As a creative, self-driven, & visionary Marketing Executive with more than 15 years of outstanding marketing experience & accomplishments within the Alcobev and Tobacco industries, Saquib Abdulla possesses a range of knowledge & competencies that have contributed towards the success & growth of companies and brands in India, Myanmar, & Vietnam.
Saquib’s expertise lies in successfully conceptualizing & implementing innovative marketing initiatives to drive market impact & expansion, through traditional marketing retail channels.
He possesses a deep understanding of product development/distribution, advertising, market research, & social media management. His proven success and talents in achieving corporate marketing objectives, along with strategy, branding, & customer analytics, positions him to make a significant impact on organizations.
Importance of Digital Marketing:
To summarize the importance of Digital Marketing, I believe in 5 key principles to be successful:
- Set Smart Goals
- Make goals measurable – identify specific targets that you can measure using a tool.
- When your results change, change your behaviour – if you constantly adapt based on the data, your results will improve.
- Experiment Boldly
- Don’t spend too much time thinking, use your time to try things out.
- Use the tools available online to get an understanding of whether or not you are right. Test your way to success!
- Understand People
- Platforms tend to change over time as new technology is adopted by people, however, the underlying human needs and behaviours tend to be the same.
- It is important to study how people behave. Understand how they think and why they do what they do. Then come up with an idea of how to help them meet their needs while doing what you want them to do.
- Analyse Data
- Spend time with data. This is where you will find answers. Nowadays, almost everything can be measured and analysed using funnels, flows and conversion points. This will give you an edge over your competitors.
- Iterate Constantly
- If you don’t change, your competition will either catch up or move ahead of you. The most exciting (and yet demoralizing) aspect of digital marketing is that you are never done. You might have the right idea for a while, but continue to change while you can afford it!
Which course of Digital Vidya did you participate in? How did it help you acquire new skills related to digital marketing?
Saquib Abdulla: I decided to take the Certified Digital Marketing Master (CDMM) Course after having had a brief understanding previously on the basic fundamentals of Digital Marketing.
Through the progress of the course and development of skills perspective, I was able understand that essentially the field of Digital Marketing is broadly splits into three areas: bought, owned and earned media.
- Owned is where all the content that your brand has complete control over, like your website, blogs, Email newsletters, and social channels.
- Bought includes Display Advertising and Search Engine Marketing (SEM).
- Earned includes Content Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Social Media.
Why did you choose Digital Vidya’s course?
Saquib Abdulla: While I was scouting for a comprehensive Digital Marketing course that could address most of the aspects that I wanted to consider in a course,
I found Digital Vidya’s course extremely elaborate and covering all bases that fulfilled my needs. The topics and intensity of the course from a time-bound perspective also helped in my decision to take up the course with Digital Vidya.
How has the course contributed in your career growth including new job opportunities?
Saquib Abdulla: The choice and decision of taking up a course on Digital Marketing was to enhance my personal and professional skills as well as enhance knowledge on a subject that will add to my repertoire. Success and opportunities will follow in due course.
Why do you think it’s important to learn Digital Marketing today?
Saquib Abdulla: In today’s world of modern technology, there is no denying the fact that internet marketing or digital marketing is on high demand. In just a short period of time, digital marketing has grown from a mere dubious trend to a significant influence and this is the future.
From a business or corporate perspective, Digital Marketing facilitates Interaction with Targeted Audiences. One reason why internet marketing is assuming control over conventional marketing channels is the capacity of Digital advertising methods to cooperate with target audiences and ensure result driven interactions within the assigned budgets.
Share about the benefits you can foresee about building a career in Digital Marketing industry.
Saquib Abdulla: For professionals, who are skilled in Digital Marketing, there is an ocean of opportunities out there. The world is moving to a Digital landscape and information is at finger tips because of the time consumers spend on their gadgets and search engines.
Digital Marketing has become crucial as it aids in improving businesses, decision making, providing edge over the competitors and most importantly targeting consumers. There is an apparent surge for professionals due to the increased number of organizations seeking Digital Marketers and thereby looking for professionals.
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?
Saquib Abdulla: Everything within the Digital marketing channels landscape is undergoing a paradigm shift. I personally consider the following trends catching pace in quick time.
- Robots & Automation
Stay updated using sources like Techcrunch, Mashable, Moz.com and other online marketing news.
- Apps vs. Web
Some people suspect that apps will take over more and more, while others think that they will disappear as the web adds functionality. I believe both will be a part of our future with different purposes.
- Data, data, data
There is so much data available online today. It is generally free and publicly available for anyone to use. I see a big shift from brand to utility purpose when making a purchase decision and it is important to be more than just a physical product in the future.
- Chatbots
Chatbots are an important digital marketing trend in 2018. This AI-based technology uses an instant messaging format to chat in real-time, day or night, with your customers or site visitors, and many businesses are already using this feature.
Over and above these, various blogs and websites of Moz, Kissmetrics and Marketing Land provide insights into the future of Digital Marketing.
Which are your favorite 3 digital media channels (e.g. Twitter, Google etc) and why?
