Hello everyone,I am Shuchi ,a Psychology Graduate,an Ex-Banker,Stay at home mom & Digital Marketer in making.
I started my Digital Marketing Journey in 2017 after quitting my job of 10 years & trying out various businesses.I was physically, emotionally & financially exhausted after trying out various ventures & then I thought of trying something different.So I started doing my research and stumbled upon Digital Deepak’s blogs.Though the field was completely new, I could not stop myself from reading blogs after blogs.So long before Digital Deepak claimed himself publicly to be of India’s Neel Patel I had the same perception.So you can imagine how influenced I was & I still am with his style of writing, the way he grew his brand,his customer handling & most importantly providing value to his readers.I am totally in awe of how someone can be big & still stay humble.
So, I had my own AHA moment & I knew what I wanted to do in future.Little did I knew no matter how glamorous it looks from outside,life is real tough here.Ever changing concepts, mediums,audiences & the challenge of evolving along with it when you yourself are on a learning mode.
Nonetheless,I enrolled in various courses, both paid & unpaid but even after three years it seems that I have only touched the tip of the iceberg.At this point of time Digital Deepak Internship Programme was launched & after going through the details I was sure about joining the programme.
After all, this was one of the first in Digital Marketing that someone was teaching-Learning By Doing. An experiment which involved monetary benefits for skill development.My logical mind kind of warned me about this too good to be true scheme.So I decided to wait and see what happens to the first batch & to my surprise everyone was really happy with the kind of value they got both in terms of learning & earning.
It was later in the class that Deepak explained about the Golden Triangle of Learn -Do-Teach & Repeat.
So when we learn the information gets registered in our brain but ofcourse not in a very organized manner so that you remeber it but do not fully understand.However when you apply the learning that information gets reinforced & with time when you get results it becomes an understanding on how it works.
But when you teach the same concept you are forced to simplify the process so that your target audience understands it without any difficulty & this is how you become the expert of that particular concept.
As rightly said by Alber Einstein If you cannot teach anything in a simple manner you have not understood very well yourself.
Finally I joined the second batch & here I am sharing my key takeaways from the session 1.
The much awaited class started at 9:00 pm on 25th of February & the energy in the class was infectious.Everyone had high expectations & a zeal to learn.We all wanted to change our lives for good.
So the class started with the most basic & important aspect of any professional engagement-
1.Goal Setting
The class started with a quote of Mr. Warre Buffet-
A person with a goal & a plan will beat an intelligent person without a goal & a plan.
Deepak spoke at length about importance of goal setting & planning.We have to decide what we want to do -Blogger, Vlogger, Video Maker,Agency Owner, Freelancer etc.The goals can also change & evolve with you but starting towards realising the goal & a plan to reach there should be paramount.
I would also like to add one of my favourite dialogues from Movie Lakshay-
“Chahe ghas katne wale bano par acha Bano..par kaise. Lakshay banao aur use har haal mein paao.”
2.Marketing First
“Marketing is superpower” was the crux of second lesson.
So Deepak started off with a quote “All is well when you know how to sell,sell & sell.”
Wow so much selling…but how?
The answer is simple-Marketing.
Aren’t we here to learn Digital Marketing?
So first myth busted-Marketing is the mother of digital marketing.You need to be a marketer first then only you can become a Digital Marketer.
All the technical terms SEO,SMM,Analytics etc are immaterial if we dont understand the basics of marketing.
Marketing is been here for a very long time, since the invention of trading.Only medium of marketing changes-initially people would only display their products in their shops, then they would go home to home & market them, then print media, then television & now the digital media.
Marketing is basically understanding Human Psychology-Connect & communicate with the prospect buyer -Make the sale happen.
So basically the medium where we connect & communicate with the buyer changes or evolves with time. Digital Marketing is basically Marketing+Technology.
In a nutshell technology/tools/communication medium changes but how we communicate & solve people’s problems doesn’t change.So digitalis only medium,marketing is what we have to learn & execute.
3.Communication Skills
The most basic & most important skill to be a good digital marketer is your communication skill.Till the time we are not able to communicate, all the ideas we have is of no use.
To sell we have to convince our audience & for convincing the most basic skill that we need is to understand them & make them understand what we want them to understand.Looks complicated?
No, communication actually solves all the complications.
We have to understand our audience & their needs-We have to understand our product-& finally we have to communicate how our product is the one they need.
So according to me communication is not only about writing, orating or having a conversation but is an amalgamation of understanding buyer psychology & expressing accordingly.
The tips given by Deepak to improve our communication skills is gold.There is no way we cannot become the master of understanding & expressing if we follow these simple steps-
- Read a lot-atleast 30 minutes daily.
- Listen to podcasts-atleast 30 minutes daily
- Write a lot-The more you write the better you can write( atleast 500 words per day)
- Watch English sitcoms like Office, Silicon Valley etc.
