Starting a business in New York can feel a bit intimidating at first, but it’s also important to remember that the state has the third-best economy in the country, so there’s a lot of potential for success and growth. When you start your NY business, you must juggle various responsibilities, but one of the most critical is marketing and promotion.
Fortunately, you can take advantage of multiple channels to promote your new business, ensuring success and cementing your brand in the city’s marketplace. In fact, we’ve compiled six ways to do so, even if you don’t have a ton of startup capital. After all, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.
1. Partnerships With Local Community Groups & Organizations
These days, consumers pay closer attention to a business and its practices. One way that people pay attention is whether or not the business partners with local organizations and charities. As a rule, brands that give back or help their local community fare better than those that don’t. In fact, according to a recent poll, 71 percent of customers would help a company promote its products or services if it also helped a good cause.
Another benefit of partnering with local groups is that you can boost brand awareness and reach new markets. These types of partnerships are mutually beneficial, as you get free advertising and promotion, and the organization gets funding and assistance from your business. When you’re just starting out, this kind of attention can help build your audience much faster than traditional digital marketing campaigns.
2. Start a Customer Referral Program
Typically, satisfied customers are the best brand ambassadors you can find. While most people are more willing to share a negative experience, you can still leverage positive interactions to boost your company’s profile. One of the easiest ways to do this is by incentivizing customers to refer friends and family.
Many businesses have had huge success with referral programs, allowing them to reach incredible heights within a relatively short period. For example, DropBox offered free storage to users to refer to someone else. Similarly, Airbnb offers a referral program that delivers discounts for future stays. This program helped the brand disrupt the hospitality industry and become the powerhouse it is today.
That said, some business models are well-suited to referrals, while others aren’t. For example, if you run a B2B brand, it can be hard to get referrals from other companies. Nonetheless, you can devise creative ways to let existing customers spread the good word about your products or services. Overall, as long as the incentive is worthwhile, you can potentially build a massive audience faster than expected.
3. Research NY’s Local SEO
New York is a diverse collection of cultures, backgrounds, and experiences, so you need to make sure to utilize these differences within your marketing. For example, how you market your business in Harlem should differ greatly from how you market it in SoHo or Greenwich Village. Each neighborhood has its own unique lifestyle, so you need to know how to appeal to people living in these places. Plus, once you go outside of New York City, you’ll encounter a much broader variety as you move your way upstate.
So, even if you’ve lived in New York for a long time, you should still do extra research to capitalize on local SEO. Learn more about each neighborhood’s history, culture, and demographics as much as possible. From there, you can craft unique landing pages and ads that will appeal to residents of every part of the state.
Also, if you have a brick-and-mortar location, you should consider your audience and where they originate. Some people may come to your store for the convenience, while others may be willing to make a trip if your products or services are valuable enough.
4. Make the Most of Your Organic Social Media Advertising Channels
For some brands, social media is their lifeblood. For others, it may be seen as a waste of time. However, the power of social media is not the raw numbers but how you can reach your target audience. Here are some tips on how to leverage social media the right way.
Make Shareable Content
Sometimes, shareable content could be a video or image about your business. In other cases, it may be creating products or services that customers will want to show off on social media. For example, if you’re a restaurant, you can make dazzling specialty dishes that are always Insta-worthy. Then, people will want to come and experience the food for themselves and repeat the cycle, building buzz in the process.
Focus On Your Niche
One of the primary advantages of social media is that you can gain valuable insights into your followers. These insights can help you develop targeted ads and posts that capture their attention and inspire them to work with your business. In most cases, it’s better to focus on a few hundred niche followers than trying to appeal to thousands or millions of users on a single platform.
Don’t Worry Too Much About Vanity Metrics
While tons of likes and shares can feel good, they don’t always translate to sales. So, don’t focus too heavily on these metrics. Instead, focus more on engagement and feedback. Which posts get the most comments, and what are people saying about your brand? One post may get 1,000 likes and no added business, while another may get 100 likes and generate extra sales.
Brand Awareness vs. Lead Generation
Two of the best ways to use social media for promotion are to boost your brand’s profile online and generate leads for your sales team. However, both of these strategies require different tactics, so it’s imperative to know what you want to achieve. Typically, brand awareness is good for new businesses that don’t have much recognition within their market. Once you start gaining followers, then you can focus on generating leads and moving them into a sales funnel.
5. Sponsor a Local Event in New York City
Local events are common in New York City, as many neighborhoods host various festivals, shopping events, concerts, and more. Sponsoring one of these events can help boost your brand significantly, especially if it’s a large gathering. However, sponsorship can be expensive, so it’s imperative to utilize this tactic effectively. Here are some tips:
Know What You Want
Are you hoping to drive more customers into your store during the event? Or do you just want to increase brand awareness and recognition? If it’s the former goal, it may make sense to set up a booth or open your doors during the event, so customers can come in and see your products. If awareness is the objective, you may want to create a lot of swag that you can give away to attendees. Knowing your marketing goals helps you determine where to invest your resources.
Know the Event Audience
If an event is focused on shopping, you can likely sell products or services during it. However, if the event is more of a celebration, attendees might be less willing to buy items. So, make sure you sponsor the right kind of event to achieve your objective. Also, you want to sponsor something related to your business if possible. For example, if you sell products for dogs, you can sponsor a pet adoption drive or dog costume contest.
Sponsor Only Part of an Event
Larger events draw huge crowds, but they also attract larger sponsors. As a small business, you can’t afford to be a primary sponsor, but you may be able to help pay for smaller parts of the event. For example, perhaps you could run a specific booth or section. Or, maybe you can sponsor one element of the event, such as drink stations or tent setups. This way, you can still boost your brand without spending too much.
6. Attend NYC Trade Shows
New York hosts tons of unique trade shows throughout the year, each drawing huge crowds within a specific industry. So, one way to promote your business and network with potential partners or vendors is to attend one of these shows. Sometimes, setting up a booth and meeting with attendees can build your audience and increase brand awareness far better than any online ad campaign.
Plus, if you partner with other companies or brands, you can leverage their audience and increase your brand profile accordingly. Sometimes, this may allow you to expand into new markets or offer new products or services.
Overall, just make sure the trade show aligns with your business, and again, know what you want to get out of it. For example, if the goal is to sell products, you want to participate in a show that allows you to do that. Alternatively, if the objective is to find vendor partners, you want to focus on networking and refine your elevator pitch.
Building a successful New York business takes a lot of time and hard work, but with the right strategies and perseverance, you can find success much faster than you thought possible. These six methods can all help your brand grow and thrive, especially when they’re coupled with excellent products and fantastic customer service.
