You have put the hard work planning for your new business and have gone live. Now what?
You might be asking yourself: how do I grow my business? What do I need to prioritise and focus my time, energy and budget on?
One thing: Recruit. Recruit. Recruit.
By this I mean, continuously recruit new consumers into your business.
No matter the industry, big businesses have a large user base and the successful ones understand the importance of continuous consumer recruitment to sustain and grow their user base year after year.
With more businesses and brands coming to the market and ultimately fighting over more or less the same consumers, you need to make sure you focus on your consumer recruitment strategy.
Consumer retention is important for businesses, but the reality is that many consumers will naturally drop out of an existing brand user base, as their needs and motivations evolve over time.
Also, with more innovation from established brands and from new brands coming to the market, consumers have more choice than ever and are more likely to switch between brands to meet their needs.
Therefore, getting new consumers into your brand every single year to replenish and grow your user base is critical to long term business growth.
So, where do you start on your consumer recruitment journey for your business?
A good place to start is to understand how brands grow.
If you think of brand growth as a recipe, the basic ingredients have not really changed over the years. Some ingredients have become a bit more fancy driven by technology but overall, the recipe remains unchanged.
A good place to dive into this topic in more details, is Byron Sharp’s book ‘’How brands grow’’.
This book provides evidence-based insights into how brands can achieve sustainable growth, covering the Why, the What and the How.
Many guiding principles are covered in this book, the main ones being:
• Large brands have more users and more loyal users (Double Jeopardy law) and brands share users (Duplication of Purchase law).
• The majority of brand purchases come from Light buyers rather than Heavy users. Loyalty programs may not be as effective as thought in driving sustained brand growth.
• Brands should focus on reaching all potential buyers continuously, rather than just targeting a specific consumer segment.
• For a brand to grow, it needs both Mental and Physical availability.
o Mental availability refers to being top of mind for consumers.
o Physical availability involves having a strong presence in the market.
• Brand salience is important. Brands should be easily noticed, come to mind quickly and be associated with relevant consumer needs.
• Distinctive brand assets, such as logos, colours and jingles, contribute to brand recognition and memorability (part of Mental availability).
• Consistency in brand presentation over time, combined with repetition of messaging, helps in building and maintaining Mental availability.
• Being physically available in the right place at the right time is crucial for a brand’s success. This involves having products on shelves, online availability and a strong distribution network.
So, how do you take those guiding principles forward to grow your business? Ask yourself the following:
• What is my consumer recruitment target for the next 12 months?
• How will I measure my business user base?
• What does success look like in year 1 versus the outer years when it comes to consumer recruitment?
• What is my consumer recruitment strategy and plan?
• Is my target audience broad enough to build a decent user base or is it too niche?
• What will I do to drive the Mental and Physical availability of my business?
• What can I learn from the competition looking to recruit the same consumer target?
After reflecting on those questions, take another look at your Marketing strategy and Operational plan to ensure it is fit for purpose to recruit your target audience as well as broader potential customers.
And, as you come across best practice examples to recruit consumers from your industry (or from other industries), don’t hesitate to adopt and adapt with pride to deliver your business goals!