How to use giveaways for your boutique! || 4X DoubleDown Webinar Series

Good morning you guys. I see lots of you guys are here already. So if you are just joining us this morning, drop in where you are from and your boutique name. It's Friday, so that's pretty exciting.

I'm happy so many people are going.

To join us on a Friday morning on day three of our webinar series.

And we are going to be back here tomorrow morning as well.

Tomorrow's the last day, but you guys.

Know me, last day, best day.

Tomorrow you're probably going to take as.

Many or more notes as you did on day one.

So I'm curious to know if you.

Guys have been here for the last couple of days of webinars, how many notes you've taken so far.

Yesterday, Sarah Burks joined us talking all.

About profit in your business and where your inventory's at.

So I'm sure you took lots of.

Notes there as well.

Today we are going to talk about.

One very specific marketing strategy that is really, really important to understand. So I can't wait to get into the details. But it's if you guys are just.

Joining us again, drop in where you're from, your boutique name and how many.

Pages of notes you've taken so far in this webinar series.

And I will be back to get started in just a minute. So anyway, introduce yourself in the comments, guys. I'll be back in a minute.

We'll get started.

All right. Happy Friday you guys. I'm so pumped that you're here. Listen, I know today is Friday is.

Always a super busy day for me and I'm sure it's busy for you too. If you have a storefront, you probably have people coming in today.

If you're online, you're trying to get.

It all done before the weekend. So today's lesson is going to be really to the point. It'll be short and sweet, I promise, but it will be packed with strategy. That's my goal for you today.

In case you are just joining us, this is day three of our four.

Day double down series and a couple reasons why we felt like it was really important to share this right now is first of all, it is our hubiversary this week, so we are celebrating.

Seven years in business in pouring into.

Your business and into our entire boutique industry.

And man, what a more important time.

Than now to be a boutique owner. I think it's so ironic that the media likes to talk a lot about the retail apocalypse and all these things that are happening.

And I look at it all as.

The retail revolution where people go Back to wanting to do business with people again. Right? That's the foundations of a boutique.

And they want a curated collection from.

Someone like you, who they know, like and trust.

And yes, I know there's Amazon, and I know now that boutiques can sell.

On a Walmart, which I think is just really stupid, if I'm being completely honest. But I think that enough people, having had those experiences where they order something.

And it comes back the size of.

Their Cabbage Patch doll, whether that's from a big marketplace or some kind of like, Chinese knockoff site, which are all.

Over the Internet, I think enough people.

Have had those experiences that they're fed up and they want to do business with someone like you, a small business owner.

Especially in the economic situation we're in.

Today, there has never been a more important time to support small business owners. So the second big reason we felt like this webinar series was really important.

Other than to celebrate our birthday and.

To just simply give back to you.

Guys, but because retail is changing and there has never been more change in.

One single season than there is right now in 2020.

So I think this is true for all of us in business.

Like, we always have these new dreams and aspirations and ideas and things that.

We know we need to do, but.

We just can't seem to find the time to do it. I feel like 2020 pushed so many of us over the edge and made.

Us come to terms with the things.

That we need to do, like building additional revenue streams.

So if you were here on Wednesday when we kicked this off, please go.

Check out that replay, in case you haven't yet.

But on that day, I talked a.

Lot about diversifying your revenue streams and then how to build a content strategy around all the revenue stream options that you have in your business and how to look at revenue streams as not.

Just a hard roi, like what's the cash in the bank, but also what's the soft roi?

What is my new customer acquisition strategy to build my overall business model?

Because for those of you that are brick and mortar, which I should ask you, this I would love to see in the comments.

Are you online?

Are you brick and mortar?

Are you both?

Or are you something else? You have a hybrid of some kind? I'd love to know, because I want.

To make sure I speak directly to.

You today and answer your questions.

So anytime you've got questions today, drop them in the comments.

But regardless, if you're a brick and mortar today, you suddenly had to figure out social selling, live selling, E commerce, like whatever it is that there was.

A whole other challenge into the ring and I think I asked this question inside of our members group yesterday. I said, what is your biggest challenge you're facing right now? Like hit me with it, what do you need?

And two things became most important and ironically, today's webinar and tomorrow's webinar touch.

On both of these two most important things I heard in the answers.

Number one was time. You can have all the best ideas.

In the world, you can have the greatest intentions, you can know what you.

Need to do to win, but you.

Just can't get to it because you don't have time.

And tomorrow I am way, way, way deep diving. So Saturday morning, please grab your coffee, come in your robe, join me.

I'm going to be staying overnight at Sarah Burks's house so she might jump on live with me and I'm going to do the webinar from her house tomorrow morning. So that is going to be one you do not want to miss because it's a huge struggle that all of us face. No, you're at in business.

And today's webinar focuses on the other.

Thing that was the number one challenge.

In those comments yesterday and that was engagement. Right? We all need to be digital. We all know we need to be digital.

But sometimes it's like you're spinning your wheels and you just can't get people to engage with you.

And so today I'm going to go deep into a strategy that I think.

Really helps get those wheels turning and build some engagement inside of your business.

So before I get started today and I start sharing my screen, I just want to check on the comments really quick. You guys, don't forget to mention if you're here, where you're from, how many.

Pages of notes you took so far.

And then again if you're brick and mortar online or where you're at. Alright, couple questions so far. I'm just going to take a peek at them and make sure you drop.

Your questions in as we go today.

So excited to hear about giveaways. I worry about the rules and not.

Losing my page doing something wrong.

Yeah, Jessica, that's such a good question and I'm going to touch on that. And then you know what, I'm going.

To do this really quick.

I knew this would be a huge question today and honestly the rules are always changing. So I grabbed this article from a blog that I trust that I think does a better job outlining it rather.

Than me taking a lot of time.

On that Today, but I just dropped.

It in the comments for you so you can check that out.

Because every platform is a little bit different and what they require is a little bit different. Now, to be honest, I've seen a.

Lot of people lose their page this year, but it hasn't been because of giveaways.

It's because more of like trademark issues.

That's a whole nother discussion. That's another webinar.

That's a four part webinar series on.

Its own, but not because of giveaways. So I'm going to speak to you.

About some opportunities on and off of.

Social media to grow your list, grow.

Your following, and then this article is.

Going to help you. So catch that article that I linked up in the comments for you guys as well.

I should have got coffee.

Like, what was I thinking?

Where's my kids when I need them online Pop ups. Yeah. Covid has Krista. I see Krista and Jillian. All right. North Dakota's in the house. Ashley. Hello.

Utah.

Awesome.

Kentucky.

Washington. Oh, dude. You guys, this is amazing. I love seeing where everyone's coming in from. Very good. A lot of people both online and brick and mortar. Okay. Pennsylvania, South Carolina, California.

Minnesota.

Georgia. Oklahoma. Oklahoma. All right, well, let's do this. Landive. Montana. Been there many times.

Love it. Amy, I'm from right across the border. I'm from Bowman, North Dakota originally. So you are totally speaking the language.

Allison Grooms is back in the house today. What? Good morning. You guys are making my day. Okay, you guys are killing it.

Thank you so much for being here.

Okay, I'm going to share my screen.

We are going to get going with.

These slides and we will roll on with it. Let's see here. Technology is always our friend. Okay, where is the screen that I want to share? Come on, zoom. There we go.

Okay.

Oh, my gosh. How much better is it to make slides in Canva these days rather than PowerPoint? I just gotta tell you, technology has.

Come a long way.

Oh, my gosh. All right, let's make sure you can see all of my screen. You guys see all of that? We should be good to go.

There we go.

I'm gonna present again. All right. How to leverage giveaways and engagement tools that work. This is going to be kind of a extension of what I talked about on day number one. I'm going to pull up your comments.

