You may know how to start a business, but do you know how to grow it? We’ll tell you the best strategies to achieve this.
You may know how to start a business, but do you know how to grow it? Whether you’ve bought a franchise, opened your dream store, or started a business in retirement, you’ll want to have a solid growth strategy in place. This will ensure your business is successful in the long run.
Some tips to get your startup’s expansion strategy up and running are:
Members of your target market often share similar characteristics, personal interests, and behaviors. Some examples of these specific groups are:
- People over 50 years old
- Single mothers
- Young adults interested in science fiction
To gain insight into your target market, you’ll want to:
Collect survey data about your market’s interests, likes, and dislikes. This can help you create products that better solve consumer problems and fit their needs. You can also easily send your surveys to your audience with email marketing campaigns.
Define your ideal clientsincluding their age, income, gender, location, and demographics. Understanding this can give you a solid foundation to work on for the rest of your research.
Create ideal customer personas that describe the behaviors, expectations, and needs of your target customers. You’ll also want them to describe the challenges your customers face. This can help you customize your messages to better relate to specific types of people.
Check out social media to see who your target market follows and how they use the different platforms. You’ll also want to see how they engage with your competitors on these sites and what type of content they like or share the most.
Use Google Analytics to see if your content is working for your target audience. For example, you’ll want to look at the pieces of content that are most popular with your customers, including blogs and social media posts.
To conduct a competitive analysis, you’ll want to look at the strengths and weaknesses of the other companies you’re up against. To do this, you’ll want to:
Research who your competitors are: The best place to start is by looking at who offers the same products and services as you. You can use search engines like Google to read industry blogs. From there, you can attend different conferences and networking events to meet other companies face-to-face and see what they offer.
Monitor social media: Use social media to see what people are saying about your competitors. This allows you to know your customers’ opinions and expectations.
Ask your customers: This is one of the cheapest ways to gather information. If you get a new customer, ask them who they used before you and why they switched. You’ll want to understand why they were unhappy with their previous provider and use that to help improve your operation.
Check out our competitors’ job offers: For this, you’ll want to see what roles they’re hiring for, which can give you an idea of how they’re expanding their operation and hint at the direction their company is taking.
Some of the lessons you will learn during your analysis that will help you improve your business plan are:
- New ideas for sales and marketing
- How to better engage your audience on social media
- What are competitive prices for your sector?
- The most common types of content your audience engages with
- What market niches exist
- Which competitors have the largest market share compared to others?
Your value proposition describes how your products and services help your customers. This increases your business growth because it helps your target audience understand the value of each product or service you offer. It also helps consumers differentiate your business from the competition.
Establishing your value proposition is also important to attract investors to your startup. It will help them better understand how your product fits into customers’ lives and is therefore relevant. They will also look at how long your target audience will need your product and will want to see ideas that solve long-term problems for people and have the potential to sell for years.
Long-term goals give your company consistent direction and motivation and are the key to a successful business model. They also provide everyone in your company with a path to success, reducing confusion around your business plan. They will help your company focus on the small and large tasks throughout each year, which can increase productivity.
Some key features of achievable goals are:
Measurable: This allows you to see progress over time. You can also use it to keep your employees motivated.
Specific: Each goal you set should state who is involved, what the expectations are, when it is expected to be completed, and why it is important.
Time-based: Long-term goals should include a time frame. This can serve as motivation to keep your startup on track to completion. You can then set smaller goals to help you move toward the longer goal.
Relevance: You need to clearly understand how your goals fit into your organization, your company’s mission statement, and your company’s purpose. They should also have long-term significance for your company.
Some examples of long-term goals for startups are
- Reduce company expenses by 10%.
- Increase your website traffic
- Hire your first employee by the end of the year
- Opening a second location in 5 years
- Launch referral programs where customers are rewarded for referring someone new to your location
- Using social media marketing
Growth Strategies for Startups. The location of your business can make or break your company. Whether you’re looking to set up a physical office, work from home, or share a workspace, you’ll want to strategize on the best place for your operation.
Some questions you should ask yourself before choosing a location are:
Do you want a formal office building or a casual work environment? This should be consistent with your company’s style and brand.
How close do you want to be to your target audience? In the beginning, it’s often better to be close to your customer base so they don’t have to travel far to get their products.
Will you need a large parking lot? You’ll need to consider accessibility for your customers, employees, and vendors. The more customers you expect to visit during the day, the larger you’ll want your parking lot to be.
How much does the property cost? Before you go looking for properties, you’ll want to know what they’re worth. For example, do you want to rent or buy an office? Knowing this can help you narrow down areas more easily.
Will there be competitors nearby? In most cases, being close to competitors is a good thing. For example, restaurants can pick up overflow traffic from other dining destinations that have a long wait.
How visible do you want your business to be? Typically, you’ll want to set up an office that’s closer to popular areas that people frequent. This increases the chances of new clients coming in. However, if this isn’t important to you, you can always set up a virtual office for less expense, or even a mobile office that you can take to different locations. Keep in mind that both physical, virtual, and mobile work centers have different office-related tax deductions.
You’ll want a startup team that’s well-rounded. That means you’ll need to hire the right business advisors, such as:
- Product Manager who oversees the strategy and growth of your products.
- Marketing manager who focuses on your company’s vision for your product.
- Sales manager who can develop new leads and bring money into your company.
However, these three functions do not fit all your needs. Small businesses that are just starting out often outsource:
- Certified Public Accountants (CPA)
- Lawyers
- Bankers
- Content writers
- HR professionals
- Web developers
- Insurance professionals
Startup Expansion Strategy. Startups fail more often than they succeed. To help ensure your business is on the path to a prosperous future, you’ll need to develop the right startup growth strategies. These detailed plans are crafted by combining your target market, your value proposition, and your goals. They also merge your content marketing and social media strategy.
