Growing An Automation Business

[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

 

[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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[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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[Paul David]

I have recently launched a new automation business. All you need to do is find 1 thing you can automate that most businesses would find helpful (saving them time and money) and you're good to go.

I'd shy away from bespoke automations for different companies. Stick to 1 thing you automate and scale it across many companies.

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a previous client whom I used to provide Facebook advertising services for. During our discussion, I didn't initially pitch my new service to him because the automation I offer wouldn't significantly reduce his workload. However, he expressed curiosity about what I was currently working on. When I explained the details of my new service to him, he expressed interest in using it to avoid having to handle that task himself. In response, I offered to provide the service to him at a special price.

I told him £20 a month, takes me 15 mins to automate it and if he stays for at least a year which there's no reason he won't its £240 a year for 15 mins work. Not going to change my life but get 200+ like him and it will soon start adding up.

He's not in the niche I'm going after either where I can charge a lot more.

 

[Andy Black]

In my next post I'll share how I automated google ads reports for @Andy Black.

Just to explain how this came about...

@uhhfeef messaged me in the forum thanking me for my content and asking if he could help automate tasks in my business, for free.

We ended up in a call and have been working on an automation.

Naturally I want to help him back so we've been discussing how he can grow his automation business.

Me being me, I grabbed some of the conversation and posted to LinkedIn:

Andy Black on LinkedIn: Someone asked how to price their services when just getting started. For…

Someone asked how to price their services when just getting started. For context, they help businesses automate tasks. Here was my reply: My favourite piece…

www.linkedin.com

 

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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]

Hey all

Maybe you've seen my other progress thread, maybe not. But that was a 6 month endeavour with a lot of life lessons I would never have learned if I never tried anything with the idea.

My biggest lesson learned: build something people need.

So that's what I plan to do now.

I already work as an automations lead for the company I'm at, so I'm going to be doing just that for local businesses for different niches.

I don't exactly know what to automate, but I'm pretty confident that given a system that gets a job done in a number of steps, I can significantly reduce time and resources it takes through code or whatever tools available.

The first thing I tested was this very assumption. Can I actually automate anything? Is this skill important enough for businesses? Do they need it enough? And if so how much would they be willing to spend?

Here's what I did since Dec 2023:

• Reach out to anyone I know, warm or cold, that does have a business and ask how I could help them
• Create an Upwork to get a general idea how much people are willing to spend
• Send out cold email campaigns targeting different niches

After a lot of talks with a bunch of business owners I've realised a few things:

• Very few businesses don't need automation because they don't have a system yet, or they're figuring it out. Here I just help them out by showing ways they could build systems for their business.
• Fewer businesses systemize every single aspect so they don't really need me because they're already aware of existing tools.
• Alot of businesses think they need to automate one aspect but don't actually fix the root cause of issue.
• A few businesses don't know they need it because they're used to the work flow that's already set up. It's not a priority for them but it's my job to show what they're missing and how I can help them run their business more efficiently.
• The other types are really aware of the problem but can't find the solution for it.

In all. What I've learned is automation is a very important skill. And it helps that I really like doing it too.

Regardless of the type of business one has, they need to automate processes because it helps them cut down time taken, money spent, efforts taken and resources used.

At the moment I have 3 clients:

• A meditech company
• Someone I came to know from Upwork who's building his own automation agency
• @Andy Black for creating report automations for his clients
• (Someone else I helped out for free but she ghosted me lol)

Thank you so much @Andy Black for all the help and advice you've given me. It's been really fun working for your project.

I'll talk about how I'm sending targeted cold emails in my next post.

 

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[uhhfeef]

How I created Cold email campaigns​

Select a niche within Apollo and target job titles within that niche. The great thing about apollo is that it's database is huge and you can specifically target a certain niche very easily.

I chose CEOs, founders, co-founders and managers.

Adding a location gets you access to all businesses within that location which I think is pretty neat. To start out, I chose the country I'm staying in at the moment.
Eg of filtered list:



Transfer those leads into a list using Apollos paid subscription or the millions of scrapers you can find online.

Verify those leads with an email verification tool


I've noticed apollos leads are about 40%-50% verified. Meaning they exist and are used.

