As a small business owner, you are losing approximately10 to 15 percent of
your time when you don't automate simple tasks like posting to your
business’s social media accounts. Business automation aims to improve a
company’s performance by reducing costs, increasing the accuracy of data,
and minimizing delays. Most standard small business functions can be
handled with software solutions. Once a company automates its primary
tasks, they will notice that other aspects of their business will begin to
work more efficiently. Here are some of the best automation tools that
your business can start to utilize to systemize your business today.
Zapier
Zapier (https://zapier.com) is one of the leaders in task automation. Zapier
connects all your apps and allows you to automate your workflows by
automatically moving info between your web apps so you can focus on your
most important business tasks. You can integrate more than 1,000 apps
like Slack, Asana, and Google Docs.
• Features a visual designer that allows you to set up integrations
and administer integrations without having to use code. The easy
to use visual interface makes setting up your integrations a snap.
• Easily connect almost any application programming interface
(API), to another API. Use logical functions and multi-step
algorithms for your connects to avoid triggering specific
workflows when they aren't needed.
Flow
Microsoft’s Flow (https://flow.microsoft.com) turns your company’s
repetitive tasks into multistep workflows. The automated workflows that
you create between your favorite apps and services will send you
notifications, automatically synchronize files, collect data, and much
more.
• Create, use, and share automated approval workflows to respond
quickly and process and approve everything from time off requests to
travel plans to sales opportunities and documents.
• Connect securely to your cloud base services and on-premises data
so you can make the most of the data you already have.
Pipedrive
A CRM and pipeline management tool, Pipedrive (https://pipedrive.com)
helps you focus on actions that matter. The visual sales pipeline prompts
you to remain organized, take action, and stay in control of your
complicated sales process by bringing all the sales data into a single place.
• The mobile app gives you access to your contact and deal information
when you’re on the go. Schedule activities, take notes during a call or
meeting, save call logging activities easily when you’re away from the
office.
• Use Pipedrive’s reporting feature to understand where you’re
losing deals, forecast results, and identify opportunities for
improvement.
TextExpander
TextExpander (https://textexpander.com) lets you instantly insert
snippets of text from a collection of emails, boilerplate, and other
content, as you type. Using the quick search feature or an abbreviation
you can recall your best words instantly.
• You can share your snippets with your team so that they can stay on
track and on message. Access all your snippets from any device with
a TextExpander account so you can give your entire support team
the current answers to all your customer inquiries.
• You can also streamline your email and use the fill-in-the-blank
feature to create custom forms with multiple filed types and
sectors.
Alfred
Alfred (https://alfredapp.com) is an award-winning app for Mac OS X. It's
a workflow automation tool and a hotkey tool that allows you to navigate
your interface with your keyboard rapidly. You can create and automate
complex workflows that you trigger from a hotkey.
• Launch applications and find files on your Mac and the web. Alfred
learns how you use your Mac and prioritizes the results, saving you
countless hours.
• Alfred’s Powerpack feature uses powerful workflows to perform
tasks more efficiently, allowing you to cut down on the repetitive
manual tasks that eat up your valuable time.
IFTTT
IFTT (https://ifttt.com) stands for If This Then That and is the free way to
get all your apps and devices talking to each other. With IFTT you can
bring the Internet of Things (IoT) into your pocket with mobile-based
automation tools.
• Use widgets to run specific Applets with the simple touch of a button
on your iOS or Android devices.
• Automate tasks between a wide array of apps, services, and
devices. Their web and mobile app are easy to use and support IoT
devices and voice assistants like Google Assist and Amazon Alexa.
Shortcat
Shortcat (https://shortcatapp.com) allows you to navigate your screen
with your keyboard, effectively rendering your mouse useless. It helps
you to boost productivity by removing the need to take your fingers off
the keyboard.
• It leverages the Accessibility API, which is supported by all
applications that are included with Mac OS X and many other
applications.
• The program lets you keep your hands on the keyboard to click,
which saves you both time and energy.
Robotask
Robotask (https://robotask.com) is a powerful tool for PC users who are
committed to automating their workflow. The program allows you to
automate repetitive tasks on your PC that range from launching
applications to checking email.
• With Robotask you won't have to create batch files or write
complicated scripts to develop simple or complex automation
tasks. It uses its visual interface to allow you to select and
combine actions to fit your needs.
• Create automated tasks and automatically execute them when
certain conditions apply.
Tallyfy
Eliminate the chaos from your business processes with Tallyfy
(https://tallyfy.com). This workflow software turns your daily tasks and
approvals into automated, repeatable processes. It eliminates the pain of
emails, calls, papers, forms, and spreadsheets.
• You can easily map existing flowcharts or SOPs into Tallyfy
templates and simplify your work into actionable steps that reflect
real-life workflows.
• Its open API allows you to connect to most of your existing tools.
Intercom
Catch, convert, and keep more customers with Intercom
(https://intercom.com). Intercom is a customer messenger platform that
allows your customers to get in touch with you straight from the web. It’s
perfect for sales, marketing, and support.
• Use bots and live chat to automatically qualify, route, and convert
more leads in less time.
• Send targeted emails and push and in-app messages to quickly
onboard and engage customers, turning more signups into paying
customers.
Delivra
Delivra (https://delivra.com) is a results-driven email marketing
automation platform that makes it extremely easy to engage your
audience and increase revenue.
• With its marketing automation, you can deploy smarter email
campaigns that are more efficient and customized for your audience. You can create triggered responses, easily segment subscribers, send
emails based on consumer behavior and create dynamic content.
• With weekly reports delivered directly to your inbox, you can keep
track of the progress and performance of each email campaign. The
weekly insights will provide you with subject line analysis, the top-
performing content, and the number of social shares by channel.
Autopilot
Spark new customer relationships and rekindle old ones with the simple
and straightforward Autopilot (https://autopilothq.com) program.
Engage with your customers at the right time with personalized emails,
SMS, in-app messages, and postcards.
• Use the program to connect to your apps and automate tasks to
capture a richer view of all your contacts and engage with them
based on their behavior.
• Easily track your performance to get insights into which messages
convert, how your messages are trending, and what is driving sales.
Quickly visualize your revenue funnel and optimize your process on
the fly with real-time results.
mHelpDesk
mHelpDesk (https://mhelpdesk.com) automates your customer contact,
scheduling, billing, communications, and everything in between. The
program was designed to supercharge your repetitive, manual business
processes so you can focus on what really matters.
• Track every stage of the job with complete visibility of your
workflows. You’ll be able to see the progress of every job in real-
time. See every change in a job that has occurred using the Activity Log feature and holds your team members accountable for their
actions.
• Save yourself time and money and speed up your cash flow. In less
than 60 seconds you can start accepting Visa, MasterCard,
American Express, and Discover with the easy to set up payment
processing system.
As you start to put stable systems in place in your online business,
consider adding one or more of these powerful and easy to use automation
tools. Automating the repetitive and repeatable business tasks will free up
your time so you can focus your time and energy on the essential functions
required to grow your business.
