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An Interview With Vikrrant Bhola – Senior Manager Digital Marketing, Iffco Tokio General Insurance

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Vikrrant bholaVikrrant Bhola started off his career with a company called GKB Carl Zeiss as a management trainee. Over the span of his career, he had the privilege to work in different industries with the opportunity to learn and nurture the skills of both offline and Online Marketing. Each role had been more senior than the previous one and came with increased responsibility in relation to business case benefits that had to be delivered.

He is a commerce graduate with PG diploma and MBA in Marketing. Currently working with Iffco Tokio General Insurance company as Senior Manager Digital Marketing and head the paid marketing for the organisation. He had the privilege of working on and understanding technology and digital marketing from early days of his career and could easily relate to it realizing this to be future of Marketing. In his current role, he is heading the Paid online marketing for Iffco Tokio General Insurance company. Digital is a very important part of current role as they run lot of online campaigns for Lead generation, Brand building, Remarketing, Display and tracking of all campaigns on real-time basis for future planning.

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

Vikrrant:  I had the privilege to be part of the industry from the early stages of my career itself. What attracted me the most is kind of reach you can have through your campaign with real time tracking of its performance. The best part of industry is that it’s still evolving everyday with new technology tools available for the Marketer to run more segmented campaigns and also with increasing Internet penetration, the distance between Urban- rural consumer and seller will be further reduced.

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?

Vikrrant:  Well, in today’s eco system I would not say conventional marketing has advantage over Digital Marketing rather they have become two sides of same coin which support each other to have mass reach for your product and service. There are still many companies who view digital marketing as something new and risky rather than working on integrated cross-channel marketing campaigns. I would not say thread but definitely Digital Marketing has advantages over traditional marketing as it’s more cost effective, has more reach, gives you rich data which can be used further for the Exact Targeting for future campaigns.

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

Vikrrant:  There are lots of case studies available in market but I am not a fan of case studies. I believe every situation itself is a case study where in by applying your mind you can get desire output which will be case study for you. Also in my view it’s always better to have a practical approach rather than depending on theory.

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

Vikrrant:  

  1. Start Now: My advice to all the organizations is to start getting into digital Marketing as soon as possible as this being the immediate future. If you don’t be the first one to cash on it, surely your competitor will take you over by surprise and grab your pie of customers.
  2. Keep experimenting: Digital is all about innovation and trying different combinations and channels to promote your product and services. Campaigns which work for one particular brand might not work for you. Similarly, the channel which elevated your brand might not kick off well for other brands. So don’t stop and keep looking for that right combination.
  3. Avoiding omni-channel Approach: In today’s scenario one size fits all don’t work in digital. Consumers are switching over from one device to another every now and then, expanding the use of multiple devices simultaneously. Your campaign needs to adapt to this user behaviour while delivering the same user experience to all devices, which is a point largely missed out by most companies.
Between Agencies and In-house, which approach would you recommend for maximum value of Digital Marketing? Why?

Vikrrant: It is still debatable whether to go for In house or have agencies. In my opinion, it depends on several factors like: what industry you belong to, how big numbers of your daily transaction is, how extensively you are planning your campaign and whether you need to analyze and make amendments to your campaign real time. Building in house team requires man power, Infrastructure and Technology which not only requires a massive cost but also require time and persistency as initially it will be a big decision which may not find approver in organization.

While on the other side whatever is your company size there are best of agency available in Industry  which you can hire and judge them basis your business objective. So if your nature of business is such that you don’t require extensive business research and campaign it’s better to have outsourced agency to save on overheads while having in house team will always be temptation.

Which are your 3 favorite Digital Marketing Tools?

Vikrrant: There are many interesting paid and non paid Digital tool available into the market but if I have to name top 3 basis my current profile and usage that would be:

  1. Google Analytics
  2. Oracle Eloqua
  3. Google Adwords
Why do you think it’s important for entrepreneurs, marketing professionals and students to learn Digital Marketing today?

