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5 Automation Tips for the Small Business Owner

 

 

 

23 June 2016

According to an SBA.gov report, only about half of small businesses will be around in five years.
To increase your chances of being one of those still around a half decade from now, you must find ways to operate as efficiently as possible. One method of doing so is through automation.

Email Automation
Email marketing continues to be an important part of a company marketing strategy. A recent study shows that two weeks seems to be the optimal frequency for reaching out to clients, though this varies by industry. With everything else going on in your business, who has the time to fully dedicate to that? With an automated service, you can provide information to educate your customers.

Social Media Automation
While you cannot replace your expertise and engagement with your followers, there are many other aspects of your social media presence that can be automated. There are tools available that will allow you to schedule posts to your social media platforms, tailor which platforms receive which posts, and automate certain types of responses to your followers.

Customer Support
Customers want to know that you’ll be there to help them throughout their relationship with your firm. Customer support can differentiate you from your competitors and provide you a loyal customer for years to come. Look for solutions that can help you with creating FAQs, knowledge bases, and community forums that will assist customers in finding the answers that they need.

Analytics
When evaluating your online presence, you need to know whether you’re connecting with your target audience. You could spend hours a day accessing your social media sites, poring over reports to gather the necessary data. Alternatively, you can find tools that aggregate this information, allowing you to view your metrics in a central dashboard and concentrate on tasks that will directly affect the bottom line.

Website Development and Maintenance
Having a professional web presence is a crucial part of being in business and allowing both current and potential customers to find you.

Most visitors spend less than 15 seconds on a website. Why decrease your chance of an extended visitor stay by hosting a website that is slow or just doesn’t look great. Automate the process and leave it to the professionals.

With all that small business owners have on their plates, it’s nice to know that there are tools out there which can
provide an extra set of hands (or even a whole team!)

If you have any questions about these automation tools or other strategies that can help your business to become more efficient and boost your bottom line, please feel free to contact us.