Sanchit Malik is the Co-Founder of Townscript. Townscript is a leading self-serve event registration & ticketing management platform for event organisers based in Pune. They launched the platform 3 years back and now have been serving more than 2,700+ customers happily. Sanchit has been leading business development at Townscript. Digital Marketing or specifically Inbound Marketing has played a very important role in acquiring a lot of customers in 3 years. They are growing exponentially and digital marketing has been their secret sauce of success.
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?
Sanchit: I am assuming by conventional marketing you mean offline marketing channels like TV/ Newspaper etc?! Digital and conventional marketing channels are a part of Marketing. Marketing as a whole concept has evolved in last 2 decades. The share of digital marketing will definitely increase with time but it is unlikely to displace conventional marketing.
According to you, what are the top 3 mistakes committed by organizations today in leveraging Digital Marketing?
Sanchit :
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Many organizations don’t understand the fast changing environment of digital marketing. As an example google releases updates every year on their search algorithms. But it is surprising to see many people still using old black hat techniques which badly penalises them.
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Not having the marketers in the team: In order to do marketing of your product/service, you need to have a very clear understanding of your market. I am a firm believer in having in-house marketers in the team as they are only working on your project and will understand the market. Even if you have to hire a marketing agency to run campaigns for you, you need a person to coordinate with them and make them understand your needs.
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Not Understanding the power of good quality Content: On an abstract level, I believe marketing is educating your customers about your industry / product. Righting good quality content which educates your customers about your industry helps you build thought leadership in your industry and eventually helps you in acquiring number of customers. Still many organizations are not leveraging on that.
Between Agency and In-house, which approach would you recommend for maximum value of Digital Marketing? Why?
Sanchit : I will prefer keeping a mix of both or preferably a completely in-house. The reason being in order to do marketing for a business, you need to have a deep understanding of the market in which your business is operating in. We should have at least one or two marketers who understand the business really well and at least coordinate with the marketing agency you are planning to hire.
How do you ensure increasing Digital Marketing’s relevance and influence in the organization?
Sanchit : In our startup, everyone is a blogger. From myself to my colleague who writes software code, we all write blogs and share our journey with existing and potential customers on social media or via email. We have three blogs where we have developed a huge subscriber base.
Why do you think it’s important for entrepreneurs, marketing professionals and students to learn Digital Marketing today?
Sanchit:
- For Entrepreneurs: Founder is the first sales / marketing guy in any company. He needs to sell his product / service all the time. Marketing is the most important aspect of making a company successful. One of the Founders must have deep knowledge of marketing & sales
- For Professionals: A high proportion of people in India have an online presence. As of now, 18% of our current population uses Internet, the percentage must be very high in metros.There’s a huge opportunity for you to leverage on that. If you are a marketing professional and you are not leveraging on online marketing, then you are missing the bus.
- For Students: It’s a fast-growing industry in the world. You can make a great career out of it.
What are the top 3-5 skills you look for when hiring a candidate for Digital Marketing profile?
Sanchit: As we are a startup, there are pros and cons of working in a startup. Regarding skills, we generally look for a breadth of skills as being a small team we need someone who can manage end to end.
On a fundamental level, we definitely look for smart people who have great analytical skills and have great problem solving skills. Specifically in marketing, if the candidates have experience in content, good understanding of web analytics, SEO then they are the right hire for us.
What is your advice for newbies, who are looking at building a career in Digital Marketing industry?
Sanchit: First of all, you are entering in the right industry. This industry has a bright future. Whatever you learn, experiment it on your own site. Make your own blog and start writing posts from today itself. You learn marketing by doing it. Don’t shy away from spending Rs. 5,000 rupees in Google AdWords / Facebook Ads. If you are getting an opportunity to work in a company which gives you freedom to experiment and do the above join it.
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?
Sanchit: I am an avid reader of Moz Blog (bible for SEO). Neil Patel’s Blog (quicksprout), HubSpot blog, Search Engine Land, Occam Razor by Avinash Kaushik (for Web analytics) Growth Hackers & Digital Vidya’s blog.
Share the names of 3 people you respect when it comes to Digital Marketing.
Sanchit: Rand Fishkin (Founder of Moz), Neil Patel, and my friend Ravi Handa who runs a CAT Coaching course – I love the way he does marketing for his courses.
How do you see Digital Media evolving in future? What are the top 3 trends do you foresee for 2016?
Sanchit:
- Marketing revolves around content. Fundamentally, the context of the content will always remain same but the type of content might change.
- Video consumption of consumers is increasing with the increase in the speed of internet. Marketers need to leverage on that.
- Consumers in India are moving over mobile. Marketers need to be more mobile-centric in their efforts.
Would you like to share few words about the work we are doing at Digital Vidya?
Sanchit:
Digital Vidya has done a commendable job in digital marketing. I have heard very good words from fellow marketers about the courses and training programs by Digital Vidya. I wish you all the best in future!
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 :).
