How We Started A Digital Marketing Company In India

Anshul Sharma

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Published: April 18th, 2021

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Anshul Sharma

Founder, BrandBurp Digital

$100K

revenue/mo

Founders

175

Employees

BrandBurp Digital

brandburp.com

from Noida

started October 2015

$100,000

revenue/mo

Founders

175

Employees

Discover what tools recommends to grow your business!

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Instagram

Hootsuite

Twitter

YouTube

seo

Ahrefs

Discover what books Anshul recommends to grow your business!

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Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

Hey, I’m Anshul Sharma and I run a digital marketing company known as BrandBurp. We work on delivering the best outcomes by helping businesses get traffic through SEO. Our team of around 175 helps in promoting businesses online via SMO. In short, we ensure that your brand gets world-class recognition.

how-we-started-a-digital-marketing-company-in-india

Further talking about BrandBurp, the digital marketing agency and advertising hub was established in 2015. One of the fastest-growing digital marketing agencies, the company has leveraged over 2.000 brands to strategically market their business and boost their revenue. Apart from being a top brand marketing agency in India, we have a strong presence in countries like the USA, UK, and UAE. We have generated over 1.000 leads and 3 billion USD ROI globally.

Some of the brands for which we have done branding and promotion work include Harley-Davidson, Blemil Plus, Laureate University, Coca-Cola, and Supreme. More than 250 Apps associated with BrandBurp ranked number 1 on Google Play Store and Apple App Store and 2000 websites have been awarded the esteemed Webby Awards.

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

My story is also like thousands of other people, who aspire to do something of their own. The only difference is I executed my plans and made them my reality. Despite coming from a B.Tech background, my interest and keenness were in Marketing and Sales because of which I pursued PGDM in Sales & Marketing from Symbiosis, Pune, following which I studied Executive MBA in Sales at Cambridge University. Thereafter, I worked at a corporate firm. It took me a while to realize that the job wasn’t meant for me as I always aspired to become an entrepreneur and wanted to establish my own company.

Stay focused on your goal and start without any fear.

I have always been a hustler, who paved his way to follow his dreams. And that’s what I did when I left my well-settled job. I started researching businesses, their insights, and every aspect of entrepreneurship.

Another big step was starting a business in the field of Digital Marketing. Today, digital marketing services are sought-after by almost all big and small brands. But back in the day, when I started the company, it was an alien concept for most people, especially in India. Now, when I see my journey, I feel proud, because the risks I took in life paid off well and gave me more than what I expected.

My company has been working on the promotion and branding of startups, enterprises, organizations, and agencies, and helping them thrive in the competitive market since 2015.

I started BrandBurp with a vision to revolutionize the functioning of websites, mobile applications, and brands. And ever since, my team and I have been working on conceptualizing brands by growth hacking their revenue structure to boost their audience and make profits. BrandBurp creates as well as expands the market presence of brands by promoting them on digital channels such as websites and social media.

Our powerhouse team consists of business managers, PR and outreach influences, SEO page rankers, content marketers, content writers marketers, and social media executives. They use strategies and tactics to increase leads, revenue, and conversion. From making a digital presence to building an online reputation, BrandBurp uses the best tools to expand businesses.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

Starting a digital marketing agency is not at all easy. There are more cons than pros. But what kept us going was our dedication to run a successful agency. When we started for 1,000 USD, we didn’t know that it’ll increase to 100K USD in five years.

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Our first client Tangoride, a new name in the ride-hailing industry, wasn't a known brand. As it is an app-based company, we had to adapt as per their needs and requirements. Here are the services we offered Tangoride:

Social media promotion
Public relations account management
Market research
App store optimization
Video marketing

About our challenges, it has been a quite complex process in itself. Some issues that we faced are:

Reflecting the brand’s reputation among the audience
Know about customer choices and preferences
Protecting the company from negative associations

Tactics we used

Conveyed the right brand message to the users
Motivated customers to use services
Defining the brand’s objective

We have always focussed on helping startups thrive by adding value to their brands. What has actually helped us retain in the market, is our services, processes, and products that keep changing as per the latest trends. Our 175+ skilled professionals have a deep understanding of how businesses work. Hence, they constantly keep track of the ongoing and latest business trends. Furthermore, we provide a full-service strategy to all our clients and help them boost visibility, user acquisition, and conversions by 120% by utilizing a blend of digital channels.

Another aspect that has kept us going is our consistency. Consistency is the key to attracting and retaining customers. Most companies often lower the quality of their services as soon as they garner customers. At BrandBurp, we have tried to maintain a certain procedure to retain our customers. We plan and make business strategies, identify goals, work on content marketing, evaluate social media marketing channels and websites, increase engagement, and use the right technology to help businesses thrive. We also ensure to forecast the results based on days, months, or years, before making a strategy.

