We have compiled a checklist of what we consider to be the five most important points to consider when introducing automation tools in ecommerce & marketing. In a world where efficiency and speed determine success in ecommerce and marketing, automation is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. Yet, all too often, companies rush headlong into implementing marketing or ecommerce automation tools without a clear plan or understanding of their processes, existing tools in use, and which automation tool aligns best with their needs. The result? Wasting time and money on tools that don't meet the company's specific requirements. To avoid these pitfalls, it's crucial to begin with a well thought-out strategy and a clear checklist.

1. Set yourself clear goals

Before you dive into the world of automation, you need to understand what you want to achieve in the first place. For example, do you want to increase lead generation, improve customer service or increase the efficiency of your campaigns? Other possible goals could be that you want to reduce the number of repetitive tasks in general, save a certain number of hours per week (and thus use your workforce more efficiently), burn less budget or simply improve the performance of your campaigns, for example. Clear goals are the compass for your automation journey. And without a clear goal, all your efforts will come to nothing. Here's the list in a more legible format:

• Increase lead generation or sales
• Increase efficiency (saving working time)
• Reduce repetitive routine work
• Boost performance

2. Write down all your processes

An overview and understanding of your current marketing and ecommerce processes is essential to get a clear picture of where there is potential for automation and which tasks you should continue to handle manually. Document ALL your processes. Possible examples include:

• Customer acquisition
• Inventory management
• Onboarding new products
• Shipping and logistics
• Identify which products you want to advertising
• Run and optimize your campaigns
• Analytics and reporting
• And much more (!)

This is just food for thought, but it's a key point if you want to identify areas that could benefit from automation.

3. Break down your processes into steps

Once you have documented your processes, break them down into individual steps. This enables you to pinpoint where time is most wasted and which tasks are ready to be automated. This is particularly relevant for repetitive tasks that demand minimal mental effort. Consider, for instance, the process of optimizing existing campaigns for your products in Google Ads. What exactly does this process entail?

• Identify the top-selling products.
• Which keywords are currently in use?
• Which keywords are not performing well and should perhaps even be added to the list of negative keywords?
• What if you have a product that sells, but doesn't have enough campaign budget behind it to drive more conversions?
• Are there any products that aren't selling despite all the advertising? If so, consider pausing these campaigns.

There are also many other steps. For example, the creation of the ad creatives, the ad texts or the descriptions. Similar to point 2, this list merely serves as food for thought to help you understand how to break down such a process into steps. Additionally, it's essential to document the tools involved in complex or cross-tool processes. This is because it quickly becomes clear in the example above that most of this can be automated with the help of tools such as Shopstory.

4. Identify your automation potential

With a clear overview of every step of your processes and the tools you use, you can now identify the potential for automation in your company. In particular, look out for recurring routine tasks that do not require human decision-making. With the list of processes and the steps they contain, as well as the tools used, you can now move on to the last and most important step of your automation journey. Choosing the right tool.

5. Choose the right tool

Not every tool is suitable for every company. Based on the analysis carried out previously, you should now choose a tool that not only sounds great on paper, but also really fits your current needs. Otherwise, you may end up like many companies that decide to introduce automation but blindly choose a tool that is full of integrations, for example, but doesn't cover their use cases at all. Some examples of automation tools include the following:

• Zapier
• Runalloy
• Make
• Shopstory

At this point, we recommend intensive research based on the use cases in your own company. For marketers & ecommerce entrepreneurs, for example, we have a comparison of Zapier & Shopstory that may also be of interest.

Conclusion

The introduction of automation tools in ecommerce and marketing should be a well-considered decision. Our checklist should help you to choose wisely rather than hastily. Automation tools can not only save costs and time, but also significantly increase sales. While at first glance automation tools may seem like a costly investment, the reality is that they often prove their worth with just one or two automated processes. They offer the potential to increase efficiency while improving the quality of customer interactions. In essence, the right automation tools are an investment in the future of your business that will pay off in the long term.

Do you want to get everything right when introducing automation? Then follow the link and download our streamlining and free automation checklist for ecommerce & marketing:

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