Introduction
To thrive in the modern business world it’s important to understand how to market your Black business and this is going to be even harder in the post-COVID-19 crisis small business environment. A recent American Dream Marketplace survey shows establishing customer relationships through marketing and promotion is the second-largest concern among Black business owners after securing access to capital. In the current COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath, both of these immense Black business issues can be solved by using investment crowdfunding to build deeper relationships with and to raise capital directly from customers, suppliers, and community stakeholders. These are going to be the people that generate revenue for these small local businesses, so providing a pathway to inclusive investment for these new Black investors, and ultimately stakeholders in your business and the larger ecosystem makes sense for Black-owned businesses. So, the question is how do these Black-owned businesses achieve this task moving forward.
The Power of Local Digital Marketing
Digital marketing for Black-owned businesses does not need to be difficult. Many of the companies I have worked with in the past see it as a daunting task that is going to take too much time, money, and a team of people to get it done. The majority of the time they are just trying to do too much at once. Digital marketing as a whole encompasses a broad set of activities, but local small businesses do not need to do all of them at one time. They need to find specific strategies that work for them and capitalize on those specific marketing channels. Understanding that Black-owned businesses and stakeholders are in this together so developing a strategy that builds community is the first step.
Creating A Black Crowdfunding Ecosystems
How do we create a Black crowdfunding ecosystem that is virtual in nature that provides a space for Black-owned businesses and community stakeholders to build community? This community must be able to bridge the gap between buyers, sellers, and investors in essence creating a Black business economy and the American Dream Marketplace has created this digital-first platform for Black businesses. The first step is to provide education to all parties that are involved. Using webinars to reach and educate community stakeholders about the benefits of having a strong Black business economy and why that strong Black business economy needs well-trained and financed Black-owned businesses that are able to serve the needs of the community while being good community members.
The Local Social Marketing Strategy
I have felt your pain and created the Crowdfunding for Black Businesses and the Wall Street Journal mentioned the “CrowdFit” program to help Black-owned businesses grow their online brand, increase their brand reach, and increase their revenue from online marketing and promotion. The American Dream Marketplace has created a digital networking platform for Black-owned businesses. These Black-owned businesses can become an internal co-operative group that is able to promote and fund each other. The American Dream Marketplace and Black Crowdfunding Coalition will become a powerful resource for social media engagement and network, but also for SEO and backlinking. The best part: Crowd-Max will train you to do all of the work! We train you in how to create online content to develop offline connections, and how to create, coordinate, post, and analyze each part of the social media management process for your Black business so you can continue to do what you do best serve your customers, nurture client relationships, and run your agency.
A More Technology Driven Black Business Ecosystem
Black-owned businesses must be well trained in the business skills necessary for operating a business as well as being good at the technical aspects of the product or service they are providing for their customers. Using virtual training models that are scalable and low-cost, and self-paced are a vital component to building this ecosystem especially in this COVID-19 driven business environment that will drive the business environment for an unspecified amount of time. This new COVID-19 business environment will require social distancing and the use of virtual technology to accomplish successfully and the National Black Chamber of Commerce’s creation of the American Dream Marketplace that allows Black businesses to create both a personal and business profile on their platform. Today, many people are searching for solutions to how Black-owned businesses will pivot and move forward using these digital technologies. Learning and adapting to the new normal of a more virtual business environment will again require scalable virtual training for the Black business owners.
Key Takeaways
Investment crowdfunding has been driven by the virtual technologies that are now vital business tools as a response to the COVID-19 crisis that makes doing business scalable. Using these high-demand technologies moving forward to create and host virtual business showcases for local businesses to present to Black investors at scale is one example of the brave new virtual business ecosystem that we will be using for the foreseeable future. Innovating around these virtual technologies to create new business solutions for Black-owned businesses presents many new and exciting opportunities for Black entrepreneurs that will drive the development and growth of new industries that help build sustainable Black business ecosystems. If you want to know more about how to market and fund your small business using investment crowdfunding please visit Crowd-Max.com!