FORTUNE INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

CIP RESEARCH PROPOSAL

ON

Analysis and implementation of marketing strategies to boost sales

and retain customers

INTERIM REPORT - 2022

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements

For the award degree of

POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN MANAGEMENT

SUBMITTED BY
Siddharth Lohani
(21PGDM051)

CORPORATE MENTOR – MS TANVI JADAV

NAME OF THE COMPANY – ZFUNDS
Certificate from Faculty Mentor

This is to certify that the Project Report titled understanding outbound and inbound m
arketing at zfunds is a bonafide work carried out by Siddharth Lohani PGDM (2021-2
3) Batch of Fortune Institute of International Business, New Delhi as a fulfilment of P
GDM Program.
He/ She has worked under my guidance and satisfactorily completed his/her project
work.

Date: 09-July-2022

Dr Sakshi Khanna
Acknowledgement

With immense pleasure, I would like to present this project report for Zfunds Ltd. It h
as been an enriching experience for me to undergo my summer training at “Zfunds”
which would not have been possible without the goodwill and support of the people a
round me. As a student of “Fortune Institute of International Business”, I would like to
express my sincere thanks to all those who helped me during my training program. I
would like to express my gratitude to all those who encouraged me to complete this
project, and for providing me with the opportunity to work with one prestigious organi
zation. I would like to thank Ms Vidhi Tuteja (Co-founder) and Ms Tanvi Jadav (Prod
uct head) Zfunds ltd, Gurugram for allowing me to do my project work in the organiza
tion and for lighted my way of progress with his guidance. My sincere and deepest th
anks to Dr Sakshi khanna, Faculty Member of “Fortune Institute of International Busi
ness”, New Delhi for having spared his valuable time with me and for all the guidanc
e given in executing the project as per requirements. I would like to give my special t
hanks to my parents, their love, support and blessing enabled me to complete this pr
oject work. However, I accept the sole responsibility for any possible error of omissio
n and would be extremely grateful to the readers of this project report if they bring su
ch mistakes to my notice.
Declaration by the Student
I, hereby, declare that the work presented in this report, entitled “Understanding Inbo
und and outbound marketing techniques at ZFunds distribution gurugram” in fulfilme
nt of the requirements for the PGDM Program, submitted to Fortune Institute of Inter
national Business, New Delhi is an authentic record of my own work and is free from
any type of plagiarism, carried out under the supervision of Ms Tanvi Jadav (Corpora
te Mentor) and Dr. Sakshi Khanna (Faculty Mentor). I also declare that the work emb
odied in the present report
(i)is my original work and has not been copied from any source, and

Has not been submitted for any other Degree or Diploma of any university/Institution.

Siddharth Lohani
21PGDM051
Introduction of the sector

Financial technology (commonly known as FinTech) an industry made up of busines

ses that employ technology to provide financial services. These businesses are invol
ved in insurance, asset management, payment, and a variety of other areas. FinTec
h has evolved as a comparatively new business in India in recent years. The Indian
market has seen enormous investments in numerous industries embracing FinTech,
which has been driven in part by robust and successful government reforms that are
moving the nation towards a digital economy. It has also benefited from rising smartp
hones and internet penetration, which has led to the acceptance of digital innovation
s and the emergence of FinTech in the country.

Adoption of "digital" in India over the last few years, access to financial services has
gotten significantly easy. Fintech, a popular phrase in the modern digital age, has led
to the altering processes involved in the consumer banking. Around the year 2015, In
dia had a surge in financial technology usage. According to Market research Future,
the Fintech industry in India was estimated at Rs 1,920 billion in 2019 and is forecast
ed to reach Rs 6,207 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 22.7 percent.

Fintech in India is opening the way for financial inclusion for a large segment of the u
nbanked and underbanked people by removing barriers such as the high expense of
conventional banking services. It acts as a catalyst in the payments network, which b
enefits small lenders, SMEs, MSMEs, rural businesses, self-help organisations, and
end users. Fintech is crucial in breaking down the boundaries of a high-cost conventi
onal bank.

The Financial Technology Ecosystem: (FinTech)

1. Investors - Venture capitalists, angel investors, and private equity firms see fin
tech as the next golden goose.
 2. Traditional financial institutions, such as banks and the financial service provid
ers, are exploring methods to partner with fintechs in order to capitalise on tec
hnological advancements while also lowering operational costs.

3. Government and regulatory agencies - Appropriate laws safeguard end users

while also establishing criteria for fintechs to function within established limitati
ons.

