When I discovered Sooraj’s profile on LinkedIn, there were 2 key things that grabbed my attention – his education in Finance and successful career in Marketing & the other one is “Lenovo” because I use Lenovo’s laptop. He was marketing manager at Lenovo then.
I thought that I will talk with him and I pinged him. And I got an immediate reply. We talked a lot and I decided to invite him over this Expert Speaks interview series.
And here I am; Presenting to you the expert speaks interview with digital marketing expert – Sooraj Divakaran.
Who is Sooraj Divakaran?
Sooraj Divakaran is a digital marketing expert with 10+ years of experience in various aspects of marketing like content strategy, B2B marketing, digital marketing, account-based marketing, etc.
He has worked in several big companies like TCS, Infosys, Lenovo, Zee Learn, etc. Currently, he is the Associate Marketing Director at MaxVal Group, Inc.
Sooraj runs a blog Digital Uncovered, which has won the Best Personal Blog award in Drivers of Digital Awards and Summit 2020. Digital Uncovered has also been voted as the top 100 marketing blogs globally by BlogTyrant (the people behind WPBeginner) and FeedSpot.
He has written for leading publications and websites like Forbes India, School of Digital Marketing, Scatter, Paul Writer, and Agency Reporter.
The articles on Sooraj’s blog have been backlinked by leading marketing publications like Think With Google, The Guardian UK, Wistia, etc.
Ranging from services companies like TCS to product companies like Lenovo, the story and experiences of Sooraj Divakaran are vivid & inspiring.
Interview with Sooraj Divakaran, Digital Marketing Expert
#1. From an MBA in finance to becoming the Associate Marketing Director for MaxVal Group, would you like to brief you about your journey? Was getting into digital marketing an informed decision, or it happened due to circumstances?
I learned about the marketing & advertisement domain when I did my post-graduation. After completing my MBA, I knew I didn’t want to pursue a finance role, considering I wasn’t good with numbers.
The initial break took a bit, but once I moved to marketing, I never looked back. My initial role was in media buying and planning. A year into the role, my then boss asked me to assist with the website’s redesign.
Today my role is primarily a blend of digital and content marketing.
#2. What were the challenges faced by you in your first job in Marketing?
Every role has its own set of challenges. During my initial days in marketing, I focused more on upskilling and learning different aspects of the role.
As you move higher up the ladder, you have to polish your leadership and people management skills along with the fundamentals of the trade.
#3. You have handled digital marketing for TCS and Infosys. How is the digital marketing space at a services company like TCS, Infosys, different from the overall work that you did at Lenovo?
Each organization is different in the way they approach marketing. When the core offering is a service, it is difficult to build an emotional connection considering the brand & the service provided are the same for the consumer.
IT-Services organizations in India, especially the large ones, have a stable clientele, which means a large percentage of business is repeat business. Also, a large ticket size means an account-based marketing approach is required to nurture leads over time.
For product-based organizations, it is relatively easier to build emotional connect. You are time-bound at a product-based organization considering everything is tied to ship-support dates and product release dates.
#4. What are the top digital marketing tools that every marketing enthusiast must learn?
There are plenty of tools that will stay relevant in the years to come, like Google AdWords, Analytics, HubSpot, etc.
But besides the knowledge of tools, it is important to strengthen your fundamentals because you will always have new tools emerging and replacing old ones.
#5. What is the best way to learn digital marketing?
The best approach to learn any new skill is ‘learning by doing.’
You can’t build and run a website unless you know how to do it.
You will have agencies to help you build it. But if you lack the know-how, you will never achieve the desired outcome. It is essential to put theory to practice to see how things play out in reality.
#6. How do you measure the success of digital marketing campaigns in the B2B world?
Ideally, B2B marketers should get evaluated on the impact delivered on the bottom line and topline.
Topline could be the share of voice, and performance in brand lift studies, while the bottom could be the number of MQLs, SQLs delivered, and the total contract value (TCV) generated.
But the metrics differ for each organization depending on the nature of business and priorities set by the top management.
#7. What are some harsh realities of the marketing world?
Your qualification, no matter what, doesn’t prepare you for a job. Most of what we learn in theory doesn’t work in practice, especially in India.
As you grow older in any profession, you realize that there is a lot more to a role than subject matter expertise.
Your ability to communicate clearly, manage people and expectations, and foresee future trends can go a long way in making you a better marketing professional.
#8. How do you spend your free time?
I split my spare time between spending time with my family, catching up on new shows, and blogging.
#9. There is a lot of buzz about digital marketing and data science in India. But I am observing that people are unemployed even after upskilling and learning about the latest trends. The training institutes are taking advantage of this. But even trained professionals are finding it difficult to get a job in these modern age career streams like digital marketing, data science, AI, etc. Where is the real problem?
It’s a chicken and egg situation. Organizations want to hire people with experience, considering it will help them save on training costs. Institutes train students on the fundamentals of digital marketing but don’t always expose them to the practical skill sets required.
Consider this example, a candidate with six to twelve months of experience in search marketing vs. someone with a one-year diploma in marketing. Who is more likely to be hired?
Organizations are increasingly trying to shorten the learning curve which means they need you to be productive from day one.
As a prospective job seeker, you have to take side projects to build your portfolio if you lack the experience that the role demands.
#10. On a lighter note, would you like to hire me on your team? What are the top 3 things that makes me a good fit & what are the top 3 things I must improve?
It’s hard to determine which areas one can develop if you haven’t interacted with the individual.
The top three considerations for a potential recruit will include:
- subject matter experience or ability to learn quickly,
- communication skills, and
- problem-solving mentality
#11. When every brand is doing almost similar things, user experience becomes the differentiating factor. How does user experience work in digital marketing campaigns?
While every brand claims that they are customer-centric, very few actually pay attention to detail. NPS (Net Promoter Score) and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) don’t make much difference if you don’t talk to your end customers.
The brands that listen closely and respond to customer feedback also see better customer lifetime value and retention.
#12. One closing message for all the marketing enthusiasts?
No matter how important we perceive our roles are, we are all dispensable in the end. If you find purpose and value in what you do, consider yourself lucky.
People ultimately don’t remember the work you do; they always remember what kind of person you were. The below quote from Maya Maya Angelou sums it up for me.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Conclusion
Wow, what a closing message!!! Thank you so much Sooraj!
In case you have any questions for Sooraj Divakaran, you can reach out to him on LinkedIn.
Do share this interview with digital marketing enthusiasts & inspire them.