Transfer those leads to instantly and create email sequences to send to this list in bulk. Make sure to personalize according to the niche so it's more relevant.


(Optional)
Connect Zapier with instantly to auto send an email to your private email account so you get notified instantly.


In my next post I'll share how I automated google ads reports for @Andy Black.

 

[Paul David]

How I created Cold email campaigns​

Select a niche within Apollo and target job titles within that niche. The great thing about apollo is that it's database is huge and you can specifically target a certain niche very easily.

I chose CEOs, founders, co-founders and managers.
View attachment 53821
Adding a location gets you access to all businesses within that location which I think is pretty neat. To start out, I chose the country I'm staying in at the moment.
Eg of filtered list:

View attachment 53816View attachment 53817View attachment 53815View attachment 53818

Transfer those leads into a list using Apollos paid subscription or the millions of scrapers you can find online.

Verify those leads with an email verification tool
View attachment 53820
View attachment 53819
I've noticed apollos leads are about 40%-50% verified. Meaning they exist and are used.

Transfer those leads to instantly and create email sequences to send to this list in bulk. Make sure to personalize according to the niche so it's more relevant.
View attachment 53822

(Optional)
Connect Zapier with instantly to auto send an email to your private email account so you get notified instantly.
View attachment 53823

In my next post I'll share how I automated google ads reports for @Andy Black.

Great post, I use Apollo and Instantly.

I also use Outscraper aswell which is good for Google maps.

 

[uhhfeef]

How I automated @Andy Black's Google Ads Reports​

Andy had a "pain in the bum" issue with his google ads reporting where he had to generate reports for each client every week from Google ads, download it and then copy paste its contents into a specific file.

To do this I set up a make.com workflow:

It extracts details through the google ads API using Google Ads Query Language, creates csv files for each client and stores them in the drive folder.

Andy requested if I could convert each csv file into google sheets where he could then use the data for his own needs.

At the end you can see an http request module, this request acts as a webhook to the AppScript that's responsible of updating or creating the google sheet for each csv file.


The receiving end (below) in the AppScript will catch the request from make.com and execute the code. This means that as soon as the make workflow is done, this one starts.


That's it! This way, Andy can extract relevant details and create custom sheets for each of his clients with the updated data automatically.

I could probably do the entire thing within AppScripts itself but Make was easier

PS: The fun part wasn't doing the work for Andy, it was all the advice he gave me in all those calls which I'm super grateful for. If you have a hero you look up to, just reach out!

 

[ZCP]

@uhhfeef dm me. Run an engineering company. Probably talking to your potential customers.
Let's do a quick call this week

 

[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.

 

[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!

 

[sdbrownlie]

Me being me, I grabbed some of the conversation and posted to LinkedIn:

Andy Black on LinkedIn: Someone asked how to price their services when just getting started. For…

Someone asked how to price their services when just getting started. For context, they help businesses automate tasks. Here was my reply: My favourite piece…

www.linkedin.com

I had a little break from the forum (and forums generally) to focus on what I wanted to do next after some challenges in the SEO space last year and it's great to come back and see Andy still delivering pure gold!!

It's also funny that I'm in some automation and AI communities online and the mad stuff they're talking about and their incompetence at using basic tools - like the automating of an email outreach campaign - are beyond many of them and on here most people are already on that train.

Definitely glad I came back.

Andy - I just added you on LinkedIn - looking forward to seeing more of your content over there too.

 

[Andy Black]

How I automated @Andy Black's Google Ads Reports​

Andy had a "pain in the bum" issue with his google ads reporting where he had to generate reports for each client every week from Google ads, download it and then copy paste its contents into a specific file.

To do this I set up a make.com workflow:
View attachment 54124
It extracts details through the google ads API using Google Ads Query Language, creates csv files for each client and stores them in the drive folder.

Andy requested if I could convert each csv file into google sheets where he could then use the data for his own needs.

At the end you can see an http request module, this request acts as a webhook to the AppScript that's responsible of updating or creating the google sheet for each csv file.
View attachment 54126

The receiving end (below) in the AppScript will catch the request from make.com and execute the code. This means that as soon as the make workflow is done, this one starts.
View attachment 54127

That's it! This way, Andy can extract relevant details and create custom sheets for each of his clients with the updated data automatically.

