Why Do I Love What I do?

Growing Digital Visibility Through Authority, and Authenticity.

I started out much like many other undergraduate students. I pushed into places I didn’t know enough about, I didn’t push myself enough early, and, frankly, I was too immature about what I wanted out of my career. I knew a few things about myself:

  • I liked the idea of business because my family is chock-full of scientists

  • I don’t want to have wrong answers and just use powers of persuasion to get my way

Knowing those things, and after I got my act together and did remarkably well in my last 2-3 years of college and internship and received a degree in marketing, I got my first job. It was a sales job, and while I was fine at it, it wasn’t fulfilling enough because I didn’t know why it mattered to the customer. About 6 months into this job my then boss asked me if I had any interest in working on the web and supporting a new product. I was intrigued, and to be honest, it felt like I didn’t have to lie to customers anymore. The job was in the implementation and measurement of our new website analytics tool.

I was scared beyond belief. What is this? I don’t know the first thing about code. And, it was $80k a year and the organization had no idea how to use it. So I poured myself into it. The first thing I read is that it’s to improve marketing through your website, and digital advertising. That was as close to my degree as I got and I started to think about one of my favorite classes in college - a database marketing class that I took and loved as I could play a little bit of Moneyball there, and I liked that. I was paired with some solid developers and away we went into this. I was fascinated by the data - real users doing real things and I can see impact. I can also (after hours and hours and hours of reading analytics books, blogs , and the like) recommend what is good, what isn’t, and how to change it.

Over time I held a few other jobs in this space, using different tools and different platforms (email marketing analytics, SEO, SEM) and always was enamored with the data, the testing, and the outcomes that could be driven. I received my MBA during this time, and at this point I was no longer the immature kid I was once was. I understood business in a much more robust way and came away doing that degree marvelously. The itch never went away for analytics, data, and outcomes. After working for one of the largest companies in the world in IBM, I came to Gallup to craft the holistic digital experience for the organization. Now, as the Director of Digital Strategy, I look at the web as fascinated as ever, asking the most important questions, and relying on my skills in web analytics, SEO, SEM, Social Analytics, and our overall customer data to help drive our business going forward.

As it would turn out, I learned something about myself:

  • I’m my parent’s kid as I am a different type of scientist

  • I love asking questions that drive businesses and teams forward and using data to answer it

  • Through each of these efforts it’s always clear that digital is done best when it is authentic, affixed in best practices, and measured and reviewed on a regular basis

That’s about me, but what about you? Let’s ask you some questions:

  • What’s ailing your business digitally?

  • Is it even digital and do you just want to know if you’re doing well?

  • Do you know if your team is up to the task of moving you forward?

  • Do you know if you’re spending too much money, not enough, or even if you’re supposed to on advertising or whatever tool you are looking for?

I want to help you answer these questions. These are so important to your bottom line and to your future. The best digital strategists aren’t the ones with billions of pages of stuff, or tons of data, but the ones that have the right data and that listen to you well enough to give you some thoughtful information and a plan to succeed.

Hope you’ve learned a bit more about me and what makes me tick. Looking forward to hearing from you.

- Anand