Growing An Automation Business

[Andy Black]

Hmm. I think you're trying to automate too soon (which kind of tickles me to say).

Press the flesh. Get into 1-2-1 conversations in DM and then Zoom?

 

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[uhhfeef]

Personally, I wouldn't get going by sending cold emails. It's interruption marketing for starters, and it's hard to dial in who you should market to, what problem you're solving, and how to communicate your offer.

This is where social media platforms come into their own. There's communities online where you can join in and get to know people, what problems they might have, and how to help them.

Even posting content is better on platforms and in communities than on a website as you can checkbout who Likes or Comments, and tou can DM them straight away.

Have I linked to this before?

MARKETING - SIDE HUSTLE - [Workshop Replay] Selling Google Ads as a Service

Here's a presentation about how I started and am building a business that provides Google Ads as a service to other businesses. I did it for @Fox 's paid web design group last year and he's kindly allowed me to share it. It should also help people starting other businesses. Let me know what...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Thanks Andy!! I'll take a look.

 

[uhhfeef]

Hmm. I think you're trying to automate too soon (which kind of tickles me to say).

Press the flesh. Get into 1-2-1 conversations in DM and then Zoom?

Yes exactly! I've had more success manually doing that, might as well continue that

 

[uhhfeef]

Scrape the web for information about their businesses at scale. Base the personalisations on that. If you can't devise a prompt that does the personalisations to the quality you'd like, then fine tune the model to write the compliments in the style you want based on the actual information you find (their blog posts, linked in, whatever you decide to scrape or whatever you'd do manually). Come on chap - you're selling automation to businesses - you need to be able to use all the automation tools for yourself to their full power!

Anyway thanks for the suggestion (and the challenge). I did end up creating an automated flow for it. Needs some iteration but I now know for certain that it's possible.

How to automate personalized cold email compliments​

You can achieve this with this new SAAS automation tool called agenthub.dev. It's like Zapier but for web scraping. Or at least that's how I use it.

You'd need to first create a list that contains all your leads websites, create a sheet for it that you will be using for email campaigns and add a column called "Personalization". This is where the personalized AI output is going to be stored.

Eg:


Create a similar workflow as the below in agenthub.dev:

Here's how it works:

1. It first goes through and extracts the websites from your main google sheet.
2. It will then input those websites one by one into the scraper module
3. Once done, it will use AI to generate personalized compliments based on the contents of the website that was inputted. Here you can add prompts that suit your specific need and get the AI to create, based on your requirements. I told it to keep it short and simple, that takes max of 10 seconds to read for this example.
4. It will write in the "Personalization" column accordingly

This is how it looks.


While uploading this list to instantly, you can add this column as personalization to be able to use it within your email sequences.

There's a lot more you can achieve with this tool and this is just a basic use case.

 

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[uhhfeef]

Andy wanted to create a library of his posts and convert the ones with most engagement into newsletters, LinkedIn posts or youtube videos.

But he's been a long time member of this forum and if he has to do that manually it's going to take him ages.

So I created a python script for him that extracts all his posts from the forum with links, number of likes and replies. That way if he needs inspiration for what people have found valuable, he can go through it, sort through the engagement metrics and use it to generate more content for his own audience.

Maybe even connect to GPT4 api and let it create insights on what topics to create content on. Etc.

If anyone's interested you can take a look here; request for access and I'll grant it to you. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...ouid=116569227698367365041&rtpof=true&sd=true

Anyway this was just a fun little project I did over the weekend.

Few things I have to do over the next few days:

• Figure out LinkedIn outreach, or a way to network and talk to people 1 on 1. Check dripify?
• Book more meetings with ecom store owners, figure out pain points
• Collab with other agency owners with sales background
• Network, network, network
• Watch Dune 2?

 

[Andy Black]

Andy wanted to create a library of his posts and convert the ones with most engagement into newsletters, LinkedIn posts or youtube videos.

But he's been a long time member of this forum and ff he has to do that manually it's going to take him ages.

So I created a python script for him that extracts all his posts from the forum with links, number of likes and replies. That way if he needs inspiration for what people have found valuable, he can go through it, sort through the engagement metrics and use it to generate more content for his own audience.

Maybe even connect to GPT4 api and let it create insights on what topics to create content on. Etc.

If anyone's interested you can take a look here; request for access and I'll grant it to you. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...ouid=116569227698367365041&rtpof=true&sd=true

Anyway this was just a fun little project I did over the weekend.