On my cell phone before we get started here so I don't lose you along the way.

There we go. All right. In case we haven't met yet, in case you are just jumping on today and where this is like, who is this person in the green shirt talking to me right now?

My name is Ashley Alderson. I'm the founder at the Boutique Hub.

And really my greatest passion is coaching small businesses. I absolutely love it because I'm a big believer in impact and what is.

The impact we're all called to have.

On the world around us. And for me, that is. I know when I can change a business, I change someone's life. We change their family's life, we change their team's life. And we therefore change the entire community.

And economic ecosystem around you by that one small piece of help.

So our mission here at the Boutique.

Hub is to be the central connection point of the boutique industry every single.

Day and give you guys every single.

Tool you could possibly need under the sun on one platform, the Boutique Hub and make it super, super affordable for you at the same time.

So we're all about over deliver, delivering and under promising.

That's our mission every single day to help you guys.

So as we get into the content.

Today, you guys, if you've been around my webinars or anything for a while, you know, I like to just word vomit lots of information and give you extra notes and nuggets so that you'll.

Come back and you'll have things that.

You can continue to pick up on weeks down the road after this webinar.

I'm not about fluff.

I'm only about strategy that seriously works and that I've tested myself. And so this comes from me testing.

This on boutique ownership wholesale brands, also our own business of the Boutique Hub.

I'm speaking completely from experience on what has worked for us today.

But I'll tell you this, I do.

Not believe in black and white.

I don't believe that my way is the only way.

I don't believe I'm the smartest person in the room. Like, I believe there's lots of you.

That are watching that are smarter than I am.

But I believe in shades of gray.

More than 50, and that there's opportunity to iterate on this and test it.

And make it work for you. It's not just this one way I'm going to show you, but I want you to get creative and find what works for you inside of this strategy.

So again, it's our hubiversary. I mentioned that here's where we need to start today. And this is kind of where we.

Left off on Monday. We talked a lot about why are you not getting traction on social media. And we talked about the boutique content recipe.

The boutique content recipe, which I'll highlight again in just a second, was designed.

To, I don't want to say like.

Game the algorithm, but work in unison with the algorithm. Because how the algorithm works is it says, hey, I'm a business, says Mark Zuckerberg. And my business is selling advertising. And the more advertising opportunity I have.

It only comes from the more viewers that are on the platform, the longer they spend on the platform, right?

Then I can sell more ads. So the algorithm is only going to.

Show content to people that they think.

They really want to see or want.

To engage with, because it's going to.

Keep them there longer. It's all psychology. So the more you can take that.

Same strategy into your own business and use psychology and say, hey, the more I can keep people engaged, the more the algorithm is going to show my content to them.

It becomes not about you and what you're sharing. It comes about.

It becomes about the customer and the.

Customer experience and how they start to.

Feel connected to your brand.

So on Monday, I talked a lot.

About the number one secret that I.

Like to use in content is to ask questions. Questions. The more you ask questions, the brain automatically answers the question and then the.

Fingers are more likely to type and.

You'Re more likely to get engagement in your content rather than you just showing.

A picture of a cute shirt and saying, it's cute.

Yes, it's cute. We all know that, right? But if you ask a question about.

The cute shirt, now, someone is going to engage with you.

Well, we start to take that idea.

Of how to work with the algorithm.

How to put your customers in the shoes of what do they want to see online and how you start to provide that.

And then we start to add the dessert into the boutique content recipe, which is like a big soup as I described it. And the dessert is really what's going to keep us going and become a replacement for paid advertising. So everything we're talking about today is organic, it's free. So back up a step.

The soup includes, the recipe includes, number one, engaging content, which I talked about.

Was quotes, memes, stories, like anything that just gets people to click.

It's not asking them to buy anything.

It'S just getting them to click on your content. It's asking a random question. It's a this or that. Do you like stripes or sequins?

Whatever it is, you're just asking them.

Getting them to engage.

I'm going to go in depth into.

Engagement later in just a Minute.

The second piece of the content recipe was branded content. Branded content is anything that builds your brand identity.

So this is the charity that we like to donate to. These are our models. These are our model sizes. This is a story that happened at the store today.

Here's a picture of me with the poly mailers. This is my business journey.

This is my family. This is what I like to do on the weekends. Here's how our business does X, right? It's just building a brand relationship.

It's you showing up, doing workout videos.

And cooking videos during the pandemic. Branded content.

The third is sales content.

And that's the easy piece that everybody sees.

It's here's a shirt. Buy the shirt. Here's the promotion. Buy into the promotion. Here's the event we're hosting.

Come to the event. It's asking people to take action and actually purchase something with you or take an action to further that relationship with your business. So there's the three types of content that we share every single day, all week long, across every single social platform.

That we have, including email, including text.

That content recipe is for all of that.

So when I started to really break down the content recipe, then I was.

Like, okay, how do I amplify this?

And amplifying it comes in the form of giveaways. Now we could amplify it through paid ads. We could go the Facebook ad route, which again, that's another four part webinar series.

Or we could use giveaways to try to leverage it as free as much as possible.

So giveaways build momentum on the posts.

That you're already sharing.

So there's a couple of types of.

Giveaways that I want to break down today. Two types that I find work.

Number one is engagement giveaways.

Number two is list building giveaways. Or sometimes I call these growth giveaways because it's not necessarily building a list.

Two very different purposes in these giveaways. And I know you're going to have some questions. I'm going to come back. Keep dropping your questions, you guys.

I see them coming.

Keep dropping them.

I will come back to all your questions at the end.

But these two types of giveaways you're.

Going to use a little bit differently. I'm going to explain them in detail. Engagement giveaways are giveaways that you're going to use much more often. You could use them daily. And list building giveaways are ones that you want to be specific about setting a campaign around this and only running on maybe Once every two weeks, three.

Weeks, somewhere in there.

But really making sure on that list, building giveaway, you're using every channel to cross promote whatever that giveaway campaign is.

Now, what are these giveaway types? Engagement giveaways are the type of giveaway.

That is just designed to get more eyeballs and more clicks onto your post.

You just want people to engage with.

Your content because going back to the.

Purpose and the algorithm, we know the more engagement we can get on these posts, the next time we come in.

To post something and it's an item that's for sale. Now, the algorithm is going to show more people that piece of content because it's saying, oh my gosh, these people.

Are liking this boutique.

They're engaging with it.

They seem to really like what they've got going on.

I'm going to show them more and more content.

So the more we can use engagement.

Posts and engagement giveaways to leverage and amplify those posts, the more people are going to see what else is happening.

So I'm going to go down into.

Detail into my favorite types of engagement giveaways.

The first is to ask a question. Now, I think you should ask a.

Question on almost every post that you make on social media.

But sometimes you can go in and.

You may see this if you're a.

Member of the Hub.

I always like to test these theories inside of our group. You may see me say.

Well, Marco.

Polo is one example.

I'll just write Marco into the group and everyone's like, polo, Polo, Polo. And I'll make it a giveaway that when I come in and say Marco again, the person above who commented last or on my comment, rather the person.

Who commented above my comment whenever I said Marco again, a giveaway winner.

So I'll just say Marco. And then my second line on the.

Post will be, you know, next person or last person to say hello before.

I comment again wins X. I'll choose five winners and like the comments, just.

Just roll into the group.

Now, once I start to do that a number of times, I don't even.

Have to tell you the giveaway rules.

Anymore because everyone is so trained to.

Just say polo, Polo, Polo, and it becomes like seriously competitive, you guys.

So asking a question whether it's Marco.

Polo, or just saying, hey, stripes or sequins.

And then the line below it would.

Be $5 Starbucks gift card to a winner today, just random winner. Because I'm feeling, you know, happy. It's a Friday, fun Friday.

