![[Interview] Arrey Bate, Founder, ARREYB Media, Cameroon](Images/Key Industry Images/ARREY BET CEO.png)
[Interview] Arrey Bate, Founder, ARREYB Media, Cameroon
Arrey Bate is the Founder of ARREYB Media, a company that help entrepreneurs and small business owners to generate consistent clients online through Facebook ND Instagram ads, sales funnels and email marketing.
Arrey, what is the story behind your company's inception?
The journey with my company started in 2017 while I was in my second year at the university, and I embarked on a fierce journey which turned out to shape the rest of my business life and career.
For quick context, all my life I grew up in Cameroon and when the crisis started that 2017, I remember fighting tooth and nail to survive amidst the random shootings. My parents occasionally sent little feeding money but one day I remember calling my mom and said I’d like to stop getting their tips. The funny thing is, I didn't know what I wanted to do next, so my first move was to try and start an online company using a laptop and a phone which my elder brother gifted me.
That was when I launched ARREYB Media and as a non-techy naive student with no skills, I couldn’t make any money from it in the entire first year.
I could no longer rely on my parents because my ‘safety net’ was gone, that’s how I started to brainstorm. Social media seemed my only hope at the time. I wanted to learn how to fish for myself and find a way to pay rent but the big question for me was "how do I start?"
That year I dropped out from school and during that time I almost lost my brain. I started out with a blogging business, but it was very hard to get people to advertise on my website or take space for banner ads. I tested many things, and if someone said ‘Arrey this will make you money online’, I’d jump on it desperately without a second thought.
Most of the things I tried didn’t work but the beauty was in that a few of the real secrets that did work, started to compound on each other over time. Each new trial might have failed but helped me to discover one new thing which led to another and that’s how I started finding my voice.
What seemed completely impossible before was slowly a reality. Over the years, my company ARREYB Media has evolved into running a news website (arreyb.com) and a marketing agency called ARREYB Is Marketing (arreybismarketing.com). From our base in Buea, Cameroon, ARREYB Is Marketing currently helps entrepreneurs and small business owners from different countries to generate consistent clients online through Facebook Ads, Instagram ads, sales funnels, and email marketing.
This is added to all the success I’ve recorded over the years including being been listed among the British Council’s top 100 young journalists worldwide in 2019, listed among GLC2021 top 100 young leaders from 30 countries, winner of the 2021 Global Leadership Challenge by Oxford University and St Gallen Symposium, written a bestselling internet book in Cameroon and founded a growing community for entrepreneurs and career starters called AB Afrikpreneur.
When it comes to the industry you serve, where do you put ARREYB Media?
So at ARREYB is about Marketing. We help entrepreneurs and small business owners to generate consistent clients online through Facebook and Instagram ads, sales funnels and email marketing.
When I was writing my first book in 2019, we received 57 pre-orders. On release day I nearly went crazy after we sold only 7 copies because we used about 7 influencers.
That week I had just flown into Nigeria so the entire month I tried many other strategies, but they didn’t work, we only sold a total of 16 copies.
I quickly hired a friend and asked him to show me what they were doing differently. Honestly, it was only a small tweak yet we missed it. From my hotel room I rebuilt a new system from scratch which saw an almost 4X increase in sales that week. Since then, I’ve sold 3,000+ copies (still counting).
But it didn’t end there, I tried the same system on other businesses & they had incredible results. One a university, another an academy.
That's how I journeyed into marketing & since then, my team and I help several entrepreneurs & business owners to generate clients online. We professionally build sales funnels, run Facebook & Instagram ads. As a team, if we charge a dollar & agree to raise 2, at the end of the month--if we do not--we actually offer a 100% money back guarantee (By the way we haven’t had to refund any client till date).
Is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the work-from-home trend affecting your company?
The road has been anything but smooth during the covid-19 pandemic. I remember when it started, as with many of my entrepreneur friends we struggled with meeting clients during the period of lockdown when everyone had to stay indoors. I wouldn't wish some of these things to happen again but these are some of the circumstances we had to grow through which actually built a new breed of entrepreneurs.
For our small team, we started looking for solutions; Our options were diverting business to inclusively serve mostly service based businesses and entrepreneurs like coaches, authors and speakers who could still operate from home and secondly, using systems like zoom to eliminate face to face client meetings. And that's exactly what we did and started to gradually pitch coaches and entrepreneurs outside Cameroon. Today our agency serves clients in America, Europe and Africa
Now 2022 has kicked of, tell us more on your company’s growth strategy for this year?
In 2022 our team is looking to intensify our outreach and pitching which should help lead to more growth. For example, one of the softwares we have been looking at is ‘Trello’ which is helping us to track our outreach, keep a record of how we pitch businesses and also ease communication within the team. I’ll definitely recommend this for any entrepreneur looking to stay organized in 2022 ; We do serve a few European clients but we're also looking to increase our clients in these regions.
Are there any long term ambitions you’re aiming for as a company?
One of the cool things we have been working on for years has been a marketing academy for entrepreneurs. It has been in my bucket list for the last 2 years and quite frankly, I’ve built and dismantled the academy several times. Hopefully before the end of 2022 we can launch the academy that will help entrepreneurs and business owners to learn and implement all their marketing themselves without having to hire an expensive agency.
I also have a couple of projects which I’m excited to release including some power events and plans of our entrepreneurial community AB Afrikpreneur which I truly care about. My passion has always been to serve and support people on their journeys and everything we launch onwards will always centre around building people.
So as a Cameroonian and business person, what government policies do you think can be implemented for companies to thrive in Cameroon?
From my experirnce running an online business based in Africa, one of our biggest problems has been international payment systems. For example, worldwide payment systems like Stripe and Paypal are still a nightmare to use in some African countries. If the government could improve ways around having these payment systems fully accepted in our local countries and most importantly easing entry into our local counties, it’ll boost the ecommerce in Africa. I do acknowledge the coming of other transfer platforms and I think if all these efforts are supported by the government this will definitely be one thing which most entrepreneurs like myself who work online will appreciate.
Any news or information from your ARREYB Media you’d like to share?
In 2022, I have a couple of projects which I’m excited to release on which together with my small team have been working on. I hope I can share all the details soon but all these are going to be in line with all the work we have been doing with ARREYB Is Marketing. But one of the plans I can share with is that for our entrepreneurial community AB Afrikpreneur we are supporting and build young African entrepreneurs and career starters. Hopefully it will give an amazing results.
