Automations & Authenticity

In a previous article, we went over building a sales relationship so, before you dive into this topic - automations & authenticity - we encourage you to read that article here if you haven’t already.

So, now you’re ready to support your team and your business with automations but we want to do that in an authentic way. During the LoopSpark onboarding process, that’s always our goal - setting up communication flows that match your business, brand, and voice but when we ask clients how they want to do that, just about everyone gets a little tongue-tied.

If that feels also like you, these are our top five things we would encourage you to plan out so your automations not only speak to your clients but also help with conversions and increasing revenue.

#1 New Client Journey

Do you know what new clients experience from your business the moment they walk in the door or input their email address? Do they receive confirmation emails or texts? You get the picture but this is important to highlight because it is one of the most critical times to communicate with clients and prospects. Bottom line, we encourage you to map out their current experience in whatever format works best for you so you can take a good look at ways you might improve it.

HINT: Over the years, we’ve learned that flow-charts do tend to be the best “universal communicator” in this area.

#2 Pricing Tiers

Building off of the new client journey above, next questions would be - do you have an ideal purchase journey for your new clients and prospects? I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “if you fail to plan, then plan to fail,” and that very much comes into play here.

What we mean by that is that it’s very important to map out what deals, sales, and specials you are communicating to clients and when you are doing so based on their history with your business.

HINT: The more personalized these suggestions are to each client, the higher your conversion rate will be.

#3 Utilization & Visit History

So, let’s say your dream client buys your Unlimited 2-week Intro Offer and magically converts into your Monthly Unlimited VIP membership offer. I’m sure you’re on cloud nine and wanting everyone to do the same, but we know that’s not how real-life works.

A better method for New Client conversions is when you place the correct offers in front of them based on their own patterns and behaviors. A great example would be, you have a client Jane who also purchased your 2-week Unlimited Intro Offer but she’s only got 3 days left and when you look back at her utilization, she’s only attended 3 times. Yikes! Not exactly ideal, but we all have busy lives and that might just be what Jane’s schedule allows. If that’s the case, do you think an Unlimited Monthly VIP membership will make any sense for Jane to buy? No. Of course not! She wasn’t even able to fully capitalize on the intro offer.

This story is more common than you might think and is also one of the ways you can come off as too “salesy,” if you don’t check on your clients before sending them an amazing deal of offer. That is why visit history is key to building ideal flows and the way we do that is by identifying “high,” “medium,” and “low,” users.

Back to Jane - what do you think would be the appropriate next sales opportunity for her? Well, simple math tells us that if she was able to attend 3 times in 2 weeks, she would seemingly have a max capacity of attending 6 times in a month. We would then encourage you to look at any packages you offer and tell her about a sale or offer that would roughly match that level of utilization. In real-life this might look like an 8-pack or a 10-pack util Jane shows higher levels of utilization when a membership might actually make financial sense for her.

When you include this level of thought into your automations, you show you are paying attention and that you want to continue to support them in their goals while meeting your clients where they are.

#4 Formal vs Funny

Once you have identified your flows and the best ways to reach members based on utilization, you need to master your voice. That work will mostly be tied to your overall branding and style of communication when working with your clients in-person so keep in mind, automations are meant to match that tone versus change it.

So, if someone is in your studio and you would say something like “Oh wow, you did it! You’re a rockstar!” then your automation messages would want to reflect that fun, up-beat communication style. Just because the system is automated or “robotic,” that doesn’t mean your messaging needs to be.

#5 Implement the “Dating Analogy”

So, if anyone reading this has been on the phone with me, Christine, you know I love to use dating analogies with just about everything marketing. What does that mean? Well, I want you to think about the last time you started a romantic or friend relationship. What were the stages of getting to know that new human? I’m going to put myself out there as the example this time, so be nice to me!

You meet
You decide if you like that human/ ever want to talk to them again
You do want to talk to them again and text them a lot but not too much to avoid looking desperate
You arrange a 2nd date,
... a 3rd date and so on ...

The journey could go on and on but what I want to highlight is the natural understanding and cadence we all have when it comes to communicating with someone new that we like and would like to maintain building a relationship with.

Oddly enough, business is the same so, when you have a new client in an intro offer, are you communicating with them regularly without coming off as “too much?” Once you do have a solid communication tempo with new clients, do you maintain that level of communication when they become a member or do your communications drop off the face of the earth?

You get it.

Biggest tip - map out your client journeys and make sure to measure your tempo and human authenticity so you are building the best relationships you can with every single client.

What’s the take-home message?

Automations and authenticity aren’t mutually exclusive - in fact, they perform their best when used together.