My Quest to find that Digital Marketing Guru

Hello everyone, I am Shivam from Fabnics.com and I am writing this review hoping that it will help you solve the problem of finding the best marketing partner for your business. As I read through the comments, I can see that most of you have been struggling to find that perfect person – the quintessential marketing ‘guru’ who claims to possess all the knowledge of how businesses work.

Let me begin with this. I wasted several months – almost a year – dealing with these self-proclaimed gurus who seemed to be so great at giving the right sermons at the right time. However, it never went beyond that. The words – that’s all they had to offer. Sure, these people could sell dreams but what I actually needed was to sell my product and that was certainly not happening. Interestingly, in the initial stages, I was lost in the game of impressions, visibility, postings, engagement, content, blogs, leads and so on. But then, where were the sales? It was still eluding me, running away from me, just like success. I was looking at me like a bhakt in search of nirvana but then all I got was gurujis who just talk and talk about so many things except for telling me how to achieve nirvana, in my case, sales. These self proclaimed digital gurus, the freelancers, some digital marketing companies and their sales guys, some promotors of digital agencies and their theories, still amaze me. Anyways, since there is no yard stick for performance and that things take time, I was not sure on whom to believe and whom not to at that stage.

Anyway, I still decided to stick to the plan. I just thought I had not found the right person. So I went from one ‘guru’ to another. Damn! I wish I had used that time and energy for better purposes. After 8 months of wasting my time, I was just disappointed and literally hopeless. I literally gave up on using digital as a tool for lead or for sales. I thought, damn it, might be the traditional method would work better and could get more results out of them, but then the digital dream and the fact that if not today in years to come we would be completely on digital platform made me realized that it was important for me to understand these tools, and find a partner who can actually anchor my digital ship in the digital word.

Finally, I decided to collaborate with some agency, and yes, I mean a proper agency, not like the ones who say "what’s the need to come to my office? In any case, we are going to work digitally, so why bother meeting? Let’s start the work." Oh, come on, man, I understand work happens digitally, but they are not digital ghosts who work. It has to be someone. So why this hide and seek and why no meet with the client! A proper agency seemed like the best option after a series of disappointments. Working with my first agency, I could definitely feel the difference. They had a team, the experience and most importantly, they had the intent to work.

Although, I would like to mention here that finding the right agency for your business can be a cumbersome task. There are so many options in the market today. Some are good at digital marketing but don’t have the necessary expertise in offline marketing. Most of them do not own up for the final results.

However, my experience with marketing ‘gurus’ had taught me a big lesson; so I was definitely going back into that abyss. I was desperate to find an agency which could offer results and generate sales for my business. Yes, my friends, all that matters is that at the end of the day, all the stories and theories about impressions, lead generation, visibility, branding, blogging, etc. should lead me to sale. If sales do not happen, there is no point in doing all this. I guess one always have better way of spending. I was very clear that I wanted an agency who is ready to shoulder the responsibility of sales and in fact, talk to me in numbers, and the number that I understand, i.e. sales figures. Everything else will fall in place if target and vision is clear. My vision was clear – Sales.

Voila! I was ecstatic when I heard about AOB India. Now, these guys claim to offer services throughout the spectrum. They offer digital marketing, SEO, content, ATL and BTL engagement, MCM development, pre-sales call, post lead generation calls and provide a host of last mile solution that actually makes a difference and what got me hooked was that they assure sales for your business and don’t stop at just lead generation.

I mean it was like the golden goose for me. I did a little more digging and contacted a few businesses they have worked with. The response made me even more hopeful and I knew I wanted to work with AOB.

But here comes the negative part. The people at AOB are hard to crack. It is as if they are too picky about who they want to work with. At first, it left me thinking that they were not even interested in collaborating. These guys have attitude. I guess it comes from the fact that they know how to sell. I came to know much later that it’s number that matters to these guys, and since their revenue model has a major chunk coming from commission on sales, they are choosy about the project. Working with them is also very tough as they don’t have any specific time to work. It’s like a 24x7x365 days work; night and day are as good as same. These guys push you for data, timelines and deliverables. It’s just amazing you feel young again.

But I persisted and finally managed to get through. On the contrary, they turned out to be quite flexible and were ready to work as per my requirements. And believe me, within months, I could see my sales going up.

Today, it has been more than 8 months that I am working with AOB and I am so glad that I found them. So I would like to recommend them to anyone who is looking to take their business forward. But, be ready to deal with being ‘picky’ part! And don’t forget, each one in their office comes with an attitude – confidence and numbers. All the best. Hope my review helps.