One of the most frustrating things in business can be experiencing a growth plateau. After a while, it can start to feel like you’re putting in the same amount of work yet your business isn’t moving forward. How do you move past this? There are 6 key areas we recommend prioritizing as part of your business growth strategy that can help you break past the plateau and launch your business forward.
What is a Business Growth Strategy?
A business growth strategy is exactly what it sounds like – it’s a blueprint of steps that helps guide growth in a specific aspect.
Creating one for your specific initiatives requires you to take the time to sit down, evaluate exactly where your business is at, and get specific about what aspects you want to optimize and/or improve.
It’s important to remember that there’s no one universal strategy that will work for every business. You need to build one that is personalized to you and your brand. The following areas are a basic overview of key things you can focus on as you build yours.
Key Aspects of a Successful Strategy
Defined Goals
Goals are essential for pushing your business in a specific direction (forward). It’s the classic metaphor of “don’t throw darts in the dark.” AKA don’t tackle massive projects before you have a clear picture of how you want them to turn out.
When you know exactly where you want to end up it will make your steps much more intentional and efficient. With clear direction, you’ll make better decisions to lead you forward and feel more confident.
Here’s a guide we love for setting SMART business goals.
Competitor and Market Research
Solid research enables you to find out where you fit in within your existing market. It allows you to correctly identify your market and what is/is not currently working within it. You’ll start to identify patterns of what competitors are doing to improve.
You want to know your audience as closely as you know your best friend. Identify specific details about your target personas so that all of your communication to them is personalized.
The key to marketing is articulating the value that your brand offers in a way that resonates with people. The more you know about a person the better you’ll craft your messaging.
Don’t be afraid to use these in a way that’s unique to your business but still in line with what’s trending.
Find Opportunities for Growth
It’s time to dive into your business. Take a close look at your products or services and evaluate how you can MAXIMIZE their value. Consider what sets you apart and how you can amplify the value of it. Time to figure out how to strengthen your offering and better position your business.
Ask yourself questions like:
- How can you attract new customers?
- Are there any strategic partnerships you can create?
- Do you need to improve your presence on social media?
- Is your website overdue for an upgrade?
- How can you better market your existing products?
- What will increase customer engagement?
For example, if you sell a specific product, is there a way you could start offering a subscription for it? Or maybe you could bundle it with similar products/services you offer as a way to upsell them?
Think about what you offer and let’s figure out how to get the most out of it.
Execute SOONER Rather than Later
Perfection is the new procrastination. Don’t be that business that spends six months planning a two week campaign that doesn’t even end up performing well. Take what you have and run with it!
Try not to take more than a few weeks to plan, create, and launch your stuff. While you want to be thorough, you don’t want to launch things that are underdeveloped or that will take you in the wrong direction. If you’re patient and thorough in your work you can build sustainable success.
Tools that Support Business Growth
Something that we can’t emphasize enough is to use the resources and tools available to you. The world is an amazing place with so many innovative solutions so take advantage! As you build out your strategy, leverage the technology and insights at your disposal to optimize every step of your process.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a great way to connect with your target audience and build lasting customer loyalty.
The key thing about content marketing is that it’s not about pushing your product. Well, in a way it is. You definitely want to showcase your brand and what exactly you offer. However, content is more about offering free, accessible, specific pieces of value that will build a relationship with your audience.
Through blog posts, videos, emails, or other forms of social media, effective content you can establish yourself as having authority in the industry. Think of your content like the samples at Costco. It’s immediate value that gives you a glimpse at how amazing the whole product is.
When people get a glimpse of how effective this value is in their life, they’ll engage with your brand more and more. Which done effectively, eventually leads to conversions!
Have a CRM in Place
If you’re having a hard time managing your customer base, a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is what you need.
A CRM is a centralized hub for customer interactions making it easier for you to track leads, segment customer lists, maintain communication, and automate campaigns. They honestly exist to make your life much easier.
You can use your CRM to create more personalized customer journeys. Tailoring communication to their specific needs and interests draws them towards your brand and helps build trust.
