Every business today- large or small, requires analytics to thrive in the market and survive the competition. Consequently, demand for trained analysts and firms offering analytics as service are soaring daily. With fast-paced technological development, software development, and startup revolution, growth strategies are also changing rapidly. In this ecosystem, it is essential for analytics startups to adopt some growth strategies to persist in the market.

Generally, development stages of startups can be divided into five broad categories depending on the scale of operation. Those are as follows –

•  Founding Stage – Generally consisting of 1 to 10 employees.

•  Very Early Stage – Consisting of roughly 10 to 20 employees.

•  Early Stage – Consisting of 20 to 50 employees.

•  Mid-Stage – Consisting of 50 to 150 employees.

•  Growth Stage – Consisting of 150 to 500 employees.

In this article, we discuss eight growth strategies for mainly the first two stages of an analytics startup.

Create a Plan and Track it

It is important to envisage a growth plan and track it through time. The startups should carefully consider the events that would have the biggest impact on the growth curve of the company in next 30 to 90 days. A definite business goal, timeline and a plan to reach those goals are Newer markets should be explored. Tapping into more modern markets can help to grow a business.

Hire a Strong and Diverse Team of Self-Motivated People

Hiring like-minded people won't provide any challenges to test the strength and weaknesses of the startup. For that, a diverse team is required. Hiring self-motivated people is necessary, since, for a startup, it's often not possible to invest time and energy to provide motivation to employees. Moreover, in future, an entire team of various professionals: engineers, analysts, data scientists will be required and not just analysts. So, it is important to diversify the team. Self-learner and self-motivated people can prove to be much productive compared to talented but less disciplined people.

Simple and Lean Structure

At the initial stage, time and resources are constrained. So, it is advisable to optimise decisions as much as possible without getting lost in numerous activities and to keep the structure lean. It's necessary to select a few high impact metrics and focus on them. There are no requirements for unnecessary distractions. So, startups should start small, since no fancy tool is required in the initial stage.

Selection of Proper Tools and Product Diversification

Proper tools and software installation are With many firms offering similar services, diversification of product and services is required so that the customers can choose from a wide range of the spectrum.

Proper Customer Targeting – Acquisition and Retention

It is essential to identify the target customers and study the market and demographics where your products and services will work and sell. There should be a proper strategy to reach targeted ideal audience who are likely to purchase your products or business services and promote the services to them. So, promotional strategies should be in accord to that.

It is also important to figure out the customer acquisition issues. Acquiring new customers is hard, more so, for startups. The best way probably is to try out every area, see the best results and iterate that in subsequent phases. Once a performing channel or hopefully multiple channels are identified, strategies can be built around them. After acquisition, the next important thing is customer retention i.e. to retain the existing users and make sure they use the services.

Tracking Revenue

A regular period of revenue tracking should be done. Strategies like upselling and referral portals can get more revenue from one customer.

Digital marketing

One of the main initial challenges any startup faces is to spread the word about their service. Digital marketing is a cost-effective and productive area where the online space can be best utilized by startups to promote their products and reach a broader audience. Numerous digital tools are available online and can be used by anyone easily. Proper digital marketing strategies can acquire customers and grow sales through the online space.

Track Competitors

Startups face competition from all kinds of firms in similar businesses. Competitors should be regularly tracked since the market is already saturated with many similar services. A unique selling proposition (USP) and service credibility are required to stand out in the market. Evaluation of competitors, their products, pricing, strategies, and everything they do to make their business success is needed.

Conclusion

So for startups to grow through years, sustain their business and reach the growth stage, it is essential to look into the growth strategies. Incorporating proper strategies to be able to reach a larger sphere of customers in a short amount of time can lead to growth. These simple strategies will help startups to sustain their growth in the long run.