Do you ever feel like there’s not enough time, and so much to do? We’re here to tell you that you can focus on the growth of your company by leaving the rest up to business process automation. Everything from social media posts, to first-line customer support, contact requests, email marketing, and managing all business payments are just a few of the things you can automate so you’ll have more time to focus on other important business elements.
Business process automation software isn’t just for large-scale and conglomerate companies. Research by 99firms stated that “85% of small businesses” have invested in automation tools. Even if your company is just starting out, automating processes will help you be more productive — with less effort.
With the help of Plooto, we’ve rounded up seven processes all small businesses should automate. Time to sit back, relax, and let process automation work its magic!
1. Scheduling Social Media Posts
Having a strong social media presence has never been more crucial to the success of businesses big and small. However, it’s not just enough to have a presence on social media, it’s just as important to maintain regular attendance. With the help of social media management software like Hootsuite or Buffer,you’ll be able to schedule your posts in advance, so your pages automatically stay updated. With this business process automation tool, you can pay more attention to the best times to post by analyzing your page’s engagement rates through interactions such as comments or direct messages
2. Payment Automation
Manually managing finance can get overwhelming from time to time. All businesses know the importance of cash flow, but it is not easy to manually track the payments going out and coming in. In fact, it is reported that 82% of small businesses fail due to poor cash flow and money management. That is a staggering statistic, and it means that revenue generation doesn’t mean you will be successful. It’s important to have a strong handle on accounts payable (AP) and receivable (AR) to ensure the business continues to operate smoothly – and automation can play a huge role!
Plooto is a cloud-based AP / AR system that syncs with accounting software, creates full financial visibility, and allows a business to never have to worry about checks, stuffing envelopes, or stamps again. These features save a ton of money in manual processes and transfer fees, while providing an easy-to-use cloud-based dashboard to keep a tight handle on payments statuses.
Whether you want to manage local or international payments and collecting receivables, Plooto allows you to automate both payments and receivables for your business. Simplify and expedite all business payments, along with a complete audit trail, automatic reconciliation, and approval workflow. Managing business finance can be easy while being secure with Plooto. Start your free trial today!
3. First-Line Customer Support
Growing business means growing customers, which also means more inquiries for your customer experience team to handle.
You can count on chatbots to give your customers 24/7 support when it comes to FAQs or issues that are easier to solve. With the process automation that chatbots have to offer, you save time and effort for your customers by giving them instant answers. As for your business’ human operators, they can now direct their energy towards the more complicated support issues.
4. Email Contact Requests
Have you ever filled in an email contact form on a website only to be left with no response? It feels a lot like being ghosted — and that’s the last thing you want potential customers to feel.
Setting up communication with potential clients should be a two-way street. If a business is lucky enough to have leads reaching out to them first, they should take advantage of the opportunity by automating this process. By setting up contact request process automation for your business, you’ll instantly be able to send confirmations as soon as you receive a request, without even lifting a finger. With the right template, you can assure leads that you’re an attentive business that will get back to them as soon as possible.
5. Email Marketing
When executed strategically, your small business’ email marketing efforts will further help you build a strong connection with your potential and existing customers. Sixty-four percent of e-commerce marketers say email marketing automation contributes to more sales.
Email marketing is a diverse game plan. It’s not just limited to sending content that promotes your products or services. Welcome emails, birthday greetings, and customer surveys are just a few of the thoughtful — and effective elements — you can automate. It’s all about staying engaged with those who support your brand and assist in capturing leads by means of convincing content.
6. Shopping Cart Reminders
We all know the tale of the abandoned shopping cart – at some point, we’ve all been guilty of “window shopping” for things we might not actually need, only to close the browser after stocking our cart.
If you’re on the business end of this abandoned transaction, sometimes all you need to do is send out a simple reminder to nudge the lead in the direction of a conversion. According to BI Intelligence estimates, about 63% of abandoned carts are potentially recoverable. A shopping cart reminder is a type of business process automation that often successfully converts leads into sales.
