At the end of the day, we all know that our business has to make money to succeed. But what we fail to consider is how important workflow automation can be to our business’s profitability. Finding ways to streamline business processes related to new customer acquisition can help marketers attract more potential customers, sales reps close more deals, and finance specialists process more customer payments.
Since new customer acquisition often starts with the marketing team, here are seven time-saving hacks to help marketers streamline their work:
Hack 1: Declutter the Inbox
Getting an inbox to zero is a near impossibility for most of us, but there are ways to successfully cut down on the clutter.
Avoid a heap of random and inconsistent emails by using a form builder to gather and process information from colleagues. We’ve all spent far too much time searching for information in lengthy, confusing email chains. Online forms can bring necessary standardization to your workflows by automating menial tasks and streamlining approvals, resulting in minimal clutter and maximum efficiency.
If you’re a Gmail user, you may also benefit from the Priority Inbox feature. It analyzes senders and subject lines to filter unread emails into two categories: important and unimportant. Priority Inbox draws your focus to emails that demand your attention and allows you to avoid the rest until your schedule permits.
Hack 2: Automate New Customer Registrations
Getting potential customers into your system quickly can be a game changer for your business. But how do you automate new customer registrations? For starters, make it easy for people to indicate interest in your company. Use an accessible contact form or online event registration form. Then, integrate your online forms with a customer relationship management (CRM) tool to automatically route lead data into the system for your sales team.
Hack 3: Keep Important Information Organized and Accessible
Making sure employees know how and where to find certain information on your company’s systems can be a huge time saver for a marketing team. This might seem like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many companies struggle in this area.
Collateral such as logos, brand information, case studies, and other materials are essential to every marketing department, but these resources are often buried in hard-to-find locations. Using web-based tools like Confluence and Trello can do wonders for your information’s organization and accessibility. The ability to collect and sort information into easily searchable categories and files makes form building solutions appealing as well.
Hack 4: Use Templates Whenever Possible
Why waste time writing or organizing the same information again and again? Create templates for commonly used forms and documents, such as webinar outlines or event registration landing pages. That way, you can make minor updates when necessary instead of starting from scratch every time. Templates allow you to standardize your approach with potential new customers.
Hack 5: Invest in Useful Apps
Social media, internal communication, and other tasks can create major headaches as you jump between endless spreadsheets and accounts. Fortunately, apps like Hootsuite and Sprout Social allow you to toggle between various social media accounts within the same platform. HipChat and Slack help teams share internal information quickly and efficiently, eliminating the need to schedule a meeting while also decreasing emails. The best apps can make even the most time-draining tasks a breeze.
Hack 6: Implement a Project Management Tool
A good project management tool allows teams to avoid unnecessary meetings, which can be costly and unproductive, and it also cuts down on email. Using a task-management tool like Jell or Basecamp can help you eliminate tedious check-in meetings. Both platforms allow your team to share status updates, such as project progress or where a prospect is in the pipeline, which can keep everyone on the same page.
Hack 7: Set Goals
Yes, it seems obvious, but goal-setting is often overlooked. It can be difficult to manage your time if you don’t know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish. Take a minute each morning to establish your goals for the day. Set deadlines and tackle them one at a time. Evernote is useful for creating to-do lists and sharing goals across teams.
While this tip may seem similar to the project management tool hack, it’s important to note the significance of reaching goals. Not only is it critical to organizational success, but the accomplishment of SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely) goals can be a huge boost to team morale.
Conclusion
Marketers strive to attract potential new customers, but outside distractions and lengthy internal communication processes often stand in the way. These seven hacks can help your marketing team members quickly streamline projects, save time and keep information organized, so they can focus their attention on more pressing tasks.
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