In this article, you will learn what the 4 best software solutions are for business automation and how they can help business owners save time, money and energy. For starters, business automation is a well-known term within the community of entrepreneurs and it can be defined as a process which helps to streamline your everyday data management processes – thus creating the foundation for a successful company.
What is business automation software?
Business automation software is a set of tools that help you automate recurring business activities, streamline your workflows, and improve the efficiency of your business processes.
Business automation software can either be an all-in-one platform that helps you automate different business operations from one place or a standalone automation solution that is dedicated to automating a specific business operation.
And if you’re like most marketers, you have automated a business process or two at work.
It could be email automation to support your marketing activities, chatbot software for customer onboarding, or using your favorite market research tools for market research to support product development.
Even though automation helps you get rid of repetitive tasks, 40% of automations today still lack structure because businesses aren’t allocating enough money to spend on business automation software.
This means that most automations are misaligned with what employees and customers need and expect, making it difficult to deliver the business results you’re looking for.
And if you want to scale your business operations, improve employee productivity, or deliver better buying experiences, you’ll need to go beyond basic automation and think of automating workflows. And if you want to level up, consider using an automation tool that relies on artificial intelligence.
Why Should I Automate My Business Processes?
A common question before moving to automated solutions. Before starting with the listings let’s check why you should move to a automation tool for your business.
1. People Make Mistakes
How many times you have lost money or maybe a project for a simple mistake from your team or maybe yourself? From my personal experience, one process goes faster and better if it’s automated rather than passing from one person to another.
Automating some elements of your workflow helps you limit the number of mistakes. Software follows a specific template making it much less probably to make mistakes.
2. Smarter Management
The management process is much easier with an automated tool in your business. You can make changes and improvements to the processes without the need of introducing all changes to your team.
Processes under a system are saved somewhere into a database. This gives you more freedom by not rely on team members to remember how things should be done on specific processes.
3. Follow processes and stick to workflows
It’s easier to follow processes and workflows when a automated system shows you the exact path to project completion or even easier when the process is entirely run by a chosen application or interconnected apps.
Running my business I perfectly know the importance of being consistent to workflows. Well organized and structured processes and workflows make a big difference between successful and non-successful businesses.
Business automation is transforming the way brands operate, allowing them to do more with less and scale in ways never before possible. In theory, this means business size doesn’t matter so much and automation can actually give the advantage to smaller brands that are often able to react to new trends faster than their larger rivals.
The only problem is most of the automation tools on the market are still geared toward medium and larger businesses – but not all of them.
In this article, we’ve got a selection of some of the best business automation tools designed with smaller brands in mind and helping you take your venture to the next level.
#1: Zapier
Zapier is a simple automation platform that every business can use to save time and money while boosting productivity. This is about as straightforward as automation comes, allowing you to create automated actions between essential applications used by businesses in every industry.
Want to automatically save attachments in Gmail to Google Drive? Or how about Tweeting all of your blog posts to Twitter as soon as you hit the publish button? Perhaps you want to save all new Google Docs files to OneDrive and then back them up in Dropbox.
With Zapier you can set up thousands of automations like these to cut out repetitive manual tasks, allowing you to spend your time on more profitable actions.
#2: IFTTT
IFTTT is very similar to Zapier and the general idea is the same. You’re going to use this to create basic automations between different apps to save you bouncing between different platforms to repeat the same menial tasks.
The key difference is that IFTTT offers a significantly better free version than Zapier. The main downside is you can only have one account, which means it’s not particularly suitable for teams. Another key difference is that IFTTT automations run instantly, as soon as the trigger action happens. Meanwhile, Zaps either run every 15 minutes or five minutes depending on which version of the software you’re using.
The key advantage with Zapier is that you can set up Multi-Step Zaps with any of the paid versions. This allows you to set multiple automations from the same trigger action – something you can’t do with any version of IFTTT.
#3: ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is much more than a marketing automation platform, combining advanced email marketing features and an enterprise standard CRM into a serious piece of business software. ActiveCampaign isn’t the only platform of its kind but it’s the only one we know of that’s optimised equally well for businesses of all sizes.
We spent a long time looking for the right CRM platform (you can read more about our journey here) and we kept running into the same problem. The basic packages are generally reasonably priced by features are throttled and the prices shoot up as soon as you outgrow your current version.