You can get creative and call it whatever you want.

It to be right.

So ask a question, and those comments.

Are going to start to just roll.

In, and then you pick a random winner.

So asking a question, you can do that on Facebook. You can do it on Instagram.

You could do it in.

If you have a Facebook bot, where you have Facebook messenger, that's a great way to do it. And then every time someone comments, it's automatically subscribing them to your messenger list. There's a number of ways to slice and dice that simple. Ask a question. Doing a poll is the exact same thing.

And you might do a poll by.

Way of going stripes or sequins. We do that a lot inside of our Instagram stories, where it's a this or that type thing and you can attach a giveaway to it.

Or on Monday, I talked a lot about customer surveys. I think it was Monday here he.

Was talking about customer surveys.

Now, let's say you don't want to.

Send out, like, a huge formal customer survey, but you need some feedback really quick on just one important question in your business right now.

So you might just do a poll asking that question, like, would you rather.

Shop Facebook Live, or would you rather.

Shop on my website $50 gift card.

To someone who gives feedback?

Right. And you put it out there, and.

You'Re gonna get tons of answers on that poll. Again, you can use Instagram stories, you could use Facebook and ask that poll as a question, A, B, C, or D and give, like, the description of what those polls are, or do the actual poll feature on Facebook.

It also could be an email. Like, if you have a smaller email.

List and don't mind getting bombarded by responses, and hopefully you have an intern that can do this for you.

Ask a question in your email and have them either click on something or actually hit reply to the email. So another great way to get immediate.

Feedback and attach a giveaway to it and build engagement at the same time. Three purposes.

The next engagement opportunity is tagging. Now, here's what I want you to.

Be really careful with, because tagging does go against Facebook and Instagram's rules, where you cannot require to tag X number of friends inside of a giveaway. But here's my game. Here's what I do to get around that.

I could do a giveaway that says.

Comment below for a $5 Starbucks gift card or whatever it is we're gonna give away.

And then I say, and if you.

Like it, tag three people.

So I don't include the tagging as.

A part of the giveaway rule. I'll Add it, like, as an addition to. Then I'll say, and if you like it, tag.

And the same goes for sharing, which.

Is the next opportunity. Facebook does not allow you to require sharing on someone's personal timeline as a part of, like a giveaway rule. They used to a long time ago. And then that was like when grandma sent you chain letters in your email.

Inbox back in, you know, 2001.

When email was newer. More like 1999 when you get those chain letters in your email inbox. I feel like I'm going on a tangent. Anyway, you can't require sharing or tagging. So same thing applies where you asking the giveaway, you're giving the giveaway description.

And then you're saying, and if you.

Like it, share it. Now, I'm going to talk about keys to this giveaway strategy in just a minute, but let me highlight this here. If you're taking notes, this is really, really important to train your customers. So consistent engagement giveaways will train your customers. Just like I was saying, for Marco Polo, I don't even have to put a giveaway attached to it anymore. I just say, Marco. Everyone's like, polo, Polo, Polo.

Tagging and sharing is the same way.

Mindy, with Mindy's Boutique, one of my.

Just favorite people, favorite humans because she's so awesome.

She did this huge Facebook live training for us a couple weeks ago inside of the boutique hut for all of our members. Actually, she did it twice.

She did it for all of our members. Go check it out in the training.

Library, you guys, if you haven't seen it yet, because it's like almost two hours of gold.

Like, you will make thousands of dollars.

If you watch this video. I promise you. It's in the training library. She also did a collaboration inside of the virtual summit. Alison Grooms, you were on there. Who else was on there with you guys?

There was a number of you that.

Did that live selling session that was really, really good.

So Mindy, the example I want to.

Give you is when Mindy goes live, she's done this so often, she doesn't even have to ask people to share anymore.

They automatically know at the beginning of the video that if they share it.

They'Re entered in the giveaway.

So they just start commenting, shared, shared, shared, shared.

And she has said nothing, she has typed nothing. Like, it's because she's trained her customers so much to do that.

So just remember that, like, tidbit about.

The rule and then start to leverage and train your customers to tag and share automatically.

The next type I like as an.

Engagement giveaway is screenshot.

Now, I love screenshot giveaways to build.

Traffic on your Facebook pixel.

So let's say you launch a new collection and you just post in your Facebook group and you're like, hey, go to my new arrivals on the website. Give them the link and screenshot your.

Favorite today for a chance to win that.

And they're going to go to your.

Website, they're going to screenshot, you're going to get the information about what their.

Favorites are, and they're going to post.

It in your group. It's going to build engagement, and then all that information is going to be built up on your Facebook pixel.

So you can use screenshots in a million different ways.

You could use it for your website, you could use it in the group, you could use it for Pinterest.

Like, let me know when you're following me on Pinterest.

Take a screenshot.

Drop it here.

Screenshots are really great tools to use for giveaways.

The next is leave a comment.

That's pretty simple. Comment below, blah your thoughts to blah.

Answer my question.

Let me know what you think. Give me a 1, 2 or 3.

An A B or a C. Leave a comment. One unique way that you can do.

The leave a comment giveaway is on Instagram.

If you make a post on your.

Feed on Instagram and then you go.

Into your Instagram stories and then you.

Say, hey, guys, just dropped this new post.

I want to do a $25 giveaway. Go comment on this post and let me know what you think and I'll pick a winner. So you're actually using your stories to.

Give the giveaway rules and descriptions, and then you're telling them to go to your feed and comment.

Now, some people actually use this as like a engagement. Like most engaged, you see that listed.

There as the last one. Some people will use it in that capacity. So say, hey, go comment on any of my last three posts and I'll come back and pick a winner. And it's just to build overall engagement, not even on one specific post, but just overall.

And you could do that not just.

On Instagram, like I just demonstrated, but also in your Facebook group.

Like, hey, whoever comments on the most.

Post this week and is the most engaged in the group?

I'm going to go into my insights.

This week and I'm going to choose.

Three winners for the three most engaged.

People in the group and I'm going.

To give them X number of prizes. Right? Most engaged is A really, really great.

Way to build overall engagement.

Because let me take this step back. I should have mentioned this at the beginning.

Why engagement giveaways are so important.

I hate to say this, but it's true. Women, I think more than men are herd animals. Like, we go to the bathroom in groups, right? Get amen in the comments if you.

Go to the bathroom in groups.

I don't know why this is a phenomenon, but it has been since the beginning of time.

I'm sure the cave women did the exact same thing.

So when we see our friends commenting.

On something on Facebook or on Instagram, we're more likely to do it too.

So I want to just give you this tip as you go in and.

You'Re starting engagement giveaways and you're like, ah, I can't get anyone to comment.

You might need your sister, your aunt, your crazy aunt, your employees, your best friend, your husband, that fake profile that.

You have that you use to like.

Join random things on the Internet, I don't know, use those things to get.

That built in engagement. Get a couple of like, ride or die besties, your hype crew, as we call it inside of the hub that are going to go automatically comment on those things and then reward them.

You know, send them a gift in.

The mail every once in a while just to say thank you. But get that hyped crew, that engagement pod, whatever you need to continue to get this engagement train rolling.

And then, like I said, the more you get your customers trained, they're going.

To come back and hit it again.

And again and again because it's a hard thing.

Like when we see other people doing it, we're going to do it.

So leverage that opportunity to use your.

Friends around you to build engagement.

Finally, the last engagement giveaway that I.

Find to be really helpful is just leaving a review.

Leaving a review, whether it's on a.

Post or going to your website to leave a review, or going to your Facebook page to leave a review, that's a really powerful tool. It's an SEO tool as well, so.

