How to Market a Small Business in a Big City

30 December 2020

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.

Contents

1 1. Research
- 1.1 Here are some of the objectives that market research aims to achieve:
2 2. Create Quality Content
3 3. Leverage SEO
4 4. Have a Strong Digital Presence
5 5. Generate Leads
6 Budget As a Tool, Not a Barrier

1. Research

Conducting thorough and comprehensive market research services in Singapore 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

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 Marketing

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.

Blogs

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

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.

For top-notch website creation, there are several options for you to consider. The first one is using CMS like WordPress. The second one is custom web development. For this, you can hire MEAN stack developers, a UX/UI designer, and a project manager.

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 Page

Use landing page strategies like implementing Call-To-Actions and write compelling headlines to improve your website’s traffic and conversion rates.

Lead Generation Software

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 Software

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 Marketing

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:

Ariana Smith

I enjoy writing and I write quality guest posts on topics of my interest and passion. I have been doing this since my college days. My special interests are in health, fitness, food and following the latest trends in these areas. I am an editor at Content Rally.

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Principles for Leading Your Company through COVID-19 Crisis

Ever since the COVID-19 outbreak in the UAE, the government and other institutions have been fighting to curb its spread. The virus spreads when a healthy person inhales droplets from a person who is infected. It also spreads when you touch surfaces that are contaminated then touch your eyes, mouth, or nose. It is necessary to adhere to the recommended health guidelines like washing your hands or using an alcohol-based sanitizer, maintaining social distance, avoiding crowds, etc. Employers should ensure that the workplace is safe and can accommodate employees without compromising their health. Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 at the Workplace Keeping your workplace COVID-19 free does not have to cost much; maintain hygiene and cleanliness. Ensure that surfaces like tables and desks, keyboards, and telephones are wiped and disinfected regularly. Encourage regular hand washing by workers and customers. Provide sanitizers and hand wash soap at entrances, exits, washrooms, etc. Ensure that sanitizer dispensers never run out. You can also hang informative posters on the importance of washing hands to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. Promote the use of face masks at all times and practice good respiratory hygiene. Make sure your employees are well aware of Coronavirus Health Insurance. How to Lead Your Company during the Coronavirus Leading a team during the COVID-19 can be tough; there is uncertainty, and employees are constantly worried about their families and health. Here are principles you can use to lead your team during this time of crisis. Preach Hope Your employees will mirror your behavior, so as you talk to them about the present and unclear future, it is necessary to remain optimistic. Be truthful and assure them that the company will withstand the hard times, and things will be back to normal. You need to give them hope, act like a leader. Taking leadership training Dubai lessons teaches you how to handle overwhelming situations in the workplace. Although preaching hope is necessary, avoid giving false assurances as this can break their trust in you and the company. People-Centered Approach You need to be in tune with how the staff feels and thinks during this crisis; watch for changes and respond to any concerns. Employees are going to be worried and anxious about job security and health. Executives who take leadership training in Abu Dhabi classes know how to act even in a crisis. Show genuine concern for your workers; some risk their health to be at the office while others work from home juggling family and workload. Effective Communication Communicating is not enough; you need to ensure that the message is understood and not blown out of context or misinterpreted. Try to maintain personal but professional communication with each member. Be transparent, and keep the employees informed, but don’t bombard them with too much information. Communication is a two-way-street; listen to your team and receive feedback without judgment. When employees are free to issue their concerns and opinions, they feel appreciated and valued which leads to job satisfaction and improved productivity. Collaboration Don’t pretend to know everything; nobody expects you to. This is the ideal time to rely on your resources, employees, and all team members. Create taskforces, sub-taskforces, and explain each person’s role; this makes them feel that they are contributing positively to the workplace during this crisis. Collaboration fosters cohesion and builds trust within the team. When people work together they can come up with better solutions to problems. It also helps employees to adapt to the new norm. Change is inevitable, and organizations need to adapt accordingly. Establish a Common Vision Focus on setting out a simple, shared vision; this fosters a sense of purpose. As the crisis escalates, a shared vision reminds the team to work on what is needed at every stage and to focus on important issues. It also helps employees to focus on the organization’s goals without getting distracted by the outside world. It steers employees in the right direction. Having a clear vision ensures that every member is on the same page. A good vision is not enough; you need to communicate correctly to let everyone know their responsibilities and expectations. Be Present It’s crucial to be present at the workplace to interact and support your team. It is also necessary to do the same if you have a virtual team. Most organizations have all or some of their employees work from home. It is necessary to schedule regular meetings through video conferencing. This makes remote working employees feel seen and included in everyday routine and decision-making processes. You don’t have to be physically present to lead your team. If you lead managers, you need to keep a tab of their daily routine and continue with your coaching conversation. The COVID-19 crisis has changed the workplace; some people work from home while others continue with their normal routines while observing health recommendations. It can be overwhelming to lead a team during a crisis; some workers are confused while others are worried and frustrated. As a leader, you need to develop strategies to keep your team focused during these times. Read also: 5 Ways Technology Will Change the Hospitality Industry Post Covid-19 Pandemic

