Digital Marketing - The Present and Future of Marketing

Hello Friends,

Digital Marketing is one of the evolving Marketing trends which provides wide exposure at low costs.

I had an opportunity to attend the first session of Digital Marketing Internship by Deepak Kanakraju Sir last week. It was a great learning experience as Deepak Sir shared a lot of insights on Digital Marketing, Communication & Economics.

I would like to pen down the key learnings of the session below.

1. The Golden Triangle concept of Learn > Do > Teach is very valuable as it helps you getting a thorough grasp on the topic.
It is always a good idea to practise a concept well before proceeding to a new concept. And teaching it to a friend or colleague is even better. When you teach it, you try to break it into simpler and understandable terms, so that the other person can follow it well. Also you gain a lot of insights while handling the queries and any concept gaps get filled.

2. Building a personal brand is essential in today's world as it helps you gain trust.

"The best known will always beat the best".

The above quote explains the power of branding. The whole idea behind marketing is gaining visibility, hence building a personal brand is part of the same exercise.

3. One should identify his/ her passion and find out a niche. The niche identified should not be very broad. 
A narrow specific niche is always favourable and effective.

4. Knowing about the basics of Economics is important if you wish to build your own company.
Understanding the market and its needs coupled with knowledge of Economics is essential to do well. Hence its important that we keep on reading about the economy regularly and getting updated with the latest developments.

5. When we try to find a solution to an existing need, it gives rise to other auxiliary needs as well. 
Hence the business opportunity grows.
Upselling and cross selling skills become effective when we identify the other needs generated because of our business solutions.

6. Communication Skills are very important, and one should work on it on a regular basis.
Written and oral communication both are equally important.
When we share our ideas with our team members or when we inform our customers about the features of our product, effective communication is of paramount importance.
Watching English movies, reading newspapers, books, listening news and podcasts are effective ways to improve the language skills.

One should also try and learn a new language. Mandarin can be of the good options.

7. Sales is at the heart of everything we do. 
Hence to do well in career, one needs to pick up sales skills and build on that.

8. Integrated Digital Marketing: approach should be integrated. 
Digital Marketing approach should be integrated. It would give better returns once all the components of Digital Marketing like Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Ads etc work in unison.
Once we implement Integrated Digital Marketing, our costs will reduce drastically, and the returns will be far better.

9. We should keep a tab on the market demand to know the changing needs and trends of our customers. 
Some useful tools for this are Google Autosuggest, Ubersuggest, keywordtool.io etc. These tools give us information about the search volumes of various keywords in our domain.

10. Concept of Funnel and Mindmap : These tools when practised and used will give you better clarity of your business and help you identify the correct approach to deal with your customers.

These were my top 10 takeaways from the session.

The assignment approach basically is an implementation of the Golden Triangle rule where you learn by doing.

Thanks for reading. 

Two of my favourite poems...

Some poems inspire you, teach you and leave an indelible mark on you. Am listing two poems below which have always motivated me and helped me pass tough phases of life. IF - By Rudyard Kipling IF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!' If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, ' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son! Don't Quit by John Greenleaf Whittier When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you're trudging seems all up hill, When the funds are low, and the debts are high, And you want to smile, but you have to sigh, When care is pressing you down a bit, Rest if you must, but don't you quit. Life is queer with it's twists and turns, As everyone of us sometimes learns, And many a failure turns about, When he might have won had he stuck it out. Don't give up though the pace seems slow, You may succeed with another blow. Success is failure turned inside out, The silver tint of the clouds of doubt, And you never can tell how close you are, It may be near when it seems so far, So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit, It's when things seem worse, That you must not quit. ...Edgar A. Guest

IET Lucknow Alma Meet in Vashi,Mumbai

Hello Alums,

It is a pleasure for me to write the narration of the Third Edition of IETLAA’s Mumbai Chapter Meet which we had on 4^th Dec. in Hotel Abbot, Vashi. The venue of the Meet was apt as it was centrally located.

At the outset, I would like to thank the core members of the organizing team (Nishant Vardhan, Deepak Kanaujia, Sankalp Chugh and Vipul Srivastava) who have put in a lot of effort for this meet despite their busy work schedules.

