Find Peace over the Holidays with Automation
If you value time off but can’t seem to stick to taking it, this post is for you!
Time is your most valuable commodity yet we waste so much of it.
Think about what’s truly important to you. Does it include emailing your subscribers? Or posting on social media? Or maybe generating an invoice to a new client? No, of course not.
I’ve recently become a huge fan of automation. I want to know how I can schedule everything so that I can take proper time off work to rest my poor little brain and aching body.
If you work for yourself in some way, you’ll probably feel the pain of ‘living your business’. Because of this it’s been essential for me to find ways to support myself in having some time off from thinking about it. Otherwise I feel wrung out and empty of ideas.
So, first things first, let’s get clarity on what you can automate.
There might be some elements of your business that simply can’t be scheduled, but spending a little time to work out what can be automated will save you time and energy, over the holidays and beyond.
Working backwards from your customer journey, where do you want your customers to end up if they discover you over the holiday season?
Here’s a quick run down of the key areas you can automate to get you started.
I never used to prioritise rest, but now I know it’s a crucial element to thrive.
Areas to Automate
Think about how these will benefit you and how will they help your clients or customers? It has to be a win/ win for it to be meaningful and effective.
Social Media Posts: which platforms need to be kept alive during the holidays and how often do they need a post scheduled to them? Maybe your business presents a timely opportunity to post specific content during the holidays? I use Later for this which is free.
Engagement: now that you’ve scheduled your posts, what happens about engaging with potential clients? How do you want them to stay in touch with you? Do you have a lead magnet (freebie) you’d like them to download? Maybe you want to send a personal message to people who comment on your posts? ManyChat is a great free DM automation tool to use for this.
Blog Posts: If you don’t want your SEO to drop when you’re out of the office, schedule your blog posts to publish automatically. My website is on Squarespace where you can schedule blog posts too.
Emails to your subscribers: Keep your subscribers engaged with relevant and valuable content over the holidays. Consider what they really need during this time. Mailchimp provides a free platform for list building and for reaching out to your subscriber list with specific scheduling ability. I’ve used it for years and it’s very user friendly.
Appointments: Embed a calendar or use a link via Acuity Scheduler to offer clients the opportunity to schedule appointments with you.
Sales funnel: What do your customers/ client need on the point of purchase? How do you take payment and invoice? What does their onboarding look like? Do you send them a welcome messages?
Customer service: Consider your customer journey as if you are them. What do you want to receive and know once you’ve purchased something? What can help if you have a question or problem? Most of these issues can probably be answered in a FAQ that can be emailed directly to your new customers.
Email out of office message: Use this opportunity to inspire the reader to take some time off themselves by sharing how you prioritise this 😉 It’s also a great place to direct them somewhere specific like to a product/ service or freebie! Most email providers have an in-built OOO function.
Get Organised to Avoid Overwhelm
This can all feel too much, I get it, it’s a lot to do. One effective way to reduce the overwhelm is to plan the content you need, then re-use as much of that as possible across your platforms.
You could print out the up coming month so you can see it easily (sometimes I can’t work on a screen and I need to see things on paper), and write in what needs to happen when.
If your business isn’t date dependent but instead the different elements are triggered by client actions then draw a little flow chat to get clear on the steps. You don’t need an art degree for this, just use boxes for the actions and a line and arrow to the next box to show what needs to happen next. I bloody love flow charts. They help me see the whole picture when I’m getting buried in the details and get confused.
Final thought here is to book out a day to create all of the content you need for your automations. Once you’re in the flow, it’ll feel a lot easier to run through your content to do list. Think of all that free time you’ll have when you’ve finished!
Walk the Walk…
I’m taking my own advice and am going to spend some time to set this all up next week. I like to have some extra time to fiddle around and improve what I’ve done before I send it all LIVE and down tools for the holidays.
There’s enough stress in everyday life, so I am a huge advocate for automating as much as you can so you can truly switch off and rest and enjoy the end of 2024.
If you’re a fan of automation and will make the space for yourself but you have trouble switching off (like most of us), here are some top tips to try.
Written by Kate Greenslade
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