I.E. BLOG

 If the press were to be believed, then growth in 2012 is looking all bar impossible. Do we believe their prognosis? Absolutely not. We have an army of clients who are already successfully executing their growth plans for 2012, following on from successful growth in 2011. So what’s the secret to growth in these tough times? Here’s our four step guide…

1. Know where growth can realistically be achieved
Is it from existing customers, new customers (in what sector) or new markets? Where does your business opportunity lie? Keep it focused, spreading your net too wide (i.e. selling to everyone!) will fail simply because it will cost too much to successfully reach them with marketing.

2. Put in place the tools to support growth
Growth will only be achieved if your brand and website are aligned to support it. Is reviewing your brand and website essential to achieving growth? Absolutely. Of course, for existing customers, your brand and website has become less important, they will buy from you again based on their experience with you. But for new prospects from whom you want to achieve growth, they will need convincing. They need to know your business can meet their needs, simply by looking at you. They also want to limit the risks they take in having those needs met by a new supplier, which means your business needs to quickly build trust. The quickest way to build trust (when you don’t yet have a relationship with the prospect) is to have a brand and website which reflects exactly what the prospects/customers are looking for in a supplier.

3. Put in place the tools to deliver growth
Choose the marketing tools which best fit with the businesses sales process and have the best chance of reaching the prospects/customers you are targeting to deliver growth, for example via email, advertising, online marketing or direct mail. Maintaining absolute alignment with sales, put together a marketing plan, which builds the tools into a campaign covering the timing, reasoning and messaging which will best resonate with the customer needs. The plan should also set out the metrics by which the tools will be measured. Once the plan is in place the exciting creative execution of the campaign can start, looking at the design, copy and other aspects.

4. Measure, measure, measure!
Once the campaign starts, the results need to be meaningfully measured. That is not only the results of the tools themselves, for example, how many leads they generate, but also the full impact of the enquiries from the campaign, on the sales process, i.e. how many of those leads convert into business and what was the value of the resulting sales. Joining up the entire marketing and sales process ensures you get the full picture and can make valuable and informed decisions about the process to ensure optimum results are always achieved.

This four step process for business growth is part of our intelligent approach to marketing and it’s already delivering great results. If you’d like to achieve growth for your business with Intelligent Marketing, then please get in touch on 0117 9079930.