Don'T miss out on that opportunity. But let's take that a step further. You could entice people to come and leave a review, but you know what's better than that?

Maybe not better than that, but like.

Equally as powerful as that is getting.

People to take pictures in your clothes.

So everyone has seen boutiques do this, right?

Or you've done it yourself, where you're.

Like, hey, use my boutique name, boutique boss, right?

If you're shopping at a boutique, Boss.

Store use hashtag boutique Boss.

Take a picture in your new piece.

Put it on Instagram or in your stories, or post it in our Facebook.

Group and you're entered to win.

Blah. Or we'll send you a coupon code.

It doesn't even have to be a giveaway. It could be, hey, we'll send you $5 off your next order, $10 off your next order. Whatever it is you want to do, however you want to slice and dice that, okay?

But the more that you do that.

Just like engagement giveaways, you kind of have to train people and you have to have a couple guinea pigs to do it at first to show that it's okay.

But the more you do it, the.

More people are going to jump on board.

And honestly, like just speaking to you guys like woman to woman, I think one of the most powerful things that.

I've seen come from that opportunity is.

The way that it builds confidence in others. So women are so self, like just low self esteem, right? They lack confidence when it comes to.

Taking a picture and posting it somewhere on the Internet for someone else to judge and see.

Right? We all have a lot of mental issues around doing that. And the more you can encourage your.

Customers to do that and create a safe space for them to do so.

And build them up, man, think about how you're impacting the rest of their life. To me, that's one of the most beautiful things about owning a boutique is.

The way that you get to impact.

Confidence in women all over the world and men too, every single day. So you're not only building a business, you're building a brand, you're building a community and you're building a safe space. And you're not just building a one way communication channel between you and your customer, where you're talking at your customer. Really when it comes to content marketing and community building, you should be building.

A 360 degree communication channel where you're.

Communicating with your customer, they're communicating directly.

Back to you through questions and all these engagement things we just talked about, but want to take it the next step, like the highest level, they communicate with each other and if they are taking pictures in your pieces and putting it inside your Facebook group or your Instagram or whatever it is, and they're now communicating and building one another up or asking questions, leaving tips, talking about body type, you name it.

The more you build a community that.

Is a brand that is going to stand the test of time, you guys. That is the number one challenge to building a multimillion dollar brand is building a community.

All right, keys to the engagement giveaway. Number one, I've already talked about this quite a bit.

Be consistent.

Train your customer.

You can't come in every couple weeks.

Run a willy nilly engagement giveaway and, and think that people are going to engage with it.

They won't know how.

So train your customer consistently on how.

To engage with you in these types of giveaways. Number two, keep it short and simple.

Probably the number one mistake I see.

With any type of giveaway is it's too long.

It's follow five accounts, comment on all of them, tag five friends, share it to your feed, and then comment bubblegum in the comments while you're at it. You know, and everyone's like, ain't got time for that. And so they're like, no, I'm not.

Going to do any of that. I'm just going to scroll on by.

So you can entice them with a good prize that they actually want to win.

And then keep it really short, sweet and simple.

Show the winners. That's important. If they feel like they don't, they see these giveaways all the time, but no one's ever winning them, then they won't enter. But the more you continue to show up, like, oh, Karen was the winner last week and Susie was the winner today, then they're like, well, I want.

To be the winner.

Like, I know Karen. I see Karen comment here all the time.

She's quite positive. And then they want to enter your giveaway too. So show the winners.

Finally, make it fun.

I think this is the key to marketing as a whole, you guys. If I don't drop a Will Ferrell.

Quote in the next hour of our time together, there's something wrong. So it's who I am.

It's how I make it fun. Prestige worldwide.

You might not know what I am.

Talking about when I say it, but it's just me being comfortable in my skin and sharing that with you. And I think that's what builds relationships between brands.

And so the more you can just.

Be comfortable in your skin, make those giveaways fun, make your content fun, make your video fun. That's what really attracts people into your circle. All right, engagement giveaways.

Let's go into the next type.

And that is list building and growth giveaways.

And I see the comments rolling.

You guys keep your questions coming and.

I will come back and answer all.

Of your questions as we go.

At the end.

Sorry, at the end.

List building and growth giveaways. Oh, wait, did I mix my slides up here? I'm missing a slide. Okay, I'll go off my notes because I apparently missed a slide here. So here's the type of list building.

And growth giveaways that you can use. A list building and growth giveaway is something that is designed to either add more followers to whatever, add more people.

To your group, add more signups to.

Your text list, add more people. This is number one to your email list.

You all have heard me talk about that in marketing. We don't own social media, right? Facebook could be gone tomorrow. Instagram could be gone tomorrow.

But we do own our lists.

We own our text list and we own our email list. So the more we can build that property that we own, the better we are in the long run.

And we have multiple channels to leverage. So growth giveaways and list building giveaways go like this.

I'll talk about adding to your Facebook group. Let's go here. In the old days, we would say, hey, add five people to this group and win blank. Or whoever adds the most people to this group wins blank. And avoid those two. Just like erase them from your memory.

They don't exist anymore.

Don't do that. Because what happens is then we start.

To add people to the group that.

Really are never going to engage. It drives our engagement rate down. And then less and less people start.

To see our content.

So really what we want to do when it comes to growing our group.

Is to say, Hey. I was going to say Karen.

I'll use a different name.

Hey, Kristen.

Hey, Kristen. Or hey, girls.

I know how much you love our boutique.

Do you think there's other people that you're friends with that would love our boutique too? We want to do a giveaway and.

Just say thank you today to anyone who adds people to this group who.

You think would actually like it and.

Want to shop it.

Comment below when you're done. Comment below when you're done.

This is the key. This is my secret, secret sauce, you guys. When it comes to list building and.

Growth giveaways, when you ask someone to take an action, comment below when you're done.

Because chances are the action is off of the post.

The action is on a platform.

It's a follow button. It's signing up for an email list.

It's whatever. So comment below when you're done puts engagement on the post. That is the giveaway post telling them what to do. Women are herd animals, so the more.

They see other people saying, dun, dun.

Dun, dun, they're going to do it too. And then it keeps that post boosted.

Up to the top of your feed in your Facebook group.

So comment below when you're done once.

You'Ve asked them to do this thing.

So Facebook groups, again, engagements key. So only asking people, hey, add people.

To this group if you think they will really like it and really shop it. Comment below when you're done.

Winner announced on blank or another way.

I like to do Facebook groups is hey, oh my gosh, this group is.

So close to hitting 10,000 members. When we hit 10,000 members, I'm gonna give away 10 blank prizes. Comment below when you've added people to this group only if you think they.

Will really like it and shop it.

So same concept except you're attaching an actual number. Goal. So that's Facebook groups. You could basically do the Same Thing on TikTok, on Pinterest, Instagram, right? You're asking people not just to say, hey, go follow me on this platform.

Like the one that you're typing on.

But cross leveraging them. So for example, I would go to.

Facebook and say, hey guys, I'm almost to hit 10,000 on Instagram.

Go, follow me on Instagram.

And then comment below when you're done.

And you're linking to your Instagram profile. Same with Pinterest. Hey, I really am sharing some great stuff on Pinterest. I'm only, I'm almost to whatever my goal is. Go follow me on Pinterest.

Comment below when you're done.

TikTok.

You just shared a TikTok video that you really liked. Hey, I'm on TikTok.

I don't know if you are, but.

Comment below when you're following me on TikTok.

Same thing. And they might, you might attach a screenshot to that or just ask them.

To simply comment below.

Instagram. Instagram. We used to do this God awful thing called the loop giveaway. Comment below.

Loop giveaway. If you've ever done a loop giveaway and you want to then pull your hair out.

Because chances are, chances are if you've.

