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With 15+ years of extensive experience under his belt, Hector Anklesaria, Associate Vice President of Marketing at Tata Capital, has witnessed the content industry evolve from being an accessory to the backbone of marketing.

Back when he started his career, digital content was restricted to e-mails and messages. Websites, the bare minimum today, had just started gaining ground then. “It was a seller’s market. There were hardly any producers of content. There was no concept of customised content. The internet existed, but there was not much to see there,” recounts Hector.

In this episode of Pepper Content’s Top of the Funnel series, Content Marketing Lead at Pepper, Natasha Puri interviews Hector Anklesaria about the evolution of content and digital in the insurance space.

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The evolution of digital

As access to the internet became effortless, it gradually started becoming the content hub. An increase in the number of content producers led to an exponential rise in the number of consumers. Brands could no longer afford to ignore the power of search engine optimisation, making SEO a key gamechanger.

As a result, they had to rethink their content strategies. Content moved up the hierarchy of every brand’s marketing plan. Today, content is invaluable and drives the growth of organisations.

How COVID-19 impacted customer communications

One of the key areas that fall under Anklesaria’s purview, social media at Tata Capital was impacted in a big way during the pandemic. In a sense, it accentuated certain philosophies and beliefs, he feels, are already deeply rooted in the organisation’s work culture and that is a very strong sense of commitment towards the customer.

“Our communication strategy on social became more sensitive. We shared a lot of informative content, not just about the pandemic but also about health care and protection. Overcommunicating became our strategy, whether it was about how customers could reach us or how they could access our products.”

Influencer marketing and adopting new channels

While influencer marketing may not be something one associates with the insurance industry, Tata Capital has found success in it and only sees its role grow. “It is as challenging as finding a brand ambassador for your brand, but what it successfully does is add another layer in your media plan which is very important,” says Hector.

The abundance of digital channels has necessitated being ubiquitous. But you need to filter and choose the correct channels depending on your industry and audience.

“One should not indiscriminately create content for all platforms. It’s important to bear in mind what people do on different platforms and create a specific strategy for each accordingly,” he adds.

The future belongs to content, according to Hector. Brands cannot hope to make it large without content as the centerpiece of their strategy. While we can’t predict what the future holds, it indubitably looks bright for content-first brands.

“Relevance is the key. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of staying relevant. I think it should be the cornerstone of content creation.”