Top 4 Creative Team Building Ideas for a Call Center Industry This 2020

Call Center employees are into a most demanding job as they represent the human face of a specific brand or organization while delivering one of the best excellent customer services. Given the intense rhythm of a call center and sometimes isolated nature of an agent's work, team building in a call center industry is considered to be the most essential thing of motivating the employees, enhancing their sense of camaraderie, and sharing their learning driving their productivity. Given here are the five major ideas and strategies for bringing out the team spirit in a call center through team-building activity. 4 Creative Team Building Ideas for a Call Center Industry: 1. Role Play: Roleplay generally shows the customer service representatives that they could rely on their team members for advice and feedback, giving them an opportunity to ask questions about how they could handle calls in a better manner, allowing employees to walk away from the session with some tips that could apply while receiving calls. Have employees act out scripts one with a customer calling placing an order, and the other disgruntled customer who has not received an order yet. Have your employee being acted as a customer while the other as the customer representative and then switching their roles again. 2. Gamification: Gamification is one of the most popular trends in the call center industry posing a variety of benefits such as healthy competition, optimizing the training of all the call center employees, and employee motivation to succeed. Call center industry representatives would here compete with each other in order to reach specified goals like achieving first call resolution or signing into new accounts. Gamification is here likely being used to train and assess the agents in a fun yet meaningful way. Agents would share one of the best practices with their friends and employees while being motivated to achieve their best for every business activity they have been doing. 3. Hosting a holiday drive: During a holiday season have your employees work as a team to collect items for a charity drive. To begin collecting from toys and all the non-perishable foods in order to winter the clothing and blankets. So plan to donate to one or the other several households or to a non-profit organization. Call center to begin to be fulfilled, as they give the community back with the things they need, and continue to feel proud that they along with their fellow co-worker making a difference. Once the drive ends to reinforce the idea of working as a team in order to achieve the goals relating the ideas to provide one of the best services over the phone. 4. Shared Learning: Agents would continue to feel like a team where their ideas are heard and exchanged among the team members. And in addition to meeting the above best practices, call centers could here make a step further encouraging the employees to read books together in a book club format attending a webinar that is related to their business, or taking classes with the continuous post-activity decision on internal social networks exchanging ideas and take away. To conclude Call center organizations are typically a force behind the success of customer service and sales, so it does become critical enough to foster a team spirit through call center team building that would recognize the individual potential while establishing their common goals and best practices. Through the team building activities, the employee would here tend to feel more motivated enough to do their best while learning and meeting their professional goals. Read Also: Five Things Every Great Leader Should Know 7 Startup Essentials Entrepreneurs Should Know About 5 Steps To Accelerate The Growth Of Your Startup Why Your Business Needs Call Center Tracking How Business Leadership Plays An Important Role In Business Success?

Benefits of NBFC Business Loans

Being a small-business owner, you have been putting your whole-hearted efforts to make your business venture a success. You have been working long hours, traveling for client meetings to different cities, staying away from home for days on stretch and also investing all your personal savings and assets to take your business to new heights. Now that you have put your business on the path to growth, it suddenly dawns on you that you have not been able to pay adequate attention to your financials. Now when there is a significant opportunity in front of you in the form of a brilliant idea, which will change the future course of your business, you find that you do not have necessary funds to put that into practice. You feel anguished and frustrated, but that is not going to serve any purpose. So rather than ruing your ill-luck, its better you start looking at other options that you must explore, to meet your financial requirements. One of the most obvious options is availing an Unsecured Small Business Loan. What is an Unsecured Small Business Loan? Business Loans that are available to small business owners for their desired purpose without any requirement of collateral are called Unsecured Small Business Loans. These loans are extended by all financial institutions in India, private sector as well as public sector. You are free to utilize the loan amount for any purpose you may deem suitable including the purchase of machinery, upgradation of infrastructure, renovation of office premises etc. There are two types of unsecured business loans in the market NBFC business loans and Bank business loans. The repayment of these loans is to be made in monthly EMIs. Advantages of Small Business Loans Small business loans offer a flexible source of funding for you to meet your urgent financial requirements. There are various advantages provided by small business loans such as: - No dilution in ownership : When you take a small business loan from a financial institution, you need not provide any collateral and are free to utilize the money in any way you want for your business purpose. The lender does not have anything to do with the way you have spent the money, as long as you repay your EMIs on time. This ensures that the ownership of business stays with you and is not diluted. This is a better option compared to other sources as venture capital or personal borrowing, where you must give up a part of your ownership of your business in lieu of money. Taxation Benefits : Small business loans are to be repaid in monthly installments, which comprise principal component and interest component. The interest that you pay on loan is allowed as an expense, and you can claim tax benefits against the same. This, in turn, reduces your tax burden, and the loan in effect costs less in practicality. No other source of funding offers this option. No Collateral required : If you do not have any collateral to be hypothecated with the financial institution, then unsecured business loans are your only option. This is an ideal situation for new businesses or start-ups who have a great idea but do not have any collateral to be mortgaged. If required by the lender, you can get a guarantor on board. Lower Interest Rates : Unsecured small business loans have a more moderate rate of interest as compared to various other sources of finance such as credit cards or private money lenders. Lower interest rates mean lower EMIs which translate into a lesser burden on your finances. In some cases, the government also offers subsidies on unsecured business loans to help small business owners have easy access to credit at lower interest rates. No stress on working capital : When you are able to avail an unsecured business loan, you get spare money at your disposal, which can help you in getting better deals from your suppliers and vendors. Moreover, this ensures that you need not withdraw money from your working capital and thus you can meet your daily expenses conveniently. Also, as the EMIs are to be paid on a monthly basis only, you do not have to put pressure on your cash cycle by withdrawing huge sums together. Flexibility in Repayment : some NBFC business loans come with the option for EMI holiday or flexible repayment options, where you only need to pay interest on the loan as your EMI for a specified period, in the beginning, this way your EMI payments, in the beginning, is reduced and you get time to manage your financial position. The principal amount for this mortarium period is adjusted over the remaining period of the loan. Unsecured small business loans offer a lot of benefits for you. But you must conduct proper research and analysis before you take a final decision regarding the loan. Read Also : Top 5 Types Of Startup Business Loans Major Financial Problems That Can Affect A New Business 7 Big Myths About Small Business Growth

How to Market a Small Business in a Big City

1. Research