If you run a small business, you're likely tackling a huge amount of tasks with a lean team. Not only does it get overwhelming, but essential things like lead follow-up or meeting reminders may fall by the wayside.
Automation can streamline processes across all departments, making you more efficient and organized. That efficiency means you can scale your small business faster and boost your return on investment (ROI).
Here are three ways automation can help you scale your business.
To get started with a Zap template—what we call our pre-made workflows—just click on the button. It only takes a few minutes to set up. You can read more about setting up Zaps here.
Manage leads and customers
The faster you generate leads, the more deals you can close. But when things move quickly, it's hard to reach out to leads while they're still hot—causing you to miss a valuable sale. To turn leads into customers, you need to send the right message at the right time. You can use automation to make sure leads get personalized outreach immediately. Plus, you can automatically add them to the right tool, so you can keep sending the right messages.
Make sure customers get fast replies
Whether it's a quick message after a form submission or a speedy thank you after a payment, it's critical that you send personalized, timely messages. With Zapier, you can send automated messages without adding more tasks to your to-do list.
Send emails in Gmail for new leads in Facebook Lead Ads
A personal welcome email is a great way to kick-start a relationship with a new customer.This Zap can help with that, triggering whenever a new lead follows your call to action on Facebook Lead Ads. This integration automatically inserts their details into your email template and sends them your personal message from Gmail. You also have the option of sending their details to a teammate so they can follow up instead.
If you need to send a message to people who need to know whenever a new contact is created in ClickFunnels, this is the perfect integration. Zapier automation will send an email from Gmail when a new contact is created in ClickFunnels. You can control how your information is shared to maximize your productivity.
After someone fills out a form on your site, you might want to get an email alert or send a follow-up email to the individual who completed the form. This Zapier automation lets you do either of those things, without breaking a sweat. Automatically send a customizable email—to a recipient you specify—whenever a new Typeform entry is submitted.
Spend more time communicating with customers rather than managing your email lists. After you set up this integration, every time a new Stripe customer is created, a subscriber will be automatically created in your AWeber mailing list.
Keep track of your leads by making sure they get added to your customer relationship manager (CRM) or email marketing tool—no copy or paste needed. With automation, you can also automatically tag prospects and make sure they're added to the right email campaigns. That way, every lead gets sent to the right place, right away.
Add or update ActiveCampaign contacts with new Facebook Lead Ads leads
Whether you're setting up an event or selling a product, it can be a challenge to process new leads from successful ad campaigns—unless you automate your way to organization. With this Zap active on your dashboard, Zapier will automatically create new contacts or update an existing match on ActiveCampaign whenever a new lead's submission is detected from Facebook Lead Ads.
After an invitee schedules a meeting, you often want to add or update a contact in different apps to easily stay in touch with them. With a little help from this Zapier integration, you can automatically send new Calendly invitees right over to ActiveCampaign without having to do any manual work yourself.
Want to make sure customer data is always up to date, no matter how quickly it comes in through Typeform? Set up this Zap and we'll keep up with even the busiest forms. Once active, every new entry to Typeform will trigger the automation, creating a HubSpot contact in response (or updating an existing one) and making sure all your details are carried over accurately for each and every one.
When people fill out forms on your site, you'll want to maintain communications with them in the future. A good email list with a service like Mailchimp makes this simple. And this integration is a breeze for just this sort of situation. Set it up to automatically generate a Mailchimp subscriber from the details of each new Typeform response.
The more information your lead ads pull in, the more often you have to export them (especially since they'll be deleted within 90 days). Activate this automation, however, and you won't have to worry about a thing: Whenever a new lead is captured by your Facebook Lead Ads, Zapier will automatically create a new deal for it on Pipedrive.
Hooray! You just secured a new client. But now you have to go through the administration process of onboarding them. From creating customer profiles to sending client intake forms, the work can be exhausting.
Let automation take on the laborious tasks. Instead of manually sending welcome packets, create a Zap that does it for you—saving you valuable time.
Send emails via Gmail for new, specified Typeform responses
Tired of manually digging through form responses to find critical information? Let this Zap do the work for you! Once active, this integration automatically filters your Typeform responses for a specified search term, then sends a custom email via Gmail to keep everyone in the loop, while you can get back to work.
The easiest way to collect a lead from your website is using a simple form, but the hard part comes with managing that data by hand. Don't you want to add those leads directly to your email marketing list? Now with this integration, you can! Set up this Zap to automatically create or update a Mailchimp subscriber as soon as a new Google Forms submission is received.
