How to Build an Effective Marketing Strategy in 2025

Introduction of Marketing

“It’s not what you sell that matters as much as how you sell it!” — Brian Halligan, CEO & Co-Founder, HubSpot

This quote says that marketing is how to sell our product to customers. We can sell whatever product we want to sell but what to sell, how to sell, and what products to produce all depends on marketing.

When we hear the word “Marketing”, we feel that this concept is boring and difficult to read.

I will show you that now marketing has become easy to understand for all of us.

It means attracting customers, giving knowledge to customers, and maintaining a strong and ever-lasting relationship with customers.

Everyone can use marketing techniques now like artistically as well as scientifically.

Let’s begin the journey of marketing,

Let’s check it out.

The Fundamentals of Marketing

Marketing is based on science and not creativity.

We have to first understand the needs, psychology, wants, likes, and dislikes of customers. This is done by conducting market surveys by companies who want to sell the products.

According to the customer’s needs, products are created for customers’ use.

McDonald’s frequently uses market research to make its customers happy.

McDonald’s can gauge their customer base by asking a few questions and can change its strategy to satisfy its customers.

McDonald’s customers were concerned with the absence of healthy and organic food items on its menu.

So McDonald’s took that feedback into account and added healthy items on the menu, such as apple slices. It even launched an advertising campaign to prove that its chicken nuggets and patties contain real meat.

So, Marketing starts before creating a product.

To make a business profitable, we need to sell the right product to the right customer at the right time so we need to make the marketing strategy also in that way.

Products like Air Conditioners are sold in the summer season a lot and there is more demand for A/Cs during the hot season.

So, Companies start their promotional campaign before their summer season. So, Customers can purchase the product at the right time.

It is about retaining existing customers by giving them good services and getting feedback from them from time to time.

It builds a brand and creates a position among customers.

Sometimes, a product is very well known by customers that they do not need marketing. Customers are recognized by their brand name, logo, popularity, etc.

Great Products like Apple, Nike, Mercedes-Benz, Maruti, etc. do not require marketing for their products.

Customers know their products and purchase them directly from companies without marketing.

So, we saw that marketing has a lot to do with the business world. It has a larger impact than other functions of the business.

8Ps of Marketing

A marketing mix is holistic marketing. Its primary objective is to reach your target market while focusing on the marketing strategy for your goods or services. It assists you in connecting with clients and directs numerous operations and marketing management across multiple firm departments.

Companies can accomplish their objectives with a solid marketing mix by getting a variety of components to function together.

The 4Ps of marketing—product, pricing, location, and promotion—were derived from the original marketing mix, a top-down administrative strategy.

Since then, by adding people, processes, and positioning, it has further expanded into the well-known 7Ps of the marketing mix, especially the 7Cs Compass Model.

But if you are a large enterprise then, you enjoy applying the 7Ps of marketing to attain success in the business. ‘Performance‘ is a new P added to the 8Ps. These 8Ps are better for a modern marketing mix.

History of 8Ps of Marketing

The “4 Ps” are a set of principles for conducting business that was created in 1960 by E. Jerome McCarthy. The marketing mix was first described by Philip Kotler in 1967 as a group of determinable factors. McCarthy is the author of various publications on company management, marketing, and advertising. He was a professor of marketing from the United States who worked at Michigan State University.

Who then created the eight pillars of marketing?

Professor McCarthy suggested using the 4Ps marketing mix as a tool for creating a marketing strategy in his book “Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach“.

The 7Ps of marketing were eventually added to the original 4Ps. The 7Ps of the marketing mix were outlined in the 1981 publication Marketing Strategies and Organizational Structures for Service Organizations by academics Bernard Booms and Mary Jo Bitner.

Due to its simplicity and addition of performance to the 7Ps concept, the 8Ps definition is now extensively used by enterprises in all sectors.

Traditional Marketing

Traditional Marketing is a method that does not use the Internet for its promotional campaign.

They have been for decades now.

It has become old-fashioned but it is still used widely all over the world till now.

It has a great impact on customers when deciding on the right product.

Traditional methods are television, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, postcards, coupons, telephone calls, and text messages.

Pros and Cons of Traditional Marketing

It is easy to understand and very impactful and entertaining.

