Do you feel like your time is being wasted doing repetitive tasks?
Are you tired of setting up your own email campaigns and sending them on schedule?
Or manually pulling your most important data from various sources?
If you’ve answered positively to all of these questions, it’s time to shake things up.
It’s time to free up more time, energy, and resources because your business needs you.
It’s time for automation.
Thanks to the development of algorithmic technology, you have the ability to streamline processes and automate your business to make it more productive, efficient and – above all – profitable.
In this article, we’re going to show you how you can transform your business with automation and make it smooth like silk.
Let’s get started.
- What is automation?
- Why you should automate your business
- Benefits of automation
- How to get started automating your business
- 6 places where you can add automation today
- How Data Factory can help you automate your business
What is automation?
Automation, or business process automation, is the application of technology to automate repetitive tasks or processes that would otherwise be carried out manually.
Let’s say your business is dealing with an increasing volume of customer queries. One way you can handle this is by using chatbots. Chatbots help customers by automating conversations and interacting with them through messaging platforms.
Or let’s say you’re spending too much time manually extracting data knowing you could be more effective if you spent your time differently. Data scraping tools help automate data extraction and fuel business growth.
Why you should automate your business
It’s no secret that there’s going to be a time in your business journey when you’re overloaded with time consuming manual work, impacting your ability to focus on what’s important for your business.
Automation helps remove the headaches associated with inefficient processes which can slow you down. With automation, repetitive tasks are eliminated from the daily workflow and your time is freed up to focus on more value-added work.
“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” Bill Gates
Benefits of automation
A recent survey by McKinsey shows that prioritizing automation is extremely important to enable success.
Here’s a list of major benefits of automation:
Customer satisfaction
Your customers can get easily annoyed with ineffective customer service. If they have an inquiry, customers expect quick and easy contact with you, or someone from your team. If they’re unable to get in touch with you, they might be inclined to never use your product or service again.
Automated phone lines, emails, and chatbots allow businesses to take care of their customers, respond to all their queries, and keep their reputation intact.
Improvements in quality control
Automation allows your business to improve quality inspections by reducing errors in the workflow.
Reduced operating expenses
When your business experiences a task overload, you might be inclined to hire more people to handle the heavy workload. Automation is the best way to deal with this kind of a situation as it performs the tasks regardless of how difficult they may be, saving you tons of money.
Employee experience
Automation creates a better work environment for employees and helps them do their jobs better. When certain tasks are automated, employees have more time to be creative and solve problems, avoiding getting burnt out, bored, or unfulfilled at work .
Time Saving
Your time is indispensable. Automation helps you save time by eliminating countless hours you may be spending on repetitive tasks. With automation you are free to add more value to your business.
How to get started automating your business
Before you get started with automation, you have to understand what you’re trying to accomplish with automation. This way you can tailor your automation approach and add it where you need it most.
When thinking about what you should automate first, look for areas that will lighten your or your team’s workload, improve creativity, and lower costs.
Time consuming tasks
Which tasks are the most time-consuming, annoying, or repetitive that can be done by a software with a 100% accuracy? These kinds of tasks are the most ideal candidates for automation. Avoid automating tasks that require human creativity and input.
Choose the right automation tools
Once you have a clear understanding of which tasks you want to automate, ensure you select proper automation tools. There’s plenty of automation tools available, so make sure you pick the ones that are right for your business.
Set goals
It’s imperative that you set goals for your automation processes. If you’re investing money in automation, you want your automation to provide a good return on your investment.
For example, you might use automation to manage your social media activity like publishing posts, scheduling, and reposting. This allows your team more time to be creative and solve other important problems. How is your team spending this extra time and is this bringing more value to your business?
Track progress
Just like anything else in your business, you have to keep track of your automation progress. Ensure you keep track of the effectiveness of your automation processes and change your approach accordingly, if you find areas for improvement.
6 places where you can add automation today
Here’s a list of 6 things you can quickly and easily automate, giving you time back to focus on what’s important:
Email marketing automation is one of the most popular and most accessible types of automation. Email automation gives you the ability to send time or action triggered emails.
With email automation you can personalize each email you send, segment based on data and ensure emails are sent to the right recipients, setup perfect times for email to be sent, and so on.
Recommended tool: Lemlist
- Standard operating procedures (SOPs)
Documenting your business processes is crucial for your business success. Whether you’re a one person team, or have a few employees, having standard operating procedures (SOPs) is a must.
An SOP is a set of step-by-step instructions that outline how to complete certain tasks within your business. Having SOPs makes it easier to onboard new employees and delegate tasks to other employees.
Recommended tool: Trainual
- Social media
With social media automation you can schedule posts ahead of time to be published during audience peak times, republish popular posts, and set up automatic responses to customers.
Social media automation allows you to spend time and resources toward your strategic goals and other areas of your business.
Recommended tool: SocialPilot
- Data scraping
Web scraping tools simplify the process of extracting data from websites. A web scraper uses bots to extract data and content from a website database.
Data extraction can often turn into a complicated and messy process but luckily web scrapers and data scraping tools make the process easy, fast, and reliable.
Recommended tool: Apify
- Lead generation
Automated lead generation is the process of developing systems and processes to help you generate leads without having to source them manually.
With an automated lead generation process in place you will have a regular source of new and qualified leads.
Recommended tool: Linkedin Sales Navigator
- Customer support
Have you ever tried calling a customer support line without being able to reach a human? Or sending an email without getting a quick response?
Customers expect immediate attention to their inquiries. Luckily many of these tasks can be automated so you can get your customer the help they need.
Recommended tool: Zapier
How Data Factory can help you automate your business
If you’re thinking about automating your business, but don’t know where to start, contact Data Factory for assistance. We can help you automate many of your processes and give you your time back, so you can focus on other areas of your business that require attention.
