*Note: I am just one marketer and former CPG entrepreneur, so take any advice with a grain of salt. Follow other people in the industry for a well-rounded perspective on do’s and don’ts.
This first email is some tips of what I learned as a CPG entrepreneur, from a marketing lens, of what I needed for phase 1 of my business, before I launched a formal marketing plan.
What you need before you start marketing: a good product, word-of-mouth traction, and a founding team that can do sales.
A Good Product
A “purple cow,” as Seth Godin’s Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, stated, a product must first stand out in a marketplace to garner attention… or more importantly sales. (Godin, 2003)
Sure, there are companies, like Apple, who arguably have a subpar product, but great reach and revenue because of their branding and marketing, but more often than not, a good product is what keeps customers loyal.
One more cliche: “the riches are in the niches.”
When I ran my business, a meal prep delivery company called Bodybuilder Kitchen, the concept of a healthy meal delivery service took off, not when I lived in the hustle-and-bustle fast-paced New York City, or even in New Jersey where there were other offerings for “meal prep for bodybuilders.” My company took off when I moved to Philadelphia, where there was virtually no competition in the meal prep for athletes space. The New York City and New Jersey-based meal prep companies for athletes (Eat Clean Bro, Kettlebell Kitchen, etc…) did not deliver to Philly at that time. The marketplace was wide open for any scrappy entrepreneur to come in and service this niche.
Additionally, in cities like New York City, the “bodybuilding” meal prep niche was crowded with other options. Bodybuilders and athletes in New York have options for eating healthy that are convenient: meal delivery or pre-made meals from grocery stores, health food restaurants at every corner, and other healthy restaurants that offer delivery. There were lots of options for the health-oriented consumer.
My target demographic was a knowledgeable consumer that knows how much protein they need for each meal and what their macro breakdown needs to be. In Philadelphia, in 2017, there were not a lot of grocery stores, not a lot of healthy options, and not a lot of healthy options for delivery. Young urban professionals that are aware of their nutrient needs wanted something like this service, and my company was the only company offering this.
Bodybuilder Kitchen took off via word-of-mouth. I was my main salesperson, the main person running operations, and main influencer, but at the end of the day, it was because there was a need for this service that it took off.
You need to not only understand your customer and their wants and needs, but the marketplace. And the most lucrative businesses happen when there is a hole in the marketplace where your business comes in. Otherwise, you are just a voice trying to be the loudest amongst a sea of other marketing messages. The latter will eat up your marketing budget.
Word-of-Mouth and Organic Traction
Word-of-mouth is the most underrated and possibly most important form of marketing. When satisfied customers talk about your product or services, this can generate organic buzz around your business. The most important part of generating buzz has little to do with “marketing,” and more to do with making sure the product and service is exceptional (see section #1: “A Good Product”) and making sure that customer service goes above and beyond. This needs to be an integral part of your company before traditional or digital marketing even comes into play.
A good product and good customer service are the basics. In today’s day and age, a seamless ordering process is also important. Having a well constructed website with good user experience (UX) can increase conversion rates by 200-400% (Zell, 2020). Similarly, a really easy way to get good reviews (and prevent bad ones) is to make sure that your operations are on point (Big Commerce). You want to prevent late orders, mistakes in bookings, etc… Your company needs to make sure that each touchpoint and every time a customer interacts with your business is a flawless experience. These days, one bad touchpoint can lead to a bad review. This is what you want to prevent.
Some additional ways of boosting word-of-mouth beyond operations, web design, customer experience, and the product are: loyalty programs, making sure your customers know where they can leave reviews, and creating a referral program. Offer those early adopters that are already satisfied with the product or service, gifts or incentives. This can boost loyalty and help to exponentialize that buzz around your business. This can happen online on social media or the old fashioned way, when groups of friends chat about how excited they are about your business. Similarly, review websites could be seen as the digital form of word-of-mouth marketing. This is where new users go to see what existing customers said about a product or service. This is especially useful in today’s day and age where if your immediate circle may not know of a particular product or service, but there are other folks on the *internet* that do. Referral programs are another great way to incentivize customers to talk about your product or service while offering them and whoever they refer a benefit.
A Founding Team That Does Sales
The greatest entrepreneurs are their own company’s best salespeople. At the beginning of a company’s journey, you may not have a budget for a sales team, so founding team members with sales skills are essential. Without this, a business cannot leave the ideation stage.
According to Forbes (Mikado, 2015), after a presentation, 63% of attendees remember stories and only 5% remember statistics. This means that storytelling is key to being memorable as a business.
How does one learn sales if this is not your natural skill set?
Just like anything else: practice, practice, practice!
Go to networking events, take in-person meetings, work on your people skills. There are sales coaches, interview coaches, and body language experts that can help you along your journey and remember, you can always improve on anything that you want to improve on.