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Building Effective Marketing Teams: Strategy Talks with Shveta Bakshi

Director of Marketing at Axtria

Join Harshit Gupta, Director of Business Analysis at Wytlabs, in this enlightening episode of Wytpod as he sits down with Shveta Bakshi, Director of Marketing at Axtria. With nearly two decades of experience in the marketing world, particularly in the life sciences sector, Shveta shares her journey from starting at an ad agency to mastering marketing in a B2B environment. This episode dives deep into how marketing has evolved with technology, the strategic integration of sales and marketing, and the significance of data insights in crafting effective campaigns.

Axtria is a global leader in cloud software and data analytics for life sciences and improving patient outcomes through data insights.

Shveta Bakshi
Director of Marketing at Axtria

Hello everyone, and welcome to another Wytpod episode. My name is Harshit, and I’m the Director of Business Analysis at Wytlabs. We are a digital agency specializing in SaaS and e-commerce SEO. I’ve got Shveta Bakshi with me today. She’s the Director of Marketing at Axtria, a global provider of award-winning cloud software and data analytics to the life science industry. A big welcome to you, Shveta. Happy to have you with me today.

Thank you. Thank you, Harshit. Thank you for chasing me. Thank you for chasing me till the end. We are right now talking to each other, and I look forward to a great conversation.

Great. Let’s start with what has been your journey in the marketing field, which is pretty long, to be honest, almost 19 years now, and how you have seen the marketing landscape evolve over the years, especially in the life sciences and healthcare industry.

I call myself a very passionate marketing professional. This is the field I knew I would join from the very beginning, just passing out of school. Marketing was my passion or where I wanted to see myself. I started with an ad agency because I was very, again, fascinated with how ads are being created. That’s where I wanted to start and understand how it works. With that, I moved to an industry where the life sciences industry was by default, I would say. But that’s where my career had built 19 years, as you rightly said, in the life sciences industry, where I have touched base both the B2C market and the B2B market as well. It has been a very interesting journey to see marketing evolve from where when I started my career to where we are right now. To give you some facts, probably 15 years back when I was with Baxter, then it was like a sales force, the CRM, which is a must to have now everywhere, in every organization, was just coming into the picture. I remember discussing with our sales team, then I was part of the hemophilia business. We were launching some brands, and it was all about ensuring the sales team understood the importance of this tech or CRM and ensuring that they adhered to it.

The entire cycle of sales inputs coming to marketing and marketing making progress or evolving their campaigns with the right intel began. That was the starting part of it. Now I see data and insights are fundamental. That’s a big shift where they are extremely important to better your campaigns or to read the data, to understand your customers. That’s the one big shift for Shalhi, which is there in the market. This is a necessity to understand the data through various markets or what you have on the table to use. Secondly, I think these such insights are possible because of digital channels. They have enabled these insights and data for us. That’s where we can gather this data and analyze it to further improve our campaigns or understand our customers and give them the right information at the right time. That’s what is important. And understand their pain points and work accordingly.

Any specific platform, because your marketing data comes from numerous omnichannel worlds altogether. Any specific platform that you leverage or prefer using and tons of analytics solutions integrate multiple platforms and give you that integrated data to make informed marketing decisions. 

I think I always believe that and more so because with this Mark tag and technology, so much is available to all of us marketers that a confusing world out there. It’s important to understand, have some patience, really see what is the need in your organization, and then choose the right tech for yourself. That’s most important. Also, I think you should not be in a hurry in a way that you should look at what you have currently on the table. Are you using it to the best level possible? Are you using that platform to the best level possible? Then move to the other platforms and bring them to the table wherever you see the gap. Of course, right now we are on a journey of integrating our sales and marketing, being more understanding of the data that flows throughout the funnel. That’s where we are. It’s all about learning. It’s all about testing. There’s a lot that you have to continuously evolve or test to come to a space of smooth operations of this tech using all the tech together.

That makes sense. Now, as a seasoned marketing leader, what are the primary objectives you aim to achieve through your marketing marketing strategies in the B2B environment?