We also focus a lot on giving customer satisfaction. The speed at which the digital marketing sector is growing is scary. With new companies coming up every day, it’s not at all easy to be a brands’ first choice. We, however, know that good services, out-of-the-box ideas, and customer satisfaction can help attract as well as sustain clients, which is why we focus a lot on keeping a constant good performance. We provide results above customers ’expectations.

We follow certain steps to give out-of-the-box services:

Deep knowledge about client requirements
Analysis of ongoing and future trends
Researching the market
Making use of the right channels
Developing a well-planned strategy
Boosting traffic and revenue
Deep insights on data and infographics
Monthly report to clients

What has kept you going and who is your greatest inspiration?

BrandBurp is an outcome of hard work, stability, and commitment. The image it has built over the years has increased business.

Talking about my inspiration, my father has inspired me the most in life. He is my support system and somebody I can rely upon. He has been in my journey and has supported me in my decisions ever since the beginning. He has made me realize the real meaning of consistency and hard work.

Besides, the appreciation and awards BrandBurp has received in recent years have kept us motivated in the long run.

In 2015, we received the Viral Marketing Award for delivering the best results to clients in 15 countries; “Best Social Media Presence” by Webby Award in 2016; Drum Awards awarded us as “Best Creative Agency” in 2018 and were recognized as the “Best Digital Agency” by IDMA Awards in 2019.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

BrandBurp is the result of continuous efforts. It is India’s first 360-degree Marketing Agency that uses an AI-powered platform to help businesses grow. More than anything, we value our client’s money and time and deliver results better than their expectations. This has somewhat helped us sustain our reputation in the market. No wonder 50% of our clients are repetitive.

The coronavirus pandemic has no doubt impacted businesses across the globe. It has had drastic effects on our business but even with all the chaos, we are working efficiently. There’s no denying that we were under pressure and intimidated because of the things that were happening across the globe.

As we were indoors, the role and duties of each employee expanded. And as we deal with clients from across the world, including the USA, India, UAE, and UK, the pressure quadrupled. Nonetheless, time heals everything; hence, we are getting back to normal. We even reopened the office with limited staff.

Talking about how the future looks like, the pace at which technology is growing, it is tough to stay in the competition. We need to stay updated with the latest trends and market needs. Also, I believe that marketing is not just restricted to search engines. Marketing is something that connects the businesses to their audience, hence to stay consistent; we try to incorporate the best techniques.

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Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

To be honest, the journey hasn’t been an easy one. We face an infinite number of challenges while completing a project. And given, the number of digital marketing companies establishing every day, it is quite difficult to be in demand. Nonetheless, due to our good performance and the image we have created, we are one of the best in the market.

One thing that I have learned during my journey is to have a team of efficient people. From SEO to SMO, email marketing to content writing and PR to PPC, our team of brilliant people manages to face all challenges, be it researching, planning, creating, or executing the plan.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic has taught us new ways of working. While our employees were working remotely, certain software like Team Logger and Base Camp helped us keep track of them. We use Base Camp to manage projects and to get assignments done. Team Logger, on the other hand, helps us track time and get automatic screenshots. These tools along with Skype have helped in boosting our productivity during the lockdown.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

We use tools like Hootsuite, Ahref, Semrush, etc for our business. Be it curating content or scheduling posts, website analysis, competitor research, these tools help our team members manage everything.

Besides, we use different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to reach out to our audience. Our team ensures to stay as interactive and active as possible.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting?

Being focused and consistent is the key to entrepreneurship. Those who want to get into this field must stick to their dream. It is, no doubt, a very crucial time; a lot of things are at stake. Dreaming is easy but working towards making your reality is difficult. Hence, my advice would be to stay focused on your goal and start without any fear.

However, if you are going to start a business, know that you are going to face a lot of challenges, especially when you are switching from a corporate to starting your own company. My journey has been somewhat the same and the hassles I faced made me who I am today. Here are few points, which entrepreneurs should keep in mind before starting their own company.

Entrepreneurship is a completely new concept. It’s nowhere close to the fancy corporate offices, especially in the beginning. But you need to stay dedicated. You need to adapt to the new environment, work culture, functioning, and every other thing.

It’s not a regular 9 to 5 job, where you can relax or have a good sleep after work. It’s entrepreneurship; it requires months of sleepless nights and hustle.

Unlike agencies and organizations, your startup company won’t be established. You will have to work round the clock to establish it. The goal is to make your efforts worth it.

Staying positive and not losing calm will help you in the long run. There will be times when you’d lose hope and get demotivated. All you need to remember is why you started and where you want to reach in the coming years.

Starting a company takes a lot of effort and sacrifice. You’ll have to be away from your family and friends for days or even months. However, all of the sacrifices and stress will pay off and you will get the desired results.

The return of investment is close to zero in the beginning. If you want to earn well, you will have to be consistent. You will get rewarding results only if you don’t give up on your dreams.