Kanupriya Sindhu

Choosing your marketing channels

June 20, 2019

Many a times while conducting sessions on product marketing, I have audience profiles mix from both B2B and B2C organizations and more often than not, the standard assumption that I get to hear from these professionals would be:

I would like to learn “Linkedin Advertising” in detail as I am from B2B background and vice versa, i.e., I would like to learn “Facebook/Instagram Advertising” in detail as I am primarily from B2C background.

This I hear many times. When I say, many times, I really mean many-many times.

When I probe further and ask which digital channel do you think a brand like Mercedes Benz should advertise on? The answer in almost all sessions have been – it’s a B2C brand and hence Facebook.

It’s amazing to encounter this channel wise categorization time and again, this belief that LinkedIn is for B2B products and Facebook/Instagram is for B2C products. On a broader level, they are not wrong, that’s how these products have been positioned in the market – LinkedIn for business networking and Facebook for social networking.

But then we discuss case studies like this or this. How for a brand like Mercedes that needed to target the affluent segment, the information and “relevant targeting” options for their segment were available more on LinkedIn. And how a marketing professional like me ends up engaging with the content of HubSpot or MailChimp even on channels like Facebook or Instagram where I am “not” there for any professional networking.

When it comes to marketing in today’s era, where the thin line between our browsing behavior of personal and professional content at home or work is diminishing, where the amount of information that we are leaving on each platform varies, this channel wise assumption actually doesn’t hold much significance now.

More than the positioning of the channel, what is important is to go back to the basics of marketing which starts with:

– Who is my target audience?

– Where do they hang out?

– Where can I reach them more effectively?

– What kind of message would resonate with them on each channel?

– When is the best time to approach them?

The moment you will shift your focus from channel segmentation to audience segmentation, you will automatically get clarity on where you can target your audience better.

In fact many a time, you will end up doing multi-channel marketing, select your channels wisely. Of course, run after the obvious ones but don’t abandon any channel just because it has been positioned in your mind as B2B or B2C. If your audience is there, it’s time for you to think why not?

Before you think of channels, think customers.

It’s the first that’s always the hardest!

February 20, 2019

Two interesting incidents yesterday – one at work and one at home – both again reminded me of a very important lesson – it’s the first that’s always the hardest.

Yesterday, we went to a nearby cycling park with my 7 year old who has been cycling for months now and really enjoys cycling. Though as soon as we rented a cycle at the park for him, he refused to ride. The park had rough muddy patches unlike our apartment’s smooth cemented road and the cycle was a bit bigger than what he was used to. We tried to coax him but he just refused, again and again!

And then came our parenting storytelling skills to use (oh yes, as I always say, if children are one of the best negotiators, then parents are one of the best storytellers). We changed our pitch, we tried the following and these worked, albeit slow but worked:

Instead of saying – try it, it’s so easy, we changed it to – big boys ride big cycles, smaller ones are for babies. Riding bigger cycle will help you zoom faster (he loves speed).
If you’re getting scared of this muddy uphill slope, we will handhold you for the first patch. We will be there for you if you lose your balance and fall.
Try it out only for 1 minute. If you do not like it, we won’t ask you to cover the whole track. You can get down anytime you want.

Speed excites him and at his age, he has this strong desire to be not called a baby.

Handholding bit gave him the confidence to try.

Get down anytime you want, eased out his anxiety to go through the whole unknown track.

After a few initial hesitated pedals, he zoomed.

Simply put what worked here were:

Value Proposition

Trust

Trial

And I remembered the conversation with one of my clients on similar lines yesterday. They had launched a new product recently with good discounts too but were struggling to meet their conversion numbers. After my initial analysis of their target audience, I felt discounts may not be the biggest triggers for that target segment. They may need a different approach and the first 100 might need a different strategy altogether than the remaining mass.

I shared with them my previous organization’s experience about one of the products that I had worked from scratch, right from concept to launch.

Out of the approx. 10,000 conversions that happened there in 1 year, the first 100 took me more than 6 months and the remaining 9,900 happened in the remaining 6 months :-). And out those first 100, the first 10 were the toughest!

