← Notebook · Session 17 · 2026-08-30
Guest Lecture · Shahid Hussain Joia — Complete Marketing Roadmap
The decision this session forces
Do not market everywhere at once. Run three channels, ask every buyer where they heard about you, and put your next rupee behind the one that actually sold something.
The short version
- The roadmap runs in five phases, from getting the basics right to tracking what actually sells.
- Phase one is foundation: set a marketing budget before you open, the same way you budget rent and raw material.
- Set up your Google Business Profile the day you open — exact location, phone, hours and photos — so local buyers can find you.
- Turn WhatsApp Business into a real shop: a catalogue, prices, your location, and broadcast lists people actually agreed to join.
- Phase two is showing your face. People trust a person, not a logo, so get in front of the camera.
- Post short daily videos of how you make, pack and fix things. Clear audio and good light matter more than an expensive camera.
- Phase three is trust: real 20-to-30-second video testimonials from real customers, never bought reviews.
- Educate the buyer before they buy, so they already see you as the expert by the time they arrive.
- Phase four is local and offline: go to where your buyer already is, like the mandi for a farmer, instead of a blind pamphlet drop.
- Branded, useful objects that people keep and use are a quiet kind of advert nobody has to be sold on.
- Phase five is offers and tracking: give buyers a reason to buy now — a sample, a trial pack, a first-time discount — not a slogan about being the best.
- Run three channels at a time, never everything at once, and ask every buyer where they heard about you, then spend more on whichever one answers back.
Phase one: get the basics right first
Plan the marketing budget before you start, the same way rent and raw material get planned for. Marketing that is funded only if money is left over never gets funded.
A Google Business Profile goes up immediately: exact location, phone number, opening hours and real photos, so a local buyer can find the place before they ever call.
WhatsApp Business becomes a proper shop front, not a chat log: a catalogue, prices, the location, and broadcast lists built from people who actually opted in. Nobody gets added without asking.
Phases two and three: show your face, then earn trust
People trust a person, not a logo. Getting in front of the camera, even with no experience, beats a polished logo with nobody behind it.
Daily short videos — how something is made, packed, or a problem solved on camera — need no expensive equipment. Clear audio and good light are enough.
Video testimonials, twenty to thirty seconds, from real customers with real faces and voices, build trust that a bought review cannot. Educating a buyer before they purchase does the same job from the other side: by the time they arrive, they already see the seller as the expert.
Phases four and five: go where the buyer already is, then track what worked
Targeted outreach beats a blind pamphlet drop. If the buyer is a farmer, the place to be is the mandi, not a street corner nobody who buys ever walks down.
A branded, useful object — a wall clock, a calendar, a shopping bag — carrying the name, number and address, placed where the customer already spends time, works as a quiet, ongoing advert long after it is handed over.
Offers give a buyer a reason to act now: a free sample, a trial pack, a first-time discount, free delivery. "We are the best" gives nobody a reason to do anything today.
The step most people skip: run three channels, never everything at once, and ask every single customer where they heard about the business. Then put the next rupee behind whichever channel actually produced a sale.
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Credit Taught in Gharebon Ka MBA · Dr. Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani. Used here with credit, not as my own. https://www.zeeshanusmani.com/career-growth-accelerator/