If your company is small enough that you can all sit down and play a game of Monopoly, automation technology should be a low priority. If your company is big enough that you need multiple Monopoly boards, then it’s time to analyze the pieces of your business that can be automated.

Content automation technology is still new to a lot of businesses. However, technological innovations like natural language AI make creating data-driven content more tangible than ever before.

Some companies are under the impression that natural language generation (NLG), a form of artificial intelligence [AI] that transforms structured data into natural language, is too expensive or too difficult to implement. They focus on short-term goals and this can prevent huge growth. In this post, I will help you identify areas of your business to which you can bring data storytelling and content automation, as well as the tools that will give your company a growth spurt that can actually be sustained for the long term. 

Why Do I Need Content Automation Technology?

The larger your team, the more there is room for human error in your business processes. Automation by itself helps you accelerate workflows, scale, and remove human errors, which is especially useful in labor-intensive processes like financial reporting.

All industries are seeing business improvements from automation technology. Companies often cite that this transformation reduces the time employees spend on rote tasks like data entry so they can focus on more important business objectives. 

Identify Areas of Your Business That Needs Automation

Since automation saves time and increases revenue, it’s tempting to just start implementing automation left and right. But, you need to be strategic and think through the areas of business that need automation. 

Start by identifying areas of your business that involve repetitive tasks and tasks that are hard to scale. 

Meet with your employees and ask them areas of their workflows that can be improved and ask them which pain points they encounter. This can help you understand what needs to be automated. You will gain some fantastic business insights.

Automate How You Report on Data

For lines of business such as financial planning and analytics, the ability to automate reporting is crucial, especially considering the labor shortage in banking, accounting, and financial services.

Think about how desperately you need real-time insights into data to make business decisions. Now consider how time-consuming it is to report on data manually and the fact that there is a big risk of human error.

Luckily there are Business Intelligence (BI) platforms that not only collect and analyze vast amounts of data but also communicate findings as visualizations. BI platforms extend data understanding by complementing data visualizations. With the right NLG solution, you can communicate data across your team in a way everyone can understand and scale your data-driven approach across all lines of business without human error. Also, natural language helps foster data literacy by making analytics accessible and easy to understand for employees without any background in statistical analysis.

According to a recent Forrester report, companies that automate reporting with Arria NLG were able to generate instantaneous data stories to augment dashboard views and visualizations at the click of a button, eliminating a large portion of manual work previously undertaken by Business intelligence (BI) analysts. 

Forrester noted that Arria NLG reduced the manual report generation labor by 80%, saving up to 60% in time spent by BI analysts and their supported decision-makers. Furthermore, intelligent automation removes any risk of human error in reporting and written analyses​​. 

Think about all the time that frees up for you and your employees to focus on more important strategies.

Recommended tool: Arria

Internal Communication Automation

Automating how you and your team communicate is probably the easiest area of your business to automate.

Emails get drowned out fast. Co-workers forget to hit “reply all.” Communication automation tools allow you to segment your conversations by things like teams or projects and they notify a team member when they’re tagged in messages.

Automate communication today at your company with the right tool. The right tool will onboard your team and you can start communicating more efficiently than ever before.

Recommended tool: Slack

Marketing Automation

There are so many areas of marketing that can be scaled with automation. Some companies use multiple platforms for marketing automation but there are tools out there that encompass all areas of your marketing in one tool.

The most common ways to automate marketing include:

• Building robust email marketing campaigns and lead nurture programs
• Schedule out your social media posts
• Automate SMS messages
• Lead scoring
• Publishing blog posts

Recommended tool: HubSpot

Sales Automation

Sales automation is all about creating effective pipelines and increasing the number of deals your company closes.

With the right tool, you will be able to gather data about the leads you’re working, manage your calendar, identify where your leads are at in the funnel, bridge the gap between marketing and sales, and avoid spending time on leads that aren’t quite ready.

Recommended tool: Salesforce 

Business Management Automation

Having a management position at your company likely means that you’re spread a little thin. Keeping track of all the projects going on can be very time consuming.

Start by identifying pieces of your management style that take up a lot of your time. Each area of your role that you can automate will free up more time for you to be a good leader.

Some benefits of automating your management strategy include:

• Sending updates and invites to team meetings
• Staying up-to-date with projects your employees are working on and follow deadlines
• Onboarding new employees
• Collecting feedback

Recommended tool: Trello

Customer Service Automation

Consumers expect replies from brands faster than ever before. With customer service primarily existing digitally, support requests and questions can stack up.

With consumers wanting quick replies, automating customer service is super important.

With chatbots and customer care platforms, your customer service team can delegate some support requests to the chatbot and can spend more time caring for crucial issues that come up with your consumers.

Recommended tool: Freshdesk

Final Thoughts: How to Get Started With Automating Your Business Objectives

With 77% of business leaders aiming to improve their companies with automation, it’s clear that it’s a business component you can’t ignore.

The good news is that automation will allow you to scale your business objectives and gain deeper insights on your company’s performance. It will also free up time for you and your employees to focus on more important initiatives.

Once you have identified inefficient and error-ridden workflows, you should have all of the strategies and tools outlined in this post so that you can digitally transform your business.

What area of your business do you wish you could automate? We’d love to have a conversation about it in the comments below!

The post How to Surpass Your Business Objectives With Content Automation appeared first on Big Data Analytics News.