How ContentNinja is making a mark in the global content landscape with a .in domain

While every brand is making noise and trying to be heard, they are increasingly acknowledging the significance of content marketing for driving better engagement and sales. But a definitive gap still exists between writers and the brands in regard to fair compensation and quality content.

Towards this, Gurugram-based ContentNinja ensures that brands reach their audience better through impactful content and design.

As ardent readers and writers, both Shriya Garg and Mayank Gulati always wanted to build careers in writing. Even as they pursued chartered accountancy and engineering respectively, they found their way in content marketing at a time when digital content creation took off. They started freelancing while Shriya was working with PwC and Mayank was finishing college. With the business doing well, they decided to take the leap full time; hence the birth of ContentNinja in 2017.

“Shriya focuses on external functions such as sales, business development, hiring and finance, while I am the Creative Head and focus on delivery for our key clients, culture, and our own marketing,” says Mayank.

Always a digital-first business

Mayank and Shriya strongly believe that your website is your first pitch and it pays to have it as optimised as possible.

“As a digital-first business, we’ve always been online. We built our website even before the company got registered because we knew the importance of a digital presence. That has paid off since our biggest sources of revenue are inbound website leads and client referrals,” says Mayank.

With a creative website, the founders were able to convert traffic into leads and grow their business further. ContentNinja has helped clients like Mindtree, Sequoia Capital, Amazon, Snapchat, Freshworks, and more with their inbound marketing, SEO, design, and marketing automation services.

Speaking about the challenges, Mayank says, “When we started, we were 23 , and did not have a lot of industry connections or experience. It was difficult to convince clients to come onboard and potential employees to join us. I remember going to a client’s office once, and the guard informed the boss, “Sir, two kids are here to meet you.” All of this made us hustle harder.Our growth was entirely inbound, using great content and strategic partnerships to develop a strong pipeline of clients in the US and India. We have come a long way today.”

While getting the website registered, Mayank and Shriya preferred a .in domain over a .com. Elaborating on reasons, Mayank says, “Sometimes a .com domain can be unreasonably expensive, and as a new business, we wanted to stay lean with our costs. Given that we cater largely to US and UK markets, a .in helps emphasise our Indian-ness, and helps us catch attention and our ethos of value for money with our international client base.”

The National Internet Exchange for India (NIXI) is helping hundreds of startups across the country and segments to get a .in or .Bharat domain. Apart from cost-effectiveness, another advantage of getting a domain name from NIXI is that one can choose from 22 languages. This will help businesses be more visible to the right audience.

Explaining the importance of a .in domain, Mayank shares, “A lot of international brands reach out to us because of our Indian identity. For brands in the US and the UK, India is the best market when it comes to outsourcing work at economic convenience.”

Every company will be a content company

ContentNinja clocked over Rs 3.5 crore as annual revenue in FY 2020-21 which is twice the previous year, and is on a run rate to hit 7 crores this year. Shriya says, “We believe every company of the future will be a content company, and brands agree. We are witnessing such a strong demand pipeline of clients looking to build a strong content strategy for user acquisition and thought leadership. This is especially relevant for B2B and SaaS where sales cycles are typically longer, and clients do a lot of online research before making a purchase. This is an exciting time for a content company like ours.”

ContentNinja is already on track in catering to international clients. Talking about his vision for the company, Mayank shares, “We brand ourselves as a global company where .in domain represents our roots but at the same time we can match the quality on a global level.”

The ‘Shaping India Inc's Online Growth’ series chronicles the journeys of startups and SMEs in India and how creating an online presence on the .in or .Bharat domain powered their success stories.