Business expansion is one thing business owners dream of. Of course, what could be better than reaching the apex of your career? Absolutely nothing! Business expansion means more employees, additional branches and subsidiaries, more loyal customers, and more profits. Business expansion is a positive development for businesses but could be problematic without a proven strategy.
A lot of business owners approach expansion without a strategy; hence they fail. Creating a strategy will help integrate goals into the well-planned procedure.
Successful Market Expansion Strategies
- Market Penetration
You will agree with me if I say business is totally reliant on customers because they are the reason the business exists in the first instance. Without customers, there will be no problem to solve, and no entrepreneurs can develop a solution to a non-existing problem.
Before thinking about an international expansion, it is important you develop an effective strategy on how to penetrate the market. This can be done by launching advertising campaigns, putting the medium of communication into consideration.
- Marketing and Promotion
To maximize your market share in the international market, you need enough marketing and promotion plans put in place. This can be achieved by creating a strong customer base through your business website, that way; they can subscribe to weekly notifications about discounts, new products, and events.
Your website should also be easy to navigate because of the locals as they make the best customers and also do a free PR about your business, creating a larger customer base.
- Develop A New Market
When Jeff Bezos started Amazon, it was strictly about books and CDs, but as an insightful entrepreneur, he developed a new market and saw his profit raised from millions of dollars to billion dollars within a few years.
After an international expansion and gaining a large customer base, you can utilize that opportunity to develop a product. For instance, if your business is based on socks, you can develop a similar product that uses the same raw materials with almost the same customers.
- Enter A Joint Venture
Business expansion is just as risky as starting a new business; you have no idea how the market will be except for all the information you have on paper. One of the key activities for international expansion is collaborating with another business that has a larger customer base and a larger market share.
Entering a new market means you have no new customers, and collaborating with an already existing business in the new territory, you can leverage that to boost your business.
Conclusion
Irrespective of how strategic your business expansion plans are, you must stay competitive by all lawful means to mark your territory. Investing in marketing plans is one way to stay competitive in the business world since customers are important to a business’s survival.
Collaboration with a bigger company to leverage its resources through its marketing channels and large customer base will help a lot in a successful market expansion strategy.
