People who achieve the most staggering, world changing things with their lives don’t do so by dividing their intentions. They aim high, get their bumblebees in line, and say no to all the other opportunities that life presented them. The Indian engineer dreams of getting a job in an MNC or to go abroad for further studies. Asif Banatwala, Director, CEO of Terbium Solutions Pvt. Ltd. had an onsite job in TCS and college offers to go complete his masters in the US. But the sense of achievement was still a distant dream. The most daring thing he did was to give in resignation while being onsite and coming back to India to start up Terbium Solutions.
Getting into a business with, unique idea sounds promising. The decision of leaving behind a regular paycheck to build something huge is a big risk in itself. With uncertainty of the future and limited financial resources rhe duo of Asif Banatwala and Vipul Pande started off on a humble budget. But it is after the initial step that one realizes that the way ahead is not as easy as one may have thought. The issues weren’t limited to just the funds, retaining the employees was a hard task too.
Back To Basics
With friends and colleagues advising otherwise, he knew that the dream of becoming an entrepreneur deserved a shot. Once the team ventured in, they realized that SEO is more a technologically driven need than marketing. Knowing what the algorithm says and understanding the needs which exist in SEO implementation worked in their advantage. One of the opportunities we identified were that large websites of well-known brands were not equipped with basic SEO features and that made it very difficult to bring their ranking up even for their own unique keywords, since SEO remained a major blind spot for the brand and digital managers Terbium stepped in to tackle this. We started a practice of delivering SEO friendly websites were all the technical aspects to achieve the SERPs were handled. These new websites were easier to rank in lesser time, here is where the team got its mantra and it follows this for all the clients. This is not new, but brands tend to mostly ignore this fact.
At times the team worked for 16 hours a day without going home, to meet the deliverables. But the drive to make Terbium Solutions a success kept them going. ‘Sometimes not having a plan B is the best plan.’
The Indian digital system had a gap – the agencies were development oriented or digital media houses, technology and marketing never looked eye to eye and this had to be addressed. The combination of the two – marketing and technology was what was needed by both the established brands and a budding startup. Terbium tried covering this gap with the technical background we already had and growing into the digital space with SEO, Channel Management and Analytics, Social Media and Performance Marketing.
This is where Terbium Solutions Pvt. Ltd made its USP in the crowded techno marketing space. With one aim of – making “IT” better.
Evolution and Growth of the Digital Marketing Agency
“The launch of Terbium Solutions on October 10, 2013, was, is and will be the most remarkable moment in my life”, says Asif.
The organization has experienced many other remarkable moments in the journey one such moment which Asif mentions which was both remarkable and challenging was the successful implementation of Local SEO project for one of the largest QSR brands in India. The successful delivery of the project was one of the milestones for Terbium & the stepping stone for many such achievements to follow.
Today the Local SEO project is running successfully and is one of the important channels in the revenue generation for this brand. This has been the key point of difference for us as an agency. We continue to work and grow as in both the national and international markets for this solution. We replicated the success story for many other industry verticals including education, pharma and lifestyle, entertainment, online shopping etc.
Experiencing and Pitching New Ideas
Terbium has its potential clients from several industry verticals such as QSR, Finance, Online Fashion, Real Estate, Telecommunication, Lifestyle, Education and new and upcoming online platforms and startups. The team of experts continuously monitors the market trends and comes up with new ideas for content generation & new asset creation.
SEO is about being the first to implement and take to market as the online search and discovery changes rapidly and the clients can work on these new opportunities. The organization believes in bringing people together into the creative process, and increases the social nature of the project. It has open brainstorming sessions where the entire team pitches in new ideas.
Detailed documentation and result tracking are what the company shares with its clients, along with the interpretation of the reports (which is actually a client favorite). The core agenda of the clients who are seeking SEO services is to increase brand visibility, increase the number of visitors coming to the website, monitoring the online sales/enquiry funnel and improve the overall usability of the website.
User Intent of Creating Content
The web has become an integral part of everybody’s existence that one barely questions it. Google is supplying not only with the answers to all kinds of queries, but also providing a globally accessible portal for business and commerce. Google’s success can be summed up in one word: relevance. Google’s RankBrain is constantly being updated and working hard on improving the search experience for users. It is becoming difficult day by day to get on the first page of Google as Google is continuously transforming from search engine to knowledge/information engine. With featured snippets on SERP, driving users to the website is a constant challenge. It’s about providing a better user experience and this whole game is about understanding user intent to create content accordingly.
Terbium is working on a new search process. The plan is also to create SEO landing pages using these concepts in the near future to display relevant content in a clear structure for users with different intent. Asif mentions that “ORGANIC RANKING in Search Results and maintaining those ranks for our clients is something, which sets us as an organization apart.” He states that the company believes in creating case studies and providing the adequate goal delivery training to the employees and also the brands that it works for.
Focus on Tactics to Tackle the Competition
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the primary focus for Terbium when it comes to the strategy to tackle competition. These concepts are very much connected with SEO and UX. Asif reveals some tips which are a holy grail to beat the competition.
- Smart headlines and subheadings to attract users by easily finding answers to their queries
- Visual content converts much better than text only
- Content should clearly target each stage of the buyer’s journey
- Explaining what, why and how you are selling. This is essential to create high performing landing pages
- User-generated content also helps users with decision-making. If possible, add reviews, ratings, and testimonials
- Make users believe in your brand by guaranteeing the product or service’s quality and your availability in case they have any questions or concerns
- The client has the intent clear – solitary purpose of pages is what will result in a better
follow through rate - And of course, include a powerful call to action
Asif explains that search is driven through a set of technical algorithms, which will work well if one understands what the algorithm is looking for. Feeding the system, what it wants and the simplest of strategies will work best for most of Terbium clients. This technical clarity along with a team of marketing experts is what helps them get the edge over its clients.
Striding Towards a Buoyant Future
Terbium products are something Asif and his team aims to deliver in the long run. These products will comprise a set of automated marketing tools, which can help in their basic marketing activities. These will automate 80% of the SEO work, and one will have to depend on external agencies just for content, indexing, app indexing and off-page activities. The in-house experts have built architecture of the products with respect to proper implementation and post testing and market and performance feasibility the organization will roll it into the market for commercial use. The firm also plans expansion to overseas territory, which is another long-term objective, which falls in line with the strategic goals of the organizations. The organization completes 5 years under leadership of Asif Banatwala and is looking forward for better things ahead.
Source :-The 10 Best SEO Service Providers in India 2018
