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A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part III

Tag: automation

A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part III
Mohab Ecommerce 0

A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part IIIImage credit: MaxPixel

Make the most of the latest and greatest in tech and save valuable business resources. From financials to marketing, all elements of your business can be streamlined and speeded up. 

In our last post in our automation series, learn more about time-saving tech.

Time-saving tech

Running a website and busy inbox can take its toll, so save time with the help of technology.

  1. Cloud computing is a massive leap forward when it comes to managing content and files. Don’t risk losing valuable data because of a messy folder structure; automate file management and version control with a cloud-based system. This is feasible for even the smallest startup, whereas larger firms have the option to upgrade to more bespoke enterprise cloud computing solutions.
  2. Automated backups of your website database and file and database cleanups aren’t difficult to implement. Use smart tools and plugins to help cut down on admin time when it comes to website management.
  3. Email filtering and auto-responders are more sophisticated than ever thanks to AI technology. You can create email ‘recipes’ and funnels that massively cut down on time spent filtering inboxes and dealing with inbound requests. You may even want to invest in helpdesk software to scale your operations.
  4. Inventory and supplier automation often have significant cost-saving and profitability benefits. Models like Amazon FBA and dropshipping aren’t for everyone, but they can help massively decrease your overheads as an e-commerce brand. Even if you got it alone, it’s recommended that you select an online store builder that works with other tools and services. For example, building a store through Shopify means having instant access in-built refunds and returns, whereas store owners on Drupal would have to separately code a lot of features — including basics like social sharing and blogging. Think about how the technology you choose helps — or limits — your choices.

Whether it’s customers, suppliers, or virtual assistants, it’s important that automation is an end-goal all departments share.  Automation should never be a dirty word in your business. As an online entrepreneur, you are in the perfect position to explore automation across your business — from marketing to finances.

About the author

Victoria Greene is a branding consultant and freelance writer. Big fan of automation when it comes to content marketing. Helping ecommerce brands and startups scale faster and better.

6 years ago
A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part II
Mohab Ecommerce, Guest Posts 0

A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part II

Image credit: Flickr

It doesn’t matter whether you sell services, products, or even just share content with your online audience: any online business is ripe for automation — including yours.

Set out an automation framework to help you scale and manage your automation operations — find out how to do so in part II of our automation series. 

Create an appropriate framework

The main challenge with automation is having the right framework to support your new processes. This means having an all-informed business with robust documentation. Without it, your automation drive will be lost.

You need to embrace:

  • Bots
  • Smart integrated systems
  • Cross-platform and cross-device formats
  • Workflows, processes and tasks — not individual ability
  • Zapier
  • Inventory management automation

Part of successful automation is process management. You can always automate a process.

This is really the crux of the matter when it comes to automation. Do you fancy staying up all night, packing the latest orders of your store? Or manually having to schedule every single blog promo piece for the next 6 months?

I’m guessing the answer is no…

So create a process, automate it, and move on to the more important stuff instead.

A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part II

About the author

Victoria Greene is a branding consultant and freelance writer. Big fan of automation when it comes to content marketing. Helping ecommerce brands and startups scale faster and better.

6 years ago
A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part III
Mohab Ecommerce 0

A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part I

Image credit: Flickr

Do you NEVER seem to have enough time to deal with the important stuff in your business? Struggling to keep up with the demands of becoming a brand publisher?

Wouldn’t it be great to have more time to focus on the strategic elements of your business…?

Well, automation can help you achieve that.

Here are some online automation hacks to help inspire your business strategy reboot — read part I in our blog series now.

Fintech innovations

Let’s start with the financials: after all, every business in the world needs money to keep the wheels turning.

From managing supplier payments to keeping up with the demands of bookkeeping — financial tasks and admin can massively eat into your profit margins.

The trouble with financial tasks is that if they are not done correctly, it could spell disaster.

  1. Financial technology has seen some exciting developments these recent years — from blockchain to cloud accounting, there are so many ways to improve and simplify your financial operations.
  2. Even simple choices like what payment gateway you go for will determine your business’s financial ecosystem. Opt for a system that’s smart and integrates with other services and platforms so that you don’t have to rely on expensive workarounds.
  3. Accounting is a big business overhead, especially when it comes to expenses and taxes. Invest in a smart system that allows you to automatically sync paper receipts into your online finance system.

Martech leads the way

Marketing technology is another ally of automation. Nowadays, there are enough tools and platforms to automate pretty much any marketing task under the sun.

Martech scales up and down, and can be leveraged by organizations large and small. From simple things like automated proofreading to automating your content strategy with HubSpot, there are tools out there that can help you create, launch, and share better content.

Key areas where you need to embrace automation:

  1. Remarketing is a great way to target interested parties — whether that’s website visitors who haven’t converted, or people who’ve engaged with your content. The beauty of remarketing automation is that once you put in the work to create a funnel and populate it with ads, you can just click ‘play’ and let the system do the rest!
  2. Email is a big marketing channel, whether you are in B2C or B2B. Create funnels using services like Pardot (a Salesforce tool) and run your lead generation campaigns more cost-efficiently.A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part I
  3. Social media can be a massive time sinkhole, so be more efficient about it and embrace automated content creation, mass scheduling, and social listening to help you do more. Social media tools aren’t just about saving time — they will actually bring you better results by optimizing posting times, lengths, and formats.

A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part I

About the author

Victoria Greene is a branding consultant and freelance writer. Big fan of automation when it comes to content marketing. Helping ecommerce brands and startups scale faster and better.

6 years ago