Mapping the startup landscape can be an insightful exercise, one that throws up as many don’t’s as do’s. In hindsight, successful or failed startups would point to many defining factors and one that invariably stands out is the viability of a venture’s marketing strategy. We are living in times when stories are all that matter - narratives that are endorsed in a social media driven eco-system and which get translated into the right optics for your product or service. Controlling this narrative is a matter of investing in marketing resources efficiently.     In a conversation with Forbes magazine, Kipp Bodnar, CMO of  HubSpot, a business growth platform , has an interesting observation to make regarding startups and their marketing approach, “They have one marketer. They essentially have 30-50 hours of labo u r a week. The firm/marketer decides to do the following 1) W eekly email newsletter 2) Social media communicat ion 3) M arketing automation 4) Monthly ...

ABC for Technology a Bangalore-based Edutech bellwether has hired OCMO to helm its marketing & growth function. ABC is a new-age professional training school that creates, curates and imparts knowledge designed to prime grads for employment in the IT industry. The online and offline courses are in Java, Python, Testing, Data Science and Full-Stack. ABC’s programs are marked by their relevance to current and future industry needs and instructional simplicity. The courses prepare young grads for entry and fast growth in leading IT companies. For expanding its foothold in this highly competitive business arena, ABC was looking for a partner with a proven track record, a flexible, cost-effective delivery model and vast experience. It’s search ended with OCMO because it’s unique co-hire model checked all its boxes. The model is a win-win proposition as it gives ABC the services of a seasoned marketing veteran and his entire network of resources to both engineer a...

It is no secret that India is the top outsourcing destination in the world. In a US survey, 82% of US based companies voted for India as their most preferred choice for software outsourcing. It has also become the preferred destination for IT outsourcing with approximately 65% of all outsourced IT jobs, according to Booth & Partners. This same model of outsourcing can be gainfully used by companies to source digital marketing services from leading edge professionals based in India. The huge cost advantage that India offers over the US and other Western economies for comparable world-class services should in itself make outsourcing a winning proposition at a time when efficiency more than any other factor stands between the life and death of most businesses. But that’s just the start: With Partners like Outsourced CMO dedicating proven digital marketing specialists with years of quality experience to these companies the India deal becomes pretty much irresistible. ...

Environmental degradation has been hitting the headlines across the globe for quite some years now. Corporates, governments and consumers are beginning to realize that unsustainable production poses a grave danger to mankind.   This realization has lately given an unprecedented boost to green consumerism that started as an idea in the Western societies way back in the 60s and 70s. The impulse to go green is gaining momentum among consumers. Nielsen’s 2015 Global Corporate Sustainability Report says, 66% of consumers would spend more on a product if it came from a sustainable brand. Up to 73% of the surveyed millennials had a similar view and this trend continues.    It is no surprise that Millennials, often called the green generation are driving the sustainable movement.   According to a globalwebindex study done in 2018 over 60% of Millennials (aged 22-35 years) say that they are ready to pay extra for eco-friendly products, closely followed by Ge...

Marketers react to a saturated market in different ways. Many are discouraged by the very thought of entering a saturated market, others find it tough to survive in such market yet there are other entrepreneurs who not only survive but grow in a saturated market. Then there are those who are at the start of their business journey but are unfazed by a market filled with potential competitors and carve out a niche for themselves in this very market.    So what is the secret of winning business in a saturated market? A saturated market is, in fact, a thriving market with tremendous demand and hence offers a great opportunity for growth. Thus entrepreneurs need not be intimidated by a saturated market. Instead, they should see it as an opportunity to tap into the tremendous demand that is the hallmark of such a market. According to Seena Sharp the author of Competitive Intelligence Advantage , a saturated market is a sign that there is a lot of opportun...

