Nitin Raj

Riverum is a travel outsourcing company that was founded in 2021. Its mission is to create a customer-centric environment where travel agents are empowered with technology and tools, so they can provide tailored solutions for all customer needs. Riverum, through a flexible, profit-sharing, ‘no-capex’, ‘pay-as-you-grow’ subscription-based engagement model, mitigates traditional risks associated with expansion into new markets and helps in establishing and operating global teams. The company currently operates in India, Romania, the Philippines, Moldova, the US, and the UK. The common leverage is big data & AI data to forecast demand and optimize advertising, promotions, and pricing on Google/Bing Adwords, Metas, Email, SEO & Affiliate.

The Classic ‘Coat of Many Colors'

Nitin Raj’s background is the classic ‘Coat of many colors.’ Through hard work and perseverance, he had the opportunity to stitch up almost two decades worth of experience patches. It was right before Riverum that Nitin completed SELPI from HBS. When it comes to marketing, he has donned a few distinct hats having taken roles as VP and CMO in various companies such as Yebhi, Jabong, Fareportal, and HCL. Nitin also has a fair share of involvement in marketing budget management. To drive customer-centricity and change the way marketing operates and contributes to the overall business, he plays the combined role of CEO cum CMO in the company. 

Overcoming the Challenges with an Ideal Strategy 

Nitin started his career as a developer, then moved to QA, then to Project Manager among others interestingly all the projects he worked on were initiatives in the marketing team, so Nitin always had a close relationship with marketing. From Startups to Microsoft, he learned a lot during his initial six career years in the UK. Then he moved from the UK to the US in 2006 and worked for a digital agency. The world then was moving towards automation and analytics for decision-making. Dealing with 70-plus clients from across the world in different spaces from E-commerce to the service sector helped Nitin learn the art of developing and executing marketing strategies. He was once interviewed by a company in India and they asked - ‘If you have no experience in the Indian app market and don’t know how to market apps, why should we hire you?’. 

It was a simple yet relevant question. Nitin asked for two weeks to get back with an answer. He launched his own app ‘daily gk’ and generated 100K downloads in the first two weeks alone to showcase his marketing skills. Thereafter when he went back to them, they sure liked the answer. India was a tough market, a terrible start for him as every strategy that worked in the US, Europe, and the UK did not work in India, at least not in the way he wanted. Nitin soon learned how price sensitive the Indian market was. 

Executing successful marketing campaigns in India was the most difficult but also the most rewarding as his campaigns broke world records in Open Rates, and Click thru rates among others. The last company, Fareportal - A US-based Travel Company, allowed him to manage and run a quarter of a billion dollars in ad spend. The learning curve went off the roof as though margins were low & every dollar had an ROI. 

Tech Perspective Is Equally Important As The Marketing Perspective

Despite many unknown factors and challenges, Nitin has been fortunate to have had great mentors during his first 10 years but when a new channel comes up and no experts are available, everything is trial and error. According to Nitin, his significant challenge was India, it was the worst ever. To address established marketers being unable to make marketing work he focused on brand building using emotional hook via visuals and family touch - something that’s shown in Coca-Cola and Master cards advertisements. India was and is price sensitive and what worked was functional marketing. Determined as he was, Nitin pegged away to launch his Rs. 99 Slipper campaign which became a super hit so much so that the server went down! That was also one that made him realize the importance of taking care of the tech perspective as much as the marketing perspective. Intent on branding, Nitin took a major call to do a mixed marketing campaign where they did 30% brand building and 70% functional marketing and launched a Rs. 99 perfume campaign.  

Domain Expertise Is Not Required, It Can Be Acquired

People skill. That is crucial. As someone who swears by tech in digital marketing and as a CMO intensely involved in growth hacking and data analytics, Nitin believes that domain experience isn’t a prerequisite. Domain expertise is not required, it can be acquired; while people skills MUST be acquired if not already possessed. A CMO should be a great leader whose 70% of working time should be invested in customers CMOs are marketing to. Following the design, thinking is a great trait and helps get successful strategies executed. A complete package of an ideal CMO would have a business sense a thorough understanding of market and customer needs and a great people person.

Follow a Design Thinking Approach and See the Result

Research, research, and research. Nitin follows design thinking and the data that comes out of it. From choosing a logo and branding a name to designing products and or creating services everything is researched and surveyed with potential customers so there is no bias for action. Although tech and digital marketing are changing, people always go back to the basics in marketing products/solutions, the fundamentals - finding and understanding the target customers, having a crystal clear and perhaps an elaborate idea of the marketing goal is always non-skippable. Nitin stated that “We draw out the expected outcome and then work backward and ask if this is what the customer wants.” 

Innovation Chart Driven by AI, Mobile, and Automation

Nitin believes in three things – AI first, Mobile first, and Automation. These are the core marketing trinity in the world of innovation and digitalization. Big data, Cyber Security, and IoT are a given and hygiene for many companies now and the role of leaders in marketing although not necessarily directly involved. Nitin no longer hires people in a team without asking if the person will help in automation or AI first or Mobile first (no matter the campaign or client strategy), keeping this focus has helped him restructure the entire org chart into an innovation chart driven by AI, Mobile, and Automation.

Machines will Rule the Future of Functional Marketing

According to Nitin, the future of functional marketing seems to be where machines will do most of the work; automated ads, copy, content writing, help videos, and other go-to-market material will and should use these tools available. The leaders and team can enhance and fast-track the number of campaigns and niche the target audience, this is a great era where one can target as niche as possible and as quickly as possible which was not the case 10 years ago. In Nitin’s opinion, the company has a broad horizon ahead. The way marketers in particular and industries and masses, in general, are using AI, Machine Learning, and Automation is just in its nascent stage. At the rate at which technology is evolving each day, one can expect so much more in the future.

Infuse Technology in the Arteries of the Business

Budding CMOs should make technology their second nature. They should infuse technology into the arteries of their business. Because in this tech-driven world, the business can’t do without disruptive technologies. And then again, don’t get too carried away by all the new shebangs in modern marketing trends that one forgets the value of traditional marketing gems. Spending at least 70% of the time with actual customers instead of meetings will change the entire perspective of how customers are evolving as they are asking for more and more. Building complete journeys and end-to-end experiences with the help of tech where automation, AI, and mobile-first approach are involved is going to be the mantra for the next decade. And at the end of the day, it's always about the customers, it always has been and always will be.

Website: https://riverum.com/

Management: Nitin Raj, CMO, Riverum