B2B environment I see is now there isn’t much gap between B2C and B2B. The strategies that you do, the segmentation, targeting, positioning, if I say, which is critical for creating a marketing strategy plan exist both for B2C and B2B. But I think it’s about how do you make impactful engagement or experiences for your customers. How do you touch point with them through their entire journey? Across every channel, the experience that you create for them, the pain points that you understand that you can solve for them. That’s one important objective that we aim to achieve. Then, of course, there are more areas like we have to know our customers and we have to respect our customers. If we don’t understand our customers, and that’s where marketing and sales working together is crucial. Because Intel comes from sales in the B2B space, but also otherwise I think you can do, of course, get into surveys or research that you do. But understanding customers is important. Also with data privacy coming into the picture, it’s important to respect privacy. I think these two points were engaging with your audience at the right time with the right channel bringing those experiences for your customer through the entire journey and also knowing your customer well so that you can reach them in the right capacity.

Now, because you build your marketing team from scratch together. I would love to know what key qualities you look for when assembling a marketing team, focused on your organization’s digital needs. We are digital marketers, content, and social Marketing managers, and designers. What are the specific qualities that you look on chase after while hiring people?

I think, again, this is very close to my heart because I’ve seen this marketing team and I’ve been an integral part of it where I’ve seen this team grow from very few members to a good strength of the team right now, which we have in the organization. It’s evolving. As for the goals of the organization, you recruit the right talent for yourself. It’s important to know where the gap is, and what skillset you need. But more than a skillset, it is when you hire the talent, that it’s important to know the attitude of the person. What attitude a person brings to the table is very important. You can learn a skill, but attitude cannot be learned. It can be, but it’s important to have that in a person when you hire a person in the team. But more than that, I think for the team to work as one team, it is important to have the right collaboration and communication in the team. You work as one team only when you have the collaboration between sub-teams and also the right communication. Then also, I think, secondly, it will be a lot about putting the right processes in place and knowledge management.

We deal with data day in and day out. It’s all about you have to operationalize things in the right way. Putting the processes in place is crucial. Also, you would be creating so many decks day in, day out, marketing dashboards. There has to be a knowledge management where all of this is housed and you can refer your historic data points or historic campaigns at the right place. I think all this will be crucial for building that team from scratch.

Makes sense. You rightly put it. Knowledge management is crucial. I’ve seen mainly SMEs on that trend, and usually, enterprises are sorted because they understand the value of it better, unquestionably. But yeah, rightly put. All right, Because you have done it in the past, what are the main lessons of building the team from scratch? What are the specific, I would say, must-do’s for you? Now that you have to do the whole process again, what are the crucial factors that you will keep in mind?

I think, again, Like I said, every organization has a different journey. Depending on where are you in your journey and what goals you are aiming for, you will put the marketing strategy, whether it is a long-term plan, or a short-term plan, accordingly. It’s important to have that marketing strategy plan in place, that is what you’re aiming for the organization. Through marketing, initiative, and activity, what all you do, what is the goal, and how do you attach marketing strategy to the end goal of the organization? That’s the beginning point, When you have that sorted, I think it’s a lot about execution. It’s a lot about having the right team to do the execution for you. I’ve seen several organizations where you have the leaders, but you don’t have the team to execute. You have to have the team to execute the strategies that you plan and also various tactical plans that you have in marketing. That will be another bit from strategy to having the team execute to, of course, continuous learning and innovating is coming in the team. Again, that’s a crucial part of marketing, where it is not just team learning together. Marktech is coming with new tools every day.

The marketing landscape is evolving every day. Gen AI is changing the time for us marketers. It’s important as a team to learn and have that inclination towards innovating. Also then a lot about testing. A lot of it is about when you’re using the tech to have that patience and also testing your campaigns, A/B testing, what’s working, what’s not working. I think all of this becomes very important to have the right team in place and the right forward-looking where you are heading in marketing also.

You mentioned a very good point, Jenny. I would love to know what are the marketing functions where you use generative AI. That’s helping you scale.

I think now if you see, Gen AI is coming up in every tool that you see or every tool you have on the table, whether you are using it or you are looking at a new tool to have, content. You have a blog being created through Gen AI. But I think it is important. Gen AI is the future. But how much benefit you can gain out of it, it’s something you have to decide. It is about what it brings you to the table. Is the blog written by Gen AI all that aims for? Or of course, there has to be a human touch. I attended a workshop where the entire discussion was on Gen AI. But at the end of it, I attended one session where it was about a father going on experiences with his daughter. Nothing surpasses human experience. Gen AI can bring a lot to the table, and it is bringing, it is evolving. A lot of work. It’s making us a lot more efficient. Whether you are writing a social copy, we have a tools already in the system to better our social copies, to better our newsletter that we circulate to better the blogs that we are writing.

