NJ ChamberEdge
NJ ChamberEdge Sponsor
Business Insights & Inspiration
Business Insights & Inspiration
NJ ChamberEdge Sponsor

The Edge for May 2025

An Exclusive Article for NJ ChamberEdge

How can businesses create content and launch digital marketing campaigns without breaking the bank? We asked members of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce to share their best low-cost strategies. Their advice: focus your message on solving real problems, position yourself as an expert, and use social media platforms with purpose. From leveraging YouTube and AI to partnering with nonprofits and advocacy groups, their insights offer practical ways to build your brand and connect with customers. See article below.

 

Heather ShostackBe the Expert Your Customers Are Looking For

Use your social media presence to inform and educate people – and be entertaining. It’s a chance to show your personality and your brand. Position yourself as a problem solver and an expert. If you are a landscaping service, talk about soil and vegetation. Try not to be all things to all people. Focus on what you are trying to fulfill. Brand awareness will come after you show how you are solving an important need. Get on YouTube. People are on YouTube more than they are watching TV. Develop video content about your business. Incorporate satisfied customers into your content. That can be very powerful.

– Heather Shostack, Marketing Manager, New Jersey Society of CPAs

 

Lacey DeanThink Like Your Customers to Create Better Content

Before crafting content, put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Think about their needs. Ask yourself: Who is buying my product or service? What is their age? Gender? What problems are they trying to solve when they come to your business? What are their buying habits? If your key audience are young women, think about where women are online. Choose social media channels based on who you are trying to reach. Gen X may be on Facebook and Gen Z on TikTok. Focus your efforts on where your audience is and what they want. AI is a critical tool for brainstorming or writing your first draft of content. You don’t want AI to create all the content for you because any competitor can develop the same content. You want to put your own mark on the content. That will differentiate you in the marketplace.

– Lacey Dean, Director of Communications and Brand Management, Fulton Bank

 

Debra RizziYour Competition, Advocacy Organizations and Charitable Causes Can Help You

Look at your competition and see what they are doing. What channels are they communicating on? That can create a baseline on what you should be doing. Write a blog. Make sure at least once a month you have thought-leadership content. Have conversations with advocacy organizations on marketing opportunities with them. Can they re-post your social media content. Can you do a sponsored email? Email is still a lifeline where you should be touching your audience at least once a month with critical content. We’re constantly looking at the marketing content we are producing and the impact it has. You can do two different sets of creatives to see which one works better, and pivot to the more effective method. Engage with nonprofits. Volunteer and align with a cause that’s important to you. You give back to the community and it helps you develop relationships.

– Debra Rizzi, President/Partner, Rizco

 

Responses for this article were edited for space and clarity.

Search the Edge Archive

Newsmakers

As Jennifer Shimek transitions to a new leadership role at KPMG LLP, the company announced Jeffrey Knight has succeeded her as office managing partner in Short Hills.


Ernst & Young LLP appointed Eduardo Villa to serve as the Iselin office managing partner. In his new role, Villa oversees more than 1,200 EY professionals. Villa has been with EY for more than 22 years and has served as the New Jersey Tax Market Leader since 2019.


EisnerAmper has appointed David Frigeri to serve as partner and chief artificial intelligence officer. Frigeri will work with leadership to integrate AI, machine learning, and automation into EisnerAmper’s services to enhance client value and operational efficiency.


Fortune magazine named Merck, Hackensack Meridian Health and Atlantic Health System among the country’s 100 best companies to work for in its latest such list, released April 2. The 100 Best Companies to Work For list honors businesses that build a high-trust workplace environment, and is based on employee surveys.


Public Service Electric & Gas was recognized by J.D. Power as the top utility for residential customer satisfaction in both the electric and gas customer service categories in the East Large Segment for 2024. This achievement marks the second time PSE&G has earned this prestigious dual recognition for its residential customer satisfaction.


Prudential Financial has expanded the role of Caroline Feeney, appointing her as CEO of Global Retirement and Insurance Businesses, a newly created position that will oversee the company’s domestic and international retirement and insurance operations.


Former NJ Transit General Counsel Brian Wilton is joining the national bipartisan government affairs practice of Newark-based McCarter & English LLP.


Kenvue Inc., the maker of well-known brands like Neutrogena, Listerine, Aveeno and Tylenol, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony March 19 for its new, 290,000-square-foot global headquarters in Summit. The company has officially moved its headquarters from Skillman.


South Jersey Industries has donated $46,000 to the Southern New Jersey Chapter of the American Red Cross. The gift includes $23,000 in pledges from SJI employees as part of the company’s annual giving campaign, matched dollar-for-dollar by SJI. In total, this year’s campaign raised $350,000 for various organizations – a new record for the company.


Rowan University’s Edelman Fossil Park & Museum in Mantua opened March 29. It features towering dinosaur models, interactive exhibits, and a quarry where visitors can dig for fossils.


Thomas Edison State University has appointed Dr. Henry Collier as the new dean of its School of Science and Technology, effective April 7. Collier, a cybersecurity and artificial intelligence expert with more than 15 years of experience in higher education, will lead the school’s efforts to expand its programs and prepare students for careers in emerging technologies.


Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, part of RWJBarnabas Health, and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School recently received a $2.4 million grant to develop technology to better manage patients presenting with heart attacks.


RWJBarnabas Health celebrated the grand opening of its largest academic ambulatory outpatient facility, a 15-story ambulatory medical pavilion on the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital campus in New Brunswick.


CentraState Medical Center, part of Atlantic Health System, unveiled the Hersh Pediatric Center at CentraState, a facility that combines advanced pediatric emergency and inpatient services in one family-friendly location.


Cooper and Inspira Cardiac Care team members at Cooper University Hospital in Camden were excited to announce they surpassed 1,000 cardiac surgeries in 2024, the highest number in South Jersey, and third highest in the state


The New Jersey Economic Development Authority Board approved the creation of the New Jersey Film Works Grant Program and entered into Memorandums of Understanding with Montclair State University and Brookdale Community College to expand film and digital media workforce development initiatives.


Merck has signed a licensing agreement for a heart disease drug with Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals worth up to $2 billion. Merck will get exclusive rights to develop, manufacture and sell Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals’ experimental oral heart disease drug, HRS-5346, worldwide, except in the China region.


Jefferson Health in New Jersey announced its newly elected medical staff officers, who will serve two-year terms. Dr. Gopika Banker was named medical staff president; Dr. Gerardo Varallo was named medical staff vice president; and Dr. Siddharth Bhimani was named medical staff treasurer.