Hello Everyone, Hope you all guys are doing well.
Today, we are introducing our new category of “Interview With Biharis”. Hope you guys will support this initiative.
So, Today, we are going to take an interview of Prabhat Singh who is the founder of Digital Hashtag. Prabhat Kumar Singh is an entrepreneur and Community Creator at WordPress Durgapur & DiVi Kolkata.
Today is 11-11-2020, and guess what, today is his birthday. So we decided to publish this article on his birthday as a birthday gift.
So, lets start an interview with Prabhat Kumar Singh.
How did you start your career? How does an engineer become the owner of a digital marketing agency?
In 2018, I started my career as an Engineer. While working, I was continuously in touch with the junior students at my college. They were in the final year and very worried about their career due to the poor condition of placement in college.
I realized that we are getting away from the purpose of education i.e is to open up the mind of students and prepare them to face the world. I decided to come back to Durgapur and work with these students.
Determined to do something for the Society, I started with trying to understand how the online industry works. At that time I was good at marketing and networking. It has always fascinated me to learn how to communicate in a way that reaches and connects with an audience.
These students had some idea of graphics designing and content writing. After discussing with them we decided to give it a try. The seed of Digital Hashtag was planted in 2018.
The idea was to create a digital marketing agency with a vision to help startups and small businesses in building their “Identity”. We started our venture by simply paying for a domain name and web hosting. We had nothing to lose anyhow so we gave it a try.
Now when I look back at that decision of mine, I feel very satisfied because I created a small ecosystem in Durgapur. I’m delighted with the way things have shaped up in my endeavors.
It has worked out very well. The team has grown from powerful to powerful since then. Starting from no-where to having clients in multiple cities.
It has not been easy for us to build the ecosystem. We organized free workshops/seminars for students to encourage them. Currently, in Digital Hashtag, 30% of the trainees are getting trained from us without any cost.
What services or products do you offer in Digital Hashtag? What is unique about your business?
In digital Hashtag, we provide end to end services of digital marketing. After so many months on the ground, we’re also seasoned trailblazers. This is why our clients come back time & time again and their positive feedback furthers motivates to set bigger milestones.
From web strategies and user experience to development and marketing, Digital Hashtag creates value in everything we do. We deliver digital solutions through web design and development, Search Engine Optimization, Social media management, pay per click and digital content and videos.
We don’t believe in offering an idea without figuring out how to follow it through. When it comes to developing a concept for businesses, we do the research, the writing, the design and we promote it when it’s finished. We’re known for designs that are visually stunning, encourage action, and created with the intent to convert.
Have you raised money for your business from investors? If not, tell us about how you have managed.
We have never raised any funding for the company. The secret to being in a profitable digital marketing business is that we succeeded in generating positive ROI for our business. If we can do this for ourselves and our customers, the business is sure to grow.
In the initial stage, we provided graphics designing service for less than the cost of coffee. We recruited the right kind of people in Digital Hashtag and retained productive and loyal employees.
It helped us for smooth functioning. We created a culture where team members received satisfaction from working instead of rewarding them with things we could not afford.
Do you think that Digital Marketing is a threat to the future of conventional marketing?
Biggest advantage of Digital Marketing in comparison to traditional marketing is ROI calculation, which is not very easy in traditional marketing tactics.
Another benefit is, you can resume or stop any of your digital campaigns in just one click, which are very important from marketing budget point of view. You have better control on your spending, you can focus on the activity which are deriving results and stop which are not performing well.
Even you can track Real time results which are not possible in other forms of marketing. People are spending more time on the internet.
Newspapers have been replaced by e-media content and e-commerce is also growing rapidly. These are some indicators which clearly indicate the boom of the internet.
Digital marketing provides cost effective marketing platform with the ability to reach billions of users in a very short time.
Why do startups fail in digital marketing strategy ?
Many business owners neglect to characterize key performance indicators.They focus on increasing reach in terms of reach and visitors. While reach is vital but it’s not adequate.
For example, If your website receives 1.5x traffic of your competitors but if your website conversions are less than half of your competitors, you would still be having lower ROI than your competitors.
In addition to pay attention to increasing your website reach, pay attention to the entire funnel. So as to meet ultimate objectives is the key to success in digital media.
If you had the best piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?
The first advice I would give is avoid reading too little or too much. It’s important to implement more than just accumulating knowledge. While the second and most important advice would be to have patience.
Nothing comes easy while growth hacks are good, look for things which are long-term and scalable.
Think big, think processes but don’t lose the innovation and creative touch. Stay away from clickbait content that promises you exponential growth in a very short time. Stay ethical, success will definitely follow you.
When we talk about digital marketers, what image do you see of them?
A digital marketer should be the first marketer and then a digital marketer. I always say that I am more of a marketer than a digital marketer.
Understanding copywriting, product market fit, finding out the needs of the audience, out-of-the box thinking, how to do market research, Analytical Mind, thinking long-term about the business, and a genuine interest in improving the lives of the users are the top skills that a digital marketer should have.
He/she should pursue a great deal of books, compose a ton, connect with individuals around the globe and as a general rule be curious about everything.
I hope you gained a lot of things from this interview. If you have any questions for Prabhat, please leave a comment below. And I will make sure Prabhat answers them.
Thanks and Peace Out
Humans Of Bihar