When it comes to running a business, there are never enough hours in the day or resources to get it done. It’s just part and parcel of a company. However, not everybody needs to be inundated with an endless list of manual jobs.
In today’s business, many areas can be tackled and improved with automation, letting you and your employees think about the tasks that actually benefit you.
Here are five areas of your business that you should automate.
Contract
Gone are the days that you needed to send or fax a contract to a client or supplier. You can now create, send and store all of your official and legal contracts online. You can even collect legally binding ones online signature and store it safely.
Marketing
There are many great marketing automation platforms that can improve your entire marketing function in a big way. Many of these have a free or low-cost entry point when you first start out.
Social media
Save time and schedule your social media posts in advance. There are a number of programs to look into including Hootsuite, postoplanContent Studios, and Sprout Social.
Email is still probably the most popular ways to communicate and market your company. Are you sending out a weekly newsletter, or are you attempting to find something more sophisticated like an abandoned shopping cart e-mail, or a sales order. The e-mail marketing software market is stuffed with wonderful platforms for you to select from including Mailchimp, Active Campaigns, and Send Blue.
Blogging
A company blog is a fantastic marketing tool for building your brand and driving traffic to your website. The most popular platform for blogs is WordPress, on which most websites are created. There are also other options including Medium and Blogger. You can write these posts in advance and automate them to publish according to your marketing calendar.
Program
If you are running a corporate event, then there’s quite a lot of work to be done behind the scenes to navigate the logistics of coordinating invites, emailing attendees, and gathering important information. If you are running a large scale event then an event management platform is key to making sure this runs smoothly. If you run smaller, less complex events then a platform like Eventbrite is ideal for you.
Research
Staying up to date on your market, customers, and competitors is a vital aspect of business. But the effort put into it can be very time consuming. There are several ways to automate this. First, set up Google Alerts to track competitor and keyword mentions. You will then receive an e-mail alert
Similarly, you can use whichever social media software you prefer to track accounts and their hashtags in one place, rather than having to manually search each platform individually.
HR
There are many repetitive but important tasks that need to be done by the HR team. By automating these systems, you can handle recruiting, onboarding, contracts, shift management, employee appraisals, and absence requests.
Finance & Accounting
Handling business finances You can benefit from automation in a number of ways. Keeping track of all of your income and expenses through financial software you’ll be capable to show your financial situation at a glance. You can even give your employees the ability to digitally record and track their expenses, taking photos of receipts rather than having to save a piece of paper to mail out at the end of the month.
Payroll and taxes are another function you can move to automation.
When it comes to setting up your annual accounts and submitting your taxes, this can all be done through your financial software.
Task management
Never-ending to-do lists can get a little too complicated to leave to sticky notes and notebooks. Task management software is the ideal way to keep your projects in line and collaborate with others. Using task management can offer you an outline of where you are with each project and what tasks you’ll be doing. Popular task management software includes Asana, ClickUp, Basecamp and Monday.
Key point
Automation is a vital part of a efficient business. It can release important resources and save quite a lot of money. In many cases, it can even perform functions far better than if done manually.
There are many automation platforms out there for you to try. Make sure you choose the right one for your business needs.
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