveness of personalised messages like in digital forms of marketing. 

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing refers to following the marketing process using the internet or other forms of online communications like email, social media, search engines, mms etc.

Digital Marketing is basically fit if your product focuses on the affluent class of India. Dubbed as India 1, Digital marketing has a reach of about 100 million people within India. 

Digital market offers great ROI due to low-cost, accurately measurable (and hence actionable) and personalised content you can give to your target audience.

Moreover, digital marketing can pioneer in Direct response marketing i.e a type of marketing which is designed to get instant and measurable responses from the target audience by encouraging them to take specific action. 

Examples of direct response marketing are:

1. Referral programs – which encourage your customers to refer your product/services to their network of friends and family. This often happens in lieu of an incentive offered by companies like a discount coupon, freebies, merchandise or lucky draw/ jackpot entry. 

2. Upselling– Encouraging your existing customer to buy a more premium product/service offered by you often in lieu of loyalty discounts either after the customer has purchased your offering and is satisfied with the results or is buying your product and you give a bundle offer with special rates and highlighting the added advantages of the premium offering to tempt them to buy the premium product.

3. Social Media Ads– Social media ads often come loaded with Call-to-actions or in other words, small bubbles under the ad which usher you to the next step after seeing that ad eg. ‘learn more’, ‘buy now’, ‘claim offer now’, ‘send enquiry’, ‘get in touch’ . These ads can be on google, youtube, facebook, instagram, twitter, tiktok etc. depending on where your target audience is at.

4. Text Messaging– have you ever received an sms informing about a product and service or a special offer and directing you to a link to avail the offer? That is an example of direct response marketing.

5. Contests: Social media and contests by brands are common where a consumer is required to follow a certain steps and get gifts in lieu of participation. This is again a direct response primarily because you are encouraging a fast action in your desired way. It is great for brand engagement and sales promotion campaigns.

6. Ad in TV/Newspaper/Radio– Advertisement in any of traditional mediums to buy a product/ enter contest or avail discount. Anything that seeks consumers to take immediate desired actions. 

There are many more ways of direct response marketing. You can get as creative as you want and even create new ways. 

Now, there are 2 scenarios to proceed with Marketing Process in this case:

Scenario 1: You are starting from the scratch: This is the process startups should ideally follow.

You have a great idea in your opinion but in order to avoid business risks, you should validate your idea through market research.

First step, before even marking the product you should research and ask your customers what they REALLY want. Use different sources of information like ground research, books, online e-commerce store review segments, facebook groups to research what the audience thinks of existing competitor products and services and examine where the gap lies. 

Do not go on with preconceived notions, stay open minded. After gathering your research is when you should then start working on your offered product/ service. 

Second step after making the offering, you should then plan a consumer driven strategy – who is your ideal customer ? identify different types of customers in  the market (segmentation) and  based on segmentation, choose your target segment (targeting). After you gave identified your target segment customers, you need to identify what messaging you will give to make them position your product/services better than competitors?  What is your Unique Selling Proposition? Why is your product irreplacable?

Third step, based learnings from the second step, you should make an integrated marketing programme taking into consideration the 4Ps- Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. 

The Product – design a product (or service) which the targeted customers  want and create strong brands around these products. 

The Price-  the price of the product/service so as to make them attractive to customers. Please note, attractive price is not always low, sometimes a higher price maybe more attractive to customers and position your offering as premium (e.g. Luxury goods)

The Place – managing demand and supply chains, to make your offering available to customers. Ensuring that your product is available in the right places to be distributed.

The Promotion – How will you promote your offering to your customer to make them buy your product and put a halt to their objections.

Fourth step is where the money lies- It is engaging with your customers after the sales and ensuring not only the product meeting their demands but exceeding their expectations. You can do this with good customer service, regularly interact with customers, ensure they are taken care of. 

Fifth step focuses on making returning customers that enables your company to gain market share in a consistent and predictable way. This is where your profits maximise.

But remember, marketing is not a 5 step process but a cyclic process i.e after doing all the five steps, you need to sit and understand what worked and what didn’t and make changes in these 5 steps based on your insights. 

Scenario 2: You already have a product/service:  A typical case of Small, Medium businesses where you already know your product and service. 

In your case too, the cycle will start with market research. However, in your case you will be researching the feedback of your existing offerings and finding gaps with your existing offering and following the rest of the cycle. 

In your case, since you already have a customer base, it will be best to directly ask them for feedback and gain insights first hand instead of relying on other options. This exercise may be intimidating but doing this opens gates to excellent marketing. 

