Sasha Chhetri
Sasha Chhetri
Episode 08
Episode 08
80 min
80 min
Driving Omnichannel Growth with Social Media.
Driving Omnichannel Growth with Social Media.
Driving Omnichannel Growth with Social Media.
Why Does This Episode Matter?
Why Does This Episode Matter?
Social media today does far more than create awareness. It shapes how people research brands, build trust, and decide whether they’ll actually walk into a store. That shift is easy to talk about, but hard to execute well.
This episode cuts through the noise. Instead of chasing likes or views, it shows how social media can be designed to drive real outcomes like revenue, footfall, and qualified demand.
You’ll hear a practical omnichannel playbook in action: sharp geo-targeting, hyperlocal creators who actually influence neighbourhoods, and content built around the store experience, not just the product.
Beyond tactics, the episode reframes what marketing leadership really looks like today.
If you’re a marketer caught between the pressure to “go viral” and the responsibility to drive real business results, this episode will feel uncomfortably honest, in the best way.
This episode matters because it shows what real omnichannel transformation looks like for a legacy brand, not just in theory but in practice.
In a ₹16,000 crore mattress market where most buying decisions are research-heavy and trust-driven, Duroflex offers a clear blueprint for blending digital discovery with offline reassurance.
You’ll see how understanding the customer journey becomes the biggest growth lever in a largely unorganised category.
The conversation breaks down how to win when customers move fluidly between online research and in-store experience.
Most importantly, it proves that omnichannel isn’t about being everywhere—it’s about being connected everywhere.
Social media today does far more than create awareness. It shapes how people research brands, build trust, and decide whether they’ll actually walk into a store. That shift is easy to talk about, but hard to execute well.
This episode cuts through the noise. Instead of chasing likes or views, it shows how social media can be designed to drive real outcomes like revenue, footfall, and qualified demand.
You’ll hear a practical omnichannel playbook in action: sharp geo-targeting, hyperlocal creators who actually influence neighbourhoods, and content built around the store experience, not just the product.
Beyond tactics, the episode reframes what marketing leadership really looks like today.
If you’re a marketer caught between the pressure to “go viral” and the responsibility to drive real business results, this episode will feel uncomfortably honest, in the best way.
Sasha Chhetri
Marketing Strategist, Head of Marketing (Ex Lenskart, Good Glamm Group)
How Social Media Actually Drives Omni Growth?
How Social Media Actually Drives Omni Growth?
Out of a global population of 8.3 billion, over 5.6 billion people are active on social media with the average user spends ~3.5 hours a day on these platforms.
Social media isn’t just another marketing channel anymore. It’s the new TV.
As digital marketing scaled, over 70% of marketing spends moved online. First, online started influencing sales. Then it started shaping brand preference.
Today, it influences omnichannel behaviour, what people research, where they buy, and whether they walk into a store at all.
And yet, if you’ve worked in marketing long enough, you’ve probably heard some version of this in a meeting:
“We should do more on social media. Let’s go viral, drive sales, send people to stores… you know, all of it.”
Out of a global population of 8.3 billion, over 5.6 billion people are active on social media with the average user spends ~3.5 hours a day on these platforms.
Social media isn’t just another marketing channel anymore. It’s the new TV.
As digital marketing scaled, over 70% of marketing spends moved online. First, online started influencing sales. Then it started shaping brand preference.
Today, it influences omnichannel behaviour, what people research, where they buy, and whether they walk into a store at all.
And yet, if you’ve worked in marketing long enough, you’ve probably heard some version of this in a meeting:
“We should do more on social media. Let’s go viral, drive sales, send people to stores… you know, all of it.”
In theory, social media is expected to do everything, build brand, acquire customers, drive repeat purchases, and push store walk-ins.
In reality, most brands are still posting pretty content and hoping the numbers follow.
That gap is exactly what this episode of DilSe Omni Talks explores.
Saurabh sits down with Sasha, a marketing strategist and Head of Marketing (ex-Lenskart, Good Glamm Group), who has lived social media across every phase, from early platform days in beauty, fashion, eyewear and D2C scale-ups to omnichannel brands, and now real estate.
