'Indian Businesses are Becoming Digitally Mature'

Key trends which the digital media industry is witnessing these days and which primarily making every digital entrepreneur happy is the fact that advertisers are becoming mature towards social media.

It’s a market reality that social media mature brands are taking it all the more seriously and are trying to create rich content and for a positive customer engagement. While there are a lot of small & mid size brands who are trying and willing to experiment with the Digital medium and are trying to redefine their marketing perspective.

In an exclusive interaction with SMEStreet’s Faiz Askari, Shrenik Gandhi is the Co founder of  White Rivers Digital shared some key insights about digital marketing domain and some insightful information which can drive great thrust.

White Rivers Digital is a ROI driven digital agency that provides holistic communication strategies. CMO Council & World Marketing Congress awarded Shrenik Gandhi and ranked him among “50 BEST DIGITAL MARKETING PROFESSIONALS” at the Mobile & Digital Marketing Summit 2014.

The edited excerpts of the interaction:

How the digital marketing domain is evolving specially after the advent of new age social media and end consumer's interest on staying digital?

Well, Digital as a domain has been evolving since the first successful campaign was done online. The brands & entrepreneurs look forward to disruptive yet sustainable ideas which help their respective brands carve their niche using the new age social media. While consumers are waiting on social media to consume good content, brands are burning the midnight oil to deliver the best they can. Many have succeeded & many are enroute the path of success in the same.

What are the key USPs of your service offerings? Specially considering the fact that there is a mushrooming in the market?

As entrepreneurs, we understand the value of every penny spent. We step ourselves into the shoes of the brand entrepreneur & try to work out solutions to best suit their need. We have various products including end-to-end eCommerce Marketing Consultancy to facilitate better services in the field. We have special USPs for twitter outreach campaigns & a couple of products which we serve are very rare in the market. Coming back to Mushrooming, it indeed is essential.

The need & demand is mushrooming more rapidly than the supply, hence the more the merrier.

How do you consider critical factors such as crisis management and communication using social media?

Crisis Management is one of the essential give aways we have for brands. We strongly believe in the age old proverb, "An agency in need, is the real friend indeed" As an agency, we try to be available at the disposal of brands we work for. For one of the travel clients we used to work for, we used to get 5-7 Abusive comments a day. That is real crisis if not handled with right kind of communication. We dealt with the right set of words, apt time & prompt responses to be on toes to bring a smile on the faces of the customers of the brands we work for.

What expectations do you have from mobile as a medium?

With Namo's Digital India dream, the expectations from Mobile has increased manifolds. Every person in every nook & corner of the country shall be connected to Mobile & probably Internet too, in future. This sets the bar way above its original level. The world shall literally be on peoples fingertips! As a marketer it is essential to be where customers are, hence mobile is & shall remain one of the most important tools of communication.

What are the limitations we have as a country?

One major limitation which a lot of video content providers are facing is, limited broadband connectivity & speed. The content, how much every brilliant it is, doesnt get delivered in the best form if the internet speeds are an issue. Other than that, there is no crucial limitation we as a country have.

If the message is not delivered the way it should be, the consumer loses interest & it eventually becomes loss of time for both brand & consumer.

What are the next level of trends or ways you are foreseeing in this domain, in next one year?

Content Marketing. Content has been the king & shall remain the king. This king needs to be fed every now & then & needs to look different and be innovative always to stand out. In next one year, we shall see a lot of content independent campaigns coming from thought leaders & brands who wish to stand out!

What are the key challenges that you would like to deal with as an entrepreneur in the digital marketing space?

As an entrepreneur in the digital marketing space, I would like to initiate consolidation in every possible manner. It is essential for agencies to survive together. Cut throat competition results in more loss than gain. The aim & challenge always has to be to create a win-win situation. Yes, healthy competition is important to create a better output, but as an industry we should stand by each other & support each other whenever required.