Today, digital marketing is hugely responsible for crafting a brand’s image, and not just crafting the image but also digital marketing helps a great deal in creating brand recall, building connect and engage with the audience and also to get direct feedback. In such times, those who know the trick are valued the most. One such digital genie is Puneet Tandon- Digital Strategy Lead, COCO by DHFL General Insurance.
Intrigued by the ever-evolving face of digital media, Puneet realized early in his life that digital was the future of marketing and he wanted to make a career out of the same. Let us see what the man has to share about his journey
What made you choose this industry?
I happened to enter the digital marketing space by chance. After graduating from my B-School, I joined an e-commerce brand as a category manager. While working there, I heard about agencies that were focusing only on digital and social media marketing in contrast to traditional creative / ad agencies. I was intrigued by how digital marketing was evolving and changing the way global brands marketed themselves and were spending their advertising budgets more effectively. I was a very active person on social media and was very comfortable with the existing platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. So, I started interacting with Digital Marketing professionals and agency founders who were already managing digital marketing for brands. The more I discovered, the more I was fascinated by how digital marketing was a combination of both creative and number driven deliverables that could be altered in real-time to optimise the results. I realized this was going to be the future of marketing and decided to try my hand there.
What’s your idea of an ideal campaign?
For me, an ideal campaign must have a few elements right which include – a simple messaging, a delightful edge, by leveraging the power of right platforms effectively, that makes an impact in the (potential) customers’ mind; and an evolution path. The final success criteria are that the campaign must deliver on the preset business objectives.
I am a proponent of simple messaging. With our lifestyles getting faster, our attention spans getting shorter and time being shared between multiple screens & media, it is imperative to grab the attention of the customer in as short time as possible. And simple communication makes it more likely to do that.
While communication is the hook to get attention, reaching out to the TG on relevant platforms is even more important. The trick is to spend media wisely on platforms that matter for the brand in question.
Lastly, the campaigns that are structured in phases and evolve over time are analogous to storytelling. People like stories – whether you are trying to make them aware of your brand, increase consideration or are trying to drive sales. The best campaigns are the ones that evolve over the duration of campaign so exposed customers can live through the campaign story.
What kind of strategies you think brands should plan to make sure that the content reaches maximum audience?
In my opinion, effectively reaching out to your focused TG is more important than reaching out to the maximum number of people. With that metric in mind, the strategy can be created, and it will differ from industry-to-industry and brand-to-brand (depending on where in the lifecycle is the brand in). Here are a few elements that can be helpful in making an effective strategy:
- Choose the right platforms– As I stressed earlier, this is one of the most important elements. A blanket approach does not work. Choosing the right platform requires a deep understanding of the behaviour and interests of your TG. You need to know what type of content they consume, how do they behave online and where do they hang-out (on digital, of course). If you are selling car insurance, you need to be present on publishers that car buyers / car owners visit frequently. For this brand, choosing to be present on a very popular publishing portal that posts generic content for millennials might show great number of ‘views’ but the number of potential buyers reached might be miniscule. So, instead of chasing huge numbers that might not convert into customers, it is important to chase focused audiences that have a higher chance of converting.
- Evolve & Adapt– User behaviour on digital is changing at a very high pace and it is imperative for marketers to keep up with it. With new platform changes, algorithm updates and unique advertising avenues coming in, some strategies are becoming obsolete, while new opportunities are being created. Users are behaving differently on digital media as compared to how they were a couple of years back when limited number of advertisers were reaching out to them. Technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are evolving faster than ever giving access to data like never before. That calls for marketing strategies to adapt and evolve simultaneously.
- Allocate Media Budgets wisely – The big differentiator between digital marketing and traditional marketing was that the former allowed more targeted outreach, hence delivering more bang-for-buck. While making strategy for your brand, it is important to keep the clear objective in mind and allocate budgets to avenues that are most likely to deliver on your objectives. However, it is also crucial to keep some budget aside for experimental avenues apart from the tried and tested ones because these experimental avenues are the ones that will have lesser number of brands fighting for inventory and you might just hit a sweet spot.
- Collaborate with other content creators with higher reach – A lot of times, you can identify some publishers with more clout that have an existing audience that is your potential customers. These publishers could be creating any form of content including – articles, video, images, microtales or even memes. If you can find a strategic partnership with such publishers, it will help you reach your audience in an easier, native and a more trustworthy way.
- Influencers – Influencer marketing will continue to be important. With recent crack-down on fake influencers by Twitter and Instagram, the industry will become more transparent and real influencers will stand-out. If a brand wishes to involve Influencer Marketing in their strategy, they have to do more than a burst and then a silent phase. These associations have to be from a longer perspective where influencers do not come across as “The brand paid for this one post”, but rather come across as ambassadors of the particular product so a relationship with influencer is established and trust among potential customers is established too.
One upcoming trend you want to latch on to?
I am very excited about the possibilities interactive streaming content is bringing (for instance – Black Mirror: Bandersnatch). Beyond being a unique format that allows users to decide how the storyline moves ahead with multiple narrative branches, this format is a goldmine for data. Decision based interactive content format allows a micro level human-behavior tracking for each viewer. As marketers you can get an insight into how viewers behave when they are provided with a real-life choice and their selections can allow for native programmatic advertising based on – what music they like, what actors in a series they like, what characters do they want to succeed in a movie etc.
