Nigerian Online Platform Termii is a startup that helps teams build and sustain solid customer base by securing repeat customers through personalized messages sent via email, SMS, and WhatsApp. In this interview with Innovation Village, the CEO of Termii, Gbolabo Emmanuel gives an insight on what Termii has to offer, he also sheds light on how the startup is impacting teams and businesses and of course his opinion on the fast-evolving Nigerian startup ecosystem.
Can we meet the Founder of TERMII?
I am a graduate of the Pan-Atlantic University where I studied Enterprise management. I am also a certified digital marketing expert with vast experience in web technology, business management, business analytics, financial technology, and entrepreneurship. Currently serving as the CEO at Termii and COO at Accounteer my past roles include Chief Technology Officer at heels.com.ng and Chief Technology Officer at ingenius.ng.
My industry activities include supporting startups and technology entrepreneurs at Afrilabs Foundation (Next-Economy) and mentoring startups at Aidi Ventures (www.aidi.com.ng). I am passionate about small technology-focused businesses because I believe that they are the necessary tool needed at ensuring economic & financial growth across the African continent.
My company Termii started unofficially in 2014 (not as Termii though). From that time till late 2017 we were merely working under the radar and in R&D mode but officially launched early 2018 which makes us officially 1 year old today.
What is TERMII all about and what does it have to offer?
Termii offers an online platform that helps teams secure repeat customers through personalized messages sent via email, SMS, and WhatsApp. Over 600 paying businesses have used Termii to secure 1.5 Million repeat customers and with Termii businesses can;
- Verify and segment customers’ contacts.
- Create and schedule marketing campaigns that target each segment.
- Track customer behavior, location, device usage and how they interact with marketing messages.
- Predict future customer behavior and campaign outcomes.
- Outsource complex marketing tasks
What motivated the creation of TERMII?
The need to help businesses who lose out on existing customers with the willingness to purchase their products repeatedly due to reasons such as failure to effectively segment, contextualize and personalize marketing messages to each unique customer need.
What is unique about the services TERMII has to offer?
We help businesses save 70% of their marketing budget by providing multiple messaging options which enables them to send out low-cost personalized messages across different marketing channels.
We also offer our customers (both online and offline) a customer segmentation tool that makes crafting and personalizing messages to a unique group of customers easy. This tool can be automated or handled manually by our trained digital marketing agents.
What has the traction been like since launch?
So far we have;
- Acquired 600 paying businesses.
- Retained and successfully segmented 1.5 Million customers anonymously.
- Making an average of $17,500 in MRR.
- Processed 2 Million unique multi-channel campaigns.
What were the challenges encountered recorded so far since TERMII launched?
Two major challenges I and my co-founders faced while growing Termii includes;
- Raising smart capital to scale and sustain our growth curve.
- Accessing committed talent needed to push our brand forward.
From your point of view how would rate the Nigerian startup ecosystem and in what areas do you think the ecosystem needs support?
In my experience, I would say we have come a long way, but have a lot to do as regards supporting startups. Organizations such as World bank, CchHub, 1% club, EchoVC, ABAN, Fate Foundation, Ingressive, Passion Incubator, EDC, Afrilabs and a couple of others are giving a lot of support but still need to touch down on more early ventures as well help raise the growth phase ventures to a point of stability across the country.
We preach early-stage support in startup events and conferences but from my experience, there are only a few early-stage investors willing to support entrepreneurs and their capital most often isn’t so patient.
What advice do you have for prospective African entrepreneurs out there?
Focus on building great products that are needed and have a place in the market. Don’t ruin your venture by signing wrong investment deals and remember no one is obligated to help you scale, you need to earn that support.
What are the future plans for TERMII?
We are gradually creating a fully automated marketing infrastructure and moving into the data analytics space. Our goal is to support more organizations and provide them with the necessary tools required to build a more targeted, secure and privacy compliant multi-channel marketing system. We are looking at not only Nigeria but Morocco and Kenya for 2019/2020.
