Walk the talk
Formal training in marketing will help create Indian mittlestands
Marketing
Formal training in marketing will help create Indian mittlestands
Hello fellow bootstrappers.
I have to share news. To walk my talk, I have registered for Mini MBA with Mark Ritson. I believe that local business can transform thanks to marketing. It was five years in making.
I shut down my agency
It was 2017. Just when social media phenomenon was peaking in India, I shut down my new media agency.
Big brands had fallen in love with social/digital. Then, the small, indie and bootstrapped businesses started adopting it.
Social media updates, online/ social media advertising, blogging and campaigns seemed like the future. Digital gurus such as Gary V declared that marketing was dead. Why hire marketers, when anyone could do marketing?
Failing successfully
While agencies proliferated, the promise of social media started floundering. People, with no training, claimed expertise in marketing. For a while marketing meant endless updates, colourful graphics, jargons such as likes, shares, and engagement.
It was a good time for digital agencies. Brands, businesses and local businesses hired agencies or professionals to drive engagement. Agencies claimed success, but it did not help the businesses.
They predicted it
From 2015 a group of marketers and experts started doubting the tall claims about social media. They suggested that social media phenomenon wasn’t translating to business gains. Professor of marketing Mark Ritson and advertising veteran Bob Hoffman were the two of the loudest voices. Professor Ritson said that tactics without strategy is a recipe to failure. Bob Hoffman’s newsletter Ad Contrarian has been pointing out the online ad frauds.
I was lost
I could see the future. I preferred not to continue the agency work. But, I only knew how new media worked: social media, blogging, editorial strategy, online community building, newsletters and web design. What could I do with my skills?
I had travelled to Bengaluru to seek new opportunities. I was helping a tech business with their content strategy and newsletter.
I discovered three things:
Bengaluru has thriving local businesses.
Local and small businesses are bigger than the tech industry.
New media brands do not write about bootstrappers and local businesses.
Legacy media wrote about big and traditional businesses. New media brands such as The Ken wrote about startups.
A newsletter for local businesses
Rafat Ali, of Skift had written that one could do media gig without big investments. He also wrote how difficult it is. I decided to write about the local businesses, except:
I would not do news and scoops.
I wouldn’t write long winding pieces, not more than 400 words.
I wouldn’t predict the future.
I wouldn’t write if it didn’t help local businesses.
Skin in the game
I am a bootstrapper. If I would not act on my advice or writing, it shouldn’t go in the newsletter. I started building Shack Coffee Co. last year. I have skin in the game. Likewise, I have explored the following topics.
How local businesses were benefitting from digital payments.
If local businesses could adopt growth hacking of startups.
Should local businesses do paid advertising or organic social media.
Why micro businesses do not have access to formal finance.
What is the impact of public transport on local businesses.
Focus on startups and big businesses are harming local businesses.
Interesting bootstrapped businesses.
Do storefronts matter.
Importance of marketing.
The biggest gap
Most local businesses think of ads in newspaper, radio, TV and online as marketing. They think marketing is bad.
Formal training in marketing will transform 6.3 crore MSMES (micro, small and medium enterprises). They can become the equivalent of mittlestands of Germany.
Local businesses require knowing basics such as audience research, not just digital advertising. Small businesses require simple frameworks to build marketing plans and strategies.
Walking the talk
If I am asking fellow bootstrappers to learn marketing, I should learn it and practice it. Professor Mark Ritson’s Mini MBA has trained more than 19000 people. Its alumni are working with brands, businesses and agencies. I am looking forward to learning marketing. The course starts on 12th of April. I will share the best from the course.
Cheers!