Lyubomir Atanasov is the CEO at IMG – Internet Media Group and managing partner at digital agency Tendrik Europe. Through the years, he actively grows several brands, one of them is IMG IT Academy.He has a lot of experience in the digital marketing field, strategic marketing and advertising. He is founder of Digital4 Foundation, as well an organizer of DiTech Expo, Bulgarian Digital Week and all conferences in digital technologies, having the name Digital4Bulgaria, which take place in the biggest cities in Bulgaria.

Why the digitalization of the business matters?

The digital transformation of the business is a process which every company will have to go through sooner or later. As we know, people spend a big part of their time on the Internet nowadays, looking for information, communication, shopping.

We already live in two parallel universes – the real one and the virtual one. We can’t just pass by the virtual, that why is good to use it for seeking progress of our business. This has been proven very clearly after the pandemic and the realignment of massive count of companies in the online space.

The companies have to be where their clients are. The tools of digital marketing allow the companies to advertise, collect and analyze valuable data in real time. The digitalization is also connected to the automation of internal processes of the company, the goal is to become more efficient, lower expenses and increase the sales. Using platforms for communication are part of our daily life.

Sadly, the process of using the digital benefits, is still in its beginning. For example, 80 of the top 100 companies in Plovdiv region aren’t taking the possibilities which the digital marketing offers. I hope this will change soon. Personally, I see a lot of positive indications that we’re striving towards changing the general business model to business digitalization. Business is changing and there’s no going back.

Is it important for all business to build online appearance?

Every business, no matter its field or how big it is, can gain real benefits from building online appearance. Big part of the potential clients will search for information on the Internet before making the decision where to buy from. If certain business is not actively online, the customers will choose to buy from somewhere else. Even when it comes to B2B companies, their online appearance can play a key role when closing serious deals and helping the process of finding new prospects.
Furthermore, if business owners effectively take the opportunities of the digital technologies, they can easily reach bigger circle of clients, increase sales and profits.

Does a universal strategy exist in the digital world?

Maybe a lot of people wish to be strategy like this and thing to be easy. Unfortunately, there is not universal decisions. The individual method which will reach the wanted results depends on the business, its needs and the set goals.

However, one big part is general. It is like reading twenty books on marketing and entrepreneurship. Eventually, you will understand that the core of every book is the same in combination with a lot of practice. There are a massive online resource which can give us the proper answers. Theory in practice is the key for most of the business. There is foundation, creativity, testing, optimizing and if it’s not working, trying another strategy.

What are your observations, does the Bulgarian companies taking the possibilities of digital marketing?

What I see is that the Bulgarian companies more actively use the options for digitalization of their business and digital services like online marketing and advertising, web developments, cloud systems etc. Some because they really realize the gains and benefits. Others are more in the beginning of this realization but see that their competitors’ progress tremendously which make them take actions too.

What do you think is going to happen after we go through the crisis COVID-19?

I think the European Union will be very active on the subject “Digitalization of the business” right away after the crisis. In concrete directions related to electronic healthcare, digital education, electronic government, management and data sharing.

The business, on the other hand, will be acting in this direction and we personally get a lot of calls on that subject to help with our expertise. As a matter of fact, no one expected that the offline businesses will only have income from their online channels for a period of time. Whoever had them has been working on them, whoever hasn’t, it is time to seriously consider that.

Would you share your professional future projects that are about to come?

I’m happy to share that we work with full power on many and exciting projects from different sectors. We grow and attract the interest of more and more serious clients. We developed some new product-services, one of them is “UPguest” for getting direct reservations in the hotel business.

Last year, we opened an office of Tendrik Europe in Sofia as a part of our determined efforts for constantly increasing the working capacity with clients. Our office is now growing and phase two from our office plans.
We also started a few business initiatives to support the whole digital sector in Bulgaria. We have prepared more surprises which I’m going to share very soon.