Tuesdays with a digital marketer

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Tuesdays with a Digital Marketer

The Original Article was published at www.justrokket.com (A company that helps students to get admissions and scholarships for higher studies in India)

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I am from a small town. Born, bred and studied there.

On family get-together when my cousins, who are mostly engineers and doctors, proudly talk about their hectic jobs, my relatives often turn to me asking what I do for a living. I have to say that the moment I say that I am a digital marketer, it never fails to bring that priceless expression on their face.

Phase 1 - I was an Engineer

In fact I started as an engineer in 2009. The market conditions were picking up and I was happy with my company and my profile. Then slowly it started creeping on me. I cannot do this copy and paste all my life. Coding never interested me to that extent. The money did. But money also loses its charm once you get used to it. And then you start looking out for Nirvana. Some kind of escapade with higher salaries, swanky cars, board meetings and so on, so forth.

Phase 2 - Selling body lotions and lipsticks

Unlike last time when my parents decided it for me, this time I had to choose what to do next. Quite a daunting task but your comrade was up for task. Simple – I had to gain experience in whatever field I want to move next. I started with MLM Marketing, became a sales consultant for Oriflame. Started selling lotions and creams and lipsticks. I liked the process but soon realized, I could not do this for long.

Phase 3 - Checking my luck in Stock Market

So let’s try finance. I took a course in Capital Markets and Investment securities from a local institute. Armed with my new knowledge, I started a small, tiny little equity market partnership among friends and family. Gained some, lost some but learned a lot. One thing I understood was that I am good at making money from investment vehicles but cannot do a 9-5 job for it.

Phase 4- Writing my Book and Marketing it

Did I forgot to tell you that during this time, my first book which I wrote during my college, got a publisher. So, I started ramping up my website which I created in 2008 for some traction. For the marketing angle, I also started contacting numerous companies, start ups, individuals and everyone I knew, who claimed to know the ‘M’ of Marketing, for help. All I got in return was a pricey quotation for their expertise and a lengthy timeline to achieve what I wanted to get in weeks or if possible, within days.

Disillusioned and with very less money to spend on marketing, I decided to take my destiny in my own hand, at least from marketing side.

I started to search tools that could give me maximum ROI with almost no investment. With time in hand and a burning desire to market my book, I rose to the challenge. From a blog to a website to social media pages to Videos to Lead Gen activities to SEO and almost everything. Doing it all like a solopreneur. The only thing I didn’t know was the names of the activities I was doing.

So I was doing Lead Gen but I didn’t know it was called as Lead Gen. I was doing social media marketing but I didn’t know that there was term for it in marketing… So you get the gist.

So with absolutely no experience I went on to create a marketing mechanism that was at the peak attracting more than 10,000 visits per month. All this with no marketing budget at all.

And then I thought of doing this full time. So then I went through the usual process of going through MBA preparation, going for CAT.

Now what I do, I help companies and individuals to generate more bang for their bucks from Digital Marketing, I mean I do it literally everyday through my ideas. Working with them on the strategy part and seeing it through till it gets executed.

How my day looks like?

How a typical day for me looks like – a Hot cup of coffee and reading emails. After quickly responding to the ones that need urgent replies, I categorize the rest and squeeze them into my to-do list. That is followed by a quick catch-up with the team which involves discussing the tasks for the day. Continuing with the daily tasks, I always devote an hour post-lunch to have a quick glance on the breaking news of the industry, keeping my social media pages updated and connecting to professionals on my network. Though this might appear as a post-lunch break to you, I must reinforce that networking and keeping yourself updated are two key principles for succeeding as a digital marketer. With recent shifts in global trends, it is of paramount importance to constantly upgrade yourself and keep a track of the whereabouts of those around you. After marking the check-box for this activity, I proceed with analyzing the reports of ongoing optimisation tests, looking for valuable insights and measuring the performance. Depending on that, we plan the upcoming schedule for the team for that and the following days. After a series of meetings with stakeholders, I head home and once again return to my blogs and social media pages.

I am passionate about the digital landscape and I love how it continues to evolve providing me with new challenges, new battles to fight every day. Besides, my work demands me to broaden my network and that has provided me avenues to not only build strong relationships but also to learn from the like-minded professionals around me. The only thing that saddens me is that many firms are still lagging on matching the pace with digital trends, unaware of the kind of business growth that it can provide to them.

In my humble ways, I continue to blog on the effective ways of this sector of marketing and how it could generate revenues in unimaginable ways. I try to reach out to start ups, mid-sized companies and entrepreneurs to help them market their business effectively.