american express small business marketing strategy

American Express’ Small BusinessMarketing Strategy

Prepared by Kevin HuangMarch 23, 2016

US Small Businesses Overview

• The 28 million small businesses in America account for 54% of all U.S. sales.• Small businesses provide 55% of all jobs and 66% of all net new jobs since the 1970s.• The 600,000 plus franchised small businesses in the U.S. account for 40% of all retail sales and provide jobs for some 8 million people.• The small business sector in America occupies 30-50% of all commercial space, an estimated 20-34 billion square feet.• The number of small businesses in the United States has increased 49% since 1982.• Since 1990, as big business eliminated 4 million jobs, small businesses added 8 million new jobs.

Small Business is BIG!Small Business, BIG Impact!

Source: U.S. Small Business Adminstration

Women Entrepreneurs

Source: Money.cnn.com

Source: HowMuch.et

Top Small Business Issues in 2015

Source: http://goo.gl/vQgF6D

U.S. Small Business Optimism IndexThe index consists of 10 indicators derived from questions addressing small business owners: Plans to create employment; plans to make capital outlays; plans to increase inventories; expect economy to improve; expect real sales higher; current inventory; current job openings; expected credit conditions; now a good time to expand; earnings trends.

Source:

Another BIG Problem:Nearly 60% of small businesses

fail within four years.

Case Study: American Express

In 2007 American Express launched Open Forum, a site that aims to give advice to small business owners.The site is frequently updated with new content, including blog posts and videos, but the jewel in the crown is probably the ‘Idea Hub’. The hub is a forum that allows members to network and share ideas with each other and industry experts.

It now attracts more than 1m unique visitors per month and has more than 18,000 members. Interestingly, social media is currently the most popular topic on the site.Open Forum is also supported through other social media channels, with its Facebook page attracting more than 400,000 fans.

Open Forum achieved massive growth when it first launched, increasing unique visitors from 160,000 in December 2008 to almost 1m in December 2009.

AMEX Open Forum

Tagline: Helping businesses do more business.Mission: "American Express OPEN is where you can discover insights, make connections and get exposure to help you grow your business. Tap into the collective ingenuity of other business owners as they discuss and share ways of doing business.“Strategy: AMEX's main strategy is to help more business stay in business. Focusing greatly on insights and tips, AMEX creates OPEN Forum posts that equip small business owners with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. By incorporating, questions, images, photographs, links, quizzes and more into their content they foster community and support. Similar to GE, OPEN Forum is less about AMEX and more about their customers.

Insights, Inspiration, and Connections to Grow Your Business

AMEX Becomes a Brand and a Publisher

Support from Online to Offline

The main reason why AMEX's OPEN Forum campaign works is because it doesn't try selling credit cards to small businesses but rather instills knowledge and support for their customers. They are also constantly answering questions through created content and always link their posts back to their own website. Along with the use of images, AMEX continues to build a community of growing businesses and helps to keep them in business not only with their credit card service but also with all the insights, tips and information needed to keep them afloat.

Why It Works

…… ……

How to Celebrate for Small Businesses?

In 2010 American Express officially launched Small Business Saturday. It took place on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and it's intention was to promote small businesses across the country and encourage people across the country to shop locally that Saturday.In 2011, the U.S. Senate officially recognized Small Business Saturday and by 2012, an estimated $5.5 billion was spent at small independent businesses on the one day.

AMEX Small Business Saturday

FedEx is trying to encourage shopping small by giving away 40,000 Shop-Small American Express Gift Cards, each worth $25, to consumers via Facebook. Consumers can use them at small businesses in their communities. The promotion, a continuation of the company’s support of Small Business Saturday and the small business community at large, is designed to drive customers to local, independent retailers this holiday season, a time of year critical to every retailer’s success, FedEx said.

Source: Business News Daily

Other Companies Soon Joined the Rally

US President Barack Obama Tweeted His Support

President Obama visited local small businesses in Washington D.C. with his daughters for Small Business Saturday.

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution designating November 28th, 2015 as Small Business Saturday

(Click to play the video)

Small Business Saturday Spending Reaches $16.2 billion in 2015, a 14% increase from 2014

Source: Yahoo Finance

“This year Small Business Saturday saw record levels of support from communities and local organizations. More than 4,100 Neighborhood Champions around the country rallied local businesses and created events in their communities for Small Business Saturday — an increase of 48 percent over last year. And more than 425 organizations joined the Small Business Saturday Coalition – an increase of 11 percent over last year.”

