IAM690- Digital Marketer Helps E-commerce Stores Increase Their Sales

Rahul Vij, 28 years old, started digital marketing 10 years ago and now runs a successful digital marketing agency. He has helped more than 200 e-commerce stores increase their sales.

• CEO Hack: Reflecting on the day's events for the last 20 minutes of the day
• CEO Nugget: Don't shy away from seeking help
• CEO Defined: Being able to create value in three aspects: products/services, processors and the people working with you

Website: https://www.webspero.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rvij/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rahul.vij.754

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Transcription

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[00:00:02.20] – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

[00:00:30.10] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Rahul Vij of WebSparrow. Rahul, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:40.29] – Rahul Vij

Thanks, Gresham. The pleasure is all mine. Good to be here.

[00:00:44.20] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Definitely. Great to have you on. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Rahul so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Rahul is twenty-eight years old started digital marketing ten years ago and now runs a successful digital marketing agency. He has helped more than two hundred e-commerce stores increase their sales. Raul, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:05.09] – Rahul Vij

Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Excited to do that.

[00:01:08.09] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. I'm definitely excited as well too. So I wanted to go back to, I guess, the beginning of your business. Could you take us through what I call your CEO story? We'll let you get started with the business.

[00:01:16.79] – Rahul Vij

Yeah. Sure. So, it actually happened accidentally. So I was in my undergrad years in college, and I was hustling with different things. And that time, I started building websites for myself just for practice and started enjoying it. And then, I started working on a project of mine. It was called Hack Fact, where we used to share tips on ethical hacking. Once the website was ready, I updated it regularly, then I felt that now I needed to research how I make sure that this website reached a wider range of audience. So then I started learning about digital marketing and started experimenting with it on my own website.

And within six months, you know, our Alexa rank was around a hundred thousand and people in the local community started knowing about my project. And from there, I decided that if I can do it for myself, then there are legit businesses out there whom I can help. And from there, tried, you know, you know, pitching to few people and got some projects. And from there on, we started building, the firm. So slowly, we built on more projects. Then my friends joined me, my cofounders, who are my cofounders now. And then slowly and gradually, now we have reached the stage where we offer different services to different kinds of businesses, and that's my CEO story.

[00:02:40.40] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I absolutely appreciate that. It's so funny because I think, and I think it's still kinda that way with digital marketing where it's constantly evolving. So sometimes some of the innovators, the people that are ahead, usually had their own projects that they worked on, and then they had had success, and then they started to try to help out other, you know, online businesses or local businesses to to to be able to kinda reach more people.

[00:03:01.40] – Rahul Vij

Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. I've heard so many such stories and I feel that, yeah, I'm also on a similar path. Just like the peep the other people.

[00:03:11.30] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And especially because it's so new. It's not to say you can't take courses and and learn things, but I think because it's so fast-moving sometimes the best way to learn is to kinda get your hands dirty and start working on things.

[00:03:22.09] – Rahul Vij

Exactly. You know, just doing theory won't help because things are evolving so quickly. You need to be in the game. You need to have your skin in the game. So you're not just trying different things. That really helps. Most of these two startups have come from that space only by just trying and evolving with the technology itself.

[00:03:40.90] – Gresham Harkless

Exactly. Absolutely. That makes so much sense. So I wanted to kinda drill down a little bit deeper. Can you take us through your organization, your company? Can you take us through exactly what you're doing to support the clients you're working with?

[00:03:52.80] – Rahul Vij

Yeah. So with Spiro Solutions, our main goal is you need to help people, succeed online. So that that that's our core goal. And for that, we help people build their e-commerce stores who are just starting and then we help them with their marketing. We try to get them customers by doing searching and optimization and also by, you know, optimizing their paid campaigns. So our sole focus is on how can we get your next lead and how can we improve your ROI. So that's the main main our our focus is on. And right now we are a team of around a hundred people. And, and mostly our major client base is e-commerce stores. And we think we are going, we are doing great in that, direction. And now we are thinking of exploring, new businesses, into new new lines of services. So that's something we're looking forward to.

[00:04:50.89] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And I think just like as we were talking about with digital marketing, also our businesses always evolve and they expand. And as we, you know, reach success, we expound to, you know, focus on and help other industries and other businesses. But I love the tagline and kinda like the focus on helping business owners succeed online. Because, you know, during this time, especially, I think there's gonna be a huge pivot where it's gonna be not just a want to have. It's gonna be a need to have to have that online presence and that success online.

[00:05:17.00] – Rahul Vij

Right. Exactly. Exactly. So we really have great bandwidth, great, you know, Internet connections, but COVID has actually changed the perception and now actually forced people to look more towards the online platforms that everything that we were doing offline now, we are able to do online. And now because of, the pandemic now, people, you know, some were already there, but others can also now see the value of online platforms. And now people will eventually move faster towards online platforms. And, I'm sure there'll be ample opportunity in digital marketing and online space, in the post-COVID universe.

[00:05:59.00] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Because I think those habits, won't change, tremendously because they will become, I think, more of a primary than the secondary as for a lot of people, it has been. So, you might have already touched on this, but I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And it could be for yourself or your business, but what do you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:06:18.39] – Rahul Vij

Yeah. So what, we really focus on is we try to, you know, remove the black box from the marketing. So we are in USP is to give transparency to our customers. So our customers never feel that they don't know what the agency is actually doing. They just give us a report after a month of what's the ranking or what the sales. But we really focus on educating our customers, telling them exactly what the data looks like, what the things we are working on, and what kind of goals we are trying to hit. And so we work very closely with our clients and give them absolute transparency.

