5 Essentials of Modern Marketing
5 Essentials of Modern Marketing
Thanks to digital, modern marketing is a swiftly evolving beast. Nesh Pillay takes the bull by the horns and discusses five ways to harness its power.
Nesh Pillay, Newcomer Entrepreneur in Residence at the Albion Branch
The past five years alone have seen marketing evolve far beyond the cut and dried four P’s framework that many of us first encountered. Our Entrepreneur-in-Residence Nesh Pillay conducted “Marketing 101,” a workshop to teach attendees how to harness new developments in modern marketing.
At its core, marketing is the process of driving profitable consumer action. During the workshop, Nesh touched on key marketing disciplines and tactics commonly used to deliver messages at given points in the modern consumer journey. Here’s what you need to know:
Email Marketing
Email marketing uses email to communicate with your audience and is usually effective in getting them to take action related to your brand, such as signing up for updates or actually making a purchase.
Content Marketing
Content marketing involves the creation and distribution of material (such as blog posts and videos) to inform and stimulate interest among potential customers. Content also determines the effectiveness of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a marketing tactic that involves structuring your website’s content to improve its ranking on a search engine results page. Ranking high among search results increases your brand’s chances of reaching relevant audiences.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing, perhaps the most exciting field in marketing today, can achieve different objectives like increasing awareness, driving consideration, and building community around your brand. Closely related to this is Online Video Marketing, which is a great way to speak to your audience through engaging videos. Video is one of the most consumed forms of content on social media and the internet in general.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing emerged after the explosion of social media. It involves working with popular personalities within a given niche or industry and leveraging their image, credibility, and reach to promote your brand.
Of course, the traditional approaches of advertising and its internet counterpart Pay-Per-Click (PPC) are still very much relevant. PPC is a way to sell directly to people searching for your product or something similar, which increases the likelihood of purchase. Measuring ROI is also easier with PPC, as it allows you to directly compare ad spend with revenue.
Public Relations
Last but not least, Public Relations remains a key component of any brand’s marketing mix, as managing your brand’s reputation requires the unique skill set of crafting the brand story and maintaining positive relationships with the people who talk about it. Though PR’s impact isn’t easily quantifiable, it works wonders for establishing your brand’s credibility by leveraging the influence of trusted third parties, which other marketing tactics aren’t able to achieve.
A love for PR and a burning desire to use it in helping non-profit organizations was what inspired Nesh to found Press Pillay, a communications agency on a mission to “make marketing matter.” Their work, which involves the disciplines discussed above, is helping NPOs and startups promote themselves. The same tactics, when executed as part of a well-thought-out marketing strategy, can certainly also work for your business, so experiment and find out what works for you today.
Free Online Courses to Improve Your Marketing Skills
Gale courses are instructor-led, online and free with a valid Toronto Public Library Card. They have a variety of courses including ones on:
Lynda.com is also free with a valid Toronto Public Library card and has over 3,500 video tutorial courses. Some useful ones include:
Comments