Hey, y'all! This episode is super special because not only will it be useful for moms out there, but we also officially have our first guest for 2019 on The Marketing Natives - Abbie Alter creator of Plano Moms! We were super excited to record this episode because Abbie is a good friend of ours and Plano Moms has built a really awesome community for all of the moms out there. So, in order to get to know Abbie and Plano Moms better, we asked her some interesting questions!

The Story Behind Plano Moms And How It Got Started

When Abbie moved to the United States five years ago, she didn't have that solid network that she had when she was back in England. With this in mind, she had a difficult time looking for mom's in her area that could answer the questions she had like asking where the best place was to take her kids for dentist checkups and which schools were the best. So in order to help other moms who were in the same situation just like herself, Abbie started the Plano Moms Talk group on Facebook. Here, she and other moms helped one another by answering questions about motherhood and their community.

The group was a hit! Soon thousands of moms in the Plano area joined the group. This was when Abbie realized that she needed more than just a Facebook group. She started expanding Plano Moms by starting an email newsletter and encouraged the members of their Facebook group to subscribe. The newsletter helped her create content that the moms needed and was even able to get offers from local businesses that the moms would enjoy! They expanded once again with their own Facebook page and Instagram, as well.

Plano Moms later then got its own website. This was were members could read Abbie's blogs, connect with one another, and also stay updated with the group's events. They even have a neat event every three months where the moms can speed date in order to get to know the members of their community!

Abbie's Secrets To Staying Organized

With Abbie having so much on her plate such as the Facebook group, website, and other social media accounts to manage, we couldn't help but wonder how this super mom keeps it all together! One of the best things, she found out that she could do was ask help from other moms! Delegating tasks for them was important, one of them is in charge of creating blogs for the website, another mom helps Abbie sell to local businesses and she also one mom to do her e-mail newsletters now.

But with so many different projects at hand, Abbie tries to do her best by outsourcing in order to get the best possible outcome!

Since she works with a lot of different moms and projects, Abbie and her team usually rely on Slack and emails for communication. They also use a CRM system to help them work efficiently with the businesses they partner up with.

The Importance Of Laying Down The Law

One of the things that sets Plano Moms apart from the different mom groups in their area is that Abbie has set rules for the members to follow in order to have a healthy environment for their community. An example of this would be that moms are not allowed to sell products in their group,