‘Consistent’ growth in business is a myth.
No business can keep growing forever.
There always comes a point when it hits a plateau.
The growth plateau.
The growth becomes stagnant. The current strategies and approaches lose effectiveness.
That’s precisely what one of my clients faced.
They had been steadily growing month-on-month for nearly 2 years.
But then?
In the next 4 months, growth became a struggle.
This isn’t something unique.
Many rapidly expanding brands deal with this issue frequently.
How do you overcome it? How do you reignite your brand’s growth? How did my client get back on the growth track?
By the end of this article, you’ll have all the answers!!
So let’s get rolling.
Contents
🧐 Analyze your brand’s performance
In situations like these… data is your best friend.
Dive deep into key metrics like revenue, customer acquisition cost, conversion rates, customer lifetime value, customer churn, etc.
Identify patterns and potential bottlenecks hindering your growth.
80% of the time, you’d find something that could be fixed.
Something that would give you a quick growth boost without trying anything extraordinary.
For the client, the issue was the high churn rate.
Even though they were growing by acquiring a lot of customers fast… they were also losing a tonne of them.
This indicated that there was something missing in the post-purchase experience.
🤔 Understand the market dynamics + Competition
A lot of entrepreneurs think that you only need to conduct research once.
HUGE MISTAKE.
You need to conduct market research from time to time to stay ahead of emerging trends and evolving customer preferences.
This way, you can find unique ways to differentiate your brand and explore untapped opportunities.
Maybe see if there’s a trend you can jump on.
Or a market gap that you can capture.
🫂 Elevate the customer experience
This is where the client was strongly lacking.
They didn’t have any feedback loops in place or a great post-purchase experience.
You need to listen to your customer’s feedback through surveys, interviews, and social media.
Identify pain points and areas for improvement.
Implement changes based on that information to enhance customer interactions.
Because guess what?
Happy customers = loyal customers!
And loyal customers are your best brand advocates that could accelerate your growth.
So, for the client, we did two things:
- Set up a one-question feedback form right after the purchase. The question was “What are your expectations from [Product Name]?”
- Set up a post-purchase email sequence that taught the customers how to use the product to get the best possible benefits.
🤏 Agility is key!
Rigid long-term plans?
Nah. Ditch them!
Embrace an agile approach.
Regularly review and adjust strategies based on market feedback and performance data.
Pivot quickly when needed. Experiment fearlessly to adapt to changing circumstances.
The client had a 5-year revenue projection plan, but not a plan for content creation and traffic acquisition for a single month.
🤝 Forge strategic partnerships and collaborations
This is something we went really hard on with the client.
Identify brands or industry players with complementary strengths.
By joining forces, you can expand your customer base and market reach.
And together, you’ll be unstoppable!
Take this for an example…
Company A sells bookmarks. Company B sells hi-lighters. Both target book readers.
Can you see how a collab makes sense here?
🛠️ Monitor, adjust, and optimize
The client did not have ANY optimization plan in place.
The plateau was inevitable.
DO NOT ‘Create & forget’.
Continuously evaluate the impact of your strategies.
Review KPIs and compare performance against benchmarks as well as your past performance.
Make the necessary adjustments to unlock your brand’s full growth potential. Keep learning and evolving.
Or keep camping on the plateau forever!!
🧠 Remember
Growth plateaus are just stepping stones.
It’s not the end of anything.
It just means that you’re ready to get to the next level.
You’ve played video games as a kid, haven’t you?
(I still do.)
A growth plateau is the monster boss you face at the end of each level.
That’s all it is!!
Make a plan. Conquer it. Move on.
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