We highly recommend Hubspot. Not only is the CRM great, but the company does an excellent job of giving you information and guides to help you navigate it.
Lead Magnets
Lead magnets are a powerful tool for generating leads, building your email list, and fostering strong relationships with your customer.
A lead magnet is a piece of valuable content that offers a longer form of value to its consumer. Over time, the idea is that your customer sees the value that it offers and wants more. Thus, they come back to the brand and make a purchase.
The key of an effective lead magnet is its ability to solve a specific problem of your target audience. You want to capture their attention while also establishing yourself as a trusted resource. This process helps create a pathway to conversion, encouraging them to make a purchase.
SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is setting up traffic signs for online visitors to find and navigate your site. It’s important for getting visibility online and increasing the amount of organic traffic that visits your website.
Essentially, SEO is going through the content of your website and optimizing it to rank well. To do this, you’ll want to conduct keyword research and find keywords that have high traffic and low keyword density. This just means that a lot of people are searching for terms but the low density means there’s not a lot of pages that contain them. Meaning if yours does, then you’re likely to appear near the top of the google results when that term is searched.
Landing Pages
Landing pages are great resources for your growth strategy. These pages are designed to have one focus and one focus only – guide visitors towards a SINGLE action.
Unlike other web pages that have multiple CTAs (Call to Action), links, purposes, etc. landing pages provide one route for your audience to engage with. This helps with minimizing visitors’ distractions and will ultimately drive high conversion.
Elements of an Effective Landing Page:
- Clear Call to Action
- Social Proof of What You Offer
- Compelling Headlines
- Relative Media
- Fast Load Times
Conversion Rate Optimization
Remember the goal of having your business online is getting conversions. You want your audience taking designated action and moving towards making a purchase, or even better, multiple purchases!
Not every piece of content you produce is going to go viral, and that’s okay. The key to sustainable growth is continually refining what you have. Consistently upgrading what you have builds a strong online presence.
By analyzing what works and what doesn’t, you can fine tune what you have to engage your audience better.
If you have more questions about CRO you can read more here.
Quick Tips on Sustainable Growth
You’ve learned by now that growth doesn’t happen overnight. To build a foundation that will support long-term success it’s essential you focus on consistency, adaptability, and continual refinement.
Don’t implement anything that will slow you down so much with extra work that priorities start slipping through the cracks.
Also, it’s easy for a business to look at data and get steered in the wrong direction. They see a low number and immediately dive into a new campaign. BE WARY OF THIS. Make sure that the data you’re looking at is relative to your goals.
- Use the Data: Data is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal. Make sure you’re staying updated on where your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are and analyzing the results. By leveraging insights on website traffic, customer feedback, and conversion rates you can make informed decisions about where to put your focus.
- Focus on your Customer: At the end of the day, your success depends on how well you’re articulating value to your customers. How well are you showing them that you have what you need? Continually refine how you approach communicating to them. Create EVERYTHING (products, services, experiences, marketing, etc.) to specifically address their pain points and desires.
- Stay Open to New Ideas: The business landscape is always changing. If you haven’t realized this by now, you need a willingness to adapt in order to stay ahead. Don’t be afraid to shift your approach when necessary.
- Keep Messaging Consistent: Consistency is key when it comes to establishing your brand. It’s how you’re building recognition. From fonts to colors to tone, make sure every touchpoint between you and your audience reflects who your brand is.
Don’t Keep Losing Money; Use Tools to Move Forward
Whatever state your business is in, growth is always a huge focus. Whether your business is losing money, at a plateau, or at a place where you’re thriving, you need a business growth strategy to keep you focused and moving.
To make growth easier to accomplish and sustain, adopt tools to help you. USE YOUR RESOURCES. Seriously. Tools will make your work more efficient and assist you in streamlining your operations. You don’t want to just keep up, you want to get ahead and the right tools are going to help you do just that.
If you’re going over the books and feeling a little overwhelmed, let us help you out! Our team at Mintun Media LIVES in CRMs and content marketing. Schedule a free consultation with us and we’ll go through where your business is at and what needs to happen to move it forward.