4. Universities and other research institutions - Institutes with such a curriculum f

ocusing on Fintech industries in India are meeting the critical shortage of com
petent and equipped workers.

5. Incubators - Several established corporations in India are establishing incubat

ors for fintech to explore and expand their services.

6. Users continue to be the most crucial cog in the fintech wheel. The rising usag
e and acceptability by Indians is clearing the road for additional fintech compa
nies to establish themselves in India.
Rural India has been slow to embrace fintech due to a lack of exposure, metropolitan
India has been quick to embrace it. However, in recent years, government initiatives
such as UPI for payments, Aadhaar for eKYC, e-wallets for transactions, and tap & g
o-based payments for rural consumers have helped bridge a significant gap. The ad
option of these innovations demonstrates that India is constructing a low-cost, high-v
alue, fintech-driven ecosystem that is focused on both urban and rural segments. Fin
tech startups in India are changing the narrative of financial inclusion by concentratin
g on the cost of financial services, the accessibility of services, information inconsiste
ncy, and the absence of verifiable ID.

FinTech Innovations in India:

Payment Services - Making payments has never been easier. You may have many p
ayment wallets without having to go through the laborious process of obtaining a ban
k account. All you need is a smartphone as well as a mobile sim card to buy practical
ly anything within your budget. PayTM, Freecharge, Gpay and PhonePe have radical
ly transformed the Indian payment landscape. Physical wallets are no longer require
d while going out. Simply bring your phone and scan away!

Digital Lending - Fintech technology is being used to build a lending space. Custome
rs have traditionally had to go through lengthy cycles and paperwork in order to obtai
n a loan. Companies such as Profectus Capital, Union Bank of India, Bank of India,
UCO Bank, SIDBI, and others are challenging the traditional system. Customers who
do not have a consistent source of income or bank account statements can now appl
y for loans. Fintech is enabling a slew of new lending models, including flow-based, v
ertical-based, and ecosystem-based lending.

Insurance is another industry that is going paperless. Aggregators such as Policybaz

aar and Coverfox have developed to assist clients in selecting from a variety of servi
ce providers by evaluating their products and purchasing the most appropriate one.

Savings and Wealth Management - Fintechs such as Scripbox and Funds India assis
t individuals in saving and investing their money. These systems provide comparable
alternatives for users to pick from.

Payments - Oxigen and Payworld are two major remittance systems that have simplif
ied and reduced the cost of internal and outbound remittances.

Point-of-Sale - This category of fintechs provides card swipe machines to facilitate ca

shless payments. Demonetization has given rise to new competitors in this area, suc
h as Mswipe, PineLabs, and ICICI Merchant Services, making the industry competiti
ve.
Regtech providers assist organisations in meeting industry compliance regulations s
uch as anti-money laundering and Know Your Customer protocols to combat fraud. I
Dfy, Avantis, FixNix, and Signzy are among the notable players who are improving th
e regulatory procedures.
Top Fintech companies in India

About the company

ZFunds Ltd. is a digital platform making investments in various assets such as FD, M
utual Funds, and Digital Gold easy and accessible to all. It is focusing majorly on ma
king rural India aware of investing to make investment Sahi and asaan.
ZFunds distributions also have a group of advisors who are posted in different rural r
egions of India. These advisors' main task is to make people in rural areas aware of i
nvesting (Mutual funds, gold, etc).
ZFunds also provides a platform for both users and customers to make their investin
g journey simple and easy.
The whole process-including onboarding, order placement, KYC compliance, payme
nts, and portfolio tracking is carried out through the ZFunds app, which works with all
42 Asset Management Companies (AMCs).

Founders- Manish Kothari, Vidhi Tuteja, Yogesh Yadav

Founded- 2019
Headquarters- Gurugram
Industry - Fintech (Financial products)
Size (in terms of the workforce) – 11-50 employees
Vision- In a pursuit to make the investment in financial products easy and accessible
to all.
Mission- ZFunds is on a mission to democratize personal finance.

Company’s range of products

ZFunds distribution deals in all types of financial products ranging from mutual funds
to credit line. ZFunds is associated with 42+ AMC’s in India enabling and accrated by
AMFI to sell mutual funds. Sime of its products are Digital gold, Mutual funds, Credit l
ine, Digital savings account, FD’s, Daily SIP, NFO, Insurance and Tax saving plans.

Size of the Organization

ZFunds distributions is a startup that has more than 40+ office staff plus a network of
more than 500 advisors.

