Pradeep Chopra, Co-Founder at Digital Vidya: Digital Marketing has already reached the next level where it has become a necessity or every business. One of the main reasons that increased the importance of Digital Marketing is the Technological Revolution and its dynamic nature. With an aim to expand online, businesses have taken Digital Marketing too seriously. This has led to an increased demand for Digital Marketing professionals. So, Digital Marketing has given businesses and even individuals a growth path.
In this interview, I spoke to Diptarup Chakraborti, to know his views about Digital Marketing and how does he see the rise of Digital Marketing in future.
Diptarup Chakraborti currently heads the global marketing functions at Zycus which is a Global Leader in Procurement Solutions with 1200 employees and the revenue size of approximately $80 million. He has around 19+ experience with IT majors like IBM, Gartner, Capgemini & Mastek.
With expertise in Digital Marketing, Diptarup has successfully deployed a full-stack marketing platform and introduced new digital and social marketing metrics to track and measure the performance of marketing programmes.
What is the importance of Digital Marketing in your current profile?
Diptarup Chakraborti: We are a B2B Technology company so Digital Marketing is a very crucial component of our regular work. A major proportion of our budget goes into Digital Marketing. So, if I’m asked what does Digital Marketing do for me? Almost everything except for marketing events, everything that we do is some or the other way related to 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?
Diptarup Chakraborti: Advantages can be clearly defined when we talk about micro-target audience where with the use of Digital Marketing, the wastage can be reduced. At the same time, the problem that has happened in the non-digital space is that is has become highly cluttered and there is an overload of information. Recently, the same has been happening in the Digital space. So, the advantages have been minimized.
In the future, where Digital will only be the way to go & print or non-digital will eventually die. Well, you know today everything is in a way digital right. For example, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, mostly all the content that we consume is mostly on the digital platform. So, I would like that to say that Digital already has taken over everything. It is just that we don’t realise it as yet. If we today watch a TV program, there are chances that it is already in the Digital Medium.
Share your favourite Digital Marketing case study. What did you like most about them?
Diptarup Chakraborti: One of my favourite case studies is when we penetrated the South East Asia market. So, while doing that we had a properly formulated plan.
We began with creating the database, then went to designing the email marketing program. Then we had a lead nurturing program, content marketing based program. We also participated in the event and created high-value direct marketing exercise. So, the entire team was integrated into a time span of a year and that resulted in us successfully entering this market.
According to you, what are the top 3 mistakes committed by organizations today in leveraging Digital Marketing?
Diptarup Chakraborti: The first mistake is that they don’t have patience. They feel that with Digital means, they will get the returns immediately. It is not so. Just like any other marketing activity, Digital Marketing also takes some time to build and showcase its presence.
The second mistake is that measurement. There is a saying that what can be measured can be managed. Marketers do not measure enough. They do not measure enough mid-crisis and hence lots of money invested in Digital Marketing gets wasted.
The third mistake is the lack of management. This means that when they get the data, we tend to get the easy way out by only working on what is before us. Marketers do not experiment and explore.
Between Agency and In-house, which approach would you recommend for a maximum value of Digital Marketing? Why?
Diptarup Chakraborti: There is no hard and fast rule. There is no one side that fixes everything. For some cases, the agencies work and what happens is that if you in an organization which has a longer turn around time, then agencies will work better than in-house. But for a small organization, where the turn around time is faster and you need to work faster, then there arises a need to work with in-house people. But then again it would say that one side does not compliment the requirements of everyone.
How do you ensure increasing Digital Marketing’s relevance and influence in the organization?
Diptarup Chakraborti: Well, a few things to showcase are the data, success, relevance and how did Digital Marketing work for you in achieving the desired results.
Digital Marketing allows you to have multiple metrics and these metrics can be measured and you can show through them that about the things that are working for you and the things which are not.
Which are your 3 favourite Digital Marketing platforms?
Diptarup Chakraborti: Email Marketing, Content Marketing & Webinars.
Why do you think it’s important for entrepreneurs, marketing professionals and students to learn Digital Marketing today?
Diptarup Chakraborti: Well, Digital Marketing is not free nor it is inexpensive. Just like non-digital is also expensive. It takes a lot of effort to be successful. One of the major reasons to learn digital marketing is that 20 years back marketers did not have a measurable index to track what was measuring and what was not. The only way to measure was sales, precisely increasing sales. But the practical aspect of what was working and what wasn’t was difficult to gauge. Digital Marketing has overcome this problem. You can manage and measure everything that you do. Everything has an ROI.
Digital Marketing is becoming more and more technologically enabled and evolving at regular intervals. Thus, if you are not learning and using Digital Marketing for career growth or business expansion, you are taking the risk of getting abandoned.
Thus, it is important for entrepreneurs, marketing professionals and students to learn Digital Marketing today to keep pace with the industry.
What are the top 3-5 skills you look for when hiring a candidate for Digital Marketing profile?
Diptarup Chakraborti:
1. Comfortable with numbers
2. Willing to explore and experiment
3. Able to pick up the foundations of the tools that are used
4. Strong Marketer and should have a thorough knowledge of the target audience
5. Able to create company messages & communication
What is your advice for newbies, who are looking at building a career in the Digital Marketing industry?
Diptarup Chakraborti: My only advice to the newbies would be to get comfortable with numbers, technology, its adoption and application.
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?
Diptarup Chakraborti: I regularly visit Marketing Profs as it kinds of gives me an idea of what is happening in the Digital Marketing domain. The only way to become proficient in this field is to read. Everything changes on a daily basis in this area so it is better to keep yourself updated through regular and constant reading.
You led the webinar ‘Emerging Trends in Marketing-Role of AI & Data Science”. How was your experience in leading the webinar?
Diptarup Chakraborti: It was a good session. I was asked a few questions. Hopefully, they were optimally answered. The attendee ratio was also quite good which felt wonderful.
Please share top 3-5 takeaways from the Webinar you led for our community.
Diptarup Chakraborti:
1. Artificial Intelligence in marketing is going to become omnipresent.
2. People are keen to know about Emerging Trends in Marketing as the attendance was pretty strong.
3. Digital Marketing is that area which incorporates the involvement of even higher management as I got a few questions from senior professionals as well.
Would you like to share a few words about the work we are doing at Digital Vidya?
Diptarup Chakraborti: Digital Vidya is at the forefront of Digital Marketing training. It is not only imparting knowledge of basic concepts like Email Marketing, SEO, SEM etc but they are going into advanced modules like Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. So, this seems a good area where they are focusing on and not only that Digital Vidya is training people from basic to advanced level.
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 :).