This episode unpacks how social media actually drives real business outcomes when you stop chasing vanity metrics and start designing for omnichannel growth.
From “Airtel Girl” to a third life on social media
Saurabh admits that when he asked an AI tool to write an intro for Sasha, it confidently told him she was the Airtel 4G girl.
But that mix‑up is exactly where her first social media life began.
Years after the Airtel campaign, people began confusing the Airtel girl with Sasha, and her personal Instagram account was soon flooded with follow requests from users who believed she was the face from the ad.
That audience worked for her in the early career phase: fashion, events, high‑energy work.
Post‑COVID, her content became deeply personal. So she rebuilt from scratch with people who actually cared about her life and work.
And that sets the tone for the whole conversation: growth at all costs is not the goal; the right audience and the right context are.
From “Airtel Girl” to a third life on social media
Saurabh admits that when he asked an AI tool to write an intro for Sasha, it confidently told him she was the Airtel 4G girl.
But that mix‑up is exactly where her first social media life began.
Years after the Airtel campaign, people began confusing the Airtel girl with Sasha, and her personal Instagram account was soon flooded with follow requests from users who believed she was the face from the ad.
That audience worked for her in the early career phase: fashion, events, high‑energy work.
Post‑COVID, her content became deeply personal. So she rebuilt from scratch with people who actually cared about her life and work.
And that sets the tone for the whole conversation: growth at all costs is not the goal; the right audience and the right context are.
From “Airtel Girl” to a third life on social media
Saurabh admits that when he asked an AI tool to write an intro for Sasha, it confidently told him she was the Airtel 4G girl.
But that mix‑up is exactly where her first social media life began.
Years after the Airtel campaign, people began confusing the Airtel girl with Sasha, and her personal Instagram account was soon flooded with follow requests from users who believed she was the face from the ad.
That audience worked for her in the early career phase: fashion, events, high‑energy work.
Post‑COVID, her content became deeply personal. So she rebuilt from scratch with people who actually cared about her life and work.
And that sets the tone for the whole conversation: growth at all costs is not the goal; the right audience and the right context are.
Real estate vs D2C: How marketing is evolving?
One of the most interesting parts of the conversation is Sasha’s take on real estate storytelling versus D2C.
She’s witnessed this shift across luxury & lifestyle, beauty, and the content-to-commerce wave at POPxo and Good Glamm Group.
“Industries keep changing. Platforms keep changing. Algorithms keep changing. People don’t.”
D2C teams are used to live in the fast lane.
In real estate, it’s trust and convenience—“Will I really give my life savings to this brand?”
Sasha explains that in real estate, you’re asking someone to spend crores, sometimes on something that hasn’t even been built yet. The sales cycle is 3–6 months at best. In that world, your content playbook looks very different:
Slow, deep content that is easy to understand even for an older, non‑digital‑native audience
Repetition of core messages, because trust is built when people hear the same truth many times, not a new gimmick every day
Clarity over cleverness, you’re answering, “Can I trust you with my money?” not “Can you make me laugh?”
Sasha’s phrase is simple: “Slow and deep.”
If you sell ₹499 tees, chase trends. If you sell ₹5 crore villas, chase trust.
Real estate vs D2C: How marketing is evolving?
One of the most interesting parts of the conversation is Sasha’s take on real estate storytelling versus D2C.
She’s witnessed this shift across luxury & lifestyle, beauty, and the content-to-commerce wave at POPxo and Good Glamm Group.
“Industries keep changing. Platforms keep changing. Algorithms keep changing. People don’t.”
D2C teams are used to live in the fast lane.
In real estate, it’s trust and convenience—“Will I really give my life savings to this brand?”
Sasha explains that in real estate, you’re asking someone to spend crores, sometimes on something that hasn’t even been built yet. The sales cycle is 3–6 months at best. In that world, your content playbook looks very different:
Slow, deep content that is easy to understand even for an older, non‑digital‑native audience
Repetition of core messages, because trust is built when people hear the same truth many times, not a new gimmick every day
Clarity over cleverness, you’re answering, “Can I trust you with my money?” not “Can you make me laugh?”
