How to Use Zapier to Automate Your Marketing Stack

As a marketer you might have a hundred different things on your plate at any given time.

Everything from managing ads, optimizing landing pages, maintaining a blog, posting on social media…

The list goes on and on.

The trick is knowing which of those activities require your full attention, and which ones can be automated so you can spend more time on the things that matter.

But how do you go about automating these different marketing tasks?

Well let me introduce you to Zapier.

Zapier allows marketers to stitch together and pass data between different apps, essentially allowing them to automate entire processes that once required manual attention.

How Does Zapier Work?

Zapier works as an intermediary that passes information between two apps that were once completely separate entities.

Think of it as a bike messenger delivering messages from one building to another.

In its most basic form, Zapier (like all marketing automation platforms), can be broken down into two distinct areas: triggers and actions.

A trigger is what begins a series of events. For instance when someone mentions your handle on Twitter, or when a blog post is published on a specific blog.

An action is what happens next. Examples of this could include creating a spreadsheet in Google Docs, or adding someone to a list inside of your email marketing platform.

The important part to remember is that:

• When this happens -> Do this

So now that we’re familiar with how Zapier works, let’s dive into a couple of examples of how it can streamline your social media marketing.

Social Media Automation Tip #1: Share Content Automatically

If you have a personal or company blog, you might find that it it gets repetitive to consistently share new posts on different social media channels.

That’s why one trick is to use Zapier to automatically share your favorite content via an RSS feed to any social media channel.

That can include:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Tumblr
• Instagram

To get started simply choose “RSS by Zapier” as the trigger, then choose the social network of your choice as the action.

Using this hack you can help maintain a steady flow of content being published on your social media account while limiting the amount of time needed to manage the outflow..

Social Media Automation Tip #2: Monitor Social Media Mentions

If staying on top of your company or personal brand is important to you, then you might already know how time consuming it can be to constantly monitor who’s mentioning you, and what’s being said.

With Zapier you can choose to be notified every time any user creates a tweet that contains specific terms, phrases, usernames, or hashtags.

This can be done through a number of ways:

• Email notifications
• Log mentions in a Google Sheet
• Message a channel in Slack
• Send Tweets to a HipChat Room
• Push notifications
• And others

Inside of Zapier, the first requirement is that you set the social media platform that you want to monitor as the trigger, then select the method you’d like to be notified as the action.

Social Media Automation Tip #3: Promote Events

What’s the biggest challenge in terms of running an event?

Some might say it’s the planning and organizing, while others might say it’s the event promotion itself.

Well Zapier can help streamline some of that work by automatically sharing events uploaded to Meetup or GoToWebinar directly to social media.

Used this way, you can also schedule delays leading up to the event to ensure maximum exposure prior to your event.

To get started with this automation trick, simply select either Meetup or GoToWebinar as your trigger app, and choose which network you’d like to share event updates on.

Getting the Most out of Automation

These are just a few of the thousands of different ways that Zapier can help you automate your marketing tasks.

With all different types of marketing automation, whether it be automating email drip campaigns, sending targeted text messages, or simply posting your next event on social media, the important thing to remember is the underlying strategy behind what you’re automating.

For instance, what keyphrases are important for your business to monitor, and why?

Which channels are the most important for your business to be active on regularly?

At what point in your lead nurturing campaign are leads ready to talk to sales, or ready to receive an offer?

Once you’ve answered these questions, Zapier can be a powerful tool to help you free up time so that you can get back to the things that matter.

Have you used Zapier to automate your marketing? Which are your favorite zaps? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!