Been around the boutique block for a while, you wanted to pull your hair out with a loop giveaway.

Actually, Sarah Burks, I'll tell you this.

When Sarah first joined the boutique hub.

As a boutique, she had entered in.

Some loop, loop giveaways we were doing at the time.

And I remember having to call her.

And be like, Sarah, it's 7:00pm you're supposed to be posting right now. Like, why aren't you posting?

And she's like, because I'm riding a horse. I don't know. I forgot about it. Anyway, that's Google loop giveaways today. Loop giveaways have kind of morphed into.

Something a little bit different. And that is where you're maybe just teaming up with, I would say, three to five people at max.

And you're asking people to like, follow.

Or engage or take some kind of action with those other accounts.

I really like it, honestly, when it's a little bit smaller and it's me.

And maybe two other people, and then.

We'Re all promoting it at the same.

Time for a time period of like three days and we're saying to go follow this individual and then comment below.

When you're done, or send us a DM or whatever the action is that.

You want them to take.

But Instagram giveaways are still definitely alive.

And well there in terms of growth when you collaborate with these other accounts.

Okay. Text messages. Text. I think text, email and your bot.

Are really, really important to grow your list. So I think that you should plan.

Inside of your content that you're going.

To do a campaign for one of these at least every two to three weeks.

Email. I guess if I had to pick.

One, email and text would be the two most important out of that.

So text might be, hey, here's our text.

Opt in, you know, short code and keyword or whatever it is. Text grow to 57711 or whatever the.

Number is and comment below. When you're done, winner is going to receive X. And you're not just running that on.

Facebook, but it's going into your email.

It's on Pinterest, it's on Instagram, it's wherever you can be. It's in your live video you're reminding.

People about the big giveaway have happening this week. To grow your text list, use every.

Platform you have to amplify the voice.

Of that one big growth giveaway that you have happening this week. Rather than like piecemealing it out and only posting it here and there, but.

Put it everywhere, put it on your.

Homepage of your website for the week.

I'm a big believer in, like, if.

You go through retail bootcamp in our.

Chat or say channel in our module, all about E commerce. I talk a lot about the ideal ecommerce homepage. I go into all kinds of detail.

On ecommerce and what pages work, what don't work, what impacts your conversion rate, what doesn't.

But on homepages I'm a huge pusher of there has to be a key.

Call to action that is going to actually grow your list.

So after you've gone through your header.

Your new arrivals, your featured collections, now I go into what is your call to action. So there should be a color block bar across the page of your homepage that invites them to your Facebook group.

And it might be your Facebook group for a month and then you're going to change and it's going to be.

Your text list and then you're going.

To change and it's going to be your email list. But you're also, you're leveraging that traffic.

On your homepage to get people into the most important places to engage with you. Same with your pop up on your homepage of your website.

You're picking what is the campaign I'm.

Running right now and you're asking people.

Hey, want a 10% off coupon code?

Sign up for my text list, sign.

Up for my email list, join my Facebook group. Like switch that out so your customer, you know, chances are you've got a hopefully above 60% customer retention rate where they're coming back and buying with you again and again. Don't let her get bored. She's already been asked to join your email list.

Chances are, because that's all people ever.

Put on their homepage. Pop up, switch it out and do.

Something else to continue to leverage, maximize all the lists that you have available to you.

The last secret sauce I will tell you about email, a little tool called Typeform. And again, if you're in Bootcamp, oh.

Lord, you are going to use a lot of Typeform because you could do a lot of really cool things with it. I give you all my secret sauce around Typeform inside of boot camp, especially.

When it comes to the holidays.

Oh my gosh, 2020 holiday season is going to be so important to be doing some of the tools we're going to teach you inside of Bootcamp. But how I like to use Typeform.

To grow your email list is simply making a giveaway in Typeform. You're asking what's your name, what's your email?

And then whatever the question is that you want to ask.

Obviously name and email should be required.

Questions on Typeform and then whatever the.

Question is could be it could be going back to like the poll that we were talking about.

It could be a customer survey poll or it could be just one question.

It could be about wish list items. Could be a number of things. But Typeform is such a great tool to use to build that email list. So at the end of the day when you have an email built in Typeform, then you're going to go back to every social media channel that you have and you're going to share the Typeform link, a graphic for your giveaway and then you're going to give them the post copy.

You're going to write about like what are you doing? Why is it important? What's the call to action?

Comment below when you're done. Comment below when you're done. Put that everywhere. All right, keys to remember when it.

Comes to these types of giveaways.

Typeform already mentioned that follow up. Okay, this is where a lot of people fall down. They'll run these giveaways to grow this email list and then they just throw people into their automations like oh, you're just another number on my email list now instead of saying okay, I ran this opt in and now I'm going.

To take everyone from Typeform, I've got.

To export my Typeform list or we're using Zapier or whatever to take everyone.

Who'S entered in Typeform and push them into our email service provider.

When we do that, we need to send a specific campaign to those people who came in through that specific giveaway and say, hey Jennifer, thank you so much for joining my email list and entering this giveaway. You are making an impact on my small business every single day. That was started to help impact blank the giveaway winner. Congrats to our giveaway winner who is blah blah blah Karen. And if you haven't already, I would love to invite you to join our Facebook group where we do new arrivals every la de da da da and.

A live show on la de da di da.

And by the way, as a thank you for joining this giveaway and as a condolence prize since you may not.

Have won, here is 10% off your first purchase.

Like something really warm that says thank you. It makes you human and builds a relationship and congratulates the winner so they.

Know it was actually a legit giveaway.

And and then it gives them a.

Follow up call to action to take.

One step further in that new relationship.

They'Re building with you.

Because these people are not going to purchase on day one.

Again, this is top of funnel like we talked about.

They're going to come back and purchase from you later. So make sure you follow up on your text list, on your email list, on your Instagram feed every once in a while.

I would say maybe once a month or once every two months you're going.

Into instagram and you're making a post and it's just a picture of you, the owner or your team, your family, whatever it is. And you're like, hey, guys, I see.

There'S a lot of new faces around here. In case we haven't met yet, I'm Ashley. I'm the founder at the boutique Hub. I've been doing this for seven years.

Here's why I'm doing it. Here's what I love most about doing.

It, and I would love to get to know you. Please introduce yourself below.

And you're just reintroducing yourself because there's.

Constantly this new influx of people following you after you run a giveaway and.

A huge campaign like this. And then finally focus on one at a time. So you can't be running an email opt in giveaway and a Pinterest giveaway.

At the same time.

So be really specific as you're laying out your content calendar. What are we going to focus on this month? And then leverage every channel you have.

To really push to that one big giveaway.

All right, prizes. I get asked this question all the time, and I see your questions, you guys. So keep asking your questions in the comments. I'll come back to them. What should I give away as a prize? And my first question is just this. Would you want it? Like, would you want it? And then that could be a gift card.

It could be an actual prize pack.

It could be you doing a bundle of.

Let's say you've got end of summer goods. It is July. You're going to start pushing back to school pretty soon.

So let's say you do bundles and then the email or the winner that wins, you get their email address, you collect their sizes, and then you send them a bundle. And it might be clearance items, you guys, but what a great way to leverage clearance items that you can't turn. You've already maybe marked them down, you.

Can'T move them, use them as giveaways.

Like, give those puppies away, like hotcake, because it doesn't cost you anything, Right?

But it's great advertising.

And then you're coming in and you're asking people with your postcard and your.

Package that you're sending out, hey, take.

A picture and post it in our group.

We'd love to see what you look like wearing these items.

So it's all a circle. We're just getting people into this content.

Marketing circle that goes round and round.

One thing we like to do is Starbucks gift cards. And you might, if you have a brick and mortar, you might have a.

