Why Automation Matters.
By Christine Schmidt on
If you care about growing your business or making it run more efficiently, marketing automation should be your next point of focus. Now, when we say “automation,” you might wonder what that means exactly.
When referencing Merriam-Webster's dictionary for the definition of ‘automation,’ you’ll see it reads “automatically controlled operation of an apparatus, process, or system by mechanical or electronic devices that take the place of human labor.” Just by reading the definition alone, it’s fairly easy to understand the value in having a system automatically handle tasks so you don’t have to.
One of the first ways to incorporate automation into your business is via marketing platforms and honestly, this isn’t new. Some of the very first instances where automations were used as tools, especially in marketing, would go back to when we first had the ability to schedule an email from our inbox, schedule a social media post, or even send a follow-up message based on a communication being unopened after a period of time.
Why do all of those tasks remain valuable? Because they take care of the “little things,” for you so you can focus on areas that do need a more hands-on approach.
Now, if you haven’t implemented any automation in your business life before, this can feel scary. We get it, relying on a computer to do what you do manually can bring up some trust issues, maybe even raise a few eyebrows out of doubt or disbelief. If that resonates with you, let’s break down a few more perks to automations and our three favorite flows to start breaking through this hesitation.
Benefit #1: It saves time.
Think about the daily, weekly, and monthly tasks you do that are repetitive and don’t change much - sending a confirmation email, reaching out to clients when they haven’t been in for a week, letting clients know when their package is close to running out or expiring, etc. On top of those things, your inbox will also include other more unique needs and your time managing digital messaging has taken over your day.
In fact, research from Carleton University claims that this type of work can take up about one-third of your work day. Side note, if you also think that’s a tad “crazy,” but realistic then automation is something you need to think about.
Benefit #2: It nurtures new leads.
It’s always more difficult acquiring new customers than it is to retain existing ones. That’s why it’s important to focus a lot of your automation strategy on lead generation.
Lead generation is honestly just one of many steps you need to focus on for business growth but, lead generation can also take over your marketing life if you have to handle each contact point personally. Initially, that might not sound too bad if personalized communication equals a high conversion rate but… guess what… your response time matters a lot for this to be true.
According to Harvard Business Review, potential clients are seven times more likely to purchase from you if you respond within an hour of them taking some sort of action. Without automation, getting back to someone within 60 minutes is hard. In fact, approximately 24% of companies take more than 24 hours to respond to customers, while 23% don’t bother responding at all. Yikes! That’s a lot of hours passed and a lot of potential customer interest going to waste.
Benefit #3: It improves client retention.
Once you have enough leads on your plate and you’ve nurtured them into clients, you need to focus on keeping them happy and coming back for more. According to research by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company, increasing customer retention rates by 5% can increase profits by more than 20%. So, you see that the numbers don’t lie - keeping the right customers is essential for business expansion and higher return on investment.
This also lines up with what we referred to as our “dating analogy,” in the last article to ensure you’re maintaining open lines of communications with all clients and members as they continue to work with you.
Yeah, that’s a lot of angles to consider. So, in order to practice what we preach we’ve created a PDF containing guidelines for three of our favorite automation flows designed to help you leave less money on the table. Click here to access those.
What’s the take-home message?
Building a business is wildly dynamic and you can’t do it all but, you can get it all done. How? By integrating automated systems that complement your business to better serve your clients, support your team members, and ultimately, build brand loyalty.