Inc.Academy

How has the marketing division evolved at bfound.io, since you joined?

We have evolved mainly in two areas; resources and automation. When I first joined a year ago, I was the only member in the marketing team. Right now we have a paid media specialist who looks after all client campaigns across Search, Display, and Social. We also now have a UX/Front-end Developer who looks after conversion optimization of our site and campaign landing pages. Additionally, I'm currently hiring an Inbound/Organic marketing specialist to look after SEO and CRM. 

From an automation standpoint, we are in the business of running hundreds (soon thousands) of small digital marketing campaigns for SMBs, so manual campaign management is not scale-able. When I first started we were running everything manually on the different self-managed platforms e.g. Adwords, Facebook business manager. Now we have automation platforms that take care of all campaign management, optimization, and reporting. These tools include Matchcraft and Smartly. 

Marketing teams need to invest in machine learning and automation technologies in order to operate more efficiently. We need people's brains to plan, brainstorm, strategize and let technology take care of the rest. 

What inspired you to opt for a career in the Digital Marketing Industry?

To be very honest, it was a total serendipity! One that I'm very grateful for. 

I graduated from uni with a bachelor's in Marketing & International Business. Knew nothing about digital back then. The only thing I wanted to do was to play in a band (I play guitar). One night I met a fellow musician at a concert and he told me he's looking for a fresh grad to join his marketing consultancy. I did join and luckily one of their main services was digital marketing and so this is where it all started. A year later I went to London to do my Masters degree in Digital Marketing and the rest is history :) 

Tarek Reda, we often hear from people that Digital is all about Marketing. Can you help us demystify few myths about  Digital Industry?

One common mistake I see is companies that are driven by technology, not users. Meaning their marketing decisions are driven by the latest technology/platforms as opposed to following the user behavior. One example could be a company that is fascinated by a technology like Augmented Reality when its irrelevant to the behavior of their target audience/market. 

Another misconception among some companies is "Our sales mostly comes from offline, we don't need digital marketing". The problem here is that companies

 

sometimes look at digital and offline as two separate worlds, while from a customer standpoint it's the same world, just different mediums. Especially in markets where internet penetration is high, digital would provide a very cost effective and efficient way to nurture and build affinity with those "offline" prospects. 

 

Since there are millions of blogs and online resources, it often gets overwhelming. Tarek Reda, can you recommend few blogs or sources which one should subscribe to for the regular source of knowledge?

 

• Marketing Land

• Econsultancy

• Smart Insights

• SEOMoz blog

• Brian Solis

• Advertising Age

 

You would agree that there is a dearth of digitally trained talent in the industry. According to your experience, which are few key Digital relates Skills required in a candidate?

1. Passion for digital. 

2. Analytical (understanding how to analyze data).

3. User-centered thinking. 

 

Tarek Reda, what would be your advice for people aspiring to be a part of or already are a part of Digital Industry.

Data is your best friend, use it to guide every digital marketing decision you make. Never stop reading digital blogs, what you read 6 months ago is not relevant anymore.