Big cities tend to have a highly competitive market base. As such, small businesses based in large cities like New York might find themselves at a loss when trying to develop a marketing strategy to engage a large audience with a relatively unknown brand. Market a Small Business in a large city like NYC requires a multi-faceted approach, and your plan should not merely emulate that of larger brands that may have much larger budgets.
There are plenty of effective marketing strategies available for every budget. Working with a professional digital marketing agency will give you an excellent return on your investment if you have a limited budget. If your business is based in the Big Apple, you may want to consider having a New York digital marketing company help you perfect these strategies as they know how to serve the market best.
1. Research
Conducting thorough and comprehensive market research should be the first step in your marketing campaign. The data you collect reveals vital information about your potential consumer base as well as your competitors. You can then use this information to tailor your marketing strategies to reach your audience best and stand out amongst the crowd.
Here are some of the objectives that market research aims to achieve:
Know Your Audience
This involves general information about your target audience—their demographic information, location, what they do, what they like, how they act, etc.
Identify Your Competitors
Knowing who your competitors are is vital to building brand awareness. Knowing your competitors means knowing what products/services they sell, their marketing strategies, and what kind of audience they target.
Spot Emerging Market Trends
Stay up-to-date about your target consumer base’s latest developments and mold your marketing campaign to remain on-track with those developments.
2. Create Quality Content
Content marketing is the strategic use of high-quality, relevant, and on-brand content like blogs, videos, or articles to market your brand or a product to a well-defined audience. Typical content marketing strategies include, but are not limited to:
Social Media Content MarketingÂ
This involves the consistent uploading of a relevant content on various social media platforms. This content can include images, videos, animations, stories, or even live customer service videos.
BlogsÂ
Blogs are one of the easiest and cheapest ways to produce content on the web. It is essential that your blogs are creative, engaging, and contain original copy, not plagiarized from other websites. They should be well-researched and tailored to the specific audience that your brand is targeting.
Paid Advertisements
Sponsored ads require financial investment, but they can be a great way to reach a broader audience and ensure that your brand remains visible and relevant on the web.
Content marketing is an excellent way for small businesses to market their brand or product with a minimal investment.
3. Leverage SEO
Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is another vital aspect to consider when developing your digital marketing strategy. SEO involves curating your website and its content to rank higher in a search page result. With more and more businesses developing a web presence, having good SEO scores should be high on your marketing strategy’s priority list.
SEO isn’t always cost-prohibitive; the price for SEO implementation depends on who is setting it up and working on it. The initial investment can range from cheap to spendy, depending on what level of ranking you desire for your site.
If you decide to do SEO yourself, start by researching relevant terms and keywords for your industry. You can then add internal links and secure backlinks (another facet of content marketing), produce quality, highly-legible copy, write blog posts with numbered lists, and add relevant keywords throughout your website. Properly implementing SEO will establish your site as an authority and drive more traffic directly to you.
4. Have a Strong Digital Presence
When digital ads account for half of all ad spend, developing and maintaining a strong web presence is imperative for any serious small business. A robust online footprint includes both your business website as well as social media pages. It is a cost-effective way of building brand awareness in your target market base.
Developing and maintaining a business website should always be one of the top priorities of your marketing campaign. Your site will serve as the primary representation for your brand on the internet, which is crucial in building consumer loyalty and brand reputation. Additionally, social media can serve as an excellent digital marketing tool to reach a broader or more specific target audience. Social media serves as the vehicle to transport your brand to the masses and increase its visibility.
5. Generate Leads
When your marketing campaign loses its potency on a specific target audience, you’ll need to generate new leads that you can then use to either find a new audience or expand the one that you’re already targeting. Here are some ways to generate new leads:
Optimizing Your Landing PageÂ
Use landing page strategies like implementing Call-To-Actions and write compelling headlines to improve your website’s traffic and conversion rates.
Lead Generation SoftwareÂ
As the name suggests, this software identifies and collects new leads from multiple sources. With the right software, you can generate quality leads that significantly boost your conversion rates and sales.
Data Validation SoftwareÂ
This is similar to lead generation software, but instead of crawling the internet for leads, it validates the information you already have. It works in one of two ways; it can either complete a batch validation analysis of a lead data spreadsheet or live as an API on your site’s contact forms and checks the data’s accuracy in real-time as forms are submitted. This can save time and effort when pursuing new leads.
Email MarketingÂ
Email marketing remains one of the most cost-effective ways to generate brand awareness and boost sales. These include implementing newsletters, sign-me-up forms, or generating automated email ads for specific audiences.
Budget As a Tool, Not a Barrier
Small businesses should develop a very different marketing strategy than large corporations in a big city like NYC. Approaching marketing from a small business perspective is the best way to ensure the most effective use of limited budgets and resources. Your finances should never be a hindrance to achieving your marketing goals. With proper strategies and a bit of creativity, your marketing campaign can be just as impactful as your competitors’.
Read Also:
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- Basic Small Business Tips for Noobs Who Want to Start a Venture in 2020
- How to Empower Your Small Business through Digital Marketing?
