Denis Alekseev has been working in the field of internet marketing since 2010: he held the manager for online communications position at Yamaha Motor, was a senior web project specialist at Samsung Electronics; and in 2020, he opened the Yula agency and began teaching digital marketing to entrepreneurs from the education segment.

In the interview, Denis talked about working in international companies, launching his own business, and simple steps that open up great opportunities for small businesses to work with advanced IT solutions.

Denis, you have been working with big data and analytical systems for over 15 years. Tell us where did you start?

My first project in the area of digital marketing and data analytics was the website of the Maxima Hotels chain. Then, we continued our cooperation with the company: we set up contextual advertising, carried out search engine optimization, and integrated the site with booking services.

And in 2010, based on the experience I gained, I got a job at Yamaha Motor as a manager for online communications—I was responsible for Internet marketing in the Russian and CIS markets.

Yamaha Motor in the CIS united more than 100 dealers, and each one assembled and maintained a website independently. I optimized the process by developing a system that helped launch sites without excessive costs—in a uniform style, with uniform mechanics. The dealer bought a domain, and my team and I added the site to the system and gave the dealer access to a ready-made template: a catalog with prices, descriptions, and features. More than that, any dealer could turn to me for advice: how to promote themselves in the local market and how to increase the effectiveness of advertising activities.

The result was a win-win for everyone: dealers reduced web development and marketing costs, and Yamaha Motor was able to strengthen its brand.

Was working at Samsung Electronics very different from working at Yamaha?

In many ways, it was a project of a different scale, with a new, strong team. I joined Samsung Electronics in 2017 as a senior web project specialist (digital marketing manager). Already at the start, a serious challenge awaited—there were only two weeks left before the launch of the new flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S8. We had to simultaneously update all websites in the Russian Federation and CIS region, launch personalized advertising campaigns for different segments, and track their effectiveness. In addition, it was our job to organize communication with many colleagues from Korea, the UK, Poland, and the USA. The launch went perfectly—I subsequently launched nine more flagship products together with Samsung Electronics.

And if I were to describe the work in general, I was responsible for the samsung.com site in the Russian Federation and the CIS, in particular its stability, content, and web analytics. Interestingly, I introduced Adobe Marketing Cloud into marketing. Thanks to this tool, we systematized email newsletters for several million addresses and were able to analyze target indicators, such as engagement, clicks, and sales.

I also worked a lot on improving the customer experience: integrating the website with the online store (this allowed users to place orders in a couple of clicks without going to the dealers' stores) and developing personalized advertising. For example, fans of social networks and bloggers have seen Samsung smartphone ads in which we highlighted the advantages of the camera. And gamers "fell" for ads in which we mentioned the capabilities of devices for gaming and streaming.

Were there any difficulties in your work?

Of course—during the lockdown, for example, the company started to lose sales. The online store was still profitable, but the model of interaction with customers had to be changed, as people lost the opportunity to visit showrooms and study interesting models before buying. And this is an important step before buying an expensive device.

I suggested using video chat on the website and helped to implement everything from a technical point of view. We moved the consultations online and stopped the decline in demand—managers made presentations of models and answered users' questions via video calls.

How did you come up with the idea of starting your own agency? Didn't you find small businesses boring after working in corporations, with their budgets and opportunities?

After ten years of working in corporations, I wanted to try something new. My wife Julia has her own language school, and I helped her set up marketing mechanics. Over time, this work, which I always regarded more as a pleasant leisure activity, an exercise for the mind, grew into the idea of opening a full-fledged digital agency in the education market.

I help private schools tell about their services, run effective advertising, and work properly with testimonials—to attract more interested clients. The main challenge is that projects are often run by former teachers—professionals in their field, but with minimal knowledge of online promotion.

Launching my own agency, I wanted to share with small businesses the approaches to working with data that are implemented by large companies. Moreover, I explained to entrepreneurs how to use marketing analytics in order to improve business processes, how to choose the optimal promotion channels, and to make work with them regular and consistent.

The result of that work is that in a couple of years, it has been possible to bring over 10,000 new apprentices into education businesses.

Talking about technology—should small businesses follow the latest innovations and trends? For example, should they implement AI in their work?

There is a misconception that neural networks and AI technologies are expensive and complicated. But in fact, a simple subscription to ChatGPT can provide businesses with valuable insights. It is enough to learn how to communicate with a chatbot—to master a couple of simple prompts. AI is excellent at analyzing information—it can explain what is shown on a graph, identify patterns in sales data or advertising traffic, and give advice on which advertising channels to choose.

The main thing is not to forget about data security: not to upload sensitive information to bots and to anonymize data. For example, if you offer ChatGPT a table, it is best to replace counterparty names and parameter names with neutral "characteristic 1," "characteristic 2," and others.

And, of course, don't trust bots 100%—as with an actual assistant, it is important to assess the quality of the result, verify the system's conclusions, and choose the information that is most useful to your business from everything the AI will offer.