Mastercard Assists Small Businesses in Digitally Enhancing their Activities with New Microsoft, QuickBooks, and Zoho Benefits

In reaction to the pandemic, small businesses are starting to transfer their activities online and finding access to digital tools. According to a Mastercard survey, 76% of small businesses in North America say the pandemic encouraged them to become more digital, but 64 percent say they are challenged to do so. Mastercard has announced the launch of additional services with Microsoft, QuickBooks, and Zoho to its suite of U.S. small business benefits to help small businesses enhance their digital presence. Small businesses in the United States can now drive awareness about their business online through Microsoft Advertising, digitally handle payroll and receive HR assistance with QuickBooks Online Payroll, and connect with their customers through Zoho's marketing capabilities, which are now available through Mastercard BusinessCard® and World Elite Mastercard for Business®.

“Having a digitally-led method is more important than ever for small business owners today. “Mastercard remains dedicated to assisting small businesses in addressing the demands of the evolving consumer and functioning in our digital world,” said Chiro Aikat, Mastercard's EVP of Products & Innovation in North America. “With our partners, we are creating a strong base of digital offerings and tools for our small business cardholders that will help them support their businesses today and boost their success tomorrow.”

Beginning April 1st, Mastercard small business cardholders can instantly receive new rewards and access to tools and solutions to help them expand their businesses and transform digitally. This includes the following:

• Microsoft Advertising: Using paid search to find customers interested in your business and generate more leads, phone calls, appointments, visits, or purchases. After spending just $10 on Microsoft Ads, you'll get $125 in advertising credit.

• Intuit QuickBooks® Online Payroll allows you to manage payroll as well as provide health benefits and HR assistance to your customers. For the next six months, cardholders will get a 40% discount on QuickBooks Online Payroll.

• Discounts on Zoho Social and Marketing Plus: Mastercard BusinessCard cardholders get a 50% discount on one year of Zoho Social, a social media management platform that lets small businesses expand their social media footprint. Cardholders of the World Elite Mastercard for Enterprise enjoy a 50% discount on one year of Zoho Marketing Plus, Zoho's latest bundle that provides small business owners with a single marketing platform to help them handle their social media, execute email promotions, survey their clients, and more.

"Most businesses have undergone an accelerated digital transformation over the last year, and they are now open to a variety of tools that can help them grow and promote their businesses through digital marketing channels—web, social, email, events, and more," said Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist at Zoho. "We are excited to work with Mastercard to deliver our social media management tool and end-to-end digital marketing platform—Zoho Social and Zoho Marketing Plus—to help small businesses expand faster."

In addition to these new offerings, Mastercard's small business value proposition continues to include seamless digital resources and partner discounts, such as Salesforce's customer relationship management solution Salesforce Essentials, an all-in-one app that includes sales and customer support tools built specifically for businesses of their size, as well as Intuit's QuickBooks® and TurboTax® discounts, access to a 24/7 Business Assistant, Mastercard ID Theft Protection, Mastercard Easy Savings®, and Mastercard Receipt Management supported by Itemize, which is officially available to download and enable for free in the Apple and Android app store using a legitimate Mastercard Small Business card.

If small businesses ramp up their digital transformation activities in response to the pandemic, Mastercard's Digital Diagnostic will assist them in assessing their digital presence and identifying efficiencies. Small business owners have access to an always-on resource through the Mastercard Digital Doors program, which offers insights, tools, solutions, and guidance to help small businesses set up shop online, expand and maintain their business, receive payments, and keep their business secure.

About Mastercard

Mastercard is a payments processing organization with a worldwide presence. Their mission is to connect and power a digital economy that benefits everybody, everywhere by making transactions secure, easy, smart, and accessible. Its innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments, and enterprises achieve their full potential by utilizing stable data and networks, partnerships, and passion. Their decency quotient, or DQ, is what determines their culture and everything they do both inside and outside of the company. Mastercard is creating a thriving future with connections in over 210 countries and territories, unlocking priceless opportunities for everyone.