Part 3 - Horizontal Scaling

Welcome to Part 3 of our Network playbook. Today, we're diving into horizontal scaling - the art of acquiring more customers to serve with your existing products and services.

Let’s get started

Why Focus on Existing Offers?

Before we dive in, let's address a crucial point: we're focusing on selling our existing offers to new markets, not creating new offers for new markets. Why? Because creating new offers for new markets introduces double the risk - offer risk (it's an untested offer) AND market risk (trying with a new market, a new audience, a new customer).

Instead, we want to take what we know works and offer it to MORE people. This approach minimises risk while maximising our potential for growth.

FYI we’ll cover new offers in new markets in the next Part. Not neglecting it don’t worry! Just starting with the “easier” steps first.

Four Buckets of Horizontal Scaling

When it comes to horizontal scaling, there are four main "buckets" we can think about

1. Build larger audience on the same platform: This is about growing your existing audience. For example, if you're already on Instagram, it's about getting more followers and engagement there. Pretty simple!

2. Build audience on a new platform: This involves starting a new audience on a platform you're not currently using. If you're big on Instagram but not on TikTok can you port your content over?

3. Affiliate/partnerships/referrals: This is about leveraging other people's audiences. It could be through formal affiliate programs, strategic partnerships, or encouraging customer referrals. Anything where you are tapping into someone else’s reach.

4. Boosting posts + advertising campaigns: This is essentially buying an audience. It includes tactics like boosting social media posts or running full-fledged advertising campaigns. We exchange money for attention.

Now, let's get specific. We're going to use a prompt to generate some tailored ideas for your business. This prompt will help you come up with 10 unique, hopefully non-generic ideas for each of the four buckets we just discussed.

You are an AI assistant specialising in business growth and horizontal scaling strategies. Your task is to help the user generate specific ideas for expanding their customer base. Use the following context and framework to guide your response:

Context:
Horizontal scaling involves acquiring more customers to serve with existing products/services. This can be done through four main approaches:
1. Building a larger audience on the same platform
2. Building an audience on a new platform
3. Leveraging affiliates, partnerships, or referrals
4. Using paid advertising and boosted posts

Instructions:
1. Ask the user to provide the following information:
   a. Type of business
   b. Main products/services offered
   c. Current platforms/channels used for marketing
   d. Target audience characteristics
   e. Any previous horizontal scaling attempts

2. Based on the provided information, generate 10 unique, non-generic ideas for each of the four horizontal scaling approaches:

   a. Building a larger audience on the same platform
      - Focus on strategies to grow and engage their existing audience

   b. Building an audience on a new platform
      - Suggest new platforms or channels that align with their target audience

   c. Leveraging affiliates, partnerships, or referrals
      - Propose potential partners or affiliate strategies

   d. Using paid advertising and boosted posts
      - Recommend specific ad types or campaigns

3. For each idea, provide:
   - A brief description of the strategy
   - Why it's suitable for their business
   - A quick tip on how to get started

4. After presenting the ideas, offer guidance on how to prioritise and select the most promising strategies based on the user's resources and goals.

Remember, the beauty (and complexity) of horizontal scaling is that the options are nearly infinite! A blessing and a curse. We can go off in so many different directions.

This is why I suggested vertical scaling first and foremost and we covered it in the last Part! Horizontal scaling is powerful but so wide-ranging that it can be overwhelming. So we start with the simpler, more effective, route first.

Implementing and Testing Horizontal Scaling Ideas

Now that we have 40+ ideas how on earth do we action them?

First - you don’t need to action them all. Any don’t appeal? Cut them. You’ll need to be enthusiastic to have any chance of them working!

For the remaining ideas we are going to run small tests.

We don't want to go all-in on a method without proving its worth first. That's where our next prompt comes in handy:

You are an AI assistant specialising in business strategy and growth experimentation. Your task is to help the user create a testing schedule for a horizontal scaling idea. Use the following context and framework to guide your response:

Context:
Testing horizontal scaling ideas is crucial to minimise risk and maximise effectiveness. A good testing approach involves a series of small, incremental experiments that increase in investment over time.

Instructions:
1. Ask the user to provide:
   a. The horizontal scaling idea they want to test
   b. Their available time and budget for testing

2. Create a three-step testing schedule. Each step should:
   - Require more time/money than the previous step
   - Get closer to validating the idea's potential
   - Be achievable within the user's constraints

3. For each step in the schedule, provide:
   a. A clear objective
   b. The key metric to track
   c. The testing method or platform to use
   d. Specific actions to take
   e. Estimated time and cost
   f. Criteria for success/failure

4. After the three steps, suggest:
   a. How to analyze the results
   b. What a "go" signal would look like
   c. What a "no-go" signal would look like

5. Provide guidance on:
   a. How to adjust the idea based on test results
   b. When to abandon the idea and try something else
   c. How to scale up if the tests are successful

This prompt will help you create a testing schedule for any horizontal scaling idea. It'll give you a series of short, inexpensive tests to verify the idea, with each step requiring a little more time and money but getting you closer to determining the true value of the method.

Use this prompt to run small experiments on your most promising ideas. The more you test, the better you'll be able to hone in on the best horizontal scaling methods for your business. Drop the ones that don't work - this is the only way to know which methods will truly drive your growth. Anything else is guess work.

I like to run one little experiment like this every week. See if it works. If so we fold the method into existing workflows. If not, move onto something else.

In the next part, we'll talk about combining vertical and horizontal scaling. Specifically, we'll explore how to begin adapting and creating new offers for new markets. This is where things get really exciting!