Here, I would like to share a unique and interesting tradition of which the IETLAA’s Mumbai Chapter is extremely proud of. We have always had some distinguished Alum who have made our Mumbai Meet special by coming from a far off city. I distinctly remember It was Salil Kumar Sir (1989 Batch) in the first Meet, who flew from Delhi, to attend the Meet in 2009. And this time it was Monika Nigam (2010 Batch), who came all the way from Trivandrum to attend the Meet!!

It was a bright Sunday morning and a pleasant weather greeted the Alums . The Meet started with a very unique coincidence. It so happened that 6 Alums ( Rahul Pundir, Nishant Vardhan, Deepak Kanaujia, Sankalp Chugh, Vipul Srivastava and Arun Chaturvedi) coming from 6 different locations reached Hotel Abbot gate at the same time!! The momentum was set for the big day !!

Slowly and steadily Alums started coming and greeting each other. Deepak Kanaujia Sir took the all important charge of handling the registration desk. As the attendance increased, the discussions & chitchats followed suit. IET’s most loved song ”NA- JAA“ was being played in the background as Alums made themselves comfortable. The Alums had the pleasure of going into the flashback by seeing the beautiful pictures in NA JAA song. Around 12.15 PM we started with the Welcome Speech by Vipul Sir. This was followed by an introduction of the Alums. The senior Alums shared some of their memorable incidents of IET days.

A.K. Singh Sir’s reminisces were a treat to hear. The stories of his IET days kept the Alums engrossed and enthralled. He was well supported by Ved Singh Sir and Salil Kumar Sir in recollecting some of the funny incidents which they were a part of as a gang. Here, I ll reveal a secret of which all other batches of IET will definitely be jealous. This batch was a lucky batch, which got the golden opportunity to visit the girls hostel at 3.30 AM in the night. I ll keep the suspense alive here for all those who could not attend the Meet. You can always ask any of the attendees of the Meet about the reason why they were allowed to visit the girls hostel in the night. ..:)

Here, I would also like to mention that three of our Alums, A.K. Singh Sir, Sanjeev Sir and Amit Sir were accompanied by their wives for the Meet. Sanjeev Sir’s little daughter “Cheeko” was apple of all eyes as she beautifully recited poems and bagged most no. of chocolates for her performance. Amit Sir’s wife recited a beautiful poem written by her which mesmerized the audience.

Lots and lots of college memories were shared. Lots of new ideas came up during the discussions.

A small presentation was given by Arun Chaturvedi on the latest development in IET and IETLAA. Snaps of IET in the presentation took the Alums back to their college days. Sankalp Chugh Sir shared with the Alums the details of the newly formed Executive Members after the IETLAA Elections. He also explained the various functions and features of or Alumni website ietalumni.org.

We had a group photograph which was then printed and put up in a beautiful frame and was gifted to the Alumni.

We also had a thorough discussion over the Agenda. Nishant Vardhan moderated the discussion with Arun Chaturvedi and Sankalp Chugh and we tried to gather as many ideas as we could from the Alums. After a lot of brainstorming we reached to the following conclusions:

a) We need to increase the content on our website and try to bring in more alumni interactions. After we have developed the content and have connected to the Alumni, we can have a web based application for mobile phones as well for easy and quick accessibility.

b) We need to develop a student body which works in tandem with the Alumni body, which will benefit the students in terms of placements, career guidance etc. also the college will be immensely benefitted by this.

c) Alums visiting Lucknow should visit the IET Campus and have interaction with the students guiding name with their experiences. This can be well structured and coordinated by the student body and Hariom Sharma Sir and other IET Alumni working/staying in Lucknow.

d) All the Alumni present in the Meet agreed to register at least 5 more Alumni from their network of IET friends on the IET Alumni Website ietalumni.org.

