Email Automation softwares has taken the larger business and marketing world by the scruff of the neck and has disrupted industries worldwide, all thanks to an upcoming generation of sophisticated technology that is there for everyone to use. Now, companies of all types can build their own automated workflows to turn their brand more efficient, productive, and above all, more profitable.
Automation has become the secret to growth across sectors worldwide. According to a survey by Gleanster, almost 80% of top-performing companies have been utilizing automation for marketing for more than two years. As the capacities of automation tools expand, organizations are going to have more and more chances to tap into its benefits, such as the opportunity to supply convincing customer data that is invaluable for outbound marketing, being one example.
Automation, however, is not simply reserved for large companies. Small businesses, too, can integrate automation at every layer of their business operations, from capturing prospects to closing sales to servicing clients to crossing repeat administrative tasks off the checklist. When repetitive tasks and workflows are automated, small businesses can dedicate resources to other more productive tasks — like business development.
Here, we will take a look at six ways how you can use automation technology to revolutionize your business.
1. Reply to An Email Contact Request Instantly
If the email address listed on your website is your primary point of contact with you, it won’t be long until you are overwhelmed with a flurry of service emails or emails requesting information. However, the problem with having an email address as the primary point of contact is that businesses don’t check it as often, and even if they do, they take days to reply, losing precious business in the process.
In such cases, replying days later is not an option, and it can severely hinder your ability to do business. In fact, waiting for even 30 minutes to make contact or reply to queries reduces the chances of converting a lead by 21 times as opposed to replying within the first five minutes, according to the Lead Response Management Study.
Fortunately, with the help of certain automation software, you can instantly reply to such service requests every time — without even dedicating yourself to them. Rather than serving requests through an email address, you can deploy a “Contact Us” form on your website with the help of smart automation software.
Whenever a prospect who’s visiting your website completes registers on it through that form by entering their particulars and credentials, the software will send them a reply straight away. What’s more, you can design the template for the response beforehand and add a touch of personalization to it to make the user feel like you are personally servicing them even though you are automating your interactions.
2. Automate Customer Service Queries
According to a Gartner survey, almost 89% of companies try to distinguish themselves competitively by offering superlative customer service. Automating the process of providing solutions to generic query requests of customers is a simple and efficient way to offer instant customer support while clearing these generic requests from the plate of the support staff to keep them available for issues that require their intervention.
According to a survey by Relay, 58% of B2B organizations use AI solutions such as aiops and chatbots on their website to handle such queries. This is just as well because yet another survey by Drift noted that: “the #1 predicted use case for chatbots is getting a quick answer in an emergency, while the #2 use case is resolving a complaint or question.”
The reason why an increasing number of organizations are turning to AI solutions such as chatbots (you can even go for a chatbot agency) is that they can help them automate the most intensive of all tasks, servicing generic customer requests. This helps them in two ways.
Firstly, it provides customers with instant support, and their experience at the first touchpoint is always satisfactory and lays a strong foundation for future interactions. Secondly, it also ensures that if managed properly, common business issues with simplistic solutions can be resolved through automation — at zero additional cost to the parties involved while ensuring that the support staff can concentrate on other more productive tasks or escalated service requests.
3. Capture Leads By Offering Free Content
Irrespective of how great your services or products are, prospective buyers aren’t going to contact you, and even if they do, they sure don’t readily welcome you to their email inbox. According to a survey by The Radicati Group, on average, a person receives as many as 96 business emails in just one day. So, how do you distinguish yourself further in this bottomless ocean of promotional emails? The answer, in a phrase, is, give in order to receive.
The best way you can do this is by offering free, relevant, and, most importantly, useful content to your subscribers. By delivering this content in the form of free resources such as PDF(s), video tutorials, ebooks, whitepapers, etc., you not only gain more leads, but you also show off your industry expertise, thereby cementing your reputation as an authoritative figure in the industry in the minds of your customers.
4. Quicken Transaction Processes
Payment procedures take place through a number of departments. From payrolls to online sales of goods, automated business processes enabled by digital transformation make things easier for everyone involved, especially customers. Transaction processes lend themselves particularly well to the process of automation since they are routine, administrative tasks that can also alleviate the possibility of human error.
Whenever the right information is in position, a payment automation tool for business will ensure that it is processed, published, and then sent to the correct person. Automation of transaction procedures helps minimize the manual paperwork involved and improves the probability of a faultless customer experience.
5. Gain Higher Quality Leads From Inbound Marketing
Did you know that as many as 50% of the prospects a company has for its product or service aren’t a good fit for it? These prospective buyers might be lacking in the budget, time, urgency, or need of the product or features that would prohibit the development of the sale from being viable or beneficial to either party.
It’s vital to keep these prospects warm by nurturing them through automated demand generation marketing — a strategy that creates and amplifies interest in your brand and moves prospects through the sales funnel.
You can leverage automation in your demand generation program to improve efficiency while maintaining personalization. For example, when prospects download a specific digital asset from your website, such as a template or white paper, they’ll be added to a preset segment related to that asset. Then, they’ll receive a scheduled sequence of emails curated to their interest that provides links to more content — all without you lifting a finger.
6. Streamline Documentation Processes
Physical records are a permanent fixture for many organizations, and almost every organization treats it in a particular way. However, the lifecycle of documentation processes is one place where expensive blind spots due to misplacement are highly likely to occur.
Relevant information is often lost due to mismanagement, and there is a lot of unnecessary printing. This automatically pushed operational costs upwards, reduces security, and leads to a disorganized office atmosphere.
Documentation process automation affords businesses the ability to convert, transfer, and archive files seamlessly and it is done with tools such as OCR API, document management or data backup software. They are especially convenient for when a company is transitioning into a digital enterprise by choosing to be a digital-transformation-led organization. With the help of document process automation, you can store automatic data backups, which make sure that your data is not permanently destroyed if an unavoidable occurrence takes place.
Conclusion
The decision on how and where to spend to optimize the benefits of automation requires thinking and evaluation. Take a look at the numbers and hours invested in each layer of operation within your company to first define the areas that need automating.
However, don’t automate everything at one go because it is a practice that takes time to imbibe. Each phase of the process of automation might show you further efficiencies, so it’s wise to wait and watch how each change improves your overall processes until you automate further.
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About The Author
Srushti Shah is an ambitious, passionate, and out of the box thinking woman having vast exposure in Digital Marketing. She is working as a Digital Marketer and Content writer at Acquire. Her key focus is to serve her clients with the latest innovation in her field leading to fast and effective results. Working beyond expectations and delivering the best possible results in her professional motto. Other than work, she loves traveling, exploring new things, and spending quality time with family. Reach out to Srushti Shah on Twitter or LinkedIn.
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