Caroline Benefield, Founder of Southern Grit Digital, on Demystifying Marketing for Founders and Creatives

Caroline Benefield is the founder of Southern Grit Digital, where she helps founders, creatives, and entrepreneurs cut through the confusion of marketing with clarity and strategy. With more than a decade of experience in nonprofit development, digital communications, and direct response marketing, Caroline brings both data driven precision and creative insight to the businesses she supports.

Through client centered consulting, presentations like her Email Marketing 101 class, and newly launched service packages, she equips business owners with practical tools to build brands that feel aligned, intentional, and sustainable.

Please share a brief introduction and your business:

Hi! I’m Caroline. I’m an experienced marketer with over a decade of proven success in digital communications. Working with nonprofits and institutions across the United States, I’ve built a reputation for being knowledgeable, creative, and efficient in the marketing and digital communications space.

With Southern Grit Digital, my goal is to pass this creativity and efficiency on to founders, creatives, and entrepreneurs. No one tells you how confusing marketing can be when you start running a business, and sorting through article after article that disagrees on what you should do is exhausting.

That’s where I come in! I’m here to demystify the marketing process. Whether you’re looking for someone to help answer your questions or a full service marketing professional who will take the stress off your plate, I’ve got a package to suit your needs.

I can’t wait to hear from you and make some marketing magic together!

Are you a mamaprenista?

I'm a stepmamaprenista! I make sure I'm always at the dinner table and at the breakfast table with my stepdaughters, and we have a "no phones at the table" policy in our house. This gives me time to connect with them and vice versa. I also prioritize going to their weekend and after-school events, and I make my working hours clear to my clients up-front so that those times are less likely to have any interruptions. Learning to set boundaries around both my work time and my family time makes juggling the two a much smoother process.

Take us back to when you launched? What was your marketing strategy?

I focused heavily on word-of-mouth marketing. At every conference or writing group where I presented my Email Marketing 101 class, I would get two or three referrals to my next opportunity, be it another presentation or consultation calls. Beyond that, I leaned heavily on my network of fellow marketing pros so that we could cross-refer clients to one another, helping clients find the right fit for them.

By taking a client-centered approach, I've been lucky that word-of-mouth marketing has gone better than expected. Even clients who have signed with someone else have given my name to their contacts.

Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

No. I actually had no desire to leave the corporate world before 2023. It took seeing a real gap that I had the skills and resources to address for me to take the leap. The words, "if not me, then who?" drove me to create my business and jump into entrepreneurship.

What accomplishments are you the most proud of to date in your business?

My Email Marketing 101 presentation at the Georgia Romance Writers Moonlight & Magnolias Conference in 2024. There were authors at all levels of their careers, and the room was completely full.

Afterwards, several very established authors who were 15 - 20 books into their careers, making a full-time living at their craft, came up to me to tell me they had never seen the intricacies of email marketing broken down so effectively, and that they were walking away with a better understanding of why their email marketing was important and how to execute it more effectively.

This was the moment that clarified for me that I am in fact filling an important gap in the industry.

What is one thing you wish you had known when you started your Entreprenista journey?

That it's okay to take things at my own pace. Comparing my growth to someone else's doesn't help me, and there's a good chance that we don't even have the same long-term goals!

When hiring, what is your go-to interview question?

Tell me about a time a project didn't turn out how you wanted and what you learned from that.

What did you do before starting your own business?

I spent nearly a decade in the nonprofit space in development and communications, working with animal shelters, blood cancer researchers, farmers, women's services, addiction rehabilitation centers, and Fortune 500 executives.

I then spent five years leading direct response marketing at a Tier 1 research institution, raising over $20M per year in individual donations.

What made you take the leap to start your own business?

Between January 2022 and June 2023, I lived about a decade of life. I got engaged, bought a home with my now husband, got married, became a stepmom to two beautiful girls, and unfortunately lost both of my parents.

Out of the grief and overwhelm, I started writing as a creative outlet, and I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to publish a cozy romance book series. As I interacted with more and more creatives, I saw a gap in affordable marketing services that gave creatives simple, usable tools to feel confident executing their own marketing. I created an Email Marketing 101 presentation and started presenting to writing groups across the country. From those presentations, Southern Grit Digital was born.

Do you have any recent wins?

Launching my New Business and Brand Rescue packages!

My New Business package walks the founder through the first 90 days of setting up their marketing, from domain names to branding guidelines, messaging strategies, and SEO.

My Brand Rescue package works with folks who need a new set of eyes on their brand, whether their focus is changing or their brand doesn't resonate with their audience. We go through a full digital asset audit, a thesis statement exercise, and we identify your ideal audience. From there, I craft branding documents, templates, an audience breakdown, and messaging points.

Launching these services was a step forward for me, and I put a lot of work into the offerings, so I'm really excited they're now available as package options!

What's one app on your phone that you cannot live without?

Notion. I manage everything from my business to my grocery list in it, and having it easily available if I need to jot down an idea or pull an asset makes my life so much easier.

Who are your customers?

Founders, creatives, small business owners, and entrepreneurs. I currently work with authors, artists, consultants, and coaches.

What's your top productivity tip?

Time blocks. I block out time on my calendar for deep work for each client every week. I don't check emails, unless they're from that specific client, I don't look at other metrics. I focus only on executing for that client during that time.

What's your favorite business tool?

I'm going to have to say Notion again. I found it really overwhelming when I first started using it, but now I can't imagine using anything else. I can manage my businesses, my goals, my progress, and my personal life, all in one place.

What's your approach to work-life balance?

It's always a work in progress. What worked for me as a single woman working for a large research institution doesn't work for me as a stepmom running two businesses. I like to embrace the idea that "something is better than nothing." If I walked on my treadmill while responding to emails instead of hitting the gym, that's still great!

There are times I hold sacred: dinner with my stepkids, date nights with my husband, therapy, and my quiet morning coffee. Knowing I'll always have those times lets me break my calendar into blocks around that, and I try to not work after 5:30 very often. I also use the HB90 planning system by Sarra Cannon, which forces me to look realistically at my time, rather than seeing how much I can pack into one day.

How do you avoid burn-out?

Again, time blocks. I block out time to exercise, to spend time with my family, and to engage in my hobbies, and I hold myself to those blocks unless there is a true emergency.

I am also mindful of how much I can take on at a time, so I only onboard up to two clients per month, and I carefully evaluate networking opportunities to make sure they're an effective use of my time.

What advice do you have for aspiring Entreprenistas?

Slow growth is better than no growth.

One client is better than no clients (usually).

Someone else's version of success doesn't have to be yours.

If you see a gap where your skills are needed and it intersects with something you enjoy doing, the work is a lot easier.

It's okay to pivot.

And my biggest piece of marketing advice: define your thesis statement before you jump into branding and messaging. If you could sum up your business in 3 - 7 words, what would you say? That simple statement will tell you a lot about what you're offering and who you're offering it to, and building a consistent brand is a lot easier with that in mind.

From presenting to packed rooms of established authors to launching her New Business and Brand Rescue packages, Caroline Benefield has built Southern Grit Digital around filling a real gap in the industry. Her journey reflects thoughtful growth, strong boundaries, and a commitment to serving clients in ways that are both strategic and human.

If you are a woman founder looking to grow at your own pace while surrounding yourself with ambitious, supportive entrepreneurs, Entreprenista connects you with the relationships and opportunities that help you build confidence. Learn more about joining Entreprenista League.