U.K. organisations are struggling with growth — especially startups. Research from McKinsey & Company shows that European startups are not developing into giant companies as fast as their U.S. counterparts. To overcome this challenge, organisations must create and execute efficient growth plans.
A growth plan is a long-term, strategic and data-driven methodology that helps brands achieve sustainable and measurable growth — think marketing strategy, but with financial numbers. With the help of a compelling growth plan, your organisation can meet consumer demands at every stage of the marketing funnel.
Set clear targets for your growth marketing plan
A growth plan allows you to match marketing deliverables with financial targets and continuously measure your progress to ensure you’re hitting those targets. That said, the first step in creating an efficient growth plan is identifying and setting straightforward and measurable objectives.
To achieve this, you must:
- Review — and potentially change — your current business plan and the metrics you’re using to assess growth.
- Define the type of growth you want to see over a specified period of time (such as one calendar year).
- Determine what metrics to use to measure your growth (revenue, products sold), then match your plan to fit those targets.
- Put checkpoints into place to analyse progress — such as setting monthly deliverables and defining quarterly targets.
- Keep your long-standing marketing strategy at the core of everything you do — and if you don’t have one, partner with professionals who can create one on your behalf.
From there, you’ll be able to devise a growth strategy that maximises lead generation, conversions and customer retention.
Inject resources at the right time
When it comes to implementing your growth strategy, it’s possible to have too much of a good thing — especially if you’re working with an external agency. The truth is, you might not need every digital tool or resource that the agency has to offer right away — and that’s okay.
Picture your growth strategy as a high-rise building, and each floor is secured with a locked door. When you begin, you start on the ground level. As your growth strategy evolves and your business expands, you’ll unlock new floors and start to utilise additional marketing resources.
But how will you know when your company is ready to unlock the next level? By identifying key milestones — such as launching a new website, acquiring a specific number of customers or reaching your target revenue. Once you achieve or surpass such milestones, it’s time to unlock additional resources from your agency partners.
Continue to manage your growth plan
Once your growth plan is in place, it’s time to decide how you’re going to manage it. You can effectively oversee your growth plan by:
Working With an External Agency
You must continuously monitor, evaluate and amend your growth strategy to ensure you’re making progress. But this can be difficult to do internally. By partnering with an external agency (like StrategiQ), you receive a team dedicated to your success. You can hold your external partners directly accountable for meeting key growth targets and ensuring your strategy aligns with your company’s objectives.
Setting Achievable Goals
Rather than setting unrealistic growth goals, create viable targets that your company can attain. You may also incorporate flexible targets into your strategy. These are objectives you can revisit and alter as your growth evolves.
Measuring the Right Targets
Your targets will depend on your specific business product or service. Ultimately, you want to measure targets that accurately depict your company’s growth. That may require focusing less on clickthrough rates (CTRs) and sessions and more on cost per lead and acquisition, as those measurements more accurately assess business growth.
Partner with the right expertise
There’s a difference between knowing how to accomplish growth and actually having the capability to do it. But that’s where an outside marketing agency can help.
At StrategiQ, we work with brands to create, implement and continuously assess growth marketing plans. If your company wants to grow but is unsure of what steps to take, our specialists will work with your team to get a solid plan into place.
