Interview with Odell Dias from St Paul’s Institute of Communication Education

As a digital marketing manager for a media institute in Mumbai. Odell currently handles the entire 360° Marketing for the institute to increase brand awareness & acquire students for their PG & UG courses. He has been in the Digital Marketing space for almost 6 years now and has also worked as an online marketing executive for a publishing company in the past.

Further, Let us hear from him

Hello and Welcome Odell!

Let us begin with your unique story, could you please share that with us?

Sure, I never planned to do digital marketing like a lot of students right now, I sort of fell into the field. I use to work as a Team Coordinator for an IT company, mostly in the management line. It was a good-paying job but I was awfully bored. I took a risk and joined Packt Publishing as an online marketing executive because it seemed interesting. At that time I had no idea about what online marketing was. I learned a bit about organic marketing while working at Packt and got to handle their landing pages, speak to authors etc, but that’s when the curiosity started.

I wanted to get into paid ads, and content writing and blogging and so much more. I changed jobs and joined my current organisation as a Social Media Executive. Here, I got a chance to experiment with paid ads. I did try joining a traditional class to learn Google Ads, but they were bad. I learned mostly from YouTube and about blogging by enrolling for your 100 Day Blogging course.

The Blogging course helped me launch my own website, rightly digital. I ended up creating websites and email automation for my own company and got promoted to Digital Marketing Manager. At this point, I started, learning Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere Pro as well. Due to my marketing knowledge, I started getting freelance clients as well from my website. All in all, I realized one thing, the best way to learn digital marketing is by getting the right tutors and then constantly implementing what you learn, every single day. LinkedIn Profile

According to you, what’s the best way to start the day?

The best way according to me is to start by praying early in the morning, that puts things into perspective, after that, you can do your mundane routine of brushing, bathing etc and then get to work. Create a schedule of easy tasks first and then get on to the difficult ones. Lists help!

Who is or has been your inspiration?

Neal Patel, Brian Dean,  Sanjay Shenoy, Issac Rundensky, there are so many people who inspire, I can’t just name a few.

What makes digital marketing different from traditional marketing?

It’s a constant transformation. You learn something today, it might be redundant tomorrow. You cannot afford to stop learning.

What are your three favourite digital marketing tools?

  • Google Analytics
  • Buffer
  • Google Search Console

How would you define success in your career?

If you’re excited about what you’re doing and you look forward to a new day of work, that’s a success. And eventually, the money starts coming automatically.

What is your biggest dream in life?

I want to live a peaceful life with my family.  With the monetary benefits of course

What’s worth spending more on to get the best?

Invest in yourself. Study & Practice. It’s not about just enrolling in courses but also implementing them

Lastly, would you like to say something to our readers?

Learn how to write. Write and read every day. That’s the true core of Digital Marketing. It’s not the tools, nor the fancy lingo. If you can tell stories, you are going to ace eventually.

Thank you, we truly appreciate your valuable time spent with us.

Thanks

Wishing you the best in all your future endeavours.

Cheers,

Deepak Kanakaraju