5 marketing challenges faced by fast growing companies
By: Raul Tiru
Tags: Growth Mindset, Growth Hacking, Marketing Strategies, Growth Marketing, Growth

Are you working as a marketeer in a fast-growing company? Great! You must be doing something right. However, the fast-paced growth always comes with a challenge.

Proper use of data

A growing company means a growing amount of data. Storing and structuring data efficiently is not as easy as creating a PowerPoint presentation.

With increased growth, new marketing processes and metrics can become relevant. To keep up with growth pains, companies need to quickly adapt to market changes. More often than not, companies still work with outdated tools, such as spreadsheets that don’t allow for quick changes.

Due to increasing amount of data, and the more detailed numbers it provides, analysis becomes exponentially complex. Consequently, more training is required. Companies might need to consider hiring a data scientist to cope with the ever-increasing data volume.

Traditional structure of marketing teams

Fast growth can’t be sustained when companies’ marketeers concentrate solely on their field of expertise, such as SEO or Social Media. Sustainable growth can only be achieved when marketeers work together. Companies need to encourage cross-functional collaboration between marketeers. Some companies could even benefit from hiring a growth hacker to boost the process.

Expanding the Marketing team

As your company grows, so does the workload. New people will need to be hired to cope with the increase. However, finding talented marketeers who also fit the company culture seems to be quite a challenge. Invest in smart ways to attract the perfect candidate. If you’re looking for young marketeers, make sure your company’s vision resonates with them. Clearly communicate how the position would provide a sense of purpose and outline a clear path of personal and career growth.

Expanding Internationally

As a result of increased growth, many companies will look for international opportunities. For marketeers, it is important to thoroughly investigate the new market and to prepare a strategy that minimizes risk. A good example is Proctor and Gamble’s diaper campaign. It was a big success in the US, so they tried to replicate that with the exact same campaign in Japan. However, they had not considered that a stork holding a baby does not represent birth in Japan. It was misunderstood, resulting in a failed attempt of P&G to enter the Japanese market.

Customer retention / loyalty

Fast growing companies often focus on acquiring new customers, while neglecting retention of existing ones. Selling to an existing customer is cheaper and requires less effort than acquisition of a new one. As a marketeer, you are responsible for creating a bond between the brand and its customers. Loyal customers are more likely to spread the word thereby attracting new customers. How much effort do you put into creating and nurturing a relationship between your brand and its customers? These practical tips might help you further.

Every issue is an opportunity

The above-mentioned points are only a few of the issues that marketeers face in fast-growing companies. You are bound to make mistakes, but make sure to learn from them. According to Ruhland, companies that grow faster than their competition are the ones that learn from their mistakes. Analyzing what went wrong and identifying the problem creates new opportunities for growth. Always look for an opportunity within your failures. To sum it all up, Edison explained failure best through his famous quote:

I have not failed, I just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

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