Local coffee shop that you collaborate with and you do a gift card for their coffee shop.

We do Starbucks just because our community.

Is global and Starbucks is global.

So we actually go in and we.

Order a box at a time of $5 Starbucks gift cards. Like, literally a stack like this. If you see me at market, I will buy you Starbucks. Because chances are I have like 50.

Starbucks cards in my purse, but we give those things away. Like, a $5 Starbucks gift card is a really good prize, and it's not a lot of effort to get that. It's not a lot of expense. But really, if I have like a.

Go to prize that I like to.

Use most often, it's like a $15 gift card. And I always say, make it rain the $15 gift cards. Because when someone gets a $15 gift card, it's enough that they're going to go use it on your website, but chances are when they do. Now, this going back to bootcamp and.

E commerce strategy, these are all the things you'll learn.

Then they're going to realize that you.

Have a free shipping countdown bar on the top of your website that says.

Oh, you're $35 away from free shipping. And you know what else women do? Give me a high five in the.

Comments if you're like, yep, do this.

Not only do I go to the bathroom in herds, but I like free shipping. And if it says I need 5.

More dollars or 30 more cents or 50 more dollars to get free shipping, I'm probably gonna do it, right? I mean, Eric, I had to do it. I had to buy all these things to achieve free shipping. It was logical, right?

I use that excuse with Eric all the time.

I'm sure you guys do too.

So when you have a $15 gift card now, they're gonna be promoted on your site to spend more than 50, at least, or whatever your average order.

Value is, add 10%, put free shipping above that.

They're going to be enticed to go.

Increase that average order. They're going to buy other things, and.

When it comes back to it, the $15 gift card that you gave away made you money at the end of the day, right? It made you margin at the end of the day. So make it rain$15 gift cards and drive that traffic, because those people are.

Going to become lifetime customers of yours when they have a great experience with you and they come and they find other things that they like on your website.

I'll get on the soapbox. Okay, you guys, I've asked you this the first day we were together. And I know Sarah asked you this.

Yesterday as well, and I'm going to ask you today.

We also wanted to do these webinars.

Because we always are getting asked, how can I continue to work with you? How can you take these strategies and actually lay them into my business specifically? And so this is the week that we open Retail Bootcamp, and we only.

Do it twice a year. This is your last chance in 2020.

To be a part of Retail Bootcamp.

So would it be okay with you guys? I'm going to come back and answer all your questions, so please stick around.

I will answer your questions, but would.

It be okay if I gave you.

More information on Retail Bootcamp really quick.

And how to work with us? I know some of you that have.

Been here for the last two days, you've gotten some of this. So I'll be brief today.

But in case you're not yet familiar with Bootcamp, Bootcamp is the most in.

Depth training for retailers and boutique owners anywhere online.

And it's not just fashion boutique owners.

But we've had children's boutique owners, special occasion bridal home decor gift, antique consignment. Who else have we had go through beauty?

We've had all kinds of stores, makers, wholesale brands. We actually had a lot of wholesale.

Brands go through retail Boot Camp because the strategy is all the same. It's the pricing and the customer base that's slightly different.

So we've had a lot of people.

Go through the program.

A couple hundred, quite a few hundred.

Actually, more like 800 that have gone through this program. And we aim to leave it all on the table.

Like I tell you, I've got all.

These ideas for Typeform. My brain, like, loves creativity and marketing.

And so every time I have a.

New idea, it goes into Retail bootcamp. Everything that is inside of us and in our guts goes into retail Bootcamp.

So you not only hear from Sarah.

And I, but I get again, I'm a big believer. And it's not what you know, but.

It'S who you know. And I am not scared to admit.

You guys, if there's something I don't know, bring in a voice that does know.

So we have over 25 guest experts that also come into Bootcamp and share.

Their area of expertise.

We go live, Sarah and I, every.

Single Wednesday in bootcamp and our guest experts go live every single Thursday.

So you're getting like a very diverse.

Voice and expertise level of people that are sharing inside of boot camp.

It's about 14 weeks long. Again, we go live every Wednesday. It's 12 modules. We do have a couple modules that.

Are big, so we take two weeks on them. And actually this time around this semester.

We may do it even longer because.

We get a lot of people that ask, like, whoa, I need a catch up week. There's a lot of information here.

So we may do it a little.

Bit longer this time around.

And of course we've seen some amazing.

Results in boot camp.

And I always feel weird, like, is.

This a humble brag when you share testimonials?

I don't know, it makes me feel weird about it. But they're there and I promise there's.

Like a lot more of them that are there. But yeah, it just makes me feel awkward telling you about it, so. Trust me, they're really good.

What will you learn inside of Retail Bootcamp?

Every area of your business is covered.

In boot camp, but it's covered in.

A very specific order on purpose.

This is the number one thing I get asked.

I bet I got three emails yesterday about Facebook ads and they're like, hey.

Can you teach me to do X.

On Facebook ads or Y on Facebook ads?

And I'm like, oh, the hard part is like Facebook ads and some of these things don't work. You cannot become more profitable even if.

You'Re running great Facebook ads, if you don't have your inventory under control.

So I feel like you have to.

Walk backwards and go, okay, let's just double check on our mindset, on our team structure, on our operations, on our systems, our processes. They're really not pretty things that no one talks about and doesn't want to talk about because it doesn't go well on Instagram.

And then we dig into the numbers.

And the things that can be intimidating in terms of inventory management and your, your tech stack.

And then at the end of bootcamp.

We get into the fun stuff.

Live selling, e commerce strategy, digital marketing.

Email flows and automations, Facebook ads, PR and media.

Which is something nobody is teaching retailers about today.

But we really deep dive into that.

And we're going to let you guys.

In this semester in on a little secret.

Actually, I'm just going to tell you this now. So my lifelong goal, this has been.

On my vision board for a really.

Long time, is that I want to.

Get boutique owners on the Today Show.

I want to get boutique owners on the Today show on Small Business Saturday. So this is going to be our.

Big push for Small Business Saturday this.

Year is to have a boutique owner like special type of interview or segment.

On the Today Show.

So we're going to walk you through.

What we're doing behind the scenes to make this happen in hopes that you.

Take some of that PR strategy and.

Media strategy and make it happen in your own business too.

Then leverage not just local media, but.

Nationwide media, celebrities, big media, you name it.

Influencers as well.

Collaborations of all sorts of levels.

All right, what questions do you guys.

Have about Bootcamp or about any of the giveaway content? Today I'm going to scroll up, I'm.

Going to stop sharing my screen and.

I'm going to answer some of your questions.

Now. This is the investment for retail Bootcamp.

This is a very small comparison, I think, to what a lot of people have been paying for one on one coaching. Some people charge more than 10,000 doll for that. This is 1997 and you get lifetime access so you can watch it two.

Semesters a year, anytime you want.

You can come back again and again. We're always updating the content, but you get to keep it forever. So.

All right, you guys, I am going.

To come in and get some of your questions.

Let's see. I gotta stop sharing my screen.

That would help.

Okay. Yes. Awesome pages. Boot Camp is so worth it. Thank you, Maria. All right, drop your questions, you guys, below, on the giveaways or on anything.

That we covered today on Bootcamp.

I would love to help. American Express is a sponsored spot on there.

Yes.

I wish that Amex actually gave money back to small businesses. That's like my beef with amex. Small, like shop small, Small business Saturday. I love it.

I think the marketing is awesome. But it's a little bit self serving too, because they want you to come in and use their credit card and they're going to make all the money back in fees.

So that's great.

I mean, everything is a give and take in life, right? But I would love to specifically talk.

About boutiques as well on the Today Show. All right, Amy? Oh, yeah, I didn't even mention. Thank you, Amy. So another big perk of Boot Camp is we have not only we're meeting.

