SLASSCOM GT&I Forum launches ‘Marketing Unleashed Webinar Series’

Marketing and promotional activities are a key stumbling block for most start-ups. With the vision of helping the nation’s start-ups clear this hurdle, the SLASSCOM GT&I Forum, conducted a series of value-driven, live webinars that provided key insights on marketing principles and strategies titled the ‘Marketing Unleashed Webinar Series’.

The series, curated and planned by SLASSCOM SAKS/VeracityAI and Industry Engagement Head of Business Development Pubudini Abeyesekera-Anthonypillai, was expertly moderated by Marketing Strategist and Consultant Kushlani De Silva. 

The five instalments of the series covered key areas that included Marketing Success (and Failure): Shared Experiences, Building Brands That Customers Love, Content Marketing: Why You Should Be In It for the Long Haul, Designing Sustainable Lead Generations Programs and Tools and Teams: What Every CEO or CMO Should Know. The series is now made available to be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/c/SLASSCOMSriLanka/videos).  

The inaugural panel discussion of the series saw Calcey Technologies Director of Sales and Marketing Mudith Uswatta, Loops Integrated Managing Director Shehan Selvanayagam, and 99X Chief Marketing and Corporate Officer Chrishan De Mel, weighing in with case studies of marketing successes and failures from their collective experiences. They further discussed how they navigated the challenges brought about by the ongoing global pandemic. 

Spa Ceylon Co-founder Shalin Balasuriya, and IronOne Technologies and BoardPac Co-founder and CEO Lakmini Wijesundara, were other industry experts who presented interesting insights on the importance of authenticity in branding, while stressing the importance of entrepreneurial resilience in the face of brands that fail. 

Arteculate Founder Enosh Praveen and Creately Senior Manager Internet Marketing Nishadha Silva delivered an eye-opening presentation on content marketing, speaking on the importance of organic engagement and strategic search engine optimisation (SEO). Further discussed was building relationships with media outlets that should be leveraged by SMEs strategically.

Lead generation, the ultimate accomplishment of marketing and promotional efforts was discussed at the fourth webinar in the series by Boardpac Head of Sales and Marketing Jerome Schokman and Enfection Founder and CEO Saliya Withana. The speakers stressed the importance of adapting a business’ approach to suit the brand, the industry and importantly the target audience. The importance of selecting the right tools that suit a company’s goals and budget was also stressed. More technical aspects of the process including sales funnels and buyer personas were discussed, bringing some technical nous to the discussion.

The final instalment in the webinar series was aptly named ‘Tools and Teams: What Every CEO or CMO Should Know’ and led by Creately CEO and Co-Founder Chandika Jayasundara and 99X Chief Marketing and Corporate Officer Chrishan De Mel. Speaking on the evolution of marketing practices over the history of business, the panellists put forward the polarising assertion that a bigger team does not necessarily translate to more lucrative results in the pursuit of marketing and promotions. 

Similarly, discussed was the importance of choosing the right tools to accomplish a company’s gaols instead of acquiring an unnecessarily large stack of tools. Synergy between a select toolbox and a collective of the right team members was stressed as the key to a successful marketing effort.

This series was well-received by many marketers, CEOs, founders, sales teams, and even engineers from participating organisations, representing a multitude of industries within the country. 

Dedicated to keeping the momentum in educating and helping SMEs and Start-up companies refine their business strategies, while encouraging them to be pragmatic yet creative in their marketing efforts, SLASSCOM together with the GT&I forum looks to release a number of similar educational programs and curated workshops in the months ahead. 

SLASSCOM is the national chamber for the knowledge and innovation industry in Sri Lanka that acts as the catalyst of growth by facilitating trade and business, propagation of education and employment, encouraging research and innovation, and supporting the creation of a forward thinking and progressive national policy framework. SLASSCOM is supported in their initiatives by their Corporate Sponsor Dialog Enterprise.