Tony Pullaro
Marketing Director, Red Mesa Group
Micro-influencers offer the biggest opportunity for local-level marketing right now. Small businesses and brands can partner with local bloggers and influencers to drive sales and awareness. Whether it is a restaurant, clothing shop, beauty or health product, micro-influencers know the local community better than any big-name celebrity.
It’s the new networking. Their posts, stories, TikToks, and tweets are the new advertising, reaching people where they are and influencing where they go, what they eat, and what they buy. Even a rising star with just a few thousand followers can have a generous ripple effect on your business, if it’s done in an authentic way.
Jon Fasoli
Vice President and Business Segment Leader of Small Business, QuickBooks
Consumers are shopping online now more than ever, and it’s unlikely that these new shopping habits will change. Small businesses need to support how their customers want to shop, whether in-store, online, or across multiple digital marketplaces. A recent QuickBooks study found 28% of small businesses are selling more products and services online in 2020, and 94% say the coronavirus influenced this change.
In 2021, we expect the growth in online payments to continue as small businesses move away from check and cash payments. This will be coupled with a growth in online-only banking solutions, like the new QuickBooks Cash offering, that link to online payments capabilities and provide immediate and next-day access to funds resulting from sales.
Maria Melo
Senior Business Advisor, Yahoo Small Business
Consumers have grown accustomed to new and creative forms of marketing and customer engagement, with a specific focus on video. [Even has the economy reopens] SMBs will increasingly use video communication to build relationships with their customers—for example, for a business selling electronics that customers may have trouble installing, video conferencing with shoppers to provide support; or a business selling apparel and accessories, hosting a virtual runway show. Virtual, experience-based marketing will become key to successfully engaging customers in the new year.
Over the last year, SMS marketing has also become widely popular among business owners, more specifically, retailers. The average open rate of a text message is about 99%, with 97% of messages read within 15 minutes. Many business owners are homing in on this and incorporating SMS with their other marketing channels.
