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by Jennifer Ortakales
November 15, 2019



by Jennifer Ortakales
November 15, 2019


Social media marketing may feel daunting to some small-business owners — there's a lot of competition in the race to gain followers and translate that into sales. Plus, when you're just starting out, it may not always be in the budget to hire someone to create content for you. 

Mastercard conducted research to learn what problems it can address with its tools for small businesses. Social media was one valuable (and often untapped) area Ginger Siegel, Mastercard's North America small business lead, spoke about at the company's first Small Business Summit on October 19. 

"Our research tells us that a lot of small business owners in general have a lot of trouble using social media because they can't figure out the return on investment," Siegel said in a panel during the summit. 



Forleo said in the panel that some business owners may view sales and marketing as slimy and aggressive, but they are "the lifeblood of your business." 

She encouraged business owners to pour their creativity into sales and marketing, adding that "modern marketing produces the best results, the highest profits in a business that you actually love."



1. Understand your ideal customer on a deeper level

Your target customer is more than the two-sentence description in a business pitch. Get to know your customers' needs, wants, desires, and the things they don't even speak about with their best friends, Forleo advised. 

"When you understand the people that you're meant to serve on that level, the money and the business starts to take care of itself," Forleo said. 


"When you create a clear brand, it kind of helps you differentiate early on," Quinn said.

Mallory Blair, cofounder and CEO of Small Girls PR, said Quinn is a replicable example of how influencers can help businesses build around communities that they're already cultivating. But it takes focus and research to know which influencers to target. 

"You come up with what is your big brand house and what are the pillars that hold up that house," Blair said.

2. Bring your brand's values to the forefront

Forleo said content is a way for businesses to signal their values to customers. "It really gives you an opportunity to inspire trust and confidence in your audience long before they ever do business with you," Forleo said.

Leann Livingston, a brand manager at Square, said most consumers are actively looking for brands with value and purpose, and are "using that to inform their purchase decisions."

"You know, we look out into the world and there's so much mistrust," Forleo said. "I think content is one of the most important signals that we can give people about our values, what we stand for, and then inspire them to do business with us."

3. Story makes the sale


"We really think about developing messaging pillars that ladder into something greater and building community around that narrative that people can buy into and make it part of their story," Blair said.

Quinn said she knows the people behind most of the products she owns. "I've fallen in love with that story before I fell in love with the product," she said.

"If people care about you as a creator, then they want to buy what you're selling," said Quinn.

4. Leave room for spontaneity when planning out your content

Planning social posts and brand content ahead of time is often the only way to keep up with today's fast-paced market, but Forleo recommends always leaving room for timely things. 

"You have to do the dance between planning and then also being able to be spontaneous," Forleo said. 

Siegel said agility is key and advised businesses to think of ways their products can tie into current events. "There might be a local, national, or global event that happens. You've got to be able to capitalize it," she said. "For many small businesses, they think, 'Well, I have nothing to do with global events,' but you absolutely might."

5. Get the most you can from every post

Once an influencer posts about a business or product, it's not the end of that partnership.

Reesa Lake, executive vice president at Digital Brand Architects, moderated the panel and also spoke on this topic. She said reposting and reusing is essential, especially for small businesses. "You have to look at those posts almost like an asset and how do you keep using it so you can get more and more dollars out of it," Lake said. 

If your business doesn't have a large following, Blair suggests partnering with businesses that share your values but don't have a competing product. She said cross-promotion helped Small Girls PR cultivate a community when it was starting out. 

"There's a lot of communities that already exist out there that have great networks, have great followings. Find out how you can partner with those individuals," Livingston said. She added, "they can be a really great advocate and source for you as well."

6. It doesn't matter how many followers you have if you're not interacting with them

Instead of putting all your effort into gaining new followers, focus on the ones you already have, Quinn advised. "My community basically is the reason I grow. They promote my stuff, they talk about me, they share me to their friends every day," she said. 

Quinn said when her followers repost her stories, they reach more people who would follow her for the same reasons. "So instead of me trying to reach out to someone who might not even be interested, they're doing the work for me because I invest in them," Quinn said.

Forleo said she tells people who take her online business program not to have "small follower shame." Instead, she says business owners should reverse their perspective: everyone who follows you cares about what you have to say. 

And in turn, those followers want to feel valued. Forleo said the biggest department in her company is called "customer happiness" and they respond to "every single email." She also recommends always using people's first names.

"I think it's really about paying attention to people and making them feel seen, heard, and acknowledged," said Forleo. 

Lake said two-way communication is essential to connecting with followers and influencers. "If you see somebody talking at you about your brand, talk back to them, DM them, message them," she said. 

Forleo said communities build when people feel how much you care, but you can't phone it in. "You can't do it with canned responses, you can't have an assistant do it for you," she said.

"Now more than ever, people's phoniness meters are so high where you can feel the insincerity through a digital mean. So you have to be rooted in your heart and a genuine caring," Forleo said. 


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