Every business needs growth and productive strategies to grow, regardless of its size.
As a business owner, it’s important to review your business and find ways to grow and improve on what you already have.
It’s not only about finding out what strategies to use but also implementing those business growth strategies effectively because you may wake up the next day, and your competition may have started using the same plans you thought of. Funny right? But that’s the truth.
In this article, we will show you the various ways you can grow your business in Nigeria. Before we talk about various possible ways to grow your business, let’s talk about what a growth strategy is. If you don’t want to read that, you can jump straight to the strategies through the table of contents below:
What Is A Business Growth Strategy?
A business growth strategy or a growth strategy is a plan of how you intend to grow your business from where you are today to how you want to be in the future. Every size and type of business needs growth strategies.
A growth strategy combines your marketing strategies, sales strategies, and customer relationship strategies for the sake of business growth. Some of the questions you’ll have to consider when developing a growth strategy include:
- Where will I get customers from?
- What new and different product could I offer?
- How will I penetrate and expand into new markets?
To answer these questions, we have written down some growth strategies you can consider and work with.
Business Growth Strategies That You Should Consider
1. Create Alternative Channels to Sell Your Products
What other channels can you sell your products apart from what you’re already doing currently? For example, if you aren’t selling online yet, you can get a website to sell your product. You can also market in mobile apps or sell a subscription program. Here’s more explanation:
Selling Online: You can set up a website where you will directly sell to customers. Setting up a website is a significant factor for a business to grow in the post-COVID-19 era.
Many people assume that only ecommerce businesses can do this, but you’re mistaken. Whether you’re a service or product business, you can accept payments online. For example, we sell digital marketing physical training on our website and online courses on our product website. There are businesses that take payment for services like consulting online like this one.
Selling Via Mobile Apps: Mobile is the future of the internet, and mobile apps are a widely accepted mode of transacting business. It would help if you looked for ways to integrate this into your growth strategies.
If having a mobile app is relevant to your business, get one. If it isn’t, market on mobile apps with ads through services like Google Ads.
Selling Via Subscription Programs: You can formulate subscription and membership programs to find your customers and introduce your products to them.
Many Nigerians struggle with paying a huge fee upfront for a product or service. You can combat that with subscription programs to have customers pay a smaller fee every month for monthly access. I know of a food subscription business in Lekki. It works in Nigeria.
2. Use Diversification to Enter A New Market with A Product/Service
Business owners use diversification as a growth strategy to enter into a new market with a new product.
This method is highly risky yet highly profitable because you will need to develop the product and marketing strategies, including conducting market research for the new product from scratch concerning the new product.
Diversification in terms of growth strategies can be done in two ways.
A. Conglomerate Diversification
In this case, small businesses that suffer from limited opportunities in their current market with their current product may choose to introduce a different type of product utterly different from what they’re currently offering. This could increase their profitability and growth rate.
An example is having an ecommerce store and then adding transportation to your current business. Those are two different markets.
B. Concentric Diversification
Here, small business diversifies by introducing products related to its current products to the same market they’re already serving. For example, if you sell web development, you can add mobile app development.
Despite the risk involved in diversification as a growth strategy, it can be a very effective business growth strategy when done right.
3. Use Market Development Strategies to Identify Other Markets You Can Target & Expand There
Market development is a popular growth strategy that small business owners can apply, especially those finding it difficult to solidify their footing in their current market.
Market development can also be referred to as Market Expansion. One way you can achieve market development is by looking at the different uses of your products or services and identifying that you can find other markets that you can target.
For instance, if you’re into confectioneries and your primary focus is baking cakes. You could break into the food market and start selling food as well. You can also go into events as you’d most likely get people who want to either do weddings and birthdays and other forms of event celebration. You can ask to plan these events for them or provide rental services for these events.
Another way for market expansion is to look out for customers beyond your city, state, and even beyond your country. Going with the above example, you can start baking for events in another city or state. You could also package products like cookies that aren’t easily perishable for outside the country.
In the new market, your business will be able to get more market shares, increased sales, and more profits. If you’re faced with stiff competition, this will be a good option for you.
4. Use Market Segmentation AKA Niche Down
Market Segmentation is simply dividing the market into smaller segments and then focus on a specific aspect of the market.
All you need to do is appeal to that market and stake your claims in that part of the market. This works best for small businesses that find themselves in an industry and market dominated by big companies.
As a small business, you’re bound to have a hard time going up against the big companies. If you find yourself in the same playing field as the big companies, take a look at the field and identify a corner of that field where you can stake your claim.
For your market segmentation to be effective, you need to carry out thorough market research. You don’t have to go the expensive route to get data. Cheap ways to get market research data includes:
- Google search
- Industry experts and authorities on social media or personal discussions
- Research publications
- Trade and association publications
Once you’ve identified the various segments of the industry, find any needs or unsatisfied wants. This will enable you to find ways to fill the gap that your competitors do not meet.
5. Use Acquisition to Gain More Grounds
Big companies mostly use this method; these big companies buy up smaller companies that have the technology they need for their business or help them acquire more customers. A classic example is Access Bank and the banks they have swallowed.
Most small businesses shy away from this growth strategy due to the large amount required to acquire another company. Even if they have the money and resources, sometimes they’re afraid of the high risk involved if it turns out they made a bad purchase decision.
So, in many cases, this is not a market growth strategy for small businesses. In all, though, here are ways you can profit from acquisition:
- You can secure a larger market share and more revenue
- You can establish a dominant market position due to market consolidation
- You can break geographical and even political boundaries
What Market Growth Strategy Are You Considering for Your Business?
All you need to do is look at these strategies and choose the one of benefit to your business growth. You could be on your way to being the next big company in your industry if you choose right.
To choose, you can consider your budget, market, and target audience’s needs and behaviour. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
The Brand Ally is a web design and digital marketing company. We provide great website designs, mobile app development, SEO, social media marketing, and Google Ads.