Digital Marketing made easy

For most of us folks in marketing, one of our New Year goals always seems to be to improve skill x. Now x can be social media marketing, SEO, or SEM or whatever your Kryptonite is at the moment. In case you have top-lined content writing as one of the skills that you'd like to master this year, read on. Here are some tips to help you become a better writer. 1. Writing every day Writing is a muscle that needs to be flexed every day. I have spoken (okay, written) about The Writing Commitment in one of my previous blog posts, How to write more blog posts in less time . Life and pretty much everything in it, boils down to process and efficiency. You cannot hope to improve your writing on the basis of a few sporadic writing sessions. You need to write enough to get into the phase where you can edit out stuff. For that, you need to have enough writing material in the first place. In the initial writing phases, both quality and quantity are importa

We have all been there - rushing to meet deadlines, cutting corners on things in order to meet deliverable dates & feeling as if we have no time at all. However, as marketers, we owe responsibility - to our customers [both current & potential], to our colleagues [sales, operations, product], and also to our ourselves. Our responsibility is to strive to continuously deliver superior customer experiences. To be honest about what our product shortfalls are, acknowledging unflattering customer feedback, and addressing the gaps between what the market wants, what the customer needs, and what our product offers.  It is quite possible that sometimes in our hurry to meet expectations, we do end up making mistakes - some of them quite counterproductive. Here's looking at the five worst mistakes you can make as a marketer. 1.  I have always done it this way Marketers need to throw this out the window, right now. This discipline is hurtling at the speed

We may have come across this term "personal branding". And we might have certain questions: Is personal branding for me? Is it important to invest in a personal brand for career / business development? I am a freelancer / consultant / small business owner / employee - how is personal branding going to help me? How much investment in time / efforts are necessary for a strong personal brand? Let’s have a look at what is personal branding and how it can help us - to create a unique identity for ourselves, to have access to the best opportunities in terms of clients and business, and to develop top of the mind recall amongst our target audience. But how do we go about building a strong, unique personal brand? What are the specific actions that can be taken to kick-start our journey towards a memorable, distinct identity? Let's begin by having a look at what is a personal brand and why is personal branding so very important in this era of cluttered, ove

I never planned to be a marketer. I don’t know if that is a good thing or bad. All I knew was I loved reading and writing and I was damn creative.  My parents never forced me into any one career direction and encouraged me to find my own path. After completing my college education, I started looking for opportunities in 2005. I joined in a content role in my first job - and came to two quick realisations - I needed to be in an outgoing front ending role (yep, that's me) and I need to get a degree to do this. So after working for nearly 3 years, I enrolled in a full time MBA course from 2008 to 2010 . I chose marketing and finance as my specialisations. I interned the first summer at GSK Consumer Healthcare (an FMCG company) where I learnt firsthand that marketing was actually a science and not just some academic mumbo jumbo. I ended up learning a lot about marketing research in that single stint - and that actually helped me, not just academically but even l

I have been active on Quora for quite sometime now - I like connecting with people and understanding what areas young marketers struggle with.  Most of the questions addressed to me have been around content marketing but  I have also helped people out with making a career transition to marketing, understanding digital / social media marketing.  In case you'd like to ask any questions, do visit my profile on Quora . You can also use the QR code above. 

What traits do you need to rock as a marketer in 2020? The same ones that you needed in 2019 :). Marketing is not just the exciting stuff, it is also a bunch of boring stuff done well, consistently. As we all sit and chart out our 2020 marketing journey, it is important that we retain, and remember the simple stuff that makes marketing what it is. Being data-driven : Reduce risk & uncertainty in your decision making by being data led. Question relentlessly & make data your best friend. At the same time, learn to interpret the story behind the data as well. Are you conversant with analytics tools - if not, prioritize championing analytics this year. Looking for some free courses to help you get started? Check out few courses here . Embrace social media : As a marketer, it helps to have a rocking personal brand on social media. Create and share content consistently. Market yourself & have a distinct presence in the space that so many people are co

One of my 2020 resolutions is to be more proactive on social media. As I kept speaking to people throughout 2019, I realised many senior executives had the same goal - but were more or less reluctant to pivot their brand on social media. Many cited lack of time, others cited inability to craft content. I did some research around what busy executives can do to propel their brand on social media, and have distilled my findings into this crisp infographic. In case you are a busy executive with absolutely no time for a dedicated social media engagement strategy, this cheatsheet is for you. The micro-steps outlined below will help you craft your brand on social in whatever time you have available. Summary  1. Start with the why : What are you on social media for? Mentorship? Leadership advice? Personal branding - enumerate your whys carefully before you embark on your personal social media journey. 2.  Your unique value proposition : Amongst the clutte