Rinda AngomToday, with a lot of people going digital and being a user of social media, digital marketing has become a vital part of running a successful business. Through social media, it helps to communicate with the customers, with valuable and the right content, it helps attract customers, with SEO, it helps rank higher in Google and helps grow your brand and so on. The internet has been a boon to all of us and it never stops amazing us with its capability. Digital marketing is a valuable outcome of the internet.
Digital Evangelist of Online Business, Gaurav Gubaxani, as young as a 14-year-old wanted to make money on the internet in the 90s which was the beginning ages of the internet. Today, we find many youngsters making money with the help of the internet. In our Forever in Motion podcast, Gaurav and Headway Founder Sumit Suneja talks about how the internet has amazed them, on digital marketing for running a business successfully, using effective digital tools and more.
“Internet is the only thing that’s not made by nature, it’s human ingenuity coming together and it’s the biggest thing that matters.”- Sumit Suneja
“I am so grateful for the internet because I don’t know what would happen if there wasn’t the internet.”- Gaurav Gurbaxani
It’s a different world altogether today as Gaurav rightly expresses that it is equal opportunity for everyone, one doesn’t need to go to Standford, Harvard, Yale, one doesn’t need to do an engineering degree, one doesn’t need to able to speak, one doesn’t need to be able to listen, but can still make money. He says, “This is never such a good time in history that you can make money working from home sitting in shorts”
And there’s no doubt that it’s possible because of the internet. In fact, the first employee Gaurav hired for his first company was someone who was deaf and dumb but it worked because of the internet, they communicated through chat.
Also, money is a major driver for Gaurav and it made him what he is today. Sumit added saying that one shouldn’t vilify money, it’s the bearer of value it’s the exchange of value and if one has value, he gets money, if one doesn’t have value, he won’t get money. Gaurav was making good money when he was with Directi, from someone who had no skill in the digital world was leading a team in the US. Then the entrepreneur bug had him and he started his own agency and then the rest is history.
With being an entrepreneur comes more responsibility, taking the right decision for the company, handling employees etc. Gaurav once took a big step and decided to start the work from home model in 2012 and made his company an online agency. This saved him a lot of costs, office rent, electricity bill etc. and his company was a lot more profitable. Being an entrepreneur is never easy and one wrong decision can take a business down.
“I think being an entrepreneur is like working in an emergency room, it’s an ER 24/7 and you are the senior-most doctor, you will see emergencies. There will be small little periods you will not see but if you are going to be an entrepreneur or an entrepreneur today, you will be working in an ER for the rest of your life even if you are a hundred million dollar company.”- Sumit Suneja
Coming to digital marketing again, Sumit and Gaurav talk about domain names and both of them agreed on understanding the market, understanding the business model, prove it and then get the domain name. To build a brand forward apart from the domain name, one thing that will help get traction is still the email lists.
“Email is still the number one highest return on investment digital activity that any business across the world can carry out.”- Gaurav Gurbaxn
There’s no doubt digital marketing is a vital part of a successful business as the number of people using the internet will keep increasing. Digital marketing is affordable than traditional marketing, has a higher return on investment, help built relationships with customers etc.
Get to know more about it on our Forever in Motion podcast by watching the full video.