“I don’t have the time” is the #2 reason I hear small business owners explaining why they don’t market their business consistently. (The #1 reason is a lack of money — that is a thought I’ll consider in another post).
I know you’re pressed for time…I am as well. Which means we need to be thoughtful and strategic about leveraging technology to do the work for us so that we keep a steady stream of leads knocking at our door.
My friend Ashley Acker, founder of Entrepreneur Jungle, published this great article last week with 5 easy ways to “set and forget your marketing” that actually work. Leave me a note below and share how you can apply ONE point from this article to your business this week!
5 Ways to Automate Your Business
One reason I love running an online business is because there are almost unlimited ways you can automate systems and processes. Here are just a few of the ways I use automation in my business:
1. Automate Your Social Media
You can automate your social media updates (my two favorites are Hootsuite and Timely.is ) – take 20 minutes at the beginning of the week to plan out your posts and then just check in briefly each day to respond and interact with others.
2. Automate Your Blogging
WordPress will let you automate the posting of your blogs or pages – write 4-5 posts on a single day and then schedule them out for the next month. Blogging, done!
Bonus tip: Take the links from your new blog posts, create status updates for Twitter and Facebook and then schedule them into Hootsuite for the future release dates.
3. Automate Your Webinars
Did you know you can even automate teleseminars and webinars? That’s right, you can actually record an interview or your presentation and then set it up to play at a specific time or on-demand! And you can even make your webinar “look” like it’s live by having people attend, polls pop up, and Q&A – the works! My favorite tool for this is the Evergreen Business System.
4. Automate Your Scheduling
Sending emails back and forth to schedule calls with colleagues, prospective clients or actual clients is time consuming and inefficient. If you use a tool like TimeTrade , you send your client a link to your schedule showing only the times you’re available. They do the booking themselves, it’s automatically added to each of your calendars and reminders go out beforehand. Brilliant!
5. Automate Your Marketing & Sales
Finally, the ultimate automation comes in the form of putting your sales and marketing on autopilot. Imagine someone opting into your list and then over the course of a few months they receive a sequence of emails, even phone calls or mail pieces that lead them toward a purchase (that’s delivered to them automatically) followed by a sequence of emails that follows up and asks for a testimonial. My favorite system to make this happen is Infusionsoft (click here to check out a demo) .
Action Steps
- Pick one area of your business that would benefit from some automation.
- Review no more than 3 online tools that can help you meet your needs (start with the ones I suggest).
- Implement your top choice in your business within the next 2 weeks.
- Repeat each month with a new area until your business is automated to the level you desire.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
ABOUT ASHLEY ACKER
ABOUT ASHLEY ACKERAshley Acker, Ph.D. creator of EntrepreneurJungle.com, helps coaches create more leverage in their business by creating amazing content, designing custom online courses and developing signature products. Be sure to grab her free Jungle Survival Kit which is packed full of templates, tools and checklists to help you grow your business.
