Businesses have quickly incorporated new digital solutions to keep ahead of the curve and compete successfully in our online marketplace.
Automation trends look to be set to continue well into the New Year. Are you doubtful about the need to automate? Many (most?) of your competitors have already automated most repetitive operations.
What’s holding you back? You need to free up your staff’s time so they can use their unique abilities 24/7, not waste time on pencil sharpening. In the New Year, these are five things that every small firm should consider automating.
1. Scheduling of social media posts.
Today, social media is one of the most effective marketing platforms for businesses. Social media marketing, according to 73 percent of marketers, is an efficient strategy to raise brand recognition, create leads, and automate sales.
However, providing information on a regular basis is an important aspect of effective social media marketing. Posting multiple times each week is the most successful social media routine. If your company has a presence on two or three social media sites, keeping a regular posting schedule will take a significant amount of time and work.
Fortunately, there are certain websites that may assist you in automating this whole process. You can plan articles in advance and manage several social media platforms using tools like Hootsuite and Buffer. Your social networking process will be considerably easier and more comfortable this way.
2. Automate to provide excellent customer service.
There will always be a need for human customer service. However, small firms now have access to technologies that can largely automate basic kinds of customer support.
For example, AI-powered chatbots may serve as a front-line customer care resource by giving basic help and answers to your customers. CRM automation may also help your customer care representatives perform more efficiently and less laboriously. Modern CRM systems make basic customer support operations like ticket creation, quotation management, and account administration very simple to automate.
You may free up your reps for more critical work that demands human decision-making abilities by automating these easy procedures.
3. Routine information technology tasks.
Almost every firm nowadays needs some kind of IT assistance. However, the days of needing to have a crew of computer specialists on hand to handle every area of your IT administration are over. Typically, one person can handle all the work.
Many companies outsource the entirety of their IT needs. Workload solutions allow IT to automate operations such as troubleshooting, resource monitoring, and job scheduling. Task automation technologies work well in small business environments. This wasn’t always the case, but today IT and AI combine to offer user-friendly software.
It’s vital to remember that, like customer service, automated IT technologies should assist rather than replace human personnel.
These technologies may assist your team in working more effectively while also lowering the danger of human mistakes. Nonetheless, we will always require human IT specialists to deploy and monitor automated technologies. Workload automation software increases efficiency. It also lowers costs when you have a well-trained team.
4. Ramp up your email promotion.
One of the simplest and most valuable company procedures to automate is email marketing.
Writing many emails and then setting the parameters under which they will be delivered is the process of automating email marketing. The most simple example is the almost ubiquitous welcome email you get when you register for a new account on a website. Automated email alerts customers to upcoming sales. It collects feedback from consumers. And there are apps that allow you to re-engage with former customers.
While it may seem too easy, email marketing will be effective. This is particularly true when we tailor a customer’s emails to his or her individual use of your website. Sending a reminder to a consumer about an item they looked at, for example, might encourage them to purchase.
Emails based on on-site activity have been shown to raise income by 38%, making them one of the most successful methods to increase sales.
5. Automate your invoicing.
You may charge clients for purchases using automated billing instead of manually producing and mailing invoices. This is particularly useful for payments that are made on a regular basis.
It may, however, be used to charge clients for one-time transactions using payment information that your firm already has on file.
The benefits of automating your company’s billing process grow exponentially. First and foremost, it lowers the likelihood of your consumers being charged the incorrect amount. It will also result in a more consistent payment schedule for both you and your clients, which will be more convenient for both of you.
Finally, freeing up members of your team to focus on other essential initiatives by avoiding the time-consuming task of manually preparing invoices.
While automated designs may assist many other aspects of a company, these five are the most crucial for the majority of small firms. In an increasingly saturated internet marketing industry, automation may help your firm remain competitive and function more effectively.
Grab automation in the New Year. You’ll be able to avoid time-consuming, repetitive duties and concentrate on initiatives that will help your company expand.
