As our world of ever-expanding technology creates further demands on our time (even though it’s supposed to free up more time for us-that’s a laugh!), it becomes more and more clear to me how important automation is to a real estate agent.

What is automation? It’s having a system in place so that you don’t even have to think about a certain part of your business. You have everything set up ahead of time, all ready to go.

Automation saves agents not only time and money, but headache and heart attacks. By automating certain systems in your business, you take away the pressure and stress that so many agents deal with-stress that can be avoided with the right systems in place.

After all, a stressed agent is not an effective agent. (I hear you laughing.) But seriously, there is good stress and there is bad stress.

Good stress is the motivation and energy you feel when you’re putting a transaction together. That’s a happy kind of stress.

But then there’s the kind of stress where you have to send out three buyer’s packages, follow-up with five phone calls requesting information about your services, and get a marketing activity report out to a client who’s almost ready to make an offer-and all this before 4pm when you have to pick up your kids to bring them to baseball practice.

That’s bad stress. Automation in your business helps get rid of bad stress. With processes set up and already in place, you can get those tasks done lickety-split.

There are 3 major areas of your business that should be automated:

1. Follow-up.

This is a no-brainer. In today’s day and age, there is no excuse for not having an automated follow-up program. And yet I can’t tell you how many agents there are to whom I have to say, “Stop putting stamps on your own envelopes. Have a printing company do that for you!”

I know many of us (myself included) like to control everything that’s going on in our businesses. But the truth is, once I learned to delegate 90% of my business to others, I was ten times more productive.

You can be too.

You can have somebody print your mailers. You can have somebody put them in envelopes and send them out. Heck, you can even import the content of your marketing materials (like some of the systems we provide at The Lones Group).

2. Tools.

What do I mean by “tools”?

Buyer packages
Seller packages
Marketing activity reports
Client surveys
Client thank you letters
You never have to worry about writing another one of these once you create a template for each of them. All you have to do is open it, change the name, “File-Save As” and “Send”. Or “File-Save As” and “Print”. And away you go!

3. Lead Generation.

Yes, you CAN automate your lead generation. For example, let’s say you want to work with expired listings. Do you have an expired listing package all ready to go? How about a system for gathering these names on a regular basis? And another one for executing the delivery? Believe it or not, lead generation can be one of the most profitable areas of automation.

Think about everything you do on a daily basis and ask yourself, “Is this something I could farm out to somebody else? Who can help me with this?”

Putting these three areas of your business on autopilot is the one task that will save you more stress than you can imagine. Start implementing them today.

In this article, we shall define what autoresponders are, and why you should utilize them to achieve successful online business.

If you run an online business it means you already own a website or a blog. Once your online business is setup, the next most important thing to consider is using an effective autoresponder.

Autoresponder defined

In simple understandable term, it is actually electronic newsletters forwarded automatically to your subscribers via your mailing list, and this is done at intervals that you specify or define. By sample, you can design and specify an autoresponder so that once a person signs up to your mailing list he or she will receive a welcome note from your business. Subsequently, you can send other messages such as business discount codes, invitation to connect on social media, new product launch, etc.

The importance of autoresponders

Using autoresponders for your online business keeps a large bulk of your email marketing automated, and that’s if you setup things appropriately. With an autoresponder installed on your website, your subscribers will be able to receive specific vital key messages about your business. With this benefit, you do not need to bother about manually sending these messages out, as it is fully automated as set. This simply makes the importance of using autoresponders all the more clear. In short, they help you save time running your online business, loads of it.

How can you utilize autoresponders to help promote your online business?

• You can utilize them to forward custom birthday greetings with other related offers to subscribers on your mailing list.

• You can transition a subscriber from one phase of communication to another after they purchase an item/product. For example, you can move a subscriber from a ‘prospect’ level series of messaging to ‘upsell’ series of communication.

• You can forward mails to subscribers exactly one month after they purchased a product. This can be done to motivate them to renew a ‘policy or guarantee.’

When autoresponders are utilized in such creative and meaningful ways, it can help generate substantial sales and income – with high returns on investment for your business.

To use them, you can sign up with popular providers such as MailChimp, Getresponse, Aweber, Mad Mimi or Campaign Monitor, etc. These providers are renowned for offering businesses robust autoresponders with dedicated tools for hosting mailing lists and forwarding newsletters and messages.

Finally, autoresponders when setup and used properly can help online businesses automate lots of marketing activities and tailor specific messages to a mailing list for profit making and client engagement.

Scaling a business is not an easy task. Between keeping past clients happy, converting new leads and ensuring you have the right team on board, scaling a company involves focusing on many things. And, if you look away for a minute, your development can slip.

Scale your business the smart way by using technology. Using technology isn’t even optional these days. No matter the size of your company, how many clients you have or how much you want to grow, there’s someone looking to take your business.

And, if your competitors are using software, apps, and tools you’re ignoring, they’ll have an easy time getting ahead. By using the right tools, you can track where you are, where you’re going and the areas in your business that are lagging.

Technology improves customer experience

Customers are the main drivers of your company, so it’s crucial to do everything to offer them a positive experience when they interact with your firm. Consider offering Wi-Fi so that your customers can browse while they’re in your shop.

By using chatbots, you can improve customer-service response time. Chatbots can answer a big percentage of your clients’ queries. And, they can direct clients to customer service agents if the questions need human intervention. They can also help to keep your clients engaged. For instance, they can prompt customers to view or write a product review, and encourage them to view tutorials.

Automate daily tasks with machine learning

Machine learning can help your company to reduce the need for employees performing repetitive tasks such as purchasing and billing operations. You can use software and apps to handle most of these duties. Automation will do these tasks quickly and accurately, and this will free up your employees’ time to do jobs that demand critical and creative thinking.

Automation and integrating operational processes helps businesses achieve end-to-end visibility, and it enables teams to scale speed while delivering excellent service to customers.

Releasing data for future growth

Investing in the right technology and integrating business processes will make your company responsive enough to compete with bigger competitors and deliver sustainable growth.

By using a cloud-based business management system, you’ll have full oversight of your company operations and easy access to data to make insightful decisions on how and where to grow the firm.

Use technology to streamline onboarding

As your company grows, your human-resource department will use technology solutions to smooth the onboarding process. Software and apps enable new members to complete paperwork and make introductions before they arrive for their first day of work.

Also, onboarding apps provide new employees with detailed information of the company’s culture and they assist them to set goals for their first 90 days. This helps to ensure an employee is ready for their first day of work and it prepares them to help the company grow.