Women's success in the digital marketing industry has been touching new heights lately. Not only are more women diversifying their skill sets and taking on new challenges within organizations to generate success but they are also leveraging these skills to build successful companies too. Woman marketers such as Saloni Sethi are paving the way for other women to take up the entrepreneurial route and make significant contributions by leveraging technology and their creative ability.

Currently serving as a Partner at advertiCe, Saloni is an experienced and perceptive marketer. She comes armed with an MBA in Finance and has driven digital marketing campaigns for companies such as Stellar Furniture, Oreo, Vadilal to name a few. She rejected traditional marketing techniques in order to rejuvenate the advertising sector with fresh ideas, which culminated in the evolution of advertiCe.

In an in-depth interview with the Women Entrepreneur Magazine team, Saloni shares her thoughts on leadership and her professional experience as a digital marketer.

Give us a brief overview of advertice. What are some important features about your expertise as a marketer that you want us to highlight through the article?

advertiCe is an intelligent data-driven self-serve platform for digital media planning, buying, and campaign management that allows users to access advertisements on over 65 Premium SSPs and ad exchanges with a bouquet of more than 20,000 applications and websites across several genres.

As a marketer I want to highlight how customers' internet browsing patterns have changed significantly. They are now aware of where advertisements are displayed. Marketers' opportunities have also risen exponentially and now they can target their specific audience. Consequently, programmatic advertising has entered the scene, where the audience is selected based on their online experience, hence enhancing the conversion rate for marketers.

Second, media buying behavior has evolved to a point where marketers may now buy ads on CPC, CPM, and CPL impressions, and these modalities have helped marketers get more dollars spent in digital media where the cost per acquisition is much lower.

Take us through your early educational journey and prior industry experience that you bring to the table. What motivated you to shift from the finance industry to venture out as a marketer?

I earned my MBA in Finance from the Prestige Institute of Management and Research in Indore. Since its advent, digital marketing has piqued my interest. After finishing my MBA, I enrolled in a training programme at MP09 Digital, Central India's only digital advertising firm at the time. I mastered all areas of digital after joining the firm, and later social media marketing became my expertise, where I worked with brands like, Indore Management Association (IMA), Vadilal, Oreo, Mahindra & Mahindra, and others.

A marketer cannot be successful unless they have a great understanding of money, and with my ability to balance and manage accounts, I had a good notion of their expenditures. Trying my hand at media planning for various clients, I became aware of the industry's technological limits and old-school marketing approaches. The lessons learned from these diverse experiences evolved in advertiCe, a self-service programmatic dashboard built with AI and ML.

Throw some light on the various roles and responsibilities that your current role as the partner entails at advertice. Tell us about some of the most significant milestones achieved by the company so far under your leadership?

The first of my current roles and responsibilities is the Customer Relationship Cycle of already on-boarded clients. I evaluate the specific requirements of clients on a regular basis since this is where the problem arises and we address it at an early stage. The second role is managing the business cycle, which is crucial since how you handle a customer's onboarding as a marketer is critical. Last but not least, I am in charge of all internal and external communications that take place on any media platform. I am in charge of ensuring that such communications are delivered smoothly to the targeted audiences.

“A marketer cannot be successful unless they have a great understanding of money, and with my ability to balance and manage accounts, i had a good notion of their expenditures”

One of our most significant early milestones was the onboarding of the 100 first self-service dashboard clients. They drove right to our website and began spending money on our platform. They were pre-paid customers. Second, clients are eager to increase the media spends, and media planning and buying is also part of our primary goal.

In your opinion how has the brand communication and marketing sector evolved over the past few years? In a world that is constantly changing, how do you keep yourself well aligned with the periodic evolutions occurring in your respective industry and the technology domain?

Brand communications have changed drastically in the last decade, especially after Covid. The emphasis has switched from talking about your brand to your audience to presenting your brand stories to your consumer segment and creating the optimal brand experience for your customers. Previously, marketing efforts for offline and online clients were separate, but they are now inextricably intertwined, as is the brand.

It is necessary to build, develop, and arrange your surroundings in such a way that it not only helps you enhance your knowledge but also allows you to stay in touch and be active. Meeting new people, hanging out with them, having a life purpose, and approaching situations in novel ways helps you to learn new things and develop yourself. This helps me learn new things from them, such as how they dealt with certain challenges.

As a successful business leader, what would your advice be to young women aspiring to become business leaders and entrepreneurs in the future?

My foremost advice is for people to stop comparing themselves with others. Be honest with yourself. Young women today are significantly more energetic, passionate, and ambitious about their careers than they were in the past; the only thing lacking is the will to learn and progress. Don't give up if no one believes in you, and don't give up hope if it appears like the world is against you. Keep working hard for your goal with focus, and everything will fall into place for you. As a mother, I would like to add that you should always endeavor to set a good example for your children. Allow them to observe and admire you as a mother and entrepreneur.

Saloni Sethi, Partner, Advertice

Saloni is in charge of all internal and external communications that take place on any media platform, as well as managing the customer relationship and business cycle.