The Zapier Blog https://zapier.com/blog A blog about productivity, workflow automation, company building and how to get things done with less work. Tue, 19 Mar 2024 08:47:40 GMT How to create Google Calendar events from Calendly https://zapier.com/blog/create-google-calendar-events-from-calendly .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

Calendly is a great way to schedule meetings with someone at a time that works for you. But blocking off time in Calendly might not play nicely with your schedule. A meeting invite sitting in Calendly or your email is easy to miss.

If your day lives in Google Calendar, you can set up a simple Zap—Zapier's automated workflows—to automatically block off new Calendly meetings in your preferred calendar. That way, your Google Calendar will always be up to date. Here's how!

New to Zapier? It's workflow automation software that lets you focus on what matters. Combine user interfaces, data tables, and logic with 6,000+ apps to build and automate anything you can imagine. Sign up for free.

How to connect Google Calendar and Calendly

Zapier lets you create automated workflows called Zaps, which send your information from one app to another. You can create your own Zap from scratch without any coding knowledge, but we also offer quick templates to get you started. 

If you'd like to start with a template, click on the Zap template to go to the Zap editor. You'll need to create a Zapier account if you don't already have one. Then, follow the directions below to set up your Zap.

Set up your Calendly trigger

First, set up your trigger—the event that starts your Zap. If you're using the Zap template, the trigger app and event will already be selected for you. Otherwise, search for and select Calendly as the trigger app and Invitee Created as the trigger event. Click Continue.

A trigger step in the Zap editor with Calendly selected for the trigger app and Invitee Created as the trigger event.

Next, connect your Calendly account, if you haven't already, then click Continue

Now, it's time to customize your action step. In the Webhook subscription scope field, select User. Calendly also has an Organization subscription scope field, but that only applies if you're an admin or an organization owner for a Calendly account. As an individual user, the User setting will do. 

The webhook subscription scope field in the Zap editor with "user" entered in the field.

Then, click Continue

Now, it's time to test your trigger step. Zapier will pull in the most recent Calendly appointments in your account to set up the rest of your Zap. If you don't have any appointments in your account, add one now before testing.

Once you have at least one appointment, click Test trigger. Choose one of the appointments for this test, then click Continue with selected record.

Sample data from a Calendly event in the Zap editor.

Set up your Google Calendar action

Now it's time to set up the action—the event your Zap will perform once it's triggered. If you're using the Zap template, these will already be selected for you. Otherwise, search for and select Google Calendar as your action app and Create Detailed Event as your action event. Click Continue.

An action step in the Zap editor with Google Calendar selected for the action app and Create Detailed Event as the action event.

Next, sign in with your Google Calendar account, if you haven't already, then click Continue.

Now, it's time to customize your action step. First, select the appropriate calendar in the Calendar field. 

Next, create a Summary and a Description for the event. You can use data from Calendly like Event Type Name and Invitee Name to create a customized description. Just click in the field and select the information you'd like to use from the dropdown. You can also add static text and formatting to these fields.

Fields in the Zap editor to customize a Google Calendar event.

Next, make sure to add the Scheduled Event Start Time to the Start Date & Time field, and the Scheduled Event End Time to the End Date & Time field. 

Start date and end date and time fields in the Zap editor.

If you'd like, you can add the invitee email to the Google Calendar invite as well—this will send the invitee an email with the Google Calendar invite. But if you only want to keep this for your own personal calendar, you don't need to do this (Calendly will have already sent them an email invite when that event was created, so you might not want to double send notifications).

The Attendees field with an email added to the field.

After you're done customizing your action step, click Continue.

Next, test your action step by clicking Test step. If your test is successful, you should see a new event added to your Google Calendar with the sample data from the Calendly appointment. This is what our sample event looked like.

A calendar event in Google Calendar.

If everything looks right, your Zap is now ready to use. Now every time someone creates a meeting with you in Calendly, it will automatically show up on your Google Calendar, so you can block your time accordingly.

Related reading:

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Khamosh Pathak Mon, 18 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/create-google-calendar-events-from-calendly
5 ways to automate Zoho Campaigns with Zapier https://zapier.com/blog/automate-zoho-campaigns .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

If you're an experienced email marketer, then you know you don't send emails piecemeal. Rather than a single email blast, you'll want to send customized campaigns

This is exactly where Zoho Campaigns fits the bill. You can build drip campaigns that entice people to click on your latest promotion, deliver specific messages to specific customer segments, and more. 

But when you pair it with Zapier and create automatic workflows (what we call Zaps), you can take your email marketing efforts even further. From automatically subscribing new leads your business generates to updating existing contacts, automation can help you scale faster. Here are the best ways to automate Zoho Campaigns.  

New to Zapier? It's workflow automation software that lets you focus on what matters. Combine user interfaces, data tables, and logic with 6,000+ apps to build and automate anything you can imagine. Sign up for free to use this app, and thousands more, with Zapier.

Table of contents

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.

Turn form submissions into contacts

Time is money. That's why you built a web form in the first place: to generate leads even while you sleep. A user shows up on your site, likes what they read, and fills out a form with their specific details. But there's still the other end of the equation to consider: you don't have time to keep growing your business if you have to send out specialized emails to any prospect that fills out your form.

Use these Zaps instead. Whenever you generate new leads from forms apps like Squarespace or Typeform, Zapier will automatically add them straight to Zoho Campaign in real time. That way, you're instantly ready to nurture those leads without the extra legwork. You can convert warmer leads who are much closer to the point of buying before they ever hear your voice.  

Create contacts from your ads

In a perfect world, your website would operate as your only lead generator. But nowadays, you need to target folks across multiple platforms, and that includes serving them ads on social media. To do that, you probably use tools like Facebook Lead Ads or LinkedIn Ads. 

But if you want a way to seamlessly integrate those prospects into your overall lead generation system, you need automation. 

Use these Zaps to automatically capture leads who click on your ads and add them to a mailing list in Zoho Campaigns. That way, you can start targeting prospects the right way, right away. For example, you could send campaigns to prospects in a specific timezone and catch them when they're just logging into their email in the morning.

Keep your contacts up to date

Do you use Google Sheets to store contact information? Most businesses use spreadsheets to store important customer or lead information, and they can be a source of truth for various teams and departments. 

The problem is ensuring this information stays up to date and gets accurately transferred to your other apps, especially when those spreadsheets get updated. Fortunately, Zapier can help. 

Whenever a new row is created or updated in Google Sheets, these Zaps will send that information straight to Zoho Campaigns for you. If the contact has never been added to Zoho Campaigns before, Zapier will create them for you. If, however, the contact already exists, Zapier will update it with the new information from your spreadsheet. Job done.

If, on the other hand, Zoho Campaigns is your source of truth, you can use this Zap instead. Any time a contact gets added to Zoho Campaigns, Zapier will create a row with their information in Google Sheets—giving you a reliable back-up source of all your contacts. 

Use webhooks to catch lead information

While Zapier connects with thousands of apps, you might come across an integration that doesn't currently exist. Or maybe there's a specific feature (like a trigger) you're after, but the integration doesn't support it. 

When that happens, webhooks can be used to push info from your apps to Zoho Campaigns. 

For example, say you capture leads in a tool that doesn't integrate with Zapier. Rather than manually entering that information into Zoho Campaigns each time you receive it in your lead capture tool, you can create a webhook that automatically catches lead information and sends it to the right place. 

Here's a Zap to get you started: 

Keep your contacts in sync across multiple email apps

Are you trying Zoho Campaigns for the first time? You don't necessarily have to abandon your existing email applications. You can duplicate incoming leads by sending them from one app (say, Mailchimp) straight to Zoho Campaigns. (Just be careful you don't send any duplicate emails.)

Alternatively, your business might simply use two email marketing platforms to manage different parts of your business. Whatever the case, you can use these Zaps to send contacts from your email marketing apps to Zoho Campaigns. 

Either way, you can automatically build up your Zoho Campaigns list behind the scenes. 

Get more out of your email marketing tools

By itself, Zoho Campaigns can help you build targeted advertising campaigns that attract and engage your audience.  

But, you can take your email marketing efforts even further when you add automation to the mix. Whether you source leads from form submissions, social ads, or existing email tools, Zapier can give you the edge you need to scale your business. 

And this is just the start of what you can do with Zapier and Zoho Campaigns. What will you automate first?

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Daniel Kenitz Mon, 18 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/automate-zoho-campaigns
How to send email alerts for LinkedIn Ads https://zapier.com/blog/email-alerts-for-linkedin-ads .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

LinkedIn Ads is one of the most powerful advertising channels for B2B businesses. Because LinkedIn is a site geared towards work and professional connections, it's easier to target the buyers or decision-makers you're looking for based on their role or job title. And with LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms, you can strategically invite your audience to get in touch—which is great if you do a lot of inbound marketing.

If you want to immediately follow up with each new lead or remind someone on your team to follow up, sending an email is probably the next step. With a Zap— Zapier's automated workflows—you can automatically send an email using Gmail every time there's a new response to a LinkedIn Lead Gen Form. 

New to Zapier? It's workflow automation software that lets you focus on what matters. Combine user interfaces, data tables, and logic with 6,000+ apps to build and automate anything you can imagine. Sign up for free.

Before you begin

To correctly set up this Zap, you'll need to be either a Company Page Admin or a Lead Gen Form Manager, as well as Account Manager or Campaign Manager for your LinkedIn Ads account. 

Set up email alerts for your LinkedIn Ads account

Zapier lets you create automated workflows called Zaps, which send your information from one app to another. You can create your own Zap from scratch without any coding knowledge, but we also offer quick templates to get you started. 

If you'd like to start with a template, click on the Zap template to go to the Zap editor. You'll need to create a Zapier account if you don't already have one. Then, follow the directions below to set up your Zap.

Set up your LinkedIn Ads trigger

First, set up your trigger—the event that starts your Zap. If you're using the Zap template, the trigger app and event will already be selected for you. Otherwise, search for and select LinkedIn Ads as the trigger app and New Lead Gen Form Response as the trigger event. Then click Continue.

A trigger step in the Zap editor with LinkedIn Ads selected for the trigger app and New Lead Gen Form Response selected for the trigger event.

If you haven't yet, connect your LinkedIn Ads account, and then click Continue

Next, you'll need to set up your trigger step. You'll need to choose the LinkedIn Ads account you want to use for this Zap.

Note: As we mentioned earlier, you'll need to be either a Company Page Admin or a Lead Gen Form Manager, as well as Account Manager or Campaign Manager on the ads account. Not sure you have the right permissions? Learn more about LinkedIn Ads roles. 

Then, you need to choose which lead form you want to trigger the Zap. If you don't select a specific lead form, the Zap will trigger for all new leads from every form in your account. 

Fields to select a specific LinkedIn Ads account and lead gen form in the Zap editor.

It's now time to test your trigger step. Zapier will look for data that's come in through a LinkedIn Lead Gen Form. If you don't have any responses to your lead gen form, add a sample one now before testing.

Once you have at least one response, click Test trigger. Choose a response for this test, then click Continue with selected record.

Set up your Gmail action

Now it's time to set up your action step—the event your Zap will perform when it's triggered. If you're using the Zap template, it'll be preselected for you. Otherwise, search for and select Gmail as your action app and Send Email as your action event. Click Continue.

An action step in the Zap editor with Gmail selected for the action app and Send Email selected for the action event.

If you haven't already, you'll need to connect your Gmail account. Then click Continue.

Now, it's time to customize your action step. 

Start by identifying who you want the Zap to send an email to using the To field. You can either map data from the trigger step to this field—if you want to send a confirmation email to the person filling out the form, for example, and you've collected their email address through a form field—or manually add an email address. To map data from the trigger step, just click in the field and select the email address from the Insert Data dropdown.

You can also add multiple addresses if you want to directly send an email to more than one person, or use the Cc and Bcc fields to identify additional recipients.

Next, fill out the From field. Zapier will default to the primary address associated with the Gmail account you connected earlier, but you can select a specific alias if you have one set up. 

Fields to customize an email sent in Gmail in the Zap editor.

Note: Both of these fields are technically optional (and there are a few other optional fields), but for this example we'll fill them out. 

Next, you'll need to specify what the Subject should be. For this example, we'll just notify the recipient that there's a new lead—but again, you can enter a custom message or map data from the form to this field.

A field for an email subject line in the Zap editor.

Finally, set up the Body field. This field is where you'll specify what information you want in the body of each email. In this example, we'll include the form responses that each lead submitted, along with a short message reminding the recipient to follow up with this new lead. Then click Continue.

Fields to customize an email sent in Gmail in the Zap editor.

Now it's time to test your Zap. Click Test step, and Zapier will send the test data to Gmail. Check the results to make sure the email includes everything you want it to.

Here's what a successful email looks like for us:

An email in Gmail.

If everything looks good, you're ready to use your Zap! Now, every time you get a new response to a LinkedIn Lead Gen Form, the right person will get an email with the right information.

Related reading:

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Hannah Herman Mon, 18 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/email-alerts-for-linkedin-ads
Airtable vs. Trello: Which should you use? [2024] https://zapier.com/blog/airtable-vs-trello .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

If you've heard of Kanban, you've heard of Trello. If you've heard of databases, you've heard of Airtable. How can you compare a Kanban app and a database tool?

Dig a little deeper, though, and the similarities surface. Both can be used to store data, track processes, collaborate with your team, and view your work in different ways.

Which tool is best for you will depend on the scale of your projects, the level of customization you need, and your budget.

I spent time tinkering with both of these apps, and here, I'll walk you through the differences—and how to know which one is right for you.

Airtable vs. Trello at a glance

The short answer is that Trello is great for simpler projects with less data, while Airtable is better for more complex projects with more data. Here's a quick summary of some of the main differences, but keep reading to learn more about each of these apps.

Airtable 

Trello 

Ease of use 

⭐⭐⭐

Has a learning curve; complex tasks aren't as easy

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Intuitive and easy to learn for any skill level

Features and customization 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

It's mainly a database tool, but it offers lots of way to view and interact with data  

⭐⭐⭐

Is mainly a digital Kanban board for project management, and while there are other views, it's not as customizable

Price

⭐⭐⭐

Solid free plan; starting paid price is higher than Trello's Enterprise plan

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Free plan is generous; paid plans are affordable for small and medium businesses

Content types 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Around 30 field types, including barcodes, sound files, and links to other records

⭐⭐⭐

Limited to basic content types, like text, date, numbers, and percentages 

Automations and integrations

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Built-in automations and plenty of native integrations; integrates with Zapier

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Built-in automations and lots of Power-Ups that add functionality; integrates with Zapier

Airtable is a database tool (with a spreadsheet vibe); Trello is a project management app 

When it comes down to it, Airtable is a database (that feels like a spreadsheet), where you can store huge volumes of data and tackle complex projects. Trello is mostly a digital Kanban board

In Airtable, you store data in records (like rows in a spreadsheet). You can include basically any kind of data and can import it from almost anywhere. Because you can add countless customizable fields (columns) to your records, you can do anything you'd do with a standard project management app: assign tasks to team members, include due dates, and add attachments. Just like that, you have a way to track projects with lots of varied data.

An Airtable base in grid view

Because it's a database, the type of data you'll store in Airtable isn't limited to text, numbers, or dates. There are currently 29 field types to choose from: barcode, checkbox, URL, single select, currency, percentage, audio file, the list goes on. It's extremely flexible, and you can customize it however you want.

With Trello, you're mainly using Kanban boards to move work across a series of steps: drag a card (task) from one list to another as it progresses through the workflow. You could use Trello for storing data—and you can even add attachments to each card—but that's not what Kanban boards are really for.

A Trello board (Kanban view)

Similarly, Trello doesn't have a whole lot of data options to choose from. Free members can add text, numbers, images, and documents to their cards, while paid users can add a few custom fields, like dropdown lists, dates, and checkboxes. It's more than enough for basic project management—which is exactly what it's meant for.

Airtable offers more ways to view data than Trello

Airtable not only stores more types of data—it also lets you view that data in more ways: grid, calendar, gallery, Kanban, timeline, list, Gantt, and form. And within each Airtable view, you can filter, sort, group, and customize data in ways that make it more digestible and actionable. 

The sidebar of Airtable, showing all the different view types
Airtable timeline view, with groupings
Airtable gallery view

Trello offers some similar views, but they don't come close to offering the same level of customization or insights into your data as Airtable. The timeline view is much less customizable, for example. And it doesn't offer Gantt, gallery, form, or list view at all. At best, you can view resource allocation, due dates, and card activity through Trello's views. This type of data might be helpful for tracking small projects, but not for analyzing projects on a large scale. 

The one advantage Trello has is its map view, which plots cards on a map by location. But there's a workaround on Airtable to do this too (the map extension).

Airtable is more customizable than Trello

The different views in Airtable already make it a more advanced tool than Trello, but it goes beyond that: Airtable allows you to build fully customizable interfaces for your team or external collaborators—complete with tables, charts, calendars, buttons, and filters. This is where it becomes an internal tool builder.

Airtable interface builder, building a dashboard for an employee directory

For example, an interface might allow employees to submit status updates or for managers to leave feedback on work—all that data would then be pulled into the database. Or maybe you want to create an interface to showcase weekly progress, or a dashboard to display sales information for your executive team. 

You can make your interface as interactive as you want. Add forms, reports, and tables from your existing Airtable data, and trigger complex workflows with the click of a button.

The most you can do to customize your Trello experience is change the background and themes. There's no way to dictate how much or in what form users will see your Trello data (other than inviting users only to certain boards). 

Trello is easier to use

For all its bells and whistles, Airtable has quite the learning curve. The basic stuff is simple: importing data, creating tables, adding simple views. And there are plenty of great templates to get you started. But the more you want to customize, the more tinkering you need to do. Be prepared to wade through a bunch of help articles and watch a tutorial or twenty to successfully tackle all that Airtable has to offer.

Trello is more intuitive. Setting up your Kanban boards is a breeze, and even the more advanced features, like automations, are pretty straightforward. You might need some help to configure a few integrations, but that's about as tough as it gets.

A project management template in Trello

So if ease of use tops your list of priorities—and you don't care as much about customization—definitely go for Trello.

Trello's paid plans are more affordable 

Airtable free plan vs. Trello free plan 

Both Trello and Airtable offer competitive free plans, but both miss some critical features that the other app offers for free. If you need a free option, take a look at both offerings to see which fits your needs better.

Airtable 

Trello 

- 1 workspace with unlimited bases

- 5 editors per workspace

- 1 GB storage per base and 1,000 records per base

- Grid, gallery, calendar, Kanban, form, and list views 

- 100 automation runs per month

- Limited interface designer

- Help center and community support

- Unlimited cards and 10 boards per Workspace

- 10 editors per workspace

- Unlimited data storage

- Kanban only

- 250 automation runs per month

- Unlimited Power-ups (integrations)

- Help center and community support

Once you get past free, though, Trello is a lot more affordable. For $5/user/month (billed annually), you get unlimited boards, custom fields, and advanced checklists, and for $10/user month, you get basically everything except the most enterprise-y features. To get literally everything, it's just $17.50/user/month—and the price per user goes down the more users you have.

Airtable's cheapest plan is more expensive than Trello's most expensive plan: $20/user/month, billed annually. It moves up to $45/user/month for the Team plan, and past that, you're looking at enterprise prices.

If price matters to you, Trello is your choice.

Both apps offer automations and integrations—and both connect to Zapier

Both Trello and Airtable offer automations that have a similar setup: you pick triggers, and when those triggers occur, your pre-selected actions are performed by the app.

They both also have lots of extensions and integrations that add more power to the app and allow you to connect it to the other apps you use. Because both Airtable and Trello connect to Zapier, that means they work with thousands of other apps. Learn more about how to automate Airtable and how to automate Trello, or get inspired by one of these pre-built templates.

Zapier is a no-code automation tool that lets you connect your apps into automated workflows, so that every person and every business can move forward at growth speed. Learn more about how it works.

Airtable vs. Trello: Which should you use?

Airtable and Trello are very different tools. While they can both be used as project management apps, their approach is apples and oranges—or databases and Kanban boards.

If you're working with a lot of data and need to be able to customize how you interact with it, Airtable is your best bet. If your projects are simpler, and you're looking for an easy tool to manage projects on a small team, go with Trello. 

Related reading:

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Farheen Gani Mon, 18 Mar 2024 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/airtable-vs-trello
The best Shopify apps in 2024 https://zapier.com/blog/best-shopify-apps .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

It can be dizzying for Shopify merchants to scroll through the thousands of available apps, and sometimes, you just want a recommendation. That's why I turned to Shopify merchants to find out which apps they use.

Keep in mind that depending on what you're selling—and who you're selling it to—these apps might not be the right choices for you. These are the best tools according to the merchants I spoke to, but it's definitely worth browsing the directory and perusing other lists, too, to see what else is out there.

The best Shopify apps in 2024

  • ShipStation for shipping

  • Klaviyo for email marketing

  • Loox for product reviews

  • Matrixify for data management

  • Conjured for subscriptions

  • Smart SEO by Sherpas for SEO

  • Buy with Prime for selling on Amazon

  • Bulk Product Edit by Hextom for product detail editing

What is a Shopify app?

A Shopify app is an add-on that brings more functionality to Shopify. 

Sometimes, a Shopify app is found only on Shopify —it's built for Shopify (and sometimes by Shopify). For example, Linkpop is a free Shopify app that lets you sell on Shopify from a link in bio page. Linkpop doesn't exist outside of Shopify.

But in a lot of cases, Shopify apps are integrations with existing apps. For example, Mailchimp has a Shopify app, as does HubSpot. If you already use a specific app, check to see if it has a Shopify app—it probably does, and it means you can bring its functionality directly into Shopify.

The best Shopify apps at a glance

Best for

Standout feature

Pricing

ShipStation

Shipping

Integration with multiple stores

From $9.99/month for up to 50 shipments

Klaviyo

Email marketing

Customizable email campaigns and segmentation based on real-time data

Free for up to 250 contacts on email and 150 SMS/MMS credits; paid plans start at $15/month for SMS and $30/month for email

Loox

Product reviews

Incentivizes customers to submit video and photo reviews

From $9.99/month for 100 monthly review request emails (no video reviews)

Matrixify

Data management

Bulk importing and exporting data from various platforms

Free version available; from $20/month for increased data quantities

Conjured

Subscriptions

Customizable membership tiers and perks for customers

From $19/month for unlimited members and membership revenue

Smart SEO by Sherpas

SEO

Integration with Google Search Console

Free for basic optimization; from $9.99/month for more features

Buy with Prime

Selling on Amazon

Simplifies return process

Pay-as-you-go pricing

Bulk Product Edit by Hextom

Product detail editing

Bulk editing of product details

Free version available; from $9.99/month for more products and longer backups


The best Shopify app for shipping

ShipStation

ShipStation, our pick for the best Shopify app for shipping

As you can imagine, there are countless shipping apps on Shopify. If you already use a shipping app for your business and you're just switching to Shopify, your existing solution almost certainly already has a Shopify app.

But if you're shopping around for a new shipping app—one that plays really well with Shopify—ShipStation is a great option.

Justin Yampolsky, managing director of Muzeum (part of Global Bullion Suppliers), told me his favorite thing about ShipStation is how easy it is to use—it saves his team about two hours a day. 

It's especially helpful if you have multiple stores. "It can integrate into one area where we can manage shipping details, and it easily syncs with different stores we have, along with eBay," Justin told me. He also noted how intuitive it is to manage returns and create pre-paid shipping labels. And that's just the tip of the shipping iceberg: ShipStation also lets you view stock levels, set inventory alerts, and allocate stock using real-time insight into the SKUs. 

ShipStation also integrates with Zapier, so you can connect it to all the other apps you use, too. Here are a few examples to get you started.

ShipStation pricing: From $9.99/month for up to 50 shipments

The best Shopify app for email marketing

Klaviyo

Klaviyo, our pick for the best Shopify app for email marketing

Email marketing is another big category on Shopify—search for it, and you'll get about 1,000 hits, hundreds of which will get the job done. If you're already using Mailchimp, Omnisend, Brevo, tinyEmail, ActiveCampaign, or really any other email marketing app, you should stick with it and connect it to Shopify. 

But if you're just starting out with email marketing and looking for a good option for Shopify, Klaviyo is a great pick. Its standalone app is already eCommerce-focused, so it brings a lot of great functionality to Shopify.

Klaviyo allows you to customize email marketing campaigns for customer segments, leveraging real-time and historical data. It can create coupon codes, offers solid built-in campaign templates (many of which are eCommerce-specific), and has great tracking reports.

Ben Camerota of MVP Visuals, which sells custom displays, event booths, and signs, told me that "Klaviyo has been our most important Shopify app since we began using their service five years ago." He continued: "Across three different eCommerce sites we operate, Klaviyo allows us to stay in touch with our clients via email and SMS in so many ways that are critical to our success: to send quotes, automate our art proof process, recover abandoned carts, and even request reviews."