What worked there?

• I was personally involved in first 100 conversions, in fact, first 1000. No outsourcing at all to any external agency.

• A lot of time was spent in defining the value proposition for each stakeholder. Detailed understanding of different audience type was done and then my marketing pitch was customized depending upon the user profile and what would be of interest to them.

• Handholding, training and robust support during the onboarding process to build the trust.

• Trial to experience the product with transparent, no strings attached deboarding process.

• Taking all possible steps to ensure the first 100 who took a leap of faith with us had an excellent experience. Once they became happy, the word spread.

Be it anything in life, right from dealing with your child to your customer, it’s the “first” that’s always the toughest. Isn’t it :-)? But if done right, it’s the first that leads to second and so on.

Hello January

January 9, 2019

Hello January and hello 2019! I know, I am late and it’s already more than one week into January but then it isn’t still that late to wish you all a very happy new year. Hope your first week of 2019 was full of energy and zeal.

Speaking of zeal, I often wonder what is so special about January that makes everyone plan new things this month? Isn’t it just another change of date? Another flip (or swipe, in case of digital) in the calendar? But the more I think about it and the more I observe everyone around me, I love the magic that January brings along with it.

The magic of new hope and new beginnings

The magic of starting over again

The magic of new dreams and new desires

The magic of thinking afresh again

The magic of positivity and passion

The magic of believing again.

Indeed January is magical, for it brings an amazing amount of enthusiasm and fervor around us. I love how everyone gets busy making new plans, setting up new goals and deciding new milestones in their personal and professional lives. Even though half of those goals won’t be met, but I still love the fact that we at least try for newer things again.

As Meister Eckhart says,

“And suddenly you just know it’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.”

So, what are the new things you’re planning to do in 2019? Ok, may not be new and I agree, it needn’t be new but how about thinking on – how would you like this year to be for you?

Do think about it and list down a few points for yourself this January. It will help you reflect on the year went by when you will sit and think about 2019 on 31st December 2019.

Chronicling helps, trust me on that :-).

On that note, wish you all a very happy January. May the magic of January continue throughout the year and may your new beginnings be beautiful and bright. Have a happy twenty nineteen!

Business lessons from the grassroots

November 5, 2018

Some of my recent consulting work gave me the opportunity to meet and interact with small business owners from different parts of the country, most of them actually from tier 3 cities and beyond. These are small business owners with a formal education level of either 12th or graduation, typically operating out of certain areas in their respective towns and are doing profitable businesses worth few crores every year.

Both the projects that I am consulting for are around digitization and these require me to have an in-depth understanding of how these businessmen operate and their respective selling philosophies.

To say that it was an enriching experience would be an understatement. While I have been closely associated with startup & entrepreneurship world for more than a decade now but the kind of insights you get when you meet these grassroots level entrepreneurs is unparalleled!

No formal MBA degree, no entrepreneurship certification, yet a powerhouse of business wisdom and practical knowledge nuggets.

After meeting a few of them, I got so fascinated with their understanding of sales, marketing, customer relationship that I started taking notes :-).

Sharing some that I loved here translated into English. These are lessons that we know of, perhaps learned through books and repeat many a time during our conference room sessions, but listening to these from real doers in absolute rural language, was nothing less than fascinating :-).

Me: How do you always manage to sell higher ticket items?

Him 1: I don’t jump to selling directly. I first work towards building my relationship with my customer and build the trust. People here value my suggestions and words, once that trust is established, it’s not difficult to sell anything. (One line verbatim: “madam, long term dhanda karna hai toh sabse zaroori hai grahak ka vishwaas jeetna”).

Winning customer’s trust is very important to do a sustainable business.

Me: You have created two very different type of leaflets for the same product, why?

Him 2: Product is same but positioning matters. I customize my offering depending upon who is buying from me (One line verbatim: “jo vigyapan aapke aankh ko jachega wo zaroori nahi ki mujhe bhi jachega, jisko jo jache, usko wo dikhao sabse pehle”).