A lot of that space we are using. Also, somewhere data, cleaning up data, and a lot of other areas where Gen AI is currently being used in our organization as well. But it is also about not trusting it blindly. It is about you having to look through what it brings to the table and bring your experiences to take it to the end product.

Yeah, you rightly put this. To be honest Google was pretty clear on this. There are a lot of companies that are using AI-generated content on their websites and quite Belize as well. Yeah. Google was clear about this thing that there’s no harm in using generative AI, but then again. You have to keep humans in the loop. And has to have that unique take on any subject matter altogether. Yeah, that’s crucial. Using AI for content is brilliant, but then go ahead, rephrase it, and have your input as a matter. That is how you can We still have that scalability, a little less scalability, but at least you won’t be penalized by the search engine.

Yeah, absolutely.

You know what? The same is happening with the outbound email as well. Mail and Bing, Yahoo, they have recently updated their algorithms. If you have AI-generated emails, you send them in bugs and stuff, which is again way too exhaustive a strategy. You’ll end up in the spam folder and then inbox. That’s also happening. I think so.

Agree on that.

I’m sure like, Shetha, because you’re using so many channels, what are your main go-to tools to just have these multiple channels, multiple marketing engines running and organized well?

There are a lot of campaign-driven approaches that we have in the organization, and it’s evolving. As you move forward, you continue to learn. Like I said, it’s important to learn. But in a B2B space, LinkedIn, of course, is It’s a channel that is the channel where your audience is. It is a channel where you get your target audience and you can choose your targeting and do your campaigns. It’s, of course, a channel that every B2B organization is using. Secondly Also events. We just concluded our flagship event called AXIA Ignite, which recently happened in the US. It got a great response and we are, as a team, very happy that that event has concluded now, and we are in the post-event process. But, of course, a lot What do you do with events and connecting with your customers in person? But at the same time, because events are in person as a marketing team, how do you bring that data and the intel from the in-person event to the marketing initiative channels or strategy that you have built for that event? That’s where MarkTek comes into the picture. Noting down the engagement of that event and bringing them seamlessly into your marketing platform.

I think events on LinkedIn are two channels that Probably every B2B industry or player is leveraging these days, and they do make an impact if used in the right way.

I agree. Also, Shveta, since you’ve been handling SEO as well within your organization, I would love I don’t know because the shift has already started. Generative AI, people switching to maybe ChatGPT, or in fact, Google also launched AI Overviews, which populates a lot of first-page sections. Altogether. All of those things happening. Has your content strategy shifted towards getting featured on the generative engine result as well? Has that evolved or you’re planning How are you going to do it? What’s your take on this?

I think we are in the initial stage, Harshit. I would say it’s still initial for us to evaluate that bit. Does our audience sit and be available there when we move our SEO to get into this Gen AI, ChatGPT, and all those areas as well? We are evaluating stage right now, but generally on SEO, I think it’s a long-term game. I’ve seen these across organizations. If you have to see results, it has to be a mix of paid and organic, both you have to put in money to see results paid and organic. But having said that, again, content is very important, that you have the right content and the right content publishing at the right frequency. Because keywords just keep moving up and down. You have to be consistent with your content to have that certain graph to show that these are the efforts by an SEO work that we have done and this is how it shows. There’s a lot of, I think, work that has to happen in SEO and we are moving towards that. But you have to have the right content, I think, and monitoring for SEO to succeed long term.

Definitely. There have been, and There are a few research which indicates that the whole shift going to happen, like how traditional people search on Google to generative AI altogether in the next few years. Some promising stats are that the conversion that you get through them is comparatively better than regular Google search driving that traffic towards your site. But still, I understand it’s a pretty early stage to connect and see things because definitely, we’re not seeing organic search traffic drops. If you’re doing everything right, there’s still good traction through it. Nothing worrisome now, but a few years down the line, it might get worrisome. I’m prepared for it. Anything else around any new innovative strategies around the other strategies like video production, or marketing automation that you’re focusing on?

