9 Things You Should Already Be Automating

For small businesses, time is money.

Wasting time on tasks you can—and should—automate is money lost.

Money lost needlessly since determining which tasks to automate is simple:

  • Complete all tasks once  
  • Develop a system for repetitive tasks, and
  • Automate the system you developed

The following 9 repetitive processes are things you should automate—today.

1. ABANDONED CART

Given that shopping cart closure rates average 33%, your Abandoned Cart sequence is something you should automate. Infusionsoft® lets you:

  • Create a tag that identifies prospective purchasers that enter your cart
  • Send them a polite follow-up email if they abandon your cart
  • Send another email in 1-2 days to revive their initial interest

Create emails with fun subject lines like “You were so close to being part of history…” But follow up on that 67% in sales.


2. CUSTOMER REFERRAL SEQUENCE

Happy customers are more likely to refer you to others. Which is why you should automate your Customer Referral Sequence to turn successful relationships into results.

How? Create a Referral Partner in Infusionsoft®:

  • Survey customers to see who’s had a shareable experience
  • Make sure their experience was a positive one
  • Send an email with a clickable link and ask if they’ll share it on social media

Nothing’s more powerful than customer recommendations.


BEHAVIOUR-BASED SEGMENTATION & EMAIL MARKETING

People are “more likely to buy right after they’ve bought.”

Which is why you should automate a Behaviour-Based Segmentation sequence to:

  • Tag customers according to when they bought first, and when they bought again
  • Customize follow-up email series to when customers most recently bought
  • Market products to customers that are similar to their most recent purchases

Let your app run on a schedule, while you analyse what customers are buying and offer more.


GOOGLE DOCS REPORTING (WITH ZAPIER)

Automate your business reporting by connecting Google Docs to Zapier.

Google Docs allows you to collaboratively edit documents with other people in real time. Integrate it with Zapier and:

  • Make the functionality of every app you use interchangeable
  • Create, save or copy from one app type to another, instantly
  • Automate tedious tasks in your workflow like generating manual reports

In short, simplify data management, business reporting and save you time.


REPETITIVE PROCESS TEMPLATES

You should always automate Repetitive Process Templates. Infusionsoft® allows you to create automated templates that are simple, scalable and run on a schedule.

Note Templates, for example, allow you to:

  • Create processes with detailed descriptions
  • Tag groups and individuals responsible who will receive notifications
  • Specify frequency, costs, expenses and follow-up sequences

All template types link to others. So it’s easy to create a process and link it to an email campaign to save yourself time.


LEAD GENERATION & SALES CALL FOLLOW-UPS

Automating a Lead Generation process saves you hours of composing emails and tracking leads.

  • Send out emails series to prospects who opt in to your sales funnel
  • Create workflows and follow-up nurturing emails
  • Send out series of prospecting emails to targeted groups

Automating Sales Call Follow-ups is harder. Human-to-human interaction is still the most successful way to close a deal. Consider outsourcing to a company specializing in outbound calling.


POST PURCHASE FOLLOW-UP CAMPAIGNS

It’s always easier to sell to existing customers. So automate your Post-Purchase Follow-up campaigns and “create strong collaborative ties” using:

  • Welcome SMS messages that greet new customers to the fold
  • Post-purchase thank-you pages that express gratitude for customer purchases
  • Follow-up email series that nurture customers by providing additional value

Keeping current customers in the loop positively predisposes them to you. It also makes them want to buy from you again and refer you to others.


CUSTOMER FEEDBACK & CALLBACKS FOLLOWING BAD RATINGS

You should automate Customer feedback campaigns. Send customers ‘quick’ surveys to rate their customer experience on a scale of 1-10.

Most people respond when only a single click is required. Next:

  • Segment positive responses from negative ones
  • Send thank-you emails to all respondents.
  • Have your sales team call negative responders

Acknowledge, clarify, address and confirm you understand the objections of negative responders. And then apply what you learn.


INVOICING

If you’re still manually invoicing, you should automate this process immediately and stop duplicating your efforts. Link invoices to existing customer accounts to:

  • Improve process time, efficiency, forecasting abilities and employee morale
  • Reduce the need to manually code invoices and the chance of human error
  • Invoice, receive payments and pay suppliers—on a reliable schedule

Do this and you’ll create satisfied suppliers who are “more willing to negotiate terms and costs because of your great payment history.”

To learn about how automating processes streamlines your business, read “Automate the Right Processes and Work on Your Business, Not in It!

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