Business growth strategy is the foundation of all successful companies. Working to understand the current market, expanding your customer base, and seeking out partnerships are the most basic strategies for growth. At ThinkFlame, we have worked with clients of all sizes and industries to create their individualized successful business growth strategy. Building a solid market strategy can secure your business’s future.
A business growth strategy is not a single plan, but multiple business strategies are working together. You must plan for all phases of a marketing strategy. There are a variety of strategies in business you can use when creating your plan.
5 common strategies in business include:
- Market Penetration Strategy
- Market Development Strategy
- Market Expansion Strategy
- Market Segmentation
- Market Partnerships and Cooperation
Each of these common growth strategies requires strategic planning to reach your long-term growth goals.
1. Market Penetration Strategy
Market penetration simplified is trying to get your slice of the pie. Every service or product has its market. When entering a new market, your first plan of action should be to increase your market share or share of the customers within a market. Getting your foot in the door is important to increase your chance of success.
Entering a market can be a challenging task. Customers all have their habits and favorite places to go for a service or product. Your growth goals should focus on attracting customers to give your business a shot. Running an offer or sale of your product to bring in sales is a common penetration strategy. You take a short-term loss to reach your long-term goals.
2. Market Development Strategy
Market development strategy is a method of retaining your current customers while bringing in even more potential customers. Company development strategies are the next steps to aftermarket penetration. When your original growth goals are reached, working to bring additional customers can be challenging. The product offers a wider variety of products to reach new customers is a common development strategy. You can also work with current customers to increase customer relations.
Customer relations can create an improved customer experience and generate positive business reviews. Word of mouth is amazing free advertising that brings in ideal customers who are in some way related to your current customer base.
3. Market Expansion Strategy
After penetrating and developing your market, expanding your market becomes the goal of your business. You can work to expand your current products or avenues of revenue. All businesses eventually slow down. To promote further growth, looking to expand your products, ways of advertisement, or methods of sales are great ways to expand your market.
“Leveraging alternative channels can be one of the best methods for business growth. Many business owners already promote their company through popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. However, you may want to consider how other channels can help you reach a new target market by creating a seamless brand experience.” source: act.com
Reaching out to bring in new customers is the lifeblood of any business. Expanding your products can open your business to even more markets. Whether it be offering products that are similar to your current inventory or new services, fresh inventory can kick start your growth to get progress going again for your business.
Online marketing is more and more crucial as time goes by. Driven by the pandemic, online sales are arguably more popular than ever. After achieving your local business goals, opening an online store can open your business to endless potential growth. You open your business to customers across the globe.
4. Market Segmentation
Market segmentation is an acquisition strategy best suited for larger markets where there is more competition for the market share. Segmentation is breaking down the market into smaller groups allowing your business to focus on more niche areas. When competing with larger, more established businesses narrowing your focus to providing more specific products targeted at segments of the market can be a strong business strategy. You will be lowering your overall potential customer pool but will provide a better product for those customers matching your focus. Market segmentation can work well if used during your market penetration then allow your business to later expand.
5. Market Partnerships and Cooperation
Teamwork is not only crucial to your business but in working with other businesses. Cooperating with other businesses can open your market to new potential customers in a mutually beneficial way. Partnering with other companies to promote products with other businesses or even competitors can create relationships with both businesses helping them to grow. Running sales or offers in collaboration with others helps to get a better understanding of each other’s market targets, products, and target customers. By working with others, you can create strategies that will not be directly competing so both business strategies are more like to succeed.
Now that you’ve explored this guide on business growth strategy, you should have a better idea of what to expect. Are you ready to make your company stand out from the crowd but aren’t sure what to do next?
Or, maybe you don’t have the time to worry about marketing and want to focus more on your business. We can help. Contact us today, and we’ll come up with a plan that meets your needs and helps you increase your traffic.
Will Golliver is a Digital Marketing Specialist at ThinkFlame. He works to improve aspects of SEO for our clients from content writing to schema building. Will works for our clients to analyze web traffic and SEO strategies to help them improve their visibility.