Automating the various processes of your business today is half the battle, and the most important thing is that it doesn’t matter if you are a large, medium, or small company, because the automation option is available to everyone.
Previously, people from the marketing team were in charge of their clients or even one client, but of course, this is not profitable, and very often, especially medium and small companies, do not have the time or resources to operate on this principle.
Even large companies resort to the automation of many business segments, which can take a lot of time unnecessarily. Some business leaders claim that job automation can “save” you as much as 360 hours a year, while some research shows that employees spend as much as 3 hours a day on processes that can be automated, which would be almost half the working time.
Business automation does not mean that you will reduce your communication with clients to formalized relationships, not devoting enough time to anyone, but on the contrary, you will automate processes that you would otherwise waste time on, and you will have more time to focus on designing campaigns, the way you should approach them, etc … What’s more, automation allows you to personalize your communication with clients, and maybe even more than you were able to before.
Business automation means that with the help of various applications, software, and technology in general, you shorten the time for performing many repetitive work processes. This not only saves both time and money, but also increases the efficiency of the team and each employee who now no longer has to spend time repeating one process, say 10 times, but to input, on the platform you use for automation and focus on more important things in business.
We bring you 6 suggestions for process automation in your business:
1. Video automation
Video is a must-have for any marketer, no matter what business you are in. Video is the most visible and effective marketing tool if you don’t use it, you miss out on numerous benefits. From a good tool for the first contact, you make via email with potential customers, through the presentation of a new product, the story of your brand, know-how, behind the scenes, statistics such as the success of some of your products in sales, to the testimony of satisfied clients, the possibilities for video are numerous, and a good part of them can be automated, and Plainly Videos is software that excels in video automation.
Example: You want to introduce a new product that you have in your stores, but for a start only in a few cities. The shots and the story of the product itself are the same, and let’s say you can change the part with the mention of the location of the sale, depending on the location of the customer. Automation solves these processes so that the shots and story of the product are the same everywhere, and only variable location data is extracted from your database, all of which you can solve with the help of a video automation platform.
2. Automatic sending of emails
Of course, no one has time to send emails for hours, whether to potential or regular customers. So it’s up to you to design an email campaign or what message you want to address customers with, create mailing lists, and then automation takes over. Recommended application for this Mailchimp.
Example: Cold calling is the most unpleasant process for many, but it is extremely effective. This is the first contact with potential clients, where you have to be very careful not to end up in junk mail. So you can, for example, use automated video to create a message that you want to attract potential customers and that each email, with the help of automation, be a personalized message for the client who receives it, by changing the name and surname of the client from your database.
3. Automatic data collection
Data collection is also an exhaustive process, but it is crucial that you can use it to conduct your campaigns and direct your marketing strategy to the needs of your customers. Google Analytics application recommendation for this.
Example: Let’s continue with the previous two examples, so you automated the video and the process of sending via e-mail, and now you can automate the information that comes after that. That is, based on the feedback of your potential clients, collect the data you need and further develop your strategy based on them.
4. Automatic data sorting
As well as collecting and sorting data can take a lot of time. That is why there are numerous platforms with the help of which you can not only collect data but also sort it. What you would have to do for hours in an Excel spreadsheet can now be easily solved, so as soon as the data is collected, it is automatically sorted where you need it. Application recommendation for this Airtable.
5. Form automation
Filling out forms or surveys in a very simple way can collect useful data, and this can be automated.
Example: On your site or in an email you send to potential customers, put a form to fill out, with questions about the data you need, and then link the form to your database so that this data is automatically collected and sorted where you need it.
6. Start the campaign
We assume that you know that you can prepare an email or, say, a post on social networks now and that it will be sent/published tomorrow at 2 p.m. This is another great form of automation that can be useful to you.
Example: You can prepare and schedule your email campaign and focus on other segments of the business and while solving important things, your emails are sent by yourself. Or schedule a post on social media for a date when you know that most of your followers are active, which is, say, 8 pm, and you work until 5 pm. Automation solves the problem.
Be careful, it is best to use the automation process in a process where there is little risk and where and if an error occurs, you can spot and correct it, without affecting the experience of your customers.
We should not forget the important fact, and that is that countless platforms offer you different automation options, so before you access one of them and start using it, you need to determine which application is needed according to your needs.
