And the more important question: If yes, then what should you be automating?
In this handy 3-post series, I’m going to show you 12 ways to leverage your time and results by automating some of the work you shouldn’t be doing, but your business should.
In fact, your business has to, in order to rise above the mediocre beige noise out there.
Because nobody wants to be the frustrating, impersonal telco company of their industry, who forgets about their customers, or worse, responds to human questions with a robot.
That’s automation done wrong.
Which you don’t have to do. In fact, as long as you’ve got the right guidance, you can do MUCH better.
So, My aim for you by the time you’ve finished reading this article series?
That these simple systems will allow you to get on with the important stuff, like new ideas, growing profit, travel and family time, without even thinking about the tiny details (often the ones that make your customer’s day and ensure you’re always on top of them all).
Before we begin, an important note to give you context for each post:
As you probably know, each customer has a lifecycle in your business.
InfusionSoft calls this Lifecycle Marketing.
And the longer this lifecycle, the more your customers are worth, the bigger your business, therefore the more stable and fast-growing your income.
Let’s break it down into 3 sections to get clear on how to automate each step correctly:
- Attract (the initial meeting, as they’re getting to know us)
- Sell (when they like, know and trust us enough to buy)
- Wow (when they buy again and again from us, love us and tell their friends about us)
As you read, you’ll get 4 useful, easy-to-do automation tips for each of these areas. We can’t fit everything in here, because we don’t have the time as we do in our Momentum programs. But it’s still a good place for you to start and our clients seem to love these. Trust you will too.
Now, let’s get into it, starting with Attract.
1. Capture your offline data
Unless you’re a hardcore nerd coder living in a dimly lit basement and your only human interaction is with the pimply home delivery pizza guy (which is cool if you are, by the way), you are probably missing out on capturing a good whack of your potential prospects.
Networking events, random friendly introductions, Fridays at the pub, business breakfasts and any place where there are people.
These are all prime opportunities for you.
The problem is, most people collect business cards or create a contact in their phone which ends up as cyber junk (or actual junk) faster than you can click the ‘back’ button.
So try using an internal form to collect someone’s details and send them straight into a welcome/nurture campaign.
Or if you’re not in InfusionSoft yet, set up a web form for you and your team on your website, hide the page from Google and bookmark the link in your browser. That way, all you need to do is click and BAM!—a new lead in your pipeline.
What should it capture? Whatever you need it to. In Infusionsoft you’d be smart to get:
- Name
- Contact details
- A general idea of interests
- Assign to a contact owner
- Lead source
- Title (Mrs, Ms, etc) – allows you to segment by gender
- If you’re more B2B – think about their title or position, their company name and of course their website
- Anything else that YOUR business could use to create a phenomenal marketing experience (or even a better one) for your customers later on.
2. A personal “Welcome to the family” text message from you, the owner
Nothing feels better to us than a sense we belong. It’s hardwired into the primitive core of our human brains and triggers the psychological switches that make us more likely to say YES. (read Robert Cialdini’s Psychology Of Influence if you haven’t yet. You’ll be a better marketer for it).
Think about when you go round to a friends’ house and the woman (or man!) who’s put her heart and soul into making a beautiful home, says hi and welcomes you.
You feel automatically more at ease, don’t you?
Do this for your customers.
And it doesn’t have to be Lord Of The Rings epic. Even a simple couple of lines:
“Hey Jenny, it’s Bob (I own Widgets N Things). Welcome to the family! Have fun getting into all the cool Widgety things on our website. Talk soon, Bob”
This one is so easy to build in InfusionSoft – you pick your provider, add some credit and give InfusionSoft your sender number.
Voila. You’re ready to rock in campaign builder with the ‘send a text message’ snippet. Give yourself a high five. (PS. you looked so cool just then).
3. A simple “How are you?” email a couple of days after they’ve joined you
This one’s off the ‘direct response’ radar, which means no one else is teaching it so most businesses don’t do it (unless they’re savvy and innovative), which means a huge opportunity for you.
It sets you above (and apart) from other businesses simply by allowing you to be human.
You may find it tough to write something like this if you’re used to writing more ‘traditional’ direct marketing emails. So here’s a quick example—I give you full permission to swipe, tweak or even copy it directly.
Subject: How are you?
Hi Jenny,
I’m John and I [quick one-liner about person’s role phrased in a way that communicates how it HELPS customers, e.g. help our customers find the perfect treats for their loveable little fur balls].
I just wanted to reach out and say welcome to the family. Hope you’ve been enjoying the gems on our website. How are you? Finding everything you need?
You probably guessed already but if you have any questions about anything, I’m your guy. (Except biomolecular quantum physics. I’ll let Google handle that one).
John
PS. Are you on Facebook? This is me:
*insert link*
Feel free to have a sticky beak and if you think we might, you know, maybe be able to be friends, send me a friend request (too soon? )
And I trust you know how to set this one up in your email autoresponder.
4. Seduce them with social
Get them subscribed to you so they’re following you EVERYWHERE. If you do this well, they’ll feel like you’re taking over the internet.
In case you haven’t heard, retargeting (following people around the internet with your banner ads… including on Facebook) is where the party and more importantly the MONEY is at.
The more contact (frequency and meaningfulness) you have with a customer, the more likely they are to buy from you.
And added bonus: you get that lusted-after position as top of mind.
So, how do you do this one? Simple:
- Add follow + share links in your emails (and personal signatures).
- Link directly to your posts/tweets/pins in your email.
- Put them in multiple places and play with layout e.g. vertical, horizontal.
- Track people who click on your links and use these lists for highly specific, social retargeting campaigns for your lead magnets, social page follows and sales pages.
Now how do you get this kind of sweet magic in your business?
Do you already have InfusionSoft and need help now to harness its full power? OR
Are you hungry for InfusionSoft so you can get the ultimate leverage too?