He also told me that the app has a great support community, which allows them to request feedback and learn from other experienced Klaviyo subscribers.

Plus, Klaviyo integrates with Zapier, so it works well with all the apps you use—not just Shopify. Learn more about how to automate Klaviyo, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Klaviyo pricing:  Free for up to 250 contacts on email and 150 SMS/MMS credits; paid plans start at $15/month for SMS and $30/month for email.

The best Shopify app for product reviews

Loox

Loox, our pick for the best Shopify app for product reviews

Social proof will always be integral to customer growth for eCommerce stores, and reviews are one of the best ways to offer that proof. 

Loox helps you incentivize customers to submit video and photo reviews. It then lets you customize where those reviews appear on your site, using widgets that layer seamlessly with your design template. Loox incentivizes reviews through email campaigns in order to offer customers discount codes and other extras.

Tom Golubovich uses Loox at the direct-to-film (DTF) printing service, Ninja Transfers. He told me: "Loox is a fantastic app for building brand trust and authority using neatly designed photos and reviews." He also went out of his way to tell me that it works really well with all of Shopify's other features, no matter what you're trying to build.

"Our store is heavily packed with product visuals, recommendations, and reviews across so many different pages," he said, "which is why we needed an app that seamlessly handles all of these additions and offers various widgets to optimize each and every page. We tested a few competitors, but we found Loox to fit our needs the best."

Loox pricing: From $9.99/month for 100 monthly review request emails (no video reviews); from $34.99/month to add video reviews and all integrations.

The best Shopify app for data management

Matrixify

Matrixify, our pick for the best Shopify app for data management

Matrixify is a data management app for Shopify. It can import data from other eCommerce platforms, like WooCommerce, Big Commerce, and Lightspeed, as well as other databases like Excel and Google Sheets. This kind of bulk updating from other sources can save hours of manual work.

Mathias Mohlund, CEO and founder of Collectors Cage, which sells new and vintage bags and accessories, told me that Matrixify was a "game-changer" for his team: "This powerful tool allowed us to streamline our data management on Shopify in ways we never thought possible. With Matrixify, we could bulk import and export data, make inventory updates, and handle stuff like order processing and customer management incredibly efficiently. We've saved hours of manual work."

Mathias particularly appreciates Matrixify's robust error-checking mechanism, which helped his team minimize "mistakes in data entries, ensuring accuracy and consistency across our online and offline channels." He continued: "We also liked the ability to customize data fields and create tailored reports, which has given us deeper insights into our sales trends and customer preferences to help us make more informed business decisions."

Matrixify: Free for 10 products, collections, customers, discounts, orders, payouts, pages, blog posts, and redirects; from $20/month for massively increased quantities of each.

Best Shopify app for subscriptions

Conjured

Conjured, our pick for the best Shopify app for subscriptions

The surge of subscription-layered eCommerce stores has led to launch after launch of membership apps. Conjured is a great example: designed to add a membership program to your existing store, it lets you customize tiers and set up perks for your customers to access content, classes, and downloadable media.

Bryce Thomas of Obsessed Garage, a store specializing in garage and home products, told me that Conjured is what allowed them to monetize their digital platform and offer exclusive benefits to members of their Inside The Hex program. "This space is designed for those passionate about Obsessed Garage, providing behind-the-scenes insights into building the business, discovering new products, and more," he told me. "Being integrated with Shopify makes managing memberships a breeze because they're managed directly on the Shopify backend versus something like PayPal or Stripe."

Using Conjured, Obsessed Garage can have customers buy a membership subscription as if it were a product on their store, and it doesn't require any third-party gateways or payment processors. According to Bryce, "this increases conversions because of the ease of commitment and also allows memberships to be purchased at the same time as regular products."

Conjured price: From $19/month for unlimited members and membership revenue; from $69/month for lower transaction fees.

Best Shopify app for SEO

Smart SEO by Sherpas

Smart SEO, our pick for the best Shopify app for SEO

Before people buy from you, they need to find you. That's why SEO remains one of the most important things for merchants as they build out their stores. If you already use an SEO tool, check to see if it has a Shopify app, but if you're looking for an SEO app built for Shopify, Smart SEO is a great place to start.

Raivis Kaspars of ETNA Design, which sells outdoor furniture and furnishings, uses Smart SEO to optimize their store. They use Smart SEO to quickly edit tags for multiple products, collections, and pages at once and to take advantage of customizable templates. "It identifies areas for improvement and allows us to easily fix them to improve the store's search engine rankings," he told me. "We've observed a consistent increase in customer visits since the app's implementation."

Smart SEO integrates with Google Search Console, uses AI to generate meta tags, helps you optimize everything from images to page speed, and can find broken links that could hurt your rankings.

Smart SEO price: Free for basic optimization; from $9.99/month for more features.

Best Shopify app for selling on Amazon

Buy with Prime

Buy with Prime, our pick for the best Shopify app for selling on Amazon

This one's pretty self-explanatory: this app (built by Amazon) lets you easily add a Buy with Prime button on any product page. That can add some trustworthiness to your site, while also making it easier for folks to buy.

It smoothly integrates your product catalog, variations, tax, and promotions into Amazon, and the return process through Amazon's fulfillment network removes a lot of headaches.

Jeffrey Frese of Eat My Face, which sells tallow-based moisturizers and sunblock, said, "Adding Buy with Prime to our Shopify store has been crucial for us as a new brand. It's like an instant trust badge. Adding the button to our site has doubled our conversion rate, too."

He continued: "Beyond just sales, it's about establishing direct customer relationships. With Buy with Prime, we control these relationships, not Amazon. This is key for managing our brand and customer data. Plus, customers love and trust Prime, especially for its free two-day shipping, which boosts our credibility in the market."

Buy with Prime price: Pay-as-you-go pricing (see here for details).

The best Shopify app for product detail editing

Bulk Product Edit by Hextom

Bulk Product Edit, our pick for the best Shopify app for editing product details

Hextom's Bulk Product Edit app does exactly what its name implies: helps you quickly edit details for products in bulk—instead of one-by-one. It works with price details, but it also can change titles, descriptions, and SEO fields, along with any additional fields you add. For stores with a huge inventory, this is a game changer.

Jana Reid, founder and CEO of kids clothing and toy store Modern Rascals, recommended the app to me. "It solves a large number of operational pain points," she told me, "considering we have a large store with around 6,500 SKUs." Jana mentioned that they use it to activate discounts for hundreds of items at once and edit metadata like the materials, care instructions, or safety rating for a toy. And because you can automate it, you don't have to be in front of your computer to do it for seasonal things, like Black Friday. "Hextom makes it happen easily," Jana said.

Hextom Bulk Product Edit price: Free for unlimited bulk edit CSV import tasks, with 10 products per task and a 30-day backup; paid plans start at $9.99/month for more products and longer backups.

Which Shopify apps should you use?

You have literally thousands of Shopify apps to choose from—sometimes even within one category. What works for one store might not hit the mark for you. If you're not sure where to start, think about your customer experience. Figure out what matters most to your customers, and then work backward from there to decide which apps you need.

Any of the apps on this list will save you time—and in some cases, increase sales—but there's an entire universe of other Shopify apps out there, too, so continue to explore as your store grows. 

Automate Shopify

By connecting Shopify to Zapier, you can focus more on the work that matters. Automatically add Shopify customers to Salesforce, post new store items to Pinterest, or save new orders to a Google Sheet. Learn more about how to automate Shopify, or get started with one of these pre-built workflows.

Zapier is a no-code automation tool that lets you connect your apps into automated workflows, so that every person and every business can move forward at growth speed. Learn more about how it works.

Related reading:

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David Silverberg Mon, 18 Mar 2024 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-shopify-apps
The best marketing newsletters in 2024 https://zapier.com/blog/best-marketing-newsletters .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

With new technologies like AI revolutionizing the way we approach marketing, the landscape is becoming increasingly more complex—and it feels like it's shifting every day. To stay up to date with the latest trends, I've become something of a marketing newsletter hoarder.

To my own detriment, I've subscribed to more marketing newsletters than I can possibly read each day. And it doesn't help that I'm constantly leveraging Twitter, Reddit, and LinkedIn for other people's recommendations. But my bad habits are your treasure: this year, I'm updating this list of the most popular, insightful, and even contrarian newsletters about marketing for you to subscribe to in 2024.

The best marketing newsletters

These are my favorites, but there are countless others out there. It's worth subscribing to any that look interesting to you—just be sure you unsubscribe if you don't get what you want out of them.


Demand Curve

The best marketing newsletter for startups and growth marketers 

Demand Curve, our pick for the best marketing newsletter for startups and growth marketers 

Demand Curve is one of my favorite marketing websites on the internet. They publish well-researched and insightful playbooks written by industry experts, and their newsletter is just as awesome. Each week, you can expect to receive tried and tested strategies, teardowns, resources, memes, and even open marketing roles. 

Something I consistently reference from a Demand Curve newsletter is the copywriting rule of three (i.e., three is the minimum number to make a pattern). The example they used is the tagline for the MacBook Pro: Mover. Maker. Boundary breaker. I think of it every time I see a Mac.

Sunday Branding Newsletter

The best marketing newsletter for eCommerce and DTC

Sunday Newsletter, our pick for the best marketing newsletter for eCommerce and DTC folks

Nik Sharma is a successful direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketer and the CEO of Sharma Brands. He's even worked with Priyanka Chopra and Pitbull, if you're into that (I sure am). If you run an eCommerce or consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand, then I recommend signing up for the Sunday Branding Newsletter. 

One thing that stood out to me was the value packed into the welcome email. Each new subscriber receives a free 39-page slide deck that explains exactly how to launch a successful DTC brand. Most digital marketing newsletters send a welcome email with a GIF and maybe a meme, so this was unexpected. 

Everyone Hates Marketers

The best marketing newsletter for the contrarian marketer 

Everyone Hates Marketers, our pick for the best marketing newsletter for the contrarian marketer

Louis Grenier is a contrarian marketer who spearheads the highly acclaimed Everyone Hates Marketers podcast. With over 300 episodes, the podcast has garnered a considerable following and has guests like Seth Godin and Joanna Wiebe.

His daily newsletter is just as impressive and features a perspective on marketing you're unlikely to find elsewhere. I've subscribed to hundreds of newsletters, but none resonate with me the same way this one does (maybe because I tend to swear a lot more than the average person?). You can expect everything from crazy marketing experiments to his personal stories, which are both funny and fascinating.

MKT1 Newsletter

The best marketing newsletter for B2B marketers

MKT1, our pick for the best marketing newsletter for B2B marketers

MKT1 is an early-stage fund, led by seasoned marketers Emily Kramer and Kathleen Estreich. Their core operation involves investing in and helping B2B companies build successful marketing functions—and they break down their secret sauce in their monthly newsletter, which I find incredibly helpful.  

The Substack newsletter has over 30,000 free subscribers and is quickly becoming one of the best in the space. Since I'm a fan of AI, their recent newsletter on AI workflows for marketers is by far my favorite—I really appreciate their clear and concise diagrams.

If you want even more value, you can upgrade to a premium membership, paying monthly or yearly to access advanced diagrams, templates, resources, archived posts, and discounts on courses. 

Marketing Examined

The best marketing newsletter for the growth hacker

Marketing Examined, our pick for the best marketing newsletter for the growth hacker

Alex Garcia is the Chief Marketing Officer at The Kollective, a wellness and performance club in Austin. He's helped scale companies like The Hustle and Gumroad, and now he has over 185,000 X-formerly-Twitter followers and tens of thousands of subscribers to his newsletter, which provides tactical growth advice for entrepreneurs and startups. 

In one edition of his newsletter, Alex shared how marketers could capitalize on the rebranded Kia logo, which now looks like KN instead of KIA. The report explained exactly how you might create and rank a profitable website that specifically helps people searching for "KN car." Maybe not a sustainable business model, but it shows how resourceful and quick Alex is when it comes to building a successful marketing campaign. 

Copywriting Course

The best marketing newsletter for creative copywriters 

Copywriting Course, our pick for the best marketing newsletter for creative copywriters 

Neville Medhora is a household name when it comes to copywriting. He's worked with some seriously popular brands, and his newsletter, Copywriting Course (formerly Kopywriting Kourse), has taught thousands of copywriters, including me, how to write effective copy

You can expect copywriting lessons, swipe files, and notifications about popular blog posts each week. If reading isn't your thing, you can also listen to the audio version of each edition on the website. Another thing I love about this one: the size and activity of the community are incredible; each time I navigate to the blog page, I can see an active thread of copywriters critiquing each other's work.

Marketing Brew

The best marketing newsletter for the latest marketing news

Marketing Brew, our pick for the best marketing newsletter for the latest marketing news

Marketing Brew is a daily newsletter (Monday through Friday) that covers the latest news and trends in the marketing industry. It's owned and operated by Morning Brew, which was acquired by Business Insider a few years back.

The newsletter is written in a conversational and engaging tone, making it easy and enjoyable to digest quickly—this is especially important since it's sent daily. But daily doesn't mean mundane: you might already know that Doritos partnered with Netflix to release the Stranger Things collaboration, but I learned from Marketing Brew that Doritos aims for one of these brand collaborations every year. 

Marketing Examples

The best marketing newsletter for visual learners

Marketing Examples, our pick for the best marketing newsletter for visual learners

Harry Dry might be the most loved marketer on social media right now. His posts are engaging, thought-provoking, practical, and usually full of positive comments. Marketing Examples is quickly becoming one of the most popular websites (and newsletters) in the marketing category, with over 130,000 readers.

The newsletters are packed with valuable lessons and a well-designed explainer, which makes it always easy to understand. Each Monday, you'll get an email from Harry covering three short examples, two copywriting tips, and an interesting tweet. 

Go-To-Millions

The best marketing newsletter for monetization tips

Go-To-Millions, our pick for the the best marketing newsletter for monetization tips

Ari Murray is the VP of Growth at Sharma Brands and a Creator at Work Week. Her newsletter, Go-To-Millions, is a 3x/week report covering marketing strategies, playbooks, and personal anecdotes.

One particular email titled "27 websites I love" was so useful that I bookmarked it for future reference. The email featured a curated list of high-performing websites and explained what makes them exceptional. It's a valuable addition to any marketer's swipe file, and I've come back to it time and time again.

Backlinko

The best marketing newsletter for SEO

Backlinko, our pick for the best marketing newsletter for SEO

This list wouldn't be complete without a popular SEO email newsletter. Backlinko is an SEO and online marketing blog founded by Brian Dean in 2012, and the newsletter is a great way for SEOs and digital marketers to stay on top of the latest blog posts, SEO marketing tips, and exclusive content (along with updates on Brian Dean's upcoming events and projects).

Upon signing up for the newsletter, you'll receive three links to guides on SEO and content marketing. My favorite is 27 ways to increase traffic to your website.

tl;dr Marketing

The best marketing newsletter for the busy marketer

tl;dr Marketing, our pick for the best marketing newsletter for busy marketers

tl;dr Marketing was the first marketing newsletter I ever subscribed to. The newsletter is run by Saijo George, an SEO consultant with loads of experience scaling websites and building SEO tools. 

The emails are sent daily and contain a curated list of the most interesting and impactful articles on marketing. When you sign up, you'll receive a welcome email with a link to Saijo's personal list of marketing tools, grouped by category. There are hundreds of tools on this list, and it's definitely something you'll want to save for later.

Neil Patel's newsletter

The best marketing newsletter for marketers building a blog

Neil Patel's newsletter, our pick for the best marketing newsletter for marketers building a blog

Neil Patel has one of the largest personal blogs in the world and is slowly building a portfolio of profitable internet companies. He co-founded companies like Kissmetrics, Crazy Egg, and Ubersuggest, and even acquired AnswerThePublic. There's no questioning his experience with marketing.

His newsletter covers a broad range of digital marketing topics, but it has a natural focus on SEO since that's Neil's specialty. You can expect action plans, resources, growth hacks, and tools to help you grow your business.  

Ahrefs' Digest

The best marketing newsletter for digital marketers

Ahrefs' Digest, our pick for the best marketing newsletter for digital marketers

Ahrefs has been my primary SEO tool for over six years, so it was only fair I gave their newsletter a chance. It's written by their witty in-house content marketer, Si Quan, and it's surprisingly fun and lighthearted, while still being informative.

Unlike some niche marketing newsletters, Ahrefs' Digest covers more than SEO. One of their recent newsletters included a case study on community building and a guide to building a personal brand. So even though it's branded as an SEO newsletter, I wouldn't let it stop you from subscribing if you want more than just SEO content. Plus, it's free.

Which marketing newsletter should you subscribe to? 

Honestly, it's worth giving all of these—and more—a try. I co-founded a newsletter business, so I may be biased, but I highly recommend giving each marketing newsletter on this list a chance: you'll get different perspectives and experiences from across the industry. Just be sure you save some time to do your actual job.

Related reading:

This article was originally published in April 2023. The most recent update was in March 2024.

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Luciano Viterale Mon, 18 Mar 2024 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-marketing-newsletters
Microsoft Bookings vs Calendly: Which is the best meeting scheduler? [2024] https://zapier.com/blog/microsoft-bookings-vs-calendly .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

Microsoft 365 is a massive suite of tools ranging from household names like Word and PowerPoint to more obscure apps (ever heard of Clipchamp?). Microsoft Bookings, which is included with Microsoft 365, is an alternative to better-known meeting scheduler apps like Calendly.

Let's get this out of the way: you probably haven't seen Microsoft Bookings on many best meeting scheduler lists. Rather than competing directly against powerful apps like Calendly, its raison d'être has more to do with offering essential features to get users to stay within the Microsoft ecosystem.

But Microsoft 365 has hundreds of millions of paid users, and if you're comparing Microsoft Bookings to Calendly, you're probably one of them. So here's the big question: is it worth it to pay for Calendly, or can Microsoft Bookings meet your needs at no extra cost?

I've used Calendly for years, and recently tested Microsoft Bookings to compare the two products head-to-head. In this article, I'll help you sort out which option makes sense for you.

Microsoft Bookings vs. Calendly at a glance

Here's a quick overview of what makes these two scheduling tools different:

  • Microsoft Bookings is best for Microsoft 365 users on a budget. If you're looking for a basic scheduling solution for booking one-off meetings with colleagues and clients, you'll be satisfied with Bookings.

  • Calendly is best for solopreneurs and teams, especially if you rely on advanced scheduling features like workflows, automation, and paid bookings. It's easy to use and integrates well with tools outside of the Microsoft ecosystem (like Zoom and Google Calendar).

Microsoft Bookings

Calendly

Pricing

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Bookings is included in Microsoft 365, which costs as low as $6/user/month and comes with dozens of apps

⭐⭐⭐ Calendly's cost of $12/month is reasonable, but its per-user pricing adds up fast for teams; its free plan can meet basic scheduling needs

Ease of use

⭐⭐⭐ Setup is easy for Microsoft 365 users, but the user experience is relatively clunky, and there's no mobile app

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A reliable and polished user interface full of time-saving features, plus a convenient mobile app

Advanced features

⭐⭐ Bookings is a much more basic tool than Calendly; it's missing features essential for many users, like paid bookings

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Calendly's workflows, automations, routing forms, and paid bookings make it a serious productivity tool

Features for teams

⭐⭐⭐ No groundbreaking features, but big companies using Microsoft 365 can use Bookings to easily schedule meetings (especially internally)

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Calendly offers team-friendly features like round robin events, cross-organizational analytics, and custom event types

Integrations

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Only integrates with other Microsoft tools natively; integrates with thousands of apps via Zapier

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 118 integrations; integrates with thousands more apps via Zapier

Microsoft Bookings is more affordable

Picking software isn't just a matter of choosing the lowest-cost option. (If it were, we'd all just do some quick math and be done with it, rather than scrolling through comparisons like this one.) But price is a big factor, and here's what the math says: Microsoft Bookings is a lot cheaper than Calendly.

For Microsoft Bookings, you'll pay as little as $6/month per user. This fee also includes access to the rest of the Microsoft 365 family of apps, like Teams, OneDrive, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and dozens more. Calendly costs $12/month, or $20/month per user for teams. That means a 20-person team will pay $400/month to use Calendly, while the same team using Microsoft Bookings will pay as little as $120/month—while getting access to a broader set of Microsoft tools.

Having said that, Calendly does have a robust free plan, while Microsoft Bookings (via Microsoft 365) only offers a one-month free trial. But if you're already using Microsoft tools, then Bookings is free too.

Calendly is easier to use

Microsoft Bookings is a much more basic tool than Calendly, and you'd think its smaller feature set would give it a usability advantage. But in most cases, Calendly is the easier-to-use tool.

Let's start with an area of strength for Microsoft Bookings: integration with other Microsoft products. If you already have a Microsoft 365 subscription and rely on Outlook for your email and calendar, Bookings works seamlessly. As a simple way to book meetings with colleagues and customers, it's a solid solution.

Setting up Bookings is easy if you're already a part of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. If you're not, good luck: it's a clunky process. You'll need to sign up for Microsoft 365; once you've done so, it's entirely unclear how to get to Bookings. (Eventually, I found out that clicking the unlabeled dots in the top left corner brought me to a list of Microsoft apps).

The Microsoft 365

Once you make it to Bookings, you'll see a simple welcome screen. It's got the basics—a short onboarding checklist and a way to create multiple meeting types—but overall, you're on your own.

The Microsoft Bookings home page

Trying to find your way to the settings is particularly confusing: I kept ending up on a screen with global Microsoft 365 settings rather than anything Bookings-specific.

Calendly has a cleaner (and less dated) interface, plus a clearer set of steps to guide you toward getting started. Plus, adjusting settings is way simpler since each event type has an intuitive sidebar showing all your options.

Calendly settings in the sidebar

As you move through the Bookings setup process, it becomes clear that you're deep in "Microsoft Land," a magical place where it's assumed that people only want to use Microsoft products. (Presumably, Internet Explorer and the Microsoft Zune MP3 player are still popular here.) Want to connect your Outlook calendar to avoid double-booking meetings? No problem. Want to also connect your personal Google Calendar so you don't book a meeting when you're supposed to be picking your kid up from school? Sorry, no luck.

Calendly, on the other hand, allows you to connect up to six calendars—work and personal—from Google, Microsoft, and Apple.

Connecting calendars in Calendly

Apart from those gripes, Microsoft Bookings gets the basics right. If you're a die-hard Microsoft user, you can get up and running fast. You also get useful appointment booking options, like the ability to customize appointment duration, how far in advance people can book, and how much buffer time you'd like between appointments.

Choosing a meeting type in Microsoft Bookings

Still, Calendly offers all of that and more, and its features are packaged into a more intuitive and reliable piece of software. For example, the Calendly mobile app sends you convenient push notifications when someone books or cancels a meeting. Meanwhile, the Microsoft Bookings iOS and Android apps were abruptly retired in July 2023 due to low usage, to the surprise (and frustration) of users.

Many tasks are simply easier with Calendly: for example, I struggled to embed a Microsoft Bookings calendar into my website; when I finally found the code, it was an old-school <iframe> embed that didn't adapt well to different devices. Calendly's calendar embeds are slick and adapt nicely to different screen sizes, and you also have the option to let visitors book a meeting using a popup widget or popup text.

The Calendly embed options

Calendly has more advanced features

Microsoft 365 users with simple meeting needs will probably do fine with Bookings. You'll get a customizable booking page, automatic email and mobile reminders, integration with other Microsoft tools (like Outlook and Teams), and the ability to allow multiple bookings for group events.

But for anything more than just the basics, you'll need Calendly. One missing Microsoft Bookings feature that especially stands out is paid bookings. Calendly integrates with Stripe, so you can charge users when they book a meeting with you. Plenty of consultants and coaches have built their businesses using paid bookings, but it's also useful for anyone who needs to manage the flow of people who want to "pick their brain" for 30 minutes. The fact that Microsoft Bookings doesn't offer this limits its usefulness for many solopreneurs and small businesses.

A paid booking page in Calendly
Image source: Calendly

Automations and workflows are another big difference. With Microsoft Bookings, you can add reminder emails before your meeting and follow-up emails after, but Calendly's workflows are in a whole different league.

With Calendly, you can easily deploy automations by clicking on prebuilt workflows like Email a feedback survey or Send additional resources. You can also create your own workflows. Here's one I created that reduces no-shows to meetings by emailing (and texting) attendees to ask them to double-confirm their attendance.

Creating an automation in Calendly

You can create up to 50 of these workflows. Calendly pulls them all into a single overview screen, making it easy to assign unique combinations of workflows to each event type.

The Calendly Workflows page
Image source: Calendly

All this means serious time savings for you and your team.

Calendly's features for teams are more robust

If you're a current Microsoft 365 user and you have a big team, you have a tough choice to make: Calendly has much better features for teams, but even a 10-person team using Calendly will cost you thousands of dollars per year.

Here's what Microsoft Bookings gets right: it's perfect for booking intra-company meetings, or sending prospects to your page to book a one-off meeting on Teams. And bigger companies will appreciate that with Bookings, you can create event types that are only bookable by members of your organization (something that Calendly can't do).

