As a small business, one of your assumed competitive advantages is the intimacy you have with your customers. You're on a first name basis with them. You ask about their family. That connection is a big reason why they choose to do business with you.

It's also true that as small businesses naturally operate and grow over time, they can't possibly afford to keep communicating with all of their customers in this way. There simply isn't enough time or resources - so you tend to communicate with only a fraction of your database - the ones with an immediate need or the ones spending the most money. Attempts to speak with everyone tend to lead to email "blasts" where the message is no longer personal and that intimacy advantage disappears.

But if you could be in front of everyone, maintain that personal connection and if it didn't require much of your time or additional resources, then you'd be in more meaningful conversations with more of your customers. That can only lead to good things.

Here is where I think MessageMill can help us (yes, I use it myself as a small business owner-operator).

Ironically, technology can now help us reclaim the intimacy advantage. If you're reading this, chances are you have a database of your customers. It could be as complex as a CRM or ERP system or as simple as a spreadsheet, email history or social media connections. You've been collecting information about your customers all along. Sales data, sure, but also customer data like birthdays, preferences, anectodes, t-shirt sizes, etc. Your databases likely contain more information about your customers than any one person, or a team for that matter (because employess come and go), can in their head.

Furthermore, recent advancements in LLMs, short for large language models, a branch of the "AI" tree, make mass content creation accessible to everyone. If an LLM is given the right raw materials (information and instructions) it can craft messages just like a person would - just like you or I would, even, given enough training. LLMs are capable of writing unique and personalized messages that aren't based on templates but on individual context.

Combine these two technologies (databases and LLMs), add in some automation and processing magic and you've got MessageMill - a way for small businesses to effortlessly create and send personal, relevant and timely notes to their entire customer base in a fraction of the time.

I encourage you to create a free account just to see what MessageMill can do with your data. If you don't like it, there's no cost for message generation - only for sending. If you do find MessageMill useful, then you may have just unlocked a powerful new sales generation tool.

Thank you for reading this far!