9 Things to Know About a Resilient Business [Infographic Included]

Unpack focus areas, marketing pillars, and consumer service emphases for a resilient business model

It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.

Bill Gates, Entrepreneur, Investor, and Philanthropist

According to Forbes, 20% of businesses fail in the first year, 30% in the second year and 50% by year five (Forbes, 2024). Additionally, 42% of businesses that close within the first five years do so because of inadequate market demand (Forbes, 2024). Based on these statistics, the question is how can one establish a resilient business to last more than 5 years?” Let’s unpack “9 Things to Know About a Resilient Business.”

A resilient business is a company that can grow and develop for more than 5 years and thrive within its respective industry. It provides valuable products, goods, and services to a target audience of people with a mutual concern. A resilient business continuously evolves and meets the needs of its consumers. Let’s learn more.

3 Focus Areas

The foundation of a successful business and brand comprises three areas: brand awareness, visibility, and audience engagement. Let’s simply define each below.

Brand Awareness: Positioning a business and brand to be seen by the target audience to grow and develop your company.

Brand Visibility: Sharing the brand’s story and connecting with the target audience consistently

Audience Engagement: Creating opportunities and capturing moments for the target audience by highlighting specific brand products, goods, or services, and their benefits to solve a mutual concern

These three areas are at the core of growing and developing a brand and business to sustain the test of time. Simply put, and to summarize the importance of these three areas: Create a valuable product, good, or service, share it with the people who need a solution, and consistently connect with them throughout the lifetime of the brand and business.

At the core of every thriving business, there’s always a continual process to evaluate, analyze, and re-evaluate brand awareness, visibility, and audience engagement.

3 Marketing Pillars

Sustaining a business for more than 5 years requires a significant amount of attention to these three marketing pillars: strategy, structure, and system. Let’s also define these.

Marketing Strategy: A thoughtfully executed plan that includes a mix of different marketing niches to capture the attention of a target audience throughout the buyer’s journey

Marketing Structure: Developing a business flow with personnel, products, goods, and services for production and delivery to consumers that increases revenue and profitability

Marketing System: Utilizing various tools, platforms, services, and software to manage recruitment, attribution, acquisition, and retention of personnel, consumers, vendors, and stakeholders

These three marketing pillars — strategy, structure, and system support the three focus areas shared above — brand awareness, visibility, and audience engagement. Implementing these focus areas and pillars provides context when tracking, measuring, reviewing, evaluating, and analyzing business growth and development for sustainability.

3 Consumer Service Emphases

Lastly, there isn’t a resilient business without consumers. Yet, a general pain point for small business owners is that they are unclear about who their target audience is and how to authentically and organically connect with them throughout the lifetime of the business and brand. Additionally, simple actions can help foster a genuine connection with your audience. Here are three customer service emphases that can support a resilient business model.

Get to Know Your Audience: Whether it’s a business-to-business (B2B) relationship or a business-to-consumer (B2C) relationship, know who they are. Discover their likes, dislikes, values, statuses, and demographics.

Communicate Directly With Your Audience: Connect with your target audience on their level. Find where they hang out, whether that’s in person or online, and meet them where they are. Show them that as a business, you actually care about providing value and are not just focused on achieving year-end numbers. Your audience can tell the difference between each interaction.

Exceed Their Expectations: A thriving, resilient business focuses on great customer and client services and experiences. Each interaction with your brand and business is an experience. Truthfully, people want to share their experiences and capture moments throughout their day, and that’s the benefit of social media marketing and user-generated content (UGC). Therefore, give them a positive experience to talk about and exceed their expectations. Pay attention to details, receive reviews and feedback, and make adjustments accordingly. Surprise and delight your customers and clients unexpectedly, and make their day. Simple, genuine gestures with your audience can develop authentic connections and establish brand loyalty.

Wrap Up

A resilient business is no easy feat. It’s constantly monitoring the pulse of the brand and business and adjusting throughout every season. It’s adequately preparing for high and low junctures and managing each moment by being well-informed and attentive to details. Throughout the lifetime of the brand and business, these responsibilities are consistent actions to execute regularly.

What aids a resilient business?

3 Focus Areas - Brand awareness, visibility, and audience engagement
3 Marketing Pillars - Marketing strategy, structure, and system
3 Consumer Service Emphases - Get to know your audience, communicate directly with your audience, and exceed their expectations

Tool Spotlight

[Infographic] 9 Things to Know About a Resilient Business [BLOG] INFOGRAPHIC

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Reference

Main, K. (2024). Top Small Business Statistics. Forbes.

Remember to stay in your marketing bag and expand your brand.