5 Ways to Automate Your Sales & Marketing Processes

(LCT file photo)

Running a luxury transportation business is time consuming. It might be one of the most time hungry businesses in the word. At least, that’s how I felt when I was in your shoes.

So, anything you can do to save time and stress sounds good, right? That leads to today’s topic — automation. You can automate many tasks within your business, but I want to focus on five you can do for your sales and marketing.

No. 1: Welcome Email Series for New Clients
We all know having regular contact with our clients is Sales 101. This is even more important for new clients when you are in the honeymoon phase of the relationship. This is why you should create and automate a new client email series that introduces your clients to your business and showcases how you can benefit them when they are traveling or need local car service.

All you need is an email account — Mailchimp or Constant Contact — with automation features. We recommend Mailchimp because it’s easier to use.

Then, write a series of four to five emails in all text inside your email account (DO NOT graphically design these emails) and set up the automation to send every seven to 10 days.

Now, when a new client completes the first trip, add the client’s first name and email to the list to automatically receive the email series.

No. 2: Promote Your Services with Facebook Ads
Facebook ads are still the cheapest advertising platform to use to get in front of new potential clients for corporate and retail work. Once you set up an ad, you can control your budget, targeting, and geography to only target the specific types of clients you want and then just let it run. It really is that easy once you have it set up. You just need to be sure you are using videos in your ads because they are cheap as you can get video views for $.01 to $.02 each. This means it’s low cost branding for your company in any city.

No. 3: Educate Warm Leads with an eBook
Once you have converted someone into a lead/prospect, this means the person is classified as “warm” because of their interaction with your content and interest in your company.

Now the goal is to convert the prospect from a warm lead into a customer. One of the best ways is by creating an eBook or white paper about a topic that will create value for your prospects and position you as the industry thought leader. Think wedding guides, business travel handbooks, best venues in ____ for DMCs.

Now that you have your eBook or whitepaper on your website or sales page, then use No. 2 above (Facebook ads) to target brides or DMCs and send them to download the ebook or whitepaper. Once this is set-up, you will generate leads and customers while you sleep.

No. 4: Follow Up With Bridal Show Attendees
If you are in the wedding business, then you are most likely attending bridal shows and probably showing up to more than one a year. Two things happen at bridal shows:

1. Typically the show will provide you with the attendee list after the show.

2. You should be capturing contact information for each person who comes to your booth.

The first step is to understand these two sets of people are completely different, as most people in No. 1 probably didn’t come by your booth and the people in No. 2 show intent and interest by stopping by.

Since the relationships both groups have with your company vary, they need to be treated separately. You should not send them the same email series after the show. Set up two email series.

Now, automate them by following the same steps we discussed in our new client email series, but you will want to set the time between emails to lead up to the wedding date. You want your last email (a.k.a. your money sales email) to go out about 45-60 days before the wedding date.

No. 5: Schedule Social Media Posts in Advance
Ten years ago, I got my first Hootsuite account to schedule Twitter and Facebook posts and it changed my life. It saved me 7-10 hours a week, which was a big game changer.

Get an account like Hootsuite or Buffer that allows you to schedule posts in advance on multiple social media platforms. My preference is Buffer because it is easy to use and you can add 10 accounts for free.

Now, schedule one hour a week to curate and create posts with Buffer you can schedule for the entire week. This will save you hours of work time you could allocate elsewhere in your business.

Automation has been a big part of my business life for many years now. The first big step for me was purchasing HubSpot in 2008, and believe it or not, we still use it today because it saves a lot of time. Feel free to contact me with any questions about automation. I’m happy to help.