As a small business owner, there is often a big dilemma. When you are incredibly busy and the money is rolling in, often you are losing your mind, overwhelmed by all the steps, the fulfillment, the keeping up with messages. But the inverse is also true: when there are no sales and no messages coming in, the stress is there too; but this time it is lack of money.

My mission with Grit and Grace has always been to encourage and empower boutique owners to provide their families with the income they need and the time they deserve. This to me is the holy grail! Finding ways to serve our customers well, grow our businesses, grow our revenue, grow our loyal audiences...while still keeping our sanity! Today I want to share 3 ways to do just this!

When a new customer purchases from you, you have an amazing opportunity! Your objective should be to engage them, and help them go from new customer to raving fan. A welcome series (some call this an indoctrination series) can do just that. Coming up with a series can seem like a daunting task- what to say, how much to say? How to really hook them? What we have found to be the best seems so simple, but is incredibly powerful- share your story, ask them to follow you on social media, show them what sets your boutique apart. Connect with them!

Statistics show us that 69% of carts are abandoned! All that work building a beautiful site, driving traffic to your site, creating beautiful pictures, getting them to actually load their cart; all to find that 69% of those leave without checking out. So now I am feeling very Debbie Downer, but wait, there is good news! Open rates for abandoned cart emails hover somewhere around 45% (MUCH higher than typical newsletter open rates which are around 10% according to industry standards) click through rates are also much higher as well (22%) and half of those complete the purchase. As overwhelming as abandoned cart rates can be, know that by putting in a simple series that is fix it and forget it, can really help turn those abandoners (is that a word?!) into conversions!

Messenger marketing can be confusing and overwhelming and there is a lot that can be said here, but one of my favorite uses of Messenger is the ability to automate customer service. In 2020, the number of people using messenger apps surpassed those on social media. This means your audience is here. Messenger allows us to automate customer service by using welcome messages to ask questions to see what your customer needs and based on those answers, directing them to the right answers on your website which allows us to retarget them with ads (another amazing automation!). You can also set up keywords so when anyone types in an associated keyword, an answer will be automated! Not everything can be automated, but when we are able to automate some FAQs, not only do you serve your customer well, but you also protect your time!

...no matter what industry you are in, when you are a small business, one of your roles as owner will be in marketing, is to take people from perfect strangers to raving fans. Do this process enough and you will have a booming business- do this with automated systems and you will have a booming business and your sanity in check!