It is used to reach a larger audience. It reaches an older audience of 50+ age groups of people who read the newspaper, and listen to TV and radio as compared to those of the 21-50 age group. Even customers who are illiterate use TV and radio to listen to ads.

This marketing is useful for products that want to show graphics and demos to use the products.

Small businesses also use this marketing to get the attention of customers by using billboards, flyers, and events rather than to compete in digital space with larger businesses.

TV and Radio ads are played multiple times and remind the customer of the business whereas digital world items are skipped or blocked.

Customers cannot ignore ads on TV whereas digital ads can be skipped or ignored.

Traditional marketing lacks in terms of digital marketing.

It is very expensive. To make ads, companies have to spend a lot of money on ads.

It takes weeks or months to yield results or data. Companies do not get feedback for their ads on this marketing. There is no direct interaction with customers.

Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is a method that uses the Internet for marketing purposes.

It is a modern marketing technique.

Due to the frequent use of the internet and mobile devices, digital marketing has become very popular today.

Digital marketing methods are website content, email campaigns, content marketing, social media posts, clickable ads, affiliate marketing, and SEO.

Pros and Cons of Digital Marketing

This marketing is much lower-cost and takes less time. Sending an email campaign saves a lot of money and time compared to printing postcards.

Companies can track their customer’s reactions with this marketing. When someone goes to a website or reads an article or follows us on social media, you can have that information immediately. Based on this information, companies can check which medium works best and which are more effective, and even what time of the day customer is more engaging in their marketing campaign.

It works well for a global audience because of the broad scope of digital marketing.

Digital marketing lacks too in terms of traditional marketing.

Some internet users have ad blockers. So they never see pop-up ads or banner ads. Ads can be skipped or removed if users pay for premium services.

Due to new trends and new technology emerging day by day, digital marketing techniques change frequently. Apps and Websites are updated frequently. Older data become irrelevant as new data are updated from time to time.

Digital Marketing is mostly used by English-speaking customers. It reaches a limited audience.

So, Both Traditional and Digital work well on their platform. It depends on companies to decide to use the right type of marketing for their products.

Marketing Funnel – CATT

As we know Marketing is based on science. We have to understand customer needs.

To understand customer needs, we need to plan a model or funnel (a funnel is a more common term used in marketing today) to retain the buyers of your products by giving them good service at a reasonable price.

One such marketing funnel is the CATT marketing funnel. Deepak Kanakaraju designed it as a simple and effective model.

Now, what is this CATT?

Let’s get in brief about it.

The CATT abbreviations are like this:

1.  C – Content: In Digital Marketing, Content is the King. Content is built by analyzing customers’ needs. So, we need to create good content to attract people from your niche. Content can be of any type like Blogs, posts, videos, seminars, etc.
2. A – Attention: After making good content, we need to drive attention or build traffic to your content using SEO, social media, Paid Ads, and Referrals. We need to apply the right marketing technique to build a good amount of traffic.
3. T – Trust: When customers pay attention to good quality content, trust is built in the customer’s mind and the customer sticks to that provider who is answering his needs. Trust is an important factor and acts as an asset in business. Building trust is not easy for businesses, it needs a lot of effort to build trust.
4. T – Transaction: When the customer fully trusts his provider, he takes action to buy the product which we say is a sale. It must be a natural sales method. The customer is satisfied with the provider after buying the product as his problem is solved.

 Now, these are the marketing steps that a target customer goes through while buying a product.

This is the secret of Wealth in Marketing which is generated by Deepak Kanakaraju in the way of a formula.

Wealth = n ^ (CATT)

Now (n) here is your niche: a specific segment of the population.

Integrated Digital Marketing

Integrated Digital Marketing is a plan used by businesses for their marketing strategies and integration to sell their product on the market.

It uses all forms of channels that are used by customers on the internet.

It uses mediums such as content marketing, email marketing, paid advertising, SEO, social media, etc.

You can email customers for their responses.

You post content on blogs.

You can use social media as a platform for posts and blogs

You can track your customer’s reactions on your website.

So. You have a broad range of marketing techniques to use in your marketing campaign.