Few things I have to do over the next few days:

• Figure out LinkedIn outreach, or a way to network and talk to people 1 on 1. Check dripify?
• Book more meetings with ecom store owners, figure out pain points
• Collab with other agency owners with sales background
• Network, network, network
• Watch Dune 2?

Definitely watch Dune 2.

Sort by Likes and post a screenshot of the top few so people can see what you did. Put the URL last so you only need to post the Titles, Replies, and Likes so the writing in the screenshot isn't too small.

What did you use to get that list? What can that tool/skill be used for that many businesses would like and would pay for? Can you check Fiverr for gigs being bought for that tool/skill?

 

[sdbrownlie]

• Figure out LinkedIn outreach, or a way to network and talk to people 1 on 1. Check dripify?

Comment very usefully on their post, like it, add them. Don't immed send a sales message. Job done re: LI. You'll be able to find the perfect time to message later and not annoy them.

 

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[Andy Black]

Comment very usefully on their post, like it, add them. Don't immed send a sales message. Job done re: LI. You'll be able to find the perfect time to message later and not annoy them.

Exactly. Be natural and "do things that don't scale" (actually read and reply thoughtfully).

And if you post content then reply to comments and even DM people who just Liked your post.

 

[uhhfeef]

Sort by Likes and post a screenshot of the top few so people can see what you did. Put the URL last so you only need to post the Titles, Replies, and Likes so the screenshot isn't too small.

Here it is! Top 15 (out of 400+) most liked posts

What did you use to get that list? What can that tool/skill be used for that many businesses would like and would pay for? Can you check Fiverr for gigs being bought for that tool/skill?

I used python. From a quick search in Upwork I can see it's mostly RPA related things or to get something done in bulk, reports, sending commands to servers, scraping websites, collecting data, etc.

Comment very usefully on their post, like it, add them. Don't immed send a sales message. Job done re: LI. You'll be able to find the perfect time to message later and not annoy them.

Exactly. Be natural and "do things that don't scale" (actually read and reply thoughtfully).

And if you post content then reply to comments and even DM people who just Liked your post.

Thanks for the suggestions @sdbrownlie @Andy Black !! I'll keep in mind.

I need to find ways that work for me first and then think of automating it.

 

[Paul David]

Anyway thanks for the suggestion (and the challenge). I did end up creating an automated flow for it. Needs some iteration but I now know for certain that it's possible.

How to automate personalized cold email compliments​

You can achieve this with this new SAAS automation tool called agenthub.dev. It's like Zapier but for web scraping. Or at least that's how I use it.

You'd need to first create a list that contains all your leads websites, create a sheet for it that you will be using for email campaigns and add a column called "Personalization". This is where the personalized AI output is going to be stored.

Eg:
View attachment 54410

Create a similar workflow as the below in agenthub.dev:
View attachment 54409
Here's how it works:

1. It first goes through and extracts the websites from your main google sheet.
2. It will then input those websites one by one into the scraper module
3. Once done, it will use AI to generate personalized compliments based on the contents of the website that was inputted. Here you can add prompts that suit your specific need and get the AI to create, based on your requirements. I told it to keep it short and simple, that takes max of 10 seconds to read for this example.
4. It will write in the "Personalization" column accordingly

This is how it looks.
View attachment 54411

While uploading this list to instantly, you can add this column as personalization to be able to use it within your email sequences.

There's a lot more you can achieve with this tool and this is just a basic use case.

Here's what I do, and I sell a specific AI solution to the same niche.

I email them an ask a simple yes/no question. Ideally something that's related to your solution.

For example - Hi, is this the best place to speak a manager about (INSERT POTENTIAL PROBLEM)? or you can simply ask Hi, is this the best place to speak to the manager/owner about a problem?

Curiosity will encourage them to respond. Also you're now increasing your response rates to the emails which strengthens the domain reputation and helps not to get marked as spam.

For the ones that respond I then send them a personalised reply which includes a screenshot showing exactly how my service would work for their business only.

No need to create personalised AI first lines, these days it just comes across as spammy as more and more people are doing it. Nothing more that raises flags these days than fake compliments that aren't related to what you're offering.

Remember you're trying to find out if they have a problem and offer them a solution to it.

Lets say a Doctor cold called you:

Hi Mr Smith, it's Doctor Sandy here I see you've been on holiday recently to Mexico, looked impressive!

By the way do you have any chest pains at the moment?

versus

Hi Mr Smith, it's Doctor Sandy here I noticed you've been eating a lot of junk food on your facebook pics recently.

