You may be offering a fantastic product or service, but without a growth strategy to outline where you want your business to go, you may not grow at all.
What is a business growth strategy?
A growth strategy identifies opportunities within your market and addresses how your company is going to evolve to meet the challenges of today and the future.
It’s important because it keeps your company working toward goals that go beyond what’s happening in the market today. It keeps both owners and employees focused and aligned, as well as enabling them to think long-term.
How do I write an effective growth strategy?
The first step is to look at five key areas that will help you to grow your business.
- Think long-term. Invest time in understanding where the market is going and what this means for your customers. Short-term decisions do not help grow a business.
- Ensure you have a good value proposition. This states the relevance of your product or service, what it does and why customers need it.
- Expand your reach. Who is your target customer? What do you need to do to let them know you exist? How do potential customers know that your product or service is relevant to them?
- Growth means new people, systems and (maybe) different ways of doing things. Grow at a pace you can manage.
- How will your marketing get your value proposition to relevant customers?
Once you’ve written your growth strategy and know exactly where you want your business to be in say two years’ time, the next step is to work out your marketing plan.
What’s a marketing plan?
A marketing plan is a business document which outlines your marketing strategy and tactics. It’s often focused on a specific period of time (i.e. 12 months) and covers a variety of marketing-related details. This may include costs, goals and action steps.
Like your business plan, it’s not a static document and it should outline:
- How you’re going to keep existing customers happy and ensure they continue to return.
- What your goals are for acquiring new customers.
- The marketing methods you’re going to use to achieve steps one and two.
If you would like help taking your business to the next level, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with PKB and our expert advisors will be happy to help.
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