Sasha’s phrase is simple: “Slow and deep.”
If you sell ₹499 tees, chase trends. If you sell ₹5 crore villas, chase trust.
Real estate vs D2C: How marketing is evolving?
One of the most interesting parts of the conversation is Sasha’s take on real estate storytelling versus D2C.
She’s witnessed this shift across luxury & lifestyle, beauty, and the content-to-commerce wave at POPxo and Good Glamm Group.
“Industries keep changing. Platforms keep changing. Algorithms keep changing. People don’t.”
D2C teams are used to live in the fast lane.
In real estate, it’s trust and convenience—“Will I really give my life savings to this brand?”
Sasha explains that in real estate, you’re asking someone to spend crores, sometimes on something that hasn’t even been built yet. The sales cycle is 3–6 months at best. In that world, your content playbook looks very different:
Slow, deep content that is easy to understand even for an older, non‑digital‑native audience
Repetition of core messages, because trust is built when people hear the same truth many times, not a new gimmick every day
Clarity over cleverness, you’re answering, “Can I trust you with my money?” not “Can you make me laugh?”
Sasha’s phrase is simple: “Slow and deep.”
If you sell ₹499 tees, chase trends. If you sell ₹5 crore villas, chase trust.
How to drive traffic to stores via social media?
How to drive traffic to stores via social media?
Most brands still use social in one of two ways:
Drive traffic to the website/app
Drive awareness and hope everything else sorts itself out
But in true omnichannel categories: jewellery, high‑value retail, real estate, eyewear, you need people in physical stores.
Sasha’s offline playbook is refreshingly practical:
1. Geo‑targeting: Showing “visit our store” content to someone four hours away is pointless.
If your goal is footfall, your targeting has to be sharp: only people for whom the visit is actually realistic.
2. Show the experience you want them to have
Don’t shoot your beautiful jewellery or sofas in a neutral studio and then expect store visits.
“Your store is your studio.”
Shoot:
In the actual store
With real try‑ons
With real experts (stylists, optometrists, counsellors)
With real services (free eye tests, pillow exchanges, styling consults, etc.)
You’re not just pushing a product; you’re selling the feeling of walking into that space.
3. Go hyperlocal with creators (and employees)
If you’re trying to drive walk‑ins to a store in Ahmedabad, your creator should be from Ahmedabad.
Not a big‑city celebrity dubbed into Gujarati. Not a Jaipur influencer repurposed for Gujarat. Someone who lives there, sounds like there, and has credibility there.
Saurabh adds another sharp point: employees themselves are often your best hyperlocal creators, store staff who understand the product, the neighbourhood, and the customer.
Sasha loves that idea, with one guardrail: before you unleash 100 internal creators, influencers, your brand’s success metrics must be crystal clear and along with that the selection of influencers category must be analysed properly.
Otherwise, your brand voice fragments overnight.
Most brands still use social in one of two ways:
Drive traffic to the website/app
Drive awareness and hope everything else sorts itself out
But in true omnichannel categories: jewellery, high‑value retail, real estate, eyewear, you need people in physical stores.
Sasha’s offline playbook is refreshingly practical:
1. Geo‑targeting: Showing “visit our store” content to someone four hours away is pointless.
If your goal is footfall, your targeting has to be sharp: only people for whom the visit is actually realistic.
2. Show the experience you want them to have
Don’t shoot your beautiful jewellery or sofas in a neutral studio and then expect store visits.
“Your store is your studio.”
Shoot:
In the actual store
With real try‑ons
With real experts (stylists, optometrists, counsellors)
With real services (free eye tests, pillow exchanges, styling consults, etc.)
You’re not just pushing a product; you’re selling the feeling of walking into that space.
3. Go hyperlocal with creators (and employees)
If you’re trying to drive walk‑ins to a store in Ahmedabad, your creator should be from Ahmedabad.
