Frank Sherlock
Courtesy:http://www.hrsptest.co.uk
Everyone wants to grow at some point. It not only speaks of success but also of the drive, innovation and determination that moves a business forward.
Every year, some of my readers bombard my inbox with questions asking for new strategies that would help their business grow and return better profits. Quite interestingly, the nature of their inquiries always tend to follow the same pattern.
This has inspired me to decide about sharing with you some tips on how to give your local business the growth opportunity it deserves to generate ROI successfully –
#1 – Target a Particular Market Section
The market is full of potential clients, but your aim should be to cut out the slice that you know would satisfy your business appetite with greater profit margins. In other words, chasing the whole consumer market would make your strategy chaotic and clumsy, causing you to lose focus and become ineffective. That’s why big companies like Red Bull and Pepsi segment their market, you see. Who do you think are their target audience? It’s the younger and the fun-loving crowd, who are generally regarded the adventure seekers of life. Besides, segmenting your market makes your choice easier. Whom will you target? How would you approach them? This is called vertical drilling and it makes your business strategy smooth flowing. Once you see that the strategy is working right and is bringing you the desired profitability, you can move on to target another segment and begin drilling it to find new leads.
It is nice to think of moving ahead with your strategy to acquire new prospects. However, make sure that you do not end up neglecting your existing clients. This is not a good business approach and you should begin by mending your attitude first, before heading on to something new.
#2 – Welcome Partnership to Form an Alliance
Good and intelligent teamwork never fails. Entering into a partnership with another business within your niche can help you expand rapidly. It’s not always necessary that a business needs to have its own complete set of manufacturing, promotion and distribution facility. If you have a great idea that you know would hit big when out in the market, you can partner up with someone (an app developer for example) who can make it real. You can negotiate on the production and development part and decide on the investment plan. If you think investing on commissions is worth the try, then it would be like shooting oneself on the foot.
#3 – Strengthen Your Reputation Online
Strong online presence is a must for any business to stand out in the market nowadays. With smartphones and fast internet accessibility now in one’s palm, customers can easily go online to check out for the latest business reviews, details, prices, deals and the latest news update whenever they need to learn about a service. And this will go on as long as technology exists. Therefore make sure your web development and internet marketing strategies are on the right track. It’s disappointing to find so many businesses who have not yet realized the immense potentiality that online marketing can bring to them. The internet is a rich storehouse of information and results that a business can exploit to build, influence and protect their online reputation. Almost 80% of the decisions made by consumers are based on the online reputation of a brand. If you have not yet started, then the first thing that you need to do is register your business to a local business search directory. These are advanced web and mobile directories that are optimized to ensure that your business gets listed on the search engine page where they are visible to your target audience. Most of these local search directories come with authentic business reviews and ratings that help users make better decisions accurately. Social networking is also another big way to reach your target market fast. Fortunately, even the local search directories have realized its potentiality. Some of them have even integrated features into their system, which makes it easier for business owners to track down their social media data and activities. You can get down to plan your new web development strategy, but getting listed to a web directory would be your key to open the door to a new online business growth venture.
#4 – Diversify Your Brand Approach
Diversification leads to growth. If you want to see your business growing, you will have to think of ways in which you can expand your brand approach to reach new consumer markets. If you run a line of sportswear, then think of how you can expand it to something that is not just about sports. Think of other ways your customers can use your brand such as wearing them for yoga sessions, dancing, casual evening walks, etc. Imagination is yours, but when you do it, make sure your customers too are swept off by what you are visualizing. When you diversify your product lines, you get to reach new market segments that in turn strengthen your brand presence. Besides, it’s exciting to discover new ways to expand your brand utility.
#5 – Be Confident To Lead Others
The key to move a business forward is by leading an entire industry. Going out on a new business venture is exciting but at the same time risky. You know you might end up suffering huge loss or surviving a big profit. But you need to take the call otherwise, how would you know whether the decision was wise or stupid? It’s an enormous decision and your entire team is waiting for your next move. On the other hand, if you are working in collaboration with some other company, which is hesitant to take the risk, make sure you are confident enough to assure that it is the right step. For this of course, you would have to have some strong grounds – for example, a good distribution network or a positive customer market data to stick to your plan. If you are sure you have every valid reason to try out the risk, go out with full confidence or else it would turn out to be an egg problem which neither party is willing to take up. Now that is harmful to a business growth.
Growth opportunities are vast, but competition is a tremendous rage! If you are not ready with your next set of business strategies, chances are you could be losing the game; leave aside growing. I hope I have managed to answer some of your queries. If not, feel free to leave a comment below for me to help you out.
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