want a good social following? have a good product.

heyyyyyoooo! i know, i know. before you say it, there was no newsletter last week because your girl was going crazy off high-protein, adaptogen-infused, vegan, probiotic-filled items at expo west.

expo west is like the super bowl of cpg brands. if you have never been, just imagine like thousands of people eating snacks for about 8 hours a day for a few days straight. it’s a trip. you also walk 15,000+ steps a day without even having to leave the block that the convention is on. talk about efficiency!

anywho, expo west is always a reflection time for myself - a reflection of my work, a reflection of how much i’ve grown, and more. it’s always a learning experience. i get to learn from brilliant minds in the space, see what products are the most-loved/tried and why, and see what it takes to truly stick out in a crowd of almost 200+ brands. I have no idea what the actual number is so i am going with that.

my biggest learning and reminder? well, it’s what we are talking about today.

a great product + great marketing = a great experience.

we’re chatting about:

• how social should be approached if you’re a brand just starting out

• why a thriving social presence isn’t the key to “success”

• how to achieve “success” when building a brand across your marketing efforts and product development

BUT FIRST…

If you didn’t get to attend Expo West, fear not!!! Although it’s one of my top 3 ways of learning about new brands or seeing what brands we all look up to are launching next, it isn’t the only way to keep a pulse on the industry and your specific niche.

That’s where my friends at Thingtesting come in.

With over 1 million people trying and reviewing new products, you can join people just like you who literally love spending money on little treats, snacks, and more. They also do things called “Thingdrops” where you can get a product for a discounted price to try it out and leave a review.

Not only am I an active reviewer, but I also love using the site for inspiration to get outside of my FYP on Tiktok or IG feed and learn about dope brands who may not even have a “ following” yet!

If you work with a brand or own a brand, Thingtesting just launched something very cool—check it out here, mention Kendall sent you, and get two weeks free. Woo.

NOW LET’S CHAT

If you’re a brand just starting off online, what are some things you should focus on out of the gate? These are pretty straight-forward and do not need a whole lot of explaining.

1. Focus on your quality, but don’t get so caught up that you forget about quantity. Being a perfectionist can get you. Trust me. Those posts that take 2 seconds and come to you randomly perform the best for a reason.

2. Never forget who you do it for. You don’t create for yourself. You create for those who follow you.

3. Instead of always trying to close a deal, ABV (Always Be Valuable). Entertain and educate your audience instead of shoving a link in bio or discount down their throat every post.

4. Be a human. Have emotion, be honest with what may be going on at the company, express yourself, etc. People buy from people, right? Make your account feel like they are dm’ing with a friend or engaging with a friend. Sure, a brand name might be attached, but they’ll never forget your first impression.

But, with that said…

YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE CANNOT SAVE YOU…

Sorry. that one might hurt. after all, i promised you that I would have no filter, right?

Also, adding a celeb onto your brand, won’t help either. lol.

i really can’t think of anything worse than a brand who gains hype online, but the product absolutely blows. it unfortunately happens too much.

if you know your product can be better, make it better.

if you know your product is great (and you have the reviews and such to prove it), but social doesn’t highlight it, then invest in the things that allow you to get the word about how good it is.

yes, of course, i understand that a lot of this can depend on budgets, but there is a way (from my pov) as someone who has been able to work with hundreds of thousands or literally $0.

sure, it might seem great at first, but over time the following can happen as a result:

• Engagement starts dropping significantly. You might experience a drop in engagement rate since If the product itself is not valuable or doesn't meet users' needs like they thought it would. They might remain a follower, but stop engaging given their experience. Sure, engagement varies so not saying to take the smallest dip with a negative view, but i’ve seen huge brands be able to scale up and up until it all comes crashing down and they get like 5 likes with 80K followers (i’m over-exaggerating).

• Your reputation can be a stake. Harsh, but true. If a product is poorly received or doesn't perform as expected, negative reviews and comments can spread rapidly across social networks. Some times, you can get in too deep that it can set you back years (for example - coming out of the gate with awful CX or rushing a product to marketing when it wasn’t ready and having to reformulate 5 times) or having to do something major to level set again.