Segmentation matters and so does contextual targeting!

Me: Commuting to your place isn’t easy, yet people come to you for the repeat purchase. Why?

Him 3: I first start with understanding the general lifestyle and need of my customer. Instead of selling my product, I try to provide a solution to their needs. (One line verbatim: “itna competition hai market main, sabse peel aap decide karo aapka grahak aapse hi “kyun” khareedega. Ye “kyun” bah zaroori hai madam”).

Start with a “why”, why will someone buy from you?

Me: You have changed the corporate brochure, but that’s not allowed. Was it because you wanted it in the local language?

Him 4: Who cares for the features explained in a brochure unless it doesn’t communicate the benefits? Instead of saying good things about the product, I say how it can benefit you or add value to your life (One line verbatim: Kiske paas time hai aajkal itna padhne ki, kisi ko kya padi hai ki humara product kitna mahaan hai, agar aap grahak ko ye samjha do ki humara product uski zindagi ko kaise asaan ya behtar kar sakta hai toh wo jhat se le leta hai”.

Keep it simple and focus on benefits more than the features.

And my most favorite one 🙂

Me: You started working for the first time at the age of 48 and now I can see you’ve employed only women at this place. Wow, how did you convince them to come out of their homes?

Her: It’s easy, I didn’t convince them about working, I just showed them the change in my lifestyle. I am the first woman in this area to have my own Alto :-). In our area, when men work, its for food & shelter but when women also start to earn, it leads to a better lifestyle (One line verbatim: khana, ghar toh aadmi log la ke de dete hai, lekin apni marzi ka saree, ye selfie wala mobile phone ke liye apna income bahut zaroori hai”).

The lifestyle and prosperity of a family grow when a woman starts earning.

Aren’t these insights amazing? I so wish, I had recorded these responses and shared with you all. Would have been a gem of a podcast coming straight from the doers of Bharat :-).

Marketing to the search-it-all consumer

August 26, 2018

The recent report of Google states more than 100% growth for “best” search queries and even for smallest household items like a toothbrush or umbrella. While mobile searches for “best toothbrush” have grown more than 100%, for “best umbrellas” it has gone up by 140%. Wow, some search trivia this is, isn’t it :-)?

But why am I not surprised at these details? Isn’t it the norm now to hit the search button as soon as the word “buy” come to our mind? Be it the regular hygiene items or luxury holiday plans; we just cannot make a decision without searching for “best…..”.

Just yesterday, while picking up my son, I heard some mommies discussing steel lunch boxes over plastic ones, and one of the mommies immediately hit the search query for “best kids steel lunch box India.” Now, as someone who grew up in middle-class India, steel lunch boxes were very common during our childhood. In fact, if my memory supports me well, plain steel boxes were the only choices available to us as against the plethora of vibrant, colorful options accessible today. Assuming a steel box would be a steel box, I was a bit confused on this search for “best steel lunch box,” even though I am in that habit of searching for anything and everything before buying. But how wrong I was in my assumption! When I tried this search term later at home, I was amazed at the information available online – from listicles on “top 10 steel lunch box brands” to features comparison on Quora, the first page itself had tonnes of information on selecting the “best” “steel lunch box” for your child with details of features that you never thought could have mattered to you unless you read about them!

We, the consumers are informed and powerful like never before, aren’t we?

But where does this leave the job of marketers now? It’s getting tougher & interesting day by day. We know a lot more about our consumers, yet it’s difficult like never before to market your product. Forget about marketing your product; it’s actually a challenge in itself to get noticed by your consumers.

