Breaking into new markets – the driving role of communications

In December, Prova hosted an exclusive event, in partnership with the Silverstone Technology Cluster, to advise businesses about the best ways to break into new markets.

As one of the guest speakers, I was keen to share experiences and case studies from where we have helped clients horizontally innovate from one sector into another. However, I was also interested to hear from attendees about some of the biggest challenges they faced in doing so.

During the presentation, we shared our experiences of some crucial first steps to take before diversifying into a new market sector and then the tactics that can be used to achieve it. One of the key discussions I had afterwards was about reaching out to a new audience through social media channels.

It isn’t enough to just upload content to a LinkedIn page, add some hashtags and hope people will naturally engage with what you have to say. Firstly, content needs to give the reader (or potential customer) some information or insight they don’t already have. It needs to tell them the solution that is offered and the added value delivered. Even when it does all of those things, it still needs to be specifically targeted, through paid activity, to the right audience.

Organic content can still resonate and go viral, but this is rare and the real value in LinkedIn is its database. Paid content can be more specifically targeted at key audience based on identifiers such as sector, business size and interests. This generally works well and should form part of a wider communications plan and not just be used in isolation.

The number one message we shared was to get the crucial sector research done first. Really understanding your audience and the challenges they face, as well as being able to offer a targeted, valuable solution to help them, is the key to breaking into new markets.

If you’re already successful in one market sector, but are looking to target new areas in 2023, then drop us a message. We’d be delighted to have a discussion with you and offer our consultative advice.