Top strategies for
growing your business
If you want to grow your venture, you’ll need a plan.
There are many strategies for growth but which ones
suit your needs best?
At Westpac we have specialists with experience helping New
Zealand businesses grow – in local markets and across the globe.
We’d love to understand your growth plans so we can share our
learning and be part of your business success story.
Key strategies to drive sales growth include:
1.Create more sales
Selling more to your present customers
Offering complimentary goods or services
Increase your levels of stock and sell more. Tempt your
current customer base with incentives such as loyalty
discounts, promotions and brand awareness.
Introduce new items to your rows of goods or services
that complement those already on offer. You could
bundle them together as special deals to generate
extra revenue. What else can you sell to customers you
already have?
!
W
E
N
Distributing an e-newsletter
Promote new products or services
Let your regulars know what offers you have
available each week or month. Keep in frequent
contact – enough to keep them interested but not
too much to be annoying.
Keep an eye on changes in your marketplace and look
for ways you can develop new products or services to
keep ahead of your competition.
A marketing plan is an essential element of any business growth strategy. Westpac is teaming
up Ora HQ Limited to sponsor a grants programme that small and medium businesses can
apply for. The grants can be redeemed for services provided by Ora, who can help develop
a tailored growth and marketing plan for your business and help bring this plan to life – with
websites, direct marketing and other marketing tools.
2. Find new customers
46%
of New Zealand
businesses implemented
or developed new or
improved goods, services,
or methods in 2013.*
FREE!
Encourage referrals
Persuade your regulars to share their knowledge of your business with friends, family, or
acquaintances – consider offering special prices for referrals.
Have a look at
Westpac’s financing
options
if you need extra cash to
increase your advertising
budget.
Network
Do your own networking with likeminded business
people – it can be a cost effective method of
generating new leads.
Subscribe to Westpac’s Economic updates to keep your
finger on the pulse.
Focus on advertising
Apportion some extra funds to your advertising
budget, try some different channels, and focus on
getting your message out there.
Profile your existing customers
Look for personal or professional commonalities between your existing customers. If you have lots of young parents
with children under the age of 5 as customers, a simple search at Statistics New Zealand will uncover where the
greatest concentration of them are. Go get them! See the business tool box for more info.
Connect online
Set up profiles of your business on Facebook, LinkedIn and other relevant social media. You never know who might be
browsing them. Shareholic**, which tracks 250 million users visiting its network of 200,000 publishers found recently:
LinkedIn and Google+
drive very few referrals
compared to their
competitors. Yet the
traffic they do drive, is
high on the quality scale.
Google+ users spend
more than three minutes
diving into links shared
by their circles, view
2.45 pages during each
visit, and bounce 50.63
percent of the time.
YouTube is the undisputed
champion as it drives the
most engaged traffic:
lowest average bounce
rate (43.19 percent),
highest pages per visit
(2.99), and the longest visit
duration (227.82 seconds)
LinkedIn users spend
over two minutes on
each link they click, view
2.23 pages with each
visit, and bounce 51.28
percent of the time.
Pinpoint different distribution channels
Are there other avenues for you to sell your produce? Consider using direct selling via the Internet, various retail
options, and wholesale to cover a wider region.
3.Enter new markets
Export yourself
Is it feasible to expand your business into another territory? Make sure you first do
enough research on your potential competitors, the pricing structure in the new
market, and what regulations you might face. If you are trading internationally then
brush up on possible
foreign exchange risk.
Talk to a Westpac Business Manager for help with Trade Finance and your
international business banking needs.
Open more locations
Can you establish more patches in different suburbs,
towns, or cities? Is setting up a franchise the best way
your business can grow?
If you are considering franchising your business, then talk
to Westpac’s franchise specialists.
Integrate vertically or horizontally
If you sell your harvest on the web, you could integrate
horizontally by buying some of your competitors, or join
together vertically by purchasing a wholesaler or retailer.
Business growth often requires additional business funding and investment.
For further help with your business growth plans,
talk to a Westpac Business Manager today
The content of this material is for general information purposes only and does not take into account your personal finance situation or goals. We
recommend you seek independent legal, financial and/or tax advice. All opinions, statements and analysis expressed are based on information current
at the time of writing from sources which Westpac believes to be authentic and reliable. Westpac issues no invitation to anyone to rely on this material
and intends by this statement to exclude liability for any such opinion, statement and analysis. Westpac is not responsible for the accuracy or reliability
of any advice, opinions and information from third parties. Westpac is not responsible for the information on any other site accessed via this website; that
information is the responsibility of the owner of that site and Westpac has no control over it. Links to other sites are provided for convenience only and
Westpac accepts no responsibility for the availability or content of such websites.
Appendix
* Business operations survey 2013
** TheNextWeb.com
Westpac New Zealand Ltd.