Creating and posting content, sending out emails and texts, responding to comments, and staying on top of trends, creating sweepstakes and polls, and blasting out flash sales and free giveaways all have two common denominators.
What are they?
They are all part of marketing, and they all take hella time. 🥲
Every part of marketing requires energy, money, and, most importantly, time to achieve success.
Can you imagine how much time you could save if only someone (or something) else took care of all the tedious stuff?
There is a solution: automation tools can handle most of the repetitive work for you. So, let’s talk about marketing automation and how to essentially “put your business on autopilot” with Zapier.
Why Is Automation Important In Marketing?
Automation is crucial for many reasons. Here are the main ones:
- Efficiency: Repetitive tasks can be handled by an automation service while you focus on more important things.
- Consistency: Automation software ensures your brand’s image remains consistent across all channels and eliminates the risk of errors.
- Lead Nurturing and Conversions: You can guide your leads through your sales funnel by automating the engagement, content, and ads they see from A to Z, all the way until conversion.
- Integration: Do it all in one place. Instead of constantly hopping from one media channel to another, you can do it all in one place: send emails, post content, provide customer support, and so forth.
- Cost Effectiveness: Reducing the amount of money leaving our pockets is just as important as increasing the amount that enters them.
Of course, you could outsource all of these processes to freelancers or employees, but that would cost you much more than signing up for an automation service.
There are hundreds of automation services out in the valleys of the web, and all of them have their pluses and minuses, but wouldn’t it be cool if there were software that combined and integrated every possible channel and task?
There is, and it’s called Zapier.
How Does Zapier Work?
Zapier is a web-based automation and streamlining tool that connects you to more than 7,000 applications in one place. “How?” you might ask.
Zapier works by creating automated workflows called “Zaps” that perform specified actions when triggered by certain events, even if the apps where the events and actions occur are different.
Here’s the Zap process simplified:
- Trigger: A trigger event is set up in one application from within Zapier.
- Action: Once the trigger event occurs, a specific action is performed in a different (or the same) app.
- Automation: Once the Zap has been set up, you can forget about touching that task again, since it does everything for you.
Zapier can streamline workflows across many departments; however, we are here specifically for the marketing team. Let’s dive into some of what Zapier offers.
Streamline Marketing Processes With Zapier
- Marketing Campaigns: Create and automate marketing campaigns in Zapier. It offers hundreds of campaign templates for whatever you may need for your business. From personalization to email campaigns, Zapier has got you covered.
Whether you choose to create your campaigns from scratch or plug in the necessary info into the provided templates, Zapier’s platform is easy and user-friendly. - Lead and Customer Management: You can automatically add leads to your CRM whenever you receive a new contact form submission. You can set up follow-up Zaps that perform any function you need when a new lead is acquired, whether it is sending a follow-up email or text, or notifying your team in the database.
Once your lead becomes a customer, you can implement additional automation, such as updating contact details or personal preferences and syncing them with other apps that require that information. - Social Media Automation: If you’re focusing on organic marketing, consistency in social media posting is crucial, and Zapier helps to streamline that process. Instead of hopping from channel to channel, any content that needs to be posted on various platforms can be uploaded to Zapier, and the rest of the work will be done for you.
- Hundreds of Integrable Apps: Zapier connects you to over 7,000 applications that communicate with each other in one place. Your capabilities are endless when the wheels start turning, and you see those integrations in motion.
- E-com Integration: If you are in the e-commerce business, worry not – Zapier will process new and existing orders, update your inventory, and notify fulfillment systems.
Once the order has been fulfilled and delivered, Zapier will send automated thank-you emails, feedback forms, and satisfaction surveys to your customers. - Analytics: Like any other respectable platform, Zapier offers multiple user-friendly analytics tools to help you review and understand how your efforts impact your business and adjust as needed.
It also offers real-time data updates, alerts, and notifications, along with tools that automatically generate reports and can export them to a specific app (like Dropbox) or email you. - Various Help And Learning Resources: Zapier offers a variety of resources to help you and your business succeed. There is a Zapier Learn section that teaches you how to use the platform and set up the necessary functions, starting from a very basic level.
Zapier also hosts virtual and in-person events, conferences, and meet-ups where you can learn and advance your automation skills and exchange knowledge with like-minded individuals. Check out their Webinars and Events page.
There is also a huge Help Section, where you can search for insight into your problem by typing in a keyword or a phrase. If you need a more custom approach, you can also hire an expert. - Flexible Pricing: Last but not least, Zapier’s pricing is flexible and depends on your business needs, company size, and the number of automated tasks needed per month. However, keep in mind that you will be billed yearly. Each paid plan offers a 14-day free trial.
Zapier also offers a completely free plan that stays free with time and has plenty of capabilities that will ease your life and free up your time.
Closing Remarks
Automation in marketing is crucial unless you enjoy doing redundant tasks yourself and don’t value your (or your team’s) time.
Zapier is a user-friendly tool designed to save you time and money by freeing you from tedious responsibilities and keeping all of your tasks under one roof.
It connects to and integrates with over 7,000 applications and tools, helps nurture and close leads, and assists and automates communication across all departments in your company.
Start automating and zapping your way to success.
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