There are many changes that have happened drastically in the last five years, but the things that have changed completely for me ever since mobiles became pervasive would be the following:

Push is actually gone, it’s primarily about advising now. You really cannot push a product, even the pull created through glittery advertisement or seeded influencers have their charm up to a certain limit only. Whatever you speak about your brand, your connected consumer will do their own research. It’s better to try being the adviser for the problems that your consumer is searching for. And in this age of hyper personalization, one-size-fits-all advice won’t work too. Invest time in understanding and analyzing your consumers and be prepared with the personalized advisory approach.
Zero moment of truth is no more just another jargon; it matters like never before. When this term got coined by Google a few years back, my immediate reaction was – ah, yet another fancy lingo for the same old marketing concept that will be in trend for few years before something else comes up. But I can’t stress the importance of ZMOT now, Zero moment of truth is a reality and that too a very competitive one. Being there, with the right message, at the time when they have just started to think about exploring your product is critical. What does this mean to a normal marketer? Understand at what point the stimulus begins and the exploratory search starts, be there not only at that point but also at the peripheral points – the peripheries could be the search of a similar category or even industry competitors.
Authentic word of mouth is important, the operative word being “authentic”. Your well-researched consumers would like to listen to feedback and reviews about your products, and they very well know to distinguish between genuine and the seeded content. While seeding definitely helps in increasing the awareness and getting noticed but for the final purchase decision, positive WOM is imperative now. Word of mouth has always been important, but historically the front end sales team also used to have lots of power for convincing and recommending. Today with most of the purchases happening via screens, recommendations from friends and family act as strong stimuli during purchase consideration. Make the process of feedback & reviews by customers as seamless as your purchase process.

There are many other trends that have changed, but for me personally, I have experienced huge changes in these three. On one hand, I see push almost dying (in fact I think an informed consumer actually hates the “push”) and on the other, I see the personalized content being present at the zero moment of truth helping remarkably.

What is that one or two things in your marketing strategy that has changed completely now? Would love to hear your views in the comment section below.

Digital Marketing is NOT Product Marketing

June 19, 2018

Digital Marketing is NOT Product Marketing.

Even for digital-only products, this remains true.

Time and again, I have been observing this hiring trend where a digital marketer has been hired and is expected to perform the overall product marketing role. When I asked the reason behind this from one of the companies whom I was consulting recently, the answer was:

“Oh we have a limited budget for marketing and we just want to do some Facebook campaigns”.

Ok, that could be for now but what about later?

“Even later, we think our prime marketing channels to promote our products will be digital only”.

Sounds simple and fair enough, isn’t it?

But it’s not that simple in the real scenario. It’s a small company and this marketer is expected to own up the overall “growth” of the product – from awareness to consideration, from lead generation to conversion. Yes, the channels to be used are of course digital.

Considering I have worked in startups for long, I totally understand the need for resource optimization in smaller companies. I have also been a huge evangelist for digital medium ever since the start of my career but, just because your prime channel of promotion is going to be “digital”, you can not expect a digital marketer to do the overall job of product marketing.

The candidate could be an expert in understanding Facebook or might be a specialist in search engine optimization but these can’t be the be all end all of product marketing.

The role of a product marketer ideally starts from as early as the market validation stage, right when the product team starts to conceptualize the product. A typical product marketing role during launch would look something like this:

These roles may vary a bit depending upon the product category and organization, but overall a product marketer needs to have a holistic understanding of marketing and not just channel-specific approach.

Depending upon the growth stage of your organization and product, you may decide to hire the person at an appropriate time but before hiring, do invest some time in deciding your goals and objectives and hire the candidate with the right skills accordingly. You may even decide to give your digital marketer the overall product marketing role in future but this upskilling will take time and may not necessarily work always.

Thank you for visiting my blog & reading this post.

Context Marketing – 5Ws and 1H Model

May 31, 2018

This one is one of my favorite marketing quotes these days 🙂

Content and context matter the most today, isn’t it?

Before you proceed, can I request you to pause for few seconds and think about the last advertisement you clicked on any digital channel —just anywhere, any ad?

Before writing this post, I carried out this check multiple times and more often than not, I observed myself clicking on sponsored posts only if they were very appealing visually or the initial blurb looked emotional or entertaining or had the specific information I’d tried to find recently. In a nutshell, it’s the content and context that made me click. I am sure, it’s the similar trigger for many of you. There’s nothing new in this; since ages it’s the content and context that have been working for marketing but in this current era of digital excess and content overload, these are the only two things that matter the most – great content and right context!

