Joined up Marketing Thinkery. How to automate your business

Editor's Notes

• #4: “Failing that” between each one.
• #5: I want you to take on board an almost contradiction that can hang over the talk, like a bad smell and I want you to cognitively reason the fact that these principles can co-exist.
• #16: By 1568, a large printing press factory could print around 3600 pages per day, The automated knitting machine’s patent was denied by queen Elizabeth because she said, “It would deprive women of ability to make a living.” A point I will come back to later on.
• #18: Between 1892 and 1910 you had over 1,000 inventions that were either realised or conceived to automate an aspect of industry or home economy. And in 1939 at the worlds fair where the brilliant minds met to show their idea. Norman Bel Geddes showcased his radio-controlled electric cars that were propelled via electromagnetic fields generated from circuits embedded in the roadway.
• #20: It has been long understood that once those pesky wars were out the of the way the military, particularly in the states, set up innovation centres and relationships with universities and research centres, where any advance would first go the military to prepare for war for fight one. Then we as civilians would get the by product for convenience. So in the span between 1945 and 1990, the military can claim advances in communications, networks, radar, sonar, jetpacks, electronics, robotics, space travel, rocket powered everything, even ai…
• #21: Yes and GPS.
• #23: AI machines can perform or manage automated machines or tasks to re-define that machine’s value, purpose or directive. Think of a guidance system controlling the flaps of a plane. More to the point an effective AI will improve or replace the repetitive or disjointed task of a human and be the what’s called an ‘actor’ in the process or system.
• #24: If you take away one thing from this talk its this sentiment. Please take note though that the words are ‘human task’ not humans. Which leads on to the next question
• #26: Automated machines and robots have taken jobs and in agriculture, manufacturing, engineering, finance and replaced menial tasks in every industry now every one has a laptop, phone or desktop
• #27: But if you consider the ATM as a good example for why I don’t think our jobs are going to be replaced. When they first came about, the media and public feared it would replace the teller or cashier. However between 1969 when the first one was installed and 1980 there was in fact a worldwide increase in the number of cashiers and tellers placed in banks.
• #28: Cashiers tasks and time were no longer taken up by transactions and their focus was to prioritise the softer skills needed to fulfil banking duties. Financial advice, sales and customer services for products, which meant they could get in more customers, More customers meant more banks and more banks meant more cashiers.
• #30: Tool ratio: Too many people especially in business, idolise the use of a tool or machine to carry out a task. The assumption, especially those who are not providing input into the tool, because they don’t see the planning and objectives that it can be done with a flick of a switch. So the further away they are from operation the less time they will expect something to be done.
• #31: 2. What you automate shouldn’t sit in isolation. It needs to make sense and adhere to what you are trying to achieve as a business. How you are trying to solve problems for yourself or your customer. Don’t fall into the tool ratio trap. There are always ways to connect a team member, a tool and provide real value to what you are trying to do.
• #32: Imagine you are carrying out a content marketing plan. And let’s say you create a webinar, a white paper, 3 articles and a video series. And your ambient content on social is around the same theme.
• #33: Its up to you now to create rules that follow a logical pattern to first benefit the customer or the business, then automate the processes which can improve human tasks.
• #35: What you want to end up with something like this. You will need to clearly define what you want from the activity and then create a plan for your automation to follow.
• #36: What you want to end up with something like this. You will need to clearly define what you want from the activity and then create a plan for your automation to follow.
• #37: Then once you have your map, codify some rules around the decisions made that will take your users down one path or another.
• #38: The main business areas I cover are: Sales, Marketing, HR, Finance and production, Having created your rules you should be in a zone to see where you can apply automation to speed up process and improve human tasks. And from a business perspective its more about joining forces with all departments. And if you think there is one thing that can unite deparments its automating tasks that can provide interconnectivity and a commune with which which to discuss ideas and solve problems.
• #39: Marketing should be talking to HR
• #40: HR should be talking to finance
• #41: They should all be talking to production staff
• #42: And everyone should be talking to finance
• #43: There are so many tools out there. And there are subjective preferences that will lead you to pick one tool over another. My personal preference and stack looks like this:. And going back to our pitfalls is not one tool that will do it all.
• #45: https://blog.bufferapp.com/big-list-zapier-hacks-marketers - great article that goes into 46 use cases. But I would like to throw this out to the floor and ask anyone if they throw out any use cases. Any questions on how the tool can be used.
• #47: So the reason why I like zapier is that it has the most of connective applications. It allows you to freely imagine rules and codify the actions you would like to take place. It allows you to not only connect one tool to another but provide real value to customers in a timely manner. There is a start up in California that have automated their entire product launch procedure, by recording all their meetings via an audio app. They then create an automation in zapier to transcribe all text. They then pick out keywords to create as tasks they bring those into a task scheduler and product launch tool. Mental. But what it does show is the capability of what you can do.
• #48: Get into the mindset of planning to fail but striving to succeed. If it does not work straight away don’t give up. Keep testing and trying it out to find what suits you and what you can imagine. There are no real bounds on what you can automate.
• #49: A friend of mine Miles brandridge who is part of the AI committee at AXON, said. Take the fact if you showed homer our technology today. Would he be too surprised that we are using his same ideas today?