Revolutionizing B2B Marketing Through Storytelling | Vikram Ghatge from Tech Dogs

Ernesto Quezada: Pathmonk is the intelligent tool for website lead generation. With increasing online competition, over 98% of website visitors don’t convert. The ability to successfully show your value proposition and support visitors in their buying journey separates you from the competition online. Pathmonk qualifies and converts leads on your website by figuring out where they are in the buying journey and influencing them in key decision moments. With relevant micro experiences like case studies, intro videos and much more, stay relevant to your visitors and increase conversions by 50%. Add Pathmonk to your website in seconds. Let the AI do all the work and get access to 50% more qualified leads while you keep doing marketing and sales as usual. Check us at pathmonk.com. Welcome to today’s episode. Let’s talk about today’s guest. We have Vikram from Tech Dogs, senior director of marketing with them. How are you doing today, Vic?

Vikram Ghatge: I’m doing great. And so how about yourself?

Ernesto: I’m doing great.

Vikram: Great.

Ernesto: Thank you so much for asking. And, well, I’m sure, Vic, our listeners are tuning in wondering what Tech Dogs is all about. So in your own words, tell us a little bit more.

Vikram: Well, I mean, there’s a lot that we can do, but in a sense, Tech Dogs is a digital publisher, right? We are also a lead and demand generation agency and we’re aspiring to be a social media platform specifically tailored to technology enthusiasts around the globe. What we’re essentially offering to technology enthusiasts across the globe is a rich repository of articles, case studies, thought leadership, content guides, ebooks and so on. On the platform itself, everybody can dive into subjects like artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, data networking. We have about 700 odd categories of content on the website itself. What makes us different, I think from a lot of British publishers out there today, is that we want to ensure that not only our audiences are up to date with what’s happening in the world of technology, but at the same time, we want to ensure that we are presenting the content that we are creating in ways that are relatable and digestible. We want to really make technology accessible to a broader audience today. I mean, if you went on the site today, right from, like I said, thought-provoking case studies to reports to events, you can really learn and connect in a very dynamic and rich environment.

Ernesto: Interesting. Thanks for sharing that. And so that way our listeners could get a good understanding there of Tech Dogs.

Vikram: Vic, what would you say is a key problem that you guys like to solve for your clients?

Vikram: Well, I think one of the most important problems that we try to resolve for audiences across is how do you identify resources that will help you stay updated? So when you are really looking at a buyer’s journey for any product or software that you’re developing or wanting to buy, you’re out there and searching across thousands of vendors. We want to learn not only what the technology does, but also how it can benefit you. At the same time, what are some of the best vendors out there who can really help you scale, maybe driving efficiencies and so on. Essentially, what we’re trying to solve is the problem of content dissemination. At one point, what we’re also trying to do is that we are trying to make sure that brands are able to tell their stories far more effectively on the website and through our platform as well. Finally, I think brands want themselves to be out there, ensuring that they have the visibility in that sense of what and where they could go and essentially talk about. So that’s some of the problems that we’re really trying to solve.

Ernesto: Definitely. Okay, thank you so much for sharing with us, Vic.

Ernesto: So then, is there a certain vertical segment that Tech Dogs likes to go for?

Vikram: Well, in that sense, we’ve not really focused on any specific segment or industry, and we are agnostic. There are two sides to the business, obviously. One side of the business is ensuring to have a lot of audiences on the platform. The second side of the business is obviously, you know, we’re working with, we’re trying to speak to brands and get them on the platform itself so they can showcase themselves, talk about what they are doing, maybe share interesting content pieces that they’ve written, or just really put the word out there in forms of webinars or case studies or reports or videos.

Ernesto: Okay, perfect. Awesome. Thanks so much for sharing that. So then how would somebody usually find out about Tech Dogs? What would you say is the top client acquisition channel for you guys?

