Kinnecting With Rohan Mehta On Digital Marketing, CEO of Social Kinnect

In this golden era of digital, it is imperative for a business to have a digital presence. Although establishing various accounts on social media platforms is a piece of cake, it is quite a task to generate revenue from it.

Social Kinnect is a full-service digital marketing agency that has not only helped various brands such as Radio Mirchi, Asian Paints and Indiabulls with solutions to their various contemporary marketing problems, but has also earned a reputation as one of Asia’s top digital marketing agencies.

We got a chance to interview Rohan Mehta, the co-founder and CEO of Social Kinnect. He has been named one of the “50 Most Influential Digital Marketing Leaders” by World Marketing Congress and “50 Most Influential Digital Marketing Professionals” by CMO Council Asia. We asked him some of the most common questions about the digital marketing industry and the future of digital marketing. So, let’s get started with the interview:

Q. What is meant by Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is a way of marketing your products or services online using digital technologies, mainly on the internet. Businesses do so with the use of digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, and their websites to connect with their potential customers, as well as previous customers.

Over the years, I’ve watched some of the most well-known marketers choose digital marketing over traditional marketing because of how it allows them to reach the ideal target audience as customers can be found in one place: online. Digital marketing has become a guaranteed way to send your marketing message to the right audience at the right time.

Q. What does Digital Marketing include?

Digital marketing comprises various tactics used to propagate your brand. This includes:
1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
2. Social Media Marketing (SMM)
3. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
4. Web Development
5. Web Analytics
6. Content Marketing
7. Email Marketing
8. Remarketing
9. Influencer Management
10. Affiliate Marketing and so on.

Q. Why should I do Digital Marketing?

Well, if you plan on joining a company or an agency, you must know that to a company, the most important set of people are the ones who are able to generate revenue for the company. Everybody else is secondary.

Digital marketing helps you be that primary person of importance as digital marketing tactics ensure that you don’t need to go door to door to bring in revenue. These tactics allow you to become a big contributor in helping the company bring in more revenue.

Q. How did Covid impact the Digital Marketing Industry?

The pandemic accelerated digital adoption and over 80% spends on digital was driven by businesses looking at rewiring their operating models for the new normal. Thus, despite covid, digital marketing is here to stay.

You May Want To Read: Scope of Digital Marketing in India 2021 – Covid Updated 

Q. How can I learn Digital Marketing?

Any individual can learn digital marketing through online courses or by doing intensive classroom training or by learning from blogs like NeilPatel.com or The Moz Blog. Basically, if you are really keen on learning digital marketing, you can learn it in any way. You can pick a way of learning that doesn’t hinder your other productive hours much.

However, if you’re the type of person who needs dutiful monitoring and enforcement to complete the course, then you should opt for offline classroom training.

Q. What should I learn under Digital Marketing?

Under digital marketing, there are various skills that you need to learn to excel in the digital space today. However, I can narrow it down to two skills, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Marketing (SMM).

Why these two skills, you ask? Because through these two skills you’ll be able to cater to B2B as well as B2C businesses. These two skills should help you steer your marketing career in a more profitable direction.

Check This Out: Digital Marketing Course Syllabus

Q. How can I become a successful Digital Marketer?

To become a successful digital marketer you need two things, education, and experience.
You need to have in-depth knowledge about the various concepts of digital marketing and stay up-to-date with new trends in digital marketing.

After education, you should work and gain some digital marketing experience. If you wish to gain a lot of experience and grow faster as an individual, then I’d suggest you join a smaller agency. A larger agency will no doubt help you gain experience but not as much as a smaller agency would.

Q. What are the courses in Digital Marketing?

There are a lot of options available to learn digital marketing. You can either take up a weekend or a weekday digital marketing course depending on your schedule.

In these programs, you will get to learn all the essentials of digital marketing such as SEO, SEM, Web Analytics, SMM, Web Development, Content Strategy, Media Planning, Remarketing, Email Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Influencer Management, E-Commerce Management, Online Reputation Management, Blogging, AdSense and Affiliate Marketing.

Q. Where can I learn digital marketing in India?

You can learn digital marketing on an online platform, for example, on an education website/app like Udemy.com, or watch videos on YouTube. One can also learn digital marketing through training courses like IIDE.

If you’re a disciplined learner, you can always learn digital marketing by yourself, either with the help of textbooks or with the help of blogs like DigitalDeepak.com.

Q. Which is the best Digital Marketing course?

Haha! I feel really biased when I say this but I’ve been hiring a huge percentage of my employees from the Indian Institute of Digital Education (IIDE) as they have been bestowing us with really promising talents. I personally prefer IIDE students as they have been taught every digital concept in-depth along with practical knowledge in their digital marketing course.

But of course, we also hire students from Xavier Institute of Communications (XIC), Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication (SIMC), and Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA).

Q. What are the fees for the Digital Marketing course?

If you’re looking at an online course, the fee can range from Rs. 700 – Rs. 3,500 (10$-50$). Many offline classroom training institutes charge students ranging from Rs. 19,600 – Rs. 1,47,000 ($280-$2100). I highly recommend students not consider education as an expense but an investment. In the long run, quality education will always help you. You just have to find the right fit between your budget and the institute that makes sense for you.

IIDE is providing a certified digital marketing course at INR 67,795 ($910) + taxes and I personally think the fees are justified because of the type of instructors and content they are providing their students with.

Q. What can I do after a Digital Marketing course?

You have a lot of career opportunities after learning digital marketing, as every skill under digital marketing opens new doors for you. You can become an SEO expert, SEM Specialist, SMM Expert, Content Marketing Manager, CRM manager, E-Commerce Manager, Web Analytics expert, Digital marketing manager, Blogger, Freelancer, or Entrepreneur.

Q. One piece of advice you would like to give our readers?

I’d suggest all your readers to never stop learning and invest in themselves before investing in anything else. To learn more digital skills like graphic designing, coding, or even data science for that matter as the world is going digital. This will not only help you become an unbeatable marketer but also help you get ahead of yourself.

We hope that this interview was able to give you a view of what digital marketing is all about and what its future is. If you have any questions, comment below, and we will be happy to answer them!