Organizational structure
An organisational structure is a set of rules that govern how various sorts of operatio
ns are coordinated for a company to achieve its objectives. ZFunds employs a hierar
chical organisational structure in which employees are divided into groups and assig
ned to a single supervisor. The company's various sections include the operations de
partment, administrative department, marketing department, and research and devel
opment department. The department is made up of people with specific skills.

Market Share & Position of the Company in the Industry

ZFunds is relatively new in mutual funds but has been able to accumulate more than
500 cr+ in its AUM (Asset under management) and is successful in acquiring about 7
0% of rural India. Soon ZFunds will target urban India and have a good market share
of about 10% in the coming years.

REVIEW OF THE ASSIGNMENTS

The goal of this project is to create a streamlined marketing plan for ZFunds and ana
lyze the performance of the marketing activities done.
ZFunds is dependent on the sale of its financial products thus it is important to marke
t it to the right audience. ZFunds runs on a B2B and B2C model thus it targets both o
ther businesses to collaborate with them and sell their products and customers to sel
l directly.

1. To execute and analyze marketing campaigns report

During the tenure iwas given exposure of almost all the marketing platforms u
sed by ZFunds I was running paid campaigns as per the directions by seniors. Had t
o execute and analyze both inbound and outbound marketing campaigns. Platforms
used are Postman(Push notifications), GupShup(Whatsapp/SMS), Routemobile(IVR),
Google Ads (Youtube ads, Search ads, Banner ads, App promotion). After executio
n i had to analyze the performance on an excel sheet.

2. Application testing
I was also given responsibility to test the app by making transactions to mutua
l funds and daily SIP to understand the process and point out the flaws to impr
ove in order to retain customers.
 3. Generate Paid and Organic leads for sales team
During my tenure i was assigned task to generate leads for customers and ad
visors empanelment. Used inbound marketing tools and outbound marketing t
echniques mentioned to generate new leads. Also coordinated with sales tea
m to understand the changes required in the targeting.
4. Benchmarking competitors app and business model
During my tenure i had to present new ideas in order to expand business gro
wth for that i had to analyze similar businesses.

5. Conducting weekly calls with advisor network

Weekly calls evry friday with advisors to catch up with their issues and t passs
new information that can help them scale their business.
(Pictoral representation of tools used and data generated)

(use of Vlookup, Concatenate, Pivot table and formatting in excel)

(Gupshup)

(Google ads)

(Route mobile IVR)

(Gupshup Whatsapp bulk)

(Discord to get database)

Importance of the above-mentioned roles and resp
onsibilities in an

Organization:

The most significant aspect of this project is that it will enable me to gain experience
in market research, lead generation, and business development. It will aid in the dev
elopment of confidence in networking with people of all faiths while persuading them
to accept value offers via cold calling. Social media marketing keeps you up to date
on the latest trends as well as information on the preferences and demands of your t
arget audience. This project would also help me understand the complexities of such
technologically advanced systems and learn how to create a user-friendly interface.
1.Scheduling and posting all campaigns on time to generate leads and business
In this process, I have to make a database of all the users and advisors based on cer
tain set filters by the organization. Compete task of managing data is done on Ms Ex
cel and further the execution of campaigns is done through platforms such as Gupsh
up for SMS and bulk WhatsApp and postman for push notifications.

2. Coordinating with the sales team to understand the quality of leads

I also have to execute paid campaigns on Facebook and Google to direct traffic to a
page or to the app with the motive to capture a lead. To check if the quality of leads i
s acceptable I have to coordinate with the sales team and make necessary changes i
f required. Capturing leads for B2B and B2C is also done through Facebook groups
and other social media platforms.

3. App testing and comparison

It is important to check app functioning and its comparison with other competitors av
ailable in the market. I conduct occasional app testing to check if the features added
work well and similarly provide feedback from the similar apps used to implement tho
se features in the ZFunds app.

4. Strategies for future campaigns

I have to actively participate in the creation of strategies to market the product to use
rs. The campaigns are excited on Google Ads, postman and Gupshup. Campaigns a
re made to promote new products and offerings by ZFunds.

5. Data analysis
It is equally important to analyze the performance of the campaigns executed and ot
her marketing activities to make relevant changes to optimize campaign performance.
Data analysis is done through Excel using multiple data sources and presenting res
ults in an easy to interpreted manner.

6. Market research
The task here is to gather relevant information about the market trends to apply in up
coming product launches and campaigns.

7. Retargeting of dead leads

Through campaigns creating funnels to retarget leads not converted with the motive
of increasing sales and increasing product awareness.

