Duncan Jones, head of strategy and growth at consultancy Web Profits, shares his insights with readers of the ConversionXL blog:
"A big benefit of working for a digital growth consultancy is that you get to see how businesses in different sectors and at all stages of the life cycle are trying to grow their companies. I see smart actions that really help a company grow, but I also see common issues that are holding back growth.
Next, I'll share with you the 9 most common mistakes that hold businesses back from growing, and how we've helped clients overcome these issues."
Duncan conducted a survey on his LinkedIn asking, "What is the biggest obstacle to your company's growth?"
From the 80+ responses, it was clear that there were many barriers to growth for companies. Jones identified the nine most frequently cited responses as a starting point for those looking to improve their businesses (as a marketer, he focused on the gaps he saw in the space).
So, let's get started.
The first major problem that companies face – especially older, more established ones – is silos. This can occur anywhere – between different departments, such as marketing and sales , or within departments oman phone number data themselves. For example, within the marketing department, the content marketing and email marketing teams may not be aligned.
For example, in a marketing department, the activities of the content marketing and email marketing teams may not be aligned.
Inconsistency can also occur between a company’s external partners, such as agencies and consultants. Silos hinder growth because they prevent people from maximizing the ROI of the work they do in silos.
Disunity of action and its consequences
For example, if you invest in lead generation but your sales team doesn't consult with your marketing team on general issues, you're missing out on a golden opportunity to improve lead quality and share insights that could improve your marketing team's performance.
Or, let's say your content marketing team is creating amazing landing page copy and blog content, but isn't distributing it via email and social media, meaning you're once again missing out on an opportunity to maximize your ROI.
Silos between external partners are also very common and lead to duplication of work, a lot of unnecessary work and a loss of opportunity to maximise the value of one agency through another.
What can be done?
The best way to overcome silos within companies is to create dedicated Growth Teams , something Facebook even did when it hit a growth plateau early on.