Expanding your company into new turfs can be daunting yet rewarding. The business’s world is an ever-changing and unpredictable environment, and remaining complacent and dismissing the idea of growth and expansion can be detrimental to your success. 

Plan

Before you power ahead in your mission of expanding your company, ask yourself what your aims are and what are wanting to achieve. Of course, there are in most instances monetary motives behind a company’s expansion. However, aside from profits, determine the desired outcome of your growth, where you want to be and how you will get there. This will strongly determine the efforts you make in achieving your goals. For example, if you are looking to expand your business in order to ultimately gain a larger brand awareness, the marketing efforts that you make in order to contribute to your growth will differ from those if you wanted to improve your existing products or offerings.  

Branding

Assess your existing branding. Ask yourself if there are areas that could be improved. Your brand image is a strong platform that can have a heavy impact on the success of your goals, and can ultimately determine whether growth will be easily achieved or not. You need to assess whether your brand values remain consistent with the brand values of your new product, service or division. Continuity across your channels are a must! Your online presence is of paramount, so if you already have a strong online presence, the chances are, growth and diversity will come easier to you than if your online presence is weak. Utilise search engine optimisation tools. This may be costly but if you see it as an investment that will enhance your business as opposed to a cost, you will see big benefits. According to a report by Impact Branding and Design, 2015, 95% of marketers use search engine optimisation to induce loyalty amongst existing customers.

Diversify

Be mindful of competition. Anybody can create an alternative to your core product, make your offerings nonpareil. You may find that that diversification comes through natural business progression. A growing number of businesses have heeded to diversification in order to keep afloat. Diversification is a favourable method in growing your business, as long as you don’t neglect your original ventures. This is where it can become tricky. Make sure you can balance your focus between all your endeavours. You want to grow your business- not risk it!

Network

Expanding your network will provide you with a solid basis to get your brand out there. Having the right connections can improve your brand reach significantly. A strong network will allow you to market your new offerings to a large audience.  You also have substantial reach to undertake market research and collect significant amounts of data from feedback. Word of mouth and recommendations is an imperative marketing tool, and a strong network can be more beneficial to your new ventures than you would think.