Vaibhav Mehrotra on Unlocking the Power of Content Marketing

Content marketing empowers businesses to tell their story, solve problems, and connect with their customers in a meaningful way. In today's fast-paced digital landscape, where consumers are hungry for valuable information and authentic experiences, content marketing has become an essential tool for businesses to thrive and stand out from the crowd.

In this conversation, Vaibhav Mehrotra, Head Of Marketing at Cashfree Payment talks about the nuances of content marketing. Let’s dive in!

1. Can you briefly summarize your previous professional experience so that we can start there?

As a software developer, back in 2007, like many others, I embarked on my professional journey. I spent approximately three and a half years working at Infosys before venturing into the realm of traditional entrepreneurship. It was during this period that a friend and I launched a microfinance company.

However, I soon realized that instead of investing further, it would be wise for me to pursue formal business education. With that in mind, I decided that returning to software engineering was not my desired path. My true passion lay in the field of marketing, which led me to join a firm called Photon Interactive, where I was currently employed.

During my tenure at Photon Interactive, I was entrusted with the responsibility of revamping the entire marketing department. This marked the beginning of my journey in marketing. I spent nearly two years there, collaborating with the company's founders to emphasize the importance of marketing. I conducted numerous tests and validated existing theories, which greatly accelerated my learning curve.

Around that time, Cognizant was gearing up to launch its marketing agency, Slash District Advisory. As luck would have it, I joined Cognizant and had the opportunity to work with various national and international companies. My role involved assisting them in navigating the complexities of digital marketing at both strategic and tactical levels.

Subsequently, I joined Max Group and played a pivotal role in establishing a comprehensive digital marketing approach across the organization. Interestingly, during this period, an exciting and challenging opportunity presented itself in the real estate sector. I was approached by DRF with the proposition of building a marketing strategy from scratch, and I found this prospect truly intriguing.

2. Does working for a company like Cash Free differ from working for a business, or have entrepreneurs like myself created a myth that startups and enterprises differ from one another?

There is no question, in my opinion, that the amount and pace of innovation occurring at startups is far, far, far superior to that of a major organization, which is a little more conventional in the wave, etc. Additionally, you might examine the decision-making process.

When working at an enterprise or when you are a startup, especially during the growth period of a business—which, by definition, implies exponential growth—the KRA that you are pursuing is very different.

Regardless of what department within the marketing organization you work in, growth hacking will involve investing in experiments and trying to support hypotheses.

And then optimizing them, either you can decide that this is an experiment that we run and it did not work and that In enterprises, the cost of experimentation is fairly larger than startups. That's what I think and I think every marketer should work at the startup because the speed at which you are making decisions and optimizing and solving for your customers is phenomenal.

3. When it comes to the essence of what we do, which is content, where did you first hear the term "content marketing" used?

I've always put digital marketing first. I began my career in that way. We then encountered a general marketer that is familiar with all the channels. But you can't deny how crucial content is if you're a digital marketer. Therefore, when I was in the consulting position at the time, we assisted several clients in figuring this out.

There was a task where we had to determine how someone seeking to enter China would do since Baidu was far more popular there than Google. what are the best content tactics for that firm? Therefore, I am aware that content is an important component of our business and plays a much, much, much larger role than most marketers think it will.

Investments in resources, both in terms of bandwidth and the kind of resources you are using to create your team are made in content since it plays such an important function.

4. How do you see brand marketing in light of your financial experiences?

This is a crucial and pertinent question, in my opinion. Many of you are familiar with entrepreneurs, and this is an issue that many marketers also face. Therefore, the role that the brand is going to play will differ based on what stage your firm is now in. Therefore, there are two factors to consider: the stage your firm is in and the sector you work in.

However, there are primarily two reasons why you would like to create a brand or engage in demand development. The short-term achievement of your goals is represented by demand creation. Building a brand is your long-term answer for, oh, your firm. It may be useful for your, you know, next round of investments or it might be important for your top-end growth every year. The good news is that you don't simply need to find long-term solutions.

When you create a brand, you must address both immediate and long-term problems. Therefore, if you just increase demand in the market where you operate, your growth will be predictable to a certain extent, but it will sort of hit a point where the subsequent extra growth will come at a higher cost than the prior.

But if you have a sustainable brand, you know, a brand-focused strategy, you're solving for demand that isn't there today. But you're building it so that you can then meet that need, right, in the long run.

5. How well is your company's marketing, lead to the actual end of the funnel?

This has two sides to it. One is that even though we are a B-to-B firm, our target market is mostly B to C. Any company that wants to accept or process payments online is welcome to contact us. And that number, which is choice, is something that we are all familiar with owing to the digital revolution that occurred in Geo.

As a result, one brand unquestionably has a significant impact on my ability to reach a larger audience through a certain demand-generating activity. Additionally, my brand must be a distinction in the market I serve. As a result, when I am under consideration, and, of course, you are aware that there are grounds for thinking that we have waited, our TG today will benefit from it. So when they are choosing, brand unquestionably becomes a key distinction.

Which, as you may be aware, translates to greater success rates, safety, and trust. My commercial acumen has improved. Because there is a brand story supporting the narrative of the value you will receive once you accept cashless payments, the payment gateway, or a payout solution, my ability for my sales staff to go out and sell is far, far greater. Because there is a strong brand story behind it, the entire narrative is much more firmly grounded.

6. What is your current area of concentration in terms of what you truly prioritize within the context of cash-free?

I believe it's a challenging question: if you want to develop exponentially, you'll need to concentrate on the majority of marketing-related activities. Three angles are used to examine marketing. The first one is brand marketing, which is where programs like Shock Tank or outreach to startups take place.

The marketing team collaborates with the product and other departments, including sales, operations, etc., to create a very strong product market and create the right GTM so that you can go in and sell these products to the right detail at the right time. There is also a digital marketing function that takes into account your performance, your content, and your ICO, to name a few.

And all three of these teams collaborate closely to achieve their shared business objectives, which include the capacity to continue developing effective marketing campaigns. The company's objectives may be seen from a variety of angles, including those related to brands, products, product launches, customer retention, new customer acquisition, and so on.