Online and there's a private Facebook group that you're in all these things.

But we also take a trip to LA because a lot of times there's.

People asking questions about shopping la. So we take a trip and we host a retreat in LA for three days. We go to the fashion district, we go to warehouses, we go all over.

There's small group opportunities.

You can come and work with Sarah and I directly While we're there, we also bring in guest coaches while we're in la. So consolidated shipping buyers, what else?

Wholesale brands, like all kinds of people.

We bring in guest experts in la.

And then at night we go to.

Some of the coolest places in downtown la. Rooftops, really cool bars, food, drink, fun, all included. And we cover lunch as well.

So that is a part of it. If LA doesn't happen, it is very.

Much still up in the air, to be honest with you.

Our original dates to go to LA.

Were actually the dates that WWD Magic.

Picked as their trade show this fall. So we had to bump them, but we haven't announced what they'll be yet because we just don't know if we're going to be able to. So we're looking at other dates, whether.

That'S January, February or next spring sometime. But we will get there soon and.

You'Re welcome to come. You don't have to be a current.

Student in this semester to go to la. It's open to anyone to come anytime.

Okay.

How many people are using Facebook groups as opposed to pages? What makes people join the group?

Oh my gosh. Jackalope Trading Company.

I would love to answer this.

Groups are gold because inside of a.

Facebook group my son is cutting potato right now.

He's gonna cut and eat a potato.

While I'm doing this.

Inside of a Facebook group you have.

Up to 30% more organic reach than you do on your page.

So pages are really important because it's more like the business card of your business.

People come there to check you out, see if you're legit.

But Facebook groups are more the community.

Like I was talking about, where it's not just a one way communication channel from you to your customer. To me, that's what a Facebook page is or what an Instagram feed is. It's you speaking to or at your.

Customer, where in a Facebook group they are speaking back to you and they're speaking now to one another. So it's a community.

And again, it's up to 30% more organic reach.

So leverage the engagement giveaways or the.

Growth giveaways I was talking about to get people to join your group.

Give them a perk. Like I do Flash Sale Friday or Freebie Friday or Fun Friday, whatever you want to do to get people into your group. But generally, you know, people want to do business with people and they want to feel like they're connected to you.

And so you're like, dude, this is where all the VIPs hang out.

This is where the best things happen. This is where my new arrivals drop. That's what happens inside of your Facebook group. All right. Mirror Mirror Boutique. This is on your dream board. Oh, my gosh. Hooray. Welcome to Bootcamp, Liz. Is there a fee to attend LA? Yes, it's $99, so that helps us cover some of the meals and the.

Buses, because we rent buses while we're there to give people rides around town. But keep in mind, we try to.

Have breakfast, coffee, bar, and then we have appetizers and drinks at the parties.

That we host at night in LA.

So we try to cover everything.

And so $99 is it. Which is pretty simple.

I'm a bit behind. I was just in boot camp this spring and honestly, didn't do it justice.

When does it start again?

You don't have to register again, Sherry, because you get lifetime access to it, the program. So you're in, right?

You're already in the Facebook group. The introduction week happens the week of.

The 22nd, and then module number one.

We kick off on the 29th.

So you can go ahead and start watching those modules now.

Any of you guys that join, you can start watching the modules now.

Try to get ahead. You're going to need it, I promise.

Because you're going to feel overwhelmed at some point. It's just the nature of the beast.

But get ahead, and then we'll start.

Our group coaching really soon.

Valley, the podcast is fabulous. Thank you. I appreciate that. Oh, Krista and Jill, Chic Avenue. I swear I learned something new. Every video I watch and podcast, I hear. Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. What's a good point of sale system to have with your store when your website is Shopify? Should I go with Square or Shopify Pos Amber, great question. Do you have a brick and mortar or you just. I'm assuming you have a brick and mortar as well. So the more you can stick with one platform, the better. Shopify POS is what I would recommend. I would not recommend Square, but I will tell you that Shopify pos. Does anyone else hear the word POS.

And you just, like, automatically equate it to something else?

Sometimes I do, and sometimes I used.

To maybe call Shopify POS that type of POS because it just didn't have the data and reporting that it needed to.

Today, Shopify has taken it to a whole new level and they're starting to add tons more information and reports to.

The platform, so it's gotten so much better.

I do recommend if you have Shopify.

Pos or if you're using Shopify E Comm that you get some apps like Delirious Profit or Shopventory or Inventory Planner, something that's going to give you a.

Little bit more look and detail into your inventory management. Or if you want like the mother of great cloud based positive, I love Springboard and I love Lightspeed.

Those will give you all kinds of.

Information things that Shopify doesn't do, like inventory look backs. Like if you go into Shopify, you.

Can only look at your inventory current.

But you can't go back and say, okay, what was my inventory on hand.

On July 25th, 2019?

You can't look back in that way. So if you want something a little.

More juicy, I would go with a bigger, more robust system.

But for now, Shopify Positive. All right, what other questions do you have? How Main street is adapting to the new norm or something like that. Oh wait, I missed where that comment's coming from. Valley, is that a talk you're wanting to hear? You'll have to reiterate that in the comments.

I'll come back to it.

What is the difference between becoming a Hub member, the basic course, Bob, or Bootcamp? Great question. I am just starting out.

Would the basic course be better to start with before boot camp? Okay, I'm so glad you asked this question.

I bet I had 5 emails yesterday on that question alone. And I know there's Hub members in the comments that could tell you their experience as a Hub member. So being a boutique hub member is like the base and to me, honestly, that's the most important. If you aren't anything and you're like, oh, I don't know if I should.

Do bootcamp yet, at least join as.

A member, because I think that's going.

To give you a flavor into what we're all about and what our mission is.

And we look at it like this. When Nordstrom walks into market, everyone's like, oh, it's Nordstrom, right?

And they bow down like this.

And we a long time ago back to thinking like, man, why? Why can't boutiques be treated like that? Like, who's gonna raise the voice of boutique owners? There's all kinds of big box fashion.

Everyone has a big voice. But where is the voice of the independent boutique owner who doesn't have time.

To have a big voice? So we look at the Hub as.

The central connection point of the entire boutique industry.

Boutique owners, wholesale brands, industry service providers to come together and collaborate on our.

Platform and find every tool they can.

Need so anything from daily communication inside.

Of one of our eight Facebook groups.

To training like this inside of our training library, to shopping wholesale at one.

Of our 600 plus wholesale brands, to.

Meetups that we have at market, to.

Deals that we get with companies like Commentsold or a number of awesome vetted.

Graphic designers or vetted proven point of sale companies or discounts with Hertz rental.

Car or Office Depot or Verizon if you have cell coverage with Verizon. We even have insurance policies for boutique owners. Dental, vision, critical care, accident, like anything you might need, we put it in.

Your hub membership and your hub membership.

Should pay for itself.

Like if you go to Office Depot once a year, you will completely pay for your hub membership. So that's the base from there. Then we have courses like if you want more of Sarah's expertise or my.

Expertise or like specific step by step.

Strategy in your business.

We have just really three main courses that are available.

The Bob course is brand new. Maybe I just started a boutique or I'm thinking about it.

I need to know how to shop wholesale, like the basics of pricing some.

Really simple things that's in Bob and it's a small program but it's going to get you traction. Then we have Retail Bootcamp which is open right now.

Retail Boot Camp is like the mother.

So everyone looks at it differently. Some people will say I'm going to invest in Bob and just start there. But some say, you know what, I'm only going to be this small for right now and I'm only going to grow from here. So some people say, why would I invest twice when I can just get Retail Boot Camp now that's going to cover everything and it's going to grow with me as my business grows because I get it for a lifetime time. So some people go right to Retail Bootcamp because everything in Bob is already in Boot Camp.