Not a big‑city celebrity dubbed into Gujarati. Not a Jaipur influencer repurposed for Gujarat. Someone who lives there, sounds like there, and has credibility there.
Saurabh adds another sharp point: employees themselves are often your best hyperlocal creators, store staff who understand the product, the neighbourhood, and the customer.
Sasha loves that idea, with one guardrail: before you unleash 100 internal creators, influencers, your brand’s success metrics must be crystal clear and along with that the selection of influencers category must be analysed properly.
Otherwise, your brand voice fragments overnight.
Vanity Metrics vs Metrics That Actually Grow the Business
Vanity Metrics vs Metrics That Actually Grow the Business
Many brands confuse visibility with impact. Likes, views, and reach are great for awareness, but they don’t always translate into real growth. That’s where the difference lies: vanity metrics tell you how many people saw your campaign, while business metrics tell you whether it actually moved the needle.
The problem starts when brands expect sales or leads from campaigns designed only for attention. Growth-focused campaigns need one clear goal: conversions, qualified leads, or users entering your funnel, and success should be measured only against that.
Sasha’s advice: go deep into engagement, fit, and historic performance, even if it means saying no to people with “impressive” numbers.
Where focus goes, energy flows. If you aim your energy at vanity metrics, you’ll end up doing vanity work.
Many brands confuse visibility with impact. Likes, views, and reach are great for awareness, but they don’t always translate into real growth. That’s where the difference lies: vanity metrics tell you how many people saw your campaign, while business metrics tell you whether it actually moved the needle.
The problem starts when brands expect sales or leads from campaigns designed only for attention. Growth-focused campaigns need one clear goal: conversions, qualified leads, or users entering your funnel, and success should be measured only against that.
Sasha’s advice: go deep into engagement, fit, and historic performance, even if it means saying no to people with “impressive” numbers.
Where focus goes, energy flows. If you aim your energy at vanity metrics, you’ll end up doing vanity work.
Many brands confuse visibility with impact. Likes, views, and reach are great for awareness, but they don’t always translate into real growth. That’s where the difference lies: vanity metrics tell you how many people saw your campaign, while business metrics tell you whether it actually moved the needle.
The problem starts when brands expect sales or leads from campaigns designed only for attention. Growth-focused campaigns need one clear goal: conversions, qualified leads, or users entering your funnel, and success should be measured only against that.
Sasha’s advice: go deep into engagement, fit, and historic performance, even if it means saying no to people with “impressive” numbers.
Where focus goes, energy flows. If you aim your energy at vanity metrics, you’ll end up doing vanity work.
How to Connect Social Media to Business Results?
Sasha keeps social reporting simple and outcome-driven. Instead of talking about “good reels,” she draws a clear line from social to business impact:
Awareness (reach and views),
Intent (traffic to website/app and CRM leads),
Conversion (what happened to sales while the campaign was live).
Showing time-based spikes in traffic or revenue during social pushes often makes the case instantly.
She then adds context with comments, DMs, UGC, and real customer messages. When numbers are paired with customer voices, social stops feeling like a vanity channel and starts looking like a real growth driver.
How to Connect Social Media to Business Results?
Sasha keeps social reporting simple and outcome-driven. Instead of talking about “good reels,” she draws a clear line from social to business impact:
Awareness (reach and views),
Intent (traffic to website/app and CRM leads),
Conversion (what happened to sales while the campaign was live).
Showing time-based spikes in traffic or revenue during social pushes often makes the case instantly.
She then adds context with comments, DMs, UGC, and real customer messages. When numbers are paired with customer voices, social stops feeling like a vanity channel and starts looking like a real growth driver.
How to Connect Social Media to Business Results?
Sasha keeps social reporting simple and outcome-driven. Instead of talking about “good reels,” she draws a clear line from social to business impact:
Awareness (reach and views),
Intent (traffic to website/app and CRM leads),
Conversion (what happened to sales while the campaign was live).
Showing time-based spikes in traffic or revenue during social pushes often makes the case instantly.
