7 Automations Every Business Should Have

Stop wasting your valuable time! When you run your own business, or are responsible for your own bottom line, every minute counts. The average person spends about 3 hours per day on repetitive manual tasks – that is over 15 hours a week!

Many business owners, solopreneurs and professionals spend upwards of half their time doing the same things…over and over. Thereby not having enough time in their day to do what really matters…the income producing and growth producing activities.

But how do you run a business, grow a business, enjoy the business AND do all those things that need to be accomplished on a repeat basis?

Automation.

Plain and simple, automations simplify any aspect of the business by accomplishing the many tasks that we otherwise have to do manually. It will save time, money, and makes sure things don’t fall through the cracks…like leads!

Yet many people think that automations are ONLY for delivering marketing emails and campaigns. Things like Newsletters, Lead Magnets, and Email Series.

Not true.

Automation can be incorporated into many aspects of the business – from capturing and nurturing leads, to serving customers, to routine office tasks and ‘to-do’s’.

And it is WAY easier than you might think!

Let’s take a look at the top 7 automations EVERY business should implement:

Networking Follow Up

When you return from a networking event you should immediately start communicating with your new contacts—before they forget who you are. Do this personally, then enter them into your system so that no one falls through the cracks.

I am not saying that what is sent TO them is automated – but rather you can define a follow-up strategy and timeline that automatically reminds you (or a team member) to contact, connect, or deliver certain things.

You can use automation to set reminders based on when you want to reach back out to them…you can have reminders or tasks at one week, one month, six months, for example, based on where they fit into your TEAM (see Networking is a Contact Sport course).

You will then automatically be reminded to reach back out to EVERY person you meet – and when you do that consistently…your business can’t help but grow.

Sales – Moving people along the pipeline

Your sales cycle may be short, or it may be long, either way – there is a time gap between interest and paying client. Mapping out the sales journey and assigning tasks for each stage ensures that no one drops off the edge.

Most CRM’s allow you to set up a sales pipeline, and although this may be static in nature you can define certain tasks for each ‘stage’ in the pipeline that get assigned to you, or others, with deadlines to complete.

Additionally, when you move a lead from one stage to the next in a sales pipeline you can set it up to automatically create tasks or prompt you to do certain activities. The pipeline is static – the automation supports what needs to occur in order to move people through the pipeline to the sale.

Lead Magnet & Nurturing

We have all signed up for a lead magnet…that irresistible piece of information or content that we just want to get our hands on. Then we have received several pieces of additional nurturing emails to further help us and provide more value and information (hopefully).

Lead Magnets and Content are the backbone of many industries – they allow you to show off your expertise and provide a roadmap for the recipient to follow back to you and what you provide.

This can be done manually – but what a chore! Automation is the only way to make this feasible and scalable. Imagine if you had to everyday track where someone is in the ‘series’ and send out the next email…now times that by 100, or even 1000 people that have requested your Lead Magnet. Impossible and a huge waste of your time.

By automating this you can (1) provide timely information, (2) provide MORE information and better resources, which establishes trust and authority over a period of time, (4) track who is reading your emails and who is not giving you a better sense of who to focus your efforts on. Not to mention a HUGE time saver and the ability to provide more outreach to more people in less time.

Our system sends ME a reminder half-way through one of our nurturing-conversion email series that prompts me to go into the system to see if they have ‘opened’ anything. If they have – GREAT! If not, I can then choose to personally reach out to them and invite them to something, schedule a call, etc. This way I can be an active part of their journey and give them a human touchpoint…and my system reminded me to do it.

Welcome and Onboarding

Often times businesses have the same process they need to compete with each new client, or they simply want to immediately Welcome them and provide useful information.

You can set up a series of ‘new client’ emails/tasks so that your new client feels important, informed, and appreciated. Things like tips or how-to’s, Q&A or FAQ, see how they are doing, suggestions for other products or complimentary services, gaining feedback so you can ensure their satisfaction, or even just a ‘check-in’ every so often to make sure they are still doing OK.

Let me give you a practical example, we send a handwritten note to every new client. Obviously, I have to do this – my computer (last I checked) doesn’t have the ability to write the note, sign it, lick a stamp, and put it in the mail. However, it can automatically assign me a task with a due date so I can track it easily until I complete it.

The system reminds me to write the note, pulls up the client’s mailing address so I don’t waste time trying to find it, and continues to remind me until I mark it ‘complete’.

If you have an onboarding process, or need documents or other information from them, this can be automated and done via forms that are ‘smart’ and can continue to remind them to submit or complete without you having to nag them personally to get them submitted.

If your product is a restockable item or something they will need over and over, or needs a review every so often (like insurance or financial plans) – automations can be set on a ‘clock’ and send an email or a reminder to you and/or your client after a predetermined length of time. This allows you to be proactive about acquiring future sales.

Respond immediately so no one gets lost

Most websites and social media platforms have a way for potential clients to ‘contact us’. Many of these simply send an email to the business owner which may, or may not, get immediate attention. These are interested people!  Don’t lose them to the next guy they submit a ‘contact us’ form to.

Instead of taking requests that are sent to your email (possibly a black hole), add a form to your website that communicates directly to your automation software and (1) send them an immediate response, and (2) automatically created a task for you to accomplish with a due date to connect with them, answer their question, etc.

I am sure you have received something like this when you have filled out a form:

“Hi, [First Name]! Thanks for contacting us. I wanted to send a quick note to let you know that we received your question. Someone from the team will be in touch shortly.”

They immediately know that you received their inquiry and will then gladly wait with anticipation.

Appointment Reminders

Let’s be honest – we have all missed an appointment or two in our day. Even if it was clearly on our calendar!  We live in an overscheduled world, and just like us, our prospects may need reminders about appointments. Missed or forgotten appointments are a waste of your time and theirs…and time is money.

But you are not their time-keeper…however, a few automatic reminders of an upcoming appointment is a GOOD thing for everyone involved. If you automate this based on the appointment date you can have the system send them an email and/or a text reminder 1 or 2 days before the appointment…you can even ask them to ‘click to confirm’.

Testimonials and Referrals

It makes no difference how you look at it, or what type of marketing you do, referrals and testimonials are still the #1 way to receive and secure new business.

So…automate the process to ask for them.

Set up a survey and have it sent to your clients on a predetermined schedule after the completion date of services rendered or products delivered. This will prompt them to give you some feedback and possibly a testimonial and/or referral.

Make it easy for them – and you! Whether they respond with a positive or a negative review you will be happy you asked!

If it is positive – great! Now you have a testimonial or a few referrals to follow-up on.

If it is negative – you can be automatically alerted, find out what when wrong, fix it, and prevent further damage.

It’s all about time

We said it above, but we will say it again – automations save you time, but not all automation is delivering something TO someone…it may simply be a support mechanism that assigns tasks that still require a human touch. It will streamline the process so that you stay more organized and don’t waste time with repetitive tasks or risking things falling through the cracks. 

In the modern world of business automation is not a luxury – it is a necessity.  Which one are you planning to implement into your business?

Ready to get started?

1. Examine what you do repetitively and define the process.  Here is a BLOG Rodger wrote to help you out: How to Map a Process
2. Determine what automation systems you plan to use. If you want to check out the system we use, simply click our affiliate link for a free trail – Active Campaign
3. Get going!  Need help – give us a shout!