• Limited Reach: Even with targeted advertising and influencer partnerships, you can only meet the right audience for a bad product for so long. No genuine interest? No positive word-of-mouth? The product may struggle to gain traction beyond that initial user base.

• Short-Term Buzz, Long Term Repercussions: Sure, you can use social media to generate short-term buzz and visibility through creators, press, and your own content, but these outlets cannot sustain success for a bad product (think: no repeat purchasing, etc.)

SO, HOW CAN YOU ACHIEVE “SUCCESS”?

Take your good product and take effective marketing and here’s how you can achieve #success. Success is so relative, of course. To some it’s growing their following, to some it is growing their engagement and trimming down their audience, it all varies and that is okay!

Obviously, there are so many things that you can do, but here are just a few that can help you create a compelling value proposition as to why people need ya, build relationships with your community + partners, and ultimately drive brand awareness and sales over time.

• Developing a Quality Product: SHOCKER. A good product is the cornerstone of any successful brand. Brands should focus on creating high-quality products that meet the needs and expectations of their target audience. This involves conducting effective market research, gathering customer feedback (and acting on it), and continuously refining the product to ensure it remains competitive, relevant, and is up to the standards that the marketing may be supporting.

• Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Brands should identify and articulate their unique selling proposition – what sets their product apart from the competition?? This could be a unique feature, superior quality, better value, or a combination of factors that resonate with the target audience.

  • For example, Graza’s comp chart breaks it down perfectly.

• Effective Marketing Strategies: Invest in a mix of traditional and digital marketing tactics such as paid advertising, content marketing, social media marketing, influencer partnerships, email marketing, and more.

• Storytell. Don’t sell: Create emotional connections with consumers. Let them in.

• Customer Experience: We already know how i feel based off the other week’s email about why social media is literally a customer service channel (click that long bolded line - no idea why it isn’t hyperlinking clearly womppppp)

• Feedback and Iteration: Seek feedback from customers and use this information to iterate and improve your product and marketing efforts continuously. For instance, can you create a new SKU or product solely to do an influx of feedback? Should you make a new flavor because of the amount of asks if you’re a beverage brands? Do you need to be more transparent around company updates that directly affect the customer (ex. warehouse issues?).

If you’ve have been able to earn people’s trust and time, don’t ruin it with a bad product and bad practices.

BRAND OF THE WEEK: CHURN

BOTW is when i pick a brand i tried and really enjoyed it then I tell you about it because it’s fun.

this week’s? man oh man, i have not shut up about it.

introducing: CHURN, a grass-fed butter company who is producing insane flavors.

i had the honor of chatting with the founder, Michael, at expo this past week and it seems that it was an expo hit for sure (see here) and rightfully so.

this is one of the brands that i just have such a great feeling about.

they have great and fun branding.

the product is effing delicious.

and the people are amazing.

i am excited to see once social starts coming to life more and more how it all shapes up because I think they could be a rocketship IMO. i have a whole thing on products that can move across mediums and be used in formats and why they make scaling a social “easier”, but i’ll save that for another day.

anyway, you need the maple + cinnamon butter in your life and the garlic and shallot and the bruschetta and the truffle, you get the point.

find them near you! i’ll personally be running to pop-up grocer.

THAT’S A WRAP

Another week and another one is in the books.

Thank you as always for taking the time to hang out with me. I spoke to a lot of y’all at expo and those who know know that I cannot handle compliments or anything so naturally started tearing up. So, thank you for reading and for all your advice, kind words and more. Truly, i will never be able to express my gratitude.

If you’re reading this, thank you for being a reason that I choose to keep showing up here every week. I love it and it’s a blast.

As always, have questions or topics you want to see broken down? hit “reply” and send them over.

If you have anyone in your life or a coworker or bestie that would like this lil’ newsletter, it would mean the world if you shared it via the link below where they can sign up 🙂 https://kendalldickieson.beehiiv.com/subscribe

See you next week where we’ll be chatting about setting up ambassador programs and seedings!

Peace, love and KPIs,

KD