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Creating more Effective Multi-Channel Communications inside a Multi-Staged Workflow in a Digital World requires cut through communications. Zapier enables this IF you have the right approach. The benefits of doing this WELL is amazing. With our clients we have seen more than 30-50% increase response rate because we staged the communications and created continuous contact methodology across multiple channels. Think about if you saw a google advertisement, then saw a facebook advertisement, then clicked on the advertisement to see if it was interesting. From there you might request an info booklet. Now you have something to work with. How do you get a purchase, or get them to come into the store, or attend an open home. Well that depends on your outcome but simply put, persistence and good re-marketing. I am talking about using social media and web pixels but more importantly pushing the lead down a funnel to a sale. Let's say you capture their info for sending the info booklet off face
Welcome to the Zapier Community! Let’s guide you through the basics of what you can expect What to expect in the CommunityThe Zapier Community is a place to share and discover questions, tips and inspiration about everything Zapier related: building workflows, discovering new apps, creating your own integration, getting updates on new features. If you have a question about your Zapier account or Zaps, please remember that the Community is a public forum. If you have a question about any of the following, please contact the Zapier Support Team using the Get Help Form:Account information (changing your email address, notifications, etc) Billing (downgrading, upgrading, refunds) Requesting features or reporting bugs Sales, procurement, security questionnaires, etc.How to behave in the CommunityThe Zapier Community has members as varied as the people that use Zapier; they are from all over the world, a wide range of backgrounds and will have different levels of experience with Zapier and o
Hi, everyone! Deb here, from the Zapier blog. We write a lot about remote work on the blog, and now that the world is opening up a bit, we want to talk about how the lessons you learned while working remotely can follow you back into the office.Recently, our staff writer Justin wrote an article about how you shouldn't abandon video meeting etiquette when you start back up with in-person meetings.4 video meeting rules that should follow us back to the officeBut it's not just the etiquette that should stick around—all the asynchronous prep and automation can still happen even when the meeting is face-to-face. For client meetings, you can use scheduling automation to do things like send booking reminders or automatically follow up after appointments. To be sure you never lose a meeting action item, you can automatically create shared meeting docs, add action items to your to-do list whenever there's a new event on your calendar, or get reminders to document action items whenever a meeti
Hi! Deb here, from the Zapier blog. As a user of Box (work), Dropbox (home), and Google Drive (both), I get the fact that the cloud storage options can be a little overwhelming. They all feel...vaguely similar?That's why we recently published an article about what to look for when you're evaluating cloud storage apps:How to evaluate and choose a cloud storage appOne of the main criteria is integration capabilities. The whole point of the cloud is to store stuff—your cloud storage app is not a place you want to hang out. Instead, try things like automatically saving certain email attachments to the cloud, saving new social media posts to the cloud, and more.(Here are more tips on how to keep your files and folders organized with automation.)Which cloud storage app do you use—and why? Let me know in the comments!
Hi! Deb here, from the Zapier blog. What I love most about the Zapier Community is seeing all the super-specific things folks are automating. It's fascinating because automation is so powerful, yes, but also because the humans behind the workflows (that's you) even knew these things were possible.Our customer-champion-cum-blog-writer Tyler recently wrote about this on the blog—and her actually suggested that we all take a step back from automation to flex our manual muscles and figure out what else automation might be able to do for us.That's right: he wants us to start by automating less.To get the most out of automation, try using it lessThe idea is that you'll get better at automating if you've practiced it manually first (plus, you have something to fall back on when the robot overlords break all our systems). Here's an example. I use Google Sheets as my to-do list, and I used to just type all my tasks in manually. By doing that, I learned what information was relevant for me to ha
One of my favourite things to do is think of, well, slightly odd workflows and make them happen with Zapier. For example, my randomly tell me I’m awesome bot and the Zap that lets me dictate reminders to Siri while I’m driving and have her send me a text about it when I get home.I like to do this so much, I do a monthly challenge for all my fellow peeps who work for Zapier where I give them a scenario and have them build that Zap. Only… I’m running out of ideas!Tell me your craziest, dang, I wish I could automate my life in this way ideas - if I can get it working, I’ll share the Zap with ya!
