Chemical industry may seem like one that is very difficult to grow through new methodologies. Growth hacking applies to all types of businesses, and even in a B2B world of huge target accounts it has its application through active experimentation and creative driver ideation.

Growth hacking is a term coined in 2010 and defines a person whose true north is growth. That means looking at a business as a whole, not only from classical marketing perspective, focused on acquisition and activation, but also from a perspective of retention, revenue and most importantly, recommendations.

Creative marketing strategies are critical to the survival and global expansion of chemical companies. Product differentiation may be difficult to achieve, because all chemicals are usually composed of the same ingredients, and their content is usually mentioned in the packaging itself. Therefore, participants in the chemical industry must consider innovative marketing strategies to compete in regional and global markets and test different growth drivers in order to decide, based on real experiments data, what is the best focus.

First, we start with metrics to measure growth of our corporation. The key metrics should always be the ones that best deliver growth to your chemical industry, like new strategic partnerships, new enterprise clients, maintaining current contracts or upselling new products. Once we know which metrics are the most important ones, it is time to set goals. Goals should be SMART, and these are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. Getting a million in additional revenue in next 3 months could be a revenue goal. Think of goals as a desired increment, of decrement, of your key metrics.

After we set up our goals, we ideate new or existing growth drivers. Growth levers, or drivers, for chemical industry are hypothetical ways to achieve goals. Brand is not only a consumer product, but also an important part of the marketing strategy in B2B communication. Although consumer brands spend millions of dollars to increase brand awareness, marketing industrial products does not require the same commitment. Establishing a unique brand in the market based on providing support and consulting services on top of the product could be one of the growth drivers that could also, potentially, help build a reputable brand. As a result, the brand largely depends on the supplier´s price and performance. Direct sales with a strong sales team prepared to convince customers to make a purchase by showing the company´s outstanding product portfolio could be another potential growth driver for the chemical industry. Crucially, all members of the sales team must be on the same page, and everyone is trying to promote the same key product that provides similar information. Providing samples and demonstrations could be part of experiments inside of this growth driver that, if approved, could become a key growth engine. Another possible growth drivers could be multiple service levels, different digital sales channels, applying advanced analytics and machine learning tools, increasing automation, and digitizing end-to-end processes.

Each of these should be validated or rejected through experimentation, in which all key aspects: time spent, investment and, most importantly, learnings, are being consistently tracked.

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