The market is like a basket of crabs. Whenever a home care agency tries the climb out and be different, the other crabs in the basket grab hold with their pincers and drag it back down. It's another version of the blue ocean vs. red ocean strategy - differentiation is what makes you stand out, and the market will work against you.
The effects of COVID-19 reduced demand for in-home care due to fears about the disease and increase of care being provided by family members, while at the same time sidelining scores of caregivers due to the lack of demand, and the alternative - getting paid more by taking unemployment. These twin impacts have created a down-turn for many home care providers that most want to overcome in 2021.
The impacts of COVID-19 and 2020 have disrupted almost every sector, and nonprofits haven't been spared. Current research available early in 2021 shows that about 70% of nonprofits lost revenue in 2020, with one-quarter losing between 26-50% of their revenue.
Those who work for and support nonprofits of all different types know all too well the impacts of forced program closures, distracted or economically challenged donors, and the loss of fundraising events as a staple for funding.
Retail, especially it's local expression, has been one of the last to get relief from COVID shutdowns. Almost every town and city now has boarded up or vacant retail. We know from news and our own conversations that many of those stores aren't coming back. While big box stores have continued in-person and added lots of delivery and pick-up options, the smaller stores that give personality and social context to our communities have been shuttered.
The way customers view your organization determines everything. From your reputation to their price sensitivity, length of the buying cycle, and willingness to commit to you as a business, employer, school, nonprofit, or church. That lens (the one that customers used in 2019 to search, consider, and commit) has been swapped out for a new vision of the world. What they see today is completely different than the vision that moved them to respond to your old messaging and brand story.
Making the right pivot at the right time is what allows companies to thrive in the midst of big market disruption. Elisabeth Sanders-Park shares insights from her journey in this video interview.
Story Collaborative was named one of the top "30 Most Reputable Companies of the Year 2021" by The Silicon Review. We're honored to have this distinction and excited for what it means this year and moving forward. Part of the reason we were chosen for this distinction is because we believe that the current marketing agency model is unfair.
Many businesses that are still open have been living in crisis response mode since March of 2020. By making rapid adjustments to product or service delivery, they have been able to track with the massive buyer shifts that have been occurring. Moving from responding to crisis to making intentional and strategic changes allows the organization to shift from simply staying afloat to seizing opportunities that create strength and growth.
Mission, vision, and values are standard fair for organizations that want a strategic focus. These are important elements that should guide a mission-minded organization.
Renting online traffic by purchasing ads is one way to acquire new customers. However, the cost of ads in the online bidding used by digital ad markets is being influenced by something you can control -- your website. Your website plays a major role in how much you will have to spend in order to bring in the right flow of reliable, quality leads. In most cases, websites aren't doing their job to keep ad costs down, and usually do the opposite by driving up your ad budget. It's a much better investment to use low cost website data and update strategies, than to continue being dependent upon ads.
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