Updated: Oct 25
Hi. I'm Amy, the Founder and Chief Marketing Person here at the Launch Box. My mission is to help entrepreneurs and small business owners achieve their dreams by learning how to think more like a marketer.
It’s the beginning of a new year and I don’t know about you, but I’m all about setting new BHAGs (big hairy audacious goals) for my business. I’m also well aware that my ability to achieve these goals depends on how effectively (and efficiently) I am able to run my business, so I’ve made it a priority to optimize and streamline as many processes as I can before I add anything new to my plate.
In my business, this means using a mix of email, SMS, and social media management tools to create smart customer segments, deliver targeted communications, and schedule message sends in advance along with tools like Zapier and Calendly to connect automations across platforms and make scheduling easy. Nothing makes me happier than setting something up to run on auto-pilot as it means I will be able to spend more time working directly with my clients!
As I’m always looking to up my automation game and January is a great time for a reset, I decided to ask my fellow entrepreneurs for their best automation tips. From pre-scheduling social media posts to creating personalized email strategies, here are 7 answers to the question, "What are some ways you use automation to increase customer engagement and retention?" I hope there is something here that resonates for your business and encourage you to give at least one new idea a try!
Creating a Social Media Presence
Checking-in and Asking for Feedback
Celebrating Milestones
Personalizing Messages and Emails
Using AI-Powered Chatbots
Letting AI Take the Reins
Helping Customers Feel Valued
Creating a Social Media Presence
Because it’s rare that we have time every day to dedicate to perfecting social media posts, we use Sprout Social to plan and schedule posts in advance. Using this type of automation helps ensure that we’re steadily and thoughtfully putting out useful content for our audience to engage with. The last thing we want is to disappear from our social profiles for extended periods of time with no explanation. Automating posts with Sprout Social has empowered us to remain connected, even during our busiest seasons. It even tells us which times are the most optimal for posting and provides analytics, so we’re able to identify trends and adjust our strategy accordingly.
Jae Pak, MD, Jae Pak MD Medical
Checking-in and Asking for Feedback
Automation has become such a helpful tool that can be used in creating long-term relationships with customers. Friction points that go unaddressed can often lead to your customers choosing to purchase from competitors. To combat this, we use automation to schedule check-ins after purchase and receive feedback. This not only shows customers that our business values them, but it allows them an opportunity to engage and share their experience, which helps future business. This is an easy automation to implement that has had a lasting positive effect on customer engagement and retention.
Jeffrey Pitrak, Marketing & Account Manager, Transient Specialists
Celebrating Milestones
We use automation to schedule outreach for milestone markers. Customers feel a sense of accomplishment on seeing progress markers and will know that we notice and value these contributions. Not to mention, these touch points encourage our clients to continue patronizing our business. Even if the message is automatically triggered, it feels personal to the client since it is tailored to their specific behavior.
Carly Hill, Operations Manager, VirtualHolidayParty.com
Personalizing Messages and Emails
We send personalized messages or emails to our customers regularly through automation. This has led to an increase in customer engagement and retention. This includes automated thank you messages for purchases, promotional offers, personalized discounts, or even birthday messages. Automated messages can help customers feel appreciated, build relationships with your brand, and keep them engaged and coming back for more. Additionally, automated emails can send out survey requests or feedback forms following a purchase, allowing customers to share their opinions and experiences with your business. This feedback can then improve service and products and create a more tailored experience for customers. Therefore, I’ve found that automation keeps the line of communication open with our customers and helps build lasting relationships with them.
Shaun Connell, Founder, Writing Tips Institute
Using AI-Powered Chatbots
One way to use automation is by using AI-powered chatbots on our customer support channels. These chatbots allow customers to ask questions about our product in real-time and get fast responses directly from our engineers. This helps us respond more quickly to customers’ questions, which leads to higher customer satisfaction and retention rates.
Ayush Singhvi, CEO, Byldd
Letting AI Take the Reins
In our business, we use AI-driven paid ads to re-target customers, which can be hugely helpful in increasing customer lifetime value. Often, it's difficult to keep all the information on all of our many customer relationships, and automation can help us remember when to follow up on those relationships.
Without automation, we could lose opportunities by letting relationships fall through the cracks and get lost. Instead, we can use this technology to create repeat customers.
Sam Sarullo, SMO, Daniel's Jewelers
Helping Customers Feel Valued
Automation can be an incredibly powerful tool for customer engagement and retention. One of the most underrated aspects of automation is its ability to personalize customer interactions.
We smartly craft automated emails to make our customers feel recognized and valued. While automated emails often aren’t as quaint or witty as person-to-person communication, the convenience factor for both parties makes it impossible to ignore.
The time saved is often worth the ongoing effort of customizing emails for each of our customer’s individual preferences. Automation may not replicate real human conversations, but if used judiciously, it sure can put a smile on your customers’ faces!
Carlos Trillo, Founder & CEO, Evinex
