After working on product promotion in the UAE and Saudi Arabia for over 15 years, I have mastered the essential tools and methods for promoting new products in these markets. The following tools are not unique and can be used in any market. However, like everywhere else, they have some local and regional specificities.
1. Taking part in local or regional exhibitions
Every industry in the UAE or Saudi Arabia has one or two major annual events where all decision-makers, CEOs, Ministers, and even country Rulers come together. Working on my startup project in 2017-2019, I was fortunate enough to secure a booth at the main annual conference, which was directly in front of the main doors to the conference hall. As a result, I was able to obtain several meetings with the appropriate decision-makers.
2. Working through local affiliates
Locals in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are very familiar with the affiliation model. However, the challenge here is that your affiliate may represent too many other companies and may not have sufficient time for you. I have played the affiliate game for years, and I have seen some companies approach me requesting to represent my clients, while other companies demand exclusivity, and many others play a “double” or “triple game” by having multiple exclusive agreements with companies with similar products. Therefore, whenever you pursue this model, avoid relying on a single affiliate 100%.
3. Creating locally relevant content for social media
In the 2010s, the key to success in the UAE and Saudi Arabia was your local physical presence. In the late 2010s, accelerated by COVID-19 in the early 2020s, digital local presence became the key.
That means that to acquire a client in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, your content must not only showcase your product in the best possible light but also demonstrate your understanding of the specific local market needs and, ideally, provide local references.
Many companies underestimate this tool, focusing more on gaining direct access to clients. However, high-quality content that addresses the clients’ most urgent pain points may be the magic key that opens many client doors. While business people in these two countries value face-to-face interactions, they are also heavy consumers of digital content. In the 2020s, I secured most of my client meetings by sharing digital content with my network or even people I had never met before.
4. Running paid ads and sales funnels
Once you have identified the key pain points and developed your target client profile, you can amplify your lead generation by running paid ads and webinars, which can lead to sales calls and client deals. However, do not rush into this until you have thoroughly studied the market and created a product that meets local needs 100%.
Before realizing that everything requires a “slowly, slowly catch the monkey approach,” I had invested my time and money into sales funnels that yielded no results. The reason for this was my lack of understanding of the niche I was targeting.
When asked about how to combine the above tools to maximize your market entry efficiency, I always advise companies to use the same “slowly slowly catch the monkey approach“: invest in the most cost-effective tools and maximize their potential before moving on to more expensive ones. My ideal sequence for using these tools would be as follows:
Talk to potential affiliates online while creating more locally relevant content, then go for digital sales funnels and webinars, and finally, exhibit at a trade show.
