How I Automated 50% of My Tasks and Scaled My Business

Working a advertising company is not any stroll within the park. It requires repetitive, time-consuming duties. With the shopper checklist rising, the guide workload will increase to a degree the place you want no less than one — if no more — staff to deal with the strain.

I spotted this to the bone as repetitive duties and manual work piled up. The primary blow was that it turned more durable for our staff to execute duties on time. Additionally, it incessantly precipitated burnout or fatigue that interfered with the standard of our work.

To deal with this, the primary and speedy answer that got here to my thoughts was hiring a number of staff. However that wasn’t possible, as recruiting extra staff would require further administration and enhance overhead prices.

So, after re-evaluating some workable choices, I lastly discovered a greater approach to streamline my operations — automation. Regardless of the skepticism, I made a decision to provide it a shot and began automating my enterprise processes. The end result? I used to be in a position to offload 50% of my enterprise duties.

Here is my complete journey, from switching to automation to attaining sustainable development with out hiring additional staff.

Associated: Smart Entrepreneurs Use Automation to Become More Efficient. Here Are 6 Ways to Adopt It.

Figuring out the time-consuming duties

Earlier than diving into my automation methods, let me spotlight the duties that slowed me down and have become the largest bottlenecks in my workflow:

1. Guide lead era

Initially, I spent half my enterprise days simply nurturing qualified leads. I needed to goal corporations that wanted optimization for buyer acquisition and funnel administration, which took quite a lot of time.

Even after sifting by means of numerous web sites, social media profiles and directories, I hardly discovered companies that wanted scalable advertising methods and development methods.

And the end result? I progressively began to overlook alternatives.

2. Buyer assist overload

As I inspected additional, I discovered that the customer support representatives of my firm had to answer each inquiry, handle complaints and supply options — all manually.

As you’ll be able to think about, with the rising variety of buyer assist requests, it turned more durable to maintain up, leading to slower response instances. The worst half was that the repetitive queries consumed an excessive amount of time, leaving little scope for them to deal with critical buyer points.

3. Monetary monitoring and reporting

Processing invoices, reconciling accounts and producing monetary stories have been greater than a time drain for my group. Manually monitoring funds led to miscalculations and inaccurate stories. The inefficient administration made future earnings predictions and price range planning a fantastic impediment, because it all resulted in errors and misplaced income.

4. Shopper onboarding and communication

The following huge problem I confronted was managing client onboarding and communication. Every shopper required customized consideration, contract processing and documentation.

So, it consumed a big portion of our workweek to maintain monitor of each interplay, tackle queries and guarantee a clean onboarding expertise. The shortage of a structured system impacted our shopper satisfaction and retention.

5. Assembly scheduling and follow-ups

Environment friendly communication and well timed follow-ups are important for my group, particularly when executing the Consideration, Curiosity, Need and Motion (AIDA) framework. Nevertheless, the guide processes, together with scheduling meetings, was a significant roadblock.

Plus, we needed to coordinate assembly instances throughout totally different time zones and make limitless back-and-forth emails, which impacted the precision of that framework. At its worst, we have been prone to potential shopper drop-offs.

Associated: From Mundane to Magic: The Incredible Benefits of Automation for Small Business Owners

Choosing particular options

That stated, after noting down the problems, I spotted that many of the time-consuming duties might be labored round utilizing automation. And here is how I did it:

1. LinkedIn Gross sales Navigator and Apollo.io for automated lead era

I built-in LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Apollo.io to eradicate my guide lead era drain. These superior instruments are designed for extremely focused searches based mostly on particular standards corresponding to business, service or firm measurement.

Apollo.io’s e mail finder and verification options have been a lifesaver, considerably decreasing the time I spent on guide analysis.

Greater than that, we might attain our audience in minimal time. We narrowed down our search with LinkedIn Gross sales Navigator and because of this, our firm additionally witnessed as much as a 17% larger win fee on common.

2. AI-powered chatbots for buyer assist

First, I attempted addressing buyer overload points by implementing an AI-powered chatbot on my web site CRM. It was programmed to deal with buyer queries and supply fundamental troubleshooting.

After testing a number of chatbot designs, I made a decision to overview one and join it with our CRM. It was successfully linked with HubSpot to entry buyer information, monitor conversations and replace buyer information.

This ensured customized assist and decreased our workload by as much as 40%. The effectivity allowed my group to supply 24/7 customer support with improved response time.

3. QuickBooks On-line for monetary monitoring and reporting

For monetary monitoring and reporting, I discovered QuickBooks On-line, which integrates with our cost gateways and financial institution accounts.

This superior software program successfully automated our bill era, cost processing and financial reporting. Additionally, I built-in a devoted reporting and enterprise intelligence device, Fathom, with QuickBooks and ensured seamless monetary reporting.

Because of this, I witnessed an elevated accuracy of my reporting by practically 95% and was in a position to cut back the reporting time by 75%.

4. HubSpot for shopper onboarding and communication

I used HubSpot’s sturdy suite of automation instruments to handle our shoppers’ onboarding and communication processes. The highly effective workflow automation builders of Hubspot helped to automate contract signing by means of an built-in e-signature device.

It automated our doc assortment by way of file request workflows, and the sequence device allowed us to ship customized and focused emails to shoppers. We might simply monitor shopper interactions and progress by means of onboarding phases and determine points.

Total, we turned a sophisticated course of right into a time-saving, clean system and ensured a streamlined client engagement by 50%. We might additionally monitor our advertising success and modify the plan accordingly. Nevertheless, the important thing profit was decreasing our onboarding time by 20%.

5. HubSpot and Calendly for assembly scheduling and follow-ups

To enhance follow-ups and deploy the AIDA framework, I carried out HubSpot. With HubSpot, my group successfully manages follow-up emails, reminders and duties based mostly on particular actions and timelines. We have been in a position to enhance our junk mail automation and retargeting consistency by 90%.

I used Calendly — one of many well-liked scheduling instruments — to automate our scheduling. It was built-in with my group’s work schedule, and we might set the assembly instances accordingly.

This helped my group huge time as a few of the repetitive duties like including new leads, sending alerts and syncing information have been accomplished very quickly.

In spite of everything that automation, I efficiently streamlined guide duties and boosted effectivity by a whopping 50%. The end result was clear: My group turned extra productive, shopper satisfaction improved, and the general high quality of our work elevated — with none additional employment. Automating the processes not solely saved my useful time but in addition helped my group cut back errors, enhance accuracy and deal with what’s most vital.

Associated: 3 Things to Consider When Automating Your Workflows

Professional ideas

Although automation processes may be game-changers, it’s good to deal with them properly. Right here is my tackle it:

Dos:

• As a substitute of attempting too many instruments without delay, it is higher to automate one course of at a time and measure its affect.

• Coaching group members on easy methods to use the brand new automation instruments and processes helps guarantee one of the best outcomes.

• It is obligatory to frequently overview automation course of outcomes and discover new methods to enhance effectivity.

Don’ts:

• Preserve the automation course of so simple as doable to extend the group’s experience and buyer satisfaction.

• Irrespective of the instruments used, they have to be secure and adjust to data privacy laws.