Hi! Deb here, from the Zapier blog. We've been writing a lot about lead gen recently—we know it's a pain point for marketers, and so we've pulled in experts and business owners to offer their perspectives. Most recently, we published an article with tips for creating more effective lead gen forms.5 tips for creating effective lead generation formsBut, of course, creating the perfect lead form is just the first step. If you get submissions and then either forget to check them or don't get to them quickly enough, you'll lose the lead. So (say it with me): automate the process.No matter what tool you use for your lead gen forms—whether it's a standalone form app like Google Forms, an embedded form on your WordPress site, or a paid lead ad form on LinkedIn or Facebook—you can connect it to your other tools to be sure nothing slips through the cracks. (Here are some more lead management automation tips to get you started—or bring you to the next level.)How do you automate your lead gen and
Hi, folks! Janine from the Zapier blog team with another automation inspiration article for you. This is one of the ways Zapier uses Zapier: Automatically share out-of-office notifications in team Slack channels.This helps make time away more visible (and, for us, since it's posted in a public Slack channel, it's searchable), which cuts down on the awkwardness of potentially waiting for someone to respond who's actually hiking in the woods for a few days.Krystina Martinez recently put together a tutorial that walks you through how to set this up for yourself. How to set up an automatic out-of-office notification bot At Zapier, we use our HR software, BambooHR, and team chat program, Slack, as the trigger and action apps. But as always, there's flexibility in how you set this up: If your HR software doesn't have a Zapier integration, you could use a shared calendar as the trigger instead. And if you don't use Slack, you could instead send messages to another team chat app or as a genera
Howdy Zapier Friends! We are back with another Formatter by Zapier overview. This time we will talk about Extract Number and Extract Phone Number.Recall that the Formatter by Zapier app is the main tool you can use to edit data sent to Zapier. Almost any basic formatting option is possible, but even saying something as generous as that is selling short all of the possibilities that this app offers users!Keep in mind that when you use the Extract transforms in this app, Zapier will only ever pull the first item we find that matches the Extract you are using. If you need to cut strings in multiple parts and access that data, you may need to use our Split Text transforms.For very advanced users there also exists the Code by Zapier app (which supports Python and Node.js), or the Extract Pattern transform in Formatter by Zapier (which lets you leverage Regular Expressions) but those are different topics for the future!Formatter by Zapier: Extract Phone NumberThis option can be found at:Form
What’s up Zappers? Welcome to the 4th installment of the Formatter Features series (and last of the spreadsheet-style formula posts). If you haven’t done so already, please check out the first three:What We’ll be CoveringMEDIAN / AVERAGEMEDIAN: Returns the median (the middle value) of a list of numbersAVERAGE: Returns the average of a list of numbersROUNDDOWN / ROUNDUPROUNDDOWN: Returns a number rounded up to a certain number of decimal placesROUNDUP: Returns a number rounded up to a certain number of decimal placesWhen Might You Use Each One?Let’s take a look at some use cases for each of the above-mentioned functions. That might help you to understand the relevance of these particular spreadsheet-style formulas.MEDIAN / AVERAGEFirst, let’s look at the difference between the median and average of a set of numbers. You may have seen them used interchangeably, and in some cases the results might be close. Depending what you’re trying to calculate you may want to use one over the other.M
Hey, folks! Janine from the Zapier blog team here with another way automation helps one of our customers succeed.Even the most successful business loses customers. Instead of letting them quietly fade away, the team at Content Snare does something a little different. They actively connect with churned customers to learn from them and often see those accounts turn into advocates.James Rose, co-founder at Content Snare, wrote an article for us about why feedback—especially feedback from churned customers—is so valuable and how to use automation to make it as easy as possible to manage the feedback process.These customers give great feedback, James wrote, and by putting it to use helps them improve the business.How exit interviews can turn churned accounts into advocatesCheck out his post to learn more about: why to talk to churned customers, what to ask them, the best ways to collect feedback, and how Content Snare automates the process. How do you connect with churned customers an
