As a founder of a new brand, getting your product or service noticed by the right people or customers is probably something that keeps you up at night. It can be a bit of challenge trying to get people to notice you when you first start your business. The big brands we see today started out this way; figuring out how to reach clients to, at least, get them to test their offerings. A great product can’t be great by itself, there has to be some facts to back up the claim which can only be obtained from people’s testimonies and views of using your product or service. That, only, is the way to confirm whether or not you have an awesome product.
In a Smartpreneur live chat, the founder of Yogurt and healthy food brand, Sweetkiwi, Ehime Eigbe-Akindele shared some of the things she did, in the beginning of her business, to get customers to notice her product.
Penetrating the Nigerian market was not a walk in a park for Ehime. The Cultured Dairy and Ice cream production certification holder said:
When I first moved to Nigeria, I didn’t really know anyone, I didn’t have a network. I was writing and sending emails to people which people didn’t respond to because they didn’t know the company name.
Despite the discouraging situation, Ehime set out to connect with people on LinkedIn and to tell them about her products. She said:
LinkedIn is a great place to network. you can find people and reach out to them on the platform telling them you have a product sample that you would want them to try.
She went on to do pop-up retail to acquire customers, meet and engage with more people. The Sweetkiwi founder emphasized that entrepreneurs have to put in the work before they can attract investors.
The truth is that no one is going to give you money until they have seen prove that people like the product and that you are pushing and doing some work but there a lot grants within the African space if you are in the food business and if you have some type of impact model or Agricultural model attached to your business.
Each business or industry is unique but for CEO, Ehime Eigbe-Akindele, of Yogurt and healthy food brand, Sweetkiwi, this was her approach to reaching her customers.
We want to hear from you!
We would like to know how you got people to notice your product when you first launched your business. Head over to the comment section, we want to hear your story.
