The Unconventional role that's changing Digital Marketing.

When you come across an individual who has achieved great heights in digital marketing, pls know that at some point in time, at some stage of their professional career, they got access to something that only a few could get.

How they used the leverage of accessibility to give shape to their career defines them.

The most common question I get from people willing to learn digital marketing is- How do I execute what I learn? I can take up any course or read any resource but how do I learn if I do not execute?

To me, when someone asks this question without a follow-up, is not serious about making their career in Digital marketing.

When I started learning digital marketing in 2013, I had very limited access to quality resources. Only a few global masters were talking about digital marketing, learning via videos was not viable as the internet was not that cheap at that point and I was working in my first job in a sales role.

However, I never asked anyone how I execute my learning.

For me, finding quality resources to learn was itself a challenge.

Whenever I got access to learning something valuable I would never want to let it go.

And find a way to execute my learning.

In 2014, I built a website of my own.

Gradually I started following this cycle:

Discover > Read > Write > Execute > Measure > Repeat

Building a website for a non-technical person in 2014 was neither easy nor cheap.

I remember investing almost all of my savings in learning.

Plus I enrolled in an offline course too which was upwards of ₹50,000 at that time.

Do i regret enrolling in such a course, certainly not.

Executing what I learned in SEO, Google ads, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Affiliate marketing, social media, and email marketing gave me the superpower to use these channels for the right objective and bring them together for better results.

It was in 2015, when I realised that just looking at Facebook ads manager data or Google ads manager data and asking my agency partner- Why is my CPA so high or Why is my RoAS so low is the most unintelligent question.

Instead, back in 2015, we built a full user flow from website to app and vice versa and tried mapping the complete user journey to understand the challenges behind low conversions.

I soon realised, that depending on a SINGLE channel for sales is the extreme injustice you can do to your business on digital.

Since then, I have been on an endless quest to learn new ways of driving better results for the businesses I am part of.

This also gave me an insight into what kind of people to stay away from.

For example, if a business asks me to tell them ‘How much Money should they spend on ads’, I refrain from getting into a deal with them as it will be too much of hard work to make them understand how Digital works with very low chances of success.

In fact, I would ask them- How much money are you comfortable investing in the first 90 days at a 100% RoAS or slightly less than that?

No one has a magic wand, it will take time to crack the funnel, communication, content, social approach, ads approach, retention marketing etc.

Some of the best businesses I have worked with and have managed to get successful results have been businesses where I have full visibility of what’s the target, investment levels, leverages of the business, and product differntiation.

Thereafter, wherever I worked, I always developed a sense of understanding of overall marketing.

Back in 2014:

My first full-time job in Digital marketing was in SEO. However I can tell you with confidence, I was fully aware of what the brand was doing in Google ads, Facebook ads (there were no Instagram ads back then), affiliates, and brand communication.

Just keep your eyes and ears open.

I remember one of the team members using the word ‘impressions’ for the first time, I would note that term, go on google and read through all the top 3 websites on the word.

Gradually I realised the importance of Facebook ads on SEO (because I was only taking care of SEO).

Whenever my ads guy would increase the spending on Meta ads, my organic traffic would go up as well.

Fascinating, I thought.

What If I could control the spending on Facebook? I asked myself

If I could get the control to regulate the spending on Meta, I would be able to predict the SEO numbers- I wondered.

That’s how I started learning how Meta ads work.

In 2016, while I was managing SEO, Meta ads and Google ads for a travel brand, I realised the problem was traffic to conversion rate.

I was getting good quantum and quality of traffic from SEO and ads however they were not converting well.

One of the team members in marketing was exploring marketing automation at that time and he told me, I can improve the conversion rate of the website by doing push activities, I was fascinated yet again and start learning retention marketing.

Since then, I have never stopped.

And that quest still continues.

As latest as last week, I learned the heavy data crunching 1-2 GPTs can do on Open AI’s marketplace.

Since then, I have fed the most complex data points to these GPTs to test them and so far it is likely to increase the productivity of my team by at least 5x.

Therefore, very soon, it will be part of the overall work we do for strategic accounts we have.