Have you had your blood pressure checked lately? Seeing a lot of guys struggling with this because their diet isn't on point.

Would you like me to schedule a free checkup?

What I would recommend is try and find ONE problem you can automate for ONE niche. Then go ahead and pitch that in the emails. It will be much easier to scale also.

 

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[Paul David]

I wouldn't use cold emails to find out what problems they have, as Andy said above go into places they hang out like Facebook groups or Linkedin and ask them.

Quickest way actually would just be to cold call. Pick up the phone 300 times a day and ask

Hi, this is a cold call and you can choose to hang up if you want or can I just ask you one quick question?

For the ones that say yes then respond with something like -

Thanks, what is the one task you or your team does every day/week/month that takes up their time you wish could be automated?

Conversation started.

 

[uhhfeef]

I wouldn't use cold emails to find out what problems they have, as Andy said above go into places they hang out like Facebook groups or Linkedin and ask them.

Quickest way actually would just be to cold call. Pick up the phone 300 times a day and ask

Hi, this is a cold call and you can choose to hang up if you want or can I just ask you one quick question?

For the ones that say yes then respond with something like -

Thanks, what is the one task you or your team does every day/week/month that takes up their time you wish could be automated?

Conversation started.

Thank you so much Paul.

I realize that cold email probably would do better if I had a specific pain point that a business wants to solve. And not a place to have conversations about them.

You're right, and I need to get in contact with more business owners within the niche to get a conversation going. Which is why I'm doing the LinkedIn method now.

Appreciate the suggestions.

 

[Andy Black]

Thank you so much Paul.

I realize that cold email probably would do better if I had a specific pain point that a business wants to solve. And not a place to have conversations about them.

You're right, and I need to get in contact with more business owners within the niche to get a conversation going. Which is why I'm doing the LinkedIn method now.

Appreciate the suggestions.

Facebook groups could be good for this. Groups where people use paid software/services. This shows they're already paying.

 

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[Paul David]

Facebook groups could be good for this. Groups where people use paid software/services. This shows they're already paying.

Yes for example Jobber has a Facebook group for home service businesses who use their software.

 

[uhhfeef]

Facebook groups could be good for this. Groups where people use paid software/services. This shows they're already paying.

Thanks, I'll check it out

The 2 platforms i absolutely despise

 

[Andy Black]

Thanks, I'll check it out

The 2 platforms i absolutely despise

It's just a platform where people gather. If a great group of people meet in a decrepit shed then the shed is irrelevant.

 

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[richstone.io]

I used python. From a quick search in Upwork I can see it's mostly RPA related things or to get something done in bulk, reports, sending commands to servers, scraping websites, collecting data, etc.

If you are interested in going down this route: I have a freelancer friend who recently shared with me how he went from web development Bootcamp to Big freelancer on Upwork (Basically, intentionally under-pricing in the beginning and communicating it when doing the bids until you have a few great reviews for your great work). Happy to chat more about it if you are interested in Upworking. And yes, those are the types of contracts you'll find with the skillset from your latest tool.

Yes for example Jobber has a Facebook group for home service businesses who use their software.

To add to this idea: There are a bunch of online businesses that fulfill a couple of interesting criteria:

1. They have native integrations, an API, and Zapier/integrately/etc integrations.
2. They mainly serve an audience of solopreneurs or small teams (who are more likely to need help with setting up a code or Zapier-like integration).
3. They have an online community.

On top of my mind is ClickFunnels 2.0, the org that I'm currently contracting for. They have an open Facebook group and a feature board (filterable by API; searchable by keywords like Zapier etc.) where you might be able to give a hand to users that are lost or frustrated. I'm constantly watching the Canny board and watched the FB group in the past to learn more about the users' automation/API needs and it's not like the requests are pouring in there. But if you have a system to watch places like this and then share in those groups in a valuable way how you were able to achieve some goals with your customers, there can be some synergy.

Anyway, I find your result for the weekend pretty cool

Is it open source and something that you wanted to share it with the other fastlaners, too?

@Andy Black were you able to make use of the spreadsheet?

 

[Andy Black]

@Andy Black were you able to make use of the spreadsheet?

It was interesting to see the top threads for Likes. Some are linked to more often than others and that would increase their visibility. It would be interesting to get the views vs likes/replies.

I was thinking of posting some of them to LinkedIn and wanted to see which posts to start with. It's not my focus though but was interesting to see what @uhhfeef could do. If he could do something similar for LinkedIn posts then people might be interested in paying for that info for their account. I suggested he look for paid tools that might be used for this already, which would validate there's paid demand.