8. To conduct seamless inbound and outbound marketing my roles and responsibiliti

es played a critical role.
9. To accumulate new ideas to make new business strategies.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

1. Inbound marketing
To retain customers and to make them aware of the new launces also to upse
ll or crosell them inbound marketing was conducted. In this the existing users on ZFu
nds database were sent messages through whatsapp, SMS, Push notifications, In ap
p banners and social media. This helped in customer retention and increased referral
marketing.

2. Outbound marketing
To carry out sales and empanel new advisors outbound marketing was equire
d. Generating targeted leads from ads such as google ads and facebook. The
se leads were then sent to sales team for conversion.

3. Vendor closing
I was assigned tasks such as closing vendors for our inbound marketing such
as for IVR, SMS and Email marketing. Had to negotiate to make a deal on the best p
rice and get started with the service as quick a possible.

4. Data analysis
Using tools such as excel and google sheets i had to formulate the data gathered an
d interpret to make changes in the campaigns and to estimate cost associated.

ACTION PLAN

Week 1 – Orientation week and learning how ZFunds functions

Week 2 – Understanding ZFunds STP plan
Week 3 – gaining knowledge about ZFunds market competitors
Week 4 – Examining the company's current Mmarketing procedure
Week 5 – Planning and developing new marketing and content statagies to
attract more customers.
Week 6 – Designing the new marketing strategies
Week 7 – Application of the newly designed marketing strategies
Week 8- Analysing the new strategies and their results on the visibility of
ZFunds
Week 9 – Comparing the results of old strategies with new strategies
Week 10 – Formulation of the report based on the research done and findings.
Providing suggestions to the company.
Week 11 - Inbound marketing through IVR and SMS
Week 12 - Outbound marketing
Week 13 - Analysis and handover
SWOT Analysis

While working on the ZFunds Distribution Pvt Limited, I sought to separate the intern
al and external components in order to arrive at a concrete SWOT Analysis:

SWOT ANALYSIS: Internal factors

Internal factors determine strengths and shortcomings. That is, they are elements ins
ide the

a powerful organisation Internal influences are addressed in the following areas:

Human resources include employees, volunteers, board members, and the intended
audience.

Physical assets include the site, structure, and equipment.

Financials: Grants, funding agencies, and other sources of revenue

Prior Experiences: The reputation in the community, as well as previous experiences,

that act as building blocks for learning and accomplishment

SWOT Anaysis external factors

External variables offer both possibilities and risks. That is, they are elements and va
riables over which the corporation has limited control.
The following external effects are addressed:

Funding Sources: Foundations, donors, and the legislators.

Demographics: Changes in the age, ethnicity, gender, and culture of the people they
serve.
Future advancements in the sector or society are referred to as trends.

Strengths Weaknesses

ZFUnds is the only platform that has dail It has no strong finances to back outbou
y SIP option nd marketing activities

ZFunds has a very big network of adviso Has no presence in urban areas
rs spread across all the rural areas of In
dia

Zfunds is affiliated with AMFI india Can’t give discounts or offers as it has t
o abide rules by AMFI

Zfunds provides free NISM and ARN cer

tification
Oppourtunities Threats

ZFunds has good scope in the urban ma Zfunds has a lot of direct and indirect co
rkets mpetition eg. Kuwera app, Nivesh, NJ w
ealth and more

Mutual funds are the most trending inve Lots of legal challenges
stment option

Findings

1. Zfunds targets rural areas of India as the compition is close to 0 and that mark
et is untapped.

2. Greater emphasis on paid media lead to more number of leads.

3. Inbound marketing is the new trend as it costs cheaper and helps in customer
retention.

4. Retargeting is needed as it ensures higher conversions.

5. Refer and earn marketing strategy wors the best as word of mouth convert cu
stomers easily.

Recommendations

1. Start focusing on urban areas as more young population are getting aware ab
out investing.
 2. Launch a new product apart from mutual funds can be a edtech as it will make
more people aware of investing.

3. To expand they have to upgrade the UI/UX of the application and the website.

4. Spending on banner ads that can be placed in rural areas to reach more custo
mers.

REFERENCES

1. https://yourstory.com/2022/05/fintech-startup-zfunds-community-selling-mutua
l-funds/amp
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_technology_in_India
3. https://www.scoreme.in/introduction-to-fintech-companies-in-india#:~:text=Aro
und%20the%20year%202015%2C%20India,at%20a%20CAGR%20of%2022.
7%25.
4. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/C-Vijai-2/publication/337740115/figure/fig
3/AS:837840183246848@1576768074460/Fintech-investments-in-India-by-s
ector.ppm
5. https://alphafirms.in/fintech-startup-zfunds-connecting-indias-small-towns-wit
h-mutual-funds/