There’s a lot of work on the marketing automation front that we are doing. Creating the right workflow makes things more efficient for us. Whether it is about the subscription experience that we give to our visitor who visits our website or drip the email campaigns that we do. Some we are already doing, some we are moving towards to give a better experience to our visitors to our customers and also to make our team more efficient. There’s a lot of work that we are doing in the automation space, yes. I think it is a lot about, one, of course, innovating, but also what you have on the table. Doing It consists of consistently and evolving. Monitoring it, are you doing the right thing? Having those close discussions with sales. I think that’s a missing point in many organizations where marketing and sales have to work together. I think all of this becomes very important. Having a stock of what you have on the table, monitoring it, and then, of course, innovating to bring efficiencies to your team.

What I’ve seen is in most of the organizations, there’s not much harmony between the sales and marketing departments. How do you achieve that?

It’s a journey, I think, Harshit. In every organization, it’s a journey. We also have an organization moving towards it. With all this smart tech build or connection between marketing and sales, that’s what will make it smoother. When Intel flows from sales to marketing or marketing giving the right information at the right time, how their customers or prospects are behaving on the digital channels, and they find that worthwhile. Of course, the trust trust will build between the two. That’s what we are aiming towards for sure.

What are the main KPIs that you chase, Shveta to check on the performance of any given channel that you’re focusing on? What is the crucial matrix that you look after?

I think we look at it very interesting. I think it is important for marketing to continuously look at the KPIs that they are chasing and show that impact, which we have been doing and we continue to evolve in that space also. We look at the entire journey and that’s how it should be in B2B space or any space. It starts with building the brand. You have to have that funnel, the top funnel. It’s all about building the brand where you reach out to your universe, and make your brand known through the content you have and through the various channels you have. Then drill down to, and that’s where we monitor a lot of this, what followers we brought to the table, what’s the impression of our social channels, how our website traffic is moving, a lot of traditional KPIs for marketing. But then also looking at the journey, how they are moving across from top to mid to end funnel. Of course, it’s all about how we address their end of the funnel, their pain points, and how MQ MQLs are moving to SAL and SQL. It’s a lot about the end of the funnel, it is about MQLs that we have got to the table, and how they are moving to SAL and SQL.

Mid-funnel is all about engagement on our website. How have been the form fills? How have the new form fills versus existing customers who were visiting our website? A lot of these engagement parameters become important in the mid-funnel. Then, of course, the end-funnel where actually what MQL will be brought to the table and moving it forward till then.

What’s your take on the post-purchase strategies? Are there any activities that you prioritize, to be honest, to do more upsell or just increase the client ticket value or in fact for retention as well? A few pointers on that, please.

I think this is a very interesting topic or point that you raised. Of course, we are evolving in an organization in this space, but on a general note, I think communities play a very important role here. Retention or loyalty or you are connected with them. If you build communities where you have different products that you’re offering or different solutions that you’re offering and you have a community where you are updating, what are the new products we have brought in our product? This is how it will solve your pain point. You are building that community where this exists. This is a very good channel for, I think, retention or loyalty or seeing the pain points or what customers are looking for, implementing in your product and telling them, Okay, we have done this. Now your feedback is taken. Now we have brought this to the table. I think communities play a very big role here to change the game for attention and loyalty and being connected with your customers there.

That makes perfect sense. Now, as someone passionate about mentoring and empowering women in the workspace, what initiatives or practices do you recommend to support female professionals in marketing?

I think this is also very close to my heart because I have seen my journey. Of course, there has been a work-life balance when you talk about Rai. With such busy schedules. Everybody stops to take a pause. It’s important to keep yourself safe and to continue to work in your passion area. That’s where I have gone through a journey, and that’s where I relate to the importance of pausing in your life and thinking through only doing nothing maybe. I coach wherever there’s an opportunity that comes into the picture for younger females who are just starting. One, of course, it’s important to pause. Just don’t go at the ever-increasing speed that’s there in the corporate world right now. Everybody has their journey for sure. Secondly, I think it’s all about also taking opportunities. There will be opportunities on the table. It’s about how you quickly take it, you build that trust, and you deliver on those opportunities. I think that’s important that while you work, there are a lot of things that come your way. Sometimes you do have bandwidth, sometimes you don’t. You have to mchooseopportunities that are coming your way.

Then, of course, continuously learning. I think that’s also critical that continue to upskill yourself at whatever level you reach. I think it’s important to keep yourself updated with such an evolving landscape of marketing. It’s very important. I think it’s all about pausing, definitely taking up opportunities, and understanding that everybody has different journeys, and you march forward in your journey.

