It’s that time of the year. Kids are out of school, the weather is beautiful, and you need a break. Sadly, as a business leader or nonprofit executive, taking time off isn’t easy. You probably plan to take phone calls, check emails and respond to requests while sitting on a beach or taking a break from the slopes. At Point Taken, we believe the best business leaders and nonprofit executives understand that a little rest and relaxation is vital to running your organization. That’s why we have compiled a list of seven ways to automate marketing so you can take a break and optimize the time to refresh:

1. Get Google Voice: Google Voice is an excellent answering system for leaders who don’t have the time and staff to answer every call. Google Voice is a free service and translates messages so you can respond to the ones that are important and ignore the spam calls that waste your valuable vacation time.
2. Schedule a Post: Social media weighing you down? Create an editorial calendar and schedule your posts in advance with a software program like Hootsuite or SharpSpring marketing automation.
3. Employ Chatbots: Answering the same questions over and over again? Try a chatbot to respond quickly and easily to some of  your most frequently asked questions. You’ll get a break and your customers will love the fast response.
4. Later, Gram: Plan your Instagram posts in advance and schedule them with an app like Later.com or Schedugram.
5. Automate Emails: You don’t have to send a monthly e-blast or individualized email to every lead. Using a marketing software system, you can automatically send emails to leads when they fill out out a form or take action on your website. With merge fields, you can personalize emails so they look like they are coming directly from you or your sales manager.
6. Automate Notifications: Want to know when a lead visits your website or views your proposal? Marketing automation and proposal software programs can tell you. Create rules so you know when hot prospects are viewing important materials and you are close to making a sale…even from the sandy beaches of Ibiza or the mountains of Patagonia.
7. Score Leads: Marketing automation systems help you score leads based on their interactions with you, your emails and your website. Create lead scoring criteria specialized for your business or nonprofit and know when a hot lead takes action and is moving down the sales funnel. You can even assign leads to certain sales people so they get notifications while you are on a much-needed holiday.

Ready to automate your marketing? Point Taken can help. Contact us today to learn how we can help you automate your marketing now.

Point Taken increases the return on your investment by managing your brand and messaging across all channels to ensure clarity and consistency. We provide exceptional public relations, marketing and web design services for your individualized needs. We are a full-service agency built to help corporations, medium-sized businesses, small businesses and nonprofits promote their products, services and mission to drive more dollars and donations. At Point Taken, you only work with senior-level professionals with a wealth of marketing, PR and web design knowledge who can maximize your budget, guide your marketing efforts and get the job done right the first time.