8 low-cost growth strategies for 2020

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By Kirk Averett

The International Monetary Fund estimates that the global economic impact of COVID-19 will be about 30x worse than the recession in 2009. Without counter-strategies, many businesses are at risk of shrinking in 2020. How can a company grow when cash is tight?

I found eight strategies that nimble companies deployed after the widespread lockdown.

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Social media use has skyrocketed during widespread lockdowns. The trend has been away from highly-polished packages to timely and practical insights. Think quick webinars and interviews both live and later posted again for broad dissemination. The content usually isn't a sales pitch but is meant to serve and help a target market.

For example, Rackspace lets you chat live with experts: https://www.linkedin.com/events/asktheexperts-newshour-dataanalytics/

Not everything has to be video. LucidChart released a timely white paper: https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/case-studies/healthcare

For more ideas, LinkedIn has posted an article about content strategies for its platform: https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/blog/marketing-for-education/2020/tips-for-effective-content-strategy-in-today-s-changing-environm

Existing customers

Customers are precious. Each customer retained or renewed won't have to be replaced with a new sale. Dollar for dollar, retention is cheaper than acquisition. And if a customer hasn't yet purchased all your current products, there may be inexpensive opportunities to sell to an attentive audience.

Something as simple as surveying existing customers can gently nudge them to feel valued and improve satisfaction. This article has additional strategies for deepening relationships with existing customers: https://builtin.com/customer-success/customer-retention-strategies

Referral programs

A strong referral program for existing customers can benefit all parties, especially when the incentives for the refer-er and the refer-ee are compelling. Inman is a company that serves the real estate industry and provides a good example: https://www.inman.com/2020/06/09/announcing-inmans-new-referral-rewards-program-bigger-trial-faster-reward/

Strategically give something away

Granted, this isn't possible for every type of business. But offering a free taste of food at the grocery store can help drive sales. The best companies are truly strategic about their freemium or "comes with free" offers-- giving something that will be useful to their best potential customers with a smooth road to increasing paid usage.

Mailchimp's offer of a free domain name is compelling to their audience: https://mailchimp.com/

This offer for soccer/football aficionados may be an excellent way to build a fan base: https://worldsoccertalk.com/2020/06/02/fanatiz-launches-redesign-and-addition-of-android-tv-app-plus-freemium-service/

New partnerships

Partnerships can help expand the distribution of your products, like in this building materials example: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/canwel-building-materials-announces-national-120010647.html

Or partnerships can help parties pursue new markets that neither partner could enter on their own: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/workjam-and-digital-goodie-announce-strategic-partnership-to-digitally-transform-grocery-1029295510

Strengthen an existing partner program

Some companies already have partner programs with hundreds or thousands of partners. Now is the perfect time to strengthen the program by increasing incentives and deal support like RingCentral has: https://channellife.com.au/story/ringcentral-launches-new-partner-programme

Another option is to focus on high potential regions, as Talend has done: https://channellife.co.nz/story/talend-announces-expansion-of-apac-partner-program

Build an entrepreneurial network

Harvard Business Review shared this exciting concept, where different types of companies inside a region support one another through challenges and opportunities: https://hbr.org/2020/05/entrepreneurs-look-to-your-network-to-help-you-through-the-pandemic

Invest for the long term

Safer, fairer, smarter societies are a rising tide for all boats. Strategic companies are finding ways to boost healthcare, fight racism, increase public safety, and to open businesses and economies.