Three marketing automations every small business owner needs

With only so many hours in the day, we know your time is valuable and “work smarter not harder” is your mantra. That means when it comes to marketing, marketing automations are THE key to getting the most bang for your buck.

Imagine this: it’s Wednesday at 4 p.m. and you close your laptop for the day. You greet your kids at the school bus and make them a snack before heading to soccer practice. Come home, do the dinner routine and tuck their sleepy heads into bed. You finally sit down with your favourite Netflix reality show (the new Love is Blind is on - duh). Meanwhile in the last four hours you have also posted two Instagram stories, one reel, sent three DMs to prospective clients and an email blast - all without touching one piece of technology. Sounds fabulous right? And the great news … you can do it too with these three marketing automations. 

There are a million tools you can use to automate your marketing tasks; you can thank AI for that. However, many either cost you an arm and a leg to use or the scope is more than what you need. So based on our experience we created a list of the top three marketing automations every small business owner needs to use.

Email Marketing

Marketing Automation: Mailchimp

Did you know 87% of brands say that email marketing is vital to business success? YAS -  no kidding since 347 billion emails are sent and received on the daily. Email marketing can play a major role in lead generation, brand awareness, relationship building and engaging customers in between purchases. So if you haven't already taped into email marketing, here’s why you need to start:

Why we love email marketing

• High conversion rates: How many times have you purchased something you didn’t really need BUT you saw it was on sale in an email? Guilty - you can thank email marketing for my last pair of shoes. When you break it down, it only makes sense. Pair engaging copy with clickable links direct to someone’s phone and you have what can only be described as the perfect recipe for an impromptu shopping spree.
• Relationship building: You never want to fall victim to ‘out of sight out of mind’. It’s important to nurture relationships with your customers in between purchases so you are top of mind in their decision making process. 
• Plan plan plan: If you want to sit down and hammer out 20 email blasts to send out over the next few months - you can do that. You can also create marketing automations that are triggered based on customer behaviour such as a purchase or lack thereof. Set the automation up once and never look back; other than to check out how well it’s working. 

“ Alright, say no more. I am convinced, but where do I even start?” Mailchimp is one of the OG email marketing services and there are a few reasons why it’s the first platform we recommend. 

• Slick integrations: As Mailchimp is so widely used, there are tons of integrations you can use to work smarter not harder. To name a few, Mailchimp can be integrated with Shopify, Wordpress, Canva, Wix, Survey Monkey, Adobe, Google Analytics, Facebook and more. That means if you already have a Shopify website, you can connect to Mailchimp and start building relationships with existing customers and those who sign up for your mailing list through your website. 
• User friendly tools: You don’t need a background in computer technology with a specialization in graphic design to be able to use Mailchimp. Not only do they have templates you can use to plug in your info and brand colours, you can also easily modify and build your own emails using their ‘New Builder’. PLUS, Mailchimp also comes with AI tools that help you draft email copy that sells. For example, if you’re stuck trying to shorten your subject line you can use Mailchimp’s AI tools to rewrite it with more ‘concise copy’.  There are also tools you can use to enhance your content and creative based on your industry and audience trends. Mailchimp essentially makes it easy for anyone to capitalize on email marketing automation. 
• Various pricing options: You can start sending emails for FREE. Now before you yell “start the car”  there are limits within the free version. You can build as many emails as you would like but you can’t schedule them. That means you need to log in to manually send them, defeating the purpose of automation. There are also limits in the number of automations you can create, plus audience size. Regardless, there is a free version you can use to get started or kickstart your email marketing with one of the paid versions (Essentials - CAN $17.65 / month, Standard - CAN $27.15 / month).

Social Media Marketing

Facebook and Instagram very well may have been the first platform you used to sell your products. We all know social media is a major part of the consumer decision making process. Did you know nearly 90% of consumer purchases are influenced by social media recommendations? That means small businesses MUST be on social media or they could be missing out on sales and growth imperative to their long term success. 

However there’s a reason social media managers exist; this task is both important and can be extremely time consuming. As a small business owner wearing all of the hats, you need to manage social media in the most efficient way possible. Here are two marketing automation tools you can use to make social media a smaller task on your to-do list. 