To be honest, the digital marketing world is crazy. Every day there’s something new that comes up and disrupts. Yes, absolutely. Mental health is another important aspect of your professional life. I think June is mental health month if I’m not wrong. Is it? How do you integrate mental health awareness and support within your team? Why do you think it’s vital for a successful marketing function?

I think, like I said, it’s a marketing function or any function. Mental health This is important to be sane. Handle pressure will never decrease in your job. It is about how you manage it, and how you handle it. That’s where mental health comes into the picture. Again, it’s a continuous learning Again, it’s a lot of self-taught that you are doing the right thing, and you are on the right path. That’s where I think it’s important, whether it’s women or it’s men, both have their equal set of challenges that they deal with. But yeah, I think mentally continuously thinking that you have to just not go on a crazy journey, but you should know what you want, probably in the next three years, next five years. Keep yourself sane. Taking breaks is very important. A vacation break or any break, it’s important. Doing nothing is important. Pausing is important. All of this helps. And seeing that you are on the right path, you are doing the right thing, you have achieved something. Patting on your back is important, I think, yeah.

Now, looking forward, what trends or developments do you foresee shaping the future of marketing, specifically in your life science industry? How are you prepared? How is your company prepared for these changes?

I think, like I said, Gen AI, which is not a trend. It’s a long-term that’s coming into the picture. It’s all about how you embrace that with the right mindset in mind. How do you evolve your teams into this new movement quite quickly, but with the right strategy in mind? These are the areas that we’ll begin with. There are a lot of pilots or use cases that you should look at and probably show the organization that, Okay, these are the use cases that we have worked on, and this is the impact that It’s bringing to the table. A lot of these copilot of the world, which is changing the game, Microsoft Copilot or others bring a lot of things for you on the platform, whether it is content, pictures, whether it is a dashboard, whether it is a lot of things. It is like your self-managing tool. A digital agency is your set of tools to play with, to do a lot of those things, innovate, create videos, and create campaigns. A lot of those things come together in a package. How do you leverage it? That’s where everything will come into the picture.

How do you evolve your teams, most importantly? That’s where a lot of organizations struggle. Whether it is life sciences or any industry, I think that’s the space that will change the game in the next few years.

I agree. All right, Shveta. We’re coming to an end and I would love to have a quick rapid-fire with you. Are you ready for that?

Yeah, sure.

If you could use only one social media platform for the rest of your life, which would it be?

None. None is the answer.

You’re not an Insta fan?

I am on Instagram, but I know I have two girls, I have two kids, and I know what impact it is creating on kids. Though I’m managing, I’m not in for a social engine game.

Okay. What’s the most bizarre marketing tactic you’ve ever seen work successfully?

I think on a newsletter where you haven’t subscribed and there’s an email that comes, Bye-bye, we are going, and you are not. Still, it’s a very tactical thing, but if you read that email, it gives something in your head and you might subscribe. That’s It’s very tactical, but it has worked.

What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever come to with a brilliant marketing idea?

Two-tier 3 cities in India, where you see those billboards where there are services and a Kirana store is offering and they come up with brilliant lines, I don’t remember any, but those are, of course, very amazing to attract customers to their shops.

Yeah, greenworthy as well. To magically increase your marketing budget tenfold, what would be the first thing you would do with that extra funds?

It’s first about having the right strategy. I’ll again emphasize it is about having the right strategy. When you have cracked that, then, of course, the channels which are working For you, spend more money. You always feel that there is a channel that is working, but we are constrained by a budget. There’s a lot more impact we can showcase, but we cannot. So spend more money on those channels.

Now, coming in our very last question, if you could What are your top roles with any other department within your company for a day, what would it be and why?

That’s an interesting one. But I don’t know. Like I said, I’m a very passionate marketer. This is all that I’ve done in my life. I would rather see the journey here involving how it moves forward. If I have to swap, I will probably swap with a country manager. Not any department, but with the country manager. How things look at his or her level how to see the entire symphony in various teams and how it works.

Thank you, Shveta. I enjoyed this conversation. Thank you so much for sharing all your wisdom, and all your experiences. Appreciate your time here with me. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Harshit. Thank you. I had fun. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

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