Journey So Far

Year 2017 – it was my final year of engineering when I heard the term ‘digital marketing’ for the first time.

Out of curiosity, I read a few blogs about this industry, and somehow I developed some interest in knowing more about it. But I wasn’t sure if I should choose it as a career path. 

So after graduating, I went on to pursue my post-grad diploma hoping that it would land me a decent job with a good salary. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it much, and within 6 months of completing my first semester, I decided to drop out. It was a tough decision to make but I had to.

The Start

After dropping out, the next thing I did was start learning more about digital marketing. Blogs, videos, free courses — I didn’t leave any resources untouched. 

And luckily within a month, I got a chance to join as an intern at a digital marketing agency. It was my first job and I was thrilled to bits.

As the agency grew, I was able to get my hands on almost every aspect of digital marketing — SEO, Social Media, Pay Per Click, Content Marketing, Inbound Sales, and whatnot.

Though the pay was not what I expected, I focused more on delivering results and getting things done. I worked with e-commerce, healthcare, education, automotive dealerships, event management, and many other local and small brands.

After hustling in the agency for almost two years, I then went on to join Vantage Circle (an HR Tech SaaS startup) as a digital marketing executive. 

This was another big turning point for me. I was around people with a varied set of experiences, and I could not have been more grateful.

I worked under the guidance of the CTO, from whom I understood the importance of value-creation and bootstrapping a company.

We did a lot of experiments, mostly around SEO and creating thought leadership. And within 6 months of my tenure, we were hitting 1 million+ page views per month!

And got a ton of backlinks!

Well.. the marketing team were consistently working on SEO since 2018. The efforts just compounded over time.

It was a treat to watch the results.

First Business

Everything was going well at my corporate job but monotony crept in. I felt the need to start something new. 

So within a month, I took the decision to resign and start my own business.

I had no experience before in running a business but I took the leap to understand my capabilities. 

Even if things didn’t work out I had my savings to fall upon. So I planned accordingly.

I partnered with my friend Gitartha whom I had worked with during the agency days. He was into freelancing at that time and was also keen to start a business. 

We named our startup Bamboo Bazaar, an e-commerce platform providing eco-friendly and sustainable alternatives to single-use plastics.

From sourcing to packaging to initiating order pick-ups, we literally did everything on our own! 

But unfortunately, we were only able to run the company for about a year. We tried every possible means of marketing but it was not enough.

The business was a failure but we learned a ton. Something which we couldn’t have experienced in our full-time jobs.

What’s Next

In my brief stint with VC, I was fascinated by the power of SEO & Content Marketing at scale.

I’m not against paid ads but SEO works as an initiator when you have a long-term vision for your business. It takes time to see the results.

Considering the dynamics in the industry, I’m learning consistently to keep myself updated with the changes. There’s something new to learn every single day.

I’m currently consulting a few startups on SEO & integrated marketing approaches. I’ll be sharing my learnings in my blog, so do check out.

If you have any questions or want to discuss a project, feel free to contact me here. 

Until next time, have a great day and thanks for reading this far!

Soumyadeep Das