She then adds context with comments, DMs, UGC, and real customer messages. When numbers are paired with customer voices, social stops feeling like a vanity channel and starts looking like a real growth driver.
How is the CMO role changing?
How is the CMO role changing?
How is the CMO role changing?
Today, the CMO role is no longer about managing campaigns or agencies, it’s about scale, speed, and specialization.
At a macro level, the role is splitting into two key responsibilities:
A. Content Marketing Leaders: Focus on organic growth, social media, and content creation.
B. Data-Driven Growth Marketing: Specialize in performance and data analytics to drive sales and growth.
This might be the most important takeaway for anyone in their mid‑career.
Sasha stated: “The CMO role as we knew it doesn’t exist anymore. It’s no longer a skillset role. It’s a mindset role.”
The future CMO will not be someone who learned marketing only through campaigns, or agencies. They will be someone who has created content themselves first, posting, writing, or recording, before scaling it with teams, tools, and budgets.
Today, the CMO role is no longer about managing campaigns or agencies, it’s about scale, speed, and specialization.
At a macro level, the role is splitting into two key responsibilities:
A. Content Marketing Leaders: Focus on organic growth, social media, and content creation.
B. Data-Driven Growth Marketing: Specialize in performance and data analytics to drive sales and growth.
This might be the most important takeaway for anyone in their mid‑career.
Sasha stated: “The CMO role as we knew it doesn’t exist anymore. It’s no longer a skillset role. It’s a mindset role.”
The future CMO will not be someone who learned marketing only through campaigns, or agencies. They will be someone who has created content themselves first, posting, writing, or recording, before scaling it with teams, tools, and budgets.
Advice for Future Marketing Leaders
Advice for Future Marketing Leaders
When asked how mid-level marketers can grow into future CMOs or growth leaders, Sasha keeps it simple. She doesn’t talk about tools or hacks.
Her focus is on mindset: adapt quickly, drop the ego, stay curious, and keep learning.
Adaptability: When the market changes every quarter, sticking to “how it’s always been done” is the fastest way to become irrelevant.
Drop the ego: Real leadership comes from collaborating and using everyone’s strengths, not fighting over roles or credit.
Read deeply: Skimming content gives ideas, but deep reading builds the judgment to apply those ideas correctly.
Saurabh agreed and also gifted her Click Here: The Art and Science of Digital Marketing by Meta’s CMO.
A book that perfectly blends analytics with storytelling. It’s a timely reminder for marketers and CMOs that growth today needs both data-driven thinking and creative perspective, not one without the other.
If you zoom out, this Dilse Omni episode is less about “tips for Instagram” and more about how to think about social as a serious growth lever:
Start from people and emotions, not formats and trends
Respect category and context—fast hooks for fast fashion, slow depth for real estate
Use social to drive real‑world behaviours: trials, store visits, CRM entry, repeat
Get brutally clear on success metrics before campaigns, especially with influencers
Draw a straight line from social to revenue with numbers and conversations
As a leader, focus less on mastering every tool and more on mindset, adaptability, and team building
When you’re genuinely curious, playful, and human in how you show up online, your customer feels it. And in a noisy, algorithm‑ridden world, that may be the biggest differentiator left.
Advice for Future Marketing Leaders
When asked how mid-level marketers can grow into future CMOs or growth leaders, Sasha keeps it simple. She doesn’t talk about tools or hacks.
Her focus is on mindset: adapt quickly, drop the ego, stay curious, and keep learning.
Adaptability: When the market changes every quarter, sticking to “how it’s always been done” is the fastest way to become irrelevant.
Drop the ego: Real leadership comes from collaborating and using everyone’s strengths, not fighting over roles or credit.
Read deeply: Skimming content gives ideas, but deep reading builds the judgment to apply those ideas correctly.
Saurabh agreed and also gifted her Click Here: The Art and Science of Digital Marketing by Meta’s CMO.
A book that perfectly blends analytics with storytelling. It’s a timely reminder for marketers and CMOs that growth today needs both data-driven thinking and creative perspective, not one without the other.
