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Interview with Kamaljit Saini, Head – Digital Marketing, Puretech Digital

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Kamaljit-saini

Kamaljit Saini has been a part of this industry since 2002 where he started his Digital journey as a Web Designer cum Developer for initial couple of years and then got pulled into the marketing side of it. 

Early 2004, is when Kamaljit started his Digital Marketing career with a step into Search Marketing at Puretech Digital, an agency based out of Mumbai. In an environment where things were still evolving, it allowed me to be a part of the entire cycle of evolution of Digital Marketing. As I gained experience, I started getting into other aspects of Digital Marketing like Social, Content Marketing, Online Media Buying, ORM and all tied up with Data and Analytics to eventually prove to our clients that we made a difference in their value chain.

Some of the key projects Kamaljit has worked on were for:

  • A Leading Private Sector Bank in India
  • One of the biggest IT company in India
  • An Indian Car Manufacturer
  • One of the Top 4 Business Consulting Companies globally

In my current role, I am supported by a team of Digital Enthusiasts to manage our premium client tele, ensuring that our services have an impact on their bottom line. We as an agency are known for our expertise to handle performance based Digital Marketing Campaigns which always ensure that our team is always ahead of the curve and keep us on our toes. My Key Responsibilities areas are:

  • Digital Marketing
  • Relationship Management
  • Business Development –Client Acquisition
  • High impact KeyProjects’Management
How did you get into Digital Marketing? What interested you in learning Digital Marketing?

Kamaljit: From a Web Designer to a Marketer was a natural progression for me. Most of us always think of “What’s Next” and the same question led me to the point where I started thinking of What’s Next after having an Online Identity.

I could have continued with Web Designing but Marketing side of it I found more exciting. Digital Marketing has its own pull towards it. Data point and associated statistics make it more interesting. It allows you to make Data Driven business decisions with minimum reliance on assumptions and surveys. Experiential Marketing is the next step we all are moving into, which brings us much closer to our prospects and customers/users. What else can excite you more than being engaged with your customers almost at a real time? Digital World allows you to do so.

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?

Kamaljit: The real advantage Digital Marketing is the reality of this virtual world. And reality lies in the numbers that one can cull out at any point of time during or after the campaign execution.Other platforms have their limitation in making such real time and data-driven business decisions. E.g.  Brand can judge a person basis how he or she is interacting and looking at theirDigital Assets.While it lacks Human interaction but Automation and Machine Intelligence close the loop here.

Conventional Marketing relies more on Human interaction to close the entire loop, a loop which starts from Product/Service conceptualization. Digital is still not a threat to Conventional media as both have their pros and cons. Offsetting Conventional with Digital is definitely not going to happen anytime soon. Success of One Medium compliments another.

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

Kamaljit: 

  • Leading UK based Eye Clinic chain with presence in multiple cities, Online presence was primarily dominated by their Brand name. Enhanced their web presence to increase their share of customers acquisition through digital channels almost by 10 folds.
  • Digital Played a critical role during the re-branding of the 3rd largest Private Sector bank few years back. While ATL activities dominated the offline presence, effective Digital reach added great value in establishing a better brand recall with numbers that could back all the claims. 
  • Largest Holiday- maker with limited digital presence and heavy reliance on their offline team to acquire more business, was an interesting project to take up. We helped in enhancing their Digital Assets to be effectively used for Digital Consumption.Ensuring the profitability through the Digitally-Acquired Customers was a big challenge to begin with and at the same time convincing management to diversify into Digital Channels was the most interesting and fruitful part of this assignment. 
    According to you, what are the top 3 mistakes committed by organizations today in leveraging Digital Marketing?

    Kamaljit: 

    • Not giving enough time and optimum funds to let a particular platform to provide you with desired outcome. 
    • Expecting all digital platforms to fill the sales team with leads. All channels won’t behave and provide similar business outcome. Associating all marketing related initiatives to have an impact on the bottom line limits the innovation one can bring in the entire campaign. 
    • Mainstream Media Marketing team making decisions for Digital initiatives and activation. It’s important to have it run as a separate operation than mixing it with traditional marketing generally makes it difficult to have an effective outcome. Also running both these operations in silos limits their individual reach.
    Between Agency and In-house, which approach would you recommend for maximum value of Digital Marketing? Why?

    Kamaljit: There’s no definite success formula. If Digital is core the business, it makes sense to have it in-house as it allows more control over digital activation than having it outsourced. However, it’s more of a business call. If Digital Marketing significantly influences the bottom line of a business, it’s imperative that we have it in-house.

    Which are your 3 favorite Digital Marketing Tools?

    Kamaljit: 

    • Google Analytics in-spite of it being freely available, gives you enough data points to rely on and make your business decision on
    • HootSuite which allows you have a Matrix style overview of your Social Presence and Brand Value in real time
    • Dashboard tools like Tableau which allows you have a Hawk-eye view of almost all digital marketing campaigns with real-time updates
    Why do you think it’s important for entrepreneurs, marketing professionals and students to learn Digital Marketing today?

    Kamaljit: 

    • For Entrepreneurs: Understanding of a channel that has so much influence on a consumer mind and especially which can change one’s perception about your brand can not be ignored. Hence for Entrepreneurs, it’s important they understand how Marketing on Digital Channels can add value to their business.
    •  For Professionals: Expertise in Digital Marketing would allow professionals to figure out what works better. Marrying two mediums, going with one or allocating budgets for high value-high return platforms can only possible when one is aware of the benefits of each. Innovation is possible when you know what all options are available to explore and what you can expect.
    • For Students: Access to Digital Marketing knowledgebase will allow them to widen the spectrum of Marketing. 
    What are the top 3-5 skills you look for when hiring a candidate for Digital Marketing profile?

    Kamaljit: 

    • Enthusiasm to learn new things
    • Keen interest in technology and Marketing innovation
    • Communication skills to talk to audience who’s not in front of you most of the time
    • Specialized skillset e.g. SEO, PPC, Social Media etc.
    • How creative one can be under pressure and persuasion skills if your point is valid
    What is your advice for newbies, who are looking at building a career in Digital Marketing industry?

    Kamaljit: 

    • Flexible and quick to adapt to changes
    • Be specialized in one service line than jack of all and master of none
    • Keep yourself updated all the time
    • Build and improve analytical thinking
    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?

    Kamaljit: Different sources for different mediums. Digital is so vast and so much happening every day, can’t rely on one particular source to get your “Food for Thought”.  Some of them are:

    • SearchEngineLand
    • ThinkwithGoogle
    • DMNews
    • Mashable
    • DigitalMarketing.Asia
    • DigitalTrends
    Share the names of 3 people you respect when it comes to Digital Marketing.

    Kamaljit: 

    • Avinash Kaushik
    • Neil Patel
    • Rand Fishkin
    How do you see Digital Media evolving in future? What are the top 3 trends do you foresee for 2016?

    Kamaljit: Digital Media is evolving where business decision are data driven. Big Data analytics is getting bigger especially in large organization whereDigital Information Consumption is more and their consumers have multiple touch-points. Experiential marketing especially driven by Virtual and Augmented Reality Solutions will take things to the next level.

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

    Kamaljit: 

    I think; having a panel which is experienced enough to share and impart knowledge about Digital Marketing is a great proposition by Digital Vidya. My best wishes to Digital Vidya team and continue with the great work.

    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.

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