First, what is our goal? Why do we want to bring partners on the platform specifically on black friday and what do we want them to do?

Are we trying to recruit new partners to the platform or encourage existing partners to increase their advertising spend on the platform? for black friday, or just If our – advertising campaigns? Is our priority to increase profit, increase revenue, to sign up new advertising partners, or otherwise?

If the goal is to increase revenue and/or bring new partners, I would offer “Black Friday” advertising deals to encourage existing advertising partners to spend on campaigns.

If the goal is to bring on new advertising partners, the offering could be targeted to business pages that have not yet engaged in paid advertising, If the goal is to bring on partners, who might potentially convert into paid advertising partners, then the offering could be advertised on outside platforms and mediums to reach customers outside of Facebook’s orbit.

1. CLARIFY: 
   1. Are we temporarily trying to bring partners onto the platform for Black Friday or are we trying to bring them on permanently? You choose.
   2. Given its Black Friday, can we assume the market is the US? Yes.
   3. Do you have a specific definition of “partner”? Is it a business? Yes.
2. FACEBOOK BACKGROUND: Facebook is a social media platform that focuses on building a community. It allows individuals and businesses to create accounts. In regards to the business account, businesses can create public pgs that the public can follow. The business can create events and host a shop inside the Facebook platform to sell goods.
3. GOAL: In regard to the goal, the goal of the strategy for Black Friday is to get businesses to sell items for Black Friday on Facebook to increase engagement on the platform and drive revenue for Facebook. Facebook gets a portion of the sale for items sold on its platform. Ideally, Facebook keeps businesses engaged on the platform after Black Friday.
4. USER: There are two users we can focus on. In this instance, I’d like to focus on businesses with no Facebook presence, as they represent a good opportunity to bring new users to the platform / grow the Facebook community in line with its business goal.
   1. Businesses with no Facebook presence
   2. Businesses with a Facebook presence
5. SUB USER: There are three types of businesses within the “Business with no Facebook presence”. Given the growing size of a business and the importance of a digital presence, I would guess the larger the company, the greater the likelihood they have a Facebook presence. Small businesses represent a big opportunity for Facebook with over 30M small businesses in the US, which account for the majority of businesses in the US.
   1. Small Business: $1-20M in revenue. May have 1-10 employees.
   2. Medium Business: $20M – $50M in revenue. Have 10-50 employees.
   3. Large Business: $50M+ in revenue. 50+ employees.
6. USER PAIN POINTS: Below are a few user pain points for businesses that do not use Facebook. Based on the assessment, I’d like to focus on small businesses that do not see the value in Facebook.

   1. Painpoint	Description	Impact to User
      Awareness	Business does not know Facebook exists.	Low: Unlikely, given Facebook’s dominant present.
      Usability	Business does not know how to set up Facebook account.	Medium: May be older users that do not know how to set up an account. Younger business owners more likely to figure it out.
      Value	Business does not see value in Facebook account.	High: Many businesses may not see Facebook as a way to drive sales. May be more focused on traditionally focused commerce platforms (like Amazon, Shopify, etc.)
      Management	Business has no time to set up / manage account.	Medium: Lack of resources to set up account. May not have enough employees.

7. STRATEGIES: With a focus on enhancing the small business understanding of the value that Facebook can drive, I propose the following strategies.
   1. Reduced Fee Campaign: Facebook targets small businesses in email / marketing campaign offering a reduced fee for sales conducted on Black Friday if the small business sets up their account by certain date. Facebook includes reasoning as to why Facebook be of value to the business (ex. grow sales, grow customer base with Facebook users, etc.)
   2. Marketing Resources / Page Set Up: Facebook offers low cost marketing resources to small businesses to help set up Facebook page for Black Friday. Demonstrates that Facebook pgs are shown to large user base.
   3. Small Business Event: Facebook hosts a live Facebook event (virtual) open to small businesses on the value of Facebook presence with statistics on businesses that use Facebook for sales v. businesses that don’t. Emphasizes how much more likely users are to engage in Facebook Shops on Black Friday.
   4. Advertisements: Facebook offers to increase advertisements to users for Black Friday in partnership with small businesses in marketing campaign. Cost of advertisements is lower for small business if they create account before Black Friday. Ads could link to Facebook Shop for that small business.
   5. Facebook Notifications: Facebook sends targetted advertisements to individual / personal account users they believe may have a small business to encourage them to set up an account. Facebook emphasizes users should set up the account before Black Friday to increase Black Friday sales.
8. EVALUATE STRATEGIES:

   1. Strategy	Impact to Business	Cost to Facebook
      Reduced Fee Campaign	Low: Business may not read the email. Likelihood of conversion is unknown.	Low: May be difficult to find target list but running the campaign should not be difficult. Email could contain button to start account application, etc.
      Marketing Resources	High: Small businesses may not have marketing resources. Likely strained for resources / time.	High: Cost / time to provide marketing resources
      Small Business Event	Medium: May find more value in open forum where questions are available.	Medium: Likely can use internal resources and potentially bring in existing small business partners.
      Advertisements	High: Small businesses rely on advertisements to boost sales. As small business owner, being able to reach a large base for a low cost is a big win.	Low: Already advertises on platform. Shop capabilities already exist.
      Facebook Notifications	Low: May be difficult to target right people. Individuals may have poor experience if they aren’t business owners / receive notification.	Low: Already has mobile / web applications and sends notifications.

9. RECOMMENDATION: Based on the analysis, I recommend we run a marketing campaign a few weeks before Black Friday to small businesses with no Facebook presence explaining the value of a Facebook presence / Facebook shop. Facebook offers to increase the number of advertisements for that small business if they create an account before a certain deadline.  The advertisement is shown to Facebook’s base, which likely increases purchases made on the Facebook Shop and the number of companies with a Facebook presence. Facebook grows its community and drives revenue.