Limiting bookings to people in your organization in Microsoft Bookings

Sales teams and customer service teams will quickly run up against limitations with Microsoft Bookings, though. Calendly offers sophisticated ways to route customers to the right representative: for example, with Calendly's round robin event type, you can randomly distribute meetings to your team based on their availability. By adjusting your round robin settings, you can prioritize certain team members over others, or instruct Calendly to balance your team's workload so that no single person ends up with too many meetings.

The Round Robin setting in Calendly
Image source: Calendly

Here's an example of round robin booking in action: after someone books a demo on your company's website, Calendly can reference your CRM (if you've integrated it) to see whether they're a current customer or a prospect. For current customers, you can route them to their assigned point of contact on the customer success team for the demo; if that person isn't available, you can randomly assign them to someone in the broader pool of customer success reps. For new prospects requesting a demo, you can set up a round robin system that distributes meetings to your sales team based on their availability.

Using Calendly's routing forms feature, you can take this a step further and screen prospects before they're invited to book a meeting. You can offer a booking option only to prospects who meet your criteria, or gather more information (like industry or company size) so you can route them to the best-fit sales rep.

While Microsoft Bookings does let you distribute appointments to a group, that's where your options end: there aren't many options to fine-tune your team's workload or route certain appointment types to certain teams.

Calendly offers more integrations, but Microsoft Bookings syncs seamlessly with Microsoft Office

For Microsoft users, Bookings offers a seamless experience. If your team exclusively uses Outlook and Teams, the level of native integration you'll get with Bookings is unbeatable.

Calendly, on the other hand, offers over 100 integrations, including popular apps that Microsoft doesn't support. (Want to use Zoom or Google Calendar? Go with Calendly).

But using Zapier, you can connect both Calendly and Microsoft Bookings to nearly any app in the world. Learn more about how to automate Calendly or how to automate Microsoft 365. Or, use one of these pre-made workflows to get started.

Microsoft Bookings vs. Calendly: which comes out ahead?

You can save hundreds or thousands of dollars per year by choosing Microsoft Bookings over Calendly (especially if you're already a Microsoft 365 customer). But there are trade-offs. If you're still unsure which to choose, consider these guidelines.

Go with Microsoft Bookings if you're a Microsoft 365 customer and have basic scheduling needs. Bookings integrates automatically with Outlook and Teams, and you and your team get access to a reliable meeting scheduler at no extra cost.

Go with Calendly if you want advanced scheduling features, especially if you run a sales or customer service team (or if you use non-Microsoft tools like Zoom). You'll pay more, but the value of Calendly's workflows, robust team options, and productivity features easily justify the cost.

Related reading:

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Ryan Kane Mon, 18 Mar 2024 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/microsoft-bookings-vs-calendly
What is Google Gemini? https://zapier.com/blog/google-gemini .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

Google Gemini is a family of new AI models from Google. Despite Google being a leader in AI research for almost a decade and developing the transformer architecture—one of the key technologies in large language models (LLMs)—OpenAI and its GPT models are dominating the conversation. 

Gemini Nano, Gemini Pro, and Gemini Ultra are Google's attempt to play catchup. All three versions are multimodal, which means that in addition to text, they can understand and work with images, audio, videos, and code. Let's dig in a little deeper and see if Google can really get back in the AI game. 

What is Google Gemini?

Gemini is also the name of Google's AI chatbot (formerly known as Bard). This article is about the family of AI models by the same name—the one that powers the chatbot.

Google Gemini is a family of AI models, like OpenAI's GPT. The major difference: while Gemini can understand and generate text like other LLMs, it can also natively understand, operate on, and combine other kinds of information like images, audio, videos, and code. For example, you can give it a prompt like "what's going on in this picture?" and attach an image, and it will describe the image and respond to further prompts asking for more complex information. 

Because we've now entered the corporate competition era of AI, most companies are keeping pretty quiet on the specifics of how their models work and differ. Still, Google has confirmed that the Gemini models use a transformer architecture and rely on strategies like pretraining and fine-tuning, much as other LLMs like GPT-4 do. The main difference between it and a typical LLM is that it's also trained on images, audio, and videos at the same time it's being trained on text; they aren't the result of a separate model bolted on at the end. 

In theory, this should mean it understands things in a more intuitive manner. Take a phrase like "monkey business": if an AI is just trained on images tagged "monkey" and "business," it's likely to just think of monkeys in suits when asked to draw something related to it. On the other hand, if the AI for understanding images and the AI for understanding language are trained at the same time, the entire model should have a deeper understanding of the mischievous and deceitful connotations of the phrase. It's ok for the monkeys to be wearing suits—but they'd better be throwing poo. 

While this all makes Google Gemini more interesting, it doesn't make it entirely unique: GPT-4 Vision (GPT-4V) is a similar multimodal model from OpenAI that adds image processing to GPT-4's LLM capabilities. (Although it did fail my "monkey business" test.)

Google Gemini comes in three sizes

Gemini is designed to run on almost any device. Google claims that its three versions—Gemini Ultra, Gemini Pro, and Gemini Nano—are capable of running efficiently on everything from data centers to smartphones. 

  • Gemini Ultra is the largest model designed for the most complex tasks. In LLM benchmarks like MMLU, Big-Bench Hard, and HumanEval, it outperformed GPT-4, and in multimodal benchmarks like MMMU, VQAv2, and MathVista, it outperformed GPT-4V. It's still undergoing testing and is due to be released next year. 

  • Gemini Pro offers a balance between scalability and performance. It's designed to be used for a variety of different tasks. Right now, a specially trained version of it is used by the Google Gemini chatbot (formerly called Bard) to handle more complex queries. In independent testing, Gemini Pro was found to achieve "accuracy that is close but slightly inferior to the corresponding GPT 3.5 Turbo" model. 

  • Gemini Nano is designed to operate locally on smartphones and other mobile devices. In theory, this would allow your smartphone to respond to simple prompts and do things like summarize text far faster than if it had to connect to an external server. For now, Gemini Nano is only available on the Google Pixel 8 Pro and powers features like smart replies in Gboard.

Each Gemini model differs in how many parameters it has and, as a result, how good it is at responding to more complex queries as well as how much processing power it needs to run. Unfortunately, figures like the number of parameters any given model has are often kept secret—unless there's a reason for a company to brag. 

Google claims the smallest model, Nano, has two versions: one with 1.8 billion parameters and another with 3.25 billion parameters. While Google doesn't reveal how many parameters the larger models have, as a ballpark, GPT-3 has 175 billion parameters, while Meta's Llama 2 family has models with up to 65 billion parameters. Presumably the two larger Gemini models have parameter counts in the same sort of range.

Google Gemini is designed to be built on top of

Almost every app now seems to be adding AI-based features, and many of them are using OpenAI's GPT, DALL·E, and other APIs to do it. Most AI writing generators, for example, are powered by GPT.

Google wants a piece of that action, so Gemini is designed from the start for developers to be able to build AI-powered apps and otherwise integrate AI into their products. The big advantage it has is that it can integrate them through its cloud computing, hosting, and other web services.

While Google will use Gemini to power its own products like the chatbot formerly known as Bard (now called Gemini), developers can access Gemini Pro through the Gemini API in Google AI Studio or Google Cloud Vertex AI. This allows them to further train Gemini on their own data to build powerful tools like folks have already been doing with GPT. 

How does Google Gemini work?

According to Google, before Gemini, most multimodal AI models were developed by combining multiple separately trained AI models. The text and image processing, for example, would be trained separately and then combined into a single model that could approximate the features of a true multimodal model. 

With Gemini, they set out to create a natively multimodal model. It was pretrained on a dataset with trillions of tokens of text, as well as images (along with accompanying text descriptions), videos, and audio from the start—and at the same time. It was then further fine-tuned through techniques like reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF) to get the model to create better and safer responses.

While Google doesn't say where all this training data came from, it likely includes archives of websites like Common Crawl, image-text databases like LAOIN-5B, as well as proprietary data sources like the entirety of Google Books

By training all its modalities at once, Google claims that Gemini can "seamlessly understand and reason about all kinds of inputs from the ground up." For example, it can understand charts and the captions that accompany them, read text from signs, and otherwise integrate information from multiple modalities. (For what it's worth, GPT-4V, a not-yet-fully-released version of GPT-4, also seems to have been trained in the same way, but only on text and images.) 

This all allows the Gemini models to respond to prompts with both text and generatively-created images, much like ChatGPT can do using a combination of DALL·E and GPT.

Aside from having a greater capacity to understand different kinds of input, actual text generation works much the same with Gemini as it does with any other AI model. Its neural network tries to generate plausible follow-on text to any given prompt based on the training data it's seen in the past. The version of Gemini Pro fine-tuned for the Gemini chatbot, for example, is designed to interact like a chatbot, while the version of Gemini Nano embedded in the Pixel 8 Pro's Recorder app is designed to create text summaries from the automatically generated transcripts. 

How does Google Gemini compare to other LLMs?

As a family of multimodal models, Gemini is hard to compare on a one-to-one basis. Roughly speaking, though, its models understand and generate text that is as good as the equivalent GPT models, and thus just ahead of Llama, Claude, and most other available LLMs. 

A chart comparing Google Gemini to GPT-4
Source: Google

For example, Gemini Ultra outperforms GPT-4 and GPT-4V on most benchmarks—although it's not yet available—while independent research found that Gemini Pro trails GPT-3.5 turbo across many of the same benchmarks.

Still, it's Gemini's multimodality that makes it most interesting, though how effective that is in the real world remains to be seen. Gemini models just aren't widely available yet, and Google kind of flubbed the launch. 

A much-hyped demo video that supposedly showed Gemini Ultra responding to live video in real time was essentially faked, although the accompanying blog post was a little more transparent about what was going on. Instead of responding to actual video and audio prompts, Gemini was responding to more detailed text and image prompts, and taking a lot longer to do it than was apparent in the demo. The video makes an impressive case for how multimodal AI models could be used in the future, though it doesn't really represent any Gemini model's current capabilities. (Gemini also reportedly has some issues getting facts straight.)

How to access Google Gemini

A specially trained version of Gemini Pro is available to some users through Google's Gemini chatbot. I haven't got it yet, but you might. Everyone has to wait until next year for Gemini Ultra, the most powerful model, though it will be available both to developers and through the Gemini chatbot (formerly Bard).

For now, developers can test Google Gemini Pro out through Google AI Studio or Vertex AI. And with Zapier's Google Vertex AI and Google AI Studio integrations, you can access Gemini from all the apps you use at work. Here are a few examples to get you started.

Zapier is the leader in workflow automation—integrating with 6,000+ apps from partners like Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Use interfaces, data tables, and logic to build secure, automated systems for your business-critical workflows across your organization's technology stack. Learn more.

Related reading:

This article was originally published in January 2024. The most recent update was in March 2024.

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Harry Guinness Fri, 15 Mar 2024 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/google-gemini
How to build a B2B prospecting list for cold email campaigns https://zapier.com/blog/b2b-prospecting-list .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

Cold email is my favorite way to generate demand for B2B companies. It's cost-effective, easy to test, and scalable. But for a cold email campaign to work, several things need to be nailed—everything from the copy to the deliverability. In my opinion, one of the most important elements is the prospect list itself.

Here, I'm going to focus on building a solid prospect list to dramatically increase your chances of getting positive responses with cold emails

What is a B2B prospect list?

A prospect list is a list of companies and decision-makers that could be a good fit for your product or service. At a minimum, it includes all the relevant contact details of specific individuals: their name, business email address, and job title. 

The best prospect lists are enriched with additional data points, like the prospect's LinkedIn profile, notable clients, specific niches the company operates in, problems the decision-maker might face—the list goes on (and will change depending on your industry). 

Without a curated—and accurate—prospect list, it's almost impossible to expect results with cold email marketing. 

How to create a targeted list of prospects (based on my own 6-step system)

I didn't develop the perfect system right away. But through a lot of trial and error, research, and, of course, mistakes, I was able to land on something that's worked pretty consistently for me. Here, I'll share the six steps I take when building a cold email prospect list. 

1. Define your ideal customer profile (ICP)

The first step in building a prospect list is to identify your ideal customer profile or ICP. An ICP is a detailed description of the attributes, characteristics, and demographics of the perfect customer for your business (at the company level).

Defining your ICP first will help you narrow down which companies and subsequent decision-makers will be most receptive to a cold email. Without this, you won't be able to craft a compelling angle, write any copy for the emails, or locate the prospects. That's why it comes first.

Here are the questions I usually ask my clients to get clarity on their ICP:

  • What does the perfect customer look like?

  • Who are your existing "bread and butter" customers? 

  • What are the characteristics of companies you usually work with?

  • What do your previous or current customers all have in common?

2. Narrow down the decision-makers

Now that you know which type of companies would be the best fit for your product or service, it's time to determine the right individuals to email. I like to think of it as three groups of people you can contact:

  • Decision-makers: Anyone in a company with the authority to make the final purchasing decision. This often includes roles like CEO, CTO, president, and director.

  • Influencers: These roles don't have the authority to make a purchasing decision, but their opinions and recommendations carry weight and influence the decision-makers. They often include managers or senior managers. 

  • Users: These are the individuals or teams within a company who will directly interact with the product or service you're selling. They don't usually make or influence purchasing decisions (unfortunately).

I recommend starting with decision-makers first, and only reaching out to influencers if you can't break through. Avoid users at all costs—it's very unlikely they can help.

To gain clarity on the specific decision-makers to contact, I like to ask my clients the following questions:

  • Who do you normally correspond with when closing a client? 

  • Who was the decision-maker with your previous clients?

  • Who pays or deals with the invoices?

  • Who is the project sponsor?

3. Create the campaign angles 

This is my favorite part of building a cold email campaign. In the context of an email, the angle refers to the value proposition, incentive, or lead magnet presented to the email recipient (i.e., your potential customer) to initiate interest. 

Why do I suggest doing this before actually building the prospect list? Because it helps you understand the types of data points you'll need on your enriched list. For example, if your angle involves geography, then you'll need to ensure you have the physical address for each prospect. The same applies if you want to include a specific point about the company's tech stack. 

Your angle can include offers—like promotions, free work, or trials—or you can be more straightforward and be transparent about why you're reaching out and how you can help.

There's no single way of approaching this, and I recommend you create more than one angle, so you can test them out once you have your list and see what works best.

I like to start with these questions if my clients are struggling to come up with an angle:

  • What's the problem your clients face? 

  • What is their dream outcome?

  • What is the perceived risk to them?

  • Is there anything you can offer for free/minimal effort that would be valuable to potential clients (e.g., free audit, free trial, free strategy consultation)?

4. Build the prospect list using a B2B database

Once you have all your criteria, you won't need to go on a needle-in-a-haystack search for prospects. Instead, you can use a B2B database like Apollo, ListKit, or Zoominfo (I use Apollo since it's easy to use and very cheap to get started). Once you input the criteria for your ideal companies and decision-makers into these tools, it'll give you matching prospects. The more specific you are, the more it narrows down your list. 

Whatever you do, steer clear from buying a random list. Chances are the emails won't be verified and the prospects won't be relevant. You'll ruin your deliverability rates and waste a lot of time and money.

5. Clean and verify your list 

Now that you have a foundational list of prospects, you'll need to verify the domains and clean up any discrepancies. Verifying domains ensures that the email addresses you plan on contacting are legitimate—if you skip this step, you run the risk of a high bounce rate and even having your domains blocked due to spam.

A deliverability report on Voila Norbert
A deliverability report on Voila Norbert

Even if the B2B database you choose claims the emails are deliverable, it's best to double-check via a third-party tool—consider it a second opinion. (There have been a few instances where I trusted the deliverability of the email addresses a database gave me only to experience a high bounce rate.) 

There are lots of email verification tools, including Voila Norbert, NeverBounce, and Hunter. I use Voila Norbert—I find it easy and quick, and it only costs about $15 for 5,000 emails.

6. Enrich your list

The Zapier editor, connecting Google Sheets to OpenAI
Enriching a spreadsheet-based prospect list on Zapier

Once you have a solid list, you can start enriching it with key pieces of information that might make your angles stronger. Since you know which angles you want to test, you should have an idea of which data points could support them.

There are endless opportunities here. You could enrich a list with a sentence containing the specific problem each decision-maker faces at their company. You could identify their current tech stack. You could see if they have a dog. It's completely dependent on the angle of your campaigns. 

Regardless, there are two common approaches I take when enriching a list.

  1. GPT and a spreadsheet: With Zapier or a tool like GPT for Sheets, you can let AI take the wheel. Read this tutorial on connecting Google Sheets to OpenAI on Zapier, or watch this speed run to see how GPT for Sheets works.

  2. Clay: Clay is a data enrichment tool that combines 50+ data sources, web scraping, and AI messaging to enrich your existing data. I'm a little biased since I'm a Clay expert, but I've found it incredibly powerful.

These aren't the only ways to enrich your list. You can leverage other AI sales assistant tools like BuiltWith (to discover tech stacks) or Lusha (to easily find other data points for your prospects). 

Start emailing your prospect list

A well-crafted and enriched prospect list doesn't guarantee success, but it's a great start. You'll still need to warm up multiple email addresses, write the emails (including follow-ups), load the prospects into a tool (I use Smartlead), and schedule your campaigns.

Before I go, here are a few quick tips for the rest of your cold email campaign:

  • Warm up multiple email addresses from secondary domains for at least two weeks before you send any emails. You don't want to burn your primary domain and end up in spam.

  • Keep your emails all value and zero fluff. Not sure what to send? Reference the lemlist template library.

  • Keep your subject lines vague-ish to increase open rates, but avoid "Quick question"—it's been overused.

  • Be aware of Google's and Yahoo's new authentication requirements for cold email. 

Good luck with your campaign!

Related reading:

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Luciano Viterale Fri, 15 Mar 2024 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/b2b-prospecting-list
What is multimodal AI? Large multimodal models, explained https://zapier.com/blog/multimodal-ai .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

Large language models (LLMs), like OpenAI's GPT-4, are the extremely capable, state-of-the-art AI models that have been generating countless headlines for the past couple of years. The best of these LLMs are capable of parsing, understanding, interpreting, and generating text as well as most humans—and are able to ace many standardized tests. 

But there are still plenty of things LLMs can't do by themselves, like understand different forms of inputs. For example, LLMs can't natively respond to spoken or handwritten instructions, video footage, or anything else that isn't just text. Of course, the world isn't just made up of neatly formatted text, so some AI researchers think that training large AI models to be able to understand different "modalities"—like images, videos, and audio—is going to be a big deal in AI research. 

We're already seeing the first of these new large multimodal models or LMMs. Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic, the makers of Claude, are all hinting at how powerful their latest AI models are across different modalities—even if the features aren't widely available to the public just yet. 

So, if large multimodal models are the next frontier of AI, let's have a look at what they are, how they work, and what they can do.

What is multimodal AI?

Large multimodal models are AI models that are capable across multiple "modalities."

In machine learning and artificial intelligence research, a modality is a given kind of data. So text is a modality, as are images, videos, audio, computer code, mathematical equations, and so on. Most current AI models can only work with a single modality or convert information from one modality to another.

For example, large language models, like GPT-4, typically just work with one modality: text. They take a text prompt as an input, do some black box AI stuff, and then return text as an output. 

AI image recognition and text-to-image models both work with two modalities: text and images. AI image recognition models take an image as an input and output a text description, while text-to-image models take a text prompt and generate a corresponding image.

When an LLM appears to work with multiple modalities, it's most likely using an additional AI model to convert the other input into text. For example, ChatGPT uses GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 to power its text features, but it relies on Whisper to parse audio inputs and DALL·E 3 to generate images. 

But that's starting to change. 

Multimodal AI models go mainstream: Gemini, GPT-4V, and Claude 3

When Google announced its Gemini series of AI models, it made a big deal about how they were "natively multimodal." Instead of having different modules tacked on to give the appearance of multimodality, they were apparently trained from the start to be able to handle text, images, audio, video, and more. 

Of course, if you're a keen ChatGPT user, you'll have noticed that it's been able to handle image inputs since last year. That's because, in addition to the LLM GPT-4, OpenAI also developed a multimodal model called GPT-4 Vision or GPT-4V. It can only handle text and images, but it seems to be able to do it very well.

Similarly, Anthropic claims that Claude 3 has "sophisticated vision capabilities on par with other leading models." So, while large multimodal model is a fancy new term, it's basically describing the direction the major LLMs have been going. 

How do large multimodal models work?

Large multimodal models are very similar to large language models in training, design, and operation. They rely on the same training and reinforcement strategies, and have the same underlying transformer architecture. This article on how ChatGPT works is a good place to start if you want a breakdown of some of these concepts. 

We're in the era of rapid AI commercialization, so a lot of interesting and important information about the various AI models is no longer released publicly. The broad strokes have to be pieced together from the technical announcements, product specs, and general direction of the research. As a result, this is more of an overarching view about how these models work as a whole, rather than a detailed breakdown of how a specific LMM was developed.

In addition to an unimaginable quantity of text, LMMs are also trained on millions or billions of images (with accompanying text descriptions), video clips, audio snippets, and examples of any other modality that the AI model is designed to understand (e.g., code). Crucially, all this training happens at the same time. The underlying neural network—the algorithm that powers the whole AI model—not only learns the word "dog," but it also learns the concept of what a dog is, as well as what a dog looks and sounds like. In theory, it should be just as capable of recognizing a photo of a dog or identifying a woof in an audio clip as it is at processing the word "dog."

Of course, this pre-training is just the first step in creating a functional AI model. It's likely to have incorporated some pretty unhealthy stereotypes and toxic ideas—mainlining the entire internet isn't good for human brains, let alone artificial networks based on them. To get a large multimodal model that behaves as expected and, importantly, is actually useful, the results are fine-tuned using techniques like reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF), supervisory AI models, and "red teaming" (to try to break it).

Once all that is done, you should have a working large multimodal model that's similar to a large language model, but capable of handling other modalities, too. 

What can a large multimodal model do?

ChatGPT describing a picture of a Pekingese dog uploaded by the user

Other than Gemini, most LMMs or LLMs with multimodal capabilities are limited to just text and images, so that's what I'm going to focus on here. If you want to see an idealized, kind-of-faked, demo of how LMMs could work in the future, check out Google's Gemini product demo. While Gemini has the capabilities shown, they don't quite work the way Google presents them

Still, right now, LMMs or LLMs with some multimodal capabilities have some pretty neat features. With Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude 3, you can do things like:

  • Upload an image and get a description of what's going on, as well as use it as part of a prompt to generate text or images.

  • Upload an image and ask questions about it, as well as follow-up questions about specific elements of the image.

  • Translate the text in an image of, say, a menu, to a different language, and then use it as part of a text prompt. 

  • Upload charts and graphs and ask complicated follow-up questions about what they show.

  • Upload a design mockup and get the HTML and CSS code necessary to create it. 

Katie's hand-drawn logo in ChatGPT

And as LMMs get more widely available, what they're capable of will likely expand. A multimodal medical chatbot, for example, would be able to better diagnose different rashes and skin discolorations. Or more simply, while I couldn't get ChatGPT or Gemini to solve a Sudoku puzzle, the fully multimodal versions of both would be well able to.

Multimodal AI models available now

Multimodal features are rolling out to most major LLMs. Both GPT-4V and Google Gemini have more powerful multimodal features that are not yet widely available through their chatbot frontends. Similarly, it remains to be seen how powerful Claude 3 is when it comes to handling image inputs. 

You can get a sense for how these will feel with ChatGPT Plus or with the Data Analyst GPT.

Either way, over the next year or two, we're likely to see significantly more multimodal AI tools—and even some legitimate large multimodal models—capable of working with text, images, video footage, audio, code, and other modalities we probably haven't even considered.

Automate your multimodal AI models

Even if you can't interact with most multimodal models easily via chatbot right now, you can still use it in your everyday workflows. With Zapier's Google Vertex AI and Google AI Studio integrations, you can access Gemini from all the apps you use at work. Here are a few examples to get you started.

Zapier is the leader in workflow automation—integrating with 6,000+ apps from partners like Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Use interfaces, data tables, and logic to build secure, automated systems for your business-critical workflows across your organization's technology stack. Learn more.

Related reading:

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Harry Guinness Fri, 15 Mar 2024 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/multimodal-ai
The 6 best URL shorteners in 2024 https://zapier.com/blog/best-url-shorteners .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

On their own, most URLs are long and unwieldy—and when you add parameters that track things like what website the person clicking the link is coming from or what ad they've seen, they can get downright ludicrous. One way to get around this problem is with a URL shortener that can take your long link and turn it into something a lot more manageable.

For years, the Google URL Shortener was a simple and free way to shorten them to something more manageable, but it was shut down back in 2019. The good news is, there are still plenty of alternatives out there.