I could probably do the entire thing within AppScripts itself but Make was easier

PS: The fun part wasn't doing the work for Andy, it was all the advice he gave me in all those calls which I'm super grateful for. If you have a hero you look up to, just reach out!

Thanks for all your help @uhhfeef

You're right... I called it a "pain in the bum" that we can't automate Google Ads reports and have it automatically sent to a Google Sheet. Instead, we get an automated email with a link we have to click to go download the data. You'd think Google would make it easier but I presume they have their reasons.

I'm looking forward to having a play with this solution and automating our client and internal dashboards.

 

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[Andy Black]

@uhhfeef dm me. Run an engineering company. Probably talking to your potential customers.
Let's do a quick call this week

Boom! Help people. Be seen helping people. Good things happen.

 

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[sdbrownlie]

Right now, I'm testing what someone shared because mine wasn't showing results.
View attachment 54406

This was mine (more than 200 emails sent with this):


Then there's 3 follow up emails.

I think when you're an AI agency selling AI services you should be automating things like personalisations in your outreach emails etc. You should 'know' in the email what their store actually does not just a typical generic spam cold email starter of 'I really loved your site' which is what bad outreach people send in the SEO/linkbuilding space too so you're not alone in making that mistake of thinking that's enough of a customisation/compliment.

You've got to do more here to catch their attention anyway - hit them with either a surprising statement, or something mad/controversial to start (I've got people in my network and the crazy opener guy seems to be killing it but I'm a bit of a wimp about sending too mad stuff out so... maybe I need to stop...? or maybe that's just not for me!).

Don't say things you know they won't believe - 'it got me thinking' if you sell automation they know you think everyone should buy an automation off you - it's nothing unique to them/no point including it.

You have to be more specific too - 'want some automations' of someone sent me that I'd be like well maybe but whatever I can't think of anything right now I desperately need and just move on. If you work in their space you should KNOW what things everyone is struggling with and how you can add value.

That's where I'd start thinking about it all and go from there until you have something a lot catchier/more solid.

 

[Andy Black]

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

 

[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.

 

[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]

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.


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?

I missed this post. Great input. I eyeballed the spreadsheet and noticed the content to help people get started is the content that got the most engagement. I'm mulling that over.

 

[uhhfeef]

Quick Update​

Started a side-side-hustle of selling a GPT I built for this space.

Remember this?

There seems to be a severe lack of devs and a lot of hype. A lot of promises and not a lot delivering.

I figured out since there is a lack of developers, I might as well help people within this space regardless of their background to catch up to speed with all the technology available.

So I scraped through and trained a custom GPT with more than 10,000 pages currently of all the new technology I know (still building it) and selling it to them.

So far 11 people reached out, but only 1 bought it. And I gave it away to 2 for free because they helped me / gave advice.

Obviously I'm not super focused on this but I just saw the gap and felt like doing something about it.

Hope you guys are doing well!

 

[Andy Black]

Sent the following email out just now:


Hi <name>,

# Client reports:

It's Monday morning and I've been doing client reports.

Afeef Khan is helping me automated the reports. I'll send an update when that's done letting you know why it will be so helpful.

If you want to get your own Google Ads reports automated then you can find Afeef on LinkedIn HERE.

Afeef is a fellow fastlaneforum member who does other automations and custom GPTs so connect and have a conversation with him.

# LinkedIn updates:

1. I replied to Brandon's asked a question about adding longer-tail keywords HERE.
2. I show another reason why I cloned rather than fixed campaigns HERE.
3. I doubled the number of campaigns quickly HERE.
4. I replied to Timo who sees more ways to use Google Ads skills HERE.
5. I shared a Paid Search Manager role near Northampton HERE.
6. I replied to Timo and a few others wondering about the thinking and process behind the 5/day newsletter project HERE.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions!

Andy

 

[Andy Black]

Hey all

Maybe you've seen my other progress thread, maybe not. But that was a 6 month endeavour with a lot of life lessons I would never have learned if I never tried anything with the idea.

My biggest lesson learned: build something people need.

So that's what I plan to do now.

I already work as an automations lead for the company I'm at, so I'm going to be doing just that for local businesses for different niches.

