I can easily understand the controversy or hesitancy from some small business owners to automate portions of their business. Automation can probably feel cold, or you’re afraid of losing a personal touch to your emails and workflow. It’s a bit scary to think that someone may alter their viewpoint of your business because you use an automated reply for inquiries. However, I also know how important it is for you to get your life back! Spending time with my kids playing in the snow, or laughing at the dog going bananas for the first time he’s seen snow so deep it covers his little head is where I’d much rather be spending my time. Personally, I see nothing wrong with using an automated service for some email replies – especially if you find yourself answering the same questions over and over again. Wrapping your email replies into an automated workflow system for your business is NOT impersonal. It’s just one tool you can use to get your life back!
The flow of emails and inquiries can sometimes feel overwhelming. So let’s discuss ways we can use automation services and apps that will help you run your business while you’re away from the computer.
Find and use a studio management software. I personally use Pixifi and last year I decided to purchase lifetime access so I can make sure my business workflow is maintained for the life of my business. There are many, many studio management options out there! HoneyBook, 17Hats, ShootQ, Sprout Studio, and fotoClient are just a few options you have. I have personally tried a few studio management software options and settled on Pixifi because their customer service has continuously knocked it out of the park! The response time is immediate and my clients are always well taken care of. The ease-of-use for my client’s portals make my booking process smooth and fast. And you can’t beat the record keeping! I’m one happy girl come tax time because everything I need is in one spot.
Pixifi, like several other studio management systems, gives me the option to create email templates for various things. I set dates to those emails, schedule automatic replies, I can connect questionnaires to email templates, and everything is automated. Before I found Pixifi my email account was out of control! Email chains were constantly lost and I felt like my communication wasn’t up to par. I was using a strange plugin to send contracts and I seemed to always have issues with it. Plus, if my site ever went down, so did my contracts. I was only using a paper calendar to keep track of dates and since my email chains were easily lost or deleted by mistake, I didn’t feel like I had a good handle on my schedule. Now, I don’t have problems because Pixifi handles everything for me! Not only does it keep me organized but it helps my clients feel organized too. Invoicing and contracts are easy. Booking dates and keeping up with my calendar is easy. I’ve never lost an email or had a client accidentally double book a date with another. It has completely revolutionized the way I operate and how I keep track of records. So, even though some of my emails are automated, I am WAY MORE organized than I was before.
[Tweet “Automation is not a bad thing!”]
If you can’t use a studio management software for email automation, consider using Google apps. Google has an app called Boomerang that integrates with your Gmail account. Boomerang allows you to reply to an email and then schedule that email to go out at a certain time. This is a huge game-changer in terms of setting office hours and limitations on when you’re able to respond to emails. So often when you’re a small business owner you’ll find that you begin to get messages all hours of the day/night, text messages, Facebook PM’s, and now even Instagram has messaging! We are now in the age of instant gratification and easy distractions. In order for you to get anything done during the day you have to take some time away from social media distractions and the constant flow of emails. Scheduling in a block schedule format where you only check and reply to email during a certain time of day will help with your workflow. Sometimes, the only time you can find to check your email may be at 1am while the rest of the house is (finally) sleeping. In order to keep your emails from going out at 1am you can use Boomerang to schedule them to go out at 8am the next day. Easy-peasy. Boomerang is much than an email scheduler though! It can also remind you to follow up on messages which you haven’t received a reply. And you can even set Boomerang to push a message back into your inbox folder on another date. Genius!
Automate your social media accounts, blog posts, and email newsletters! There are so many ways to make it look like you’re sitting in your office when you’re really out taking care of more important things! One way to do this is to schedule your posts and shares ahead of time. Creating an editorial calendar and scheduling in publish dates is an easy way to ensure you’re constantly sharing information when you’re not tied down to your computer. I personally use CoSchedule connected to Buffer to help me distribute and share posts on a schedule. HootSuite, IfThisThanThat, SlackSocial, and Postify are other apps that you could use to schedule ahead of time. Facebook has it’s own scheduling function built in for posts, as does WordPress. So you could easily use the two of those in conjunction with each other to publish and share. However, CoSchedule helps you do both of those things at once. Buffer and Viraltag also allow you the option to schedule your pins to Pinterest! Scheduling ahead of time not only helps to keep you efficient, but it also helps your content to be shared to your audience at a time when you know they’re more likely to be online. Think about it – your target market may spend more time online Tuesday morning than any other day of the week. But what happens when you have a client meeting booked for Tuesday morning? Schedule your information to post while you’re away from your computer and let the apps and software do the work for you! Win, win.
I would LOVE to hear from you if you’re currently using some kind of automation with your business. Do you work a 9-5 job where automation is a part of your duties? What kinds of benefits or challenges are you seeing with the possibly use of automation? Feel free to post in the comments below!
