Small Business Concerns During the Middle of the Pandemic

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Thursday, October 1 2020 Joicee Lu Categories:

Small Businesses is one of the audience segments we monitor with our Content Optimization Solution, which is designed to help marketers create content that appeals to target audiences. Each month, we update our Small Business dashboard to reflect the shifting pain points, priorities, and needs detected by our algorithms in the digital Small Business conversation.

Here we dive into a snapshot of the Small Business Narrative Landscape in the middle of the pandemic — July of 2020. As the graph below shows, Small Businesses were primarily focused on pandemic-related issues, such as finances, the effects on their personal lives, and the challenges of keeping their people employed. Interestingly, though, Marketing, a dominant pre-pandemic topic, experienced a resurgence in the Small Business conversation in July.

In our Content Optimization dashboard we also surface how Small Business leaders feel about different topics – which are Pain Points and which are sources of satisfaction? The sentiment spectrum at the top of the following graph shows that Marketing was less of a Pain Point in July. Taking a deeper look, we identify the companies and tools Small Businesses refer to in their expressions, to see which of these entities are sources of problems, solutions or both. The Venn diagram shows how Small Businesses discussed these providers during the pandemic.

When it comes to Marketing enablement during the pandemic, Small Businesses are praising LinkedIn, criticizing Etsy, and giving the biggest players (Facebook, Google, Instagram and Twitter) mixed reviews. It also seems that Small Businesses are struggling with conducting in-house marketing efforts. We are curious to watch these attitudes evolve as Small Businesses continue to struggle through, and eventually emerge from, the pandemic. Those providers who can meet Small Business leaders’ needs during challenging times may win lasting loyalties as the economy recovers.
Interested in learning more about where Small Businesses, or other target audiences, are focused? Contact us at info@protagonist.io or learn about our Content Optimization Solution here.