What Can We Learn FromAMEX Small Business Saturday

Branding1American Express has developed an entire brand around Shop Small and Small Business Saturday. They've built an entirely separate website at ShopSmall.com for Small Business Saturday. Everything from unique logos, color schemes, and Shop Small social media accounts have been created for this new brand. This has made it easy for participants to rally around a brand separate from American Express itself. I don't need to be a customer or have any affinity toward American Express to be a part of Small Business Saturday.

Personalize Experiences2American Express has done an amazing job at personalizing the experience both for the small businesses and individuals participating in Small Business Saturday. As a business owner, you can create personalized posters like the one to the right. You can also add your business to their map of local businesses. As a participant, they tailor your experience on the site to your zip code and show you local businesses you can support on Small Business Saturday. All the marketing materials are personalized and provide a unique experience for each individual. The future of marketing is in the personalized experiences our customers have with our brands. Personalized customer journeys create loyal customers.

3 Enlist Brand AdvocatesOne of American Express's best marketing tactics with Small Business Saturday has been their ability to recruit brand advocates. Not only have they focused on getting small businesses signed up to participate in the program, but they also implemented a "Neighborhood Champions" program to enlist people around different local communities. According to their website, "People across the country are organizing events to celebrate the small businesses in their communities." Small businesses and participants can become champions and organize events throughout the entire city. Word of mouth marketing has been a vital part to Small Business Saturday's success—enabled mainly by neighborhood champions.

4 Enable Your Brand AdvocatesA key component to the success of building brand advocates is how you enable them. American Express has gone above and beyond to enable their brand advocates and businesses participating in Small Business Saturday. They have an entire section of their website dedicated to enabling businesses and providing an extensive toolkit to businesses. You can download personalized banners, images, posters, marketing emails, postcards, invitations, Facebook cover images, and social posts to share.

5 Crowdsource ContentAmerican Express is urging participants to share pictures of them shopping at Small Businesses on social media using #ShopSmall. They are crowdsourcing content from participants and using it to help promote the event. By using social media, this ignites the fuse and propels it's traction.

6 Create a CommunityThe power of a community is exponential. American Express has been able to build an entire community around Small Business Saturday. It furthers their marketing and allows their community to do some of the work for them. Building communities is one of the best ways to foster loyalty and engagement with your audience.

7 Define Your Value Proposition and Promote it ActivelySmall Business Saturday has defined their essential value proposition both for businesses and attendees in extremely simple terms. They are able to connect with their audience on a deeper, emotional level and promote this value throughout their site and in their communications clearly and effectively. On the right is the main graphic on the Shop Small homepage describing the benefit of shopping small. This is also another piece to their marketing toolkit they provide businesses.

8 Think BigIn one of Jeff Rohrs breakout sessions at Connections 2014, he spoke on "Making Mobile Moments Matter," and one of his major takeaways was that "mobile moments don't have to be small. They can be big ideas." He told the story of American Express's Small Business Saturday and how it grew to have a $5.5B economic impact last year. A key lesson from AMEX is to not limit yourself when coming up with new campaigns and ways to connect with your customers on their journey with your brand.Also, don't be discouraged if your idea isn't a $5.5B idea. Good ideas come in all shapes and sizes. The important thing is to not limit yourself. Think outside the box. Dream big and don't discount big ideas.

(Click to view the slides)

9 Don't Make Everything About YourselfThe purpose of content marketing is to educate, inspire, and engage with the audience. It is meant to create long-term, lasting relationships with your brand. It's not meant to be propaganda for your company or a shady way to get contact information. American Express really understands this concept—both with Small Business Saturday and OPEN Forum.Small Business Saturday is clearly sponsored and a program from American Express, but it remains very separate from American Express's core business. There aren't credit card applications everywhere on the Small Business Saturday website. American Express isn't forcing businesses to accept their credit cards to participate. They are creating meaningful relationships with these small businesses and individuals and letting that good will and loyalty toward the AMEX brand cultivate into sales in the long-term.