Mastercard Small Business Summit Celebrates Women Business Owners
Ramon Ray caught up with Cheryl Guerin, Mastercard’s Executive Vice President of Integrated Marketing and Communications for North America at Mastercard’s Small Business Summit in partnership with Create and Cultivate in New York City. The summit was held in celebration of National Women’s Small Business Month and Cheryl was there as part of Mastercard’s Women’s Business Advisory Council.
Cheryl says this is just one of the ways Mastercard is helping women small business owners. “We want to make sure they get access to mentoring, networking, so they can have advice and tools at their fingertips.” In the event itself, they’ve also created a small business marketplace for attendees to showcase their small businesses and products.
Shining the Spotlight on Women Business Owners
“These women are bold, and brave, and fierce, and they’re fueling the economy.” Cheryl adds that women business owners are opening businesses at twice the rate of men. “They’re sort of unsung heroes, and we wanted to shine the light on them.” So, Mastercard has launched the campaign, “Her Ideas Start Something Priceless” to spotlight women business owners.
Purpose Over Profit
Cheryl shares that Mastercard discovered in their research that many of these women business owners are motived by purpose over profit. “It’s not that they don’t want profit, they know they need it to stay in business, but they’re much more motivated by the purpose and the impact they’re going to have on other women, people’s lives, and the world.” She says it’s exciting to get to help fuel their businesses.
Ramon and Cheryl agree that the purpose over profit phenomenon is generational. The next generation of women business owners want to make a difference. Cheryl adds, that for a brand like Mastercard, “there is an expectation that they see us doing good, and we want to do good.”
Mastering Marketing
You have to have products, you have to have services, and you have to have marketing that hits a chord for people and resonates. Cheryl says that this is based on where consumers’ heads are at and what’s motivating them.
- Making sure your product or service is meeting a need and is really meaningful in people’s lives.
- Get the word out. Companies like Mastercard are showcasing women businesses. Leverage social media and influencer marketing. Small businesses need to be in the know about who the influencers are out there and how, and who do they want to attract to spread the word about their businesses. Big brands are using influencer marketing and small businesses can use it as well. It’s really just following and understanding who your market is and discovering who has the loudest voice in your market. Attracting some influencers can make a really big impact on any size budget. Small business owners have to leverage their networks to get the word out.
- Good, old Salesforce. Mastercard has partnered with Salesforce Essentials to offer the CRM platform at a discount for under $10/month for Mastercard Business Cardholders to generate more leads for their companies.