Marketing 101: How to Market to the New Age Customer?
Marketing right to get your startup off the ground
“Marketing is enthusiasm transferred to the customer”
-Gregory Ciotti
Marketing is something no business can afford to ignore. Even if you have the best product in the market, but your target customer base has no idea that it exists, there is a glaring problem. Marketing is essential because it helps the company to build brand awareness. Brand awareness is not only the process of letting people know that you exist but also getting people to develop an interest in the product or service offered by you. Other than building brand awareness; marketing aids businesses in increasing sales, expanding their business, and engaging with the customers. It helps with building and maintaining a reputation of the organisation among the customers; supports the business to preserve its relevance in the ever-changing world; nonetheless, it helps the business administration to make informed decisions. The process is not as simple as putting out an advertisement. It requires patience; it comprises of many steps — the first step being: market research: analysis, and understanding your ideal customer’s interests. Marketing overlaps with all stages of business, from product development to retail distribution. One of the prime purposes of marketing is to answer all the questions pertaining to consumer behavior. To understand the How, What, When, Where and why of the customer’s needs is what a marketer does.
“ A marketer should have the firmest finger on the pulse of the customer’s persona.”
Now that we have established why marketing can’t be ignored, let’s Define Marketing and the 5P’s of Marketing by the book!
Definition of Marketing
“The activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. ”
Marketing is done to explain to the consumers about why your product or service can cater to their needs and persuade them to choose your product or service over those of your competitors. It includes creating the product or service as per the customer need; identifying the customer base and capturing their attention; promoting and convincing the customer to purchase the product; and moving it through the suitable selling channels.
Other than the traditional four aspects that were essential in developing a marketing strategy, modern age marketers have introduced one more term: ‘People’, to be associated with the new-age marketing. What was previously known as the 4 P’s of Marketing is now known as the 5 P’s of Marketing.
The 5 P’s of Marketing
1. Product
Ensuring that the product is ready to fill the gap in the market is an essential aspect to be considered. A business should consider the key features of the product offered, the benefits extended by the product to the consumers and whether it is fulfilling the needs of the buyers or not. Market research can help businesses thrive by putting themselves in the customer’s shoes.
2. Price
The price should be considered keeping in mind the current realities of the market. It should include all parts that make up the overall costs. The buyer should be willing to trade off both quantifiable and non-quantifiable costs to purchase your product or service.
3. Place
All the elements and channels of distribution come under ‘Place’. It pertains to how the product is made available to the customer at the right time, at the right place, and in the right quantity.
4. Promotion
Promotion pertains to all kinds of exercises done to promote the product to the target customer base. It can include sales, public relations, direct marketing, advertising, sponsorship and social media marketing.
5. People
The new-age marketing is about the buyer’s experience. The people element refers to the stakeholders of your business, i.e. the customers, the employees and you. Understanding what your customer wants and maintaining a commendable customer service level so that you attract and keep loyal customers are both imperative. Training the employees such that they have the skills to offer the best experience and meet customer expectations is an aspect of the people element.
So, these were the basics of Marketing. Now we will look at How to Market Effectively?
How to Market Effectively?
1. Market research
“The customer is the king”
But how to understand the customer’s needs? Market Research is the answer. It is a process to gain insight into your customer base, understand the customer perception for the competitors, and the overall market.
2. Target markets
Identification of the group of potential customers whom a company will be targeting to direct its marketing is known as the identification of target groups. A target market can also be part of the total market for a product or service.
3. Unique Selling Proposition
Identifying the USP and talking about it to potential consumers has become a necessity. With so many thriving businesses, the purchaser should know what you do differently. This is a way to help your business stand out from the crowd.
4. Build a brand
A brand must connect with your target customers emotionally and should communicate your USP, identity, and what you stand for.
5. Marketing Channel
When marketing avenues are concerned, there are numerous options available. But to choose the right one keeping in mind, your target audience is essential. Some options are business website, SEO, Paid per click marketing, social media marketing, cold calling, email marketing.
6. Set your goals
Identify what you would like to achieve through the marketing activities undertaken by your organization. Develop a marketing plan and allocate a budget.
7. Nurture your loyal customers
Directly communicating regularly with customers through social media, providing a follow-up after selling the product; delivering what you promise; using feedback and complaints, for improving the product and service; training of staff in customer services are some ways that can be used to sustain loyalty among present customers.
8. Examine and re-examine
Analysing is something that can not be ignored in the process of marketing. Studying the trends will help a marketer understand whether the desired goal has been achieved.
9. Marketing Lifecycle
It is important to understand that marketing does not end when a customer buys a product. A marketer should keep in touch with the customer. Other than that, there is a lifecycle of a Marketing plan. Renewing the marketing strategy from time to time is also essential.
Those were a few steps to market effectively. Moving on, let us glance upon the Various Types of Marketing being used by Modern Businesses.
The new-age marketers have started taking advantage of the enhanced technologies. Now the methods of marketing can be broadly categorized into two brackets: Conventional Marketing and Digital Marketing. A marketer can choose any one or more depending on the desired goals and the target audience. We need to understand that not all methods are suitable for all businesses.
Some Conventional Marketing Methods:
- Print advertising: Advertisements that are printed in hard copy in publications like newspapers, magazines, journals. Choosing the right publication according to the target audience is imperative here.
- Radio advertisements: Advertisements that run on radio channels. Here also, the right radio station is necessary.
- Television: These are short commercial films created with the purpose of advertising by broadcasting on television.
- Billboards: It is a process of using large scale print ads (Advertisement seen on the hoardings).
Some Digital Marketing Methods:
- Content marketing: In the modern-day advertising content is the king. It focuses on building a strong relationship with your target audience by is creating, publishing, and distributing content relevant to the potential or present consumers.
- Affiliate marketing: It is leveraging an influencer with the purpose of promoting a product or service. It is a performance-based marketing technique.
- Email marketing: Sending a commercial message to the target audience using email. It helps in developing and maintaining relationships with potential customers, first-time buyers and recurring customers.
- Search engine optimization: Improving the visibility of the website on the search engine results page organically, to increase quality and quantity traffic on the website; by using keyword research tools.
- Social media marketing: Publishing quality content, engaging the followers and analyzing the results on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Snapchat etc. in order to connect with your audience, increase sales, and drive website traffic.
- Search engine marketing: It is a digital marketing strategy used to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results.
- Digital display advertising: It is visual advertising on Internet websites, apps or social media through banners or other advertising formats.
Some other options that are used to market are business websites, Pay-per-click ads, sponsoring events, word of mouth, cold calling.
A Few Tips to Keep in Mind:
- Never forget the basics of marketing.
- Do remember that we are marketing to people. Human touch is essential. Care for the customer.
- Marketing doesn’t end with the customer buying the purchase.
- USP: Talk about it! Show the consumer how you are different from others.
- Re-target potential customers. Understand why a customer stopped in between the process of purchasing the product.
- Cater to the needs of the consumers, do not assume that you know your customer very well; Ask! Talk! Understand!
- Re-think your marketing strategy from time to time such that the business is able to preserve its relevance in the fluctuating nature of the market.
- Stress on Analyzing the trends and market accordingly.
- Do not underestimate the power of Social Media.
- Remind the consumer of your presence regularly.
Over the years, marketing has come to become a complex science. There are examples of transcendental product ideas that could not sustain in the market due to a lack of customer awareness. And we also have instances of great ideas which have developed to become Unicorns! The nascent founders can now stop looking for some elusive secret which might change the face of their business; because it is right in front of their eyes: Marketing. Market right to get your startups off the ground!
