Website Planet had the chance to sit down and chat with Siddharth Gupta, founder of NotifyVisitors and InviteReferrals, and growth advisor for over 1000 brands including HDFC, Axis, Kotak, and Aditya Birla. We discussed how he started, the challenges he faced as a digital entrepreneur, and got some expert insights on the current trend in the industry.
Introduce Yourself And The Projects You Are Currently Working On
I am an engineer by profession and have more than 13 years of experience in building products for digital marketers. I started my career as a software developer and started Notifyvisitors after 1 year of work. We are currently working on Notifyvisitors, marketing automation software and to simplify setting and executing personalized marketing campaigns for D2C brands across all first party channels.
What Inspired You To Start at NotifyVisitors & InviteReferrals?
Loyalty and referral program was the first software we developed. We found it was a very tedious job to set up even very basic campaigns like welcome series and drop off series while using existing softwares in the market at that time. This led to inception of Notifyvisitors to automate all life cycle communications to end customers
What Steps In Building And Scaling Your Business Have Been Most Challenging?
Martech is a very competitive market at the moment. With very large players like Adobe, Amazon to mid size and small regional players as well. I think navigating the competition and building a marquee client list has been one of the biggest validation and challenges we have overcome.
What Are The Most Memorable Events In The Life Of NotifyVisitors & Invitereferrals So Far?
There have been many memorable moments. Getting the first customer and checking has been by far the most cherished moment of our journey. Surviving lockdown and the current liquidity crunch has been a morale boosting experience for us.
What Tools Are In Your Current Techstack, And How Do You Benefit From Them?
We use many technology softwares like AWS, CI / CD deployment softwares, project management, documentation softwares to name a few.
Which Other Brands And People Inspire You?
I admire profitable brands built as bootstrapped businesses. It requires a great deal of perseverance, patience and focus to bootstrap a business. Atlassian, Zoho, Zerodha are some of the companies I admire.
What Do You See In The Future Of Your Industry, And What’s Next For You?
Marketing is an evergreen industry and we are very focussed to working on our product and adopting new technologies that impact our industry every couple of years. Artificial intelligence is going to play a big role in personalization of customer experience and will be a key differentiating factor between the brands.
What One Piece Of Advice Would You Give To Online Business Owners?
I would advise every brand to focus on customer engagement and retention. In times where cost of acquisition and competition is very high, retention will drive repeat growth and profit margins. Leverage customer referrals to drive acquisitions and bring down cost of acquisition significantly.