Automation should be at the top of a solo business owner’s priorities.

When done right, you’ll see an increase in:

• new subscribers

• New customers

• More sales

But the biggest hurdle for many freelance service professionals is technology. They’re just not tech-savvy, or the systems they’re currently using are too complex for them to use.

So…

• they combine different systems (because they are easier and/or cheaper to use);

• nothing flows; Y

• They lose customers and subscribers.

Automating as many areas of your business as possible means you’re not stuck with the day-to-day running of your business; instead, you’re letting your systems and processes handle that aspect of your business for you.

If you don’t know where to start when it comes to automating your systems and processes, today I’d like to share with you three simple ways you can start automating your marketing that can really help you grow your business. Use this article as a checklist to ensure you have your own automation strategies in place.

1. Reminders/Notifications through your automatic response system. Many business owners use autoresponders (automated emails) solely to communicate with their customers and send them information at specified intervals, particularly if they’ve just signed up for their “free taste.” But if they don’t use them as reminders to themselves, they are missing out on this valuable service.

For example: Let’s say you want to send everyone in your program a thank you gift after they have completed your program. This would be easy to do if everyone started the program at the same time, but what if you have a program that is evergreen, meaning a client can start at any time, so you have many clients at different stages of the program? When you set up an automatic reply that comes to you, it can act as a notification that Client A has finished their program and needs to send them a gift and congratulatory letter.

Or you can create a notification alerting you to the fact that you need to call Client B 30 days after they have completed their strategy session with you.

If you are using an all-in-one eCommerce platform such as 1ShoppingCart or Infusionsoft, these systems allow you to send automated emails to alternate email addresses so that you can set up these notifications.

2. Emails: Templates/Canned Responses. If you find yourself sending the same email (or a very similar one) to your customers over and over again, then it’s time to set up an email template (in Gmail, you want to search for stored responses). An email template simply contains the body of any email that you can modify/add for each customer without having to re-create the entire email each time.

For example: If you want to send a call reminder to a customer that you have an upcoming phone session, simply create the email with all the information that stays the same each time, i.e. the phone number, and update the email with the date and time. specific hours for each client.

3. Upsell/Cross-sell. These are very easy to set up if you are using an all-in-one eCommerce solution like 1ShoppingCart or Infusionsoft and are simply a way to automatically offer your customer an additional product/purchase when they are checking out. The product can be an upgrade, an additional purchase, or a previous version, depending on what is appropriate for your offer.

For example: Let’s say you have a six-week program that you’re currently selling. At checkout, you could offer an upsell to add a 30-minute training call that will help the customer implement the information they are learning in the six-week program.

These are just a few of the ways you can use technology to automate your marketing.