Very few businesses are in a position where they would not like to grow, in fact if your business falls into that category read no further. But if this is not the case for your company, one of the most effective ways to maximize a business’s growth potential is to maximize efficiency. If you are employing people to perform repetitive, mundane, or even extremely complex & time consuming tasks, it may be time to consider business automation tools sometimes refereed to as business web apps.
Consider the average cost of an entry level position at your company. Now add taxes, insurance, and all the other lovely costs associated with hiring personnel, and multiply that by five years. It would be very unlikely you did not come up with a number that is six figures. Now imagine you could invest into an online web application which automated that task for your company, year after year after year and the cost was about a third of what you would pay a person to do this. Most business owners would then be able to reinvest into the company which would eventually create even more jobs!
How does it work?
Software that is used to systematize business procedures is called Business Process Automation (BPA). It takes difficult, repetitive, or complex activities and simplifies them into a modernized, efficient process online. It’s possible to get the same job done using less technology, and that saves your business both time and money. The best part is that it frees up employees from having to do redundant tasks and either focus on other more productive skills or create new jobs in other areas.
There are many automation tools to choose from that will enhance your business online. You can mechanize email, social media, and web services. Use software to manage clients, marketing, and customer support. Some apps can operate easily by smartphone. Imagine your business can automatically do the following:
- manage clients
- back up files
- sync social media accounts
- sync calendars
- automatically silence your phone for a scheduled meeting
Marketing BPA makes communication more efficient, improves projections and estimates, simplifies legal work, tracks people, helps manage projects, optimizes your website visibility and function, and limits administrative tasks.
Popular Automation Tools
- Both Hootsuite and Buffer help automate your social media connections across more than 35 networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. They put your accounts on one dashboard so you can easily identify social influences in your target market and specify individual social marketing strategies. Both offer free plans to get started until you discover a need for more services that are included in upgrades.
- If generating leads and sales is taking up valuable time, try HubSpot to control real-time marketing data and provide precise information to narrow your search. Create workflows with pre-determined goals and descriptive audience segments to automate marketing campaigns.
- Automated email marketingis another affordable tool on this list using applications like MailChimp. You choose the customer data, like activities, behavior, preference, or past sales, and the system will target that audience. By integrating other web technologies through Application Program Interfaces (API) you can take yet another step toward designing a very efficient workflow. API software exchanges information or requests online services from an outside organization. Companies are growing business rapidly by sharing services with external businesses.
- Advanced content management and SEO tools are another automation candidate. A platform called Spokal can be used to enhance WordPress sites. It automates inbound marketing, sharing between social media platforms, and has the ability to integrate with MailChimp for email campaigns and raise customer retention.
These automation ideas are just a few suggestions. Many things are possible once you know the technology is out there. Whether you research some of your options or have your marketing and advertising agency do it for you, you will be glad you did. Your online presence is a constant work in progress that can consume your time easily without the proper tools.
Be sure to stay tuned for the next article in our 12 Days of Christmas series for more great ideas to take you into the New Year with new innovation and renewed enthusiasm for both your business and its valued customers.