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Restart Your Business

The economy is opening again! Our goal is to help businesses navigate this unprecedented disruption and prepare for the unique opportunity that awaits in an economic recovery. It's time to restart your business!
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Step 1: Rework Your Marketing Plan

Marketing is a critical component of any plan to restart your business. Plans built with pre-pandemic goals and assumptions need to be reworked for a new set of realities. We are in uncharted territory, so it's going to take an experimental approach to see what works and what doesn't. 


Money will be tight as businesses and consumers struggle to get their finances in order, so marketing needs to be creative in its approach. Look to your best customers, focus on small wins, and build momentum. 

Find Money

Money will be tight for almost all businesses but there are both government and private loans and grants available to help. Here are some of the sources we're following:

Understand New Realities

Given the unprecedented nature of this economic crisis and its widespread impact, it's unclear how this restart will play out. It's going to be critical to watch the data and see areas where economic activity is rebounding and where it's stalled. There will be pockets of opportunity as businesses and consumers in various sectors begin to spend. Be ready but wait for some positive signs of activity before making any major marketing investments. 

It's important to note that much of the current data predates the pandemic and patterns are certain to change. As more information becomes available, we will post it here but many of the trends are still valid for how content will be consumed.

Adjust Your Priorities

The temptation for many businesses will be to significantly cut back on marketing spend. Some tough choices will need to be made as businesses deal with financial hardships, however it's important to keep focused on revenue generation and marketing is the engine that drives sales. Rather than stopping marketing activities, a better approach to restart your business is adjusting priorities to focus on your best customers, quick wins, adding value, and smaller deals that build momentum.

Step 2: Utilize the Downtime

When the economy starts to recover, all sectors won't be affected at once. Businesses should use this downtime to their advantage and prepare for the coming opportunity by building and optimizing the content and messaging needed to restart your business. 

Build a Content Marketing Strategy 

Content marketing is the process of creating valuable, relevant content to attract, acquire, and engage your audience. A well-crafted content marketing strategy places your business in the position of a thought leader, building brand preference as you inform and educate buyers. 

Put the Right Tools in Place

Given the unprecedented nature of this economic crisis and its widespread impact, it's unclear how this restart will play out. It's going to be critical to watch the data and see areas where economic activity is rebounding and where it's stalled out. There will be pockets of opportunity as businesses and consumers in various sectors and segments begin to spend. Be ready but wait for some positive signs of activity before making any major marketing investments.

Improve Your Teams Skills

With many people working remotely and the execution of many marketing tactics put on hold, now is a great time to learn some new skills. Here are some links to both free and subscription based training:

We want to help businesses get back to work!

The economy is restarting. Is your company ready? Our goal is to help businesses navigate this unprecedented disruption and prepare for the unique opportunity that awaits in an economic recovery. We want to help your business rework marketing plans for new market realities. Can we help restart your business?

 Free MArketing Plan Assessment

Step 3: Focus on the Restart

As the economy starts to recover, businesses will need to be nimble to see opportunities and take advantage of changes in buying behavior and a potentially new competitive landscape. Being ready and knowing how and when to spend will be critical as you restart your business.

Build Awareness

Brand awareness is essential to growth today, and it'll still be true next year and the year after. The more your target audience notices your brand, the more likely they are to buy from you. Don't go silent. It's important that customers and prospects still know you're there.

Focus on Your Best Customers

One of the best - and easiest - ways to increase your revenue and profitability is to sell more to your existing customers. Many customers only know about the products they have bought from you. Simply telling your customers about different products in your range can bring in more business.

Test Offers

Successful marketing does not have to be complicated. While it may be intimidating, marketing offers a number of challenges to position your business in a way that demonstrates exceptional value to customers and outshines competitors.

Step 4: Analyze and Adjust

Given this uncharted territory, measuring, monitoring, and adjusting will be more important than ever. What worked before might not work in this new environment. The key will be identifying trends and the making any needed adjustments as you restart your business.

Watch for Signs of Interest and Engagement

True customer engagement marketing is defined as a marketing strategy that focuses on increasing the engagement your customers have with your brand by delivering personalized messages across preferred channels. As you start running new campaigns, you want to watch for signs that your messaging is resonating with customers and you're starting to see engagement.

Start Small and Ramp Up

Given the unprecedented nature of this economic crisis and its widespread impact, it's unclear how this restart will play out. It's going to be critical to watch the data and see areas where economic activity is rebounding and where it's stalled out. There will be pockets of opportunity as businesses and consumers in various sectors and segments begin to spend. Be ready but wait for some positive signs of activity before making any major marketing investments.

Be Honest and Empathetic

While authenticity and honesty is important in marketing, a key differentiation is that these characteristics are owned by the brand. In contrast to being something – empathy is something that is offered. And unlike sympathy, which is the emotion of feeling compassion, empathy means putting yourself in another’s shoes and being able to identify with their situation. Especially in these challenging times, showing that your brand is both honest about your own situation and empathetic towards your customers, helps build trust and brand value.

Marketing is the engine that will drive business recovery!

Does your company need help reworking its marketing strategy?

Too often, marketing takes a back seat to other priorities. Awareness fails to materialize, demand drops, and sales falter. Don't wait until it's too late to rebuild your brand awareness and demand generation programs. It's time to restart your business!
A Virtual CMO can help rework your marketing strategy and implement programs designed  to increase awareness and generate demand in this tough economic climate.
Learn more about our CMO On Demand consulting service and how it can help speed your company's growth as the economy restarts.
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Additional Reading on Marketing Strategy

Stay up-to-date with the latest research and thought leadership.

September 15, 2024

The Key to Marketing Technical Products and Services

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May 12, 2023

Maximizing ROI: How to Allocate Your Marketing Budget for Optimal Results

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May 11, 2023

Unlocking the Benefits of a Fractional CMO for Your Business

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How can we help restart your business?

We are happy to answer additional questions about reworking your marketing strategy for the recovery.

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