Small business credit and debit marketing best practices

A pie chart illustrating payment methods accepted by small business owners and its percentage of small business spend: 75% check, 15% automated clearing house (ACH), 9% debit/credit card, and 1% other.

Moving small businesses away from checks represents $4.1 trillion in potential spend for payment card issuers.

The 29 million small businesses in the U.S. generate $5.5 trillion in total spend¹, but only 9 percent of that spend is captured on credit and debit cards. While payment cards are gaining in usage, check is still the payment method of choice for small business owners (SBOs)—accounting for 75 percent of all small business spending².

We’ve created an easy, turnkey marketing solution to help you capture more spend for your small business payment card program. This plan highlights the advantages and benefits of Visa business debit and credit card products using proven marketing strategies to break through to this hard-to-reach audience.

The opportunity: Capture more spending on credit and debit cards

Reach out to current and prospective small business cardholders by highlighting the advantages and benefits of Visa Business Debit, Visa Business Credit and Signature Business Credit cards to existing and prospective small business cardholders.

Whether your marketing initiatives focus on acquiring new cardholders or encouraging existing ones to use their cards, we’ll provide you with proven credit and debit card marketing strategies and tactics to engage small business owners and drive usage among cardholders, like Early Month on Book (EMOB) marketing.

Early Month on Book (EMOB) Marketing

Day 0 Card Carrier, Day 15-20 Welcome Letter & Insert, Day 30-35 Welcome Email Icons

Marketing timing, themes and relevant Visa products

Here's a guide to implementing a quarterly marketing plan. Each quarter, your marketing efforts will reflect a theme, so you can focus your campaign on promoting features or benefits offered through specific Visa products:


Quarter	Theme	Offer	Product	Marketing Materials
One	Control	Expense tracking	Visa Business Reporting	Email Statement insert Banner ads Video
Two	Value	Discounts + rewards	Visa SavingsEdge®	Email Statement insert Banner ads Interstitial page Brochure
Three	Security	Secure payments + accessibility	Security features	Landing page Email Brochure
Four	Convenience	Quick + easy ways to pay	Visa Checkout	Email Statement insert Banner ads Direct mail Postcard Landing page Social media posts Or Online bill payment Rewards + Non-rewards: Email Statement insert Banner ads Direct mail Non-rewards card marketing: Interstitial page

Semiannual marketing plan

Offer check-to-card capabilities (credit/debt).

Marketing materials:

Banner ads
Brochure
Email
Interstitial page
Statement insert
Video
Landing page

You can download detailed materials for all marketing plans at www.visaonline.com/smallbusiness.

Please note: Visa Online is only available to existing Visa clients.

Keys to success

Get to know your customer

Small business owners are a challenging audience. They are often time-constrained, juggling many responsibilities. This can make it difficult to break through with marketing. But it is possible—with the right messaging and strategy—to reach small business owners and drive response. To reach them, you need to remember two things: be relevant and be pervasive.

Be relevant

Promote benefits that directly address small business owner needs.

Understand small business owner characteristics

A businesswoman is sitting at a desk speaking on the phone with both hands sifting through two separate collection of notes.

Stretched thin

Small business owners are multitaskers who find it hard to give up responsibility
They want help with cash flow management and insight into their spending
Visa benefits: Visa IntelliLink is a small business online reporting tool that shows different views of business spending

A man is sitting and concentrating while resting his head on his right finger tips.

Fiscally aware

They are focused on the bottom line
They want to receive rewards and discounts for their spending
Visa benefits: Visa SavingsEdge® automatic offers savings on business expenses

Three construction men are standing and viewing a set of blue prints with a large crane in the foreground.

Protective

They are dedicated to running and protecting their business
They want the peace of mind of knowing that their payments are secure
Visa benefits: Chip technology and other security features including zero liability³ and purchase protection

A businesswoman is speaking on a phone being held between her head and left shoulder with her right hand holding a paper bag and sifting through a pile of papers and her left hand holding a tray of to-go coffee cups.

Time-constrained

They struggle with time management given their multiple responsibilities
They appreciate quick and easy ways to pay
Visa benefits: Offer Visa Checkout so they can pay online without re-entering card and address info, and online bill payment simplifies record keeping and saves time

Make your message pervasive

Use multiple channels and tactics to reinforce your message.

Message saturation is key. By combining traditional channels like statement inserts and in-branch materials such as brochures, emails, banner ads and other digital marketing channels, you'll increase the chances of driving response.

There are a variety of other valuable channels you can consider as well, including on-hold messaging, ATM messaging, social media channels and more.

Marketing Resources

Downloads on Visa Online

Jumpstart your marketing program with the following resources. Log in at Visa Online to download creative files. Please note: Visa Online is only available to existing Visa clients.

Check-to-Card Marketing: Educate small business owners about the many ways credit and debit cards are better than checks in addressing small business owners' needs for control, value, security and convenience.
Visa IntelliLink for small business communications: Issuers that participate in Visa IntelliLink for Small Business can take advantage of turnkey materials to promote usage of this program.
Visa SavingsEdge communications: Make sure your Visa Business cardholders know that they can receive automatic discounts on qualifying purchases from participating merchants if they enroll their card in the Visa SavingsEdge program.
Visa business security program communications: Remind cardholders about fraud prevention tools and everyday security protections such as the zero liability policy, purchase protection and chip technology to give small business owners peace of mind.
Visa Checkout marketing: Issuers enrolled in Visa Checkout, can promote this easy way to pay online anywhere Visa Checkout is accepted. With Visa Checkout, cardholders don't have to re-enter their card and address information.
Visa bill pay marketing: Promote the many benefits of paying with a Visa card instead of a check.

¹ U.S. Small Business total CCE–Visa Commercial Consumption Expenditure Index; Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) modeling and analysis, September 2013.

² Sources: 2013 Visa Commercial Consumption Expenditure Index; Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) modeling and analysis, 2008-2013. Global CCE index data sources include Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), U.S. Census Bureau, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Structural Analysis (STAN) Database, EuroStat Database, General Government Accounts from the National Accounts of OECD Countries, United Nations Statistics Division National Accounts Main Aggregates Database, EIU proprietary databases, government data and EIU model estimates where government data was unavailable. Large contracted defense spending not included in CCE index.

³ Visa’s Zero Liability Policy covers U.S.-issued cards and does not apply to certain commercial card transactions or any transactions not processed by Visa. You must notify your financial institution immediately of any unauthorized use. For specific restrictions, limitations and other details, please consult your issuer.