And this a very strong focus on helping clients understand, exactly what we do and why we do it. It's not only about, you know, just showing them, a number at the end of the month. It's more about keeping them engaged, keeping them educated about what we do. And that that has really helped us, in our retention rates has gone really, have improved a lot once, you know, we actually started focusing more on showing the value to the customer, showing them how what why we do those things and what kind of results they can actually expect out of each and every part of the work that we do. So that's, the kind of USB that that has helped us.

[00:07:36.39] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. It makes so much sense. And I think especially now that the consumer is so, kinda armed and informed and they have so much information, I think it only makes sense that the way to kinda build that relationship and strengthen that connection is by showing them what you're doing, why you're doing it, and taking them through that process. So not only do they get the results, but they're also very informed and they understand why certain things are kind of taking the steps that they need to take and why exactly you're executing that way.

[00:08:04.00] – Rahul Vij

Exactly. Exactly. And the customer feels more confident about your service because otherwise they'll find something on the Internet and they'll ask you and then you'll give tell them what it was or what you are doing. So it's better that you are the one who owns that. You are the one who's giving them constantly every information. Even if you are failing somewhere, you need to be the first one to tell your client that this campaign didn't work, why it didn't work, and what are we doing now. And that really helps. That honesty with your client really helps.

[00:08:33.20] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. It gives that kind of back and forth and that transparency and that trust as you mentioned as well too that I think, again, strengthens and supports that relationship. So, I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So that could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:08:53.89] – Rahul Vij

Okay. So there's this one habit that I've fallen over the past couple of years, and it's that I spend the last thirty minutes of my day, on reflecting what I've done in the entire day. So having a slot to to reflect upon what I'm doing because I realize that mostly most of my time goes into firefighting on on the current challenges of the team. But if you see a business only grow if you are able to take strategic calls. And so now reflecting upon my day's work every day at the end of the day, I can see how much of my time is going into firefighting and how much of it is going in the long-term direction. And because I'm giving myself constant feedback every day, I'm able to, you know, adjust my day accordingly. And, when I can see that there are three, or four days when I haven't worked on our long-term goals, then I switch gears. I then can work on my long-term goals first and then see what kind of firefighting can I do. And it has helped us. And I think this is something,

[00:09:59.29] – Gresham Harkless

So that could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client or maybe even your younger business self.

[00:10:06.10] – Rahul Vij

Okay. So there, I think there are a lot of things I would have told my younger self. One of them is, that don't shy away from seeking help.

[00:10:17.79] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Well, Rahul, I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So, Rahul, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:10:29.00] – Rahul Vij

Okay. So for me, being a CEO is more like, you know, being able to create values in, these three aspects for one's product, the second is people, And the third is processes. So so you need to create you need to keep thinking about how you can create value in your product or service. How can you serve your clients better? Or is there a different segment of clients you can serve? So you need to keep finding that value in your product or service. And similarly, you need to find value for the people who are working with you. How they can grow. How can they feel more satisfied in the work? And how they can, you know, feel meaningful about their work.

So that's, I think, the second part. What I feel it's really important for being a CEO. And the third is to add value to the processes. How you can build source optimization is how you can optimize and build those strong processes so that people and products can work, seamlessly and you can give people a streamlined experience, with your service or with your product. And that happens if your processes are really strong. So as a CEO, I think these are the three things that these are the three sections where you have to keep working on. How you can add more value to the product, to people, and the processes. So that's what I feel. So

[00:11:49.70] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. No. I love that perspective and that definition. And I think, you know, centering everything around that value and understanding value is not just a one-way street or one street one way we can kinda impact and having those people process and product. Those three p's, so to speak, are so huge to every business because without, you know, any of them or lacking in one of them, it can definitely, you know, have, a tremendous, negative impact on your business. So understanding that it's our goal to kinda provide value in each of those different aspects and how we can see the impact on a regular basis if we're if we're able to kinda execute on that.

[00:12:27.00] – Rahul Vij

Absolutely. Absolutely. I think one can start a business without having those three p's, but it's really, really difficult. Or I'll say impossible to scale a business without those three p's.

[00:12:37.39] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. Alright, Rahul. I truly appreciate that definition and that perspective, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know, and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all of us and things you and your team are working on.

[00:12:53.70] – Rahul Vij

Sure. Thanks. Thanks, Dushyam. I really loved being on your show and, people can reach out to me by email. They can just send me an email on raul at the red web sparrow dot com, or they can find me on Instagram. My ID is Rahul V I J three. And I replied to my emails instantly. So if there's anything you want to talk about, I'm always available. And it's it's really, I'm really grateful to be part of this ecosystem, you know, where people are trying different things, trying to make a living and helping people at the same time helping other businesses. So, if you are a business, we can help you in growing. And if you and if there's anything else, if there's anything that you think I can help you with, just feel free to send me an email, and you will definitely get a reply within eight to ten hours from me.

[00:13:46.79] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. I truly appreciate that, Rahul. And what we'll do is we'll have the links and information in the show notes as well too so that everybody can follow up with you and connect with you. And, definitely, you know, it's our privilege to have you as part of our ecosystem as well too, and a part of this show. And, thank you for all the value you provided, you know, in what you're doing for clients, but also in what you talked about and spoke about today. So I appreciate you, my friend, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:14:09.79] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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