You may of course also use google forms and ask your customers anonymously to gather best insights. You can even check other forms of research to figure out step 1.

All the other steps in your case will go the same course and in scenario 1. But everything depends on how well you do your research and hence NEVER take your research for granted. 

How to set financial goal for Marketing efforts

In order to make Marketing really work for you, you need to set the right expectations and targets of your process. 

Let’s face it, at the end of the day, we all need money. It all boils down to revenue and hence it’s crucial to reverse engineer the process of Marketing and set right and realistic targets for your business.

How to set the right marketing targets?

Step 1 : Ascertain how many customers you need in a year-

Number of Target Customers  = Target Revenue

                                                              —————————————-

                                                               Cost of 1 product service

E.g  You want to earn Rs 1,00,00,000 in a year and the price of your product is Rs 10,000 then- 

Number of Target Customers  = 1,00,00,000 =  1000

                                                              ——————                                                               

                                                                   10,000

You need to go to your marketing team or target to acquire 1000 conversions (clients) per year.

Now you would want to break it down to monthly figures. Hence you would need to target 1000/12 = 84 approx customers monthly, 84/4 = 21 customers weekly and 3 target customers per day.  

In terms of revenue, you need to generate 1,00,00,000 yearly, approx 8,40,000 monthly, approx 2,10,000 weekly and approx 30,000 daily. 

Now you need to go and discuss with your marketing team. There are various marketing ways to do this. Some of the ways also entail introducing multiple products and services with progressively increasing prices that you can offer. 

It is also important to note that while it is great to have targets for every month, you need to give 3-4 months until you get any monetary results from your campaigns. This is because in this stage, marketers are busy figuring out what works best for you. There will be a lot of trials and errors in this time to finally figure out the best settings which work for you.

CATT Marketing Funnel- The wealth formula

According to this formula which I learned from Digital Deepak:

Wealth = n^ CATT

Where

n = Niche

C= Content

A= Attention

T=Trust

T= transaction

This means : After getting your niche right, you constantly create relevant content for them and drive attention through your content. Overtime, when you have their regular attention on your content, your niche will start trusting you and finally that makes it super easy to transact with them and create trust. All this ultimately leads to wealth. 

Delving deeper:

Niche- Your success depends on which niche you choose. Ensure that your niche is a balanced amalgamation of your talent or skill (something you are good at), your passion (you should be passionate about that skill or talent) and finally the market (ensure there is a well paying market for that skill/talent)

Content- Next, create useful content in terms of reels, posts, blogs, podcasts, lead magnets (whichever medium suits you the best) consistently. Ensure that your content is original, useful, informative or entertaining to get regular attention. 

Attention- Consistently creating content will grab the attention of your niche to you. Alternatively, you can also use paid ads, SEO, Social Media and referrals to increase the amount of attention you get from the right niche.

Trust- Use trip wires (a low cost taster of your product or service to ultimately build value by showing how useful your services can be), marketing automation (for consistency and seamless funnel experience) and retargeting (for great recall and conversion) to build trust with your audience.

Transaction- Convert your leads into paying customers using natural sales methods. Natural Sales Method is a way of selling without pushing the product which often leads to backlash. 

In the Natural Sales Method, you concentrate on educating customers how your product/ service will help then reach their desired state. 

Stage 1- Diagnosis: This is CRUCIAL. Will you ever trust the prescription of a well renowned doctor if he gives you medicines without even asking your health or examining your body? No right? The same is true with your customers. Ask plenty of questions to your target audience about their situation and problems. Do this with research, direct questionnaires etc.

Establish current state and desired state: Again you need to ask these questions for sure:

1. Where is the user right now? What is their problem?
2. Where does he want to be? What is their desired state after implementing a solution?
3. How will their life change after reaching their desired state?
4. What is stopping them from reaching the desired state? What are the problems they are unable to find solutions to? Where do they need help?
5. Ask them why it sucks to be in this situation and what frustrates them?
6. Ask if they think you can help them in transition.
7. Ask to share your solution with them
8. Create scarcity and persuade them to buy

Finally, close sales through this process and profit.

Integrated Digital Marketing

Only relying on 1 social media marketing platform or just SEO for results wont help get the right results. 

You need to integrate all the digital marketing technologies in such a manner that they form a symbiotic relationship and aid one another. This kind of digital marketing strategy is called integrated digital marketing.

How to conduct an integrated marketing strategy?

