Helping small business respond to marketing challenges and disruptions as part of the COVID-19 Recovery Program
Great Lakes Women’s Business Council (Great Lakes WBC) is a nonprofit champion for women and minority businesses, providing access to capital, certification for women-owned businesses, corporate contracting opportunities, and small business educational support.
Challenges:
Committed to supporting small businesses impacted by COVID-19, the Great Lakes WBC offered a remote COVID-19 Recovery Program through its Women’s Business Center, funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Blended Collective was asked to serve as the exclusive marketing consultancy throughout the 8-month program duration in 2021 for 17 clients, providing business development and marketing assistance to entrepreneurs and businesses that experienced supply chain disruptions, staffing challenges, or a decrease in gross receipts or customers.
Solution:
As part of the three-person Business Development team for the COVID-19 Recovery Program at the Great Lakes WBC and through one-on-one, ongoing business coaching sessions with each client, Blended Collective provided educational and developmental advice, and strategic guidance to identify the business goals and develop an actionable plan for achieving those goals. The key focus included:
- Assessing business goals and needs of the Clients
- Providing tools Clients can implement to be successful
- Developing and adjusting brand, communications, and messaging
- Offering constructive feedback
- Evaluating Progress of the Clients
These businesses included industries such as beauty/cosmetics, coaching/consulting, design, food and beverage, health, IT, professional services, and retail.
Results:
As an ongoing marketing resource and guidance throughout the program, Blended Collective assisted small businesses in highlighting their strengths and value as it relates to their product and service offerings. Tangible results included:
- Update website content, messaging and navigation
- Improve marketing and sales pitch
- Enhance company presentation deck and capability statements
- Redefine value proposition, including mission, vision and purpose
- Develop outline for customer journeys and lifecycles
- Create brand language and brand direction
- Provide social media insights and tips to best optimize and cross-promote platforms
All of this resulted in boosting brand awareness, consumer engagement, and sales based on unique metrics for each business. Blended Collective will continue its journey with some of the businesses with ongoing marketing support.
“In 2020, we launched the COVID-19 Recovery Program, which was funded on behalf of the CARES Act. Blended Collective was contracted to provide individual counsel and guidance to business owners detrimentally impacted by the pandemic. Blended Collective made themselves available to accommodate the diverse schedule of clientele who expressed assistance through this program.
Blended Collective was such a significant provider during a critical time in our clients’ business recovery. Many of the clients received ongoing assistance because they were satisfied with the tools and counsel provided and credit the assistance received as a major lifeline. I am confident that you will find Blended Collective of great value.”
– Shawntay Dixon, Program Director, Great Lakes Women’s Business Council