Aside from being one of the best all-in-one marketing automation tools in the industry, ActiveCampaign is the only one we found that was reasonably priced for every version of its software. Which means you don’t need to worry about being held to ransom if your business outgrows the version you start with.
This is pretty important considering growth is the whole point of business automation.
#4: Leadformly
As a small business, you’re going to need to automate your sales process so you can handle a higher volume of leads and turn more of them into sales – without building an entire sales team.
We’ve done precisely this by using Leadformly and ActiveCampaign to systemise the majority of our sales process.
Leadformly is designed to increase your form conversion rates but it also helps you segment your leads, directly on your web pages. It does this using conditional logic to ask users questions based on the info they type in and then sends this data to ActiveCampaign.
Now, you’ve got web pages that generate a higher volume of leads and you can automate your responses using ActiveCampaigns segmented email lists and automation features. This cuts out the majority of the early sales process and you can focus on dealing with leads that are close to making the final purchase.
#5: Hootsuite or Buffer
Social media is a business essential but it’s a major pain to run and manage campaigns across multiple platforms. Luckily, platforms like Hootsuite and Buffer make it easy to automate as much of your social media marketing efforts as you need to.
There isn’t a great deal between these two platforms but we went with Buffer because it’s the more intuitive piece of software and it offered the better scheduling options at the time we were comparing them.
#6: Grammarly
It’s amazing how much content modern businesses need to produce, even the smallest of enterprises in the most niche of sectors. All of those emails, blog posts and social antics have got to come from somewhere and the last thing you want is your marketing efforts to be held back by dodgy speeling, sorry… spelling.
Grammarly won’t make your writing foolproof but it does a surprisingly good job of saving you from those basic spelling and grammar mistakes (there vs their, etc.) that can leave people questioning the competence of your business.
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#7: Google Ads
Okay, this doesn’t sound much like an automation platform but keep with me. Google Ads (recently rebranded from Google Ads) is making a lot of changes designed to make it a more powerful platform for smaller businesses and automation is at the heart of this.
Check out its new responsive search ads (still in beta) for a preview of what’s to come.
You don’t need to wait for new features to automate your PPC strategy, though. Google Ads comes with a hist of automation features you can use to get better results – and they’re all free:
- Bid rules: You set a number of bidding conditions (e.g.: increase your bids for ads that drop off the first page) and Google does the rest – find out more here.
- Google Ads scrips: A collection of JavaScript snippets you can use to automate actions like generating reports into spreadsheets, adjusting bids and refining your keywords lists.
- Google Ads API: The new version of the Google Ads API, the Google Ads API is still in beta but promises to bring the same kind of automation options for you to build into your own applications.
Automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence are going to transform the way small businesses use platforms like Google Ads over the coming decade – and the shift has already begun.
Stay tuned.
#8: WordStream
While Google is making automation easier, there’s still a certain level of complexity that’s going to put a lot of small businesses off. I’m confident this won’t be the case for too much longer but there’s still space for third-party platforms like WordStream that simplify paid advertising for people who don’t want to get bogged down in complex settings.
The 20-minute working week feature will get you up and running with campaigns and basic management without breaking a sweat and you’ll gradually outgrow this feature as you become more used to advertising with Google Ads.
This is a great tool for getting to grips with PPC and the whole idea of delving into Google Ads settings will seem a lot more approachable after you’ve been using WordStream for a while.
#9: Calendly
Calendly is another simple automation tool that every business can make use of. Essentially, it cuts out the back-and-forth emails for arranging meetings, phone calls and other appointments.
You simply set your availability preferences in Calendly for the next meeting and embed a link in your email invitation. The recipient then chooses which time suits them and the event is automatically added to your calendar – done.
#10: Xero
The bigger your business gets, the more accounting it requires and this is always a barrier when resources are tight. Xero helps minimise the workload of accounting with features like automated invoices, scheduled payments and cash flow management – plus a whole bunch more.
You get a lot of features crammed into this piece of software and they’re all designed to make managing money easier for small businesses.
Automate your way to bigger things
Automation isn’t reserved for the big businesses out there and the selection of tools designed for smaller enterprises is only going to increase over the next few years.
Get yourself started with the platforms we’ve looked at in this article and by the time you’ve made the most of them, there’ll be a new suite of tools ready for you to take the next jump – and it won’t be long before your building your own automations to suit your needs.