Vikram: Well, for us, I think, our audience will generally discover Tech Dogs through a variety of channels. To begin with, obviously, there’s the organic search route that we focus a lot on. Then there’s the social media channel. We have an active presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other major platforms. What we’re really trying to do is build a community and foster engagement. From the business side of it, there’s a lot of focus on performance marketing, where we obviously use Google Ads or Facebook ads or LinkedIn ads to acquire leads for ourselves. Towards the end, we probably focus on email marketing. The channel is within a lot of references and collaborations.

Ernesto: Okay, awesome, great. Thank you so much for sharing that. And so that way our listeners who are tuned in can visit you. They could always check you guys out at techdogs.com. What role does the website play for client acquisition?

Vikram: Well, I think for us, the website is the cornerstone of our client acquisition strategy. It is a primary gateway for our potential clients to learn about our services, engage with our content, and ultimately we’re hoping that they take some sort of action. I think for us, the website is also important because it helps us establish credibility, helps us build trust, and essentially through the website itself, through the design, through the compelling messaging that we’re doing, all the user-friendliness that we’ve built into the website, we’re trying to create an online prestigious experience that resonates.

Ernesto: All right, awesome, great to hear that. On that note then, is there any tools or tips that you would recommend to our listeners as far as the website lead generation?

Vikram: For us, this is a very ongoing discussion because we are at both sides of the business. At one point, you try to get audiences, like I said, and then there’s trying to get businesses to work with us. I think, for us, what has worked or something that I would recommend is trying to understand the user behavior of the site. At the same time, what are some of the strategic optimization techniques that you deploy based on some of the data that you gather? At the end of the day, I believe that experience matters and that’s just not limited to the UX. In a sense, when you go out to a website, it’s not just how user-friendly or how intuitive it was, but also the colors, the kind of imagery, the kind of content, that matters. I think that is something that we really focus on as well. Finally, I think, like I said, it’s about taking those strategic optimizations, and for that, we do use a lot of tools. Some of the tools that I really like, one of them is Microsoft Clarity. Obviously, there’s Google Analytics to go with, and I think they’ve served us well so far, in our end.

Ernesto: All right, awesome, great. Thank you so much for sharing that. And so then, let’s switch gears a little bit. Let’s talk about your day-to-day work. You being the leader there, being the senior director of marketing for Tech Dogs, what does your day look like, Vic?

Vikram: So I think, for me, a day-to-day work focus would be primarily, first is driving growth, driving growth for the business at multiple facets. The second would be fostering innovation. The third would be delivering value to our clients. Today, when I’m working with businesses or cross-functional teams to develop and refine our marketing strategies, we’re trying to figure out what is standing out in the market, what are the opportunities for growth, and what are some of the executions that I’m going to do based on what my understanding has been. I think people are at the very core of what we do here at the end of things. So for me, ensuring that every team member is able to achieve this potential is very important. I focus a lot on a world of AI where you really don’t need to do anything, and AI does it for you. But I really do believe that critical thinking skills are going to be paramount for success when you’re dealing with AI, and that’s something that I’m really focusing on with my team, wanting to have them do the research, really think through a problem, and then take maybe AI’s help to refine it a bit.

Ernesto: Awesome. All right, that sounds like you have a full plate on your hands, but you got it well organized. Awesome to hear that from you, Vic. We’ll jump into our next section then here, which is our rapid-fire question round. Are you ready for that?

Vikram: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely perfect.

Ernesto: Awesome. So then, first up, what is the last book that you read?

Vikram: I’m reading this book called “Design Your Thinking” by Pawan Soni. The reason I picked up this book was because, in this book, he talks about how do you reframe problems to figure out innovative solutions? Essentially, what ends up happening a lot of the times is you’re looking at a problem just through one lens. And if you really looked at that problem and reframed it multiple times, you’d probably have different solutions come up. That’s something that I was wanting to do when I was trying to build up these verticals within Tech Dogs. So, yeah, I’ve been a huge proponent of that, and this book is really just aligning me to do a lot more.