When someone fills out your form or takes your survey, follow up with them via email is a huge part of that process. If someone takes the time to give you information, you'll want to take the same time to thank them or ask more questions. Automate this process with the help of Zapier, and have that first follow up email go out all on it's own.
Everyone wants a smooth sales pipeline. It ensures a positive customer experience and increases sales. But when you're juggling multiple customer accounts and new leads, the administrative tasks (like contracts, outreach, and invoices) can pile up. That's where automation can lend a helping hand.
Get notified about signed contracts
When your customer signs a contract, it's critical to get back to them ASAP. But signed documents can get lost in emails, apps, and other messages. To help you stay on top of it all, send notifications about signed contracts to the place where you—or the right team member—will actually see them (in your to-do list, CRM, or communication app). That way, you can send prompt responses to your customers.
Update deals in HubSpot CRM when new envelopes are signed in DocuSign
When you get a signed contract, the first thing you want to do is celebrate, and the last thing you want to do is update your CRM. Use this integration to automatically update deals in HubSpot CRM when envelopes are signed in DocuSign. Stop doing busywork and start celebrating!
Maintain your records and organization with this automation. Once set up, new signature requests from Dropbox Sign will be automatically copied to your specified Google Sheets spreadsheets as a new row. This Zapier integration makes it easier to keep detailed records and know exactly where everything is.
Sometimes getting a John Hancock on a document is a pressing issue, so use this Zap to get automatically notified via SMS message whenever a signature request is signed on Dropbox Sign. This can be especially useful if you're mobile all day, so that you can stay on top of your document workflows, hands free!
So you've made the sale! But that doesn't mean the work is done. You still need to create, log, and send an invoice to your customer. Here are a few ways automation can take on those administrative tasks, so you can get back to closing more sales.
Generate receipts in QuickBooks Online for new Stripe payments
Stripe's suite of APIs enable you to accept payments on your mobile app, online storefront or subscription service. Keep the seamless process flow going with Zapier. Use this Stripe QuickBooks Online integration to add new payments processed by Stripe to QuickBooks Online as new sales receipts.
You're busy fulfilling new orders, no time to worry about paperwork — until it catches up to you. Make sure that never happens by setting up this integration. It automatically generates an invoices for a QuickBooks Online customer as soon as a new Shopify order is created.
If you use Google Sheets to track or report on your invoicing, you can use this integration to automatically start adding new QuickBooks Online invoices to a specified spreadsheet. Simply select your worksheet and you will be able to send QuickBooks Online invoice data to specific columns in your spreadsheet, with no manual copy-and-paste tasks.
Instantly update your sales or account management team
To create a seamless customer experience, you need to ensure your team is looped in on sales and invoices. You can do that by integrating your bookkeeping software with your communication tool. That way, your team can send timely follow-ups and thank yous.
If your organization uses Slack for team communications and FreshBooks to receive payments, then you can use Zapier to automatically post new FreshBooks payments to Slack in a chat message. Pick what you want the message to include, and the Slack channel where you want it shared. Then, you'll get notifications in Slack about new FreshBooks payments automatically.
When you create a new Xero invoice, you're busy tracking down a sale. Keep track after every potential sale with this workflow. After you set it up, you will receive a summary of new Xero invoices created today, this week, or this month.
Staying on top of new invoices as you receive them can be a tall order. With a little help from Zapier, you can automatically be alerted in a messaging app like Slack, any time a new invoice comes in. Never worry about thinking "what's the status of that?" ever again!
Being a successful business means making sure everyone is on the same page. But regularly updating everyone can become a full-time job. Automation lets you keep everyone on your team informed without having to spend hours typing messages and updating project management tools.
Improve your team communication
When there are a lot of moving pieces, it's easy to mix up who's supposed to do what. Streamline project management communication by automatically sending tasks to the right tool. That way, everyone can see what they need to do—in the right place.
If you're collecting data via form software like Typeform, often you want to create follow-up items. This Typeform-Trello integration automatically creates new Trello cards when someone completes your Typeform form.
Why create tasks manually in Asana? Let this Zapier handle that for you with this integration! When you receive incoming data to your Google Forms account, this Zap will automatically generate tasks to follow up with.
Make sure your JIRA issues are taken care of by adding them to an Asana task list. This integration automatically creates a new Asana task each time a JIRA issue is added.
If you're using a spreadsheet to log feedback, new orders or anything that requires a follow-up, this Zapier automation helps make sure nothing falls through the cracks. After you set it up, every time a new row is added to a Google Sheet, Zapier will add the content of that row as a to-do in Basecamp. Ta-da! Your to-do list is more organized than ever.
If you need to get messages automatically to your Slack channel every time a new item is created in the monday app, this integration can help. Stay on top of everything going on in the company and start killing it as a manager, and never miss a thing again.
