Tim Ferris, in his New York Times Bestselling book, The Four Hour Workweek talks about the need for automation so that we can focus our time on managing our business rather than working ‘in’ the business.
He points out the importance of creating automated systems and leveraging tools that can take some of the strain off us, in terms of time commitment, in order live more fully and experience happiness as a result of having the time to pursue life’s joy rather than being chained to a desk working all the time.
In this vein we’re going to look at automating a number of the most time-consuming digital tasks so that you can work on your business, at a strategic level, rather than in your business as an overwhelmed employee.
Automation, particularly when it comes to online marketing will not only free up physical time but it will also give you peace of mind that things are being taken care of meaning you will have more headspace and be more calm, focused and responsive rather than reactive – operating at a strategic level which will contribute to your success and living a more stress free life.
- EMAIL MARKETING
There are plenty of time-starved business owners that frantically send out emails, for instance, thanking a customer for their order and letting them know when it will be shipped.
This is a needless use of time, when automation can make the process so much more simple and reliable; essentially you can set up an email autoresponder to send out emails based on triggered events (e.g. product purchase) that mean you don’t need to run around like a headless chicken trying to stay on top of things. The key point here, is that automation frees your time so that you can be working ‘on’ the business at a strategic level rather than ‘in’ the business where you are wasting your time doing the same job as a low-level employee.
You could use an email marketing platform to start automating your emails at low cost, yet one thing you might want to also consider is an email validator, as this will help ensure your emails actually get through to their recipients – for one of the greatest challenges facing any digital marketer today is that of getting stuck in spam filters like a fly in a spiders web.
- MARKETING FUNNELS
Your marketing funnel is made up of several stages where consumers go from first awareness of your brand or website through to making a purchase. A marketing funnel is basically the process of converting a visitor or browser into a paying customer, and sites such as Clickfunnels can be helpful in terms of automating this process in a very efficient and user friendly way.
- SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Managing your social media marketing campaigns can be extremely time consuming. Many business owners outsource this task to a virtual assistant, yet there are also a number of free apps such as buffer that can help you automate this task.