With over a decade of experience reviewing tech and web apps, I can tell you there's almost never one perfect solution to any given problem. (The only exception to this is takeout: the best answer is always pizza.) The best URL shortening service depends on what you need and want it to do. There are simple, fast, and free URL shortening apps, marketing- and analytics-focused ones aimed at multinational enterprises, and everything in between.

I've been updating this article for several years. This year, to help you find the right URL shortener, I tested more than 45 different options. These are the best—and what makes them great. 

Looking to shorten Google Drive or Google Docs links? Our tutorial shows you how to do this automatically, using Zapier.

The 6 best URL shortener services

  • Bitly for the best all-around URL shortener

  • Rebrandly for an alternative to Bitly

  • TinyURL for free, fast, and anonymous short URLs

  • BL.INK for business owners

  • URL Shortener by Zapier for automatically creating short links

  • Short.io for a great free plan

What makes the best URL shortener?

How we evaluate and test apps

Our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. Unless explicitly stated, we spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog.

At its most basic, a URL shortener takes some long, unwieldy link and turns it into a shorter link. One advantage of this is that these short links are easier to share. For example, if you're making an ad for a roommate, you can take something like http://www.example.com/my-super-awesome-blog-about-squirrels/2022/10/23/live-with-a-squirrel-fan--they%27re-awesome/?utm_source=zapier&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_term=squirrels&utm_content=big-banner-a, and turn it into https://tinyurl.com/live-with-me.

This shortened link means whoever sees your ad has an easy-to-type URL to visit, rather than having to type some long, unintelligible string of text where they're almost guaranteed to make a mistake (and they certainly won't include your tracking information).

And it's not just for ads for roommates; URL shorteners allow you to provide a typeable link on a business card, print ad, podcast interview, or any other situation where someone can't just click on a nice hyperlink. (Most also allow you to create QR codes, which are even easier for this.)

While URL shorteners used to be useful for shortening longer links to fit character limits on social media and messaging apps, a lot of platforms take care of that for you. X-formerly-Twitter, for example, automatically shortens any shared links with its t.co shortening service (ironically, the now-rebranded company doesn't seem to own X.co, so it's still using the old Twitter shortening domain), while iMessage obscures any links behind a preview card. If you're just sending things to your friends, you only really need to worry about URL shortening if you're exclusively using SMS.

Instead, URL shorteners are most useful when you want to include additional information like tracking parameters, send deep links to different parts of apps, include complicated information like GPS coordinates, or even send people with different devices to different destinations—like the correct app store to download your app.

So, even though URL shorteners really just take a long link and make it smaller, the best of them have a few extra features that make them more useful. I was looking for tools that also included:

  • Analytics and click tracking. If you share a link to someone else's blog post with your audience, for example, you won't know much about how many people—and who—click through; all that data will be in the other person's analytics account. If you use a URL shortener, however, you'll have a unique short URL, so you'll also be able to see how many clicks the link gets, where they're coming from, and what devices people are using. Like with most marketing services, the more detailed and powerful these analytics, the higher the cost. Free services tend to have basic click tracking (although there's often a time limit and a limit on the number of total clicks tracked), while premium marketing options will collect as much data as possible—and even allow you to serve different URLs to people in different places or using different devices.

  • Customization of URLs. The best URL shorteners all allow you to customize your shortened URLs. This means you can make your URLs more relevant, or use different links in multiple ads or social media posts to compare click-through rates. Many basic or free plans for a short link generator only let you change the last part of the URL (so you get https://tinyurl.com/awesome-squirrels), while the more business-focused services enable you to use a custom domain (so you get squirre.ls/awesome).

  • Standalone app. There are lots of different URL shortening options out there, and I limited my search to easy-to-set-up, standalone services. There are self-hosted versions, like Polr and YOURLS, that, while free and powerful, require too much technical knowledge to easily recommend. There are also URL shorteners built into other apps that I didn't consider. For example, Ow.ly is fully integrated into Hootsuite, and most newsletter services have some kind of URL shortening and tracking. I also didn't consider link in bio services that give you a single updateable URL to get around a social media profile's limits on the number of links you can have in your description, although many link shorteners are now starting to offer a similar feature.

  • Value for price. I paid particular attention to pricing tables and what each short URL generator offered at the different tiers. Some free plans are almost better than other apps' paid plans, at least if you don't want incredibly detailed analytics.

I've been testing apps for this list for the past four years. To update the list this year, I spent time with dozens of apps, shortening URLs and generally exploring how well they worked. URL shortening isn't a complex task, at least from a user interface perspective, so this was mostly to get a feel for how nice they were to use and what extra features and analytics they offered—every app I tested was able to shorten a long URL. Apps with more advanced features took more testing than simple free options. With that said, I wasn't looking for feature overload. Apps like Sniply that add a CTA over the links you share, while kind of compelling, felt too niche for most users.

In general, I relied on my experience using and testing software over the past decade to make any close judgment calls, as well as considering my notes on all the different apps from last year. If an app seemed under continuous development and was improving, it was much more likely to be considered favorably than one that looked to be stagnating. 

With that, let's look at the best link shorteners.

Interested in doing even more with your URL shorteners? Check out our tips for how to use automation to track them, send them, and stay on top of performance.

The best URL shorteners at a glance

Best for

Free plan

Pricing

Bitly

An overall solution

Yes, but not really worth it

From $35/month

Rebrandly

A Bitly alternative

Yes, up to 10 links and 250 clicks tracked per month

From $13/month

TinyURL

Free, fast, and anonymous short URLs

Yes

From $12.99/month for tracked links and branded domains

BL.INK

Business owners

Yes, with 1,000 active links and limited analytics

From $48/month

URL Shortener by Zapier

Automatically creating short links

Zapier, yes; not with URL shortener because it requires multi-step Zaps

From $29.99/month for all of Zapier

Short.io

A great free plan

Yes, with 1,000 branded links, 50,000 tracked clicks, and device targeting

From $19/month

Best all-around URL shortener

Bitly

Bitly URL shortener, our pick for the best all-around URL shortener

Bitly pros:

  • Has all the URL shortening features you could ever need in one app 

  • Been reliably shortening links for more than 15 years

Bitly cons:

  • Pointless free plan

Bitly is a full-service, business-grade URL shortener. It's simple to use and has all the features you could ask for in a link management service. In addition to making it quick to create short links, it has a comprehensive dashboard where you can track how your social links and other campaigns are performing. You can also generate QR codes for all your short links, and it even has a link-in-bio feature, so you really can manage all your links in one place.

While Bitly used to offer a good free account, the free plan isn't worth recommending anymore. You're limited to 10 links a month with only five custom URL back-halves (so, bit.ly/CUSTOM). My free account from a few years ago still gets 10,000 links/month, which is more than any of the regular paid plans.

The $35-per-month Growth plan provides a free custom domain, allows you to create 1,500 links per month, and shows more data about who clicks your links. If you need more from Bitly, the Premium plan, at $300/month, is a big price step up but offers 3,000 links per month, more granular analytics for things including city-level data and device types, and other features. There's also a Core plan with only 100 links per month, but you have to pay $96 upfront, which works out at $8 per month over the course of the year. 

Bitly is a great URL shortener for large online businesses that share a lot of links and want to brand and track them. It's also a good choice for small businesses that want to generate short URLs and follow their stats for a modest number of campaigns. Really, Bitly has been doing this for so long that it is just an incredibly safe choice. If you're prepared to do a few calculations and dig deep into the pricing tables, you may well find a better deal for the features you need with another app—but if you're happy to pay and want a do-it-all URL shortener, you're unlikely to be let down by Bitly.

Bitly even integrates with Zapier, so you can do things like automatically generate short links from an RSS feed or add new links to a spreadsheet.

Bitly price: Free plan isn't really worth it; Growth plan from $35/month, with branded domains, more links per month, and support.

Best custom URL shortener for a Bitly alternative

Rebrandly

Rebrandly URL shortener, our pick for the best URL shortener for a Bitly alternative

Rebrandly pros:

  • Nice, simple web app that doesn't hide features away in weird spots 

  • A decent entry level plan that doesn't require paying for a year up front

Rebrandly cons:

  • Free plan isn't worth using

If you're looking for a powerful alternative to Bitly, then Rebrandly is worth checking out. It's a great URL shortener, though unfortunately, it's recently gutted its free plan just like Bitly did a few years ago.

Even still, the Essentials plan, which gets you 250 branded links per month for $14 or 500 branded links for $19, can be a pretty good deal as, unlike Bitly's cheapest plan, you don't have to pay for a full year in advance. If you know you're going to max out a free plan but don't want to be on the hook for a long contract, it's a solid choice.

Upgrade to the $39-per-month Essentials plan or $399-per-month Enterprise plan, and you get even more control over your links and where they send the people who click on them, more advanced analytics, and on the Enterprise plan, five or more users.

On top of all that, Rebrandly is really nice to use. The web app is fast and minimalist, and it includes tools for tracking the popularity of each link, data about who's clicking on the links, and automatic QR code generation, too. Like Bitly, it also has a link-in-bio feature called LinkGallery, and it integrates with Zapier, so you can do things like automatically create links from Google Sheets or add new links to Buffer.

Rebrandly price: Free plan with up to 10 links and 250 clicks tracked per month; Essentials plan from $13/month for 2,500 links and 10,000 clicks tracked per month.

If you're looking for a Bitly alternative, Cuttly, Ctiny, and T2M are also worth checking out. y.gy offers great value, but it lacks a lot of Bitly's features, and URLR is based in Europe—if that's something you care about.

Best free URL shortener for quick, anonymous use

TinyURL

TinyURL URL shortener, our pick for the URL shortener for quick, anonymous use

TinyURL pros:

  • Free to use, even without signing up 

  • Simple and reliable Pro plan

TinyURL cons:

  • More limited feature set than most other apps

  • Website is a bit dated

Free link shortener TinyURL has been in the game since 2002, and it's stuck around so long because it shortens URLs, and it does it with minimum fuss. It's a useful tool for when you're in a hurry and need to create a short link that will never expire. Just paste your long link into the box, customize the second half of the URL, if you want, and click Shorten URL. You can then use that link indefinitely without fear that it will stop working. 

Although you don't need an account to use TinyURL, if you sign up for one, you can see a history of all your shortened links. You can also subscribe to a paid plan if you want features like tracking and analytics, branded domains, and the ability to edit each TinyURL after you create it. Really, if your needs are simple, it's hard to go wrong.

TinyURL price: Free to use; Pro plan from $12.99/month for tracked links and branded domains. 

Best URL shortener for business owners

BL.INK

BL.INK URL shortener, our pick for the best URL shortener for small business owners

BL.INK pros:

  • You can use a custom domain on the free plan 

  • Pro plan offers features like team members for a fraction of the cost of other apps 

BL.INK cons:

  • Web app is not the nicest to use

BL.INK is a full-featured small business and enterprise-focused URL shortener service that can be used to not only turn long URLs into short ones but also to track the traffic coming from your links.

Its dashboard shows trending links and general statistics, while an analytics page lets you dive into traffic by device, location, and referrers. You can also drill down into clicks by the time of day. Tags, which you can add to your shortened links, let you view the link traffic related to specific campaigns, and Dynamic Links allow you to send links to different locations based on location, what device someone is using, and even the time or day.

BL.INK offers four tiers of paid plans starting from $48/month that give small businesses, teams, and larger enterprises a variety of options based on the number of links you need to generate and track. Free account holders can generate 1,000 active links, track up to 1,000 clicks per link, and create a custom domain to make branded links. Really, if you're a business in need of a full-service URL shortener that the entire team can access, then BL.INK is one of your best options. For less than 50 bucks a month, it offers features like multiple users, which cost hundreds of dollars a month with some other link shorteners.

Plus, BL.INK integrates with Zapier, so you can do things like automatically create short links from new WordPress posts or spreadsheet rows.

BL.INK price: Free plan with 1,000 active links and limited analytics; Expert+ plan from $48/month with 10,000 active links, 7,500 tracked clicks per link, and 3 users.

Best link shortener for automatically creating a short URL

URL Shortener by Zapier

URL Shortener by Zapier, our pick for the best URL shortener for automatically shortening links

URL Shortener by Zapier pros:

  • Makes it super easy to automate link shortening with other apps 

  • Included with a Zapier subscription 

URL Shortener by Zapier cons:

  • It's pretty basic

When you want to automatically create and save a shortened link every time you do something in any of more than 6,000 apps—like add a photo to your Instagram account or upload a new product to your Shopify store—Zapier's URL Shortener is the way to go.

You can create a Zap (an automated workflow on Zapier) that triggers every time you upload a post, create a product, or do something else in the other apps you use most. Zapier can then save the shortened URL to a Google Sheet or send it directly to another app.

This is the Zapier blog you're reading, so test it for yourself since we're a little biased, but if you're looking to add URL shortening to your automated workflows, this will do the trick. Here are some other popular ways people use Zapier's URL shortener.

URL Shortener by Zapier price: Free plan has unlimited two-step Zaps with 100 tasks/month (won't effectively let you use the URL shortener); Starter from $29.99/month ($19.99/month, billed annually) with unlimited multi-step Zaps and 750 tasks/month.

Best free URL shortener

Short.io

Short.io URL shortener, our pick for the best free URL shortener

Short.io pros:

  • Advanced targeting and analytics available on its cheapest plan 

  • Best-in-class free plan

Short.io cons:

  • You're forced to use a custom domain, even on the free plan

Short.io is one of the few full service link shorteners that actually has a generous free plan. It's great because if you're just starting out, you can use the free offering, and then upgrade to one of the more feature-filled paid plans.

When you add a link, click the Apple icon, Android icon, or globe icon and select how you want to target your clickers and what link you want to serve them. You can, of course, send iOS users something totally different than desktop users, but that's probably going to be very confusing for everyone—including you. Instead, it's best to use this feature only when you have a reason to send different types of visitors to subtly different web pages. 

Otherwise, Short.io is a great URL shortener, though unlike most options, you're required to use your own custom domain. Still, even on the free plan, you get five of them, which no other app on this list equals. You can set a default domain for any short link that doesn't work, and dig deep into when, where, and how people are clicking on your links in the Statistics and Clicks Stream sections.

And Short.io integrates with Zapier, so you can do things like create new short links from an RSS feed or Shopify products. 

Short.io price: Free plan with 1,000 branded links, 50,000 tracked clicks, and device targeting; Personal plan from $19/month for unlimited branded links and geo-targeting.

What happened to all the free URL shorteners?

As you may have noticed, the free plans of most apps on this list have gotten markedly worse over the past few years. While I can't confirm it, I suspect it's down to two reasons:

  • Spam abuse and people creating scam links using free accounts

  • Short links shifting from a convenient social media feature for regular users to a marketing analytics feature for businesses

Either way, I don't think we're going to see a return to the days when Bitly offered 10,000 links on the free plan. But if you're looking for a free URL shortener, TinyURL or Short.io will do the trick.

Make your link short

As long as you make a shorter link, it doesn't really matter to your audience how you do it. All the dozens of apps I tested were able to take a long URL and turn it into something shorter. The apps that made this list just represent the nicest, best, most interesting, and easiest options I tested.

The best option for you will come down to how often you need to create a shortened URL and what kind of customization and analytics you need. Give each of these link shorteners a try, and then stick with the one that works best with the rest of your workflows—personally, my favorite is TinyURL.

Related reading:

This post was originally published in October 2018 by Jill Duffy. The most recent update was in March 2024.

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Harry Guinness Thu, 14 Mar 2024 12:44:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-url-shorteners
Use OneNote templates to streamline project management https://zapier.com/blog/onenote-templates .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

Microsoft OneNote is a fantastic, versatile note-taking app, especially for PC users. With OneNote templates, every page in your notebooks can have a consistent look, and you can easily replicate the format of your notes for recurring things like meeting notes and project overviews.

Here's how to use OneNote templates in Windows, create your own OneNote templates, and even use a workaround to make OneNote templates on Mac and the web.

How to use a OneNote template

OneNote templates let you create new notes that already have the design and layout you need, quickly. That's great if you need to jot things down in the moment but still want to stay organized—like when you're taking notes during a meeting or are planning that week's grocery list with your partner. You can also use templates to retroactively format notes written on a blank page. 

You can use a OneNote template in just two quick steps: 

  1. In the OneNote ribbon, click Insert, and then Page Templates. A new Templates sidebar will open with template categories.

    The Page Templates option in OneNote

  2. Then choose the design you want for your new page. There are lots of options, including class notes templates, meeting notes templates, and templates with different backgrounds.

    The templates sidebar in OneNote

Granted, the decorative templates are pretty cheesy, with stock photos or clipart of books, day planners, and flowers and hearts among the options. But the business templates can come in handy, since they start you off with an outline and the note sections you need to include.

Once you've used a template before, it'll show up in the menu under the Page Templates button. Just click the down arrow under that button, and select the template you want to use. That's a simple way to grab a template without having to open the sidebar.

The Page Templates dropdown in OneNote

Tip: If you'd like to use the same template for all new pages in the current notebook section, click the dropdown box under Always use a specific template in the Page Templates sidebar to choose the template you want.

Create your own OneNote template

If you ask ten people how they like to organize their notes, you'll get ten different answers. And that's perfectly ok: the point of note-taking is to help you retain information and to create a record that can jog your memory in the future. If a particular format works for you, you probably want to stick with it—so you might want to create your own matching OneNote templates. 

The great news is that you can turn any page or note from OneNote into a template to be applied to new pages with just a few steps:  

  1. Make a new note with the items you want on the template—or open a note that already has the text you want for a template. 

  2. Add placeholders for the things that might change, perhaps DATE for the date or SUBJECT for meeting notes. 

  3. Then open the Page Templates sidebar again, and click the Save current page as a template link at the bottom. Give your template a name, and click Save.

Saving a new OneNote template

The next time you make a note, you'll find your own OneNote templates under the My Templates group in the sidebar.

Make OneNote templates for Mac, web, and mobile

The desktop version of OneNote for Windows is the only version that supports templates officially—but you can still make and use your own templates in every other version. Just follow these steps.

On the web

  1. Make your template note as normal, writing the text and adding the formatting you want to the note. Add as many template notes as you want to that notebook to keep all of your templates together.

  2. Right-click on your note, and select Copy.

  3. Go to the notebook where you want to make a new copy of your template note. Right-click again, and select Paste.

That'll give you a fresh copy of your template note wherever you choose—and will leave your original template note ready for use again next time.

On Mac

  1. Make your template note as normal, writing the text and adding the formatting you want to the note. Add as many template notes as you want to that notebook to keep all of your templates together.

  2. Right-click on your note, and select Copy Page to

  3. Choose where to put the new copy.

Making a OneNote template on Mac

On mobile

A similar trick works in OneNote's mobile apps. 

  1. Open a notebook with your template notes in it.

  2. Tap the Edit button at the top, and select the note you want to make a copy of. 

  3. Tap the copy icon at the bottom (looks like a box with an arrow), click Copy, and choose where you want to make a new copy of that note.

It'd be great to have full OneNote templates on Mac, web, and mobile, but for now, this workaround gives you most of the features of templates.

Download OneNote templates for Windows

Microsoft includes only a handful of useful templates in OneNote, so if you don't want to create your own from scratch, it might not feel super useful. But there are plenty of other places on the web to find OneNote templates. Here are a few sources: 

  • If you're looking for free, everyday templates, OneNote Gem is the best place to start. The site offers  20+ free OneNote templates, from a Getting Things Done template to a Cornell Notes template and everything in between. They also have step-by-step instructions on how to download and install your new templates.

  • Need something more business-oriented? Auscomp is the place to go. They offer a huge range of OneNote templates designed to make you more effective at your job—from classic project management methods like Kanban boards to staff roster templates. They also offer a complete business solutions package, which includes every template you can think of for running your organization using OneNote.

  • If you don't want to fuss around with manually downloading and installing OneNote templates, Notegram is a great option. You can sign in with your Microsoft account and directly add templates to your notebook. The templates are plain but functional—so it's a great option if you want straightforward layouts with hassle-free installation. 

  • If you specifically want to track meetings more effectively, download this classic meetings notebook and events template from OneDrive. The meetings notebook has sections for team meetings by quarter and pages with agenda, pre-reads, deck, and notes, each with placeholders for meeting details and follow-up action items. The events notebook can help you wrangle all the information you need to organize an event, with sections for attendee materials, presentations, goals and theme, organizer materials, and more—plus instructions to help you record relevant information.

  • If you're a fan of the bullet journal system but want to switch from paper to a digital planner, you can grab a template to turn a OneNote notebook into your bullet journal.

Make OneNote more efficient with automation

You can do even more more with OneNote by connecting it to all the other tools you use. With OneNote's Zapier integration, you can connect OneNote to thousands of apps to do things like create a new note in OneNote from a Notion database. Learn more about how to automate OneNote with Zapier, or get started with one of these pre-made templates. 

Zapier is a no-code automation tool that lets you connect your apps into automated workflows, so that every person and every business can move forward at growth speed. Learn more about how it works.

Related reading:

This post was originally published in December 2016 by Melanie Pinola. The most recent update was in March 2024.

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Hannah Herman Thu, 14 Mar 2024 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/onenote-templates
How does ChatGPT choose its sources when browsing the web? https://zapier.com/blog/chatgpt-sources .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

We're close to a future where people won't browse the internet anymore—AI tools will do it for us. As these tools gain more traction, content creators will have to figure out how to get AI tools to cite them. Instead of just worrying about SEO, we'll have to convince the AI tools that our content is worthy of being included—and, crucially, cited—in the output, so people click through.

But what criteria do AI tools use to select content when browsing? I decided to ask the most authoritative source I could find: ChatGPT itself. 

Of course, I trust but verify, so I combined its explanations with my own testing, and compiled this guide based on the most recent available version of GPT-4.

A word of caution: ChatGPT (along with all AI chatbots) is often updated, so the way it prioritizes content is evolving. I'd expect that how AI chooses its sources will change frequently and, like Google's ranking criteria, remain relatively opaque. The insights here are mostly based on my testing and tinkering with the models, as well as my experience of how the models work under the hood.

With that in mind, here are some of the criteria that ChatGPT is using to decide what to surface when it browses the internet.

1. Multiple, precise keywords

Many popular AI tools display their search queries as they browse, offering a glimpse into how they interpret requests and the types of terms they commonly use. (Note: if the tool doesn't show its search terms, you can prompt it to reveal the terms it used.)

The first thing you'll likely notice is that these tools typically use multiple search queries, review multiple sites, and then aggregate the results. That means that if you want them to find your site, you need to consider your ranking across several terms, not just one. Tools like Perplexity might use multiple search terms simultaneously, while ChatGPT tends to sequentially search based on the results they initially find.

Importantly though, they don't search quite the same way as many humans do. As far as I've found, the tools tend to translate the search question into a statement—they don't use the question text. So while humans might enter "How do I fix a leaky faucet?" the AI will alter it to something like "how to fix a leaky faucet detailed guide." (It's kind of like how DALL·E 3 will alter your prompts for you to get you what it thinks are better results.)

ChatGPT telling the user what search terms it used ("how to fix a leaky faucet detailed guide")

When the AI tool creates search terms, it attempts to make the terms concise and as specific as possible. ChatGPT tells me it will choose "fix leaky faucet" rather than just "faucet problem" to get more specific answers. This checked out when I tested it.

ChatGPT—so it tells me—may also attempt to use terms that are specialized to an industry, which is handy when you might not know what those terms are. For instance, instead of "sustainable building materials," it claims it might use "eco-friendly materials for green construction." However, my experience with this was mixed—it frequently parroted my terms in its search instead of zhuzhing them up. 

2. Search intent

ChatGPT also claims it tries to figure out your intent from your prompt and translates this into its search terms. When I tested this, it did indeed check out: the AI will pretty consistently attempt to figure out your intent and often append "intent terms" like "tutorial," "guide," or "examples." As a result, the sites it surfaced and cited frequently had these exact terms in the page title.

3. Recency 

Tools like ChatGPT have the ability to use a recency filter to find the most up-to-date information. You do too—most search engines let you search within the last week or month—but AI tools seem to lean on this functionality a lot.

That means that for any content that benefits from recent information, including trends, it needs to be really new to make it into that cutoff. Recency, of course, matters in search engine rankings, too, but with AI tools, this cutoff can be especially short—in extreme cases, that same day or the day before. When I asked about trends, I found the AI tools will often only consider results within the last week or month.

ChatGPT telling the user that it set the recency to the last 30 days.

Sometimes, to surface new information, the tools append a year on the search query. But because the models are only updated every once in a while, sometimes it searches for the previous year (oops). They also add terms like "current," "latest," or "recent," instead of or in conjunction with using the date cutoff.

4. Credibility

Currently, AI tools appear to assess and prioritize search results using criteria familiar to SEO and content specialists. Echoing Google's E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) framework, AI tools favor authoritative sources with a well-established online presence.

Tools like ChatGPT appear to already do a reasonable job of assessing the credibility of the sources it pulls up through its search function. It gives high marks for information by well-known outlets and objective sources, prioritizes information it considers comprehensive, and gives high marks to blogs of reputable brands. 