You might be having great content but if you haven’t figured out the right channel and the right time to deliver your content, it’s gone. And same would be true vice versa, a perfectly planned campaign with the right audience segmentation is of no use unless you have content that can attract and connect with your audience.

While almost everyone is aware of the value of good content and context but the truth is, very few focus on the these holistically. Content is a lot more than beautiful visuals or infographics and context is much more than just geo-targeting or re-marketing. One of the most fundamental definitions of context marketing is, “delivering the right content, to the right people, at the right time.” Sounds simple, doesn’t it? However, the more data we have about our user, the complex it gets to do contextual marketing. There are many framework and tools available that you can use to plan your content marketing but for context marketing, it’s evolving every day, simply because the algorithms and engagement level at each channel are changing at a very dynamic pace.

Personally, for me, the framework that always works for context is the traditional 5Ws & 1H model. As long as a marketer you spend sufficient time on your Ws and H, more than half of your task of segmentation and user understanding is done. Although it looks simple, I think very few follow it diligently. Next time you think of promoting your content, spend some time to address the following:

Found this relevant? Feel free to share it but may I please request you to credit this image to www.kanupriyasindhu.com

Who?: Like any other kind of marketing, setting up a context starts with “WHO”. Who is your audience? What’s his/her personality? How would you describe him/her? Sketch out the “who” part using any good persona template. The clearer you are about the “who” part of your target, the easier it would be to plan out your marketing campaigns.
Why?: Once you’ve defined your audience, it’s extremely important to address the “WHY”. “Why” should your audience notice you or click through you? If you don’t have a “why”, it’s highly unlikely that your audience will have a “why” to click through your content. Have a purpose and address your user’s needs. As long as you provide answers to their needs, they will always have a reason to be attracted and engaged with you.
What?: Delve deep into your audience’s behavior and you will get the answers to your “WHAT”s. What has been the purchase behavior of your audience? What kind of campaign interested them? What kind of campaigns escaped their notice? What are his interests, what stage of buying cycle is she at? The more you are aware of what interests him/her, the more contextual you can be.
When?: Earlier, the “WHEN” part was the simplest of all to define. Not anymore. In this multi-screen, hyper-connected age, this is the trickiest to define. Your audience could actually be looking out for you almost anytime, anywhere. Do some data digging and figure out if there is any “when” trend that exists, like, what time of the day, which day of the week, any seasonality during holidays or festivals etc.
Where?: “WHERE” forms a very important part of contextual targeting, from location to devices, from channels to platforms, know your user’s preferences and target them accordingly.
How?: And the last bit, “HOW” to do contextual marketing? Well, as long as we have the answer of all Ws and, then if we merge the demographics with behavior and needs, we can target the right audience, with the right messages, at the right time. A detailed post on “how” to do contextual marketing is coming up soon as the second part of this post.

Till then, I’d love to know more about your favorite tools and framework for context marketing.

If you found this post interesting, it would mean a lot to me if you could click on the “like” button below to let me know. Thank you!

*Icons used in the image from iconscout.com

Great storytelling works, always!

February 28, 2018

The moment I had seen this post on Linkedin, I was sure it would be a hit. When I had spotted it first few days back, views and likes were not even in hundreds and today with thousands of likes, views, and shares, there is no doubt once again that great storytelling works, almost always, in marketing and everywhere else!

In this attention economy age, imagine a candidate pitching her/his profile by speaking for more than 2 minutes or by writing a post of more than 400 words? Do you think you would be able to focus on it without any distraction?

Now imagine the same pitch presented to you visually as a story like this? Chances are, you will be hooked and end up watching it just like me.

This particular video is a great example of brilliant marketing in many ways but for me, most importantly it’s a great example of stunning visual storytelling.

From,

Context to Characters

Entertainment to Engagement

Emotion to Narration

Action to Conclusion

It has all the elements to make it a COMPELLING story.