I am sharing an example of mine:

I want to learn a writing course from a genuine mentor. I was searching for some writing institutes or for some well-known professional writers who teach writing.

After some time, I stop searching for them for a couple of months.

Then I got blogs, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, and email ads relating to writing courses everywhere and every time.

I waited till I got one good writing mentor to train me in writing.

Then I enrolled in good writing courses with a well-known writer.

So, The purpose of marketing is to reach the target audience and implement all the marketing strategies to attract customers to purchase the product.

Personal Branding

Personal Branding means a person has to create his own identity for his target customers and position himself as an authority in their industry.

He becomes a brand after building trust with his customers and maintaining a steady relationship with them.

Customers know the person first and then they get to know their product.

Becoming a brand is not easy to process. It takes a lot of effort by entrepreneurs to plan a successful marketing strategy to build their brand.

Customers will talk to a person and not to a corporation. They believe in the trust he creates among his customers.

The customer just purchases the product by knowing the names of popular people who have their brands.

Elon Musk and Steve Jobs are more famous than Tesla and Apple.

There are many more like Neil Patel, Harsh Agrawal, and Deepak Kanakaraju who are famous in their field of digital marketing.

Neil Patel is famous for building traffic like SEO.

Harsh Agrawal is famous for website creation.

Deepak Kanakaraju is famous for mentoring in Digital Marketing.

So, each brand is best in its category or field.

History of Marketing

Marketing has evolved significantly over the centuries, adapting to societal changes, technological advancements, and consumer behavior. Here’s a brief history of marketing, from its early beginnings to the digital revolution.

1. The Pre-Industrial Age: Barter & Early Trade (Before 1700s)

• Marketing Origins: Marketing began with simple barter systems, where people exchanged goods and services based on mutual needs.
• Early Branding: Ancient merchants used symbols and marks to differentiate their goods (e.g., potters’ marks in Mesopotamia).
• Oral Promotion: Town criers and street vendors were among the earliest forms of advertising.

2. The Industrial Revolution (1700s–1800s): Mass Production & Print Advertising

• Mass Production: The Industrial Revolution led to factories producing goods at scale, requiring distribution and promotion.
• Rise of Branding: Companies like Coca-Cola (1886) and Quaker Oats (1877) started using logos and packaging to build brand identity.
• Print Media Boom: Newspapers and magazines became popular advertising platforms, helping businesses reach larger audiences.

3. The 20th Century: Marketing Becomes a Discipline

Early 1900s – The Production & Sales Era

• 1900s–1920s: The focus was on production efficiency—”If you build it, they will buy it.”
• 1920s–1950s: The Sales Era emerged, emphasizing aggressive selling techniques (e.g., door-to-door sales, radio ads).

1950s–1980s – The Marketing Concept Era

• Customer-Centric Approach: Businesses started prioritizing customer needs over just production.
• Marketing Mix Introduced: Jerome McCarthy developed the 4Ps of Marketing — Product, Price, Place, and Promotion (1960).
• TV & Radio Dominance: Advertising became more visual and emotional through television ads.

4. The Digital Revolution (1990s–Present): Internet & Data-Driven Marketing

• Rise of the Internet (1990s): Websites, email marketing, and search engines transformed how brands connected with consumers.
• Social Media Boom (2000s–2010s): Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram changed brand communication and engagement.
• Big Data & AI (2020s): Personalization, automation, and AI-driven marketing have taken center stage.

Conclusion

I hope that if you have read this conclusion then you have read the whole article and have understood the marketing fundamentals. Let’s just summarise what you have read so far.

1. Marketing is a science and not an art. It is done by understanding the customer’s needs and producing the right product for the right customer at the right time. Marketing retains the customer and builds a brand among customers.
2. 8Ps of Marketing is the process of marketing to understand the needs of buyers and manufacturers.
3. Both Traditional and Digital Marketing are equally important in the business world.
4. A marketing funnel is used to understand the buyer’s needs
5. Integrated Digital Marketing is used to plan the marketing strategy to attract customers.
6. Personal Branding is important to influence the customers to directly contact the provider.
7. The history of marketing shows how marketing has evolved over the centuries.

I hope you like my article so feel free to comment on it and wait for the next article soon.