It also seems to prefer official sources for certain types of information. When I asked it for information about public health guidelines, legal regulations, or statistical data, ChatGPT tended to consider official government or international organizations' websites the most trustworthy. For example, when searching for information about new regulations coming into effect in Canada, it used only the official website rather than the approximately one million law firms who wrote content about it.

ChatGPT using a government website to answer a question

5. Trustworthiness

There are a few things that go into trustworthiness, according to ChatGPT and my testing:

  • The author's bio is one of the things that ChatGPT claims it uses when it decides whether or not that source is credible: it prioritizes people who are experts in their field as well as experienced journalists. Affiliations with well-known institutions are also prioritized. (And in my tests, product sites specific to a certain kind of product reviews—like software or appliances—tended to be chosen over general sites.)

  • Objectivity (or, at least, the appearance of it) is prioritized, and the tools attempt to deprioritize sensationalist writing. ChatGPT also claims to downgrade sources based on areas of possible bias, including sites for whom affiliate marketing might influence the results, noting inherent biases of company blogs toward their own products. In my tests, it did somewhat steer clear of these sites, but not totally.

  • Transparency and information provenance, like citing sources, is important to getting the AI tool to consider a source credible. 

  • Methodology matters—for instance, how something was tested or how products were ranked. (This matches Google's algorithm too).

Having said all that, the tools tend to choose from the top 20ish sites that come up when you run your own search, so top-ranking sites are more likely to be used, regardless of their objectivity. The bots are still relying on the search engines for help, after all.

ChatGPT is, in theory, using Bing to search the web, but when I tested it, the top sites actually seemed to be from the first page of Google and not Bing. I'm wary of speculating too much here, but it'll be interesting to see how different AI tools use different search engines and if that changes anything.

6. A variety of perspectives

ChatGPT told me that it attempts to balance the information by using sources from various viewpoints (a benefit of using multiple searches). But in my tests, I found that it still frequently uses roundup sites rather than sites with a specific perspective—whether that's good or bad is debatable.

ChatGPT offering a variety of perspectives on a topic, with citations from all different sites

Following in search's footsteps

In order to navigate the new landscape of AI-driven content, we're all going to have to figure out how these tools search and how they prioritize recency and credibility. At the moment anyway, it does seem to be similar to the already-widely-scrutinized search engine ranking algorithms. I think that's good—it means we already know a little bit about what to do.

Still, AI tools like ChatGPT are reshaping the criteria for digital visibility. For content creators, this means adapting strategies to not only produce timely, reputable, and human content but also to understand the evolving mechanics of AI search functionalities. 

These AI tools will continue to evolve, so staying informed and agile will be key to ensuring that your content not only reaches its intended audience but also stands out in the increasingly competitive market.

Related reading:

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Briana Brownell Wed, 13 Mar 2024 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/chatgpt-sources
How will AI change SEO content production? https://zapier.com/blog/ai-change-seo .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

I'm an entrepreneur and data scientist, so I always have a million different things on the go. One of those tasks is SEO-optimized content creation, so I've been trying to figure out how AI can help make my work faster and my output better.

In the 15 years I've been writing about technology and trends, I see this as one of the most significant moments that has the potential to permanently change the way SEO works. But maybe not in the ways we might initially think.

Far from rendering content obsolete, I believe AI will bring in a new era where content quality improves and becomes even more pivotal to the success of nearly every business. And because SEO isn't going anywhere any time soon, it's worth a look at how it's going to change.

SEO competition will intensify 

It will be easier to create content faster

If you think the current pace of content creation is fast, just wait until AI tools become part of everyone's everyday. As experts begin to leverage tools like AI writing and AI editing apps, content summarizers, and research tools—a learning curve that many are still navigating—AI tools will enable specialists to create better content faster.

When it's possible to create content of equal quality in half or even a quarter of the time it previously took, tackling even the most niche markets becomes feasible. And that means that there will just be more content out there, making it harder to differentiate.

But for nimble marketers, it also provides a possible new edge: an opportunity to quickly take advantage of new trends that bubble up on social media, or news events that impact your company, much more easily. The AI tools can quickly surface these trends, and you can create content around them faster.  

Smaller companies will be able to create and optimize more content

For a small company or scrappy startup, the costs and time commitment to create content can be prohibitive. AI tools, including text generators and content optimization software, will make it easier and faster, which means the total number of sites able to invest in creating that content will grow significantly. 

In some ways, this will level the playing field and mean that small to medium-sized businesses using AI will be able to afford to develop a compelling content strategy and optimize their content well for SEO. At the same time, this growing wave of content will mean trends will become even more influential—and competitive—and no longer the domain of just the biggest brands.

Content quality will increase

Quality expectations will increase as AI tools make some searches irrelevant 

With a possible deluge of AI-assisted content coming to the web, it's tempting to wonder if the overall content quality will diminish. But I think it'll do the opposite. 

Currently, the internet is flooded with articles offering generic advice, aimed primarily at generating ad revenue. Google shows outlets as diverse as Forbes, The Washington Post, and Popular Mechanics having top-ranked articles on how to paint a room or fix a leaky faucet, alongside articles from every paint manufacturer and a long list of interior design sites. Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Popular Science, and Variety all have top-ranked articles on the best home saunas. 

But when it's easy to get ChatGPT to give you tips for fixing your faucet, or when Perplexity can distill the content from relevant subreddits about what home sauna is the best, the bar will be higher to add value. That means that having a well-thought-out and unique perspective will be even more important. And that's something that AI can't fake…yet.

For search engines, this is a riddle—they'll need to figure out how to better surface quality content over any generic AI-generated content, or they'll become irrelevant. Google has already started this process with its March 2024 algorithm update.

A snippet of Google's March 2024 algorithm update

But astroturfed content on sites like Reddit is common, and fake reviews still get rated as very helpful, so it might get worse before it gets better. I expect this to shake out in the next year or so as people and search engines adjust to the new tools, hopefully pushing the average quality up.

It will be easier to get access to more, better, and broader information 

Doing research using the web is a slog, which means that creating any kind of content that needs good research is also a slog. But AI tools can help here, too, making it easier to summarize content to see whether it's worth reviewing in full.

Hallucinations, where the AI model makes up information, are still prevalent, but I expect this to continue to improve. And even still, in aggregate, the ability to quickly surface broad information can be undeniably beneficial. For example, AI tools will make it easier to identify new trends, including those emerging on social media. It will be easier and easier to quickly surface new ideas, analyze them, and see whether they fit within a company's strategy. That means you'll have more and better information that you can incorporate into the content you're creating, and ultimately make it more useful to your audience.

The humans vs. robots tension will remain

The human side will become more relevant…

In 2014, Bryan Kramer published the book There is no B2B or B2C: It's Human to Human. Since its release, marketing experts have discussed the rise of this H2H marketing replacing the B2B or B2C monikers that make the connection between vendors and customers cold and impersonal. 

The more we interact with AI, the more crucial the H2H approach will become.

This trend is accompanied by the public starting to become more aware of dubious marketing tactics. People are becoming more skeptical and adept at identifying fake reviews and astroturfing, making the authenticity of the human behind a message matter even more.

If you're just looking for information, receiving it in a formulaic, impersonal—dare I say robotic—manner is acceptable (as long as it's accurate). This is common in research reports and academic papers, where the goal is to convey information as clearly as possible without the need for creativity. But if your content is going to resonate and engage, it's essential to show the real person and personality behind it. That means you need to get voicey and personal. AI can't replace that. Originality will matter more, and indicating that you as a human did something will also be important to maintaining the site's credibility. 

Again, Google's recent algorithm updates reflect this—and I imagine we'll see search engines wanting bylines from trusted authors.

…but "writing for the robots" will always be part of the game

Even with high-quality content, you still need to get past the robot gatekeepers, who also judge your credibility. 

That means that if you're going to be found through AI tools and not just search engines, you have to convince these three intermediaries about your credibility and usefulness as a source: 

  • Search engines, which index and rank your site.

  • AI tools, which will decide which sources are most credible (and use them in the results when browsing).

  • Readers, who need to decide whether to continue to your site based on the AI tool's summary of the content you have on it (assuming they cite you).

The search engine's ranking algorithm is already one of the most important things to pay attention to when trying to get your content in front of the right people. But now, not only will humans be using search engines—AI tools will, too.

Generative AI tools have only recently gained the ability to search, and so there's still only preliminary information on how some of the major tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity search and distill content. Although it's reasonable to expect these to change with the dance between the tools' capabilities to browse and the content they surface through doing so, one thing is almost certain: like Google's ranking algorithm tries to provide the best content first, AI tools will try to provide the best answer to the user. (Whether it succeeds or not is another story.)

The search game, once dominated by Google alone, is likely going to splinter. Instead, there will be more robot gatekeepers to consider, including search engines like Bing, which already incorporates AI tools directly into its interface. We don't yet know which tool is going to come out on top, if it's going to be winner-take-all, or if several good quality tools will coexist. But regardless, the number of technology tools you'll have to pay attention to will almost certainly grow.

Navigating the new SEO landscape in the AI era

It's choppy waters right now for anyone looking to figure out how AI is going to impact them. But I believe that there are going to be some significant benefits to the way the web will be once AI tools become more popular.

In the evolving landscape of AI and digital content, there will be a delicate balance between catering to algorithmic gatekeepers and preserving authentic human connection. If we can get it right, we can make a future where digital content is both more accessible and more authentic, enhancing the richness and variety of information while reaffirming the value of genuine human insight. 

Related reading:

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Briana Brownell Wed, 13 Mar 2024 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/ai-change-seo
AI will change how you search—here's how https://zapier.com/blog/ai-change-search .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

Imagine it's February 2034. Taylor Swift's V-Eras Tour is completely in VR, grossing a trillion dollars. Denis Villeneuve is filming Arrival 2 on the moon. And OpenAI's ChatGPT, the tool that started the AI craze more than a decade earlier, has remade the internet as we know it. 

What will that mean for how you will find information online, including snagging your elusive Taylor Swift tickets?

In the decade-plus that I've been working in the data science and AI space, I've seen first-hand how technology tools have been adopted—and thrown aside as a relic of history. Here are some ways that I think generative AI tools will change how people interact with search engines.

The kinds of things you will search for will change

In 2002, researcher Andrei Broder categorized search queries into three types:

  • Informational, where a user is seeking specific information, like "taylor swift tour dates"

  • Navigational, where a user wants to find a specific site, like "taylor swift official website"

  • Transactional, where a user wants to make a specific purchase, like "taylor swift concert tickets for sale"

Another way to think of these is "know, go, do."

Estimates vary, but most research suggests that informational searches make up a majority of all searches. But with AI tools widely available—and getting very good at finding and summarizing information—the number of informational searches that people do will drop, while the number that robots do will skyrocket. Remember that the AI tools search and review multiple sites when pulling together a response. If anything, the number of sites they'll review before returning the information to the user will continue to grow.

Some informational searches will be completely handled by new AI tools, and in those cases, no human will actually read the original content. There's an opportunity for AI tools to improve the quality of some deeper informational searches, like product comparisons and information-gathering. But for them to do that, they need to gather that information from somewhere—maybe from your website or blog.

Search will become a dialogue

Right now, using AI tools to search is a lot like asking an assistant to do something for you. They take a broader context around what you want to accomplish and then convert that into search terms. They use those terms to search, and then extract the information they think you're looking for from the results. These tools can also summarize web page content before you visit, enabling a deeper and more efficient research process.

In this scenario, the AI tools are probably going to be the ones to create the search terms, rather than you. So in the next decade, our current search skills might become obsolete. Techniques like adding site:reddit.com or putting exact phrases in quotes will no longer be required. Instead, the AI tool will use its own techniques, and working with the AI tool will be the new skill set everyone will need to learn.

The Google Search home page and the ChatGPT home page
For now, ChatGPT looks eerily like Google Search.

This new skill set will grow in complexity because it will become iterative. The chatbot nature of AI tools allows you to broaden and narrow your search using a process more like a dialogue, instead of making a single search or a series of successive searches.

In between searches, you can add additional layers of complexity through constraints or adding context to improve the results. You can use the search results and refine and iterate by noting items that you felt were more on-target, and then ask the tools to provide more results like that one. This iterative nature means that you have more options at your disposal to find what you need. 

Multimedia search will become important

Our current searches are predominantly text-based, even though image searches have been possible for some time. Initially, image search functionality was limited to identifying similar images, helpful for recognizing a famous landmark on your vacation but not as much for figuring out what's wrong with your wilting houseplant based on a picture. 

But AI advancements have significantly broadened these capabilities, offering image description and annotation features. This means you can now search using images within your queries, making it possible to obtain precise information about the images you're curious about. Ask ChatGPT to describe a picture, and it will do so—and with a lot of detail.

ChatGPT describing a picture of a Pekingese dog uploaded by the user

Voice commands have also become a viable method for conducting searches or executing tasks, thanks to improved interpretation skills of AI tools. This isn't a new concept, with attempts by tech giants like Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa. But AI's current ability to understand extended monologues—and even ask for clarifications—is a significant leap forward. 

The integration of image and voice search will make it easier to access information that was previously challenging to find through traditional search methods. Video is probably next, and I expect there to be a continuous improvement in these features.

The places you will search will change

Generative AI in Google Search

The revolution in search isn't confined to the capabilities of AI tools like ChatGPT—the very platforms we use for searching are also changing. Social search is on the rise, with more individuals turning to TikTok and other platforms to find the information they need, rather than relying solely on the broader web.

AI is increasingly becoming an integral layer across all different platforms, overlaying social media sites or other repositories of content, allowing you to search specific places like Reddit or WolframAlpha. Although this was possible to do before, AI tools make it much easier, and will make it easier to surface trends or aggregate credible information—from anywhere.

Human curation might reemerge…

The internet is overflowing with content, making the search for specific topics (especially niche or less popular ones) a daunting task.

This challenge isn't new—it dates back decades. Initially, we turned to trusted human curators for guidance, with platforms like fark.com serving as go-to sources for discovering world events. The advent of personalized feeds marked a shift toward algorithmic curation—it seemed like it was signaling the end of human-led content discovery.

But the pendulum is shifting back. I think that the recent popularity of newsletters shows the power of human-curated content. Partially this is because the algorithms sometimes struggle to show you what you actually want to see—plus, the human aspect of the internet seems so rare nowadays. The growing importance of authenticity suggests we might start to appreciate human curation even more.

…But algorithms will still dominate

Despite the appeal of human-curated content, the sheer volume of online material makes algorithmic intervention necessary. Even if we want human-curated content, there's so much content out there that, in order to sift through all of it, any one person would need to spend a prohibitive amount of time and effort. So algorithms aren't going away completely any time soon.

Currently, the workings of these algorithmic systems are often opaque, but there's a growing call for transparency. Although companies may be reluctant to disclose the intricacies of their "secret sauce," the demand for fairness and understanding in AI is likely to set new standards. Expectations are shifting toward greater openness about how these tools function, including insights into why certain content is recommended and—maybe, just maybe—allowing users to influence these preferences.

The promise of personalization

Personalization is the promise tech companies have been making since before the dot-com bust. I see a lot of talk about AI tools trying to personalize user content, and in some ways, we've seen this, like with OpenAI's GPTs. There's talk of extending this further, too. ChatGPT is working on adding "memory," so it can remember things like your dietary requirements when it gives you suggestions of recipes or your interests when it suggests what to do on your vacation.

I've seen personalization constantly promised with new AI tools, and some tools, like Personal AI, are going all in on it. Will we finally deliver on this promise? If so, the implications for user experience could be huge.

The future of search

In the future, all search interactions might be mediated through an AI tool. There's some speculation that this will fundamentally change how we access everything on the internet. We might even all have AI agents that go out and gather information for us automatically or execute certain tasks for us without our intervention.

AI tools could completely replace search engines, and they could even completely replace web browsers. Everything would be mediated through a variety of AI tools, and websites as we know them may no longer exist. This is all speculative, but it's certainly possible. Regardless of how things change, search in 2034 might be completely unrecognizable from what it looks like today. But don't worry, you'll still be able to get your Taylor Swift tickets—even if your AI agent can't stand in the bathroom line for you.  

Related reading:

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Briana Brownell Wed, 13 Mar 2024 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/ai-change-search
Shortwave vs. Superhuman: Which AI email app should you use? [2024] https://zapier.com/blog/shortwave-vs-superhuman .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

We spend hours on emails every day. Yet most email providers offer little to help us manage them. Inbox designs are outdated, inconsistent, and cluttered with ads and integrations most of us don't need. That's why I always recommend using a premium email app—specifically, an AI email app.

Superhuman and Shortwave are two of the best in this category. They can intelligently sort your emails, write messages for you, and even extract insights from your inbox. Apart from that, they add a host of exclusive perks to your Gmail and Outlook experience. 

I put these two AI email assistants to the test to help you find the one that will work best for you.

Superhuman vs. Shortwave at a glance

Before we begin, keep in mind that Superhuman and Shortwave are third-party email apps, not providers. For them to work, you have to link them to your existing Gmail or Outlook inboxes—they let you access those messages from a different and (in my opinion) superior interface. 

Superhuman and Shortwave overlap on several functional and cosmetic upgrades, including a smarter inbox, a minimalistic look, and a to-do style way of treating emails as tasks. But they do have different approaches to it all.

Here's a quick overview of how they stack up, or you can keep reading to learn more about my experiences using each app.

Superhuman

Shortwave

Email services supported

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Outlook, Gmail

⭐⭐⭐ Gmail only

Ease of use

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Text-congested interface but lowers the learning curve with traditional inbox and one-on-one live onboarding

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Clean and minimal interface that's easy to use

Platforms supported

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ iOS, Android, Chromium browser, Mac

⭐⭐⭐⭐ iOS, Android, web browser

AI

⭐⭐⭐ AI sorting, summaries, writing

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ AI sorting, summaries, writing, chatbot, and email analysis

Productivity features

⭐⭐⭐⭐ A handful of helpful features, including auto-archive, Instant Intro, and a custom split inbox

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Lots of productivity features, including do not disturb, bundle customization, and an archive all option

Pricing

⭐ $30/month

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Free plan available; paid plans start at $7/month

Superhuman works with Gmail and Outlook accounts; Shortwave only works with Gmail

There's not much else to say here: if you use Outlook, Superhuman is your only option between these two apps (for now, at least). And if you use anything other than Gmail or Outlook as your email provider, you'll need to look elsewhere.

In terms of platforms, both are available on iOS, Android, and web browsers (though Superhuman is further limited to Chromium), but Superhuman also offers a Mac app. 

Shortwave is easier to learn, but it's not for everyone

Shortwave makes good use of white space and icons, which helps you navigate your inbox no matter the volume of unread items.

More important, Shortwave ensures you aren't drowning in emails. When you fire it up in the morning, you'll find your inbox already sorted. It neatly tucks away emails like newsletters and purchase receipts in their own bundles, so you can first attend to the essential ones. 

Shortwave's inbox
Shortwave's inbox

By default, Shortwave categorizes several kinds of emails, such as travel reservations and social media updates. You can also create new bundles from scratch simply by dragging and dropping emails onto each other. It's a pretty neat feature and makes it really easy to customize.

Shortwave also has some other standout and easy-to-use features. The inbox bundles, for example, are more effective than Superhuman at labeling non-essential emails. 

Shortwave's bundles
Shortwave's bundles

And once I'm certain none of the emails in a bundle matter to me, I can click the box next to it to archive it in one go (as opposed to Superhuman, where it takes a couple of extra clicks). 

Shortwave's Do Not Disturb mode is another great productivity gem. It lets you set your working hours and doesn't notify you at all outside them. Plus, you can set your own rules for how and when certain emails should arrive in your inbox. For instance, Shortwave can hold your newsletter emails and send them all together on weekends. 

Shortwave's notification settings
Shortwave's notification settings

Superhuman isn't quite as easy. For starters, it has a much more text-heavy design, which can feel a little too dense with information. Plus, while it can automatically organize your incoming emails, by default, it splits your inbox into three folders: "Important," "VIP," and "Others"—all non-essential mail is dumped into the last tab.

Superhuman's inbox
Superhuman's inbox

This isn't even as solid as Gmail's and Outlook's built-in functions, which can arrange promotional and social emails into different groups. 

If you want more specific folders on Superhuman, you'll have to manually train it to put messages into a new, dedicated inbox section. It requires a few steps in the settings to select the types of emails you want to bundle together. 

That said, if you're used to Outlook or Gmail, you might find Superhuman's split inbox more convenient—it takes junk email away from your main workspace altogether (whereas Shortwave hides them in a sub-inbox way all under one common roof). 

And Superhuman has its perks. It lets you build as many inbox tabs as you want, to match specific rules and organize correspondence from a group. (Shortwave forces you to manage it all from a single tab, for better or worse.) It can automatically archive emails older than a week or two, and remind you to follow up (nothing groundbreaking, but helpful). And it has a handy command bar that lets you search and execute actions instead of sifting through the menus. 

Superhuman's command bar
Superhuman's command bar

I also appreciated that I could take a live, complimentary one-on-one onboarding session with a Superhuman rep to help me get started. I wish I hadn't needed it at all, but it was a nice touch.

Shortwave's AI is closer to a personal assistant

There are only so many emails you can triage in a day. In addition to automatically sorting your emails, Shortwave and Superhuman both come equipped with a handful of other AI-powered functions you can use to automate routine email tasks. 

Shortwave's AI assistant
Shortwave's AI assistant

Both apps use GPT to summarize long threads and help you write your emails. They can even sift through your inbox and learn your writing style, but it's far from excellent in both cases.

To activate the AI in Superhuman, all you have to do is hit the AI button at the bottom. Outline the email content in a few words, and within seconds, AI will generate it. You can then accept it or ask the app to reproduce a different version. You'll also find shortcuts to lengthen or shorten it and make it less formal. It's basically like any other AI writing generator, but built into the app.

Superhuman's AI writing feature
Superhuman's AI writing feature

Shortwave works similarly, but it definitely takes the lead in AI features. 

First, it has a built-in chatbot. So instead of relying only on a handful of static buttons, you can tell Shortwave AI to modify the text exactly how you want it (as if it were from Stephen King, perhaps?). If you're replying to an email, Shortwave can also produce a generic response that you can then fill in the blanks for. 

Shortwave's AI writing feature
Shortwave's AI writing feature

Shortwave's AI chatbot can even behave like a personal assistant and analyze your emails to gain more context. You can then ask it questions about your correspondence, make it dig through your entire inbox to pinpoint a piece of information, or arrange meetings based on your existing schedule. For example, if you're planning a trip, Shortwave can look for reservation emails and generate an itinerary for you based on how long you're staying in a city and how far your accommodations are from the attractions—it does this all on its own, based on the content of your emails.

Shortwave's AI assistant builds an itinerary
Shortwave's AI assistant

One note: when you switch on AI features, Shortwave and Superhuman both send your email content to OpenAI, but they claim it's encrypted and not used to train machine learning models. 

Superhuman has specific features to support networking

One of Superhuman's highlights is that it promotes networking. It's nothing groundbreaking, but if you use email primarily for networking, it can make a difference:

  • For each person you communicate with, it builds a contact card, which neatly lists down their job profile, location, and social links (it grabs most of this information from their signature). 

  • When someone introduces you over email, you can instantly thank them and move them to BCC with a keyboard shortcut (they call this "Instant Intro").

  • It can detect meeting invites from Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, and add them to its built-in calendar. (Shortwave doesn't yet have a native calendar tool.)

Superhuman's Instant Intro tool
Superhuman's Instant Intro tool

Shortwave is more affordable

Superhuman is more expensive—the end. It costs $30/user/month. That's a serious chunk of change for an email app.

Shortwave works a little differently. For starters, you can use it for free, but its AI will be limited to the last three months of your emails and won't be personalized to your writing style. For $7/month, Shortwave bumps you up to a year of email history, and for $14/month, three years. No matter how you slice it, Shortwave will cost you a lot less.

Superhuman vs. Shortwave: Which should you use?

Honestly, I think Shortwave offers a superior email experience in nearly every aspect. Its AI is smarter, it's easier to learn, it's cheaper, and it keeps your inbox clean with less effort. But if you're an Outlook user or need a proper Mac app, Superhuman is a dependable—albeit costly—alternative. And it has a few unique features that might help if networking is your primary email goal.

Related reading:

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Shubham Agarwal Wed, 13 Mar 2024 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/shortwave-vs-superhuman
Trello vs. monday: Which should you use for project management? [2024] https://zapier.com/blog/trello-vs-monday .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

Trello and monday.com each pack a unique punch in the project management ring.

Trello, with its streamlined Kanban-based system, feels like organizing your tasks with sticky notes on a digital wall: intuitive, straightforward, and oddly satisfying. It's like that chill friend who's always up for a coffee run and somehow manages to keep everything organized with a smile.