7. Lead Scoring
Having a lead is always good news. Pursuing them all increases your chances of making a sale, but wouldn’t you like to know which lead is most chase-worthy?
Lead scoring process automation will help you figure this out by ranking each lead according to their engagement with your promotional efforts. Being able to measure their level of interest will allow you to focus on clients who are most interested in your service or product. At the same time, you’ll be able to create tailored marketing experiences according to a potential client’s current mindset.
Business Process Automation: The Future of Your Company
By 2025, spending for workflow automation systems in order to better streamline business processes is expected to reach $26 billion.
Automation works like a charm for businesses across the globe, and the numbers don’t lie. Whether you want to stay engaged with your customers, keep your team organized, or securely manage payments, there’s a business process automation software out there that can get the job done for you. With the right tools, the future of your small business will be brighter and more productive than ever.
Dale David is a Content Writer at The Influence Agency. She's also a sneaker-wearing, guitar-playing, light wash denim-clad, pizza-munching, proud European '90s baby.
Dale David is a Content Writer at The Influence Agency. She's also a sneaker-wearing, guitar-playing, light wash denim-clad, pizza-munching, proud European '90s baby.
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Perfect Your PPC Marketing Strategy Paid Search Checklist
1. Define Your Goals
Are you aiming to increase web traffic or grow your social media presence? Figure out why you’re leveraging paid media in the first place and build your strategy from there. Having clearly defined goals in mind will help you focus on your brand’s key priorities.
2. Outline a TOFU/MOFU/BOFU Strategy
Designing strategies that cater to all three stages of the buyer journey ensures that you’re maximizing your brand’s reach. Every user at every stage is valuable—and you have to make sure you’re creating paid media content that speaks to each audience type.
3. Research Keywords for Search
Effective paid media is tied to targeting the right keywords. If you’re leveraging paid search ads to appear on SERPs (search engine results pages), then in-depth research is necessary. Bid on the keywords that are most relevant to your business to trigger only the most effective ad appearances.
4. Craft Engaging Ad Copy & Stand-Out Creative
Gather your team—because it’s time to start coming up with ad copy that wins attention. The key is to resonate with your audience and inspire engagement. Be real. Be relatable. And most importantly, don’t underestimate the power of creativity.
5. Create Conversion-Friendly Landing Pages
Do the landing pages on your website effectively push visitors further down the sales funnel? If not, you’re letting potential customers slip through your fingers. Optimize each of your landing pages so that they nudge users towards converting.
6. Choose Your Paid Platforms
The options are plenty when it comes to paid advertising, including Google, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Pinterest among others. Analyze who your target demographic is, research where it’s best to connect with them, and then target the platforms where you wish to build awareness.
7. Build Campaigns & Ad Groups/Sets
If you’re ready to build your paid media ad campaign, you’ll find that it will be further broken down into “ad groups” to ensure more effective pay-per-click advertising. These ad groups house one or more ads that have similar targets or categories. Let’s say your brand’s website features categories such as clothing, shoes, and accessories. Creating ad groups according to keywords that fall under these categories will help the PPC system decide when to show ads for these products.
8. Don’t Forget About Retargeting Ads
Retargeting ads are bound to succeed because it’s a second shot at a conversion. Visitors have shown interest in the product/service once before, and sometimes all it takes is a little reminder to push them to the checkout page. So don’t forget to retarget and aim better this time.
9. Run A/B Tests
In the world of paid media, what works and what doesn’t? You’ll have to run A/B tests to find out! Whether you’re testing which keywords bring more traffic or which social platforms earn more ad engagement, you won’t find out what really works for your brand until you test it.
10. Track Your Results
Revisit your initial goals. Did your efforts bring about the results you expected? Tracking results is an essential step in your brand’s paid advertising campaigns. The data you collect from currently running ads will help lay the foundation for your future campaigns.
11. Adjust as Needed
After tracking your results, you’ll be able to see where adjustments are necessary. There’s always room for improvement, so keep striving to consistently resonate and build trust with your audience—it’s how to create paid ads that pay off.
Perfect Your PPC Marketing Strategy Paid Search Checklist
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