The takeaway for you from this story is the importance of someone who gets the FUSION in your organisation right.

At the future group, I spent time with different brands on how we leverage all of our marketing, tech, product and data capabilities.

I also had control over which channel and database segment to activate considering the target, offer and timing.

The fastest growth I have seen in my professional career has been at the Future group. The reason is because of the view I had.

Imagine it like a wicket-keeper on a cricket field, they have a view of the entire field, that movement of the batter on the crease, what’s next that batter is probably planning and plays an important role in crunch situations like taking a DRS call. The captain usually rushes towards the wicket-keeper to confirm if they should go ahead and review the decision.

In some of the partner organisations we have created this position and called them Chief Fusion Officer.

If you are part of a larger group, where there is a central marketing team, the role of Chief Fusion Officer fits perfectly. An individual who is good at critical thinking understands how modern growth marketing works and has a business understanding can do wonders.

Even if you are part of a mono-brand or a small business, having a Chief Fusion Officer will put your marketing efforts in a very realistic space.

In very small teams, this role is partly played by the CEO but as your team grows, you will need a modern-day Chief Fusion officer.

The primary skill set a Chief Fusion Officer must-have is one who understands what it takes to build and grow a brand on digital mediums today.

For example., if the individual has the one-dimensional approach of building the brand by just ads, then that’s not the right person for the job.

Someone who understands the content, platforms, mediums and their roles in creating discovery for the brand, creating curiosity in the minds of the consumers and then driving sales.

As an individual, strive towards becoming a Chief Fusion Officer.

Listing what does it take to become a Chief Fusion Officer:

* Understanding the business challenge in depth (asking questions from business stakeholders)

* Understanding the current leverage (is it the brand, product, data, ease of targeting the audience, offers, agility of the team)

* Building towards an ambitious but realistic plan (back in 2019, we built an ambitious plan to go big on TikTok for a couple of brands. By the time TikTok was available in India, It worked better than Instagram for both the brands in India)

* Leveraging data and insights (access to zero and first-party data is a superpower)

* Agility- if something is not working in the first few hours or days, change it.

In some organisations, this role is played by Product Marketing managers. And that’s completely fine as long as they think of consumers first, and work backwards to building a great product and experience with it. Plus if they understand the new age social media game.

To me, businesses that have a one-dimensional approach to just grow with ads will get consolidated or will make peace with stable numbers without a realistic plan of action to grow.

It is a Chief Fusion Officer that builds a strong foundation, finds the balance between paid and organic customer acquisition and builds strong cases for repeat purchases.

A traditional CMO cannot do this job. If you work in a corporate you know why I say this.

If you would like to know more about this role, some uses cases where this role acts as a pivotal role, it’s exact responsibilities, and should you elevate someone internally for this role or look to hire from outside, reply to this email with ‘Need more info on Chief Fusion Officer’ and I will create another newsletter on this soon.

Meanwhile, there are the last few days left for the Dream Performance marketing masterclass. I have added a new module on the role of GPTs in performance marketing with tasks and use cases.

Seats are filling out fast, sign up for it from below:

I am also conducting the next LIVE event:

Event name: Chat to Stat: Hands-on training to using different GPTs for performance marketing.

🔑 Unlock the Power of GPTs for Performance Marketing:

🤖 Learn the top GPT strategies used to acquire clients effectively.

✍️ Reduce your reliance on content writers with innovative AI techniques.

📊 Drive marketing at scale: Explore how we leverage GPTs for robust performance marketing.

📈 Quick data analysis tips for enhancing your marketing strategies using GPTs.

🌐 Multi-channel integration: Discover the roles of GPTs in SEO, Google Ads, Meta Ads, and Retention Marketing.

🎁 Exclusive Resources for Attendees: 📝 Access to top prompts, samples, and cheatsheets—reserved for Top Decoders community members.

🌟 Don’t miss this chance to revolutionize your marketing techniques and grow your business.

Secure your spot today! The session will be recorded and the recordings will only be shared with the members of the Top Decoders Community.

Cheers,

Apurv