Any company that seeks sustainable business growth will often try to expand who they appeal to, and where that appeal comes from. For example, if you have a popular product range, launching a kids version can potentially help you open up to families that had no interest in your products before.
However, it’s also true that geographic regions, while seemingly consolidated by the internet, still offer ripe opportunities for your business to expand. But to achieve this, we must not consider a new market something to be exploit, but an entity to earn the trust of.
This means conducting your own market research, making sure to test the waters before you dive in, and thinking deeply about your strategy before you go. In this post, we’ll discuss how to gain a foothold in that brand new market, what mistakes to avoid, and how to keep going with confidence.
Work With Local Partners
Local businesses already understand their market inside and out and that’s why they can be so essential to work with, as they know which areas are growing, what customers expect, and how business really works on the ground.
Don’t just expect to pay your way into immediate access here though, as building relationships with these partners takes time. If you host regular meetings, shared projects, and honest conversations, it will help both sides see if they’re a good match. Most successful expansions start with a few strong local relationships rather than trying to do everything alone and testing the ground by talking with a few companies to see what capacity and opportunities you can sell with a value-added approach.
Sustain A Presence
Moving into a new market means committing to being there, and that means more than just an online presence preparing the ground, even in our interconnected age. You’ll find that many companies book a hotel for a few days of meetings, and that can be a good start, but real success is more likely found in showing up regularly and becoming part of the business community. This means attending local events, joining business groups, and making yourself available to potential partners and customers. People need to see that you’re serious about being part of their market, not just trying to make quick sales.
Open Delivery Options
Distribution often makes or breaks expansion plans and it’s appropriate to work on those if you intend to launch in a given region anytime soon. Each market has its own quirks about how goods move around of course, as some areas prefer local pickup points, others expect next-day home delivery, but these preferences should all be accounted for before launching. Then you can build a system that works for that specific market. Starting small with one or two reliable delivery methods often works better than trying to offer every option right away though, so make sure to implement a phased integration.
With this advice, we hope you can feel confident gaining a foothold in a brand-new and reliable market.