Listening to clients intently and not imposing one's ideas upon them is a key ingredient to becoming a good marketer believes Sonal Mishra Mehta. Born in Delhi and now based in Ahmedabad, she is an entrepreneur and currently serves as the Chief Marketing Officer at Xporium, India's first 3D virtual exhibition platform.

A Business Administration Graduate, Sonal has over 13 years of experience in the Content Development and Digital Marketing domain. She has been recognized for the expertise and skills that she acquired by working with a number of startups and corporates, across industries - from stock market consultancy to luxury fashion and brand merchandising.  The Women Entrepreneur Magazine had an in-depth conversation with her.  Below are the snippet of her thoughts and professional experience as an ace marketer.

Give us a brief overview of Xporium. What are the major facts about your expertise as a leader in the digital marketing sector?

Xporium was founded by Mr. Nisarg Mehta in 2016. It was the first organization in India to introduce the concept of virtual space in exhibitions. During the inception, the focus was to make a white-label product that event organizers, corporates, event companies, and even start-ups can use as a platform to launch branded events and exhibitions at affordable prices.

Solar Exhibition was the first Virtual Event that we conducted in 2017. It attracted over 3000 visitors from across the globe. However, the industry wasn't yet ready to open up to this new avenue, until the pandemic happened and virtual events became the talk of the town. Fortunately, it's no longer seen as a threat and now 65 percent of the businesses worldwide are moving their annual events online. People are finally seeing the benefits and embracing technology. In the coming months, we aim to launch a closed networking community for professionals and organizations. This will be an extension of Xporium. We call it Xporium Wings.

As for my role in Xporium, I joined them as a consultant initially. I was given a limited budget and my job was to generate quality leads organically.  We used my experience and expertise to raise awareness about the platform through various campaigns - both online and offline. Monetising the platform through marketing activities was another challenge that we had to work on and after a lot of brainstorming, trial and error, we were able to find the gaps that we could effectively use to our advantage.

Take us through your early education and prior industry experience. What factors drew you towards the digital marketing arena?

With commerce as a background, I did my graduation in Business Administration. Even though MBA was always the next predictable step, I accidentally ventured into the world of Content Writing and Digital Marketing in the second year of college. Writing was my passion, and Marketing is a skill I acquired along the way.

After my brief stint with the consultancy and freelancing, I moved to work for a luxury fashion e-Commerce store, Rocknshop, founded by Priya Sachdev Kapoor. This is where I learned the most. From content to SEO, social media campaigns, and photoshoots- I did it all because I was young and hungry to learn as much as possible. It was the most valuable experience of my career. Bioworld Merchandising was the turning point in my career and so was writing for YourStory. I finally started getting recognized for my work.

“At Xporium, we used my experience and expertise to raise awareness about the platform through various campaigns - both online and offline”

What drove me to this industry and kept me here is the creative freedom that we get on every project. We were free to express our ideas, raise our concerns, and learn from our mistakes. It's an erratic industry, and we are still learning. And learning is good.

What factors led you to take up the entrepreneurial route and found the world's first 3d virtual exhibition platform? How did the idea come to you?

Entrepreneurship runs in my genes. My father was an entrepreneur, and now I am married to an entrepreneur. It would be safe to say I was raised in an environment where manufacturing challenges, supply chain, logistics, and others, were a part of the dining table conversations. Let's say I was subconsciously driven into entrepreneurship and now love each day of it. Xporium is a team of entrepreneurs brought together to design the future of the exhibition and events industry.

The idea came into existence when Mehta was traveling for an exhibition with his friends and one of the friends had to back out because of a lack of funds. He wanted to create a platform that enables new-age entrepreneurs to explore global opportunities from the comfort of their homes or office, without finance and time constraints.

From the standpoint of an experienced professional, how would you say the digital marketing industry has evolved over the past few years? How do you keep up with the various evolutions and technological changes occurring in your field of work?

I have been in the industry for the past 13 years, I can safely say that I have seen it all, experienced a lot, and learned something new every day. In fact, the new working generation has a lot to contribute to the table when it comes to digital marketing as a profession.

If you talk about a game-changing trend that has impacted industrial development, there's one particular that I would like to talk about and that's Personalization. If a brand cannot personalize its offering to meet the customer demand, it might fail to win loyal customers. It's all about creating connections these days. The better the connection between you and your customers, the better the sales and profitability.

The math is simple. Personalize it, to sell it. My helping hands are Books, Journals, Magazines, and Social Media. I read a lot. I am an Economist loyal and for some quick bites, I use Google Alerts. It's the most convenient way to get news and articles related to the topic of interest daily on your email.

Throw some light on the approach you take while working on a new project or campaign to ensure that the final output helps clients achieve the desired business goals?

I believe that a good marketer is one who listens to her clients and does not impose unnecessarily. My first approach is to be all ears when the client is sharing their requirement or their brief. In fact, now with Zoom and Meet Meetings, I am also able to record their requirements that I can share with my team members to avoid any kind of miscommunication.

The second most important point to consider when signing a new client or working on a new campaign is to research. Understand your audience, the brand you are working for, and study the data.

What would your advice be to women aspiring to be a foray into the field of digital marketing?

You really have to be self-driven, self-motivated and a continuous learner to excel in any field, but more so in marketing, because the landscape changes every second here. One piece of advice I'd like to give to all aspiring marketers is to not hesitate when sharing your ideas, even if you think they are lame. In marketing, you'll never know when your idea becomes a viral sensation and that would be the turning point in your life as a marketer.

Sonal Mishra Mehta, CMO, Xporium

A Business Administration Graduate, Sonal has over 13 years of experience in the Content Development and Digital Marketing domain. She has been recognized for the expertise and skills that she acquired by working with a number of startups and corporates, across industries - from stock market consultancy to luxury fashion and brand merchandising.