Sameer Ahmed Khan of Social Champ tells us about a social media management tool that rules the digital space.
First of all, how are you and your family doing?
Sameer Ahmed Khan: All well! My family is doing great, and so am I. The new year is treating us pretty good till now.
Thank you for asking.
Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded Social Champ.
Sameer Ahmed Khan: Okay, let me walk you from the start!
I grew up in Qatar. However, my family had to move to Pakistan due to some circumstances.
So long story short, I was admitted to computer science, and my life has not been the same. I met two of my best friends at university, who became my business partners soon after. Due to similar interests, we bonded quite well and started participating in multiple coding competitions worldwide. Together, before starting “Social Champ,” we tried to run three startups. We also ran a software consulting business and a digital agency to bootstrap and support our startup ideas.
After graduating, we all went our separate ways but stayed in contact to work on our startup.
One fine day, we were looking to market one of our previous startups when we started developing Social Champ since there was nothing similar in the market. To challenge ourselves, Zohaib (our CTO) decided to present the app to me as my birthday present!
Initially, we used it for ourselves only, but when we saw its need in the market, we decided to launch it for all!
Since then, there has been no going back. Social Champ has become our pillar. We have built a team of 25+ people loyal to the product and are like a close-knit family. We all actually look forward to working the next day.
How does Social Champ market its product/services online?
Sameer Ahmed Khan: We like to rely on word of mouth the most as it is the best form of marketing. It ensures that the customer gets the raw and unedited version of the review and only uses the product because it was beneficial for their acquaintance. We are super happy to share that 82% of our customers find us through organic search on google.
Other than that, we recently put up our product on “ProductHunt” and became product#5 of the day, which brought in quite a lot of customers.
And the usual stuff includes social media advertisements, demo calls, and community marketing!
Why don’t you check out some of our reels? Here is one of my favorite ones!
How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how did you get through it?
Sameer Ahmed Khan: Coronavirus was indeed a testing time for all of us. However, our main motivation during that time was our clients. Every day, we strived to do better and better for them.
For NGOs, we offered a flat 50% off on plans so that they could benefit the most. We also focused on helping the community as much as possible through our Facebook group and online sessions.
Safe to say, we got out of the pandemic stronger than before!
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to manage your online marketing?
Sameer Ahmed Khan: Here are the tools that we use the most at our office:
Matermost – for interoffice communication.
Grammarly – for textual help.
Moz SEO – for, well SEO.
Ahref – to keep an eye on our standing.
Mautic – for email automation.
Social Champ – for social media management (Duh? Of course, right?)
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
Sameer Ahmed Khan: We consider Hootsuite, Agorapulse, Sprout Social, and Buffer as our competitors! But fundamentally, we are a company with a totally different vision. We look at the social media space from a different lens and plan to provide tools that help businesses grow. The tools and features are not just limited to social media management. So in a way, we are different in the way that we are trying to create an ecosystem that helps brands and businesses grow.
Your final thoughts?
Sameer Ahmed Khan: I believe that one should live their life to the fullest. Take risks, focus on what’s important to you, and stay happy!
Therefore, even as a professional, I believe in the supremacy of actually enjoying your profession rather than just going along with it to make money!
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