Vikrrant:  

  • For Entrepreneurs: Well in today’s world as entrepreneur you would want to grow your business and reach to maximum number of customers. Digital Marketing gives you that power to reach customers beyond your geography probably in their local language and market your product and services. So it’s become essential for all entrepreneurs to be well verse with Digital Marketing.
  • For Professionals: In today’s dynamic environment any marketing strategy is incomplete if it’s without digital. So as marketing professional if you don’t have knowledge about how to mix digital in your overall marketing plan you will not have plan to capture the audience which is tech-savvy and available on Internet.
  • For Students: We all know that digital is the future of marketing. As we progress further you will see more and more small and large company having their digital vertical which will require trained Industry professional. This means not only digital budget will increase industry will also have more job opportunity for aspiring candidates to have wide variety of profile in digital industry. Another advantage of being Digital savvy is you can also work as Independent or Freelancer and can work on a variety of project.
What are the top 3-5 skills you look for when hiring a candidate for Digital Marketing profile?

Vikrrant:  

  1. Communication Skills
  2. Eagerness to learn
  3. Positive attitude
  4. Teamwork Skills
  5. Adaptable to change
  6. Industry Knowledge
What is your advice for newbies, who are looking at building a career in Digital Marketing industry?

Vikrrant:  As we move forward digital marketing industry will expand and so do digital budgets are expected to increase which is good sign for all those hoping to get into the industry. You can either land yourself to individual or team based role in digital agency or organisation having digital vertical. Laying down some of the top tips for aspiring digital marketers.

Get Hands-On Marketing Experience, Know the industry Jargon, Know latest industry news, Get Technical knowledge and Attend Industry conferences for networking opportunity.

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?

Vikrrant:  

  • Search Engine Land
  • Search Engine Journal
  • Google news
  • LinkedIn
Share the names of 3 people you respect when it comes to Digital Marketing.

Vikrrant:  

  1. Larry Page and Sergey Brin for giving us God of Internet- Google
  2. Mark Zuckerberg for giving us reach via – Facebook
  3. Steve Jobs for – Apple which has taught us to think out of box
How do you see Digital Media evolving in future? What are the top 3 trends do you foresee for 2016?

Vikrrant:  Here are the top 3 trends that I think are going to have the impact on the Digital marketing for 2016:

  • Mobile First: As we move in 2016 Mobile will be first priority for any brand when they think about reaching their end consumers. Consumers are switching from one screen to another  almost real time and this will be trend changer with all primary marketing happening around Mobile. We will see focus shifting on smaller screens with brands reaching out to their customers in more personalized manner through leveraging the power of mobile.
  • Video content: As we move forward lot of content will be consumed by user via video and in their local language which will surely rule the roost in the online marketing world.
  • User content review: Any brand content having genuine user review will have more reach then branded content. From online reviews, to social media posts and blogs, the need of genuine user review will rise and will also keep brand on their toes to create positive impact about their product among the consumers.
Would you like to share few words about the work we are doing at Digital Vidya?

Vikrrant:  

I think you guys are doing good job. As industry expends there will be need of more digital professionals having sound industry knowledge and here comes the role of Digital Vidya to train the future digital leaders. Wish you best of luck for future and keep doing good work for Industry.

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 :).

Avatar of jasleen kaur
Jasleen Kaur
[Sr. Associate - Content Marketing] A content passionate, Jasleen handles content writing & marketing activities. Also, she leads Digital Marketing Internship Program. She is in the content writing and marketing fraternity for 10+ years now & is proficient in writing content for blogs, articles, books, brochures and social media. She embraces practical knowledge of WordPress CMS.

2 thoughts on “An Interview With Vikrrant Bhola – Senior Manager Digital Marketing, Iffco Tokio General Insurance”

  1. Avatar of virender rajput
    Virender Rajput

    Nice write up. Thanks for sharing with us. Yess,, Digital Marketer’s future is bright if you know how to handle campaigns. I am also a Digital Marketing Analyst from last 3 Years, and I enjoy my field. It’s challenging field and you need to update always. Thanks for sharing this awesome article with us. It will help to Freshers as well as professionals. Take care.

  2. Thanks Vikrrant for your contribution to our community through this interview. Really happy to know your feedback about the work we are doing in spreading digital (marketing) vidya :).

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