In today’s world, marketing is considered merely as advertising, but in reality, it is more than that. Marketing is a field that encompasses everything from choosing what to sell and to whom to sell it. It also deciding how to promote the product and make a mark in the market. But to understand the vast field of marketing you have to understand one of the most fundamental aspects of it, which is promoting your business. And it is only the beginning of it all.
Featuring for The Enterprise World’s this issue of Top 5 Marketing Tech Companies 2022 is Kenscio, a technology driven marketing agency.
In this interview with Mr. Manjunatha KG, Founder and CEO, here are some exclusive insights about the journey of Kenscio.
Tell us about Kenscio.
Aghreni Technologies Private Limited (Brand Kenscio) is an ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certified and European GDPR process compliant organization with its corporate office in Bengaluru and sales offices in Mumbai and Gurugram. Starting its journey in 2009 as an Email Service Provider, Kenscio has since evolved into a 360-degree digital marketing technology & services company. As a leading marketing and technology-driven organization, we offer a wide range of services including cloud-based digital marketing in Email, SMS, Push and WhatsApp.
Our ground-breaking offerings include Customer Data and Experience Platform with omni-channel options as well for the web, Mobile, SMM, SEO, SEM, and SMO. Kenscio’s round-the-clock Campaign Management and Deliverability Services along with user experience research & design, creative, content, web & mobile development helps you enhance your marketing ROI.
Our futuristic products range from Marketing Cloud (email, SMS, push, etc), Real-Time Personalization (RTP), SMTP Server, Analytics Platform McMIS, Email Intelligence, Email Validator, Mobility Cloud, Customer Engagement Platform and A.I based Kenscio Predictive Analytics.
What were the initial challenges you faced?
The initial challenges were more related to client acquisition, building a new brand, attracting talent & retaining them for a long haul.
Which was that point that triggered the growth of the company?
There were a few over the last 13 years of Kenscio’s journey. The partnership with Mapp Digital in 2009 was definitely the one. The last two years have been phenomenal with thrust on sales into large enterprise accounts.
How have the company graphs changed since the foundation? Can you share a few statistics?
The initial years growth was nominal but during the last 2 years the company has grown in excess of 35% and by end of the current FY, we will be doubling our revenue of FY20.
What are the products and services that your company specializes in?
Our Products are as follows:
- Customer Data & Experience Platform
- Email Marketing Platform
- SMTP Server
- Email Validator
- Email Open Time Personalization
- Email Intelligence
- Analytics & Reports
- Mobility Cloud (WhatsApp & SMS)
- Predictive Analysis
Our Services are as follows:
- Campaign Management
- Email Deliverability
- Marketing Automation
- User Experience
- UI, UX
- Creative Services
- Digital Marketing
How important is a perfect marketing strategy for the growth of a company?
In a dynamic market, to achieve stated goals of sales & customer satisfaction, a perfect Marketing strategy plays a significant role. Be it in building & enhancing a Brand value for Kenscio or communicating the value proposition to the customer & prospects, making our own employees feel proud of brand Kenscio & talk proactively about the same are some key success factor for our Marketing strategy.
How do you make sure your services are reliable?
Our combined expertise in various fields makes us strong together and we have given many proven results to our customers for which we also won their loyalty towards us during various ups and downs… Our R&D Team at Bangalore makes sure that the customer should be happy in our journey. Our operations team assures the service provided by us should be reliable by which the customer never leaves us. Our sales team puts their best in understanding the needs of customers and gives them the perfect solution with a minimum time frame which can win the customer’s heart. We maintain our standards and we deliver an ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certified and European GDPR process compliant organization.
How do you help companies increase business scalability and sustainability?
Our products and services are designed in such a way that we can engage with a start-up and grow with them even when they attain multi billion dollars evaluation. And, all our product offerings are cloud based and services are delivered over the Internet. Our customers need not invest in huge IT infra thereby minimizing carbon emission and contribute towards sustainability
How do you decide to take the company a step further in terms of your products/services?
We are always on the lookout for products and services that will augment our current offerings and will add value to our clients. We have plans to add at least 1 new product & service every year for the next 3 years.
What do you think are the responsibilities of an entrepreneur?
An Entrepreneur should have a clearly defined vision and goals for the organization he/she is founding. He/She must possess well rounded experience in the domain and technology. He should be a leader, leading from the front. He/She should be able to network and leverage his professional connections to influence. He/She should have a good knowledge of finance and accounting. In addition, he/she should build and nurture a team of specialists to support the organizational goals.
Can you please brief us about your professional experience?
I have a Masters degree in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Madras and a one year course in Strategic Management from IIM Calcutta. Worked for Small and Large Indian and Multinational companies in product development and services for 25 years both in India and USA, in several roles starting from a development engineer to Head of Business. This varied and hands on experience in building products and influencing the decision makers built the confidence in me to build a company myself.
What are the key achievements of your entrepreneurial journey?
I would like to emphasize the difference rather than the numbers. How an entrepreneur made a difference to the lives of 1000’s of engineers and management graduates by hiring, mentoring and making them successful, making his clients winning awards for creative work and enhancing their ROI, and being recognised as a leader in the industry. Looking back over the 13 years, I certainly would feel satisfied and I am looking forward to an even exciting journey ahead!
How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique?
- Transparency – regular town hall meetings informing the teams of the status of the company
- Includes the employees in goal settings which impacts their bonus/incentives
- Always meets expectations and always has time to talk to the employees
- Appreciates the success of each employee which motivates them to work much more smarter to achieve more
- During lockdown we had regular calls with the employees to talk about everything and not only about work
- Providing guidance for all the employees on all things digital marketing
- Finally, know the employees personally including their families! Unique
- We have many employees who have been with us for over 10 years. It is an achievement considering we are a small company.
- Provide direction and let the employees have the freedom to make decisions with their expertise which gave them ownership of the project. This has been very successful.
- Always accommodate the employees when we show interest in another part of the business. We have had developers get us more business.
- Each member of the company knows their role and the expectation of them.
What would be your advice to the budding entrepreneurs?
He/She should have passion and perseverance and has a problem to solve in a much simpler and cost-effective way. He/She should have tried solving the problem before, built some models for evaluation. Getting cofounders with similar vision and values with complementary skill sets is most important. He/She should be financially independent, with no burden to his/her family as the first few years are going to be strenuous
