Changing face of B2B Marketing & Content Marketing in the Digital Era | Haroon Bijli at SIMClairvoyance 2011

As part of the on-going SIMClairvoyance 2011, Mr Haroon Bijli, head of the digital marketing function at Tata Consultancy Services, gave a talk on the changing face of B2B marketing and content marketing in the digital era.

Mr Bijli, who has been with TCS for over ten years now, has handled a variety of roles in Corporate Communications, Internal Communications and Marketing. Prior to joining TCS, he managed his own business in advertising, graphic design and printing. He holds a Masters in Communications and Journalism and has completed an Executive MBA from S. P. Jain.

Mr Bijli was off the blocks in a flash, and hit the ground running by highlighting the key difference between B2B and B2C marketing. While B2C marketing answers the question “how many people do we chase?” B2B answers, “who do we chase?” So, for TCS, it doesn’t matter how many people know that it is behind the Indian Railways ticketing as long as someone like London Metro knows about it.

While talking about digital B2B marketing, he repeatedly stressed on the importance of good content. Calling content ‘king’, he stressed on the maxim that in today’s day and age, the audience is so well informed that it really cannot be fooled.

He also pointed out that it is always important to remember who you are talking to. While the digital marketer might be dialoguing with a Fortune 500 company, it pays to remember that there is an actual living and breathing person who is being talked to. This should be kept in mind, and the target’s profile should be visualized to dialogue well.

He rounded off by stressing on the importance of the brand name, and how possessive one must be about the same in the digital space. Domains, twitter handles, Facebook group names, all, he said, should be branded properly and with care. Big companies face a tough battle against squatters today, and so should earmark and reserve each digital property at the earliest. Perhaps this explains Mr Bijli’s amazingly anointed @bijli twitter handle and his über cool http://bij.li URL.