Asana
Asana is a project management tool that offers manager-centric and worker-centric features. It’s simple user interface streamlines project management in a way that encourages usage and interaction. Concerning security, Asana offers SSO, 2FA, and advanced granular permissions. For management and planning, Asana provides premade templates, a shared team calendar, task scheduler, task prioritization, and repetitive task automation. It also provides report dashboards for project insights, file sharing manually or via drag-and-drop, and comment sections under every task.
ProcessMaker
For organizations that require scalability, ProcessMaker is an intelligent low-code BPM and business process automation platform. Using its filtered search feature, you can quickly build customizable charts and reports. You can also share your charts and reports with specified end-users. For custom scripts, ProcessMaker comes with a scripting engine that supports JavaScript, Java, C#, and more. To check syntax, it provides BPMN syntax checking and process error validation. As a result, you can improve visibility and orchestration of end-to-end automated processes organization-wide. Not to mention, end-users can design and re-design as many automated processes as they want.
ActiveBatch
ActiveBatch is a low-code platform designed to orchestrate automated workflows. It’s event-driven architecture supports message queues, tweets, FTP file events, email, and more. Task scheduling is also flexible based on business day and time. It offers bi-directional integrations with System Center Service Manager and ServiceNow to manage automated tickets. You can also use APIs to connect to any service, app, or server. In addition, it provides features such as modeling and in-depth monitoring.
KissFlow
Kissflow offers a lightweight approach to business process automation. It’s a suite with over 50 applications to manage vendor payments, purchase orders, employee onboarding, and even mileage reimbursements. End-users can customize these apps too. Further, Kissflow offers forms for capturing data as well as activity reports and system sequences. As a collaboration suite, it provides Zapier-supported SaaS integration. You can also attach files from Dropbox and Google Docs with multi-language support. And, there are no limits to how many applications an end-user can create.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is one of the most popular social media management automation tools on the market today. It offers the most comprehensive list of social network integrations with over 150 apps on the Hootsuite App Discovery store. It also has a user-friendly interface for quick onboarding. You can connect multiple accounts quickly, including YouTube. Hootsuite is an effective social media management tool for organizations that communicate on a large number of social networks. You can also work with the Hootsuite API to customize your integrations and enhance interoperability.
Basecamp
Organizations use Basecamp as an online collaboration tool. It’s flexible because it supports a wide variety of integrations. Basecamp’s prominent features include deadline, file, task, announcement, and discussion tracking. Consider a virtual hub for company teams, useful in a remote working environment. Concerning workplace hubs, Basecamp is the most agile and robust. While it can emphasize project management, it was not designed to facilitate projects. However, it does excel at discussion management which can help expedite projects.
Comindware Tracker
Comindware Tracker is an automated SaaS platform that helps to streamline issue tracking, communications, project management, workflow management, HR management, resource utilization, and more. Every feature is also customizable. For instance, Comindware Tracker has a Graphical Workflow Builder to design and customize workflows using a drag-and-drop interface. Concerning issue tracking, you can follow up on critical alerts about customers, vendors, and partners. Additionally, Comindware Tracker has a Human Resources Management (HRM) to manage hiring, vacations, employee transfers, warnings, and termination.
Laserfiche
LaserFiche is an automated content management platform that works to sort through the digital clutter. It offers a simple, user-friendly interface for routing and tracking digital documents on a daily schedule. Using AI-driven workflows and analytics, end-users can digitally capture and organize documents company-wide. It also provides features such as forms, reports, and task management.
Quu
The Quu tool is designed to automate content research and marketing. But, it is not a HootSuite replica. Invariably, researching relevant content for targeted audiences is time consuming. Quu automates the repetitive process by sending alerts of high-quality content in your preferred niche everyday. The notifications include links to podcasts, articles, videos, blog posts, and more. There are three options for content: Hand-curated, Discovery, and Pods by Quu. Once you receive your daily set of content, you can use a tool like HootSuite to schedule.
TrackVia
TrackVia is a well-designed low-code development platform that manages workflows. It offers a UI-based drag-and-drop functionality for end-users to build applications and automated processes. The primary focus is on mobile workflows with Zapier integration and responsive dashboards. However, due to default layouts there are limits on customization. In addition, TrackVia could benefit from more third-party app integrations.
Conclusion
When it comes to business, there are two phrases I’ve heard over the years which I never questioned. They were simply given as fact, and you really can’t argue with fact.