Saquib Abdulla: This question is difficult to answer as it depends on which marketing activity within the framework provides results which is again dependent on the budget you have. Ideally, a digital marketing manager should have 2 or 3 or at times all channels at their disposal.
Personally, Social Media is gaining steam across all business owners as it is free to use and free to set up a company page on Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Focus on what works and keep an open mind.
Which are your 3 favorite Digital Marketing Tools?
Saquib Abdulla:
- MailChimp is an absolute giant within the email marketing space. The beauty of MailChimp is the platform’s usability and price tag based on the size of your email list. If you’re new to digital marketing tools or email in general, MailChimp represents a great starting point.
- I have great love and passion for Google Analytics as a website analytics tool. Google has advanced analytics that shed light on a variety of your website information, including who your visitors are, how they make their way through your sales funnel and what they do on your website in real-time.
- Canva, a web-based design tool helps to create unique images to share on blogs, social networks and beyond. You can use Canva to create completely unique images from scratch or to polish up some photos that you already have on hand.
Share the names of 3 people you respect when it comes to Digital Marketing.
Saquib Abdulla:
- Top of mind is Neil Patel, founder of KISSmetrics is one of the best digital marketers or at least, one of the best at explaining the concepts and principles of digital marketing in an understandable, actionable way through his blogs on Quicksprout.
- Rand Fishkin, founder and CEO of MOZ is another who is One of the top experts in SEO, and the best at explaining the more technical elements in a digestible, commonsense way.
- Justin Cutroni has worked with some of the biggest international brand names in the world to help them understand how they are able to leverage online data and digital analytics to enhance their business.
What is your advice to newbies who want to build career in Digital Marketing?
Saquib Abdulla: Mastering or acquiring Digital Marketing Skills requires a lot of passion as business decisions in today’s world are dependent on the accuracy of the information and data shared or presented. Perseverance is extremely important should you want to build a career in Digital Marketing.
What are the challenges a person is likely to face when s/he enters into Digital Marketing industry? How can s/he overcome those?
Saquib Abdulla: I started from scratch – ground zero and it all looked challenging but within 6 months I can comfortably say that it is all about putting your mind behind Digital Marketing.
What I quickly realized through my learning was that the key challenges within this framework is about generating traffics and leads within the budgets thereby proving ROI for the marketing activities. It is all about testing concepts all the time until one succeeds and creating top quality content that engages the audience is the key to success.
Managing a website is another challenge as this is your asset that works around the clock to draw in visitors, convert them, and help you hit your goals. You can overcome this if you address the most critical elements of your website performance and design, from average load time and website security to mobile friendliness and SEO.
For someone who’s looking at full time or part time job or an internship in Digital Marketing, what approach would you advice?
Saquib Abdulla: Be open to embrace change, as technology is forcing its way into our daily lives as digital marketing in today’s business landscape is more powerful than ever before and not just a concept.
Digital media especially Social media channels such as Facebook can eat up a lot of your productive time if not used wisely. Do you agree? What all can one do to efficiently leverage these channels for personal growth?
Saquib Abdulla: Personally, I admit Facebook or other social media channels can be or are addictive.
Facebook isn’t real or productive, as it doesn’t really ‘bring people together’ in any traditional sense but drives them apart.
To me, a real ‘social network’ wouldn’t be virtual. It would involve real people, meeting in real, tangible or outdoor place, where we can have food, drinks and conversation as it enables a personal touch and connection.
However, to build your own personal brand through these channels, it is important to find the right group of people within your area of expertise. It is equally important for one to maintain your image consistently through constant engagement and diversified contents by following relevant influencers.
If you were given a chance to rebuild your career, what changes you would have made to have even better growth and fulfillment?
Saquib Abdulla: Eagerness to learn, Staying updated, Networking, Setting Personal Projects and Building my Personal Brand would be the key to growth and fulfilment.
How do you see Digital Media evolving in future?
Saquib Abdulla: Mobile has been a massive trend in marketing for years now, as it makes up over half of web traffic. With the amount of data now available at fingertips but I do foresee Social Media alongside mobile apps and web playing an important role however Personalisation is key.
Artificial Intelligence has been a hot topic of late but going into the future, Marketers are expected to take full control of the customer experience in the coming years.
Would you like to share few words about the work we are doing at Digital Vidya in educating others about Digital Marketing?
Saquib Abdulla:
I am extremely proud to have been a part of this journey with Digital Vidya. It took me less than 24 hours to be convinced on taking up this course with them given the fact that I reside outside India.
Having been the pioneers in this domain, Digital Vidya’s CDMM course delivers the proven frameworks and foundational tools that is required to design, implement, and manage a successful digital marketing strategy to help achieve business objectives. From day one, you will engage in hands-on exercises that help you build buyer and influencer personas, capture and measure critical data, communicate more effectively, and drive deeper customer loyalty and market share.
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 :).
Now a days Digital Marketing Is the key to success and it is making bigger impact as compared to other old ways.And I think if you are skilled with Digital Marketing techniques then no one can judge you.