Bob is just a small, like really condensed version of it.

Retail Bootcamp is a huge mother mother. It's a lot bigger. The third course we have is called Content Sanity Masterclass and that is my.

Six keys of essential pieces of content that I break down.

What to post on social media, when.

To post it, how to post it, how to leverage cross post content. If you look at social media, if you start your Instagram account any day of the week and you're like, what do I post today? That's what Content Sanity is all about.

Okay, other questions, if you can't join the live sessions, are they recorded? Yes, they are. They are all recorded. And then we upload them into the modules when we're done with them. How often should we make it rain gift cards? Michelle, you could do it daily if you wanted to. A lot of people do it daily. I think you need to do it more. Like, if this is a new concept to you, running giveaways, do it more at the beginning because you're going to train your customers and then you can, like, slack off at the end. But I think to train them do more at the start. Mallory, what text programs do you guys use? Oh, man. If. Mallory, if you're in the Hub, I'm talking so fast. If you're in the Hub, ask that question in our group because there's a number of great ones out there and we have some that are members of.

The Hub that actually give all of our hub members discounts.

So Slicktext is one. Send Text is one. Some people use, like SMS Bump, there's a couple others. But Slicktext and Send Text are the.

Two that we use most.

Postscripts, that's another one. Oh, what is. Michelle, great question. What's the best way to choose a winner? Okay, random.org is what we've always used to choose giveaway winners. But someone wrote in the Hub this morning, they asked this question, like, what other options are out there? We'll decide. Wheel, as in W H e e l. We'll decide. Actually, Krista, I think that's on this.

Video is who dropped that comment in.

The Hub this morning? Okay. Are texts working for you? 150%. Yes. 99% of people read text messages in the first five minutes. So they're highly profitable. But going back to the content recipe, the content recipe has to hold true on every channel. Same with text. You can't just sell, sell, sell. So, like, I might send out a text on Friday that says put on a little lipstick and handle it like whatever, or it's a motivational quote or it's something else.

It's feel good.

That's gonna get people engaged on your text list and not feeling like they're.

Just always being sold to on your list.

All right, other questions. I know I don't have coffee and I'm still speedy. Kim, you're absolutely right. Okay. Do you use Lightspeed, the text and email marketing check Lope, use an iPad in store and access our inventory. Dream. Is the Hub membership included with Boot Camp?

No, it's not.

It's separate, but it's only $36. Or if you join for the year, it's $24.

So it's super affordable that way.

All right. Dental insurance.

Yes.

It's amazing. I love lightspeed. I switch from clover.

Absolutely.

All right. Definitely join as a member. You guys are awesome. The introduction to boot camp is on the 22nd.

Is that an all day thing?

I'm out of town and don't want to start behind. No, it's a do as you want thing. So we go live always on Wednesdays.

So the 22nd, I believe, is a Wednesday.

Sarah and I will be live that day. Like, just doing our own introductions, Q and A, all that. But what we do is we're really big on community. We're really big on boutique besties and accountability partners.

So when you join the group.

Group.

After you join Bootcamp, you'll get added to our group, our Facebook group.

We ask everyone to do introductions. So video introductions about who you are.

Where you are, what your store is.

Even if you hate Facebook Live or doing video, we really ask you to do it anyway because it's just gonna.

Like, solidify the relationship that you have with other people inside the program.

Dot Dream Boutique. Yes, you can go to LA anytime. Not just like the current semester that you join. Gigi, I've been wanting to do Bootcamp for a year now, but I feel like my schedule is so busy. I hear you. My son's wedding is August 7th.

Is it best to wait?

This is. This is my opinion, and this is.

Not a sales pitch. It is going to sound like a.

Sales pitch, but my motto in life.

Is if you wait until you're ready, you're never going to be ready.

And so there's a lot of people that have similar things happening, or you guys. Sometimes things come up like you're gonna.

Join, and then you might get interrupted with something in week three.

And that's just life. That's how we deal with it. So come in and do what you can. But know, like, you have lifetime access, so you can pick up after the.

Wedding if you want and come back and do more.

Or you can pick up in January.

When we launch it again and start all over.

But at least you'll have the information.

So when you feel like you have time that you can use it and it's gonna keep you motivated even through that really busy time.

Not a sales pitch, I promise. But I just. I don't believe it.

Like being ready for something. I don't.

We all tell ourselves that in our.

Brains, but doesn't always happen that way.

Okay, Bonnie, how do we sign up for bootcamp? There should be a button below this.

Video that says learn more and learn more about Bootcamp.

Or Jeff, if you are watching, if.

You could drop the link in the comments, that'd be really, really helpful too.

If I join next semester, will I have access to this year's and prior semester's content?

Absolutely.

Yep. You get lifetime access. So what we do every week when.

We go live on Wednesdays, we download those lives and we put them in.

Your modules and then all the guest experts, we download those and put them.

In your modules and you have the group is, you know, indefinite. So you can scroll back and look at any past thread in the group as well.

So it's really cool. Like the more you go on, the.

More you have access to because we.

Continue to teach, teach and teach. Okay, any other questions? You guys, let me scroll way up to the top and see if I can missed anything again. Jeff, if you're watching, if you'll drop the retail Bootcamp link in the comments and then there's a button below this.

Video you should be able to access as well.

Allison. Yes. One of the most powerful things we've done, we created a private group for our customers just to share pictures and their own community and friendship.

Facebook groups are huge.

Amy. I feel like Amy deserves a giveaway.

Prize because you said prestige worldwide. You caught it.

You caught the Will Ferrell joke. Thank you. I'm glad there's other Will Ferrell fans on planet Earth.

Perfect.

All right, I think I got most.

Of your guys's questions.

Are you going to give a holiday?

Must do. Like last year.

Oh, Accent Boutique. Actually, you know what? I said that we have three courses.

At the Boutique Hub.

We actually have four.

I completely forgot about it. I wasn't thinking about it.

We have a program called the Holiday Marketing Masterclass. We do talk a little bit about holiday marketing inside of Bootcamp, but holiday marketing for boutique owners is like on another level. So we have a whole program.

It's. I think it's 199, so it's super affordable. But this fall, that is something to look at as well.

Holiday Marketing Masterclass. Okay, I think I got your questions, you guys. Thank you so much for jumping in here and hanging out with me today. Sarah yesterday and me on Wednesday. Tomorrow we're going to wrap up this four part series and I'll give you this hint for tomorrow. Okay? It's great to be motivated. You probably have a lot of notes. I'm hoping you do. Please tell me how many pages of.

Notes you got today. I feel like that's my mark of success for the day. How many pages of notes did you take?

You probably have a lot of notes, but when it comes down to it, at the end of the day, if you don't have time or boundaries or.

Help to implement these things, you're not going to be any further off than.

You were when you started today. So one hour of implementation is worth a hundred hours of motivation, whether it's.

You watching this video or listening to.

One of our podcasts or whatever it is. So tomorrow I want to come in.

And talk really specifically about how to get more done.

Where does the time actually come from? If you haven't yet, please go listen to this week's, actually, last week's podcast.

My weeks are running together and I talk a little bit about what I'm going to talk about tomorrow.

Or if you were in Virtual Summit.

I did a keynote very similar to this as well.

But I think this is the number one problem that not just boutique owners.

Have, but all of us have.

Anyone can be busy, but are we.

Being busy with the right things?

So tomorrow we're going to talk about.

Shifting from entrepreneur to CEO and how to get more done in your business.

So come tomorrow, it is a Saturday, it's 10am I will be back here.

And we will wrap this up together.

But again, you guys, thank you for coming to this series. It was great to spend time with.

You today and we will see you back here tomorrow to wrap it up.