Automating your business refers to repetitive processes. When repetitive processes are no longer manual, you’re business becomes more efficient and you’re able to devote your time to the tasks that will get you and your team the highest return on energy.
Automating your business will save time and believe it or not, there is a way to do it while showing off your brand personality and reaching more people.
Of course, there are some elements of brand autonomating that don’t require personalisation. For example, you might spend 5 hours each week responding to inquiries when you haven’t evaluated their fit yet. Here is where you should rely on a management software to ask the right questions for you, allowing you to step in when you know an inquiry has the potential to be a great client.
Before automating your process, take a week to record how long you spend on certain tasks. What are you doing over and over again? Where do you feel like you could be more present? Determine the tasks where you feel like you should spend less time in order to make way for what’s more important– this is where you should automate.
Email Marketing Automation
Marketing automation could be a big one for your business. More specifically, you can use email automation to continually nurture your current and former clients. For small to medium businesses, 61% of them report that repeat customers generate half of their total revenue. Once you close a project, you can turn on an automation that sends several emails over time. The first could be thanking them for their business. Next, you could send a helpful blog post from your website. After a few other helpful messages, you can ask if they’re interested in purchasing a digital product or booking another service.
Potential Leads
With many automation softwares you can set up unique contact forms to capture leads at different touch points.
Perhaps your lead nurture automation sends out a questionnaire to get their background information. Depending on their answers, you can then send out a link to your meeting scheduler to have them book a consultation call. They’ve just been funnelled into your system and vetted so you can get back the time you need to turn them into a client.
Personalisation
The last thing you want is for your automated processes to come across as cold – that will only put clients off. When it comes to personalisation, most tools these days have custom or personalization fields that automatically fill in information like names, dates, etc. Make use of these to personalise automated emails, so they read as if you did just sit down to write it.
To successfully automate your business without losing the personal touch, you’ll need to use your brand voice. Many tools and softwares include templates, which save a lot of time. However, these should only be used as a base. By taking the time to tweak the copy, you’ll ensure brand consistency and your communications will sound more authentic.
Another great way to automate your business and still show off your brand personality is to make use of video. If a picture says a thousand words, what result do you think watching you in action via video will have? This could be in the form of a welcome pack or even video tutorials depending on your services.