Over years marketing adapted well to changing times. From the Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers to Gen X and Gen Y, every period in time has heralded its own marketing challenges. Even so, the challenges posed by Gen Z to marketers are incomparable, as it is the first ‘digital native generation,’ a population that has never seen a world without the Internet and digital technology. The denizens of Gen Z have integrated technology seamlessly into their lives.   This necessarily means that any company   wanting to win today must make full use of the Internet and the social media and must be digitally accessible at all times. But why is Gen Z so important for marketers? Well, for starters Gen Z represents USD 44 billion in purchasing power, as reported by the “Uniquely Gen Z” study conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value.  The Gen Z is a market of high but fickle spenders with no strong brand loyalties, the study found. Seventy five per c...

Wiley a US $ 2 billion publishing legend based in the US, has hired OCMO to market Wiley Nxt, a new age initiative that harnesses its massive knowledge creation and distribution strengths to upskill engineering grads for jobs in top IT companies. This year of the more than 1.5 million young people who will graduate from engineering schools in India less than 1% will be hired by the Top-20 companies in India’s most sought-after IT industry. This is because most graduates are not job-ready when they leave their colleges. With its legendary strengths in knowledge creation and learning solutions, Wiley is unveiling a powerful job-readiness program in India in collaboration with industry and business leaders to addresses this widening skill gap, called WileyNxt. For marketing this service in a highly competitive business landscape, the USD 2 billion transnational corporation has chosen Outsourced CMO because it wanted seasoned marketing experts for this initiative. Wiley ap...

A consumer’s decision to purchase a product or service is dictated by several rational factors like pricing, utility, affordability, reviews and comparisons. But beyond such tangibles there is one factor that every marketer needs to be aware of: EMOTIONS! Why would people otherwise choose expensive branded products over their exact generic equivalents selling at a fraction of their price? Emotions typically operate on a level of irrationality, that is both undefinable and undeniable. The author of Descartes Error Antonio Damasio argues in his book that emotions are an essential ingredient in almost all decisions. He says, whenever we have to take a decision our past related experiences come into play. These emotions create preferences depending on the options we are considering, leading to a decision.   That is why you hate going to a restaurant the second time when your first experience is not good or you prefer to buy a certain kind or brand of shoes, p...

Outsourced CMO is growing up fast! Started as a one-man army and on a simple concept of shared resources, we are now gaining popularity not only amongst SMEs but some well-known and well-established businesses and are close to 10 people strong team. The latest addition to the list is the association of OCMO with Vidal Healthcare, one of India’s top TPA companies offering services to health insurance policy holders. The firm is now expanding its wings in app-only holistic healthcare service provider category. For the launch of this vital app, Vidal’s management wanted nothing but the best in industry. That’s where Outsourced CMO and his team of experienced and strong marketeers were approached to sense the waters and create unique go-to market strategies for the new app launch. Another strong reason that convinced Vidal management that OCMO is the right choice was, within the last 4 years of its existence, Outsourced CMO has been a strong part of more than 11 success stories an...

Block chain and Cryptocurrency seem to be synonymous but they are not. While block chain is the underlying technology that helps manage the digital currency, most importantly, it’s decentralized so no one person, government or business controls it.  For a few months of 2018, whole  of Silicon Valley was wrapped up in a fantasy of remaking the world order with Cryptocurrencies and a related technology called the block chain. And just as the public had been given all possible block chain content that could be written, the whole thing collapsed. The bubble popped.  Bitcoin might be the most significant financial bubble the world has ever seen so far. Every  Cryptocurrency user has to do away with knowing about block chain as such which dominates the world of distributed-ledger technology. One factor favoring   the argument of Bitcoin being a bubble is that there is likely a high-volume of inexperienced investors flooding the Cryptocurrency mar...

In today’s world the success of a person is measured through the riches he has accumulated over a period of time. The first step towards riches is an innate desire to succeed. Quoting Napoleon Hill, a famous American journalist: “It is not a wish! It is a keen, pulsating desire, which transcends                                        everything else” . A successful person chooses a definite goal, places all his energy, all his will power, all his effort, everything, back of that goal. Every person who succeeds in any venture must be willing to wreck his ships and cut all sources of withdrawing back. Only by doing so can he be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as burning desire to win, essential for success. When the going gets tough and the future looks terrible, successful people pull up their spirits and fuel their desire further to reach up to the point of succes...