From insights into consumer behavior in the same period of previous years, to credits for ads, Meta and TikTok created a series of actions together with content creators to encourage and help small entrepreneurs to create digital content that drives increased sales.
The incentive comes to help with the expectation of sales for the quarter, which despite being high, does not follow the market recovery that has been happening at a slow pace.
According to Meta’s most recent survey of the Global Status of Small Businesses, 25% of SMBs aim to sell more than half of their annual revenue between October 1st and December 31st alone.
On the other hand, this survey shows that for 30% of small and medium-sized companies, the lack of demand has been the biggest challenge, followed by a lack of cash flow that affects another 25%, which makes this quarter decisive in terms of guaranteeing survival from many companies.
A recipe for success?
With the recent mass layoffs announced by Meta this quarter and revenues falling due to excessive spending and no return from Metaverse, believe me, they know they need to reheat the market, dribble the competition and accelerate their recovery.
Therefore, after extensive research into consumer behavior on their social networks during this year-end period, Meta generated a series of insights to help small and medium-sized companies create content, in addition to offering tools and guidelines to ensure sales success.
Initiatives launched by Meta
On its website, Meta launched a Holiday marketing guide. It’s a very complete material to help small businesses prepare for seasonal sales, it contains insights from the 2019, 2020 and 2021 holiday seasons from 33 markets, tips on how to prepare for this time, as well as ideas for campaigns before, during and after the commemorative dates, including tips for building customer loyalty.
Another initiative launched was the “Try My Reel” campaign, available on Instagram for Business, which is a series of templates for Reels created by influencers for small entrepreneurs. The idea of the campaign is to show how simple it is to create video content on the platform and how it can help attract the public.
If you want to try it, Reels are available in Instagram’s template library and promise to be very easy to use.
Diversity is also a focus for Meta. #BuyBlack is the campaign to promote training for black entrepreneurs during the holiday season, in addition to highlighting other black entrepreneurs who have been successful on their platforms and now provide mentoring on the subject.
In addition, Meta has a Leaders Network, which are entrepreneurs who are making the most of the platform and therefore become prominent on the networks, in addition to mentoring other entrepreneurs.
Consensus among the giants: bet on videos
In a quick reading of the surveys presented by Meta, we can already see that the focus is only one: videos. 43% of people surveyed who do holiday shopping and discover products on Meta did so through video content.
And of course, on TikTok, it couldn’t be any different, 44% of TikTok users said they had immediately purchased a product after discovering it on the platform.
And to encourage more entrepreneurs to enter trends and create content for the platform, TikTok has also launched a series of initiatives.
Initiatives launched by TikTok
The #ShopSmall campaign is an incentive for new entrepreneurs to start on the platform and an accelerator for those who already create content on TikTok. This highlight comes through the use of a track created for the campaign, in addition to the hashtag.
This initiative is an opportunity for companies to stand out, even on Saturday for small companies, on November 26th. The campaign also relies on guidance from influencers on the platform who started small and are now very successful there.
And to encourage creators to turn content into ads on the social network, TikTok is also giving US creators $100 worth of ad credits for those who invest at least $50 into their first sponsored campaign.
You can find all the campaign details on tiktokshopsmall.com.
The platform also encourages all users to use the hashtag #ShopSmall to share where they are shopping for Christmas gifts this year.
Final Tips
The highlight of the incentives, without a doubt, is the Seasonal Marketing Guide made by Meta. The interactive material brings very valuable tips to run campaigns that work, inside and outside Meta’s platforms.
In addition to the hashtags and templates that both are proposing, the ideal is to stay up to date with the latest trends. Scroll through the feed and see which audios and filters are popular there. The potential for virality, especially on TikTok, is very high when you understand how to take advantage of the platform’s resources.
And finally, what kind of inspiration are you offering to the market? It’s worth checking out our article with insights from Google on consumer behavior in this very important quarter. Spoiler: Consumers desperately want gift ideas (I include myself on that list). How is your brand helping consumers get the bright idea of choosing your product?
Do you want to continue to be updated with Marketing best practices? I strongly suggest that you subscribe to The Beat, Rock Content’s interactive newsletter. There, you’ll find all the trends that matter in the Digital Marketing landscape. See you there!
