Media Alert: Adobe Delivers Powerful New Creative, Document and Marketing Capabilities for SMBs

• Labor shortages are compelling 70% of SMBs to rely on digital solutions that do more with less

• Adobe delivers new Cloud innovations, including SMB-focused Adobe Express improvements, to help SMBs eliminate complexity and enhance customer experiences

• New Etsy, Mastercard and Meta partnerships extend Adobe solutions to SMBs and their customers  

Adobe  announced at Adobe MAX – the world’s largest creativity conference – new automation and collaboration features across Adobe Creative Cloud and the Adobe product portfolio, helping small and mid-sized businesses modernize workflows while embracing new frontiers in creativity and productivity. Additionally, new partnerships with Mastercard, Etsy and Meta will provide SMBs with special access to Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Document Cloud.

In the digital economy, SMBs must work faster and smarter than ever before – and technology can help. New Adobe research found that nearly 70% of SMBs now depend on digital solutions to do more with less amidst labor shortages and 77% say ongoing uncertainty has compelled them to look for new ways to collaborate.

“Technology must help SMBs grow, not get in the way,” said Claire Darley, vice president, digital media GTM and sales at Adobe. “Millions of small businesses rely on Adobe technology, and our new innovations remove complexity, improve collaboration and automate repetitive tasks, so they can focus on creating customer-delighting digital experiences.”

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New Creative Cloud Capabilities Empower SMBs to Work Smarter and Expand Their Skills  

Adobe is democratizing access to powerful creativity tools on any device, enabling everyone to create compelling content. Advancements across Creative Cloud enable SMBs to easily move between interoperable apps, leverage the best tool for each task and access fonts and stock photo, illustration, video and 3D assets right within the apps, so they can stay efficient and focus on running their businesses. New app-specific capabilities include:

• Adobe Express now empowers SMBs, including businesses run by Adobe Express Ambassadors Maia Faddoul, Katie Kortman, Nikki McWilliams and Nelly Ruthenbeck, enabling easy creation of impactful social media posts based upon thousands of beautiful templates, which can be customized within the app or accessed within Adobe Fonts for blank canvas testing. Content scheduling and color palette recommendations have been added, while new Adobe Acrobat integrations enable SMBs to design visually appealing cover pages, section dividers and more, directly and easily within Acrobat.
• Share for Review (beta) allows users to share a version-specific link to a Photoshop or Illustrator file, then automatically flow reviewers’ comments back into the app, eliminating the need to juggle between different tools to address all feedback. Designers can now choose to co-edit a live file with Invite to Edit, or share a specific version of a file with Share for Review.
• AI powered by Adobe Sensei delivers new capabilities across Creative Cloud, simplifying and automating repetitive tasks in After Effects, Photoshop, InDesign, Substance 3D and more, enabling SMBs to efficiently and intuitively bring their ideas to life. Using Substance 3D, Australian architectural 3D rendering and animation company Binyan Studios is developing 3D assets for clients two to 10 times faster than ever before.

New Document Cloud and Experience Cloud Capabilities Raise the Bar for SMB Documents and Marketing 

Adobe also announced new capabilities for SMBs across Document Cloud and Experience Cloud, spanning popular applications including Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Commerce and Adobe Marketo Engage.

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• Adobe Acrobat introduced free web-based watermarking, cropping, redaction, OCR, stamping, certifying and page numbering tools to take quick actions on documents. Additional features include branded agreement templates with a company’s name, logo and custom URL; conversion of any document into a web form; automated sending of one document to many people for e-signatures; and an option to send payments with e-signed agreements.
• Adobe Commerce enables SMB retailers to easily incorporate Walmart’s, PayPal’s and FedEx’s enterprise-grade solutions, enabling any merchant to offer an omnichannel customer experience.
• Adobe Marketo Engage adds a new, entry-level automation package that helps SMBs automate and scale their marketing efforts, including: quick start templates for e-mails, landing pages, forms and campaigns that SMBs can quickly edit and launch; cloning ability for campaign workflows; and tokens for emails, landing pages or campaigns will personalize the customer experience and lead to higher conversions.

New Partnerships Support Creativity and Productivity for SMB Customers 

Adobe announced that it is partnering with trusted SMB-supporting brands to support their business goals:

• Etsy: During Etsy’s Holiday Edition event, 5.3 million sellers received four-month premium trials of Adobe Express to create standout product listings, promotional design graphics, social media content, logos and more.
• Mastercard: Mastercard BusinessCard and World Elite Mastercard for Business cardholders will be able to access to more than 20 Adobe Creative Cloud applications like Acrobat Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator and Adobe Express that unlock the powers of collaboration and imagination to build your brand and grow your business. Mastercard BusinessCard cardholders will automatically receive two complimentary months when they purchase any new prepaid annual Creative Cloud for individual subscriptions; World Elite Mastercard for Business® cardholders will automatically enjoy four complimentary months on any new prepaid annual Creative Cloud for individual subscriptions.
• Meta: Adobe has partnered with Meta to offer “Express Your Brand,” a training program providing free education and tools that empower SMBs to grow their presence and visibility online. The program includes resources, tools and a community for a diverse group of SMBs, including granting annual Adobe Express premium subscriptions to 10,000 Black, Latinx and Hispanic-owned businesses.

“Small business owners are doing more with less simultaneously playing roles in operations, finance, sales, customer engagement and more, but without some of the critical tools and resources to get the job done effectively and efficiently,” said Ginger Siegel, North America small business lead at Mastercard. “Partnering with Adobe, we’re empowering our small business cardholders to eliminate the ‘guess work’ and ‘hard work’ when designing, building and growing their businesses.”

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