The biggest takeaway from this episode?
The biggest takeaway from this episode?
Social drives growth when metrics align with real business outcomes.
Social drives growth when metrics align with real business outcomes.
Omnichannel success needs trust, context, and hyperlocal execution.
Omnichannel success needs trust, context, and hyperlocal execution.
Future CMOs blend content creation mindset with data-led decision making.
Future CMOs blend content creation mindset with data-led decision making.
This is just the beginning. If you’re ready to understand how AI and Omnichannel thinking work together, and want to build a loyalty program for your brand, feel free to reach out at <saurabh@daiom.in>.
This is just the beginning. If you’re ready to understand how AI and Omnichannel thinking work together, and want to build a loyalty program for your brand, feel free to reach out at <saurabh@daiom.in>.
Talks with Saurabh Agrawal
Latest Episodes
The Lead Management Playbook
Nilesh Patel, CEO of LeadSquared talks about the funnels, customer journeys and the lead management.
Decoding Personal AI Agents
On this episode of Dilse Omni Talks, Saurabh sat down with Swapnika to talk about what happens when you stop treating WhatsApp as a messaging app and start treating it as the operating system your entire business already runs on.
Funding The Next Unicorns
On this episode of Dilse Omni Talks, we covered how to read India's consumer market, what actually happens in a pre-seed pitch room, and why networking is the one compounding skill most founders radically underinvest in.
Future of Marketing is Conversational
Gupshup founder Beerud Sheth on why the click is dying, how conversational AI is rewriting marketing, and why context, not intelligence, is the real moat.
Growth Playbook by Sanjeev Bikhchandani
There are very few people who have genuinely shaped the way India works, loves, and learns — all from one desk, one insight, and one stubborn belief that the internet would change everything before most people even knew what a server was. Sanjeev Bikhchandani is one of those people.
View More
Latest Episodes
The Lead Management Playbook
Nilesh Patel, CEO of LeadSquared talks about the funnels, customer journeys and the lead management.
Decoding Personal AI Agents
On this episode of Dilse Omni Talks, Saurabh sat down with Swapnika to talk about what happens when you stop treating WhatsApp as a messaging app and start treating it as the operating system your entire business already runs on.
Funding The Next Unicorns
On this episode of Dilse Omni Talks, we covered how to read India's consumer market, what actually happens in a pre-seed pitch room, and why networking is the one compounding skill most founders radically underinvest in.
Future of Marketing is Conversational
Gupshup founder Beerud Sheth on why the click is dying, how conversational AI is rewriting marketing, and why context, not intelligence, is the real moat.
Growth Playbook by Sanjeev Bikhchandani
There are very few people who have genuinely shaped the way India works, loves, and learns — all from one desk, one insight, and one stubborn belief that the internet would change everything before most people even knew what a server was. Sanjeev Bikhchandani is one of those people.
View More
Latest Episodes
The Lead Management Playbook
Nilesh Patel, CEO of LeadSquared talks about the funnels, customer journeys and the lead management.
Decoding Personal AI Agents
On this episode of Dilse Omni Talks, Saurabh sat down with Swapnika to talk about what happens when you stop treating WhatsApp as a messaging app and start treating it as the operating system your entire business already runs on.
Funding The Next Unicorns
On this episode of Dilse Omni Talks, we covered how to read India's consumer market, what actually happens in a pre-seed pitch room, and why networking is the one compounding skill most founders radically underinvest in.
Future of Marketing is Conversational
Gupshup founder Beerud Sheth on why the click is dying, how conversational AI is rewriting marketing, and why context, not intelligence, is the real moat.
Growth Playbook by Sanjeev Bikhchandani
There are very few people who have genuinely shaped the way India works, loves, and learns — all from one desk, one insight, and one stubborn belief that the internet would change everything before most people even knew what a server was. Sanjeev Bikhchandani is one of those people.
View More
Subscribe on your favourite platform
Subscribe on your favourite platform
Subscribe on your favourite platform
Subscribe for
insider insights
Subscribe
for insider insights