And it has a very definitive call for action, making it a story that compels you to act.

What more can I as a marketer expect from a powerful story?

I am sure this candidate would land/have landed up a great role in marketing by now. As for me, this video not only engaged me but it has its lasting effect on me to an extent that I am going to use it as a wonderful reference for the power of storytelling in marketing.

I have always believed in the persuasive power of visual storytelling, in case you would like to check out one of my recent posts on visual storytelling, you may find one here.

Finding the influencer for your brand

January 30, 2018

I was recently conducting a workshop on digital marketing and while we were just at Instagram 101, some of the first few questions that I was asked were –

How to earn money from my Instagram page?

How to make brands pay me?

We have heard brands pay thousands of rupees for just one Insta post, how do we get such deals?

I want to be an influencer, as social media influencers make lots of money by just posting a photo or writing few lines.

This from an audience who was just starting with Instagram and other social channels!

Quick money attracts anyone and the idea of being paid thousands for just writing few lines on Insta or blog sounds very lucrative but in reality, it’s far from true.

Influencer marketing like any other channel of marketing requires some serious time and effort and unless you build your reach, credibility, and authority, there is no way you can establish yourself as a marketing channel.

To add to that, in this age of content clutter and media overload, it’s extremely difficult to cut through the noise and stand out in the crowd. I am no influencer on Instagram or elsewhere, so I don’t think I can give sure shot insights on how to be an influencer but I have been on the other side of the table for almost 15 years now – hiring endorsers, brand advocates, and influencers for all the brands that I have worked with till now. So, I can definitely give some insight on what all I look for when I engage with influencers for my brands.

1. Relevance: For me, this is one of the top criteria while engaging with an influencer. There are enough debates around reach vs relevance but in my personal experience, the subject matter credibility and relevance of influencer’s target audience matter a lot. Think of a juice brand being promoted by a food blogger or fitness expert vs. a travel blogger? Juice is a category that has a possibility of being consumed by almost any kind of audience but as a follower, your perception towards receiving a recommendation for a juice brand by a fitness expert will be different than from a travel blogger.

2. Reach: Of course reach is very important, no marketing channel can survive without sufficient reach but reach doesn’t mean only a very high number of followers. Reach is also a lot about engagement and interactions per post. For e.g., I definitely do a quick check on the quality of interactions on influencer’s last ten sponsored posts as one of the parameters to evaluate the effectiveness of the promoted content by the influencer.

3. Persona: Your brand has a persona and it’s extremely important to find influencers whose personas resonate with your brand. From the tone of voice to the type of content – it helps if influencers persona is aligned with the brand. While this sounds very simple but in reality, it’s quite a task to find the right fit. For a long time, I have been working for a photography brand. Now photography is a category, where almost anyone and everyone thinks he/she is an influencer. In this age of easy access to high-end cameras and millions of editing apps, it actually takes a few seconds to create gorgeous photos for your Insta feed. But I have observed it many times that just the ability to click perfect shots or having a large number of followers doesn’t necessarily translate to being an effective influencer for a photography brand. Sometimes the tonality doesn’t suit our brand and sometimes the quality of content. Finally, this is also a marketing channel and like any other marketing initiative, it’s important to have consistent brand persona while engaging with influencers too.

4. Content: The ability of influencer to create unique and authentic content is something very, very important for me. Influencer marketing is not only about promoting brand content as it is, but it’s a lot about engaging users with original content that’s relevant for brands as well as interesting for the audience. The more genuine the content would be with Influencer’s natural tone of voice, the more audience will trust. Influencer’s ability to create interesting content is a huge value ad to brand’s social media repository of user-generated content. There are many examples to highlight the same but one of the recent brands that I noticed doing it efficiently is Epigamia Yogurt. Many food bloggers participated in this campaign and they created beautiful Yogurt Art using Epigamia products and posted it on Instagram with hashtag #yogArt . Not only followers like me came to know of all the new flavors of Epigamia but we also got to know of many interesting ways this yogurt can be used in our day to day meals. And the best that I observed as a marketer was the gorgeous Insta feed of Epigamia – full of super creative user-generated photos using Epigamia products that would have otherwise taken huge time and investment for the brand to create! I know there are many brands who have created success stories like Epigamia but we also know of cases, like that of a recent mobile launch in India where almost all endorsers, celebrities, and influencers posted the same type of content on their social feed including the one where the influencer was praising the picture quality of this android phone but the picture was posted from an iOS :-).