On the other side, we've got monday, the all-in-one powerhouse that's all about customization and flexibility. It's like the friend who color-codes everything and has a spreadsheet for their spreadsheets. 

I've been a Trello user for years, and recently got around to testing monday.com's premium plan to see what the hype is all about. What I found is that these are two powerful PM tools, but they're designed for two slightly different audiences. 

Whether you're a fan of simplicity or uber-customization, there's a lot to unpack here. Let's get into it and find out which one is right for your team.

Trello vs. monday at a glance

Here's a quick comparison table to highlight the main differences between Trello and monday, but keep reading for details about the various features and my experience using each platform. Or you can skip to the end for a quick summary of which project management tool will be best for you.

Trello

monday

Views

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Kanban king, but limited number of other views

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Many ways to view data, though some are locked behind higher price tiers

Ease of use

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Out-of-the-box, get-started-and-go ease; simple interface

⭐⭐ Steep learning curve and overwhelmingly customizable interface, but feature-rich

Customization

⭐⭐⭐ Custom fields offer a certain degree of flexibility, but leaves room for more

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Customize almost everything about your projects

Dashboards

⭐⭐⭐ View critical info like cards per list and cards per member

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Super customizable visual project dashboards

Pricing

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Has a free-forever plan; paid plans starts at $5/user/month

⭐⭐⭐ Free 14-day trial; plans start at $9/user/month

Time management

⭐⭐⭐ Has due dates for cards and tasks; time tracking available through third-party integrations

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Built-in time tracking, with timelines and capacity planning features to make sure you don't miss any deadlines

Extra features

⭐⭐⭐ Power-Ups give you access to a lot of extra options across software categories

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ monday bills itself as a Work OS and it shows with features like portfolio management; also has CRM and development tracking products 

monday.com has more advanced features for teams

monday.com bills its project management tool as a Work OS (operating system), and I find that branding to hold true. It's an all-in-one powerhouse of an app, organizing everything your team could possibly want to organize, no matter how complex. It's like a Swiss Army knife, but less dangerous.

For example, monday has built-in capacity planning, which is perfect for teams that need to balance workloads and allocate resources effectively. Imagine being able to see, at a glance, who's swamped with tasks and who's itching for more work—it gives you a birds-eye view of your team's bandwidth.

A dashbaord showing a team's bandwidth in monday.com
Image source: monday.com

monday also has built-in time tracking, so you can log the effort expected and actual effort spent on each task. The feature isn't about Big Brothering your team's hours; it's about gaining insight into how much time different tasks actually take, helping you plan projects more accurately in the future. It's also a fantastic way to identify processes that could be streamlined, or tasks that are taking longer than expected. 

monday.com interface

In the end, monday is all about workflow optimization and portfolio management (in addition to standard project management). That makes it a great fit for bigger teams that have lots of projects up in the air at once, but not a good fit for smaller teams that don't necessarily need a high level of detail in their project tracking. 

One last thing: besides its Work OS project management tool, the platform also offers a sales CRM and product development tracking tool. I'm not going to dig into those here, but it's a good indication of the breadth of the software when compared to Trello.

Trello is easier to use

Trello is the embodiment of simplicity. With its Kanban board-based layout, adding tasks feels as natural as pinning a note to the fridge. Each board represents a project, and within each board, you create lists to categorize stages of your project. Then, you add cards to these lists to represent your individual tasks. 

A Trello board

Navigating Trello feels like playing with digital LEGO bricks: you can view your colorful labels at a glance, move the pieces around with ease, and get a sense of accomplishment when you drag tasks to the "Done" column. It's so easy, a kid could do it. (I know because I've actually shown a kid my Trello board before.)

Trello's lack of learning curve is its greatest feature. No need to wade through complicated menus or wonder how to add a task—the buttons are all right there, intuitive, and hassle-free.

Meanwhile, monday is a bit of a head-scratcher to navigate, especially when you first dig in. You have to tweak all the columns to your needs, which creates new views, and you have to manually designate which are your "Done" statuses. Its interface can get a bit cluttered with tasks, so you have to use filters and sections to break everything up. 

monday.com grid view

On monday.com, you can only have one level of subtasks, and you can't copy subtasks to other tasks. 

Subtasks in monday.com

Trello also has the same subtask limitation, but you can copy checklists from one card to another as easily as selecting a dropdown menu. 

Copying subtasks (via a checklist) in Trello

monday isn't the most difficult platform to learn, but it's certainly not as straightforward as Trello. If you're looking for more of a plug-and-play solution, or have a team that doesn't do well with learning new tech, Trello is your best bet.

monday is more customizable

monday might be a bit more difficult to pick up, but therein lies one of its strengths: its unparalleled level of customization. You can tailor monday to fit your team's unique workflow, no matter how complex it is.

One of monday's claims to fame is its plethora of views. Whether you're a visual thinker who loves seeing tasks laid out on a timeline or a detail-oriented planner who prefers the precision of a spreadsheet, monday has you covered. The platform offers a variety of views, including Kanban boards for those who love Trello's distinctive interface, Gantt charts for detailed project planning, calendar views for deadline-based tasks, and even workload views for managing team capacity. Each view can be customized and saved, ensuring that every team member can work and plan in the way that suits them best.

Gantt view in monday.com
Gantt view
Table view in monday.com
Table view
Kanban view in monday.com
Kanban view

monday's dashboards also stand out, aggregating data and metrics across all your projects onto one clean visual interface. 

A dashboard in monday.com

Meanwhile, Trello's "dashboard" view is extremely simple: it only tells you how many cards you have per list, due date, and label, and that's about it—even if you have the more premium plan. 

A dashboard in Trello

One important thing: while monday offers deep customization options, some of these more advanced views and features are gated behind higher price tiers. This means that access to the full power of monday's customization capabilities might require stepping up to a more premium subscription. 

Still, the ability to tailor the platform extensively to your team's needs is a compelling reason to choose it. The flexibility allows you to create a truly bespoke project management experience that can evolve with your team.

Trello has a freemium plan; monday is paid-only

If cost is a factor for you, you'll definitely want to know that Trello has a forever-free plan, while monday is paid-only (with a free 14-day trial to start out).

Trello's freemium model is like the ultimate appetizer platter: generous, satisfying, and designed to give you a real taste of what's on offer. You can create up to 10 boards, with unlimited lists and cards, invite team members to collaborate, and even integrate with a handful of other apps—all without spending a dime. It's perfect for individuals and small teams who are looking for an effective way to manage projects without committing to a monthly subscription. 

If you do opt for a subscription, Trello starts at $5/user/month for unlimited boards and storage, with custom fields and 1,000 workspace command runs per month, and goes up to $10/user to add on its views and unlimited command runs. Its accessible pricing, plus forever-free plan, makes Trello a budget-friendly project management tool. 

Trello's pricing page

On the flip side, monday takes a clear-cut approach to its pricing: if you want in, there's a price tag. That price tag is $9/user/month for its cheapest Basic plan; $12 for its Standard plan with automations, integrations, and more views; and $19 for its Pro plan, which includes the time tracking feature. It's pricier, but it also signals the company's commitment to providing a robust, feature-rich platform for serious teams ready to invest in their project management solution.

You can tell just by their pricing models who each tool speaks to. Trello opens its doors wide, welcoming anyone and everyone to organize their projects, whether they have the funds to shell out or not. monday, meanwhile, aims to attract a crowd ready to dive deep, offering a suite of advanced features that cater to teams looking for a comprehensive, all-in-one project management solution. Truly, monday.com is for those seeking a complete Work OS. 

Both apps integrate with Zapier

Both apps offer plenty of native integrations—you can access them on Trello's free plan and monday.com's Standard plan.

And because both Trello and monday integrate with Zapier, you'll be able to connect them both with thousands of other tools as well. Learn more about how to automate Trello and how to automate monday.com, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Zapier is a no-code automation tool that lets you connect your apps into automated workflows, so that every person and every business can move forward at growth speed. Learn more about how it works.

monday vs. Trello: Which is best?

Trello offers a no-cost way to get organized, making it an attractive option for those just starting out or managing smaller projects. monday.com, with its focus on a feature-rich experience, appeals to established teams willing to invest in a powerful tool that can streamline their workflows and boost productivity.

Choose Trello if:

  • You want a cleaner, simpler interface that's intuitive to navigate with drag-and-drop ease

  • You don't have a lot of time to set up and train your team on how to use a new tool

  • Your budget is $0

  • You're a freelancer, startup, or small team looking to keep costs down

Choose monday.com if:

  • You want to visualize your projects in many different ways

  • You need to see important metrics and capacity planning for your team on dashboards at a glance

  • You want a more robust, ultra-customizable tool

  • Your team and its projects are scaling rapidly

So, what do you need most: simplicity or power? Both platforms bring their A-game to the project management table, but they cater to different crowds with unique needs, workflows, and priorities.

Related reading:

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Hsing Tseng Tue, 12 Mar 2024 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/trello-vs-monday
Asana vs. Basecamp: Which project management tool should you use? [2024] https://zapier.com/blog/asana-vs-basecamp .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

Ever since one of my freelancing clients assigned me a project on Trello seven years ago, I've been a project management geek. I went from jotting down tasks on sticky notes to seamlessly collaborating with teammates through the cloud. But with so many options on the market, determining the best software for your needs can get overwhelming.

As a solopreneur managing a small team and client projects in 2024, flexibility and ease of use are my top priorities. Over the years, I've used many tools, and Asana and Basecamp have emerged as two of my favorites. 

I spent even more time playing around with each tool before writing this, and here, I'll compare Asana vs. Basecamp based on my experiences. 

Asana vs. Basecamp at a glance

Start with this comparison table, and then read on for more details about the apps.

Asana

Basecamp

Ease of use

⭐⭐⭐⭐ More complex features and views—there's a learning curve

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Prioritizes simplicity

Customization

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Enables high levels of customization across projects, tasks, views, and workflows

⭐⭐ Interface is simpler with fewer ways to customize workflows

Integrations

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  200+ native integrations; also connects with Zapier

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ About 100 native integrations; also connects with Zapier

Pricing

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Free and paid tiers for flexibility; per-user pricing can get costly for large teams

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Unlocks full access at two price points; simple for solos but also cost-effective for larger teams

Asana is more flexible and handles complexity, while Basecamp is more focused

Both Asana and Basecamp offer board, to-do, timeline, and Gantt chart views. Where the tools differ is in their degree of customization and fluidity. 

For example, toggling between Asana's views is very straightforward. The navigation bar allows me to switch perspectives to get the exact information I need.

Toggling between views in Asana

Switching between views in Basecamp requires a bit more effort. For example, suppose I want to switch from the Card Table view (its version of a Kanban board) to Schedule. I'd have to head back to the project home screen and then select Schedule from there. 

Basecamp's Schedule also shows team projects—not individual tasks like Asana.

The Schedule view in Basecamp

It's a bit more tedious when I want to view my own schedule in Basecamp—I have to select My Stuff in a dropdown menu, and select My Schedule

The same goes for the List view. Asana's is cleaner than Basecamp's To-Dos if you want to view your own tasks—not everyone else's. 

Asana's list view

I can filter by assignee to see just my tasks—and sort them based on due date, name, and priority, among other things.

All the filter options in Asana

Basecamp, on the other hand, doesn't give me any option to filter. I see all tasks lumped together.

The Basecamp list view

Then there's the Dashboard tab in Asana. At a glance, I can see how many tasks are incomplete across stages. I can also group incomplete tasks by assignee or custom fields like priority or due date range.

The Asana dashboard

Basecamp doesn't have a comparable dashboard. Instead, I'd have to pull data from multiple places to generate a similar report. Having said that, for monitoring project progress at a high level, Basecamp offers a feature called Move the Needle, which highlights project status and risks on a visible gauge, so all collaborators have transparency. 

Asana goes the more traditional route with task dependency feature that can help automate processes and prevent bottlenecks. 

In the end, Basecamp's interface is great for basic workflow tracking, but it lacks Asana's depth and flexibility.

Basecamp offers a practical file management system for easy sharing

Both Basecamp and Asana allow you to attach files directly to tasks for easy access. But Basecamp goes a step further with its Docs & Files section, which acts like a central hub for all your project files.

As a solo freelancer, I love having one place to store and share files across Basecamp projects. 

The Docs & Files section in Basecamp

The file management system keeps everything neatly organized with folders, color coding, and sortable views. I can also create folders that group different types of files. 

Asana also lets you attach files from your computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive when creating tasks. But its Files tab isn't as intuitive—it's a gallery-style view of all the images, documents, and files attached to tasks in a project or your My tasks. There are no options to create folders or color-code them.

The Files tab in Asana

This makes it more challenging to keep track of everything related to different tasks.

With Basecamp, I can upload a file once to Docs & Files, and anyone can easily access or share it across multiple projects.

Basecamp also offers other file management features like:

  • Basecamp Docs for taking and sharing notes

  • Version history to track changes

  • Moving files between folders

If centralized file management is important for your project management workflow, and you want to keep it all within one tool, Basecamp brings everything together in one organized hub. If you already use a separate file management app, it might not be a big differentiator for you.

Asana has more advanced native automations and integrations, but both tools integrate with Zapier

Asana offers native integrations with 200+ apps for collaboration, communication, time tracking, automation, notifications, and productivity. These native integrations are a huge time-saver for me (my favorite is the Canva integration: every design I create in Canva is automatically attached to the corresponding Asana task). 

Asana also has a built-in workflow builder: a no-code, point-and-click tool to build automated workflows that streamline repetitive processes. For example, I built a workflow so that when clients assign me tasks on Slack, it automatically creates a task in Asana. 

The workflow builder in Asana

Asana workflows can also automatically trigger actions in Asana or other systems when I complete tasks. This removes manual busywork, so I can focus on high-impact tasks. 

And custom automation templates make it easy to duplicate workflows for common processes instead of reinventing the wheel each time. Asana recommends rules based on my project and past activity.

Asana workflow templates

Basecamp also has native integrations—about 100 essential tools—but it lacks the breadth and depth of Asana.

However, both Asana and Basecamp integrate with Zapier, so you can connect them to thousands of other apps and customize your automations even more. (For example, I use Zapier to automatically copy Basecamp tasks to my Google Calendar.) Learn more about how to automate Asana with Zapier, or get started with one of these pre-built workflows for Asana and Basecamp.

Asana's pricing scales with you, while Basecamp provides comprehensive access at two price points

Asana offers tiered pricing plans to accommodate teams of all sizes, while Basecamp uses a flat pricing structure that unlocks all features at two price points.

As a solopreneur, I appreciate Asana's free Personal plan. It covers all my basic task management needs. The Starter plan, at $10.99/user/month, adds more features, but the costs can add up quickly as you scale. And the Advanced plan, at $24.99/user/month, which is necessary for teams that want a lot of automations and advanced reporting, can get expensive with even a small-ish team.

Basecamp's model is more all-or-nothing. You get full access to every feature for $15/user/month. Then there's the Pro Unlimited Plan, which gives you unlimited users for $299/month. If you have a big team, that could mean a lot of savings. For example, a 100-person company would pay $2,500/month for Asana's Advanced plan, but only $299/month for Basecamp Pro Unlimited.

Basecamp vs. Asana: Which should you use?

Asana shines with its flexibility, but it can get a bit chaotic—and if you have a big team, expensive. Basecamp cuts through any noise with its simplicity, but it can feel a bit restrictive.

Choose Asana if:

  • Custom views and workflows are a high priority 

  • You handle multiple complex projects with many moving parts

  • You're starting out and don't want to pay for a project management tool

Choose Basecamp if:

  • You don't want to pay per-user costs for a full-fledged tool

  • You value simplicity in your project management

  • You don't need advanced automation

Related reading:

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Kiran Shahid Tue, 12 Mar 2024 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/asana-vs-basecamp
The best Slack apps for your workspace in 2024 https://zapier.com/blog/best-slack-apps .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

I've worked fully remotely for years, using Slack to collaborate on projects, meet deadlines, and yes, share cute dog pics. I've seen firsthand how a well-run Slack server can translate a chaotic jumble of conversations into a streamlined, efficient workspace. One of the key differentiators? The most efficient Slack servers I've joined all use Slack apps. 

Slack apps aren't just about keeping the ship sailing smoothly; they also sprinkle some personality throughout our workdays. Whether it's automating reminders or starting random watercooler chats, Slack apps are unsung heroes in the quest for an engaging and productive work environment.

The best Slack apps for your company will depend on the apps you use outside of Slack and the kind of work you do on Slack. With that in mind, I'll share my favorite Slack apps, and hopefully some of them will work for you.

  • The best Slack apps for project management

  • The best Slack apps for productivity

  • The best Slack apps for communication

  • The best Slack apps for engagement and team building

  • The best Slack apps for fun

What is a Slack app?

A Slack app is software that integrates with the Slack platform and is designed to automate tasks, facilitate workflows, or enhance the overall user experience within a Slack workspace. Think of it as a virtual assistant that lives within your Slack channels, ready to jump into action at a command or trigger. 

Slack apps can perform a wide range of functions, from scheduling meetings and managing to-do lists to providing real-time updates from third-party tools like Google Drive or Salesforce. By handling repetitive tasks and streamlining communication, Slack bots save time and foster a more organized, interactive online work environment. 

How to add a Slack app to your workspace

Here's a quick step-by-step guide to adding a Slack app:

  1. Visit the Slack app directory to browse all the Slack apps available. (You can also find Slack bots to add from within your Slack workspace, by clicking Add Apps at the bottom of your sidebar.)

    The Slack app directory within Slack

  2. Install the app you want by clicking Add to Slack.

    Clicking Add app to add an app to Slack

  3. Configure your app settings within Slack. The bot will walk you through everything you need to do.

    Configuring the Asana app in Slack

The best Slack apps at a glance

Slack has more than 2,000 apps in its app directory. I, of course, haven't tested every single one of them, so while I'm calling these the "best," keep in mind that there are thousands of options available—if you use a SaaS app, it probably has a Slack app. (And if it doesn't, you can connect it using Zapier.)

Category

Standout features

Trello

Project management

Create, update, and receive notifications for Trello cards within Slack

Asana

Project management

Task creation, assignment, and due date setting within Slack

ClickUp

Project management

Task creation, project updates, and task status updates within Slack

Google Calendar

Productivity

Daily agenda view, meeting reminders, response to meeting invites within Slack; automated Slack status updates

Google Drive

Productivity

Notifications about changes to documents, comments, and shared files in Slack

Zapier

Productivity

Automates workflows between Slack and thousands of other apps and services

Zoom

Communication

Start or join video meetings directly from Slack; simplified scheduling and joining of calls

Loom

Communication

Share video messages asynchronously within Slack channels; record screen or webcam for detailed messages

Simple Poll

Engagement and team building

Create simple polls within Slack channels; gather opinions and make decisions together

Polly

Engagement and team building

Create complex surveys and polls, measure team sentiment, and conduct check-ins or quizzes

Donut

Engagement and team building

Pair team members for virtual coffee breaks, lunches, or mentorship sessions; spark casual conversations

Slackbot

Engagement and team building

Customizable for various purposes

BirthdayBot

Fun

Automatically notifies about upcoming birthdays; posts celebratory messages in Slack channels

GIPHY

Fun

Brings animated GIFs into Slack channels; adds light-heartedness and spontaneity to team interactions


The best Slack apps for project management

The best Slack app for project management is going to be the one for the project management tool your team already uses, so definitely start there.

Slack apps bring the power of your project management tool right into the heart of your Slack workspace, keeping updates, tasks, and notifications flowing smoothly between the two platforms. 

Here, I'll dive into three that I've had personal experience with: Trello, Asana, and ClickUp. Each of these apps integrates seamlessly with Slack.

Trello

If you visualize project tasks as a board of moving parts, the Trello app for Slack is a match made in heaven. It allows you to create new cards, update existing ones, and receive notifications directly within Slack. Imagine discussing a project in a Slack channel and being able to create a Trello card from a message on the fly without switching windows or tabs. 

The Trello Slack app

Asana

The Asana Slack app allows you to easily create tasks, assign them to team members, and set due dates directly from your Slack conversations. You can also link a project to a specific Slack channel, which posts project updates directly to that channel in real time, keeping everyone on the same page without leaving Slack.

The Asana Slack app

ClickUp

The ClickUp Slack app allows you to create tasks, add them to specific projects, and even update task statuses without ever leaving your Slack workspace. You can also convert Slack messages into actionable tasks, or leave comments on tasks directly from Slack. 

The ClickUp Slack app
Image source: ClickUp

The best Slack bots for productivity

Slack can enhance your productivity—or totally drain it. These Slack apps integrate into your day-to-day work life, acting like your personal assistant and making all your workflows easier. The best Slack bots for productivity are the ones that fit perfectly into your existing routines, so be picky about which ones you choose.

From my experience, these three Slack apps are exceptionally valuable in keeping me on track and making it easier to get things done quicker. 

Google Calendar

The Google Calendar app for Slack keeps you on schedule without leaving Slack. The bot helps you start every day on the right foot by giving you a view of your daily agenda right within Slack, and it pings you with reminders when it's meeting time. 

The Google Calendar agenda in Slack

A Google Calendar event in Slack

You can even respond to meeting invites and join your calls all directly from within Slack, without opening a new Google Calendar window. 

The Google Calendar bot is particularly useful for teams working across different time zones, as it simplifies scheduling and keeps everyone aligned. It also automatically updates your Slack status to "In a meeting" when you're occupied, so anyone messaging you knows that you're unavailable for the moment.

Google Drive

For teams that rely heavily on Google Drive, the Google Drive Slack app is a must-have. The bot notifies you about changes to documents, comments, and shared files directly in Slack, making collaboration smoother. You can even set up notifications for specific folders or documents, ensuring you stay updated on the need-to-knows for critical projects. It essentially bridges the gap between your files and your conversations, making it easier to share updates and get feedback with less context switching.

The Google Drive app in Slack showing a Google Docs comment notification

If you use a different file management system, like Box or Dropbox, they have Slack bots too. It's always best to use the bot that integrates with how you already get work done.

Zapier

Zapier takes Slack productivity to another level by connecting your workspace with thousands of other apps and services. With the Zapier Slack app, you can automate workflows between Slack and all the other tools your team uses, including CRMs, email marketing platforms, and project management tools. Whether it's automatically creating Slack messages based on activity in other apps or posting updates from Slack to other platforms, Zapier makes it possible to automate almost any task. 

Learn more about how to automate Slack with Zapier, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Zapier is the leader in workflow automation—integrating with 6,000+ apps from partners like Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Use interfaces, data tables, and logic to build secure, automated systems for your business-critical workflows across your organization's technology stack. Learn more.

The best Slack bots for communication

Zoom

The Zoom app for Slack is like an insta-teleportation device for your team, bringing everyone together with the click of a button, no matter where they are in the world. With this integration, you can start or join video meetings directly from your Slack workspace. It simplifies the process of scheduling and joining calls, making it easier to move discussions from text to face-to-face conversations. Just type a simple slash command (/zoom), and your meeting can begin.

The Zoom app in Slack

Loom

The Loom Slack app takes a different approach to communication by allowing you to share video messages asynchronously, instead of typing out long, detailed text messages. This bot is particularly useful for explaining complex ideas, providing detailed feedback, or just adding a personal touch to your messages. 

With the Loom integration in Slack, you can easily record your screen, yourself, or both, and share these videos directly within your channels or private messages. This not only saves time, but also adds a layer of personal interaction that text can't always necessarily convey. It's perfect for those moments when you need to show rather than tell.

The best Slack apps for engagement and team building

Digital workspaces require as much team building as in-person ones, if not more. The key to a vibrant, inclusive, and collaborative team environment lies in all those little interactions that happen every day. Slack apps designed for engagement and culture can play a pivotal role in nurturing these interactions, turning a collection of remote individuals into a close-knit community. From gathering feedback with polls to celebrating achievements and facilitating casual meet-ups, these bots help keep the team spirit alive and kicking. 

Simple Poll

Simple Poll offers an effortless way to create polls within your Slack channels, enabling teams to make decisions together, gather opinions, or just have fun with light-hearted questions. Whether you're deciding on the next team outing, choosing a project name, or simply finding out everyone's favorite pizza topping, Simple Poll makes it easy to engage everyone's voice. 

Simple Poll in Slack

Polly

Polly takes team engagement a step further by allowing for more complex surveys and polls, complete with analytics and insights. You can use Polly to measure team sentiment, conduct stand-ups or regular check-ins, or even run fun quizzes to break the monotony of the workday. With its customizable templates and scheduled polls, Polly helps managers and team leaders stay connected with their team's pulse and ensure that everyone feels valued.

Polly in Slack

Donut

Donut strengthens team bonds by pairing team members for virtual coffee breaks, lunches, or mentorship sessions. These randomized pairings encourage casual intros and connections that might not happen in the usual course of work, especially in a remote setting. It can also spark fun watercooler conversations, asking everyone to chime in on a question-of-the-day that's not strictly work-related.

