Interview with Sagar Khandelwal Digital Marketing Consultant

“Many more decisions will be based on predictive elements vs. gut instincts. Even in the most scientifically oriented fields, decisions are still being made on anchoring biases”

I have a chat with Digital Marketing Consultant Sagar Khandelwal who is professional Digital Marketing Practitioner where he guide newcomers and work for his clients too.

He shared his valuable experiences and his career journey in digital marketing.

Below, you can see the full Q&A and learn more about a digital marketing roles.

1. An introduction about yourself.

My name is Sagar Khandelwal, residing in Pune. I have completed my Digital Marketing courses from Lavenir Institute of Professional Studies, Pune and Manipal ProLearn, Bengaluru.

I have been in the industry of Digital Marketing for the last 8 years.

I have worked for various clients from all the sectors including Legal Projects, Corporate projects, Start-up projects, Political projects etc.

26th October 2020, I started my own venture, OnlinEmage. OnlinEmage is a Digital Marketing Company which truly believes in growing the revenue of our respected clients through digital strategies.

OnlinEmage stood because of immense efforts and countless meetings with every business level, i.e., Restaurant owners, Professional workers, Startups, Political or Governmental sectors, Marketplace sellers, and owners of zero-sized business set ups.

We evaluated our business and revised our strategies that if we could minimize the client servicing cost and rework on the same, we had a big enough opportunity to help millions of businessman/Businesswomen and startup agencies to uplift their work with the help of “Friendly Costings” and boost their market or business to the very next level.

2. How did you become a digital marketer? Could you tell us about your career journey, starting with your education?

Digital Marketing was never my Goal. I picked commerce after HSC pass out and opt for CA.

Unfortunately, I got failed thrice in CPT and being a college drop-out student, you feel the heat about your future, but as I was in 2nd year B.com, I had the time to decide my future.

In 2013, I was about to turn 18, and there was a time of Lok Sabha elections in the country.

I was excited as I knew I was going to vote for the first time. Joined various volunteer groups where I was given the opportunity to manage the campaign of a political party on Social Media.

At that time, I was very much active on Twitter. I planned various hashtags, we trend those worldwide, and somehow, I got the complete hold of the Twitter Marketing.

Looking at the efforts, MindsatWork, a company in Pune reached out to me for the Internship program.

My role in that company was to promote the mobile applications on Social Media for the Singapore 50th Independence.

As I kept working, my interest in this field started growing and then I decided to start my career in Digital Marketing.

In internship, I learned the basics of Social Media, Off-Page SEO, Importance of Backlinks, How to fetch Email Ids for Email Marketing, Youtube promotions.

Internship was for 6 months, but looking at the efforts we put in, Company hired me for the full-time job and I had the job before I got my 3rd year B.com results.

As I resigned from my job, I immediately joined the Lavenir Institute of Professional Studies, Pune and I understood the entire basics of “Digital Marketing” and this is how now, I am the professional Digital Marketing Practitioner where I guide the newcomers too as well I work for my clients too.

3. What leads up to finding “the perfect” story for a brand?

Hmm, according to me the brand is something which talks for you. Express your business and Goals, but to achieve that level is a task, and we Digital Marketers simply do that with a proper marketing strategy.

4. What has been the biggest challenge for you as a digital marketer, and how did you overcome it?

I guess, this challenge every newcomer faces and it is known as “Ignoring the Content Marketing” – in my overall experience, I learned that Institutes don’t teach us the value of content.

They tell us the tools for content marketing or they will tell us that Content writers do the job for you.

It’s better that at the start of any Digital Marketing course, Importance of Content Marketing must be the most focused subject as the “Content is only the success behind any strategy”.

If we overcome it, then I don’t think any Digital Marketer will face this challenge.

5. According to you, what are the top five skills that a digital marketer should possess?

1. Content is the king, this have to be the major subject which every pursuing Digital Marketer must go through
2. Understanding the Difference between the Creative Marketing and the Performance Marketing
3. Understanding the “Niche” in which you have to be the master
4. Studying and Analyzing the current market scenario
5. Strategic Planning (Before going to the execution part)

6. Who and/or what influences your work and why?

Frankly, the Market inspires me to be a brand ambassador for my Clients.

We don’t only work, we help businesses to grow in terms of revenue and when revenue increases, our business grows and when business grows, India’s economy also reaches a higher level.

These Market ups & downs help me to work passionately for my clients.

7. Would you like to suggest any online courses for those who want to improve their marketing skills?

There are Nth number of Online Classes, I would suggest all those interested to watch how many videos they can, read 100s of articles, go through the various blogs available, understand the concept that why Digital Marketing is growing and the purpose of this growth, practice daily on your own without asking anyone, make mistakes every time, click anywhere to make yourself understand the importance of that particular icon or menu, and make yourself the Digital Marketing Practitioner.

8. Are there any hobbies or interests that helped you develop your marketing skills?

Surfing the Internet and watching daily news helped me to grow. I am from the commerce background, as we learned about the recent market trends and learned about the growing businesses, interest in becoming a Digital Marketer kept growing.

Just an advice that if you have to become a successful digital marketer, keep a watch in the changes in the worldwide market.

9. What are your favorite tools to use as a digital marketer, how are they helpful?

I use many tools and Mobile applications. I used Sprout Social and Hootsuite which helps me in scheduling the posts for multiple clients as well to go through the Clients Social Media Analytics.

Other marketing tools I used are Tweetdeck for monitoring, Canva for designing, Mailchimp for email marketing, Fastsave to save the Instagram post for reference, Remove background, Social Media post maker, SEMRush, SEO Meta in One Click, SEOQuake, Superpowers for Twitter, RiteTag etc.

10. Is there a digital marketer who you admire or think they are killing right now?

I have followed Neil Patel most of the times, But I believe every Digital Marketer is now an expert when it comes to branding and generating revenue.

Follow Sagar to stay updated with his amazing work on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.