Unbelievably simple marketing automations
As a marketer, you have a million things to do. But what if you could save hours every week by automating your marketing admin and other time-intensive activities?
Rather than exporting CSVs, creating repetitive reports, or transferring email subscribers between systems, you could focus on what makes your marketing most effective: your creativity.
Marketing automation can get you there. And faster than you may think, too.
Until recently, you'd need a programmer to set this up for you. But with Zapier, you can access marketing automation tools that empower you to create bespoke solutions — without knowing how to code. Furthermore, Zapier's user-friendly interface allows even non-technical users to become proficient no-code developers, enabling them to design and implement interactive and engaging content without the complexities of programming.
In this article, we'll dive into some of the most helpful marketing automation setups possible via Zapier, and how to get started with them.
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Tools for marketing automation: How to automate your content
Content marketing is a must-have promotional strategy — in fact, 55% of marketers say that blog writing is their primary inbound marketing activity.
Thing is, to see commercial results from content, you need to be hot on it. Some businesses may need to blog four to five times a week just to break through.
That’s a lot of content to promote! And whilst you can’t automate the writing process (yet!), you can quickly extend the reach your blog post gets, with these simple 2-step Zaps.
Content alerts on Slack
With Zapier, you can connect your blog's RSS feed with your team’s Slack workspace. When a blog post is created, you can automatically post a message to a Slack channel.
Try these Zaps and customize them to fit your team and organization:
- Post to your organization's main channel, so your colleagues can see what you’re working on. Not only will this trigger them to share the content on their LinkedIn or other social media platforms, it'll also encourage them to create blog contributions of their own.
- Post to your business development or sales channel, so your colleagues can help share the content with clients who may benefit from reading the content.
Automatic posting to social media networks
Zapier enables you to connect your blog's RSS feed to all sorts of places, like Buffer, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Some quick wins include:
- Connect your social media accounts and your blog RSS feed. Your blogs will appear on social media within minutes of being published, giving your fans and followers the fresh content they’re looking for.
- Connect your Buffer account and your RSS feed. Posts will automatically be added to the bottom of your scheduled items list, helping you make the most of your content.
Tools for marketing automation: Social media made easy
Speaking of social media, if you’ve ever struggled to keep on top of social media content — you are not alone. Will millions of posts shared each day, and billions of active users, how are you supposed to have your presence heard?
With a few simple Zaps, you can roll out an effortless and effective social media strategy:
Content curation
Social networking isn't just about creating your own content. Sharing content from other sources makes your brand more interesting to followers and adds much-needed variety to your marketing.
But finding content and remembering to post it regularly can be time-consuming. Try this hack to build a curated content library:
- Start by getting your whole team to use Pocket. When they find something on-brand, click the 'add to Pocket' button in their browser to save it for later.
- Next, create Zaps to connect your Pocket to a Google Sheet. This will automatically create a treasure trove of content.
- Finally, connect this Google Sheet to your Buffer. All this great curated content will automatically be added to your scheduled items, helping keep your social profiles interesting.
Social alerts
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Reddit all send notifications all day long.
How can you keep track of them all and know which are most important?
Easy, when you know how to use Zapier. Try these quick Zaps:
- When someone with over 5,000 followers follows you, it's a great opportunity to connect, say thanks and build your brand. Don't miss this opportunity by making a simple 3 step Zap — from Twitter, to a filter, to a Slack notification.
- When you get mentioned, you need to discuss how to reply with your team, especially if it's a customer service issue or complaint. With Zapier, you can get a Slack notification whenever you’re mentioned on Twitter, giving you a private space to talk strategy before replying.
Tools for marketing automation: Email marketing management examples with Zapier
The world of email marketing is constantly transforming, with new software and technologies launched every day.
You've probably had to migrate between two different systems. You might even be running several different email marketing systems simultaneously for different needs. What’s more, keeping details like unsubscribes updated is a legal requirement in many countries, which means constantly importing and exporting data.
With Zapier, you can seamlessly migrate and keep many different systems syndicated.
Keep systems syndicated
Many marketers run several different systems to collect leads. You might run Facebook Lead Ads, giveaways with ViralSweep, or have a sales team calling leads in HubSpot.
With Zapier, you can collect all of these leads in one place, allowing you to reliably market to them in the future. Try some of these smart ideas and adapt them to the systems you use:
- When a new Hubspot deal is made, automatically add them to your MailChimp account so they can receive your newsletter.
- When a Facebook Leads Ad generates a lead, add them to a Google Sheet so you can track the return-on-investment of your advertising.
- When someone joins a ViralSweep giveaway, add them to a list in MailChimp so they can receive a drip marketing campaign over the next seven days.
- When someone unsubscribes on any of your systems, add them to an unsubscribed spreadsheet in Google Sheets. Then, tell Zapier to automatically unsubscribe everyone on this spreadsheet from all of your other systems.
Move from one system to another without losing data
When switching from one system to another, you typically export all the data you need then import it into the new system.
But what happens to the leads that signed up or unsubscribed while this migration was happening?
With one simple Zap, you'll never lose data again:
- Find your current system in the Zapier app catalog. For example, Campaign Monitor.
- Find your new system, like MailChimp.
- Create two Zaps — one for unsubscribes and one for subscribers.
Check out our guide about syncing your historical data with Zapier.
Ready to supercharge your marketing with Zapier?
Each of these quick tips could save you hours in marketing management.
But these marketing automation examples are just the beginning. As you start using Zapier, you'll learn how to create innovative marketing automations — the type which would have previously required an expert programmer to roll out.
If you need help getting started, or building something just for you, we're here to make Zapier marketing automation simple. Just tell us what you need and we’ll let you know how we can help.
Need the help of an automation expert? Contact us now.
