In this era of digitization and immense online public presence, businesses cannot ignore digital marketing to flourish and sustain.
Marketers are realizing the significance of digital marketing and are plunging into it like never before. This year’s digital marketing trends are expected to bring about a bigger revolution to facilitate better customer reach. Digital Marketing helps companies reach their targeted audience across the globe, with little investments and higher revenue conversion.
However, most digital marketing companies market without a strategy. A marketing strategy gives businesses direction and helps them understand the customer and their position in the market.
Digital Kungfu is one such company that helps businesses carve out marketing strategies and much more.
Digital Kungfu had begun its journey as a content production company while offering services to a variety of clients in different industries. Digital Kungfu began its eventful run with a determined innovative outlook and has never looked back since then.
Today Digital Kungfu has prominent clients of the industry, including Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and other major technology brands. They have generated over $24 million for their customers in over 50 countries and 200 industries.
CEO of Digital Kungfu, Matthew Brown, articulates his vision, the journey of the company, and the impact it has created in the industry. Following are the excerpts of the interview:
Matthew, please give us a brief overview of your journey as the CEO of Digital Kungfu.
Digital Kungfu began life as a content production company with a variety of clients in different industries. Soon, our technical team realized that about 90% of the business’s clientele were technology companies. At first, it was just an observation, but then we started conducting customer feedback interviews and realized that we worked best with technology businesses because we really understood them. We understood their products, the challenges their customers faced, their lead generation challenges, and their markets.
Based on these insights, we took a big risk. Instead of widening our net, we niched down and focused exclusively on technology businesses.
Today, remaining niche, specializing in the technology sector, and working with many of the world’s top technology vendors, distributors and partners has given us unparalleled insight into the value chain challenges that hardware and software businesses face.
Digital Kungfu was the first solution we took to market because it solved the immediate need for sales-qualified pipelines. Without deal flow, technology companies cannot support the businesses they serve. Each new brand we launch solves a different problem, with our proprietary technology forming the foundation of our solutions.
Tell us more about Digital Kungfu, its vision, and how its distinct offerings are impacting the industry and its clients.
I have always been captivated by technology. As a kid growing up in the 80s and 90s, I watched first-hand as arcade games shifted into Nintendos, faxes made way for email, and home computers became a reality – not to mention the first Nokias and Motorolas to reach South African shores. In short, I was at the forefront of the first generation who integrated technology into everyday life.
This fascination would only grow as I started my first job at a management consultancy that focused on technology outsourcing. It was the late ‘90s, and I could already see the impact that technology can have on a business. The right tech deployed in the right way has the potential to increase revenue, reduce risk, and reduce expenses. It’s a game-changer.
Today, Digital Kungfu is the premier demand generation and pipeline acceleration partner to technology businesses, a niche I believe is essential if our businesses are going to make a positive impact on the world.
I have always recognized that technology has the power to solve the key challenges that businesses face. Our role is to support their growth into key markets so that they can have the biggest impact possible.
Considering the example of the COVID-19 pandemic, how do you plan to navigate similar situations in the future?
During COVID, Digital Kungfu’s team had grown from ten employees to fifty employees, a steep curve to support the company’s continued growth as new brands are added to the fold.
I have a clear vision of where I want to take the company and grow. The 2024 Vivid Vision that our leadership team is working towards includes Digital Kungfu valued as a USD100-million company by the end of 2024. You cannot accomplish incredible feats as a team if your vision isn’t bold and audacious. It must excite the people who work with you and those that are responsible for bringing that vision to reality.
What efforts did you take during the pandemic to sustain operations and ensure the safety of your team at the same time?
We had made the decision in early 2020 to have fully remote and productive staff. While implementing weekly tasks to ensure the staff and leadership team was mentally fit, I also took time out of my day to call each staff member and check on their well-being.
What is your opinion on the adoption of modern technologies like AI and ML in the sales and marketing space?
Through the years, I have realized that the business environment is more unpredictable than it was five years ago and that change is accelerating.
Accelerated change can be disconcerting for some, but we have always embraced the fact that with change comes great opportunities. We love change. The greatest businesses and teams in the world know how to adapt and take advantage of change.
It is a topic I have discussed often on my podcast, The Matt Brown Show, and it centers on whether people have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. Fixed mindsets cannot look beyond their challenges. They tend towards a victim mentality and are not able to pivot or adapt.
On the other hand, growth mindsets are very different. They look at the world and ask, what I need to learn, and how do I need to adapt and change to make the most of my ever-shifting environment?
While many businesses are going out of business or suffering due to COVID-19, Black Swan Technology Holdings and its subsidiaries are making the most of the gaps in the market. By recognizing that the technology landscape will always evolve and that more opportunity comes with change, there is no choice but to take advantage of it.
As an established industry leader, what would be your advice to the budding entrepreneurs and enthusiasts aspiring to venture into the sales and marketing industry?
The key to building a multi-million-dollar business is failing faster, which might sound counterintuitive, but it is the only way to change an industry from the inside out.
Everyone fails. Failure is growth. You need to figure out what does not work before you can perfect what does. One of the advantages that we have always had over our competitors is that Digital Kungfu fails faster. We fail, learn the lesson, adjust our offering and ultimately, find success at a faster rate to stay ahead.
Additionally, we know that anybody can copy the products that Black Swan Technology Holdings takes to the market, but it is far harder – if not impossible – to copy the culture of the company.
You don’t know what you don’t know, which means you are often reaching out into new territory to figure things out, and when that happens, you are very likely to stumble and fall. That’s okay – just make sure you get back up again.