We had lunch at around 2 PM. The food was delicious and the arrangement was excellent. The Alums gathered in groups across the dinner tables and then the incidents and memories which could not be shared in public were shared there…:)

After the lunch we discussed about the future course of IET and IETLAA. We agreed that we have treaded some distance on the Alumni front, but we still have a long way to go. The continuous support from the alumni for all our activities has always given us the necessary encouragement and motivation to strive hard and try to make IET Lucknow a better college and a better place.

There were alums who came from far off places like Pune, Trivendrum etc. and there were also Alums who could not make it from Mumbai itself. We understand that most of us are busy trying to strike a balance between hectic works schedules and life. But at the same, we should also understand that we are indebted to IET Lucknow for the years we spent there and the knowledge we gained. Those 4 years were the best years of our lives !! The memories gathered there will always be cherished. Hence we have a moral responsibility towards our Alma Mater. We should try to make efforts to help our Alma Mater by whatever means we can. Organising meets and attending them is a small step for the same pursuit. These Meets help us in reuniting ourselves and will definitely yield results in the long run.

We should remember that the relationship of a college and a student is symbiotic in nature. Initiallly the student gains knowledge, skill and expertise from the college, builds his career and then helps his/her alma mater. We expect the Alums to support us by attending these meets.

Overall the Meet was an enriching experience for all of us. We wish that IETLAA grows with time !! We are sure that as our Alumni base strengthens, we will definitely be able to make positive changes in the Institute which will benefit the students as well as the Alumni.

I would like to end my narration by a popular Hindi quotation which would sum up the journey IETLAA has traversed so far and will remind us that we have a long way to go !!

“Jindagi ki asli udaan abhi baaki hai, Apne iradon ka imtehaan abhi baaki hain,

Abhi to naapi hai humne mutthi bhar zamin, Aage dekho sara aasman abhi baaki hai !! "

P.S. The Meet was attended by : A.K.Singh 1989 batch, Amar Deep Mishra 1992 batch, Amit Agarwal 1994 batch, Anand Prakash 2005 batch, Anju Rani jain 1994 batch, Arun Chaturvedi 2009 batch, Deepak kanaujia 2007 batch,Durgesh pandey 2011 batch, Jitendra 2008 batch, Monika Nigam 2010 batch, Nishant Vardhan 2005 batch, Rahul gupta 2005 batch, Rahul Pundir 2007 batch, Rajeev Yadav 2008 batch, Rishi Pratap 2002 batch, Salil Kumar 1989, Sanjeev Bajpai 1992 batch, Sankalp chugh 2007 batch, Sharad Singh 1999 batch, Shikha Singh 1996 batch, Ved Singh 1989 batch, Vipul Srivastava 1991 batch.

Comments,views,suggestions for future meets invited !!

IET Rocks !!

Arun Chaturvedi

(ME-2009)

India vs Australia

We all love our Indian Cricket Team and its players. Sachin is God for us and Cricket is our religion which binds people from all strata of the society in this country. When India lifted the world Cup, it instantly became the National Festival in India !!!

This present team is one of the best in the Indian Cricket History. The contribution of Sachin is undoubtedly humungous. He has transformed the team from being a "single man army" to a team now in which every player contributes and is equally important. Sachin's attitude, humility and demeanor are exemplary. He has helped the team as well as the young players to develop and learn his traits. That is why he is affectionally called the "Grandpa" by the young brigade.

It is a known fact that we are many a times harsh in our criticism towards the ones whom we love the most. At the same time we cant tolerate even a word said against whom we love.
And this very same logic holds true for the Indian Team as well. Because of the immense love we have for this game and its players we criticise them badly at times. Like in the ongoing Test Match between India and England, when India had reduced England to 124/8 , they still went on to make 221. The team was vehemently criticised for its bowling in the last session.
I completely agree that this happened because of the complacency factor. And this is a regular phenomena with our Team. We perform only when we are pushed against the wall. This is easily verifiable. If we see the last few Test Series, India has regularly lost the First Test Match and then bounced back in the second. This article analyses this in detail.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england-v-india-2011/content/story/524835.html

But my point here is something else. In fact in my discussion with a friend on this same very topic, I told him that we need not criticise the players so badly, as they were the ones who reduced them to 124/8.

