I switched from SMMA to AI automation and I'm confused about what to offer. Should I offer speed-to-lead or CRM automations, or are there top automations to sell? And should I target local businesses or online businesses like coaches or e-commerce stores?
My recommendation is always to focus on systems that solve for RACE. R stands for reach: systems that increase the number of eyeballs a customer gets on their brand. A stands for acquire: the number of people who click through that interest and actually do something, like book a meeting, book a demo or download the app. C stands for convert: the number of people who go from that middle step to actually paying. E stands for expand. It's a simple, high-level framework, but it will save and make you far more money than building systems that improve some bookkeeping process's efficiency by 14%. That doesn't make you money and it doesn't make them money; it just saves a small margin of a small margin. You can only save 100% of the money a company makes, but you can technically make a company infinite money. So focus on growth.
Absolutely. In short, I use the RACE framework to prioritize. The first automations you should build are those that boost Reach – getting more eyeballs on the business – then Acquisition – getting people to opt‑in to an offer, then Conversion – turning those leads into paying customers, and finally Expansion – upselling or reselling to existing clients. Any system that improves one of these four levers is worth building first, because generating revenue is far easier than trying to save money. You can only save the money you make, but you can grow it many times over, so I focus on growth levers before cost‑saving ones.
It’s very difficult to know whether to stick with CRO or test AI automation without knowing your revenue or how long you’ve been at it. At the end of the day, those are the only two variables that matter for deciding whether to keep doing something or move on. If you’re asking this question, you’re likely not achieving the results you expected; that could be due to your expectations or your actual performance relative to reasonable expectations. AI automation is a solid niche, but CRO is directly defensible from a revenue perspective. Imagine a company making $100,000 a month with their CRO. If you offer to double their CRO, you’re offering an additional $100,000 per month because their funnel is their only revenue source. At $100,000 a month, you can charge 10‑15% as a service provider, yielding $10,000‑$15,000 per month from that client alone. All else equal, that’s a 7‑10x ROI—a strong offer right out of the gate. You can pair it with a fixed‑price guarantee (e.g., guarantee X improvement in conversion rate or you don’t pay, money‑back, free landing page) to get them in the door, improve CRO, and move to a longer‑term, performance‑based relationship. I don’t think CRO is a bad niche, nor is it at risk of being automated away; automation or AI would actually let you do more with it. The fact you’re asking this suggests you’re doing something wrong. Specific strategies: How many customer contacts are you making per day? Are you contacting and selling to at least 100 people daily for this service? If not, and you haven’t done that for 90 days straight (≈9,000 contacts), keep going until you hit that mark. After about 9,000 contacts you’ll have a reasonable sense of how it works. If you can’t do it, can’t hack it, or just suck at it, there’s no shame in moving on to something that works. I believe AI automation is probably the best service‑based business model to start, which is why I teach it in Maker School (my 90‑day accountability program), but I’m not dismissing your model because you’re not winning yet.
Automations don't let you do anything you couldn't already do manually — they just improve the speed and efficiency of the process. Speed matters for revenue (faster speed-to-lead, more orders fulfilled per unit time, more personalization squeezed in); efficiency mainly saves money. Given that, build and sell 'revenue-proximate' automations — ones close to the revenue line: sales automations, marketing automations, lead-gen automations. Focus on things that help clients make money, not just things that help them save money.
It's not that the competition is really high or that you're lazy. Realistically, it's a combination of multiple factors, but you're missing that you're not applying the right effort at the right place—being strategic with your effort. It's not that you're lazy if you don't get the results you want; often you simply haven't applied your high levels of willpower in the right tactical place.