Chandan Bagwe, Founder and Managing Director, C Com Digital, Shares Insights on Revolutionizing the Tech-Enabled Marketing Landscape

StartupTalky presents Recap'22. This is a series of interviews in which we conduct in-depth discussions with founders & industry leaders to understand their growth in 2022 and their predictions for the future.

Digital transformation and online presence are becoming increasingly important for businesses of all sizes. Techno-digital marketing agencies are on the rise, helping companies achieve their digital transformation goals and establish a strong online presence. These agencies offer end-to-end digital marketing communication and technology support, including services like social media optimization, digital marketing, search engine optimization, conversational marketing, and more.

With the constant need for businesses to keep up with the latest trends and developments in digital marketing, these agencies stay one step ahead of the competition by closely monitoring the latest industry trends and technologies. As the demand for digital marketing and transformation grows, these agencies are expanding their services to cater to clients on a global scale.

As per Statista, the global digital marketing industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.4% from 2021 to 2028, reaching a market size of $422.4 billion by 2028.

For this Interview, we invited, Chandan Bagwe, Founder and Managing Director of C Com Digital and we talked about the growth, challenges, insights, and future opportunities in the digital marketing industry.

StartupTalky: What service does your company provide? What was the motivation/vision with which you started?

Chandan: C Com Digital is a full-service techno digital marketing agency. The company helps its clients undertake digital transformation and maintain a robust and effective online presence. We create brand communication for modern businesses and help them in digital marketing to grow their Business.

The vision behind C Com Digital was to build a globally renowned digital company that offers end-to-end digital marketing communication and technology support to its clients. We have steadily expanded our capabilities to fulfill that vision.

StartupTalky: What new services have been added in the past year? What is/are the USP/s of your service?

Chandan: Our unmatched excellence in creativity, customer understanding, and technical expertise has made us stand out in the market, and we are rapidly scaling our global presence.

We offer mandatory brand hygiene services like content-focused Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Optimization, and digital marketing tech configuration. Apart from that, we also do brand awareness campaigns, PII-focused campaigns, conversational marketing campaigns, digital PR Campaigns, and advanced AI-ML integration for lead analysis and higher conversion. This delivers more significant ROI for the clients.

This year, we have entered the US markets intending to become an international provider of reliable and high-performance IT-enabled services, specifically Enterprise Mobility Solutions, Program Support, Cloud Computing, Customer Software Development, and Enterprise Data Management.

StartupTalky: How has the digital marketing industry changed in recent years, and how has your company adapted to these changes?

Chandan: In the last few years, especially since the pandemic’s start, there has been a great need for digital marketing and digital transformation across all industry segments. Having been in the techno-digital space for more than two decades, we have all the right technologies and market understanding. As the world resumed work-from-office this year, we have expanded our service offerings and services. We have expanded to the US markets to ensure that Indian techno-digital companies get visibility in international circles. We will collaborate with more western businesses to keep the growth trajectory going.

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StartupTalky: How do you stay up-to-date on the latest trends and developments in the digital marketing industry?

Chandan: Being in the techno-digital space and working with clients daily keeps one aware of emerging trends and needs. Our teams are constantly monitoring these needs. We also keep a tab on the US and European digital marketing trends. We use the best of creativity and technology to ensure that we can help our clients achieve all their digital transformation and communication needs conveniently and efficiently.

StartupTalky: What key metrics do you track to check the company's growth and performance?

Chandan: For us, the parameters that matter are how our top-line and bottom-line business grows. We have constantly achieved growth through deploying cutting-edge services, acquiring the right talent, and improving and optimizing processes through integrating CRM tools. We also measure growth by measuring new business generated and the new services launched. This year marked our entry into the US markets, where we have added diverse tech solutions to our offerings. These are some of the things we focus on apart from ensuring consistency of quality and client satisfaction.

StartupTalky: What were the most significant challenges your company faced in the past year and how did you overcome them?

