A Reflection on DigitalDeepak Internship Programme (Class 1)

The internet today is flooded with so many information that it sometimes confuses the human mind to take good decisions. Knowing how to make good decisions could be the key to live life king size. As a Digital Marketer, I frequently searched for ways to improve my skills as this is such a field where one has to continuously keep on upskilling owing to the rapid changes in technology and business function every now and then. Though I followed many online Digital Marketing Courses and Webinars, I could not get the right way to implement these techniques. Quite Often I used to be stuck midway in between courses with my queries and lack of an expert guide.

That’s when I came across an Internship Program by Digital Deepak. At first I was very skeptical about the program as I already had enrolled for many Digital Marketing Courses .But this programme was a bit different from any other I have come across till date . “If I complete all my assignments I stand to earn more than what I actually paid for the course”. Plus the added advantage of a live class by the expert himself!

Finally I made the decision to add more feathers to my Digital Marketing career. I enrolled for the Digital Deepak Internship Programme(Batch 3) and from now on I will be telling you what I have learned in the Internship Programme.

But before that I would like to introduce my Digital Marketing Mentor Deepak Kanakaraju. He is a Digital Marketing Consultant from Bangalore, India. He is also an Author, Speaker and Trainer in the field of Digital Marketing. He trains students, professionals and business men on Digital Marketing. His recent blog post ‘Why I am not DigitalDeepak’ has completely changed my perspective towards life and now I have become an avid follower of the Digital Guru.

Now lets quickly jump into the lessons that I learned from him in my first class.

First and foremost thing that I learned was to choose an area of focus or you can say “niche”. It is very important to choose an area where we can master our skills to the fullest. So, what can be the areas for a digital marketer to master? Here it goes-

You can become a Blogger

or

You can make amazing videos and stand out as an Expert Video Maker

or

You can do Affiliate Marketing

or

Work as an agency owner

or

Grow your business

or

Get a job

Finding the gold- Narrowing Down The Niche

Market needs always expand because solutions to needs give rise to new needs.You have to find that particular niche that suits you well.Consider these three points while deciding your particular niche.

1. Passion: One needs to have passion and expertise so that he/she has a proper grip of related knowledge around the niche.
2. Talent: Talent keeps you get going.Passion without talent can not serve you longer.
3. Market Opportunity: Don’t foolishly go for an area where there is no market demand.Then create demand for the niche by reaching out to more people.

Global Economics

Economy of a country goes down when average age of a country goes up.Average age of a country goes up means the household spending goes down and thus economy goes down.China,Africa and South East Asian countries have a majority of youth population with a big market and it is even predicted that the next 100 billionaires will be made from this part of the world.

How Debt Creates Money?

Let me explain this with an example.If you take loan from bank you are going to go ahead and deposit in some other bank.Lets say if Cash Reserve Ratio is 10%, then total money circulation will increase by 10 percent and when people start repaying their debts,then cash circulation shrinks and that is how recession happens.During recession strong companies survive,small companies fail.But that’s not the case always!

People will always pay money for value!

Its very crucial to have some basic knowledge about Economy.There are some good books which you can delve into -

1. Economic 101
2. Currency Wars
3. Paul Krugman
4. Raghuram Rajan
5. Adam Smith

Key Basic Skill

Communication

The most important skill within Digital Marketing is to be able to communicate properly.Communication helps in content creation and sales. Only if you can communicate properly to your target audience, you can gather their interest towards purchasing your product or considering your brand for making purchase decisions. I have listed out some easy ways to improve communication:

1. Read a lot(30 minutes a day).Start with simple books and move to complex ones.
2. Thinking in English.
3. Listen to Podcast(30 minutes a day)
4. Write a lot(500words a day).Start with a personal blog.
5. Watch English sitcoms(The Office, Seinfeld,Sillicon Valley, Mad Men,Friends, Breaking Bad and more)
6. Watch standup comedy shows to learn culture and local slangs.

What is the future of Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing will not die because marketing will not die. As needs and products keep growing you need ways to market them. Earlier we used to go to the shops for purchasing clothes,food,cosmetics,etc which is now possible just with a finger tip on your mobile or desktop.Consumer Behavior is changing.The world is moving towards digital and so the need of the hour is Marketing+ Technology=Digital Marketing.

How Integrated Digital Marketing Works?

First you get started with your content. Putting content to the Digital Marketing Process is same as putting nutritious food to your human body. If there is no good food then how much you try to make your appearance look good,you will fail eventually. Content acts as an inner ingredient without which no techniques will work.So,try building relevant content to your particular niche and then go for generating some traffic for your content by carrying out Search Engine Optimisation(SEO).

Then go for publishing it in various social media channels like Facebook,Linkedin,Instagram,Twitter,Pinterest etc and follow a consistent Social Media Marketing strategy. Go for creating your email list who subscribe to your content while planning out a successful Email Marketing Strategy.

After implementing the above startegies, you can go for earning some paid traffic for your content by running paid ads.

Sell and convert the leads into customers .

The integrated system can be explained by using the CATT model:

C- Content(Make sure you serve high quality content)

A- Attention(Through Paid Marketing & Seo)

T- Trust( Gain mass trust by proper communication over a long time)

T- Transaction(Ones you gain trust, you can easily make a sale)

How To Find Market Demand?

Search for where the market is and how you can go with the demand.

1. Use Google Auto Suggest
2. Discover what people are asking about in answerthepublic.com
3. Look for Amazon reviews.
4. Scratch your own itch. Look for what is the need that you are having or what is the need people are having.
5. Talk to customers.
6. Look for pre & post product/services. For example before buying a car, people will search for the reviews and after the purchase they would want car servicing or any other services etc. So it is very essential to study the needs of customers both in the pre and post stage to provide value .

Building Your Personal Brand Is Important

1. The best known will always beat the best.
2. Do not hesitate to put the content out there.Do not have the fear of standing out.
3. Show your character and personality on social media.
4. Publish content in different forms with more content.In this way you will technically own more of the internet.

Benefits of Personal Branding

1. Build a tribe or a community of like minded people sharing same interests as you do.
2. People want to hear from people not from brands. The value that you provide will speak of your brand. So ensure that you provide right solution to customer needs.
3. You can get a job, close a client or build your own consulting training business.
4. Its cool to be known by other people.Build your own fame within a community.
5. Publish videos and do public speaking.

How the Marketing Funnel Works ?

1. Move the free line. Start with giving free but engaging content and then charge a little more by pushing some low cost product in the middle of the funnel and then a premium product at the end.
2. Build trust through the funnel. Trust creates loyal customers in the long run.So focus on gaining mass trust.
3. Make the funnel automated.
4. Build relationships on automations.
5. It is important to get 1 million people on top of the funnel and 1000 people at the bottom. All the potential customers lie on the top of the funnel where you introduce your brand to them while your bottom customers are the one who made the sale transaction.
6. Building brand ambassadors will give more recognition to your brand leading to more sale conversions.

This is what I learned in the introductory session of the internship programme. Feel free to share your thoughts below.