Slackbot

You can tailor Slack's built-in Slackbot for any purpose, like helping to promote inclusive language in your work environment. All you have to do is designate specific words as triggers for Slackbot to remind teammates to use more inclusive language, and it will chime in whenever necessary.

The best Slack bots for fun

Amid deadlines and meetings, it can be easy to forget that work can also be a source of joy and laughter. Injecting a bit of fun into the workday is crucial for keeping spirits high and fostering a positive, engaging work culture. Slack apps like BirthdayBot and GIPHY are perfect for this, adding a layer of light-heartedness and spontaneity to your team's interactions. 

BirthdayBot

Remembering and celebrating team members' birthdays in a remote work environment can be challenging, but BirthdayBot makes it a breeze. It automatically notifies your team about upcoming birthdays and posts celebratory messages in a team channel on the day of. By adding a personal touch, BirthdayBot offers a simple yet effective way to show team members they're appreciated—not just for their work, but as individuals.

An upcoming birthday alert from BirthdayBot in Slack
A BirthdayBot message in Slack

GIPHY

Everyone loves a good GIF. The GIPHY Slack app brings animated GIFs into your Slack channels. Whether it's celebrating a win, offering support, or just sharing a laugh, a well-timed GIF can lighten the mood and strengthen team bonds. With the /giphy slash command, you can search for and post a GIF for any occasion.

Using GIPHY in Slack

Build your own Slack bot

It's unlikely you won't find what you need in Slack's massive app directory. But sometimes you need something a little more bespoke. That's where the magic of Zapier comes into play, allowing you to build your own customizable Slack bot.

With Zapier, you can create a Slack bot that does exactly what you need, the way you need it done. Imagine a bot that can pull analytics from your sales platform into a Slack channel every morning, or one that automatically organizes project submissions into a shared folder and notifies the team via Slack. Or you could create a chatbot that integrates with ChatGPT to bring the power of AI to your workspace. 

The goal should always be to make technology work for you, not the other way around. The right apps can transform your Slack channels from mere communication tools into dynamic hubs of productivity, engagement, and, yes, even joy. And with the power to customize your own bots through Zapier, the potential to elevate your team's Slack experience is limited only by your imagination.

Related reading:

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Hsing Tseng Tue, 12 Mar 2024 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-slack-apps
Trello vs. Todoist: Which should you use? [2024] https://zapier.com/blog/trello-vs-todoist .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

I'm an avid user of both Trello and Todoist: I use these two apps to organize my entire life and my work. That means you don't necessarily have to choose between them—you can use both. But if you're looking to pick between them, I can help.

In one corner, we have Trello, the Kanban board tool that helps you see the status of all your projects at once and makes project management look like a work of art. It's project management at its core.

In the opposite corner, there's Todoist, which turns the chaos of your endless tasks into neatly organized checklists. Todoist is a to-do list app at heart, made for folks who dream in bullet points and find joy in the simple act of crossing things off.

So comparing Trello vs. Todoist is a bit like comparing apples to oranges: they're different apps for different uses, both stellar at what they do best. Which app is best for you will ultimately depend on what you need to organize (projects or tasks?) and how you want to organize it (boards or lists?)

Let's explore the nitty-gritty differences between Trello and Todoist. 

Trello vs. Todoist at a glance

Here's a comparison table to help you decide on the features that matter most to you. I'll dive deeper, of course, but if you're short on time, go ahead and skip to the end to find out which app you should choose.

Trello

Todoist

Pricing

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Trello has an extremely robust free plan

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Todoist offers the most bang for your buck at an accessible price point

Task management

⭐⭐⭐ Nests tasks within lists within cards (standard Kanban)

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excels at managing tasks and subtasks

Project management

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Get a bird's-eye view of all your projects at once

⭐⭐⭐⭐ You can break down projects into smaller tasks, but it's less adept at project management

Collaboration

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Co-create and co-project manage with comments, activity, and assigned tasks and cards

⭐⭐⭐ You get shared projects, comments, and assigned tasks, but not a lot of big-picture collaboration

Natural language processing

⭐ Non-existent

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Built-in NLP for adding tasks on certain dates or durations

Automation

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Built-in automations

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Automation through integrations

Integrations

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Integrates with 200+ apps; thousands more using Zapier

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Native two-way sync with Google Calendar, integrations with 60+ apps; thousands more using Zapier

Trello has a more robust free plan, but Todoist's paid plans are more affordable

When considering productivity tools, a key aspect to look at is the bang you get for your buck—or in some cases, the bang you get without spending a buck. 

On its free forever plan, Trello gives you unlimited cards, up to 10 boards per workspace, and a suite of essential features that make project management easy. It's perfect for individuals and small teams dipping their toes into organized project waters. 

As you scale up and need more sophisticated project management features, Trello moves to $5/user/month (billed annually) for unlimited boards, advanced checklists, and custom fields. And for those craving the full experience, Trello's Premium plan, at $10/user/month, unlocks the door to powerful features like advanced views and unlimited automations, catering to the needs of larger teams and complex projects.

Meanwhile, Todoist's free Basic plan leaves much to be desired. You only get five projects and three filter views, and you don't get access to Todoist's most valuable feature: task reminders. Without reminders, Todoist doesn't really operate to its full potential. 

For individuals, stepping up to Todoist Pro costs a reasonable $4/month (billed annually), offering a nice boost in functionality with reminders, a calendar view, an AI assistant, 300 projects, and 150 filter views. Teams looking to collaborate more efficiently can opt for Todoist Business at $6/user/month, providing a shared team workspace with more advanced features tailored to group productivity.

Comparing the free vs. paid options, Trello has a better free plan, but more expensive paid plans that reflect Trello's more advanced feature set, while Todoist's paid plan could be a better value for teams that jibe with its simpler style of task management. 

Todoist is better for individual task management

Todoist is a task management wizard, especially when it comes to the nitty-gritty of managing individual tasks and subtasks. As its name implies, to-dos are where Todoist truly shines, offering a sleek, streamlined approach to tracking daily duties and long-term habits.

Imagine waking up each morning to a neatly organized list of tasks for the day, including those pesky recurring tasks that, if forgotten, could throw a wrench in your well-oiled routine. Todoist excels in this domain, where adding, organizing, and tracking tasks is straightforward. Whether it's paying your monthly bills, scheduling daily workout sessions, or setting reminders for weekly team meetings, Todoist will do the trick.

A task list in Todoist

The magic of Todoist lies in its simplicity. Creating and adding tasks is as easy as telling Todoist what you need done. With natural language processing input, typing something as simple as "Water the plants every Sunday" magically schedules the task for you—no complicated setup or coding required. Trello, in contrast, doesn't have NLP for adding tasks or projects.

Natural language processing in Todoist

You can also nest subtasks within subtasks, which helps you keep track of your more complex to-dos. (In comparison, Trello can nest subtasks as checklists, but those only go one level deep.)

Todoist's karma points system gamifies your productivity, offering a fun twist to completing tasks. Each task you conquer rewards you with a cheery sound and points that level you up, contributing to your daily or weekly productivity goals. Todoist makes the mundane act of ticking off tasks just a little more rewarding, like having a personal cheerleader encouraging you to push through your to-do list, one task at a time.

Karma points in Todoist

And one of my favorite Todoist features is its two-way sync with Google Calendar. It automatically plops all my to-dos onto my calendar, helping me block time away for important tasks, and remove those calendar events when I complete the tasks.

Two-way sync with Google Calendar in Todoist
Google Calendar showing Todoist tasks

For individuals juggling a mix of daily chores, work-related tasks, and those important life admin to-dos that tend to slip through the cracks, Todoist offers a level of organization and flexibility that's hard to beat. Its focus on individual task management, coupled with the ability to handle recurring tasks with grace, makes it an indispensable tool for anyone looking to streamline their personal productivity.

Trello is better at managing multiple projects at scale

As much as Todoist excels at managing many tasks at once, Trello succeeds at managing many projects at once. Trello's board-based system isn't just about aesthetic appeal; it's a powerful framework that allows for unparalleled organization and visibility across multiple projects. 

Think of your Trello workspace as an office, and each board as its own team. Each board acts as a dedicated command center for a specific set of projects, complete with its own status lists and customizable labels. This means you can have a board for marketing campaigns, another for your CRM, one for engineering, and so on—each with its own detailed breakdown of tasks and stages. 

A workspace with multiple boards in Trello
A Trello board

What sets Trello apart in managing projects at scale is its ability to provide a bird's-eye view while still allowing for deep dives into the minutiae of each project. The ability to switch between boards with a simple click, drag and drop tasks between lists, and label cards for quick identification makes managing a portfolio of projects efficient and effective.

A colorful Trello board

Compared to Todoist, Trello offers a broader canvas for project oversight. It's designed for those moments when you're not just juggling tasks, but are in the thick of coordinating multiple projects, each with a unique set of deadlines, team members, and objectives. 

Trello makes it easier to collaborate with a team

Trello is all about teamwork. Trello's board-centric approach to project management is like setting up a digital war room for each project. Every member of the team has access to the same visual workspace, where the status of tasks, who's working on what, and what needs to be done next are all transparent. 

Adding team members to a board is a breeze, and once they're in, they can immediately start contributing without facing a steep learning curve. Whether it's adding members to cards, commenting on cards, attaching files, or moving tasks through different stages of completion, Trello's user-friendly interface makes it straightforward for everyone to contribute.

Sharing a board in Trello
Adding members to a card in Trello

That's not to say that Todoist is unusable for teams. In Todoist, you can create shared projects, making it easy for everyone to collaborate on shared tasks. While you may use Todoist to keep track of personal tasks like "Buy coffee beans," you can also have a project titled "Website Redesign," where tasks are shared among your team members. Each task within a shared project can be assigned to specific team members, making it clear who's responsible for what, reducing overlap, and ensuring accountability.

And both platforms have the ability to assign tasks, add comments to turn tasks into discussions, and track notifications for individual tasks. 

But Trello comes out ahead because it's oriented more to busy teams managing many different projects at once. Trello's Power-Ups (its term for integrations and add-ons) extend its collaborative capabilities even further. Whether you need to integrate with Slack for communication, Google Drive for document sharing, or even time tracking tools, Trello's ecosystem supports a wide range of over 200 integrations that can supercharge your team's productivity. In contrast, Todoist has about 60 built-in integrations. 

Trello has better built-in automation 

Trello's built-in automation tool streamlines routine processes within your boards. With simple rule-based triggers, actions, and scheduled commands, you can tailor automations to fit the unique workflow of your team. 

For example, when I move a card on my Trello board to "In Progress," I can automate adding a checklist to the card instead of manually adding that list. Or I can automatically assign all cards with a specific label to a specific team member. 

Setting up rules in Trello

You don't need to be a tech wizard to set up automation rules and buttons in Trello—all you have to do is choose your triggers and actions. This no-code accessibility ensures that all team members can contribute to optimizing the team's workflows.

Creating a rule for an automation in Trello

While you can automate tasks with Todoist by integrating with third-party services, Trello's native automation capabilities offer a more integrated and seamless experience. 

Of course, both Trello and Todoist integrate with Zapier, allowing you to connect them to thousands of other apps to automate your workflows. Here are some ideas for how to automate Trello and how to automate Todoist, or you can get started with one of these pre-built templates.

Zapier is a no-code automation tool that lets you connect your apps into automated workflows, so that every person and every business can move forward at growth speed. Learn more about how it works.

Todoist vs. Trello: Which should you use?

The choice between Todoist and Trello doesn't really boil down to which tool is better, but which is better for you and your team. Todoist is more of a to-do list app and Trello is more of a project management tool, but they can both serve both purposes. And both tools offer the promise of enhanced productivity, organization, and collaboration, albeit via different approaches. 

Choose Todoist if:

  • You need to keep track of a bunch of to-dos all in one place

  • It's important to sync your tasks with your Google Calendar

  • You prefer managing tasks via simple, clean lists

  • You work solo or in a small team or family

Choose Trello if: 

  • You're juggling many different, complex projects or deliverables with multiple stages at once

  • You need to keep a big team or multiple teams on track

  • You have a tall technology stack and need to integrate your project management tool with all of your software

  • You need built-in automation rules to keep projects moving along

Whether you're drawn to the streamlined simplicity of Todoist or the customizability of Trello, the right tool is the one that aligns with your workflow, amplifies your efficiency, and makes the daily grind a little less grind-y.

Related reading:

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Hsing Tseng Tue, 12 Mar 2024 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/trello-vs-todoist
Constant Contact vs. HubSpot: Which should you use? [2024] https://zapier.com/blog/constant-contact-vs-hubspot .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

The first email marketing tool I ever used in my business was HubSpot. Since then, I've tried various email marketing platforms, but until recently, I'd never dug into Constant Contact.

While both tools have great email marketing features, HubSpot positions itself as an all-in-one marketing solution, while Constant Contact is a dedicated email marketing platform for small businesses. So for this article, I spent time in both apps, testing their features to understand how they stack up when it comes to email marketing and beyond.

Here's what I discovered—I hope it helps you choose the best email marketing tool for your business.

Constant Contact vs. HubSpot at a glance

Comparing HubSpot to Constant Contact is like contrasting a Swiss army knife with a chef's knife: HubSpot does way more than Constant Contact, but it can get a little complicated. If you use all of HubSpot's Hubs and features, you'll get tools for marketing, sales, operations, content management, and customer service. Meanwhile, Constant Contact focuses almost exclusively on email marketing. 

In order to compare apples to apples, I'll focus mostly on the features of HubSpot that overlap with Constant Contact. This means using HubSpot's Marketing Hub, and homing in on its email marketing platform, sign-up forms, CRM, landing page builder, and automation features.

Here's a quick rundown of their comparable features, but keep reading for more details about each app and my experience using them.

Constant Contact

HubSpot 

Ease of use 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very easy to use and set up for beginners

⭐⭐⭐ Quite complex and confusing due to its many Hubs and features

Email templates and design 

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Hundreds of professionally-designed templates that are easily customizable

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Greater range of professional templates and offers more styling options in the email builder

Contact segmentation

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Contact segmentation based on basic attributes like demographics, interest, and engagement data

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Advanced segmentation powered by a robust CRM that allows you to segment contacts by lifestyle stages and other custom filters

AI features

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Includes an AI writer that can generate full emails from scratch

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ In addition to generating new emails, its AI writer can improve existing copy 

Landing page builder

⭐⭐⭐ Limited number of landing page templates with limited customization options

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Broad selection of templates with lots of customization and styling options

Automation

⭐⭐⭐⭐ User-friendly automation builder that allows you to build simple personalized journeys; also comes with lots of automation templates you can quickly customize

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Advanced automation builder for creating complex multi-step user journeys; comes with a broader range of automation templates and plenty of trigger, action, and condition options

Pricing

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ More affordable for small businesses, from $12/month to $80/month

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very expensive but offers more tools for managing your business, from $20/month to $3,600/month

Integration

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Integrates with hundreds of other tools, plus Zapier

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Integrates with thousands of other tools, plus Zapier

Constant Contact is easier to use and set up

HubSpot and Constant Contact both offer a smooth user experience, but Constant Contact is easier to use and more suitable for people looking to jump right in. It makes sense, since it has fewer features to figure out, plus it has a really streamlined interface. Once you click Create, you'll find all the tools you need to start your campaign. 

Starting a campaign in Constant Contact

From there, it's a straightforward system for adding and managing contacts, building automations, and setting up emails. 

In HubSpot, on the other hand, everything is in a different area of the app—sometimes across Hubs. Contacts are in one place, automation in another, and so on. Navigating the Hubs and getting to the things you need can be confusing, even with the neatly organized dropdown menus.

A great example of the contrast in ease of setup is the process for importing contacts. In Constant Contact, your spreadsheet can include basic fields, like email address, contact name, company, and birthday. Once you upload the spreadsheet, you can start sending emails right away. In HubSpot, because the email marketing tool is built on top of a powerful CRM system, it requires more in-depth information on every contact. For every contact record, you have the option to bring in a vast amount of data, like deals, products, and even activities, to give your sales and marketing teams all the information they need about each contact in your funnel.

Importing contacts in HubSpot

While advanced marketers may appreciate this level of detail, it can be confusing for less experienced users. And I found that setting up the spreadsheet for import into HubSpot took a considerable amount of time more than in Constant Contact.

If simplicity and ease of use are your priorities, Constant Contact will serve you well.

Both platforms offer solid email building features

Once your contacts are all set up and you're ready to start building campaigns, Constant Contact and HubSpot both give you hundreds of responsive and good-looking templates for different use cases. They both use a visual drag-and-drop editor that allows you to customize every part of the template. You can easily change the layouts, text style, or colors to reflect your brand. You can also add images, buttons, dividers, and other graphic elements for extra polish. 

Here's a look at Constant Contact's email builder:

Constant Contact's email builder

And here's HubSpot's:

HubSpot's email builder

Not too different, and if you've ever used an email builder, you'll feel right at home in either. Plus, if you have coding and design chops, both platforms allow you to build your emails from scratch and use custom HTML code to customize them.

HubSpot and Constant Contact also both provide AI writing assistance in their email builders, and they have similar approaches. In Constant Contact, you describe your content in a sentence or two, choose your tone of voice and length, and the AI writer will generate a full email for you.

The AI writer in Constant Contact

HubSpot works the same, but it can also rewrite, expand, and shorten your text, or change the tone to be more in tune with your brand. Just highlight any written content in the email builder and click the lightning bolt icon to edit it. This isn't anything you couldn't do in ChatGPT or another AI writing generator and paste over, but it's nice to have it built in.

The AI writer in HubSpot

The only big difference between Constant Contact and HubSpot here is that HubSpot offers more styling flexibility and so has a slightly higher learning curve, while Constant Contact is remarkably easy to use. But you'll get all you need to build professional emails in either tool.

HubSpot's landing page builder is more sophisticated

Both HubSpot and Constant Contact offer landing page builders for lead capture, but you'll get more value out of HubSpot's.

For starters, HubSpot offers a broader selection of templates, designed for practical scenarios like scheduling consultations, asset downloads, and event registration.

HubSpot's landing page templates

Inside each template, HubSpot delivers a premier page editing experience with its powerful drag-and-drop editor. You can add new layouts, modules, or sections to any template. Every page element is highly customizable, from background color to buttons, text, icons, and images. You can also adjust padding, borders, and visibility of different elements to suit different browsers and device sizes. And you can create dynamic landing pages that show unique content based on who views them and the information stored in your CRM. 

HubSpot's landing page builder

Besides these design elements, HubSpot allows you to optimize different parts of your landing page in the builder. As you build your page and add content, the tool will analyze your headers, images, links, and mobile-friendliness and make recommendations for search engine optimization (SEO). Not surprising for a company that coined the term "inbound marketing."

HubSpot's SEO recommendation in its landing page builder

In addition to these SEO features, HubSpot allows you to run in-depth A/B tests from the page editor to check the effectiveness of your landing page. You can test the CTA, copy, media content, and layout and use the insights to improve your page's performance.

Constant Contact's landing page builder is very basic in comparison, as the tool is built for simplicity. Its template options are highly limited, and the page builder isn't as customizable. While you can do basic things like change colors, adjust alignment, and add event blocks, you can't do things like optimize or create dynamic pages.

Constant Contact's landing page builder

If landing pages are secondary, and you're focused mostly on email marketing, Constant Contact will get the job done. But if you want to make landing pages a big part of your strategy, HubSpot is the better choice. 

HubSpot's automation is more powerful

Email automation is another area that shows just how different Constant Contact is from HubSpot. While Constant Contact allows you to build simple yet effective automated email journeys, HubSpot delivers complex, multi-step journeys for automating contacts through longer buyer lifecycles. Here's what I mean.

In Constant Contact, you'll get pre-built automated templates that are easily customizable. You can use these templates to set up automated email sequences to welcome new subscribers, win back inactive customers, or celebrate subscribers on their birthdays. You can also use the drag-and-drop automation builder to build custom automations that trigger when new contacts are added, links are clicked, or contacts are tagged and segmented. But it's pretty basic, with very few trigger and action options.

Constant Contact's automation options

With HubSpot, the pre-built automated workflow templates go well beyond welcome series, anniversaries, and cart abandonment. For instance, HubSpot offers workflow templates to create and assign tasks when a new deal is made, collect customer insights with a survey, or update contact properties based on defined criteria. Alternatively, you can build custom automation based on contacts, companies, deals, and conversations in your CRM—there are lots of options.

HubSpot's automation options

Inside the automation builder, you'll get a wide variety of trigger and action options. You can get very granular and set filters for your triggers so that the workflow only starts when certain conditions are met; for example, only if the contact's lifecycle is set to lead (if it's a contact-based workflow). 

HubSpot offers if/then branching to send contacts on different paths based on a variety of specific criteria. For workflows with multiple if/then branches, you can connect them using a "go to" action, and you can enroll contacts from one workflow into another without repeating the entire automation steps. With HubSpot, your automation can be as simple or complex as your business needs, and it can cover all of your marketing and sales funnels.

HubSpot's workflow builder

The only downside—and it's a big one—is that advanced automation is locked behind higher-tier plans like Marketing Professional and Enterprise—it's going to put you back hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month, minimum. On the Starter plan, you can only access ten automated actions, which are not so sophisticated.

The bottom line: if you want advanced automation, HubSpot is the better option, but it comes with a hefty price tag.

Contact segmentation is better in HubSpot

Both HubSpot and Constant Contact offer contact segmentation—but to different extents. In Constant Contact, you can segment your contacts based on common criteria, like engagement level, the email lists they're subscribed to, the personal information you've collected, or the tags added to their contact.  

But thanks to HubSpot's CRM, which holds in-depth data on every contact, you'll get more advanced segmentation options in HubSpot. That means segmenting based on persona, lifecycle stage, industry, interests, engagement level, and even economic value. For dynamic marketing lists, the platform will automatically sort your contacts and group subscribers accordingly when they meet your pre-set criteria, like contact property, list membership, or interaction with marketing assets.

Segmentation in HubSpot

It's an advanced segmentation system that will start paying dividends as your list grows.

HubSpot has a free plan, but Constant Contact is more affordable for small businesses

HubSpot has a free email plan that lets you send up to 2,000 emails every month (without many of the advanced features). Constant Contact, on the other hand, doesn't have a free plan—just a 14-day free trial.

After the free introductions, Constant Contact is easily the cheaper option. It has a simple pricing structure, with three-tiered plans that start at $12/month for up to 500 contacts. The pricing goes up incrementally depending on the size of your contact list, and lower-tiered plans—Lite and Standard—exclude advanced features like custom automation paths and engagement heat maps. 

HubSpot's Marketing Hub also has three price tiers, starting at $20/month for 1,000 marketing contacts but with limited functionality. The price shoots up to $890/month if you want to access advanced features like workflows, A/B testing, custom reporting, and social media integration. And then there's the enterprise plan, which costs $3,600/month. Even though HubSpot offers options to build a customized plan based on your business needs, it still works out to be very expensive for small businesses.

Both platforms integrate with other tools and connect with Zapier

Constant Contact and HubSpot both have great integration options, so you can keep your email marketing platform connected to the rest of your tech stack. 

HubSpot has way more native integrations, but both HubSpot and Constant Contact integrate with Zapier, which means you can connect them to thousands of other apps and do things like automatically sync contacts across different apps, register contacts for events, or move contact details in and out of your lists. Learn more about how to automate HubSpot with Zapier, or get started with any of these pre-made workflows.

Zapier is a no-code automation tool that lets you connect your apps into automated workflows, so that every person and every business can move forward at growth speed. Learn more about how it works.

HubSpot vs. Constant Contact: Which should you choose?

HubSpot and Constant Contact are very different tools. HubSpot is better for growing and large companies looking for a one-stop marketing platform. Its vast range of features covers all sorts of business functions and may be too much for users looking for a dedicated email tool. Constant Contact, on the other hand, is more suited for small businesses and solopreneurs looking for an affordable, streamlined, and focused email marketing solution.

Related reading:

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Juliet John Tue, 12 Mar 2024 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/constant-contact-vs-hubspot
The only Gantt chart template you'll ever need for Excel (and how to automate it) https://zapier.com/blog/gantt-chart-template .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

There's something visually satisfying about lines. Second to the dot, it's the simplest graphic element you can draw, yet it can convey a huge amount of meaning. (If you're not here to wax poetic about lines, I don't don't know why you're here.)

Gantt charts help project managers and their teams get a quick bird's-eye view of project progress and team availability—all thanks to the humble line. Throw in some color coding, and you've really got a project management stew cooking.

Most project management software can readily change dashboards to Gantt views. But if you're looking to stick to the Microsoft Office suite and DIY, here's how you can easily create one with a handy free Gantt chart template for Excel.

Free Excel Gantt chart template

Screenshot of Zapier's free Gantt chart template

This intricately designed Gantt chart template should handle just about anything you need a Gantt chart to do. The idea is to give you a quick view of task timelines, project progress, and overall utilization. When multiple tasks overlap or there's a significant gap, you'll be able to visualize it and make changes on the fly.

