There's a widespread misconception that automation is only a preserve for corporate giants. Well, that's incorrect! No matter the size, every business faces fierce competition, be it in sales, market trends, product features, information available, etc.

The first step to getting ahead of your competitors and growing like crazy is automating your business. What is automation, though? And what aspects should you focus on to realise the desired results? Keep scrolling, and you'll find out!

What is Business Automation

HubSpot defines business automation or business process automation (BPA) as using technology to complete everyday menial tasks. The idea is to replace manual, recurring processes with intelligent-driven mechanisation, real-time analytics, and responsive cooperation.

By migrating from manual to digital processes, businesses usually aim to realise the following benefits:

• Enhanced productivity
• Optimal accuracy
• Grade-A efficiency
• Improved customer service
• Better job satisfaction
• Time-saving
• Cost minimisation

Important Note: Most people tend to confuse business process automation with business process management or use them interchangeably, yet they're as wide apart as the east is from the west. The latter is a more profound organisational discipline where businesses use several methodologies to discover, analyse, model, measure, improve, optimise, and automate every business process, both as a whole and individually.

Having understood what business automation is, let's now drill deeper into various aspects that can benefit from the process. 

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is the use of software platforms and technologies to conduct marketing campaigns more effectively on different channels. Like other BPAs, marketing automation helps businesses increase efficiency by completing repetitive tasks hassle-free, nurture leads in a personalised manner, maximise revenue, and achieve better reporting.

There are several types of marketing automation that businesses can leverage to streamline their operations and improve their marketing campaigns. Among them, email marketing automation is arguably the most commonly used form.

In an email automation campaign, the dissemination of email marketing messages migrates from a manual to an automatic process. The most critical aspect here is relaying the messages in an action-based and time-based fashion. Other means of marketing automation include social media, advertising, and SMS/mobile.

You're probably wondering, how do you implement all these technologies? This is where the marketing automation software comes in. With tools like HubSpot CRM at your disposal, you can succeed in any marketing campaign within a press of a few buttons. Other outstanding software tools that allow you to automate various tasks include Drip, Sprout Social, and ManyChat.

Sales Automation

You've marketed your business and made it a household name among customers. Congrats! But wait, that's not all. The next course of action is streamlining the sales process for optimal customer satisfaction and revenue maximisation. This is where sales automation comes in.

Sales automation is the use of software, AI, and other digital tools to streamline manual, energy-draining, and time-consuming sales tasks. The idea is to relieve sales reps and managers of menial jobs and focus more on selling and exceeding customers' expectations.

Automating sales helps businesses:

• Increase workforce productivity and performance
• Supercharge efficiency
• Accelerate the sales process and improve efficiency
• Convert leads to regular customers
• Keep sales data consistent throughout the entire sales organisation
• Reduce response time, hence higher customer satisfaction
• Streamline sales tasks
• Optimise scarce resources

In a nutshell, sales automation helps sales reps and managers realise critical sales aspects like lead enrichment, contact, and deal creation, sales email automation, reporting, meeting scheduling, lead scoring, and many more.

Billing Automation

As you grow your customer base through enhanced marketing and sales campaigns, keeping up with billing becomes the next primary concern. Billing automation comes in handy in eliminating spreadsheet fatigue by automating processes like invoice creation at scheduled periods.

Aside from helping you invoice your customers in a timely and convenient fashion, automating billing also brings forth the following benefits:

• Monitoring different aspects of projects like time, costs, and feasibility
• Managing inventory and accessing real-time information on what's available in stock
• Simplifying employee expense claims by capturing costs, submitting, approving, and reimbursing claims
• Accepting online payments and making the process twice as fast
• Tracking and paying your bills on time
• Creating and sending purchase orders hassle-free
• Tracking your cash flows with accurate accounting reports
• Creating well-organised quotes and sending them instantly via a mobile device

And you don't need a background in rocket science to achieve all these. With the best accounting software like Xero, you can simplify everyday business billing tasks from the comfort of your office and computer or mobile device. The best part is that these tools are effortless to use and come with features that make billing automation a piece of cake.

Onboarding Clients Automation

Did you know that you can also streamline the client onboarding process through business automation? Most entrepreneurs usually assume that their customer service structure can take care of client onboarding, but that's furthest from the truth as it can cause customer frustrations.

The fastest path to attracting your customers and keeping them satisfied is through onboarding clients automation. This refers to the use of technology to automate and customise the process of welcoming new clients into your company, handling their concerns, and enlightening them about the services available for them.

Businesses can automate the client onboarding process by:

• Using pre-built campaign templates to build a rapport with your clients.
• Using advanced timers to control your clients get to hear from you. This is overly essential for international clients; you want to ensure they receive your emails at their convenience.
• Automating transactional emails, e.g., invoicing or signing of contracts
• Segmenting your clients based on their interest levels
• Segmenting your clients using tags for content marketing

Final Remarks

There you have it, folks! Automating your business for accelerated growth isn't a daunting task after all. If you just focus on the four aspects; marketing, sales, billing, and client onboarding, you'll achieve growth levels that other businesses only dream about.

Here at DigiKat Marketing, we specialise in top-class digital marketing while providing businesses with solutions that drive leads, engagement, and sales. As a HubSpot Platinum Partner, we're strategically placed and dedicated to helping you achieve remarkable results for your business continuously and within the shortest time possible. Get in touch today for more information.