More Success with Less Effort: Why Automation Works

Francesca Di Meglio

From the dawn of the first factory assembly line, automation in the workplace has improved quality and accuracy, while saving energy and labor. It brings big processes to scale and, most importantly, it saves money and time. But automation isn’t just for big enterprise, it’s for the little guys too. Read on.

Since the birth of cloud-based platforms, digital automation platforms can seamlessly integrate into the small business cycle in an easy and affordable way. From marketing and sales, to hiring and inventory management, automating these services creates more success, with less effort, in an all-in-one platform. In other words, you don’t have to be the head honcho at Google to integrate automation into your daily business practices.

More customers. Less effort. Sound good? We thought so. Here are some more reasons why marketing automation can help your small biz.

Don’t Be Afraid to Automate
Many small business owners think that robust digital marketing campaigns are for big companies and not mom-and-pop shops or even larger small businesses.

That’s a mistake. Today’s consumers are savvy and expect everyone from the GAP to their trusted real estate agency to have a robust online brand that is present on all channels (from mobile phones to social tweets) Marketing automation makes that possible by building your website, maintaining your Facebook Business page, and plugging you into business directories–getting your brand an instant digital presence on multi-channels with almost no effort or time taken from your day-to-day.

Diversify Through a Multi-Pronged Approach
Do you already have a website? Great! But that is simply not enough in today’s fragmented digital marketing world. To maximize your success on these channels–including, social, search, reviews, and more–your marketing strategy should consist of a multi-pronged approach. Marketing automation can plug you into these channels, as well as keep you consistent across them, so you’re never creating these campaigns from scratch.

Don’t overthink automation.
There’s this myth that investing in automation means having to do more work to oversee and maintain it. Some even think they have to hire people to manage it. While you might have to devote some time to the other items on this list and creating a strategy that has the automation fitting well into your business, automation helps to scale your business efforts inexpensively and with little human effort. In other words, less work, more success.

Be human.
Yes, marketing automation can make your workload lighter at a relatively low cost. But it’s never going to replace your personal interactions with customers. While you should use automation to post to social media, help to create and maintain your website, and oversee your presence on review sites, you still need to be the face of your company. You have to meet with customers and employees. And you should still write personal notes and comments as often as you can.

In conclusion, there’s still nothing like the human touch. But marketing automation helps small business owners reach more people more efficiently so that they can better focus on their consumer’s needs. To boot, it gives them a chance to have more face time with customers, so that they can focus on what matters most.

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