I'm also just trying to get @uhhfeef to post more about what he's doing, why, and how. It will attract people to his progress thread and help him network.

 

[uhhfeef]

If you are interested in going down this route: I have a freelancer friend who recently shared with me how he went from web development Bootcamp to Big freelancer on Upwork (Basically, intentionally under-pricing in the beginning and communicating it when doing the bids until you have a few great reviews for your great work). Happy to chat more about it if you are interested in Upworking. And yes, those are the types of contracts you'll find with the skillset from your latest tool.

I did try in Upwork and spent more than 300$ with no success. Problem is that 95% of the proposals I sent out weren't even being opened and read.

But I'd love to know more! Is there a way I can connect with your friend?

On top of my mind is ClickFunnels 2.0, the org that I'm currently contracting for. They have an open Facebook group and a feature board (filterable by API; searchable by keywords like Zapier etc.) where you might be able to give a hand to users that are lost or frustrated. I'm constantly watching the Canny board and watched the FB group in the past to learn more about the users' automation/API needs and it's not like the requests are pouring in there. But if you have a system to watch places like this and then share in those groups in a valuable way how you were able to achieve some goals with your customers, there can be some synergy.

Ah interesting, I'll join that group and see what I can do. Thanks for the suggestion!

Anyway, I find your result for the weekend pretty cool

Is it open source and something that you wanted to share it with the other fastlaners, too?

Thank you!

If anybody wants to use it on here, I'd love to know how I could help them and what they need exactly.

I was discussing with Andy yesterday, there are similar tools out there that do the same thing but for LinkedIn analytics. Although this was pretty quick and simple, I can see how something simple like this can progress into an analytics tool.

PS: quick question, I took a look at your website. Love how clean and organized it is! Did you use jekyll by any chance and what's your experience with it? I was thinking of doing something similar actually

 

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[uhhfeef]

I was thinking of posting some of them to LinkedIn and wanted to see which posts to start with. It's not my focus though but was interesting to see what @uhhfeef could do. If he could do something similar for LinkedIn posts then people might be interested in paying for that info for their account. I suggested he look for paid tools that might be used for this already, which would validate there's paid demand.

There's definitely scope for it and relatively easy to create.

LinkedIn Analytics Tool | Improve Content Performance is what I found.

I looked into the API documentation as well and I think its def possible. I'd need to speak to more people in that space that are pretty hardcore with LinkedIn and understand what they do and need.

 

[uhhfeef]

How to automate anything​

A few notes on the process of automation:

1. Identify Jobs-To-Be-Done:
   
   • Map the current flow of the jobs
   • Think: Condition > Job (eg: At 9 am on Monday (condition) I want to see Google Ads report (job); everyday (condition) I want to run my python code to check server health (job), and so on)
2. How to solve it best?:
   
   • Create step by step process for each sub tasks within the JTBD
   • Map out each and every detail within the sub tasks to make it easier to understand what to automate
   • Find repeatable processes with the sub tasks
   • Use tools best responsible for generating the output of those tasks, no code automation, google scripts, Selenium, UIPath, etc.
   • Solve each problem incrementally, start with the base job (eg: logging into servers)
3. Test:
   
   • Run the automations, figure out potential bottlenecks within the code
   • Make it simple to debug- add comments for future debugging
   • Create unit tests to ensure the flow doesn't break given a different kind of input
4. Iterate:
   
   • Using the data from step 3, simplify the flow and continuously revise for bottlenecks within the flow
   • Keep iterating until a robust system is created
   • Finish the job from A to B automating everything in between

 

[richstone.io]

I did try in Upwork and spent more than 300$ with no success. Problem is that 95% of the proposals I sent out weren't even being opened and read.

But I'd love to know more! Is there a way I can connect with your friend?

Cool, I'll drop you a PM with his contact

Ah interesting, I'll join that group and see what I can do. Thanks for the suggestion!

Let me know if you have any ideas around ClickFunnels, I might be able to connect some dots there.

PS: quick question, I took a look at your website. Love how clean and organized it is! Did you use jekyll by any chance and what's your experience with it? I was thinking of doing something similar actually

Thanks for checking it out and appreciating the funky setup and content

I used Jekyll for my first tech blog some years ago ({ datagoodie }), and the learning was what you might hear elsewhere many times: Make writing as easy and barrier-free as possible, and don't let yourself hold yourself back by technicalities like self-hosting and setup that needs code or maintenance. I use Ghost now.
But generally, if you want to go that route, pushing up markdown to GitHub to create or update a post and seeing your content appear on your blog feels good as a developer. Jekyll is still a good tool for that with many open-source templates, although Bridgetownrb is the new kid on the block in the Ruby world.