Content: High-quality content promotes authority, trust, audience engagement, tribe building, and word-of-mouth marketing from your own consumers who act as brand evangelists. Additionally aids in teaching clients about your business, product, or service.

Email : It is currently the most effective communication medium for online marketers. When used with permission, it performs best (opt-in subscribers). helps spread the word about fresh content and stay in touch with prospects to reaffirm the value of the good or service they wish to purchase.

Social media: If email is like having a house meeting with a potential client, social media is like having a focus group meeting. In a social setting, people are more sincere and direct with criticism and ideas.

• Search: Helps potential customers to find your content and your offering by directly searching for it. One of the most powerful tools in online marketing and works best when you do not try to manipulate it. Doing basic on page SEO and then doing all the other things right should be enough to get truck loads of targeted traffic from the search engines.
• Ads: Paid ads in its various formats can help speed up the entire process. The integrated digital marketing process is like a catalyst for ads which maximises the return on investment on the dollars spent.
• Search: By directly searching for your material and your service, you may assist potential customers in finding it. of the most effective tools for online marketing, and it functions best when you don’t try to influence it. Simple on-page SEO techniques combined with proper implementation of the other factors should be sufficient to generate copious amounts of targeted traffic from the search engines.
• Paid advertisements in their various formats can aid in accelerating the process. The integrated digital marketing strategy acts as a trigger for advertisements, maximising the investment’s return.

Personal Branding:  Whether you are an entrepreneur or employee, personal branding has become the need of the hour.

If you are a good personal brand and people trust you, success will follow you in different ventures. Hence I personally advise you whether you are a startup or a SME or a creator, build your personal brand. People like to buy from people and not non-human objects. They want to see what kind of leader the company has, what do they stand for? What are they like? This will not only help build the company but also trust with the masses.

A classic example of a good personal brand is Elon Musk. He owns many companies like Tesla, SpaceX, Boring Company, Neuralink and  with his eyes on Twitter. His personal brand stands for futuristic intelligent technologies. Words you would probably use for him will be futuristic, disruptive, innovative. Hence the audience immediately also relates his ventures with these associations which help his companies gain fame on his name.

Hence, here is the blueprint for a successful personal brand. I will be starting from the scratch but implement it depending on the stage you are 

MassTrust Blueprint :This is a formula I learnt from Digital Deepak again. 

Stage 1: Learning – It all starts with learning a skill that earns you money and studying it deeply.

Stage 2: Work – After you have gained theoretical expertise on the subject matter, take up a job or freelance projects and start practising to gain practical knowledge into the subject matter.

Stage 3: Blog- Now this is a game changer. No matter what your field of expertise is, marketing or business or aeronautics – document your practical learnings via a blog. This should be parallel to your career. This is the way to start getting people’s trust and positioning yourself as the expert in your field. Not only will this make you a recognised figure but psychologically, leave an impact and build trust in people’s mind about your offerings too.

Stage 4:Consult – Using the trust gained, it becomes easier to get clients and consult them with your expertise and how you can impact them. Most of these consultations can also turn into long term paying customers for your company. Remember, I am talking about niche specific consultations.

Stage 5: Mentor – After you have gained good experience of consulting, start taking group consultations/ courses etc (if this suits your niche). Mentor your clients to get desired results whether in groups or 1:1 premium consultations.

Stage 6: Startup- After you have gained good knowledge of prospects and gotten hold of their nerves, start your startup and offer services/products of your expertise. The Startup will gain immensely with your personal brand as people already by this stage trust you. This will help in flowing in more sales.

But what do you do when you are already in stage 6? 

Fill in the gaps of this blueprint. Get clients,  blog about your case studies and consult more clients about your possible solutions to their problems, mentor not only clients but aspiring industry fellows (about best practices in your field, navigating through tough times and even forming a mastermind group or association to get help from shared resources) and expand your brand and offerings with your experience – this can be by giving new offerings, starting a new company, starting to invest in other companies and mentor them from your business learnings etc. 

Conclusion

With all this, I hope I was able to give you a clear picture of how to market your company successfully. By doing all this in a systematic way, you will surely start seeing results within 3 months (or worst case scenario, get crucial insights for exponential growth). All you need to do is take this journey.

If you have any doubts, feel free to comment below or you can also consult me for your brand.

For consultation enquiries and finding solutions to you existing digital marketing problems, mail me at: solutions@devicajoshi.com and I will be happy to help. 

If you want to work with me, mail at: work@devicajoshi.com