Zapier friends, it is good to see you once more! The Formatter by Zapier Pick from List transform will allow you to supply a list of items from which we can pick one Randomly or we can also pull a specific numbered item from the list.While there are more than just these options, here are 2 neat things that you can do with it!Lunch Decision Maker ThingySay you have a list of lunch options and you don't care what you order but also don’t care to make a decision. You can use the Pick from List tool to help here: Check out this tasty gif showing the magic in action:Yum!Randomly Assign New Inbound LeadsLet’s say you had a trigger that sends Zapier data containing new inbound Leads. If this was, let's say, a high volume channel, and you just needed to get these leads split up amongst a list of possible owners, Pick from List is an excellent way of doing so.We use Salesforce to track our Leads. Salesforce, and the vast majority of other apps on Zapier, when tracking other objects in their sy
Hey Zapier Community,Jared here from Zapier Support.There can often be business processes or workflow needs that require us to turn a Zap OFF and/or ON on a scheduled basis.Below I cover 2 scenarios where this might be useful.Scenario 1: DeduplicationWith Polling and Hybrid Triggers - Zapier uses a process called Deduplication to isolate new records that will trigger the Zap.Here’s a Quick Summary of how Deduplication works. When we turn the Zap ON - Zapier identifies the existing records and keeps track of them on a Deduplication Table. We don’t trigger the Zap for these existing records - only records that are added after the Zap is turned on. Typically the Deduplication ID that’s used to identify existing records is the Record ID from the App record. Once we’ve seen that ID - we add it to the deduplication table - and won’t trigger on it again. Every time we turn the Zap OFF and then ON again - the deduplication table is rebuilt with the existing records at that time. A Real W
Hi! Deb here from the Zapier blog. Our staff writer Justin recently wrote about Google's Smart Compose feature—namely, how to turn it off.He points out that having Google write your Google Docs for you is...a lot. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't let the robots near your Google Docs. There are a lot of ways you can automate your documents, including actually creating them from scratch.Here are a few of my favorite examples.How to create and autopopulate a Google Docs templateAutomate the template editing process, sending information from the other apps you use most into your Google Docs templates. You'll be able to automatically create new Google Docs from an existing template without lifting a finger.How to create Google Docs templates based on form responsesAny time you find yourself copying a document to reuse over and over again or find yourself filling out blanks in a document, it's time to automate: automatically fill out Google Docs templates based on triggers from other apps
Welcome back friends of Zapier! Today, let’s have a look at the Import CSV transform! This function will allow you to pass Zapier either a string in Comma Separated Values (CSV) format or a CSV file coming to you from a prior step in the Zap. For advanced users, Zapier can also offer you line item objects which can unlock advanced functionality in the apps we offer which support them.Add Inbound Emailed Spreadsheet Files to a Google SheetLet’s say you have a Gmail inbox that receives automated emails that have a CSV attached, and you would love to have those added to a Google Sheet automatically for you. Zapier can help with that!If your purpose is to interact with attachments in Gmail, using the “New Attachment” trigger is the best one to use! In some cases, more than a single attachment may be sent in a single email. For example, image footers are separate attachments which can be displayed inline in the email you are viewing. In these cases, if you are NOT using “New Attachment”, Z
Well, well, well. This wasn't the post that I set out to write but during the course of trying to create a Workflow Wednesday article I realized I was faced with several possible options for accomplishing my goal. So I thought I'd give you a little behind-the-scenes look at my thought process :)The Workflow What I'm ultimately trying to accomplish is to use the Zapier Chrome extension to trigger a Zap that will auto-generate an image that looks something like this:Source: https://zapier.com/apps/slack/integrations/google-sheetsHow to Create the Image AutomaticallyThe way we have the image auto-generated is by using an app called Glitterly. My Thought Process Going InTrigger: Zapier Chrome Extension (trigger from the 2-app page)Action: Get the app names from the URL (https://zapier.com/apps/slack/integrations/google-sheets)Action: Look up the app logos, to insert them into the image template in GlitterlyAction: Send the image link back to the Chrome extensionIn Reality, There Are Multip
Hey, Zapier community! Janine from the blog team here with another set of automation tips for you, this time about email newsletters.I've often had a hand in creating email newsletters for my company. Sometimes, they were completely automated. Other times, they were completely manual. And often I wished for something somewhere in the middle.Staff writer Krystina Martinez put together a collection of ways you can use automation to improve how you manage your email newsletter, like adding or segmenting subscribers, keeping lists up-to-date in your CRM, repurposing campaigns as content, and creating backups. Read her article and pick one new Zap to try.Improve your email newsletter with these tips Then, come back here and tell us how it went!