Many a times, this No. 1 team is compared with The Great Australian Team which ruled Cricket for almost a decade and a half. There are many people who feel and say that India Can never be like the "Invincible Aussies".
I feel why should India be like the Aussies. India has its own identity. We play the game for the sole purpose of pleasure and entertainment.
In lighter vein, I ll say, we do not play this game to showcase our supremacy. That is why we give our opponent umpteen number of chances to recover and fight back. So that the game is thrilling and enjoyable. We care for the lovers of the game more. We ensure that they have a good enthralling time when they watch this game. We play for Cricket and not for ourselves.

On a serious note, I personally never liked watching the matches which Australia played when they were at the helm. The element of uncertainity was lost, which is the basic essence of this game. There was no thrill, no fun. In fact there have been many instances in which Aussies have been found to be using unfair means like repeated false appeals, sledging and doping to achieve their sole aim, that was winning the match. India has never done this and can never do this. Because our culture does not permits us to accept success by wrong practices. Am sure many of us would agree with what I am saying.

So India's approach to the game is quite fine as it keeps the game poised till the last ball is bowled. And as long as India keeps on winning the series, we should not mind losing a game here and there to encourage our opponents to fight back and be in the game. Hence, there is no doubt that India plays better cricket than Australia played or can ever play.

To sum up, I would just reiterate what George Bernard Shaw said about this great game. It simply consolidates the fact that cricket is a Gentleman's Game and the players and the spectators have a divine feeling while playing or watching this game.

“The English are not very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity”

George Bernard Shaw

First Impressions!!

Its human nature to analyse things and come to a logical and genuine conclusion. And this is how perceptions are made about a person or a thing. Many a times these perception are quite far from reality. The reasons for these discrepancies can be many. But in my opinion the main reason is we try to form an impression about the person or thing in the first impression itself. No wonder its rightly said, “ First Impression is the last Impression.”

But I would like to share my views on this which are quite different or rather contradictory. I personally believe that one should take time in analyzing things and after substantial number of incidents or evidences only, should form an impression about the person or thing. The normal tendency which we have is we are very quick in passing judgements. We might think that even if we are not right in being judgemental, we don’t lose anything or we are not harmed by it. So why to ponder much on this.

But we do lose by being judgemental. Sometimes the loss can be very profound which we might not even realize. We might lose a prospective friendship or acquaintance if we wrongly judge somebody to be having a negative character. That friendship might have lasted a lifetime but we have destroyed it in seconds. It was not because of that person’s fault but ours. We have deprived ourselves and that person too a lifelong true friendship. I don’t need to tell how important friends are in our lives.

Now, talking about the other side of the coin. Many a times we get attracted to a person by his looks and his apparent demeanor. The person might not be as good as he/she seems. But because of our judgemental nature we tend to choose this person as a friend, lover or even life partner without analyzing him/her properly. And we all know the end result of such quick judgements. Broken hearts, mistrusts, secrets being made public, divorces and MMS clips are results of such quick judgements.

So its in our interest to think and analyse well before passing the final verdict especially when the relation or interaction is going to last for a longer period of time. Also, we should give the “benefit of doubt” to someone who does not comes across as a good person in the first impression. By doing this we will ensure that we have an optimistic approach to life and people around us!!

My IET branchmates....

