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How to Automate Authentically (aka without losing the personal touch)

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I know for a lot of you, the idea of automating important parts of your business (aka your sales using funnels, unsubtle hint hint!), is really scary.

You created your business really authentically, you love being able to really connect with people, and you hate when you are treated like one of thousands yourself.

But you also know that until they figure out a real life way to clone you, you do need to be able to take some of those repetitive tasks off your plate (otherwise you’ll have no energy left to do anything, let alone give your customers the high-touch service that you pride yourself on).

So, what can you do?

Well, good news, there are ways (quite a few of them actually), that you can still add that all important personal touch and connection, while still adding in automated elements to your business.

And I’m walking you through how to get the best of both worlds in this video right here!


Today, I’m talking to you about how to personalise and how to add a human touch to your funnels and automations, because I love automating things.

I’m a massive nerd, in case you hadn’t noticed, and I love how you can train your computer to do all the repetitive tasks that you don’t want to do, to do things that you can’t be doing all day, every day.

You can build out these amazing sequences and automations that deliver great service to your clients, that make sure they’ve got the information they need when they need it, that make sure that you’re giving them what they need, you’re helping them when they need help.

It’s like having a little sales team and marketing team and customer service team running for you, 24/7, without having to pay actual humans to do it or get in trouble because you’re making these poor people work around the clock.

I think automations are fantastic and they are really beneficial.

When they’re done right, they’re not sleazy and they can be a win-win for everybody.

Are you ready to learn how to add a personalised touch to your automations? #5KFunnelClick To Tweet

But I also think that sometimes when you get into this automation mindset and you’re out there automating everything that you can lose that human touch and you can become a bit separated.

I think it’s really lovely to use some of this extra spare time that you have, because you’ve automated so much stuff, to inject a little bit of unexpected personalization back in.

That is what can create a really special experience for your customers or potential customers.

It can also be one of the things you use to help you stand out and make you stand apart from everyone else who’s just going through the motions and just doing the bare minimum with a lot of their customer service stuff.

This is where you can surprise and delight, and that is one of the values that we have here in my business.

So, I wanted to share a couple of really simple, really low-cost, really easy things that you can do.

I don’t recommend that you go and do all of them, but pick one or two and think about where and when would make the most sense to add a little bit of personal element of surprise or a little personal touch to really help to take the experience of your people to that next level.

Automate & Personalise – Video Messaging

First up, one of the tools I’m loving at the moment, and we are still playing with this right now in my business, is Bonjoro.

Bonjoro is an app that you can use on your phone and on your computer.

You can set up little triggers that happen and you get a notification on your phone that says such and such has done this.

Then you can record a personal little video message.

It takes like a minute, depending on how long you talk for.

I tend to chat a bit too much, mine take more like two.

Then you can send it back to them.

You can even have a little call to action and you can have different call to actions set up, depending on what stage people are at.

For example, I know Mike Michalowicz of Profit First, I don’t know where he finds the time, but he sends a personal Bonjoro back to everyone who subscribes to his email list.

It’s so unexpected and it helps to build trust very early on in the trust journey.

You can imagine how amazing that is.

how to automate authentically hello funnels

Now, not everyone has the time to do that because if you’re getting a lot of people on your list that could mean you’re doing Bonjoros all day long.

So it really is about thinking about when would be the best time for you to do it so that you’re getting the right people and it’s going to be manageable for you as well.

You can also, of course, enlist your team to help you with that.

I don’t think it’s any less special when it’s coming from a team member than when it’s coming from the founder, it all just depends on how you really propose to do it.

Bonjoro costs $25 – $45 per month but they do also offer a free plan.

But if you think about it, if it just gets you one extra sale, for most of us one extra sale a year it’s paid for itself. So I think it is a really good investment, as long as you’re using it right.

My #1 Best-Ever List Building Secret

Automate & Personalise – Postcards

One of the other great tools I love, is TouchNote.

Again, it’s a little app, which allows you to create and send personalised postcards anywhere around the world at any point.

So again, you can have that added in as one of your little touchpoints.

Maybe when someone joins your programme you send them a personal postcard.

It’s really low-cost and it’s only a couple of dollars per postcard.

You want to make sure you put that in a place if it’s going to make sense.

But it’s so unexpected and it’s physical real mail, which so many people just don’t expect to receive anymore, especially when it’s been personalised.

So I think that can be really, really powerful too.

Automate & Personalise – Welcome Emails

Third one is just a really simple one and we have this semi-automated at the moment.

This is sending a real welcome email to new people and having that come not just as an automated one out of your system.

So they get that as well on top of the emails in your email sequence.

Of course you can have it pre-scripted but you personalise it slightly.

It’s just sending them an introduction basically.

Some of my customer service team emails every one of our new students to introduce themselves and to give them links to some FAQs.

They say, “If you have any problems, let us know. We’re here to help,” and it just lets them know there’s people here to help them.

Again, particularly when they’re coming from an automated sequence, I know people can be a little tentative when they come in, because they almost feel like maybe they’re just going to be ignored.

We want them to know going in that, no, you’re not going to be ignored.

You are important to us.

We automate stuff to save time and to have consistency of experience, but we’re still here, we’re still humans.

We still care about you and we still want to make sure that you’re getting an amazing result.

It's like having a little sales team and marketing team and customer service team running for you, 24/7, without having to pay actual humans to do it or get in trouble because you're making these poor people work around the clock.Click To Tweet

It’s simple and, as I said, you can semi-automate it.

Using something like ActiveCampaign, we have it set up that so our team gets sent a little to-do task when somebody joins.

It can be done as something that’s only going to be a 30-second task to someone on your team, and it can really make a massive difference.

Of course there’s other things, like you can create personalised products.

We use Printed Mint and a couple of other ones as well, to send out little personalised gifts at certain points for certain people in certain programmes.

You can go a little crazy and end up spending a lot of your profit on doing stuff like this, but I think spending a little bit of time to sit down and think about where a couple of key points throughout the journey of both prospective clients and new clients, where you can add a little personal touch that’s going to make them feel really special.

It’s going to help them get a better result, it’s going to help them to stay engaged.

Just having a few of those semi-automated but in there and systemized, can make a massive difference to your clients, to your conversions, to everything.

If one of the values of your company is around creating great experiences and connecting with people, it can help to add that back in, on top of an automation.

So, like I said, my personal belief is you can have personal touches and automations combined.

IF YOU WANT TO COME IN AND SEE WHAT THE INSIDE OF A FUNNEL THAT IS FREAKING ROCKING LOOKS LIKE, AND EXACTLY HOW YOU CAN SET THAT UP, (IT’S A REALLY SIMPLE FOUR STEP PROCESS) I’M SHARING IT ALL IN A FREE FUNNEL MASTERCLASS I’M RUNNING RIGHT NOW.

Wish there was a way you could basically guarantee you would make sales, the second you opened your cart?

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