It felt like we were going to war. It was the first Monday after the pandemic had been declared, and the start of shelter-in-place orders. On Monday, March 16, 2020 we faced a grim new question: “How does my business survive Covid-19?”
The weeks that followed were some of the most intense of my career: days felt like weeks; months felt like years. It was intense, adrenaline pumping, brute force entrepreneurism.
This was war. I wrote on the blog, “The best defense to the coronavirus shutdowns is a strong marketing offense.”
In that week, we repositioned Sticky Branding to focus exclusively on what I termed, “Crisis Marketing.” Our mission was simple: help our clients recover the customers and revenue taken by Covid-19 and come out of the crisis stronger than ever.
This was the most meaningful work of my career, and it continues.
The stakes were high. This wasn’t business strategies and marketing; this was people’s lives, careers, and companies. We weren’t just growing brands, we were preventing layoffs and closures.
Learngistics, for instance, went into the pandemic focused on delivering live training events; and almost overnight, the company lost 90% of its revenue! Louis Trahan, founder of Learngistics said, “We had a choice: fight or close. We chose to fight.”
We helped Louis and his team reposition the company to deliver two new pandemic relevant services: “WOW Virtual Events” and “Virtual Event Producers.”
Before the pandemic, Learngistics had never sold or delivered these services. But they stepped up brilliantly and have grown into a category leader for virtual event production.
For example, Learngistics helped another Sticky Branding client, Deighton, produce a 3-day global user conference in two time zones (North America and South Pacific) for over 800 registered attendees!
This wasn’t just about selling new services. This was a fight for survival.
Louis continues, “We generated over $100,000 in new revenue in the first ten weeks working with Sticky Branding. By applying Sticky Branding’s methodologies to our ideas we were able to quickly determine if there was a market there or whether it was just a good idea.”
A company that lost 90% of its revenue in 30 days has recovered remarkably quickly. Within 7 months Learngistics was back to breakeven, and the company returned to profitability in January 2021.
A year later, I am so proud of my clients’ accomplishments!
2020 was hell! It tested all of our metal, and it still does. But you have a choice of how to respond. A friend said at the start of the crisis “This is the moment that will separate the ‘entrepreneurs’ from the ‘wantrepreneurs.’” He was right. He still is.
As we emerge from the pandemic the world has changed. The way we work has shifted. Customer needs and expectations have shifted. But the will to survive and win has not.
Winston Churchill said it best, “Never waste a good crisis.” What will your business look like at the end of the pandemic?
Learn How to Grow Your Brand and Drive Sales, Even in a Crisis
If you’d like to discover how Sticky Branding can help you, let’s chat. Here’s a link to my calendar.
