Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2013. Figures are as of that date: 2.7 million social media followers, 3.16 million more reached through trainers and $3.1 million in revenue. Statigram, Kik and Instolver are described as they were in 2013 and may have changed, been renamed or disappeared.
In early 2012, Arvin Lall, 27, was working in sports training, where he also made his own herbal supplements.
One day a friend gave him a weight-loss remedy. He tried it and lost 8 kilos in 2 weeks, as Arvin told Business Insider. The young man told his friend that if the remedy was legal, he would take charge of mass-producing it, because he believed he could turn it into a very profitable business.
Arvin’s only start-up capital was a credit card with a $5,000 limit, and that was more than enough to start bottling the supplement under his own brand, Shredz.
By early 2013 he was ready to sell it, although he still didn’t have many buyers. The plan Arvin was supposed to follow was the usual one in the weight-loss industry: find famous fitness personalities to endorse the supplement.
This business strategy usually requires a lot of time, negotiation and investment, so Arvin had to make do with people in the fitness world who were known only regionally.
The next step was to find athletes to write articles about motivation, training and weight loss, in order to reach young people through social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram…).
(Read: Entrepreneurs: how Sara Rotman did it)
Arvin says the Facebook and Twitter strategy produced results, but the business really took off when they went all-in on Instagram. There, photos of good-looking male and female trainers and models became very popular, grabbing users’ attention and producing a far better result than the entrepreneur had expected. They were helped, admittedly, by other apps such as Statigram (for managing Instagram), Kik (for chatting with Instagram users) and Instolver (for uploading hundreds of photos to Instagram at once), all of them free.
With a marketing strategy of practically €0 investment, based entirely on social media, ten months later the company has 2.7 million followers on social media, plus 3.16 million followers reached by its trainers combined.
In money terms, the company has brought in $3.1 million in revenue, thanks above all, according to the entrepreneur, to the way it handled Instagram.
And we could say that this is how great business ideas are born, and certainly how they are carried out.
Further reading
- 9 marketing strategies for small businesses with almost no investment
- 10 wise business lessons from Jack Welch
- Not having a marketing plan is planning to fail
Featured image: Jernej Furman from Slovenia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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