Sometimes we fail to realize the opportunities, the benefits and the advantages which we have. I ll share an incident which happened yesterday. It left me and my friend Jatin awestruck.
I and Jatin were discussing about the B.Tech. viva in engineering in the Marketing Management class. Jatin pointed out that in his college, they used to send the "not so good" students first for the viva so that the external examiner gets the impression that the batch is not sincere in studies and hence lower the complexity of the questions. It helped the other students to score well as the expectation of the examiner was decreased. Definitely this was not always possible as most of the times the viva was conducted roll no. wise.
I could relate this example of Jatin, to an important concept which my Professor was teaching at that point of time. To meet a customer's demand we can either lower his expectation or increase the quality of the product. This is exactly what Jatin and his batchmates used to do. They used to lower the expectation of the Examiner.
Here I will share one more important Marketing concept which I learnt yesterday. Earlier the marketing idea was "Under promise and Over deliver". But now the idea is "Over promise and Over deliver".
Anyways, returning back to the discussion which I and Jatin were having in the class. I told Jatin that my branchmates in IET Lucknow never had this option. Because we were always called roll no. wise for the viva. And while I was telling this I started recalling the roll no. and names of my branchmates. I was happy that i could recall almost all the students. Thanks to the strength, there were only 30 students in Mechanical Engg. in IET-L.
The real surprise came when i started figuring out the organisations where these guys are at the present. I ll share it roll no. wise.
Roll no. 001 - Abhishek Pandey - NTPC
Roll no. 002 - Abhishek Rai - BHEL
Roll no. 003 - Ajay Pratap Singh- ONGC
Roll no. 004 - Amit Pandey - BPCL
Roll no. 005 - Anubhav Pathak - IES
Roll no. 006 - Arun Chaturvedi - NITIE(MBA) ....
and the list continues...Almost all my friends are in reputed organisations. Most of them went into PSU's. Some went for M.Tech. I am the only guy who is pursuing MBA. I am in touch with most of them. I ll try and jot down some of my friends names with their organisations. Rajesh Singh(ONGC), Sachchidanand Pandey(ONGC), Yashpal Singh(BHEL), Ravi Kushwaha(NTPC), Jitendra Rajput(NTPC), Ram Swarup(NTPC), Sujeet Singh (Sail), Ravi Kumar (BEL), Ramesh Gupta(DVC), Gaurav Sachan(UPPCL), Rajat Kapoor (Hero Honda), Piyush Mani (Hero Honda), Divyabh Tyagi (TATA Motors), Shobhann Shukla (TATA Motors), Pawan Gupta(Hindalco), Tarun Kansal (TCS). Nikhil Pratap Singh and Sachin Mittal are self employed. Jitendra Madhukar is pursuing M.Tech. Preeti Priyadarshini is preparing for IAS. Omna Suman and Saurabh Kumar are preparing for IES. Brij Bhushan and Rahul Vidyarthi are working for some firm, I am not able to remember the name right now.
This awesome performance record is of a batch which was considered as the one of the worst in IET history. My fellow branchmates will confirm this. And this is a profile of a batch which faced the peak recession.
So the point which I wanted to make is..I was blessed with the company of these Elite people, which I never realised during my 4 year long stay in IET.
We should always appreciate what we have and make the best of it!!!!
Hats off to you friends....for proving your mettle and holding high the flag of IET--our first love!!!
Hail IET!!!
Jai Ho!!!

Hi IETians..

As we all have come to know by now...We had an amazing day yesterday in Mumbai...
Mumbai, for the first time in its history, saw the presence of more than 25 Alumni together with their family...
The gathering was 40+...
So i will start by thanking everybody present there...who despite their busy schedule came to make the meet memorable..
Special thanks to Vipul Sir and the Alumni who came all the way from Pune !!!..

It was a pleasant Sunday morning...I and Vipul Sir with his family had planned to reach the venue one hour before the scheduled time for all the arrangements..
Thanks to Vipul sir's driving skill..we managed to reach on time..
"Although bheed bahot thi but car aaram se nikaal liya.."..
Vipul Sir and his family will understand this....

As we reached the venue...To our surprise we had Vasu Sir(Mech. 2003) and Sachin Gupta Sir(Civil 2007) already present...
Then soon Avadhesh (CS 2009) appeared wearing his cheerful smile that lit the day for us...
There was not much to be done..as we had already planned everything beforehand...

As we were getting comfortable with each other...I saw someone coming towards us handsomely dressed..
That was Mohan Joshi Sir(Electrical 94).
Vipul sir found somebody whom he knew..
Mohan Joshi Sir started the process of introduction...As everybody introduced himself..Avadhesh informed that he has been looking for a job..And suddenly Mohan Sir sprang out his cell from his pocket...made a call to somebody in Hyderabad...and asked Avadhesh to send his CV to the gentleman...
So we had a happy beginning...