I don't exactly know what to automate, but I'm pretty confident that given a system that gets a job done in a number of steps, I can significantly reduce time and resources it takes through code or whatever tools available.

The first thing I tested was this very assumption. Can I actually automate anything? Is this skill important enough for businesses? Do they need it enough? And if so how much would they be willing to spend?

Here's what I did since Dec 2023:

• Reach out to anyone I know, warm or cold, that does have a business and ask how I could help them
• Create an Upwork to get a general idea how much people are willing to spend
• Send out cold email campaigns targeting different niches

After a lot of talks with a bunch of business owners I've realised a few things:

• Very few businesses don't need automation because they don't have a system yet, or they're figuring it out. Here I just help them out by showing ways they could build systems for their business.
• Fewer businesses systemize every single aspect so they don't really need me because they're already aware of existing tools.
• Alot of businesses think they need to automate one aspect but don't actually fix the root cause of issue.
• A few businesses don't know they need it because they're used to the work flow that's already set up. It's not a priority for them but it's my job to show what they're missing and how I can help them run their business more efficiently.
• The other types are really aware of the problem but can't find the solution for it.

In all. What I've learned is automation is a very important skill. And it helps that I really like doing it too.

Regardless of the type of business one has, they need to automate processes because it helps them cut down time taken, money spent, efforts taken and resources used.

At the moment I have 3 clients:

• A meditech company
• Someone I came to know from Upwork who's building his own automation agency
• @Andy Black for creating report automations for his clients
• (Someone else I helped out for free but she ghosted me lol)

Thank you so much @Andy Black for all the help and advice you've given me. It's been really fun working for your project.

I'll talk about how I'm sending targeted cold emails in my next post.

Good stuff @uhhfeef

I think automation is like magic, and can make you a superhero to people.

I'm enjoying working with you. I'm sure the more I learn about what can be done the more I'll realise can be done.

 

[sdbrownlie]

Thanks for all your help @uhhfeef

You're right... I called it a "pain in the bum" that we can't automate Google Ads reports and have it automatically sent to a Google Sheet. Instead, we get an automated email with a link we have to click to go download the data. You'd think Google would make it easier but I presume they have their reasons.

I'm looking forward to having a play with this solution and automating our client and internal dashboards.

This just shows something really important for all of us to think about when trying to think of 'what we can solve for many people' - especially if we're used to coding and automating things for ourselves - we tend to forget there's people still manually putting things in spreadsheets and sending them places etc.

It's definitely a gap in my game - need to be more diligent about writing down every little thing I solve for myself AND spend more time talking to people who have real problems and crazy fiddly 'pain in the bum' workflows they're dealing with. It'll unlock opportunities I'm not currently seeing due to a 'fog' I created for myself where 'nothing is a big problem' because it can be solved in 20 minutes with some code. But if that 20 minutes saves someone days a month...

 

[sdbrownlie]

Thanks for the feedback!

Yea I realize its not personalized enough but I have a huge list of leads and I can't go around personalizing for each lead I have.

I could get AI to do it but it sounds really fake.

What you say about being specific makes complete sense. But I don't really have any experience within this niche so I can't really target specifically what I could help them with. And the thing is sometimes it really can be that broad.

If I knew what to automate I'd build my own product and sell them on that, I wouldn't be cold emailing them to ask about what I could automate.

What I'd like to do is get them intrigued enough to get on a call so that I can figure out possible bottlenecks within their business and eliminate those.

Most of the times business owners are not aware about what should be automated.

You see the problem though/why you have to sell them on the idea of what you need to do somehow in the email not be vague though right? You're an automation guy and I'm telling you that you need to automate customising your emails but I didn't give enough proof that you should do it so despite being capable of doing it you still don't want to do it/think it'll work. (it works btw - for our SEO/linkbuilding outreach I get 2x the response rate we used to get with 'batched lightly tailored to the batch' emails for example and lots of compliments on the quality of the email etc compared to 'most pitches they get').

That's the kind of feeling but 10x worse that someone outside AI thinks about what automations are possible. They just have no idea what's possible and think most things won't work even if they will. That's the starting point you have to overcome in your pitches to them.

 

[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?

 

[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.