- Watch standup comedy to understand the local culture & slang
4. Global Economy
There was a bonus lecture on Global Economy too.How economy works & how taking more debts create more money in the market & how economy booms with growing age of its population, becomes stagnant at 50 years of age & goes into depletion after 60.
And when he suggested to read ceratin books on economics I remembered a dialogue from Namaste London
“Vaise to aur bhi kai khubiyan hain par uske liye main Manoj Kumar ki Purab Paschim ki CD bhej dunga”
Yani aur sikhna hai to Economics 101 & Currency Wars padho.
But why this segment-there is a relevance of every part of the class-Understanding economics is important as a Marketeer/Business Owner to understand in which field are you playing this game.That is again understanding the environment.
Environment affects Behaviour & Behaviour leads to result , hence for a favourable result we must understand our environment & know how to behave for maximum results.
That means we have to understand our economic scenario, rules & regulations to operate our business smoothly & favorably.
5. Finding the Gold
Finding the gold was basically understanding the market, the available opportunities & creating a niche for yourself.
There is a place for everyone who strives to work hard & stays focused.
There are innumerable opportunities available in the market.No matter how much we grow we will always have needs & as marketers we have to give solutions to these needs.
With time the solution to these needs will evolve into need themselves & then a new set of solutions are needed.
For example we commuted on foot, then we had horses & then carts & then cars.So after cars is this market saturated?No, now we need car seats, alloy wheels, music systems,gps navigators etc.
5.Future of Digital Marketing
This led to another myth busting of recession. Deepak generally talked about why Digital Marketing will not die in times of recession & how staying lean will help us fight recession even if it hits us.
Digital marketing as per him is a life skill because it is made up of understanding human psychology & implementing marketing techniques using digital technologies.
Tools may become obsolete with time but skill of understanding your audience & convincing them to buy your product will never go out of market.
But we have to evolve with time & keep ourselves lean in terms of team & expenses.
For example people running Digital Marketing Courses on Physical model have to pay a lot of Operational Expenses-Trainer, Content,Space,Lab etc which other Online Course Providers do not have to pay & hence when recession hits the companies who are more evolved & lean will survive & become market leaders eventually.
6.Choosing a Niche
Choosing a niche is your first step towards your digital marketing journey.You have to keep certain factors in mind before zeroing on a particular category.
Your Passion-Talent-Market Opportunity
No matter how profitable a niche is if you are not passionate about the category you will not be able to provide value in the long run so passion is important & with passion comes your talent or your knowledge about the category which will give your readers value & keep them hooked to you.
But all this content will be a free service if you are not able to monetise it so understanding the market opportunity is also very important.
So our ideal niche has to be a combination of these three.
Along with that came the Digital Deepak Nuskha of the class-
Be the first in your category, you will always have the first mover advantage.In case you are already in a crowded category try making a sub category or sub-sub category.
For example-There are hundreds of Digital Marketing Experts-but who is the SEO expert-who is the political SEO category expert-Medical SEO category expert & so on.
7.Content is the King
No matter how cliche is the topic but a king is a king & as Deepak shared his Integrated Digital Marketing Infographic it became more clear.
Content is in the centre of the Brand building/Audience building strategy-
8. Market Demand
Studying & researching Market Demand leads to a right product & right marketing strategy to sell it.But how do we study market demand, here are the few tips from the horse’s mouth-
- Use Google auto suggest
- Use keywordtool.io
- Look for amazon reviews
- Look for pre & post reviews of other products
- Answer the public.com
- Talk to customers
9. Build your Personal Brand
“The best known will always beat the best”- importance of building a personal brand in a nut shell.
So building a personal brand is important, there are many benefits-
- You will have a personal touch with your audiences which is very important because having a human angle in any product or service is irreplaceable because of our unique human qualities.So no matter how much better another classes will be if I am comfortable learning from Deepak Kanakraju I will chose him over any other option.
- It is cool & emotionally satisfying to be known by other people, people get associated with you & you can give a positive change in anyone’s life
- You can launch multiple products & market them
- You can find your own tribe-your own like minded people
- You can write content, publish videos, do public speaking as people know you are the one behind a certain successful product.
But how do we build that legacy, here are the tips-
- Do not hesitate to put your content, act fast & first.
- Do not try to fit in-BE YOURSELF.
- Show your character & personality on Social Media.
- Be consistent,remember most seen will always beat the best.
- Be a GIVER,universe will send back all with interest.
So there were other concepts too like how funnel works & his brand building strategy.You can visit his blog or youtube channel for more clearer understanding.
So to sum it up the first class has already raised the bar & we cannot wait to dive into the sea of digital marketing & swim through it to the commitment of 1 crore in 3 years.
Cheers!!