I feel we are just scratching the surface of the world of interactive non-linear programming and future content will have multiple choices at each decision-making point and each viewer will have a unique storyline based on their preferences.
One stereotype about working in the digital media industry that you get to face every day?
For the longest time, a lot of people have thought that digital marketing is all about social media and all we do is create posts for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. For the uninitiated, digital is primarily social media. However, with more awareness about this industry, the outlook is changing. People have started realising this is not a branch of marketing but the evolution of it.
What is your take on the growing importance of Content Marketing for BFSI Brands?
Content Marketing is going to stay relevant no matter what industry you are in. The primary reason for that is, your audience is always going to give more preference to great content and storytelling over blatant advertising.
In industries like BFSI, customers already find the financial products complicated and the buying process drab. It is difficult to use a Push strategy in this case. Content Marketing allows brands to create a Pull using content that adds value to the customer. Financial brands need to address the problem of lack of understanding of products for the customers to be able to trust them and that is where content can help greatly – whether it is explainer videos, infographics, blogs, white papers or social media content.
How do you ensure that online engagement gets translated into sales?
When customers engage with your brand on digital media, that is a good sign for the brand because you have taken your audience a step further than plain awareness. When you create communication that entices people to take an effort and interact with the brand, that is where you go from just “Broadcasting” to “Broadcast + Engage = Broadgaging” which is where the audience is more likely to remember the brand when they want to purchase something. I make it a point to focus the communication strategy that will drive engagement and not just reach. Once the audiences engage with the content, it is important to acknowledge/respond in a timely manner, so they feel the brand listens to them – giving a more personal touch to brand communication. This, in turn, increases trust. While these are best practices, platforms also allow us to remarket to people who have engaged with our communication, so in these cases we can reach out to people who have engaged with us and get them to return/engage more. This takes them further into the sales funnel and eventually creates a more effective sales pipeline.
Share some life lessons you experienced during your journey
A few things that I have learned over time and defined my approach now are:
- It is never too late to discover your passions.You must be open and ready to adapt. For example, when I was in school, everyone wanted to be an engineer or a doctor; Digital marketing didn’t even exist as a career option back then. I didn’t know what I wanted to be till I graduated from college. But I kept experimenting with things till I found something I enjoyed doing and was good at too.
- You don’t have to conform with pre-existing rules and timelines.I have been a firm believer that you are never too young or old to do anything. If someone tells you, that you are too young to lead a company or be at a certain position or deserve a certain salary, and that is limiting your growth, you must get out of there. It is important to challenge conventional wisdom and give yourself room to grow as fast as you can. In new age industries like Digital, age, experience, educational backgrounds cease to be determining factors of what you can achieve. I always say one thing – where you come from does not defining where you can reach.
- Be a constant learner. The new age industries are very volatile and change every few months. It is critical to be in touch with the upcoming updates, technologies, platforms etc. so you can stay on top of things and grow personally and professionally. And don’t just gather knowledge about your own industry or geography. Learn about other industries and geographies too. It gives you a wider perspective and allows you to borrow ideas/strategies that have shown results in other places and might be unexplored in your industry. I derive a lot of ideas from reading books, traveling, observing people, watching TV shows including cartoon, comic books, video games etc. You never know where you will find your next big idea.
- Never be afraid to experiment.Remember, no idea is a bad idea. Once you establish that, you will open up a pool of crazy ideas that other people are too afraid to try. That is how you get out of your comfort zone and, everyone knows, that is where magic happens. If you believe in something and you have a strong insight to support it, try that out no matter how crazy it sounds. There is a chance you might not succeed, but it will still give you a lesson on how to do it better. But what if you succeed! The thrill of succeeding will outweigh the fear of failing.
Share some tips for people wanting to make a career in Digital Marketing
This would probably apply to any career, but this is a prerequisite. To make a career in Digital Marketing, I feel you must have a passion for the space. You must love the platforms, you have to have a curiosity to understand how brands use these platforms and maybe identify how can it be made better. If you want to get into this industry just because someone has told you that “Digital is the future” or “It is a growing industry with a lot of jobs that pay well”, you probably don’t have the right motive. If you can develop a love and passion for the space, it would not sound like work for you. Because you would enjoy doing it, creating campaigns that you always wanted to and creating value to brands & customers.
Another question a lot of people ask me is – should they join a digital marketing course or join a job if they are freshers wanting to get into this industry. Frankly, for me, the on-job experience will almost always outweigh the classroom learning for me. If you want to get into the industry and you don’t know where to start, I would recommend taking up an entry level role in a digital agency because that is where a lot of action and learning happens. When you actually work on a brand with peers who can mentor you on live projects instead of classroom simulations, the learning curve will reduce. But that doesn’t mean the classroom training institutes aren’t helpful. For mainline marketers who want to get acquainted with the digital space, this is a great starting point. So it ultimately depends on what your approach is and how much time you can spare for the learning.