Marketing Automation: Meta Planner

Did you know Meta, AKA Facebook and Instagram has a business suite? YAS, a whole suite of tools you can use to make managing social media easier at no extra cost. FREE. On the house. The Meta Business Suite is home to social media analytics, page management, advertising and more. BUT ALSO a planner or what can better be described as your key to social media freedom. 

Using Planner you can schedule posts, reels, stories and ads so you don’t have to manually post content. “You mean I don’t have to wake up and worry about what to post today and scramble to make content on the fly?” That’s exactly what we mean.

Why we love Meta Planner

• User friendly: With a few simple clicks you can find yourself scheduling social media content like a boss. You can even resize photos, add relevant hashtags and add links to Facebook stories. It’s truly easy for anyone to manage their own social media plan. 
• Plan, plan, plan: Posting without a plan is posting without a purpose. Planner makes it easy to plan content in advance so that you don’t need to do the: “Quick take a snapshot of this product and throw it on Insta so I can say I posted today.” One, it’s not practical. Two, your audience can tell. Instead, once a month: 

1. Plan your content on a four to five week sprint (Use our content calendar template to make it even easier). 
2. Create video, photo and graphics content, along with copy for each of your posts, reels or stories. 
3. Schedule the posts, stories and reels into Planner and voila. 

“Alright you have convinced me, I am ready to plan ahead and save time. Now where in the land of Facebook do I find this?!” So first, you need to have a Meta Business Account. Already have one, amazing! If you don’t already have the account set up, check out this blog to get started. Would you like to use Planner from your phone? Simply download the Meta Business Suite app and follow the instruction prompts to set it up. If you prefer to plan on a computer (you know big screen for big emails, little screen for little emails #iykyk), open Facebook in your browser and find your business page. Then click through the following: 

We have now simplified the content creation and planning process exponentially; however, that is only half the battle with social media. Part of managing your digital presence also includes engaging with your audience. Whether it’s connecting with them on their posts or responding to their comments and DMs, two way communication is important. Here's how one marketing automation can help you serve your audience 24/7 without being connected to your phone 24/7. 

Marketing Automation: Manychat

Have you seen an Instagram CTA that says “Comment or DM the word: ‘_____’ to join our email list today.” Manychat is the marketing automation tool behind that. Manychat is the Instagram approved AI marketing tool that allows you to engage with your audience without touching your phone. 

Did you know two out of three Instagram users say Instagram allows them to build meaningful relationships with brands? We all know relationships are built through mutual connection and value. When it comes to social media, that means to build meaningful relationships with our customers we have to share valuable content AND engage with them too. Though we know you are wearing many hats in your small business as well as life in general so manually responding to every comment and DM can be overwhelming and unmanageable. That’s where Manychat marketing automation comes in: 

Why we love Manychat

• Hands-off engagement: Using chat funnels you can connect with your audience in real time without having to touch your phone. Pretty much the dream, am I right? Your time is valuable and if you can regain time in your day to focus on your passion, spend time with your family, dedicate an hour to yourself, or all of the above, you need to do it. 
• Dozens of ways to interact: Manychat has oodles of templates you can access so just about anyone can start using this marketing automation tool. Whether you’re looking to build your email list, send a direct link to a product, gather information via survey or answer basic questions, you can connect with your audience without picking up your phone. And hey if you’re adventurous, you can even build a chat funnel from scratch to meet any unique needs you may have.
• Brownie points with the algorithm: The algorithm's goal is to serve people content they are most interested in and engagement plays a huge role. Whether it be likes, video plays, reach, comments or DMs, all of these factors are crucial to the way your content is pushed out. We all know the feeling of being personally victimized by the algorithm and its changes; however, we know that one basic principle stands: Engagement is gold. By using Manychat more people engage with our content via DMs/comments. In the eyes of the algorithm, more DMs and comments means we are fab and more people should see what we’re doing. 

“So less time spent and more reward - I’m in. But is this going to cost me an arm, a leg and my first born child?"  We are pleased to share the answer is NO. In fact you can even use Manychat for free. Of course there are limitations within the free plan but there are still ways to capitalize on this marketing automation. Plus set up is easy. Simply follow the prompts to sign up and explore the platform:

There you have it. Three marketing automations every small business owner needs to start using - like yesterday. New technology and processes can be daunting, we get it. But with risk comes reward and nothing worth doing comes easy. So take a deep breath, try something new and if you need a little help, we’re always here at hello@blondermarketing.com