Your business will run out of customers if it only serves a small market. Because your ideal customers use your product or service or have found a better option, your business can’t grow. The number of possible buyers and the money made can increase by entering new markets. Doing so will make expanding your business much simpler.
There are numerous avenues for growth. You can switch verticals or go upstream or downstream. Before expanding into new markets, determine which ones are viable for your business. Several crucial factors must be evaluated, including accessibility (language, economic might, and technology adoption), momentum, and addressability.
This article contains the steps of creating a market expansion strategy. So, keep reading…
Steps for creating a market expansion strategy
- Establish explicit aims and targets
Setting definitive targets is the first step in expanding into new markets. Why do you want to enter these new markets, exactly? Choose between expanding into new markets and growing existing ones. Start working towards your goals once you know them. You can better understand these tactics with a top-notch SEO Company in India.
- Research potential markets
The following step is market exploration. You can use the results of this study to spot potential market openings and evaluate associated risks. Look for untapped or underserved markets when conducting market research. These are target markets where you can beat the competition.
- Determine your market-entry tactic
Breaking into a new market has no universal method. If you have industry contacts, you can get in. Social media and industry events can help you make contacts.
Account-based marketing (ABM) and product-led growth (PLG) can help you enter markets without personal connections but with genuine value. ABM targets marketing and sales to find good-fit prospects and generate interest. This strategy performs better than a sales-driven one due to its attention.
PLG’s strategy for entering new markets is to excite end-users and convince them to spread your solution throughout the company. A product-driven movement can help you promote your service for free. With the right pricing strategy, you can convert more free users into paying customers.
If you offer free trials or customized demos, PLG can be used with non-freemium products. Before choosing an SEO company, compare their SEO packages plans. Even if you enter the market differently, focus your marketing and sales on how your solution will solve your target customers’ problems.
- Build ICPs and buyer personas
Use the information from your market analysis to create ICPs (ideal customer profiles). Using ICPs, your sales and marketing teams can focus on the right prospects as they seek to create demand in emerging markets.
You should also consider the decision-makers in this new audience when deciding if your buyer personas need to be updated or new ones created. Create buyer personas so your teams can tailor their communications to the interests of the people they hope to convert.
Because the new market’s buying process may involve different roles than in your current markets, it’s important to have a clear picture of what that process will entail so that your teams can prepare for it. You can better address your prospect’s needs and concerns by answering the questions above.
- Align marketing and sales on target market
After settling on a target market, the next step is assembling the essential advertising and sales tools. Sales and marketing must initially align to lay the groundwork for future success. With that in place, you can craft your story and focus on the pain points that the prospect is experiencing.
- Evaluate your skills
It is important to evaluate your abilities after you have identified potential markets. Can your current offerings be modified to suit the requirements of these fresh consumer bases? Can you afford to expand into these new markets? Your business’s ability to enter new markets will depend on these answers.
- Build your ideal team
After taking stock of your skills, it’s time to assemble a winning group. This group will carry out your strategy for expanding into new markets. Find team members who have worked in your target markets before. These people on your team will be crucial as you navigate these new markets.
- Identify your investment needs
The following step is to figure out what kind of investments you need. Putting money into expanding into new markets is the norm. Advertising, R&D, and infrastructure upgrades are possible with the funds. Before expanding into new markets, you must know how much capital you’ll need.
- Build your tech stack and processes
It would be best if you began constructing your technology stack and processes with an understanding of your goals, market opportunity, and investment requirements. Using this technology suite will aid in your efforts to enter new markets. Tools monitoring and evaluating your progress should be part of your tech stack.
- Create a localization plan
The localization strategy you create will be the finishing touch on your market expansion plan. Localizing a product or service to a specific region is called “localization”. Components of a localization plan include:
- Understanding the local market.
You can increase your sales by catering to the demands of this market. Using the native language to advertise your goods and services. By incorporating a localization strategy into your product positioning and SEO initiatives, you can ensure your products or services are appropriate for your target markets.
- Make content that will help your sales team
Next, give your sales team strategy decks, solution summaries, and customer success stories. These enablement methods are like secret codes that help your sales team speak prospects’ languages and gain their trust.
Your marketing efforts may provide most of the content you need. If so, rework the content to appeal to the new audience. Consider incorporating product page messaging into a one-sheet or revise battle card value propositions to appeal to new buyer personas.
You should also quickly research your new target market’s case studies and company customer feedback.
Moving upstream, especially into corporate and enterprise markets, may increase buyers’ risk aversion. They need real-world examples of people like them succeeding. How quickly you gather those stories or examples will affect how quickly you can drive revenue and scale in that space.
Conclusion
Even though technology makes entering and growing in new markets easier than ever, it can still take time. Before entering new markets, businesses should create a market expansion strategy to avoid wasting resources.
You’ve missed the opportunity to create messaging that resonates with new prospects when you need sales enablement materials. Entering a new market without preparation will slow your company’s growth.
