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You Have an Idea. Now What? Marketing Basics Workshop

Workshop notes

Speaker: Neha Chowdhury

Know more about NC Agentur on the website

Connect with Neha on LinkedIn

Marketing can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re running a small business, working as a solopreneur, or developing your first product or service. There are countless platforms, tools, strategies, and trends to keep up with… Effective marketing starts with much simpler questions.

1. WHO — Know Your User Persona

Before deciding what to post, where to advertise, or which platform to use, start by understanding who you are trying to reach.

A user persona describes the person you want to communicate with and can include several dimensions:

Demographics: age, gender, marital status, location, language, etc.
Behaviour: How do they behave online and offline? What platforms do they use? How do they make decisions?
Interests: What topics, activities, products, or communities are relevant to them?
Context: Where are they in their life or situation when they encounter your product or service?

Understanding behaviour is particularly useful when deciding on your marketing channels. You don't choose the channel first and then look for an audience — your audience should help determine where you show up.

2. PROBLEM — What Are You Actually Solving?

Instead of starting with “What am I selling?”, start with: “What problem am I solving?”

People don't necessarily buy a product or service because of the product itself. They buy because of the value or solution it provides.

Ask yourself:

What problem does my product/service solve?
What does my customer need?
What value am I offering?
Why should someone choose me over another option?
What makes my solution different?
What do I want people to associate with my brand?

Your value proposition should make this clear.

It can also connect strongly to your storytelling: How do you communicate the problem, your solution, and why you are the person/business to provide it?

Market the problem you solve, not just the product you sell.

3. CHANNEL — Where Can You Reach Them?

Once you understand your audience, you can start thinking about where they are and which channels make sense for reaching them.

You don't need to be everywhere.

Especially for small businesses and solopreneurs, starting with one, or at most two, channels can be much more effective than trying to maintain a presence on every platform.

Every platform has its own audience, content formats, and algorithms. Choose the channels where your user persona is actually present and where you can realistically create valuable content.

A combination of channels can also work well, for example, using your website as a central information point while using one social platform to reach your audience.

4. PROMPT — What Do You Want Them to Do Next?

What do you want your audience to do? This is your prompt / call to action (CTA).

The desired action doesn't always have to be:

Buy
Sign up
Register
Book

Depending on your business and where someone is in their customer journey, the desired action could also be:

Remember your brand
Share your content
Tell a friend
Visit your website
Follow you
Come back later
Ask a question
Attend an event
Save your content

The important thing is to be clear about what needs to happen next.

And that next step should make sense for the stage your audience is currently in.

The Customer Journey

The four questions above are closely connected to another important concept: the customer journey.

Not everyone who encounters your business is ready to buy immediately. People can be at very different stages when they interact with your marketing.

Awareness

At the awareness stage, someone may not even realize they have a problem yet.

They might need:

Basic information
Definitions
Education
Problem awareness
Content that helps them recognise a need

Question to ask:
What does my audience need to know before they even start looking for a solution?

Interest

Now they are becoming aware of the problem, or perhaps they have become aware of your brand, but they don't know the specifics yet.

They may want:

More information
Explanations
Examples
Educational content
Comparisons
Answers to common questions

Question to ask:
What would someone want to know once they realise this problem is relevant to them?

Desire

At this stage, people are actively considering possible solutions.

They might be asking:

Is this the right solution for me?
Can I trust this business?
How is this different from other options?
Does it actually work?
What have other people experienced?

This is where proof, testimonials, examples, case studies, FAQs, and differentiation can become particularly useful.

Question to ask:
What would convince someone that my solution is worth choosing?

Action

Depending on your business, this could mean:

Making a purchase
Booking a service
Signing up
Registering for an event
Contacting you
Requesting more information

Your prompt should make this next step clear and easy.

Question to ask:
What is the next action I want this person to take?

Content matches the Customer Journey

One important implication of the funnel is that not all content should try to sell.

Your audience will have different questions at different stages.

Awareness → What do they need to learn?
Interest → What do they want to understand?
Desire → What do they need to believe or compare?
Action → What do they need to do?

This means your content strategy should include different types of content that speak to different stages of the customer journey.

General Marketing Tips

Start simple

Marketing doesn't have to begin with:

Complicated tools
Huge budgets
AI agents
Being active on every platform
Becoming a full-time content creator

Start by understanding your user, problem, channel, and prompt.

Let your audience guide your decisions

Your user persona should influence:

The better you understand your audience, the easier it becomes to decide what to communicate, where to communicate it, and what action to encourage.

Be the product you would want

Create a product you would genuinely want to buy, or a service you would genuinely hire yourself for.

Your own standards and experience can be a useful starting point for understanding the value you want to provide.

Marketing isn't always perfectly predictable

Not everything can be reduced to a formula. Sometimes marketing also involves intuition and experimentation.

Test things. Pay attention to what resonates. Learn from your audience. Adjust.

And remember: you are the soul of your marketing.

Build trust

Especially for small businesses, trust can be one of your strongest marketing assets.

Consider using:

Testimonials
Customer stories
FAQs
Demonstrations
Examples of your work
Behind-the-scenes content
Expertise and educational content
Social proof

Key Takeaways

Start with the person, not the platform. Understand your user persona before choosing your channels.
Market the problem you solve, not just the product you sell.
Think about your marketing through four questions: Who? Problem? Channel? Prompt?
You don't need to be everywhere. Start with one or two channels that make sense for your audience and your capacity.
Your audience's needs change throughout the Awareness → Interest → Desire → Action journey.
Create content that answers the questions people have at each stage.
Your CTA doesn't always have to be a purchase. Think about the next appropriate action.
Marketing is about being noticed, trusted, and ultimately contacted.
Don't underestimate intuition, experimentation, and the human side of marketing.