I really need your help with how to go about placing an appropriate ad (countries or agencies that would be interested in the product) to meet my target audience. What platform is cost effective for a startup? What and how can I effectively communicate and get high sales on my product? Is collaboration a bad idea or is it really necessary at these early stage? How do I partner with an influencer or another brand. I would really appreciate your kind and raw feedback ??

Jay’s Answer: Based on your local sales, what have you learned about who’s buying what you’re selling and why? That’s the starting point to figuring out your marketing strategy: how to have more of those people find you – and based on why others purchased from you – why they should also buy from you. There’s no magic way to quickly sell a lot of your product. More ads may help, but only if you’ve figure out how your previous ads worked well and then do that more. Influencers are overrated to drive sales – they are first looking to see that others are loving what you’re selling first, and if their followers are loving it, they may also share their enthusiasm. The bottom line: you need to do your (marketing) homework to sell your products.

Before you spend any money on advertising, work very hard to sell your product face-to-face and door-to-door. By asking people questions, listening to their answers, and watching their reactions to your sales pitch, you’ll learn how best to sell your product. And then, once you understand how to sell it, you can broadcast your message with advertising. Otherwise, your advertising is going to be a guess on what to say/show and your money likely wasted.