Ernesto: Absolutely. Awesome. Great to hear that. Next up then, if there would be no boundaries in technology, what would be that one thing that you want to have fixed for your role as a marketer today?

Vikram: I don’t know. I think with the advent of AI, the game changes quite a lot. So what you were doing, I mean, automation was the first thing that came in. But with AI, I truly believe that there will be intelligence that will be built into tools and solutions. It will allow us for enhanced personalization. We’ll be able to analyze data a lot better. We’ll be able to ensure that decisions we are making are thought through. And at the end, I think what it will help us do is that when we, as marketers, are conceptualizing a marketing campaign, it will probably tell us how to first conceptualize it better, but then how to execute it even better. And finally, optimize it to the level that will give us far better results than it would have otherwise given.

Ernesto: Interesting. Thank you for sharing that. Next, if there’s one repetitive task that you could automate, what would that be?

Vikram: We have this ongoing joke within the team itself. There’s a lot of data, and we need to figure out how to automate data processing and analyzing of data. A lot of the times, I’ve noticed that if we had something of that sort in place, it would allow us to make decisions faster, much faster, and obviously take decisions far better. A byproduct of that would be that we need to improve our efficiency and productivity. I think all of the data that we gather from the website, and it could be outreaches that we’re doing, it could be from Google Analytics, it could be clarity and many other tools including ad platforms, to consume that and bring it together and get a holistic view of it. Something that is a challenge for us and a repetitive task, month on month and day. I would love to automate that in some sense.

Ernesto: Definitely. I think there’s a lot of people who would agree with that as well. Awesome. Well, Vic, I mean, you have a lot of experience in the marketing world, but what is that one piece of advice that you would give yourself if you were to restart your journey as a marketer today?

Vikram: Hold on. If I was to start off with marketing again, well, it’s been almost twelve years now in that sense, but I’d really focus on the power of storytelling and creating experiences. I think that’s what is missing. A lot of the times you get into these silos where we are really just working off data, really working off what we want to achieve. We are really looking at what the consumer is looking at pain points. What is it I need to build into to engage with the audience and so forth? I think in the early part of my career, I really didn’t focus on that. I was really just driven by, okay, that’s what the data says, let’s just do this, etc. But then, as I moved into the creative space, I should say, and I worked with a VFX company before this, they did crazy movies. I realized it’s the power of storytelling, especially in AR/VR. When we did AR/VR solutions, I just realized that was just the tip of the iceberg. If you were able to leverage all of that thought process and put it into a marketing campaign, it would give you phenomenal results. For me, the advice I would give to marketers, and to myself for that matter, is to believe in the power of storytelling and creating memorable experiences, understanding audience needs, and then of course, leveraging data.

Ernesto: Definitely. All right, awesome. Some great advice there, not just for yourself, but for all our listeners. Thank you so much for that, Vic. Well, we are coming to the end of the show today. But before we do end, I do want to give you the last word. Say someone forgets everything about the interview today. What is that one thing they should remember about Tech Dogs?

Vikram: Well, today Tech Dogs is poised at this conjunction of digital publishing, lead and demand generation, and also creative and branding. One of the things I would have your listeners definitely look out for is the way Tech Dogs is hoping to challenge the notion of B2B marketing. Typically, the B2B marketing space has been dominated by, for lack of a better word, boring presentations, white papers, case studies, reports and so forth. The human element sometimes is just missed. Tech Dogs really wants to bring that human element back into marketing, especially in B2B marketing. We really want to challenge the notion of it. We want to work with brands who want to experiment outside their comfort zone and see what Tech Dogs can do for them to get audiences and spread that message to a broader audience.

Ernesto: Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Vic. I do want to thank you for being on with us today, as well as I do want to thank our listeners for tuning in. Well, I’m looking forward to our next episode at Pathmonk Presents. Thanks a lot, Vic.

Vikram: Thank you. Thank you. Cheers.