If you’re looking to take your business and your team to new heights, then you’re at some point going to have to consider scaling. There is only so much you can do to keep growing off your current efforts, and you might need to look into different avenues to keep growing further. But how do you expand your business’s target market? Here are a few of the options.
Take It Online If It’s Offline
Most businesses nowadays are being started online, but if yours is one of the remaining few that is still running brick and mortar, you might be able to reach a whole new audience by taking it online. Set up a website if you don’t have one already and think about how you’re going to be able to offer your services online. If you sell products from your store, you can deliver them with the help of a fulfillment agency, but you can also look at using the omni-channel so that customers can order items online but come to pick them up in-store. You don’t have to change the entirety of how your business runs to target
Expand To A Different Demographic
If you’re not able to make the switch from online to offline, or vice versa, then you may need to think about reaching a different type of customer. If you find that most of your customers fit a specific demographic, such as a certain gender, age group, or occupation, then a change in product or messaging may help you get an idea of another demographic you could potentially reach. Do your target market research to find out who the majority of your customers or clients are. Then see if you can identify demographics that are not currently being targeted by your closest competitors and think about whether your services or products could be catered to them, instead. Don’t go after a demographic you don’t have yet until you know that it’s a good fit for your business, of course.
Start Targeting Different Areas
Perhaps you may have found the perfect demographic for your business, but you have simply tapped the market out as much as you can with your current setup. To that end, you might need to start looking at different locations you can target, instead. You can use targeted ad placements and local search marketing to better target different locations online, but you shouldn’t underestimate the power of having a physical presence in that area. Learn how to open a satellite office and start establishing links with local businesses and making your presence known. Even if you don’t set up an entire store or offer services from that area, having local sales and support reps can help you respond to the needs of a localized audience very effectively.
Find A New Niche
You might not be able to reach a different demographic and you might not be able to expand to new areas for one reason or another. Or perhaps you can, but you simply want to make sure that you can get as wide a range of customers as possible. In that case, you might be able to offer much the same products or services, if you simply focus down on a niche that can work with them. That niche can be serving to a specific need, investing in customer support, or even releasing an app so that smartphone users have better access to what your business offers.
Develop and Distribute New Products
The next two options are going to make the most money, time, and thought. If you’re able to invest the resources necessary, however, then you could end up reaping even more benefits. Launching a new product may be difficult, but there are various ways to do it. You can think of products that are related to yours and just as relevant to the target market that you are currently hitting, but provide a different solution that said target market would need. Another option is to rethink existing products, but how they can be reshaped to different demographics or niches. You may even sell companion products that may help customers use or maintain your existing products, which also encourages them to keep coming back to you.
Incorporate New Services
Aside from selling new products, you may also look at ways to offer new services to your clients. If you do sell products, then these services can include things like additional warranties, repairs, or additional after-purchase support. Similar to products, you can either adjust your existing services to cater to new offices (such as targeting a different industry if you run a B2B business) or expanding to entirely new services. Services that target existing customers, building products or services that you already offer, can help you reach the point of profit with them more easily./ On average, it costs less to get an existing customer to return or to upsell them on new services than it does to get new customers to try out existing services. The increased revenue and decrease cost of conversion can make this one of the most profitable ways to expand your business.
Work With A Contracted Service Provider
You may not necessarily need to offer those additional services yourself in order to expand the services that you offer. Instead, you might be able to contract that work out to a different business, freelancer, or team, but offer it under your own name. This white-label approach can be taken to both services and products, such as software packages. One common example of this is how digital marketing companies might do the majority of the services that they offer in-house, but outsource some of the specialties, such as content marketing or search engine marketing. You do have to split the profits involved but it can help you both reach more customers and increase their lifetime value by getting them in on additional investments.
Double-down On The Current Target Market
If you’re not able to expand in any of the ways above, then you might need to look at ways that you can get increased market penetration without changing anything major about the business. It’s never impossible to grow your share of a market, it’s simply a matter of working out how much it costs and deciding if you’re going to get a good return on investment. One of the clearest examples of how to do this is to invest in marketing methods that you haven’t done it. If you’re not using advertising or have no provisions for organic marketing, then you are almost certainly going to be able to get more attention and fresh eyes by doing so.
Collaborate With Others
Aside from finding new markets on your own or building on those that you have already grown, you can also tap into markets that others have already taken the time to build. This is one of the biggest advantages of influencer marketing. You work with influencers, typically those who have large followings on social media, through blogs, or in podcasts, who market your product for you, either by linking directly to it, by creating content, or otherwise promoting it. Of course, you have to pay for this service but influencers also have the benefits of lending some prestige and positive social proof to your product, which can also help you get a better image in front of your existing audience.
Which of the options above works best for your business depends on the particulars of how you’re running it. Hopefully, the options above help you find the way that works for you.