Around 11 AM the other Alumnis started pouring in..
Everyone was welcomed by the "Jaadoo ki Jhappis" from the senior alumni present there..
Many have bcome obese so it was a bit uncomfortable from them.. but the spirit was young...
Around 11.45 we had more than 20 Alumni present..
The prominent among them were Pradeep Chauhan Sir(Mech. 1989), Ved Singh Sir(Mech. 1989), Anand Prakash Sir(Mech. 1991), Amit Agarwal Sir(CS 1994) and many more Alumni who have distinguished themselves in their field...

So we formally started with the introduction process and small anecdotes and memories followed in between the introduction...The senior Alumni introduced their better half with their kids too..

There was a thunder around 12.15 PM when we saw a heavy and huge personality walkin in...I was amazed to see all the senior alumni shout instantaneously...YOGESH!!!!!.

..
And so Yogesh Sir arrived..Everybody said that he was the most notorious guy of his batch!!
Here I would like to say special thanks to Salil Sir(Electrical 1989) who flew from Delhi to Mumbai to attend this meet...

During the introduction process, Ved singh Sir, Pradeep Chauhan Sir stressed the value of morals and ethics in our lives.They reminded us that IETians all across the world are known for their morals and ethics and the younger lot should never compromise on this.
Amit Agarwal Sir read a beautiful poem written by his better half which won the hearts of all present there and left everyone mesmerised. Amit Sir later revealed that maam is a professional poet.
The introduction process was briefly interrupted when Anand Prakash Sir revealed a gem.
Everyone gathered around him to have a look at the special thing he had brought for us...And that was.......A Collection of pics of IET which he took in his Engineering days..around 20 years back...The younger lot present there got the unique opportunity to see its Alma Mater...the way it looked 20 years back..Those who want to see these pics can visit my orkut profile...I ll also be uploading the pics soon and post a link here too..

We also came to know that we had two alumni from IIM A and one from IIM C in the meet.
Himanshu Srivastava(96 batch) & Sharad Singh(99 batch) had done their postgraduation from IIM A and Nilesh Srivastava(96 Batch) was from IIM C.
I was awestruck by their simplicity and humility and how they managed to come despite hectic work schedule.
Nilesh Sir is an author and his book "Second Hand" is very poular....
Unfortunately we had only one maam..and she was Ritu Nimi Maam who came with her husband...

After the introduction we had felicitations of the Alumni..
The three senior most Alumni were given special Gift..
The others also received momento from the senior Alumni..
Yatendra Bhushan Sir(94 Batch) sang a beautiful song in his melodious voice which left everyone wanting for more..

After the felicitation ceremony we had lunch..The alumni gathered in groups with their food and they visited IET via eachother's memories..
The food was great and also the Hotel's premise was fabulous..
Pradeep chauhan Sir, Ved Singh Sir and Amit Sir had to leave early due to some personal commitments.

Around 3.30 PM the Alumni started taking the leave thanking and appreciating the efforts.
I went to Nishant Vardhan Sir's place to collect the pics of the meet..
Thus a memorable meet came to an end..Although many alumni were together in the city till late night..

Here i would also thank Vasu Jain sir and Nishant sir for capturing all the beautiful moments in their cameras..
Among the other attendees were Rahul Kunwar sir, Susheel Sir, Prakash Sir..
I hope I am not missing anyone...Will add to this list further...

The senior alumni suggested that such meets should be held quarterly coz after some years void comes into our lives..when money is no more a concern...and these meets will help in eliminating those voids..
The seniors enquired about the placement scene too...I informed them about the present conditions and the PPT plan...The seniors asked me to mail them the college brochure and the PPT so that they can do their bid in enhancing the placement of IET...

Overall the meet was a huge success..
I will request the Alumni to give their feedbacks and add to my narration...
And in the end i will just say...
" Agar kahin koi kami hai to wo meri lekhani me hai..is Alumni Meet me koi kami nhi thi..."..Courtesy Amitabh Bachchan in ANAND...

Thanks and regards,
Arun Chaturvedi..