If you’ve got a business then you’re going to want it to grow. My business has definitely grown in stages and it seems to move forwards rapidly before hitting a plateau which is difficult to break-through. When it does break through it then moves rapidly to the next plateau.

And so on and so forth.

This has become an easily seen pattern within my business and, from the other companies I’ve worked with, is a common pattern especially in internet marketing.

If you look around the internet we always see people sharing (or selling) tactics and processes to grow your business.

Which is why my first rule is…

Don’t Follow A Growth Tactic

That may sound a bit contrary, but I believe it to be pretty good advice. The reason that I believe this is because… tactics change.

It’s that simple.

There will always be tactics, but they won’t always be the same. Recently there has been a lot of tactical advice on how to use Facebook to generate business.

I can guarantee that in the future Facebook will change the way their systems work which will mean that those tactics you’ve been using will no longer work.

It might not change for a few years, or it might change in the next few months.

There’s no way of knowing, which means there’s no way of knowing when your business is going to have to stop using the tactic.

But if you don’t use tactics then you must have…

The Right Mindset

And if you’ve got the right mindset then you’ll always be able to exploit the opportunities for growth when they arise.

This means you need to think about…

How Your Users Feel

Look into how your product makes your users feel. If you can tap into what they’re feeling and how they want to feel when they use your product then you can focus your development in making that more easily achievable.

How Do Your Users Speak

There are different types of languages for everything. And I don’t mean spoken languages like English, Spanish and French. I’m talking about the language of users.

Think of how users of different platforms talk. Twitter users speak in a different way to Facebook users. Facebook users speak differently to users of certain forums etc…

Listen to how your users speak and what they tell other people about you. This will help you to make sure that you nail the direction that you want to go in.

Always Use Emotional Hooks

Humans are driven by emotions and you can use those emotions to motivate users to perform the tasks you want them to.

Investigate what emotions your users feel at different stages of their journey with you.

Always put your users first and consider how they’re feeling and then use this knowledge to make sure your messages focus on how the user is feeling rather than how you want them to interact with your product.

Never Stop Looking

Growth is the life of a business. If you stop looking for growth then your business will begin to die.

Now more than ever new opportunities to exploit for growth are opening all the time. The digital world is developing and changing quickly which is why we’re seeing this.

But… that also means that past opportunities are closing.

And that’s the reason you must look at your audience and change your mindset to focus on the things above. Once you begin focusing on these things you’ll discover that there are opportunities around every corner.

Of course, most of the ones you choose to exploit won’t work for you. And that’s fine. Because when you hit one that does it will be a home run. But when you do, don’t sit back and rest. That tactic will stop working eventually and by then you’ll want to already be on your next home run.