Both Trello and Slack are fantastic team collaboration tools, and now with the help of Zapier, you can connect the two together. Anytime you have a new notification in Trello, have that information automatically sent right to Slack.
Staying informed about new records on Airtable is important. But having to log into Airtable for updates isn't ideal. It's an extra step that you can remove with this integration. When active, it automatically notifies a channel on Microsoft Teams when there are new records on Airtable. You and your team stay updated with a minimum amount of effort.
Pro tip: You can create daily, weekly, or monthly Zaps that share a list of tasks from your project or task management app to wherever your team (or you) will see it.
Send a weekly message to Slack about a Trello list
Ever wanted an easy way to check-in on a Trello list without having to check in with Trello? Let Zapier send you everything you need to know about your Trello list, right to Slack, where you already are. With this Zap, you can set a specific day to receive your update and we'll automate the rest!
Send your team periodic updates in Slack about new to-dos, so everyone is on the same page. Use this Zap to automatically add new Basecamp 3 to-dos to Zapier's Digest tool. Then Zapier will send a Slack message containing a digest of all new your new to-dos on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. That way, your team doesn't even have to leave Slack to find out about what's next to work on.
Ever close out the day wondering what you accomplished? With this workflow, you can see what you or your team checked off the list at a glance. Every new task is completed in Asana is logged to a digest. After a certain amount of time, Zapier will deliver your digest to your email so you can review every day, week, or month.
You can also streamline team management by sending automatic meeting reminders. That way, everyone is on top of what's next on their calendar. Plus, automatic meeting reminders can increase the show-up rate for your client or lead calls—helping increase sales conversions.
Send Slack channel messages for new Google Calendar events
"Heads up! Team meeting starts in 10 minutes." This Zap will be sure you and your team are ready for the next event with a Slack notification, automatically sent ten minutes before any new scheduled event starts on your Google Calendar.
Never forget about your upcoming events again! Just set up this Zap to automatically receive an SMS alert before an event in your Google Calendar is about to start.
You're trying to score a big meeting, and send out an invite for someone to accept. Wouldn't it be nice to know that they have while you're chatting with other teammates? Use this integration to automatically send a Slack message for each new Calendly invite.
When you share documents across your team, it's easy for things to get lost in the shuffle—especially when files get sent as attachments in emails. Instead of digging through your inbox, use automation to instantly send email attachments to your file management software.
Dropbox makes it easy to make sure your files are always at your fingertips. Set up this integration to automatically upload each new Gmail attachment to Dropbox, so that now all your files are effortlessly accessible.
It can be difficult to track down files attached to emails. Zapier can simplify your email and file management by automatically saving your email attachments to Google Drive for safekeeping. Whenever you get a new email in Gmail with an attachment, this Zap will save it to the Google Drive folder you want - just be sure to pick one when setting this up, otherwise we'll add the file to the root of your Drive. Get a step-by-step walkthrough in our
When you have new files available, you'll want to know about them. This integration helps by automatically sending a Microsoft Outlook email with the details of a new file in a specific Dropbox folder. You'll always know when you have new files available.
Automation can also help you keep track of documents throughout a lead lifecycle. For example, you can make sure notes, contracts, and invoices are all accounted for—whether that's in your CRM or file storage tool.
Update deals in HubSpot CRM when new envelopes are signed in DocuSign
When you get a signed contract, the first thing you want to do is celebrate, and the last thing you want to do is update your CRM. Use this integration to automatically update deals in HubSpot CRM when envelopes are signed in DocuSign. Stop doing busywork and start celebrating!
If you take notes in Evernote when on the road, use Zapier to start adding new notes to Salesforce CRM as you create them. You can pick an Evernote notebook to watch for new notes, and you could use the note title or a tag on the note to lookup a Salesforce object via name or email address. You'll need to include the name or email or a Salesforce object on either your Evernote note title or tag for the integration to work.
Your invoicing should run like a well-oiled machine—it's the only way to keep cash flowing through your company. Use this Zap to keep track of everything: it automatically copies information from your Quickbooks invoices to a Google Drive text file.
The longer you run a small business, the more you discover that keeping it operating means maintaining the processes behind the products. Using automation, you can streamline your business processes for improved efficiency—without adding busywork to your to-do list.
New to Zapier? It's workflow automation software that lets you focus on what matters. Combine user interfaces, data tables, and logic with thousands of apps to build and automate anything you can imagine. Sign up for free.
This article was originally published in May 2020, written by Nick Moore. It was updated in March 2022 by Ellie Huizenga, and most recently updated in September 2022.
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