Business Growth Strategies used by Successful Companies

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Business Growth Strategies used by Successful Companies

A company must grow to survive. It is estimated that about one-third of businesses don’t make it past their second year of operation and around two-thirds of companies are nowhere to be found ten years after they have been established.

There can be many reasons why close to 70 percent of companies don’t live long enough to celebrate their 10^thanniversary. Bad business practices, lack of constant cash flow, and volatile markets all contribute towards businesses perishing after only a few years of operating.

However, if we had to choose one reason for businesses failing instead of thriving, then we would have to go with the lack of business growth. All companies start with the idea of growing as rapidly as possible, but only the ones with the right growth strategies succeed.

Let’s look at the business growth strategies used by successful companies and see what we can learn from them!

Casinostugan and the WhatsApp growth model

The WhatsApp growth strategy is as simple as it is revolutionary. The model that the messaging app utilizes is to be different from the competition. They call their strategy the ‘”ZigZag” approach.

When the competition zigs, they zag, meaning that when Facebook and Skype go one way, WhatsApp goes the other. When Facebook includes more ads on its platform, WhatsApp removes them. When Skype ramps up marketing, WhatsApp opts for no marketing at all.

This strategy is best illustrated by looking at the Swedish online casino Casinostugan. As Mikael Persson states in his Casinostugan review, the online casino establishment decided to be different from its competition.

Instead of going for the flashy Las Vegas look, the people at Casinostugan go for a completely different, more down-to-Earth appearance. They try to market themselves as “Sweden’s most cozy online casino” and focus on a simple design that facilitates a calm and pleasant gaming experience.

This strategy has paid dividends for both WhatsApp and Casinostugan. Both of these companies are thriving right now and their “ZigZag” model is a big part of that.

Dropbox and the Viral loops strategy

Dropbox led the way in the cloud storage market segment when it first launched and it still does. The cloud storage behemoth took the idea of storing files on the cloud from the drawing board into reality and was the first one to do so.

Dropbox had one of the fastest business growths ever recorded and a big part of that was the “Viral loops” strategy the company utilized right from the start.

And Dropbox’s growth is irrefutable. The company was founded in 2007, had one million users in 2009, and boasted more than one hundred million users by 2012.

So how does Dropbox do this? Well, it’s pretty simple. First, they offer their clients a service, for free, and tell them that they can get even more perks if they spread the word.

Dropbox users get 2GB of storage after signing up and an additional 500MB for every person they include in their network later. The maximum storage users can get for free is an amazing 16GB.

Since Dropbox operates on a freemium to a premium model, the Viral loop strategy is essential for the company’s success. By spreading the word, the free users attract premium users sooner or later, Dropbox makes money from their subscriptions and the loop is further perpetuated.

Tinder’s In-person growth strategy

These days most companies prefer to advertise their brands on social media. However, once they find out about the strategy Tinder used to grow its brand, they might ditch their laptops and start doing some footwork.

Tinder is the most popular online dating app in the world. A large part of the credit for that should go to the people responsible for the company’s in-person growth strategy.

Tinder’s growth has always relied heavily on lots of dedication. More importantly, though, it has relied on making face to face contacts with potential app users. This was most evident when the app was still in its infancy. In 2013, the younger brother of Tinder’s co-founder Justin Mateen invited 500 of his classmates to a birthday party in his parents’ house.

Mateen saw this as an excellent opportunity to raise awareness for his newly-launched app. He promised that his company will pay for the party and included transport and a bouncer in the package. The only thing that the partygoers had to do was download the app.

The party was a huge success as all the students downloaded and used the app instantly (the party was a huge success in more ways than one). The students then shared the app with their friends, and the app started getting noticed. By early January 2014, Mateen’s app had half a million users.

The success that the initial word of mouth approaches had, convinced the people at Tinder to continue with their in-person growth strategy. They started sponsoring events, handed out fliers, and stopped people on the street to tell them about the perks of their app. Tinder’s success may have been hard on the legs on those spreading the word, but it is as organic as a company’s success can be.