How are you doing this week, Zappers? This will be a pretty short one, but I thought this could come in handy for anyone who's trying to have a default value in an Airtable field.My Challenge I use Airtable for the Editorial Calendar for Community's content. For the primary field of my Articles table I would like to have the title of the article. But what if there's no title yet? Maybe I just know the theme (like Workflow Wednesday) and the Author (like Nick Simard).Clunky Way #1I could type something into the field before there's a title. Then when we've got a title, we replace the text. It's not so bad, but I don't like how manual it is. (Little Less) Clunky Way #2I could use Airtable's Automations feature to insert a default title there, using some other fields, then I can overwrite it. I hadn't actually thought of this option before I came up with my system because I hadn't delved into native automations in Airtable. For some people this could be a great solution :) A Better Soluti
Welcome back! This week’s Formatter Features article is for all you math nerds out there. I too am a math nerd (*nerd wave*), so it is with great nerd excitement that this week I get to dig deep into math operations.What we’ll be coveringSo first off - let’s put away the graph paper and TI-83’s. You won’t be needing them today. Instead, let’s kick this off by talking about what exactly constitutes a math operation in Formatter and why you might need one. Then we’ll dig into exactly how to get to these math operations.How do I get to math operations?So glad you asked. You can find math operations under Formatter by Zapier > Numbers. Once there, you’ll want to select “Perform Math Operations”.What It Looks LikeWhat is a math operation?Fortunately for us, Formatter is going to do all the hard work of figuring out the order of operations (PEMDAS, anyone?) and the crunching of numbers. But we still need to understand what exactly a math operation is.A math operation is a mathematical pro
Zaps will only trigger for new records added/updated while the Zap is on.I use Google Sheets in a lot of Zaps - and it’s happened more than once that my Zap was actually off when new data was added (or updated) to the Sheet.Depending on the trigger being used there are different ways we can re-trigger a Google Sheets Zap for these changes that happened while the Zap was OFF.New or Updated Spreadsheet Row TriggersIs your Zap using one of the New or Updated Spreadsheet Row triggers?If so - this might be as easy as updating the Trigger Column(s) for any missed data.First - make sure the Zap is currently ON.Then - my Zap below triggers when the “Trigger” column on my Sheet is updated.So to re-trigger the Zap for any rows on the Sheet - all I have to do is update the Value in the Trigger column to a Value that the Zap hasn’t seen in that Row before.Once I update the Trigger column for the Row - the Zap will trigger.New Spreadsheet Row TriggersIs your Zap using one of the New Spreadsheet Row
The Zapier Community is a global community made up of Zapier users, enthusiasts, certified experts and staff members.Like the Zapier experience, our community is supportive and inclusive. Our code outlines rules that promote acceptable behaviors and acts. This code serves for making our community and its interactions safe and welcoming within our shared space. This code does not supersede Zapier’s Legal Terms. By participating in our community, you have read and accepted this Code of Conduct. This code applies to all who register, post, and engage in the community. We expect our members to follow the spirit and letter of these rules across all interactions with Zapier. Failure to do so may affect your access to the community.We are respectful, courteous, patient, and friendly.Zapier offers infinite possibilities. There’s so much to learn. We acknowledge that community members have different levels of knowledge and understanding. Let’s be patient and kind with each other. The Community
When you need help with a question about Zapier, it can be difficult to know where to start. This article explains the best way to find answers in the Zapier Community.Search for existing questionsA good place to start is by searching to see if the answer to your question already exists! There are lots of questions and answers in the Community, so you may find the information you need by searching existing posts. There is a search box Community home page, on the right hand side of posts, or you can go straight to the search page. A post in the community showing the search bar at the right side of the pageWhen you type your question, include the names of the app(s) that you’re using, and any error messages that you can see.In the search results, you’ll see that some posts have a question mark next to them and some have a tick. If a post has a question mark by it, that means it is a question. If it has a tick by it, that means that it’s a question that has a best answer. List of search r
Hey there, Zapier Community! Janine here from the Zapier blog team. One of our staff writers recently talked with a few Zapier Experts, @AndrewJDavison_Luhhu of Luhhu and Paul Kortman of Connex Digital, about how they approach automation—particularly for complicated processes that might feel overwhelming.Their recommendations came down to these five things: Start with an outline Find the inefficiencies Review the decision points Dive in and start simple Stay flexible For more on how to put these tips in action, read our piece:How to automate a manual process without feeling overwhelmed What manual processes do you want to automate? (Or, if you've automated something that you're proud of, share that in the comments!)
Hey hey! Nick here, back with another workflow on this fine Wednesday.Sometimes you have a bit of data that you’d like to run through a Zap, but you don’t always have a specific trigger app to kickstart your workflow. Here are 6 ways you can quickly trigger your Zaps and submit some text in the process (or not)1. Alfred (on a Mac)If you’re a Mac user, the absolute fastest way (using just a keyboard shortcut) is to use Alfred. We have a blog post that outlines the setup. This is my favorite way to send some data to a webhook-powered Zap in order to then run my desired actions. It simply becomes a matter of using the Alfred shortcut to bring up the window, then you type whatever keyword you’ve set up, then either type or paste the text you’d like to send to your Zap.2. Webhook URL Directly in Your BrowserSimilar to the method above, instead of using Alfred to send the data to your Webhook-powered Zap, you can navigate to that webhook directly in your address bar. Doing so will trigger yo
Hey there Zapier friends! Continuing our exploration of the Formatter by Zapier app, let’s take a look at another set of very handy functions: Extract Email & URLWe’ve all been there — we have a great idea for an automation to create in Zapier and after we have thought and created the Zap of our dreams, we run into issues with our data being rejected by one or more of the actions. A Little BackgroundWhen it comes to URLs and email addresses, which characters are acceptable in each is defined by the rules developed by the international standards organization: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) The IETF defines the standards by which software and other internet technologies follow in order to ensure interoperability across computer systems. Anyone can access these standards documents, called RFCs, and we can find the defined standards for both email addresses and URLs for each via a quick Google search.When it comes to standards on the internet, most APIs will follow most of the
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