An Interview With – Prashant Kumar Pracheta, Head of Analytics, CarDekho

 Prashant Kumar Pracheta is a seasoned, creative, strategic and passionate Web/Digital Analytics Expert with 10 years experience in Web/Digital Analytics, Online Advertising, Search Engine Marketing, & SEO with reputed organizations.

• Expertise in Digital Analytics (Adobe Site catalyst, WebTrends, Unica NetInsight, Google Analytics, ClickTale, Unica Campaign, ChartBeat, KissMetrics & MixPanel)
• Vast expertise in online marketing extending across many industries
• Strategic, analytical achiever and visionary
• Experience succeeding in both small and large teams
• Solid technical skills, and strong verbal and written communication skills

Web Analytics, Adobe Site Catalyst, WebTrends Radian6, Google Analytics, SEO, SEM, PPC, SMO, Email Marketing, Keyword Research, Link building, AdWords Campaign, Project Management, Team Management, SEO Trainer, Google Analytics Trainer, CRM Analytics, SQL Analytics

How did you get into Digital Marketing? What interested you in learning Digital Marketing?

Prashant: After completing B.Tech in Computer Science from R.B.S. College Agra affiliated to U.P. Technical University, Lucknow in 2005, I came to Delhi and started finding job in Software Development. Frankly speaking, that time I have never heard about SEO, SEM or Digital Marketing. I struggled a lot for getting my first job. One day, I got an interview call from a company and I was selected for the job. But I did not know what would be my profile. Then I thought something is better than nothing. I accepted the job offer and started as Jr. SEO Executive. Slowly I started liking on what I was working. During that time, Digital Marketing was very in new India and I was doing something different compared to my other college mates.

This way I started my career into Digital Marketing. I am very good with numbers and telling stories with numbers. So I started focusing more on Digital Analytics along with Digital Marketing.

According to you, what are the advantages of conventional marketing over Digital Marketing? Do you think that Digital Marketing is a threat to the future of conventional marketing?

Prashant: The most important advantage of Digital Marketing is whatever we do is based on data while in conventional marketing, everything is based on hypothesis or assumptions.

In Digital Marketing, we can measure everything instantly. For example, we ran a campaign on Facebook and how many sales is happening through this campaign. This way we could see exact ROI.

In conventional Marketing, We need to wait a lot to see results. It is also quite difficult to measure ROI correctly. If we are spending money for a TV ad then it is quite hard to find exact sales happening only through this TV ad.

But conventional marketing has better reach compared to digital marketing.

Yes, Digital Marketing could be a threat to Conventional marketing in future. As we all know that smartphone usage is increasing year by year. Companies are creating video ads but launching it on YouTube or on other video streaming sites. In last few years, I have noticed that companies have cut down their conventional marketing budget.

Share about your 3 favorite Digital Marketing case studies. What did you like most about them?

Prashant: Digital Marketing is in evolution stage. So there are no certain standards and best practices. Digital Marketing is all about learning and adopting new innovations. Below are few case studies which inspired me learning more about Digital Marketing:

• Dell selling laptops via Twitter : (Refer: http://mashable.com/2009/12/08/dell-twitter-sales/)

According to you, what are the top 3 mistakes committed by organizations today in leveraging Digital Marketing?

Prashant:

Not Learning & Adopting New Innovations

Digital Marketing is evolving every day. Sometimes, we only focused on running Digital Marketing Campaigns and optimizing them. But we need to find time to learn new things happening around Digital Marketing and start leveraging them so that we could become industry leader in that segment.

Data, Data & Data

I have noticed this problem in many organizations. They are spending a lot of money in digital marketing and generating revenue. But sometimes, they forgot to analyze the results. There is always a lot of data around Digital Marketing. But the main point is to how we could use this data and analyze it and bring some insights, trends which could be very useful from business point of view.

Measurement Strategies

Digital Marketing is main advantage is that everything is measurable. But most of the time we forgot about measurement techniques and just focus on running campaigns.

Between Agency and In-house, which approach would you recommend for maximum value of Digital Marketing? Why?

Prashant: For Maximum output, I would always recommend to have in-house digital marketing team. Though sometimes it depends on business objectives and execution timeline.

Which are your 3 favorite Digital Marketing Tools?

Prashant: During my 10 years of experience, I have almost worked in each tool which is available in the market. But I would recommend to focus on basis and fundamentals and learning abilities. Learning a tool is just a matter of time.

There are a variety of tools available in market and each has its USP.

• Google Analytics (Free and easy to use)
• Apsalar or Appsflyer for effective measure of app downloads

Why do you think it’s important for entrepreneurs, marketing professionals and students to learn Digital Marketing today?

Prashant: 

• For Entrepreneurs: To get maximum ROI and instant results. Sometimes it also helps to verify things which have been done by their teams.
• For Professionals: As smartphone usage is increasing, Digital Marketing would become game changer. To become expert or industry leader, they need to learn what is hot in the market.
• For Students: I would not say that student should learn about this. But as they are using social media a lot these days. They should know how social media can be a useful tool.

What are the top 3-5 skills you look for when hiring a candidate for Digital Marketing profile?

Prashant: 

• Ability to learn and new innovations
• Strong analytical skills.
• Knowledge about how digital marketing works and how it is evolving with time.
• It would be good if has worked on any of the digital marketing tools.

What is your advice for newbies, who are looking at building a career in Digital Marketing industry?

Prashant: Digital Marketing has been a hot profile in last 2 years. Smartphone usage is increasing in India very fast. My advice would be to become active and learn about digital marketing and most important learn more about its history.

How do you stay updated on the latest trends in Digital Marketing? Which are the Digital Marketing resources (i.e. blogs/websites/apps) you visit regularly?

Prashant: SearchEngineLand, SearchEngineJournal, Kaushik.net & Google Blogs.

Share the names of 3 people you respect when it comes to Digital Marketing.

Prashant: 

• Avinash Kaushik (Analytics Guru)
• Matt Cutts (SEO, Google)

How do you see Digital Media evolving in future? What are the top 3 trends do you foresee for 2016?

Prashant: 

Native APPs would be game changes in 2016. The main advantage is to send push notifications as per user behavior and retain them.

Increase in sales for smartphones compared to desktops.

User Touch Points (Sometimes, we sent too many communications to same users i.e. sms, email, mobile notifications for the same things). This becomes annoying for the users. So now companies are focusing to have a robust communication strategies. Ideally the user should receive only 1 type of communication in which he/she is more comfortable with.

Would you like to share few words about the work we are doing at Digital Vidya?

Prashant: 

You are doing a wonderful job. When I started job in Digital Marketing, I did not know what I was going to do. But you are educating about Digital Marketing and its importance.

Are you inspired by the opportunity of Digital Marketing? Start your journey by attending our upcoming orientation session on Digital Marketing for Career & Business Growth. It’s online and Free :).