Being a business owner is hard. Being an underserved business owner is ever harder. Asian-American, Black, Hispanic, and female business owners all face barriers in the entrepreneurship journey – from a lack of funding and financial education to mentorship and the support systems they need to grow. In spite of these additional challenges, they sit at the heart of their communities.
QuickBooks is dedicated to championing diverse business owners—their stories, their businesses, and their (too often) unseen impact.
To amplify their voices and provide resources for other new business owners, QuickBooks developed a social-first video series featuring AAPI business owners in New York City’s Chinatown, Black business owners in Inglewood, CA, and Hispanic and Latino business owners in Dallas—now at 11 stories and counting. 82% of the businesses featured have a female founder or co-founder and 90% are within their first few years of business ownership, which are critical to success.
What makes these stories so amazing are the business owners themselves. We never cease to be amazed by their dedication to and impact on their communities. QuickBooks is committed to giving these underrepresented business owners a platform and audience they don’t often have. Videos in the series highlight multi-generational business success, investment in local communities, and advice for fellow small business owners--particularly those just starting out--all while promoting the business itself, showcasing their work, products, and services to a wider audience. In every conversation, it was clear that these business owners were 100% invested in their communities. They care about their customers, neighbors, and fellow entrepreneurs and founders—truly viewing their businesses as a means to connect with people. This series is ongoing, and QuickBooks plans to continue investing in representation of diverse businesses and their voices.
By tying this work to cultural tentpoles – AAPI Month, Black Business Month, and Hispanic Heritage Month – we were able to get the right message in front of the right people, on the right channels, at the right time. To showcase the diversity of these business communities, we featured a spectrum of compelling stories, ranging from the oldest dim sum parlor in NYC to the Chimala Taco Bar in Dallas—where Andrea Hermosillo switched careers from construction to cooking as a single mother to bring real Mexican cuisine and culture to her community.
Using the right owned channels and formats to reach their audience based on prior content performance — YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook for storytelling, LinkedIn and Twitter for resource content, TikTok and Reels for immersive visuals, QuickBooks leveraged every opportunity to embed and enrich the published content on the QuickBooks Blog with social and video assets.
Through Instagram collabs, QuickBooks was able to reach their communities directly, allowing their customers and followers to learn more about the business owners and driving an outpouring of local love.
Both paid and organic results, as well as comments on the content, showed the relatability of this content with the small business community and those they serve.
Organic
● Outperformed all other brand social assets in 2022 (+50% engagement on average)
● 5 of our 6 top performing Instagram posts in 2022 were from this series
These videos were shared 27X more on average
Paid
● This series accounted for all top performing assets in brand traffic campaigns for both efficiency (cost per landing page view) and effectiveness (click-thru rate) in 2022
● Exceeded KPI benchmarks on average by 2-3X, and in some cases up to 7X
Verbatims
“Love this story and the positive impact you’ve made in the community.”
“Love seeing businesses thrive!”
“Thanks for sharing this! Such an inspiration to all people who are dreaming of starting a business.”
“Grateful for the stage to tell our story to widen the reach of our mission. Cheers!”
