Dibakar Bala is known as India’s first conversion-focused digital marketer.
He has worked with some of the top music industry celebrities in the world.
Currently, he acts as a remote digital marketing manager for many big corporations, handling teams of various sizes.
Founder of EVehic.com, an automotive digital marketing agency You can learn more about him at DibakarBala.com.
How did you start out as a marketer?
I was in my first year of college (2015) when I launched my first startup.
It was a content and graphic firm, and I was writing the content. Back then, I had no interest in marketing.
I was doing engineering at one of the world’s top technical institutes, IIT Kharagpur.
Looking back, what was your hardest struggle when it came to delivering results?
My biggest struggle was to communicate with my clients consistently.
I am an introvert, and I would not say I liked speaking much.
On the contrary, I never struggled with delivering results.
How did you get your first client back then, and what kind of service did you do for them?
I started my blog initially as a music blog.
Very soon, I started ranking for some music marketing terminologies.
One of the top celebrities read my content and reached out to me. Simply put, I got my first client from Google Featured Snippet.
What do you find most rewarding about what you do?
Ever since childhood, I have loved to experiment with new things.
Digital marketing is an extremely fast-changing industry.
It keeps me motivated to learn new things and come up with unique ideas.
We have a lot of readers who are bent on becoming freelancers. Aside from freelancing, how else can someone earn online? And what is your advice?
Create your community. It doesn’t have to be many people.
Even a thousand raving fans can set you up financially for the rest of your life.
The best way to build a community is to bring transformations into other people’s lives.
If you were given the chance to build your career all over again, what would you do differently so that you could achieve your dreams faster?
This is a no-brainer. I would invest in my learning.
Initially, I was adamant about learning from free internet sources. But, ever since I started buying courses, I have saved a lot of time.
Also, I think networking is the key to success if you are dealing with high-ticket clients. People will never pay you much money without trust.
How is your typical work day structured?
I do the biggest, dirtiest, and most boring job upfront in the morning.
It has helped me a lot in client service.
Once I have worked on my client projects, I will focus on building my brand.
Can you tell us about a time where you had to put in significant effort up front and then wait a long time for success?
I had to blog for 3 years before seeing my first visitor on the website.
I was not focused on a particular niche in my blog from day one and kept moving from one topic to another.
Also, I was very afraid of investing money in paid keyword research tools and education.
You’ve been tasked with redesigning the company’s brand strategy from the ground up. Walk us through your process.
Firstly, I am not a brand strategist. I am not a graphic designer.
But I think one should never try to reinvent the wheel.
Make a list of your competitors and spy on their digital assets—blogs, YouTube, social media, and communities.
See what is working for them and emulate it with a spin of your uniqueness.
Can you tell us about a past situation where you had to juggle multiple projects with competing deadlines?
I have never struggled with deadlines.
Although I struggled a lot with communicating the value of the work to my clients,
If I were running paid advertisements, I hated creating reports, despite the remarkable results I’d gotten out of their advertising budget.
What recently developed marketing strategy, technique, or tool interests you the most right now?
SEO experts should watch out for Google Web Stories.
As we see ad costs going up, conversion rate optimization is something that will gain traction.
Creating a kick-ass video sales letter is also a great skill. Campaign budget optimization from Facebook is a game-changer for many social media marketers.
Lastly, educating yourself about programmatic media buying will set you up for the next digital marketing wave.
What do you do to stay up-to-date with new marketing techniques?
Google Chrome’s suggested articles are a great place to stay on top of industry trends.
Next, the best method would be to network with your fellow digital marketers.
Stop competing and start building relationships.
Can you tell us about a project you’re most proud of from your past work history?
This year itself, I took one of my clients’ Instagram accounts from 1000+ followers to 200,000+ followers using paid ads.
If you know Facebook ads, they don’t have Instagram followers as a campaign objective.
I had to use viral marketing strategies, influencer marketing, organic growth hacks, and paid marketing together to get the most engaged followers at the lowest possible cost.
Which one book or blog post would you recommend every marketer read?
The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib
This book is for both marketers and business owners.
What advice would you share with other marketers who want to become more productive?
Get done with your client’s work early in the morning.
Client satisfaction is very important if you want to create credibility in the market.
If there’s one marketing guru you’d recommend, who and why?
In SEO, it would be Brian Dean.
In copywriting, it would be Neville Medhora.
Sam Ovens is great with Facebook ads and persuasive marketing overall.
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