 

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[Andy Black]

Curious what you make of these @uhhfeef

Ryan Hutchinson on LinkedIn: Throw Your Testimonials in the Trash... | 75 comments

Throw your testimonials in the trash. So many testimonials I see are stinking hot garbage. They de-value your brand. It amazes me that no guru's on LinkedIn… | 75 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

Clint Hinkle on LinkedIn: #saas #sales | 21 comments

I love blowing peoples minds that currently aren't using any technology in their businesses. Ended the day/night on a good demo. Using ZoomInfo I showed… | 21 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

 

[uhhfeef]

Cool, I'll drop you a PM with his contact

Thank you! Just saw it

Let me know if you have any ideas around ClickFunnels, I might be able to connect some dots there.

Let me know what you work on on a day to day basis. We can figure something out.

I used Jekyll for my first tech blog some years ago ({ datagoodie }), and the learning was what you might hear elsewhere many times: Make writing as easy and barrier-free as possible, and don't let yourself hold yourself back by technicalities like self-hosting and setup that needs code or maintenance. I use Ghost now.
But generally, if you want to go that route, pushing up markdown to GitHub to create or update a post and seeing your content appear on your blog feels good as a developer. Jekyll is still a good tool for that with many open-source templates, although Bridgetownrb is the new kid on the block in the Ruby world.

Ahh thought I'd recognized that jekyll template haha. It's actually so intuitive and straight-forward to start blogging with it.

 

[uhhfeef]

Ryan Hutchinson on LinkedIn: Throw Your Testimonials in the Trash... | 75 comments

Throw your testimonials in the trash. So many testimonials I see are stinking hot garbage. They de-value your brand. It amazes me that no guru's on LinkedIn… | 75 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

This is great advice, I ended up following him. I'm going to use this system for sure. It makes it much easier for the customer to take the effort and write something meaningful that actually helps the brand.

Clint Hinkle on LinkedIn: #saas #sales | 18 comments​

I love blowing peoples minds that currently aren't using any technology in their businesses. Ended the day/night on a good demo. Using ZoomInfo I showed… | 18 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

I use apollo.io for this purpose. Not sure what the difference is but it looks like you can sort and target for leads based on requirements on both platforms.

 

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[Andy Black]

This is great advice, I ended up following him. I'm going to use this system for sure. It makes it much easier for the customer to take the effort and write something meaningful that actually helps the brand.


I use apollo.io for this purpose. Not sure what the difference is but it looks like you can sort and target for leads based on requirements on both platforms.

What did you make of them from a fellow producer's viewpoint? What are they doing you aren't?

 

[uhhfeef]

What did you make of them from a fellow producer's viewpoint? What are they doing you aren't?

I'm not sure actually, to me, they looks like typical LinkedIn posts.

But I think what they do is showcase what they've achieved recently. In a way that helps the reader? And also shows what they're capable of?

 

[Andy Black]

I'm not sure actually, to me, they looks like typical LinkedIn posts.

But I think what they do is showcase what they've achieved recently. In a way that helps the reader? And also shows what they're capable of?

The posts talk about a very specific problem people have, and their solution to the problem. They don't start by saying they're automation guys.

 

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[uhhfeef]

The posts talk about a very specific problem people have, and their solution to the problem. They don't start by saying they're automation guys.

Hmmmmm right...

Thanks for pointing that out

 

[uhhfeef]

Lil update

Alot of rejections. Alot of maybes. Not many yes-es.

It's been a difficult few months, I'm trying all kinds of tricks just to get conversations in.

LinkedIn cold dm-ing (literally got rate limited), cold emailing, building connections on social media, speaking to different agency owners, business owners.

What's working for me rn is speaking to different agency owners that are just getting started out in this space and offer my services. There seems to be a severe lack of devs and a lot of hype. A lot of promises and not a lot delivering.

It's been easier convincing them though.

I'm currently in talks with an agency owner who's got sales background. How it works is I'm extending my services as a freelance dev initially and see how it goes. I think we're a really good fit.

A few others lined up like him but this guy seems most promising as he seems to be able to find alot of interested leads. Which I am lacking in.

So atleast for now that's my leads problem solved. Reach out / "partner" with similar agency owners.

Anyway, hope you guys are well and hope to get back to everything with full focus after Ramadan.

Eid Mubarak in advance!