5. Connect: The term “influencer” by definition is a person who has the ability to influence the behavior or opinions of others and it can only happen if the influencer shares a certain kind of relationship and connect with his / her audience. It’s important to evaluate the return visitors, comments, and quality of interaction between the influencers with their followers. And as far as authentic connect is concerned, there is no way one can do it through any shortcut, it has to be human and it has to be personal.

These are just some of the parameters that I take into consideration. I am sure others have some more parameters as well. In nutshell, it takes a whole lot of effort to be an influencer with credibility after whom brands run with a fat cheque. At least I haven’t met any real-life influencer yet who became an overnight success through quick hacks or digital bot programs :-).

2017 – the year that once again reminded me…

December 31, 2017

None of these are new, we all know but somewhere these get buried down in our daily humdrum of life. 2017 was a year that once again reminded me…

To LIVE, before the moment is gone. Life changes in a blink, LIVE today as we may not get that chance tomorrow.
To be able to breathe, stand on your own feet and eat without any support system are all that we need to be alive. Rest whatever we have is luxury.
That time is indeed the best healer. When the going is tough and you can’t figure out any solution, it’s best to leave everything on time. Even the roughest patches of life lead to some direction with time.
To prioritize what matters the most. When you’re near death, you actually get flashbacks and wish you had done “this” or “that” more. These “this” or “that” are only & only about relationships and nothing else. From – ‘wish I could see my child once again’ to ‘wish I had spent some more happier times with my partner’, in that trance state of mind, you think of only people and relationships.
That, things could be worse any time, any day! Be thankful for whatever you have, there is always someone who is fighting a battle tougher than yours. Every time I remember the night when the person next to my bed in ICU died despite lesser injuries whereas I survived, I just say thank you – to God, to my fate and to the prayers and blessings of all the well-wishers in my life.
To smile! When you’re happy, smile but even when you’re sad, try to smile. Smiling through tough times gives you strength and courage of a different kind. Hey wait, smile in life has a technical requirement too – when I had maxillofacial fractures and lost all my front teeth in this accident, I had to go for many teeth reconstruction and dental implant surgeries. My dental surgeon was trying hard to understand how my teeth looked pre-accident. We scouted through many old photos and her feedback to me was – “Kanupriya, in none of your photos you’re smiling openly or laughing out loud. You should smile more.” Oh yeah, as if I knew one fine day I will have to refer to my old pics to see how my teeth used to look when I smiled!!

But technically my doctor was correct – one should smile more often and smile while you still have your teeth intact 🙂

On that note, wish you a 2018 full of love, laughter, and fun! Cheers to new beginnings and new dreams. Have a fabulous year ahead!

Choosing your marketing channels

– Who is my target audience?

– Where do they hang out?

– Where can I reach them more effectively?

– What kind of message would resonate with them on each channel?

– When is the best time to approach them?

It’s the first that’s always the hardest!

Hello January

Business lessons from the grassroots

Winning customer’s trust is very important to do a sustainable business.

Segmentation matters and so does contextual targeting!

Start with a “why”, why will someone buy from you?

Keep it simple and focus on benefits more than the features.

The lifestyle and prosperity of a family grow when a woman starts earning.

Marketing to the search-it-all consumer

Digital Marketing is NOT Product Marketing

Context Marketing – 5Ws and 1H Model

Great storytelling works, always!

Context to Characters

Entertainment to Engagement

Emotion to Narration

Action to Conclusion

2017 – the year that once again reminded me…

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The Netflix Effect In Marketing

Don’t build your content house on rented land

The psychology behind countdowns

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Thing I have been blogging about

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