Mir Tajmul Hossain
Head of Digital Marketing & Communication
ShareTrip
Mr. Mir Tajmul Hossain is an accomplished professional in the realm of digital marketing, currently serving as the Head of Digital Marketing & Communication at ShareTrip. With over a decade of experience, Tajmul has honed his skills across various industries, including marketing agencies, software, e-commerce, and travel. His journey began at Left Travel (now TravelAI) in Canada, where his passion for leveraging digital solutions in the travel-tech sphere took root. Tajmul’s expertise lies in performance marketing, product marketing, and strategic implementation of digital initiatives. He holds a post-graduation degree from Dhaka University and is known for his innovative approach, data-driven decision-making, and commitment to continuous improvement in the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing.
The InCAP: Mr. Mir Tajmul Hossain, please share your professional and academic peregrination for our readers!
Mir Tajmul Hossain: Hello to all the readers! I am Mir Tajmul Hossain, currently the Head of Digital Marketing & Communication at ShareTrip. My experience in the online travel industry has its roots in the Canadian firm Left Travel (now TravelAI), where I have worked for four years. It was then when I developed a passion for advancing travel-tech solutions with my digital marketing skills. Speaking of it, my background in digital marketing spans 12 years. I have worked in several industries including marketing agencies, software, e-commerce, and travel. The breadth of knowledge I have gathered throughout these years has been instrumental in my professional journey.
And to talk about my academics, I completed my graduation from Dhaka College and post-graduation from Dhaka University.
What are the key strategies you have implemented at ShareTrip to enhance its digital marketing performance, and what results have you seen from these strategies?
As the size of the Bangladeshi travel industry, as well as ShareTrip, is growing day by day—our digital marketing activities are also being diversified into many areas. Apart from the conventional practices, we’re more focused on performance marketing rather than just brand marketing. Performance marketing is much more challenging than brand campaigns, yet we do it as it provides measurable results and greater impact. Additionally, we emphasize product marketing to a great extent which we do for the unique benefits of our users. This approach forms the core of our marketing philosophy.
And to talk about the standard digital marketing practices, we leverage targeted advertising campaigns through Google, social media, in-app and website promotions, email marketing, and many more. We also put a great deal of focus on SEO to improve search engine rankings and visibility.
And all these strategies have resulted in significant increases in our website traffic, higher conversion rates, and enhanced brand recognition. We saw an organic growth of 55% within 3-4 months of revamping our website, which included extensive technical SEO efforts. This helped us achieve sustainable growth and made our marketing efforts even more optimized. As a result, we are able to maintain the highest GMV and dominate the market share in B2C segments.
Can you please describe a particularly challenging period you managed at ShareTrip and how you overcame the obstacles to achieve your goals?
In 2023, we revamped ShareTrip’s website which was quite challenging. Our goal was to enhance user experience, improve site performance, and increase conversion rates. And as no great things come without great costs, this project presented us with a number of obstacles.
The first challenge was coordinating this major update without disrupting our existing user base. We needed to ensure that our current customers could still access the site smoothly while we implemented significant changes. This resulted in us implementing a phased rollout plan. We segmented the website into manageable sections, updating each part gradually and monitoring user feedback from different channels to make real-time adjustments. It allowed us to minimize downtime and maintain user trust throughout the process.
Another hurdle was ensuring the new design met the diverse needs of our users. We did a lot of A/B testing with the UI/UX team. We chose not to get caught up in debates over blue versus green colors. Instead, our focus was on testing, learning, and iterating to continually enhance the customer experience.
We conducted extensive user research and usability testing. We also gathered insights into our customers’ preferences and pain points. Using this data, we created a more intuitive and user-friendly interface that simplified the booking process and highlighted our key offerings more effectively.
And of course, SEO was another critical aspect. We needed to ensure that the new website maintained and improved our search engine rankings. So, we worked closely with our tech team to implement technical SEO and optimize the new site’s structure, content, and responsiveness.
Lastly, we leveraged data to track user behavior on the new site. By analyzing this data, we could identify any issues or areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to enhance the user experience further.
The results of this revamp were highly positive. We saw a steady growth in user engagement, and a significant improvement in conversion rates with an increase of 20% transactions in the website, and significantly lower bounce rates. The revamped website included several new functionalities, including a more seamless booking process. These undoubtedly strengthened ShareTrip’s position as a leading online travel-tech company in a competitive market like Bangladesh.
Mr. Tajmul, How do you approach integrating new digital marketing trends and technologies into your existing marketing strategies?
Bringing new digital marketing trends and tech into our strategies is always a fun journey at ShareTrip. We’re always on the lookout for what’s next. We always test out ideas in real-world scenarios before scaling up.
And collaboration is important—so we bring together relevant teams from across the company to make sure any new tools fit smoothly into our operations. And in the process of doing that, I also keep the top-management aligned so that decision making is streamlined further.
For example, we’re currently working on an ML model that will utilize relevant data to fine-tune different strategies and reach our set goals. If someone searches for a hotel in Cox’s Bazar, our ML model will display all relevant products related to Cox’s Bazar, such as flights, things to do and travel packages. We are working to train our algorithm so that it learns user behavior, and demonstrates such actions that the user is looking for. We’re also integrating an AI model so that customers can get on-demand assistance with developing preferred travel packages. Our founder, Kashef Rahman (the mastermind of ShareTrip), is very tech-savvy and passionate about technology, and he always inspires us to use updated technology to solve any issues.
