Time is money when you run your own business and it’s so easy to get bogged down in all the apps, systems and tools you use on a day to day basis. Which is why you need automation: ways to create systems and automatic actions for everyday activities – freeing up more time for you to do what you’re best at – running your business.
The automation tools that will streamline your workload
Here are 6 tools to help you automate and free up more time in your business.
Edgar - schedule and recycle social media posts
If you’re already scheduling social media content but get frustrated that you have to keep filling up your queue with new content, and wish you could recycle old tweets, blog posts and status updates, then Edgar might be your new best friend.
Dubbed as the ‘social media queue that fills itself’ once you’ve added updates to your library it automatically posts them again and again to a schedule you set. Genius.
Find out more: meetedgar.com
Zapier - connect your apps together
Zapier allows you to automate basic tasks and connect web apps together so when something happens in an online tool that you use (aka a ‘trigger’), it automatically completes an action in another online tool (aka a ‘Zap’).
Their system integrates with many popular, well know apps and web tools such as Gmail, Mailchimp, Google Drive, Trello and social media sites.
Find out more: zapier.com/
Acuity - Schedule online appointments
Acuity is an online appointment scheduling software for businesses with the need for clients to schedule appointments, pay for them online, and complete intake forms online.
You can create multiple types of appointments, sync with payment processors like Paypal and have your appointments synced with your Gmail calendar. Not only that, email reminders are sent to both you and your client so you get less chance of missed appointments.
Find out more: acuityscheduling.com/
Hellosign - Get documents signed online
Hellosign is a secure, legally-binding electronic signature tool for business owners who get customers, clients and suppliers to sign contracts on a regular basis.
You just upload your document, let Hellosign know where and what needs signing – and it sends it off for e-signature. It also lets you sign documents, and automatically reminds people if they’re late signing.
Find out more: hellosign.com/
Unroll.Me - clean up your inbox
If your email inbox is weighed down with all the newsletters and marketing emails you’ve signed up to over the past (because you just wanted the free ebook or discount code!) then you want to sign up to unroll.me.
It syncs automatically with your inbox and lets you instantly see a list of all your subscription emails. You can unsubscribe easily from whatever you don’t want and add what you do to one email ‘rollup’ a day.
Find out more: unroll.me/
Mailchimp - create email autoresponders
Mailchimp (and other email marketing providers) allow you to set up autoresponder emails or series of emails which go out to new subscribers.
You can automatically follow up with customers after a purchase and recommend other products that they’ll love or surprise your best customers with a coupon triggered by their shopping behaviour. Once you’ve written the emails and scheduled them in a series, Mailchimp send them out automatically, saving you time and headache keeping on top of new subscribers and customers.
Find out more: mailchimp.com/features/automation/
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