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There is something important to say.

Companies have weathered difficult times before. And yours can be one of them.

There are things that small businesses have done in the past that you can replicate today to stay afloat no matter how many challenges you face. The key here is to play aggressively with these challenges, not defense.

As you can see, the key to recovery once the dust settles is to make sure you're moving before it can even settle. The companies that recovered after an economic disaster didn't wait for the dust – they took action during the storm.

Businesses survived the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent major recession. For two years, they focused on playing aggressively so they could stay in the game.

And you can too.

Here's what they did to make sure they can recover.

# 1: Focus on building an audience today

You may not be able to sell many products at the moment. Marketing agencies may see their customers reduce their monthly ad budgets. If you are an e-commerce business, you may see a steady decline in sales. But that doesn't mean you have to stop advertising.

You just have to change your offer.

For example, a marketing agency can create a PR package for new customers who need help with their marketing message in the middle of COVID-19. Instead of asking about their regular 6 month contract, customers let them sign up for 1 to 3 months.

An e-commerce company can offer discounts or buy an offer.

All of this aims to do one thing. Grow your audience.

It may not be the right time to try to get your biggest contract of the year, or to have the biggest ecommerce sales day yet. But it's time to figure out how to grow your audience. Since you can be sure of one thing, the economy will return.

And when it recovers, you can take out this huge contract or reach your biggest ecommerce sales goals with the audience you created. At DigitalMarketer we accidentally did this.

We offered our Lab membership free of charge for two weeks without any conditions or offensive game. We just wanted to do our part to help during the COVID crisis and didn't think much would happen. We just wanted marketers who were stuck at home to be able to learn while they were there. It turned out that many marketers made us aware of our deal.

In the end we had over 30,000 new subscribers and a huge new audience that we can now show our offers as soon as the timing is right. We didn't want things to end this way, but it is proof that people are now receptive to new offers.

Do not focus on the money, but on the audience.

So you jump back.

# 2: Look for strategic partnerships

Part of building a new audience is to take a look at your industry and find out who you can work with. The current state of the world has changed a lot – and part of this change has to do with who you can do business with.

For example, you may have attended some Instagram Live workouts at home. How many of them did you see 3 months ago?

Yes, we haven't seen any either. Instagram influencers and trainers jump on these workouts at home to engage their audience with their content. The influencers need content and the trainers need new people to take their virtual courses because their personal sessions have been canceled.

You can even pursue this further and look beyond the collaboration to the acquisition. There are some business owners who just feel the heat and want to get out of the kitchen. They may have pulled their business through the last economic turnaround, or they may find that they are simply not interested in the constant linchpins and challenges associated with this type of economy.

Guess who can take over? Yes, that's right … you. If you're interested.

# 3: Communicate, communicate, communicate

Shall we say it again?

Your company must now have crystal clear communication, especially if your team is being distributed for the first time. Here's who needs to hear from you:

• your team
• Their customers
• Your community (if you are a local company)
• Your mother (this is the fourth time you can tell her you're okay)

Small businesses that have recovered from the recent financial crisis have kept their team in line with their current goals. These goals may have changed three times in the past two weeks – but as long as these goals were communicated to your team, they could work towards them.

They then shared the necessary information with their customers and informed them about new products, offers, discounts, content, or anything else that would currently be useful to them. For local businesses, they kept in touch with their community and worked to support first responders or provide meals to the needy (if possible).

Then they called her mother to assure her that they were fine.

NOTE: Right now people are holding on to their money. Giving away free or discounted products is one of the best ways to show your audience that you are seeing what they are going through and that you want to help them.

# 4: stay out of your head

None of this means anything if you are too far in your head about what is going on and how you will survive. Sure, this is certainly a stressful situation, but that doesn't mean it has to stay that way.

You're playing offense. It is your job to recognize and use the opportunities – not to go in the opposite direction.

We have seen it again and again in the technology world that small companies can innovate faster than larger companies because they can swivel FAST.

At the moment the name of the game is Pivot and you are holding the ball. You have to reach the end zone and avoid any challenges that come your way. The only way to do this is to stay out of your head and think like an innovative small business that can spin in no time.

Staying flexible will be critical to your ability to survive this crisis and get back on your feet later. Because at the moment you have to change your offers, but you will soon have to change them again in order to adapt them to the new economic situation.

It will be a state that nobody knows (and that is hard to predict), but we can be sure that it is on the way.

So you can predict that you have to turn and prepare your offer NOW so you can jump back faster than the competition.

Because you are a legend 😉.

Tell us

“Companies have weathered difficult times before. And mine can be one of them. "

An economic crisis doesn't mean saying goodbye to all your hard work. There are hundreds of thousands of companies that have recovered from the 2008 financial crisis and the great recession that followed. This is what they did to stay in the game and recover as the economy stabilized and rose again.

Everything will be fine – you have!