Leveraging Digital Tools For Brand Building And Marketing

Anup Ghimire

Founder & CEO,

Viewfinders

The third session of Entrepreneurship Talk Series held on April 7, 2020 had Mr. Anup Ghimire, the founder and CEO of Viewfinders as the speaker. The session was conducted from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM and had around 80 participants at peak.

Mr. Anup spoke about his personal business and how he built the Viewfinder company as well as other businesses like ‘Wedding Dreams’ and ‘Comedy Circle’. He gave a short ten minutes overview into his career, present scenario and the effect of social media in his life. Then the Q&A session was conducted.

The majority of the session was interactive between participants and the speaker. The discussion mostly was focussed on the points below:

• Fundamentals of brand building and how to maintain the online presence. 
• What insights and tools to be used to view the effectiveness of branding. 
• SEO, softwares and other digital mediums which can be freely used for branding and marketing

Mr. Anup stressed that entrepreneurship is an evolving process and therefore, businesses should reinvent themselves all the time. In the aftermath of COVID19 we can anticipate many businesses to evolve in order to adapt with the new scenario.

The speaker suggested content-rich branding with marketing focused not only for selling purposes but also to create a brand image. Since content is the single most important part of digital marketing, he suggested businesses to post content regularly on at least three most popular social media platforms. Whatever social media platform you use, ultimately your customer will consume the contents, which can be either a photograph, video or an article. Therefore, focus on creating high-quality content to engage your customers or audience. 

In regards to which social media platforms we can use for online marketing, Mr. Anup suggested Facebook, Instagram and TikTok as the most effective free platforms for general purpose. However, there are several other platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Spotify, and LinkedIn and so on which can be utilised based upon the nature of your product and service. Some platforms are better suited than others depending upon the nature of your product and therefore, it is important to know that in advance.

Mr. Anup also revealed that his company is using three tools for communication mainly Slack, Bitrix, and Hubspot. Likewise, he also suggested that despite the lockdown companies should be actively working on building their brand rather than being pessimistic about the scenario brought about by COVID19. He mentioned that COVID19 is not going to stay forever and we will be back to our regular business on an optimistic note.

He argued that B2C businesses are highly reliant and can get clients from social media marketing. Citing his example of how he got the ‘Wedding Dreams’ going just by posting nice photographs of couples on his Facebook page and then did a Facebook boost to reach the right target market. However, in regards to B2B businesses, he stressed that personal branding is important since clients mostly come through personal connections and recommendations.

Likewise, he also mentioned that the internet has given rise to a niche market and therefore, it is important to not dilute your brand with multiple product offerings. If you try to convey the message that you are expert at everything it will give rise to credibility issues. Therefore, it is important to brand the different Strategic Business Units (SBUs) differently.

There were numerous questions asked and a diverse set of ideas explored. The discussion was highly engaging with participants pouring in their questions and the speaker addressing them. This session gave participants a glimpse into the online marketing scene and how they might be able to leverage these online platforms often freely for their brand promotions.

• By Prem Gaire & Niraj Aryal

Prem is the Head of BIC Startups as well as a faculty member at Boston International College.

Niraj is the Program Associate of Skill Lab and a BBA 7th Semester student at Boston International College. Prem is the Head of BIC Startups as well as a faculty member at Boston International College.