The challenge as an already established business goes from brand building to trying to stay competitive. Holding onto the audience and customers that you have now.
Once you’re out there and competing you’re not taking anyone by surprise. They get a chance to see what you’re doing that’s successful and look to make adjustments.
When so much of a business’s time is spent on maintaining a share of voice in a competitive market. It’s easy to take your eye off of growth & expansion.
A key to overcoming stagnation is to go back to the basics. Identify a problem, find a solution, & produce results. The three pillars don’t change only your approach to them.
Let’s take a look at questions that you can ask and answer to address business stagnation.
There are 4 categories to cover when thinking things through.
- Marketing Strategies
- Internal & Industry Review
- Customers vs Target Audience
- Business Expansion/Adjustments
From a marketing standpoint. Start by taking a look at the strategies that you’re using and what other opportunities that there are for reaching your target audience.
Some things will gain interest and some campaigns that will gain customers. Are you promoting for both or just overall?
Is it the target audience that the issue? Are you too niche or spread too far across audiences? One message instead of more personalized messaging?
Internal reviews help you take stock of what you’ve done with your business over time. Where you can make adjustments to your approach and processes.
How much time are you devoting to generating new leads? What is your lead gen process and what kind of results is it netting you?
Retention can also be a form of lead generation. How much time and effort are you putting into stopping churn?
Are you still using the same marketing materials or have you updated them? When was the last time that you updated them?
Have you tracked the results using A/B testing to confirm what’s resonating and with whom?
Industry reviews help you take stock of where things are overall.
What changes are happening in the industry? Is it in specific markets or across the board? Are they structural or process changes? Pricing changes?
A change in products and or services and the needs of the customers? Changes in customer mindset?
Business adjustments and expansion take a look at things from an external standpoint.
The ideal is to strike a balance between maintaining where you’re at & finding growth opportunities.
If you feel like you hit a wall. Check to see why. It can be that you’ve hit a ceiling of peak performance. You’re doing as well as you can with your product or service suite as is.
In situations where you need to make an adjustment or expand
You can accomplish this by creating or replacing underperforming products and or services.
A great place to start. Do your research on what’s next through your customers. Take a survey & ask for feedback.
People appreciate it when you value their opinion. It will not only help you find what’s next. It can also help strengthen customer relationships. When they see that you listened and followed through on their feedback.
If you can answer these questions and do your due diligence with these best practices. You can find ways to overcome business stagnation and get back on track with growing out your business.
