One tech company in Nepal is helping businesses grow through the science of digital marketing.

--BY NIKEETA GAUTAM

Search engines have taken today’s world by storm. Today, it is not only about staying in one place and browsing for information from a desktop but it is also about browsing from anywhere on our mobile phones. The optimisation techniques have been changing rapidly in search engines which are now a part of our everyday lives. Businesses in Nepal have also started realising that better Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) means bringing more clients to the business. The tech enthusiasts have been bringing various initiatives in the field of digital marketing. One such venture which was recently founded to propagate the value of digital marketing in Nepal is Elance Digital Media.

Company Initiation
Anish Sah, Co-Founder of Elance Digital Media always had the mindset of building his own enterprise. He wanted to initiate something of his own right after graduation but doing a master’s in Thermo Engineering kept him busy. Along with his studies, he also worked as a freelancer in the field of SEO and was earninga good income. After completing his master’s from Jain University, India, he came to Nepal. 

“After doing my masters in Thermo Engineering, it was certainly expected from my family that I would continue with a job in the same field,” recalls Sah. Yet, Sah’s passion for SEO had increased so much during his freelancing period that he decided to work on SEO by opening his own company. “With the main objective being to work on Digital Marketing to make it a cost effective marketing strategy for businesses of different kinds, we started Elance Digital Media in 2017,” he says. Sah built the enterprise with his own investment while two other co-founders, Bijay Ghimre who is also the SEO manager and Rajan Shilpakar, who is the company’s project manager,used their expertise to help build Elance as an enterprise. 

Work Areas
Sah is passionate about SEO and he is also passionate about sharing his knowledge with others as well. “Presently, Elance is focused on educating people about the benefits of SEO,” informs Sah. Along with providing a few hours of free basic sessions about SEO in colleges, Elance has also been running 10 days (two hours per day) trainings on SEO in its office premises.  Usually students and professionals who want to earn extra income and business owners who want to increase traffic on their websites take the training.  

Besides this, the company also offers monthly packages for companies on the ranking of their websites. “We provide the companies with solutions in such a way that after one year they don’t have to rely on us to take the service. We train them and provide them the techniques for effective and genuine SEO which will help them get continuous traffic,”says Sah.

“Many companies use fake methods in SEO and come to the top in rankings, however this method cannot be sustained for the long term,” observes Sah. The fake techniques were mostly used in the early 2010s. The people used to increase their ranking by themselves with techniques such as keyword stuffing. “However now, if we don’t keep high quality content, we cannot have good ranking on Google,” he shares.  Therefore, understanding the genuine methods for ranking is essential nowadays. 

Though the company is currently more focused on SEO, it also handles other areas of digital marketing and has been giving services including pay-per-click advertisement, graphic designing, website designing, email marketing and social media management. 

Clientele
Sah had been working with some foreign clients before the establishment of the company. “We have been working with WB21, a digital financial institution from Germany which has covered 24 countries till now,” he informs. Elance is handling their brand awareness, SEO and Facebook marketing.  Similarly, Info Summit LLC based in US is another startup which Elance is working with and Facebook marketing for.

After the formation of the company, Sah also gained local clients. The company handles the website design, Facebook promotion and SEO of Satakshi Education Consultancy. It has also been handling the promotional activity of some automobile dealers and media groups. “It has just been six months, so we need some time to get into the Nepali market,” shares Sah.

Revenue Model
Besides the income from regular training classes, the company earns revenue from services including Facebook marketing and Facebook management services which they provide to the foreign companies.  The company has also been adding its services day -by-day. They have recently started Facebook advertisement services for the companies and they also do online response management.  “The brand may not know about the response it has been getting through Facebook and online, so we have added those services for this,” shares Sah.  The company also gains good income from website designing. “All companies in Nepal are gradually understanding the importance of creating websites,” shares Sah.

Staff
Along with the three co-founders, two staff and two interns, the company has seven team members.  The company being a startup prefers to hire freshers and groom their skills in a way the clients need. Like any other modern organisation, the company focuses on self-motivated candidates who are eager to learn.

Investment
Started with an investment of Rs 700,000, the company now has a turnover of Rs 150,000. In just six months, the company was able to come into profit. “The success in the field of digital marketing business depends on how fast we move on updating ourselves and sharing it with others. If you open a digital marketing business and stay passive, definitely this won’t work,” Sah says. “We move forward with link building strategy and push ourselves to learn more and share more,” he mentions.  

Sah believes that since digital marketing is a dynamic field, one should have the habit of researching and keeping oneself updated. “It is better to do freelancing and working with a few clients before establishing one’s own company,” opines Sah. Being in the field of digital marketing business, you have to be a fast mover and should not be afraid to make mistakes, he views.

Promotional Activities
The company has currently been promoting the company and SEO both through social media like Facebook. “Currently, we are working on designing our website properly and improving the SEO part of Elance,” shares Sah.

Elance has been working in many ways with clients and people generally to raise awareness about the basics of SEO. This has also helped Elance to get recognition in the field of Digital Marketing.  Currently, the company has been organising free seminars for students. Furthermore, the company is planning to commercialise these seminars. “Besides this, we are also designing four hour seminars for business oriented professionals,” shares Sah. 

Five Years From Now
Along with educating and working to make SEO strong in the local context simultaneously, the company also aims to go international within five years. “We are preparing to open a branch in Dubai within one year. Similarly, within five years we are also planning to open another branch in US,” says Sah.  

The company is also planning to organise free seminars for students outside the valley. Besides this, Elance will also launch a free online class and presentation about digital marketing through an application called ‘Webinar Jam’. The company will also bring free video tutorials very soon.