Growing beyond your network

Growing beyond existing relationships

For a specialist professional services business helping international companies establish and operate in Asia, personal relationships and established networks had been one of the most important ingredients for growth.

But as the business started to scale, it recognised the limits of personal networks, and untapped opportunities to reach a wider market.

The difficult part was finding the right routes to market and turning that potential into new business.

Finding new routes to market

Rather than simply investing in more marketing activity, the starting point was identifying where new customers could come from.

One opportunity stood out. Banks, legal advisers and business incubators were already working with the kinds of companies we wanted to reach. By developing partnerships with these organisations, we could reach new customers through trusted relationships, building on existing credibility rather than starting from scratch.

Alongside this, we developed new service propositions and an inbound marketing strategy, bringing sales, marketing and client delivery together around a clearer approach to winning customers. Together, this directed ongoing improvement to web content and user experience, turning more visitors into qualified leads.

The result was a more joined-up approach to growth, combining partner-led opportunities with direct digital acquisition.

TURNING OPPORTUNITY INTO GROWTH

The new approach delivered results across both routes to market:

• Website visitor-to-qualified-lead conversion increased from 0.97% to 2.5%
• Digital activity directly generated three high-value customers, while the new partner-led strategy helped support 50% growth in new customers.

The business now had a stronger proposition, more effective digital channels and an expanded network of referral partners, giving it more ways to reach and win new customers.