At the end of the day, it’s all about staying agile, learning as we go, and using data to fine-tune our strategies to reach the set goals.
What metrics do you prioritize when evaluating the success of your digital marketing campaigns, and how do you use these metrics to inform future strategies?
Well, marketing is math. We’re very calculative with our procedures. I always prioritize several key metrics to ensure that my team is effectively reaching the target audience and achieving the right objectives.
As our primary marketing objective is mostly sales, our bidding strategy is tROAS (target Return on Ad Spend). Whatever we spend, we aim to yield more on each platform. We maximize ROI by ensuring optimal utilization of every penny invested, which aligns with our performance marketing strategy. Plus, we also run brand awareness campaigns for the upper funnel, where we measure how much engagement our communication and how much unique traffic our platform generates. We also focus on app downloads and user interaction with each feature, with our ultimate measurement being device-specific ROI.
And apart from paying attention to metrics related to audience demographics, behavior, and preferences, I also ensure brand consistency across digital platforms. If a company’s brand management is not consistent, its digital marketing efforts are likely to fail since the right communication might not be delivered.
In your opinion, what role does data analytics play in digital marketing, and how do you leverage data to drive marketing decisions at ShareTrip?
Data is the powerhouse of our marketing planning and strategy. I spend a lot of time analyzing user data. We use Tableau to visualize data that would’ve otherwise remain a mystery. We identify trends such as top flight routes, maximum revenue destinations, and popular airlines on different routes/layovers.
We also conduct in-depth analysis on seat performance, customer demand and spending patterns, devices, geography, and more. Without uncovering important insights regarding our audience’s interactions and engagement with our products, we wouldn’t be able to upgrade our campaigns from time to time.
So, ShareTrip does recognize the significance of data in understanding customer behavior, preferences, and market trends. These inform our digital marketing strategies in several ways and allow us to make timely adjustments and optimizations to improve performance. All these are done on a regular basis to ensure our digital excellence.
Mr. Mir Tajmul Hossain, please say something to the readers!
If you are someone who’s interested in becoming a successful digital marketer, the first step for you would be to understand the industry trends and practices. You have to think globally in this case, as thinking locally cannot get you much far. For that, keep an eye out for companies that dominate the world, as they are the ones who usually adopt new digital marketing concepts at early stages. Start by following what campaigns your favorite brands are running, what are the platforms that they are utilizing the most, and in what manner those ads are being promoted. You could also checkout their digital promotions on Meta Ad Library and Google Ads Transparency Center, then analyze those data on your own.
Then, try to attend the seminars and conferences that are related to digital marketing. Thankfully, in the age of the internet, you can enjoy YouTube streaming if such seminars are out of your network. Listen to the industry leaders on podcasts and interviews, follow them on LinkedIn, and monitor what they are doing. It is also a good idea to join different communities and forums related to digital marketing, such as the Google Ads Help Community. These would help you stay updated with the latest digital marketing trends. And lastly, as clichéd as it might sound, keep improving your skills by completing new digital marketing courses on the internet. There is no alternative to skills when it comes to a career like this.
And if you’re someone who is about to start a career, you should check whether the organization is working in-house or not. Without hands-on experience in in-house development, it is difficult to obtain a practical work experience that is most needed for being a digital marketer. Once you become familiar with a company’s digital marketing practices, I’d suggest you then spend at least two years in a reputable marketing agency’s media buying and planning team. It will strengthen your foundation and foster the required skills.
Quick Chat With Mir Tajmul Hossain
The most outstanding achievement of your life as of now:
I find questions like this to be quite humbling. I’d say my most significant achievement in life is being successful at shaping the consumption pattern of Bangladesh’s travel industry by driving ShareTrip’s remarkable digital growth. It has been an immensely fulfilling journey professionally.
The greatest philosopher in your view:
I like Socrates the most for his emphasis on self-examination and the pursuit of wisdom. However, there are other great thinkers who are not quite philosophers but do play a great role in shaping my worldview, such as Steve Jobs.
Your Icon:
Brian Chesky (Co-founder & CEO, Airbnb). Not only do I like his revolutionary ideas but his personality as well. He has been very inspirational throughout my career. Another name would be John Lyotier, who’s the Co-Founder & CEO at Left Travel. His Google Ads proficiency and entrepreneurship skills are unparalleled, which helped me a lot in learning. I’m fortunate to have worked with him directly.
Name the most influential books you have read:
Blue Ocean Strategy, Measure What Matters- are some of the ones that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Your greatest fear:
I think I fear complacency. It can halt growth and innovation both personally and professionally.
Best piece of advice you’ve received:
My experience in life tells me that the people who embrace change as an opportunity for growth rather than a disruption, are the ones who leave a notable mark in this world. So, an advice in line with that would be: “Welcome change as a chance for growth instead of fearing it.”
You in only three words:
Adaptable, Analytical, Strategic.
Skill Set:
- Hard Skills: marketing analytics, data analytics/Tableau, GA4, GTM, Google Ads, SEO, Meta marketing, email marketing, A/B testing, customer journey, JIRA, etc.
- Soft Skills: leadership, creative thinking, and agility.
Prayer For The Human Civilization:
May we understand each other better and spread positive vibes everywhere to make human society more cooperative and flourishing.
The InCAP: Thank you, Mr. Mir Tajmul Hossain! It’s a glittering conversation with you!
Mr. Mir Tajmul Hossain: My pleasure! Wish you all the best! Thank you.
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