Chandan: The significant challenges came in the form of changing expectations from the customers. They didn’t just want us to help them with their brand communication but also to provide holistic support in the digital transformation of their business. We leveraged our technological expertise and infrastructure to create the solutions the market needs. We have added various services to our
portfolio to cater to the demand.

StartupTalky: Good service is something everyone is talking about in the service industry. How do you ensure that your clients are happy?

Chandan: We have built an end-to-end portfolio of services by combining top talent and advanced platform technologies. We have integrated AI, ML, and data analytics to bring the best insights for continuous process improvements. We remain ahead of the competition regarding tech enhancements and understanding the audiences for each campaign or digital marketing activity we undertake.

Further, we work closely with our clients and constantly listen to their needs and feedback. This kind of collaborative support has enabled us to ensure that our clients are happy. Thus, it helps us solve any challenges that arise or fulfill their expectations.

StartupTalky: What are the different strategies you use for marketing? Tell us about any growth hack which you pulled off.

Chandan: Our digital marketing services for our client gives excellent results. Along with the hygiene activities as part of our services, conversational marketing, PII-focused campaigns, and Digital PR works wonders. We use the same techniques for our business growth too. We have been showcasing and presenting our successful and award-winning case studies to prospects. Case studies are the most important aspect of the growth hack.

StartupTalky: Foreign clients- this is what most of the service-based companies are looking for. What has been your experience?

Chandan: An international clientele is key to growth for any service sector enterprise. As a premier techno-digital agency, we have regularly worked with domestic and international clients. We have entered the US markets, and our experience working with international clients has been highly satisfactory, enriching, and encouraging.

StartupTalky: What are the important tools and software you use to run your business smoothly?

Chandan: We use many tools and technologies for web, cloud, and other projects. We primarily rely on Slack and Google suites for all communication needs, AWS Services for hosting and email solutions, and Adobe Suite for creative and web development services. We also undertake custom software development, using all the cutting-edge tech inputs per each project's need. Apart from it, Various E-Commerce Partnerships and Online business partnerships are key to business success.

StartupTalky: What opportunities do you see for future growth in your industry in India and the world? What kind of difference in market behavior have you seen between India and the world?

Chandan: The potential is enormous as almost every business, whether a startup or SME or a large global enterprise, is going for digital transformation and adoption of SaaS products and digital communication tools and capabilities. Beyond that, the growth opportunities are equally high in the domestic and world markets. Indian companies have traditionally lagged in digitization, but currently, we are witnessing an unprecedented surge in demand for solutions. Western markets have had exposure to SaaS solutions and tech-driven operations, so there is a little more clarity about the need and how things should be.

StartupTalky: What lessons did your team learn in the past year, and how will these inform your future plans and strategies?

Chandan: Most importantly, we must keep ourselves abreast with the technology change. We have to keep adding new services to meet the market demand. We must keep innovating and scout for the best talent in technology, creativity, content, and influencer marketing.

StartupTalky: How do you plan to expand the Customers, service offering, and team base in the future?

Chandan: We are a steadily growing organization, and our team base keeps increasing in proportion to business growth. We welcome quality talent in all areas that our operations cover. We entered the US market this year by unveiling our IT-enabled services. Our goal is to steadily expand the spectrum of our services and become an international provider of trustworthy, efficient, and cost-effective IT-
enabled services. As an Indian company entering the US markets, we are bringing about a transformation in the techno-digital space as earlier the trend used to be of American companies entering the Indian market. This will help C Com grow better in the times ahead and enable the entire ecosystem to evolve faster.

StartupTalky: One tip that you would like to share with another service company founder?

Chandan: In digital marketing, “Technology - Change is the Only constant.” Therefore, provide high-quality latest trending services to your client along with consistent performance. It is critical for business success.

We thank Chandan for spending his valuable time and sharing his learnings with all of us.

You can read other Recap'22 Interviews here.