Ready to take a Gantt-er? (I'm so sorry.) Here's how to open it:

  1. Download the template.

  2. Open Excel from your desktop or log in to your Microsoft 365 account and open Excel in your browser.

  3. Click File > Open, and locate the .xlsx file you downloaded. (Select the Open files from this device option in 365.)

Notes for Microsoft 365 users

You should also be able to upload the template file to your dashboard, but the interface usually doesn't cooperate with me when I try this. If the file doesn't do anything after you open it, disable your pop-up blocker. I tried about 10 times before figuring out that's why mine wouldn't open.

How to use our Gantt chart template in Excel

So your shiny new project management toy is loaded up in Excel and ready to go, but you Gantt figure out what to do next. (I'm so, so sorry.) Here's how to use the template every time you have a new project to visualize:

  1. Delete any unnecessary example data from the template.

  2. Always save a new copy of this document (File > Save As) before starting a new project, so the template file stays blank.

  3. Change the file name, title, and tab title to the project name (or whatever you want to call it).

  4. Change the project start date, and the rest of the dates will automatically update. 

  5. Update the project, manager, task, and phase name fields as needed.

  6. Update estimated start and end dates for each task. Once you add the number of days to the column between those two columns, you'll populate the chart with the Gantt chart's signature lines.

  7. As your team progresses through tasks, you can update the left cell of the "Progress" column with the completion percentage, and it'll update the handy little percentage meter.

Tips for using the template

  • If you keep making the same changes to new files, you can always change the core template file to save time.

  • You can toggle the date range views without deleting any data by changing the display week field.

  • Updating the length of one task will automatically shift ensuing task dates.

  • When you want to clean up some visual clutter, use the +/- icons to the left of the row numbers to open and close phases.

How to create your own Excel Gantt chart template

So maybe you've got your own ideas about how you'd like your Gantt chart template to look. (Don't worry, only a little offended.) 

I'll note that it's almost always easier to create one in dedicated Gantt chart software like Ganttic, project management software like ClickUp, or database applications like Airtable. You can even automate those tools using Zapier. For example, you can add Ganttic tasks for new Google Calendar events or add Excel sheet rows for new Airtable records, and much more. Here are a few examples to get you started.

Zapier is a no-code automation tool that lets you connect your apps into automated workflows, so that every person and every business can move forward at growth speed. Learn more about how it works.

But if you've got all your data stored in Excel or if your workflows are so entrenched in the Microsoft Office universe you can't see daylight anymore, you can create your own Gantt chart template in Excel from scratch just like we did. (Just maybe not quite as nice.)

Note: I'm using the web version of Excel, but the desktop version should look pretty similar.

Step 1: Fill in and format your data

First things first: fill in the basic data you want to populate the Gantt chart template. We'll start simple, with just columns (from left to right) for task name, start date, length, and end date. Feel free to insert extra rows for phases if you're into the granularity thing. (Don't forget to label your column headings.)

Screenshot of an Excel sheet showing how to fill in and format data with columns labeled task, start date, length, and end date

Once you've got the basics set up, you'll want to format your cells: 

  • Task name: Text format

  • Start and end dates: Date format

  • Length: Number format

To do this, select the entire column by clicking on its corresponding letter. Then, holding Command (Mac) or Control (Windows), click the column header so it deselects it. Right-click the highlighted column (sans header) and select Format Cells. In the Number field, you'll find both the date and number formats. (You can leave the Task column alone—it's text by default). Be sure the Length column is formatted to have no decimals.

Screenshot of the Excel sheet showing how to format the data

Lastly, you could mental-math your task length, but why? Set up a quick formula in the first cell of the Length column of end date minus start date. (In my case, this is =D2-B2.) Once that populates the cell with a number, hover over the bottom-right corner of the cell until your cursor turns into a +, then double-click, and it'll automatically apply it to every ensuing cell in the column. (If this doesn't work, just copy the cell and paste it into the remaining cells.)

Screenshot of a portion of the Excel sheet showing how to input a formula in the length column

Extra lastly, I recommend visually differentiating your phases by adding a highlight or, in my case, bolding the text. Feel free to do the same to your column headings or task names.

Screenshot of the Excel sheet showing how to differentiate the phases by bolding the text and adding a light gray highlight

Step 2: Insert bars

Here's where things really (I can't express how sorry I am) Gantt going. 

Highlight your whole table of data, then open the Insert tab in the top nav. Find the little caret dropdown at the edge of the graph options, and select Stacked Bar under the Bar options. (You could also do 100% Stacked Bar if you'd prefer to view percentage completion rather than dates.)

Screenshot of the Excel sheet showing how to turn the data into bars

Boom, Gantt chart. Sort of. Now you need to edit the data in your table. To do that, right-click the chart and select Format, then select the Data tab. Under the Setup caret, hit the trash can to remove the start date and length fields. (We'll come back to this later.)

Screenshot of the Excel sheet showing how to edit the data in the bar chart

Now go to the Format tab. Under the Chart Title caret, change the name of the chart to your project name (or leave it blank). Then, deselect the legend option. Your chart might look a little scrunched, but it should be pretty clean now.

Screenshot of the Excel sheet showing how to add a title to the bar chart

Step 3: Format the horizontal axis

You'll probably notice the date range is too broad now. To remedy this, copy/paste the project's first start date and final end date into new cells. Then, select them and change the format like you did earlier, switching those two cells from dates to numbers. You'll get very specific-looking values.

Screenshot of the Excel sheet showing the first step in formatting the bar chart's horizontal axis

Select your graph, then right-click the dates on the horizontal axis, and go to the Format option. Enter the start date value into the Minimum field and the end date value into the Maximum field. Finally, change the Major Units field to 7 to display your dates in weekly increments. (If you prefer to view individual days, change to 1 instead.) Now your Gantt chart should match your table data.

Screenshot of the Excel sheet showing the second step in formatting the bar chart's horizontal axis

Step 4: Format the vertical axis

Discerning users will notice the vertical axis is displaying tasks in reverse order. (Less discerning users will now check their charts and verify this is true.)

To invert them, right-click the vertical axis of the chart (aka, the names of the tasks), and click—you guessed it—Format. Under the Format tab and Vertical Axis caret, check the checkbox for Categories in reverse order.

Screenshot of the Excel sheet showing how to format the bar chart's vertical axis

This handily also brings your horizontal axis dates to the top of the chart. Exit out, and you'll see your shiny new Gantt chart.

Step 5: Customize formatting

Want to incorporate task progress into your bars that visualize how far each task has progressed from the start date to today's date? Right-click the chart and go to Format. In the menu, switch to the Data tab. Under the Bar Values heading, click Add Field and bring back the Start Date. Then, click the up arrow to move it before the end date field.

Screenshot of the Excel sheet showing how to order the data by start to end date

You can leave the color coding as is, if you're into that, or to make it more Gantt-y, switch back to the Format tab. Under the Series "Start date" caret, change the Fill paint bucket to No Fill. Use the Outline dropdown next to the paint bucket to select an outline color (I chose a tasteful light gray). Bam, blank space leading up to start dates.

Screenshot of the Excel sheet showing how to change the fill color for the bars

While you're at it, you can also change the end date bar colors to whatever you like. You can even change individual bars if you want to visually group tasks or delineate phases. Just click the bar of your choice (which will select every bar), then click it again to select just that bar. Right-click it, and you should see another Fill bucket and Outline icon. 

Screenshot of the Excel sheet showing how to change the bar fill color

To finish up, add any extra columns (like task assignee), update highlight colors, and then drag and drop the chart next to your table. Expand it to the size you want, and you're done. 

Screenshot of the Excel sheet showing the finalized data and bar chart

How to automate your Gantt chart template with Excel

Whether you've grabbed our Gantt chart template or followed the steps above to create your own, when it comes to visualizing project timelines, this is one chart you really Gantt beat. (For the last time, I'm sorry.)

Unless, of course, you use project management tools that make it even simpler and more refined—not to mention more automatable. Zapier's no-code automation helps you do that with custom workflows that combine multiple apps into streamlined sequences.

Related reading:

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Bryce Emley Mon, 11 Mar 2024 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/gantt-chart-template
How to create a report in Salesforce https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-create-report-salesforce .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

Salesforce is a customer relationship management tool tons of people use to manage sales and report on performance. Since creating reports is an integral part of reporting, you'd think the powers that be would make it pretty straightforward. 

If you're here right now, that's because, for whatever reason, they did not.

While it may not be obvious, the good news is that it's still pretty simple, which is the next best thing. So if you've been struggling to make the reports you need, here's how to create a report in Salesforce.

  1. Open the Reports tab and start a new report

  2. Adjust your report and run it

  3. Create a summary report by grouping rows

  4. Create a matrix report by grouping columns

  5. Add a chart

Types of reports in Salesforce

Salesforce reports break down into standard reports and custom reports. Standard reports are based on Salesforce's existing templates you can plug and play, while custom reports are ones you build from scratch based on specific data parameters. This walkthrough is for standard reports.

As you start a report and add more complexity to it, you'll find that these reports break down further into four formats:

  • Tabular: These spreadsheet-like reports are the simplest, displaying your data as a series of lines in sortable rows and columns.

  • Summary: When you apply conditional details to your tabular report rows, you get a summary report. This type allows you to segment data groups with charts and separate calculations.

  • Matrix: A step up from summary reports, these reports allow you to tabulate a more complex matrix with groupings in both rows and columns.

  • Joined: When you need combinations of all the above, joined reports allow you to separate different report types into their own blocks to compare within the same interface.

Salesforce report tutorial

If the report types above sound abstract, you'll see what I mean as I walk through the Salesforce reporting steps. Since they build in complexity, I'll touch on (almost) each one as I go. (I'm skipping joined reports: while many of the steps are similar, there's also enough complexity involved that it's just a bit outside the bounds of this general guide to building reports in Salesforce.)

Step 1: Open the Reports tab and start a new report

Screenshot of the reports dashboard in Salesforce

From any dashboard, you should see a Reports tab in the top nav. From the main Reports page, you'll see a New Report button.

This page also lists a bunch of Salesforce's preset report types. For example purposes, I'll start one from scratch, but you could also just run one of those by clicking the name or exploring the options in the dropdown caret on the right. The sidebar also lists previous reports you've used, created, or saved, which you can further organize into folders.

Screenshot of how to create a new report in Salesforce

This will bring up a window where you can pick from basic report types. You can also adjust which objects and fields to include, but for now, I'll keep this Leads report to default presets. 

Hit Start Report to… start the report.

Step 2: Adjust your report and run it

Screenshot of how to add presets for your data in the report

When your new report opens up, you'll see a skeleton with no data. In the left panel, there's an Outline tab where you can add or delete the fields that will become columns. For a Leads report, by default, this includes things like first name, title, and lead source. To simplify, I'll X out a few. (If you edit these, you may have to hit Refresh to update the preview.)

You'll also see a Filters tab next to the Outline tab. Here, you can change parameters for your data, like lead creation date, leads by owner, and lead status. I'll leave these on the default.

When you've got the presets you want, you can use the buttons at the top to save the report for later use, run the report, or both. Hit Run when you're ready.

Screenshot of a basic tabular report in Salesforce, including fields for first and last name, company/account, email address, and lead owner

If all you want to do is run a basic tabular report, you're done. You can save it, export it, search through it, or sort it. If you want to add a bit more complexity, move on to step 3.

Step 3: Create a summary report by grouping rows

Click the Edit button to return to the report editing interface. In the Groups field on the left nav, under GROUP ROWS, I'm going to type "Company / Account" to create subgroups by account associated with each lead. 

Screenshot of how to create groups in the Salesforce report

You can also group by more than one field, and it doesn't have to be included in your existing report—things like lead owner, rating, number of employees, location, and email bounce reason.

When you've set your groupings, hit Run

Screenshot of a summary report in Salesforce after adding groups

This is what my particular summary report looks like. You can edit yours further, continue sorting it, add a chart, or incorporate still more complexity in the next step.

Step 4: Create a matrix report by grouping columns

Let's take things up a notch by grouping both columns and rows. Hit the Edit button to go back to the report editing page. From there, you can type additional grouping fields into the GROUP COLUMNS field below where you added rows to group. I'm going to add "Lead Owner" to mine. Hit Run when you're ready.

Screenshot of how to group columns by lead owner in Salesforce

Your matrix report should now combine groupings across horizontal and vertical axes. It'll even show you convenient totals across rows and columns, which you can see by scrolling to the right (if needed) and to the bottom.

Screenshot of a matrix report in Salesforce with grouped columns and rows

Step 5: Add a chart

Within that same report page, you can also render your data as a chart by clicking the Toggle Chart icon that looks like a little pie chart at the top. This view will populate at the top of the report above your table. 

Screenshot of a bar chart with data from the Salesforce report

Curiously, the pie chart's default view is a bar graph. But if you're not into that, you can click the little Settings icon (the little gear icon above the chart). Here, you'll find additional chart options to suit your data analysis tastes, like column, donut, or line.

Screenshot of the same data from the bar chart in a line chart

Scheduling Salesforce reports

If you want to run standard reports on a regular basis, you can schedule them as well.

  1. Return to the Reports page. 

  2. Find the report type you want.

  3. Click the dropdown caret on the right side.

  4. Click Subscribe.

  5. Set preferences for timing, delivery time, recipients, attachments, and conditions.

  6. Hit Save.

Screenshot showing how to schedule a report in Salesforce

Once you set your subscription up, you'll get those reports delivered to any preset recipients whenever you want them.

Custom Salesforce reporting options

More advanced users with custom reporting permissions can also create their own custom report types. I'm not going to dig into those here, but here's what you can expect from Salesforce custom reports:

  • Preset the columns you want your reports to open with.

  • Report on up to four objects at once.

  • Pull fields into the report from related objects.

  • Apply advanced section and field customization, sorting, and inclusions.

  • Report on both "with" and "without" relationships.

How to create a report in Salesforce with automation

Nobody loves compiling reports, except the most utterly, painfully Type A of us (which you might be if you're reading this [I might be borderline myself]). But now that you know how to create a report in Salesforce, it's time to streamline things with Salesforce automations.

You can use Zapier's no-code automations to link your favorite apps to Salesforce to do things like add new Typeform, Facebook ads, and Webflow leads to your Salesforce dashboard. Learn more about how to automate Salesforce, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Zapier is the leader in workflow automation—integrating with 6,000+ apps from partners like Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Use interfaces, data tables, and logic to build secure, automated systems for your business-critical workflows across your organization's technology stack. Learn more.

Related reading:

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Bryce Emley Mon, 11 Mar 2024 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-create-report-salesforce
Meet your annual goals with consistent quarterly and monthly check-ins https://zapier.com/blog/quarterly-monthly-check-ins .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

How are those annual goals going? If you're anything like me, you love planning but don't love all the work it takes to put it down on paper. But for an annual plan to be successful, you need some good check-ins along the way to keep you—and your goals—on track. Here's how I do it.

Build quarterly benchmarks into your annual plan

It's going to be a pain to try to measure how you're doing with your goals if you haven't already set up a system to track progress. Every time you make a goal, you want to have a clear idea of how to achieve it from start to finish and what progress looks like.

Assuming you've already started working toward your goals, going back and adding in more details and setting benchmarks is a great way to ensure you meet them. Personally, I like the SMART approach to creating goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound.

I tend to do all my annual planning in January each year. I have templates for reviews and reflections, and my annual goals match the priorities I've identified in my annual review. Here's how I break them down:

  • Goal: I name the goal, being as specific as possible, and give myself a timeframe, usually by end of year, during a certain quarter, or from X to Y quarter (Specific, Achievable, and Timebound).

  • Why/Results: I share why this goal is important to my business/career and what exactly I want to achieve within the timeframe I've set (Relevant and Measurable).

  • How/By: This section is usually a free write of ideas for how to meet my goal and/or the steps to get there, which also helps me ultimately decide if I'm taking on too much work (Specific and Achievable).

Now let's look at an example:

Example
  • Annual Goal: Develop a consistent blogging schedule for The Chronic Worker: 2x/month from Q2-Q4 on topics outside of personal mental health updates.

  • Why/Ideal Result: To begin exploring a new business model, build a portfolio and following in my niche, and get into the habit of writing 3x/month (2 blogs, 1 newsletter) or 18 posts and 9 newsletters.

  • How/By: Create a content plan for each quarter (1 Q&A profile and 1 industry/personal/how-to piece a month), schedule in writing time or find writers to collab with for guest posts, and create a post template with space for metadata and promotional copy. Keep a running list of ideas and Include audio versions of each article that can be published on podcasting platforms for further reach.

One Zapier writer has their own detailed system for building out goals that are easy to track.

If you want to get better at planning and meeting your goals, just remember that it's an ongoing process. Sometimes, I know exactly what I want to achieve in my head and am too excited to get it down on paper. Having a system like the SMART approach forces me to look at my goals more objectively and set better parameters.

Create your quarterly benchmark

Now that you know what info you need from your goals, you can identify that quarterly benchmark. My ideal result for my blogging goal is 18 blog posts and 9 newsletters, or 27 posts total from April through December. 

Breaking that down into quarters, that means in Q2, Q3, and Q4, I'd want to publish 9 posts total per quarter. That's a clear quarterly benchmark that's easily measured and tracked and will help me achieve my overall goal.

What about goals that are less easy to track?

Another goal of mine is to generate 50% of my freelance income this year from Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI)-related work. Since I freelance on top of a full-time job and my freelance income goals are fairly low this year, this is achievable for me. But how would I create quarterly benchmarks for this?

First, I could break this goal down into quarterly steps, e.g., "By Q2, I will have earned X amount in DEAI work". I could also assign this goal to one or more quarters, e.g., "In Q2 and Q3 I will pursue only DEAI projects totaling Y amount." There are a lot of different ways to benchmark your goals, and you may have to experiment a bit to figure out what works best for you.

Tip: Don't stop at quarterly progress! To really stay on track, you'll want to break down each goal even further into monthly actions.

Going back to my blog content writing goal, let's look at the list of actions I've suggested for myself:

  • Create a quarterly content plan 

  • Schedule in writing time

  • Find other writers to collab for guest posts

  • Create a blog post template

  • Keep a running list of article ideas that come up as I write

Now I can take these to-dos, fill any gaps, prioritize them, and assign those tasks to myself. I have health issues on top of a full-time job, so I prefer to keep things more flexible by assigning monthly actions weekly based on my energy and schedule.

Set monthly and quarterly check-ins

Every good business reviews and plans regularly, and individual workers should be no different. Set regular planning time in your calendar to look over the past month and quarter and see how you did.

This check-in should cover goals, but also just how each month and quarter went. Why is this important? Because when you evaluate goals and review your results (more on that later), this will give you the context to say "Yes, this worked" or "No, it didn't."

I've been struggling with depression a lot recently, so much so that I've had to revisit some of my annual goals. One that's no longer working for me right now is that blog content goal. I plan to keep writing, but the 27 posts I was hoping for are no longer as realistic.

Tip: Make reviews and planning even easier on yourself by combining your monthly and quarterly check-ins. 

I try to set aside time each month for reviews and planning, usually during the last or first week of the month. I use the same template for monthly reviews and planning and quarterly reviews, both because it's convenient and because all the data is there. Essentially, my monthly and quarterly reviews are the same thing, with a few end-of-quarter reflection questions tacked on. Feel free to check out my template and try it for yourself.

An example of a monthly check-in doc

My monthly/quarterly review includes:

  • A summary of what happened each month

  • Project notes

  • My systems

  • What I did or didn't do well

  • Ideal work situation and how I'm working toward that

More recently, I've added a review question for my goals to track my progress as well. At the end of each quarter, I do a wrap-up that includes highlights, lowlights, goals, systems, and final reflections. 

Now, keep in mind that this exercise isn't really numbers-based. For example, I also have a separate spreadsheet that helps me keep track of my income, clients, assignments, and project types for each quarter.

Here are some other templates to try—and to adapt to your own needs.

Re-evaluate your goals regularly

Times and needs change, and so will your goals. Just be careful about letting them shift in the wrong direction.

2023 was a bad planning year for me. I started by setting reasonable income and business goals for the year. Then, after landing a big project at the beginning of the year, I found myself writing over my goals, making them bigger and bigger to match my new priorities. Unfortunately, I was way too ambitious, and after some serious burnout and a lot of personal stuff took over, I ended up backing off of business planning completely. 

There's nothing wrong with switching things up to match your circumstances, but be cautious. It's very easy to get excited and overly ambitious, and then lose motivation if your situation changes again.

When you do your quarterly review and planning, take a hard look at each of your goals:

  • How do you feel about the goal itself and the time you have to accomplish it? Would you change anything? (Specific, Timebound)

  • What about the results you want? How much progress have you made and how much is there left to do? Can you still reasonably accomplish them in the time you have left? (Achievable, Measurable, Timebound)

  • Check your "why." Does it still hold true? Does it still fit your personal direction, or has it shifted? (Relevant)

  • Look back at your notes from the last quarter. Is trying to achieve your goals negatively affecting your life in other ways?

Review your results

This is something a lot of us forget. It's easy to keep going with goals because they're there and you still want to meet them. But are they actually producing results? After all, we set goals to accomplish something. If you aren't getting the right—or any—results from the goals you've set, check if that goal is ultimately serving you or not.

What you consider to be a result will really depend on you. It could be quantitative or qualitative.

Quantitative results have numbers attached: you gained X more clients, saved Y amount of time, or earned $ more. Qualitative results are more descriptive and subjective, so they'll depend on what you prioritize. For example, if a goal results in better health or less stress, that's a qualitative result. 

And yes, you could break down qualitative results like "less stress" into numbers as well (number of days you felt stressed before compared to now, for example). But it's also ok to keep things simple!

A better project management system for me could result in quantitative results like better data for tracking my projects (e.g., X number of projects at Y rate completed in Z amount of time) that I can then use to set better goals next time. It could also reduce stress and simplify my limited freelance hours, both qualitative results.

Don't forget that you may have already built a "why" or "ideal result" into your goal, so revisit that as well and see how close you've gotten.

Tip: It's ok to not meet your goals! Part of re-evaluating is deciding whether this is the right time to meet that goal. If you need to postpone, change, or drop it, that's an option.

It's also important to note down when you're struggling to meet a goal: this is often a clue that something needs to change. It could be the goal itself, or something external that needs adjusting to get you back on track. For example, maybe you find you're too stressed about money to focus on a passion project.

In my case, expanding my blog is important, but my health needs to take priority, which means my goals need to shift. I can't control the health factors, but I can acknowledge the impact and reprioritize so I can focus on managing them better.

Think of goals as guidelines

By breaking down your goals, working toward them incrementally, and reviewing them consistently, you can make informed decisions and pivot when (not if) something changes.

Related reading:

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Leanna Lee Mon, 11 Mar 2024 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/quarterly-monthly-check-ins
12 stunning and time-saving newsletter templates for Word https://zapier.com/blog/newsletter-templates-word .css-12p6n7x{overflow:auto;}.css-12p6n7x >*{margin-bottom:20px;margin-top:20px;}.css-12p6n7x >H2{margin-top:60px;}.css-12p6n7x >H3{margin-top:40px;}.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:20px;}@media (min-width: 660px){.css-12p6n7x>[id]{scroll-margin-top:100px;}}

I once ran an email newsletter about my favorite band in the halcyon days of the late '90s. I designed these newsletter templates in Word, because using dial-up internet for anything less than absolutely necessary was on par with making stir-fry with your partner's expensive EVOO. (Ask me how I know.)

Newsletter marketing has come a long way since then, yet Microsoft Word remains a powerful tool for creating templates. Whether you're a business wanting to expand brand awareness or a preteen girl hoping to spread the gospel of three teenage brothers with the voices—and hair—of angels, newsletters are a stellar way to reach an audience.

Jump into our selection of newsletter templates for Word or Google Docs to find your perfect match, or hang around to discover the basics of newsletter templates, how to use them, and the identity of my former favorite band and newsletter subject. (It's pretty embarrassing.)

What is a newsletter template?

A newsletter template is a pre-designed, customizable framework that enables you to efficiently create newsletters before emailing them in a platform like Outlook or Gmail. Think of them as the structural foundation that saves you from reinventing the wheel each time you want to send an update.

Using a word processor like Microsoft Word or Google Docs, as opposed to a professional design program, provides a flexible newsletter template—perfect for those who think bleed settings are what you tell the server when they ask how you want your steak.

Newsletter templates offer flexibility through editable elements like:

  • Header: Brand your newsletter with your logo, tagline, or a striking image.

  • Footer: Include contact information, social links, and unsubscribe options here.

  • Headings: Edit headlines and subheadings to capture attention and establish a hierarchy to guide readers through your content.

  • Colors: Align the color scheme with your brand's visual identity for consistency.

  • Fonts: Select typefaces that are easy to read and align with your brand. Avoid obscure fonts that might not display correctly.

  • CTAs: Encourage readers to take a specific action by including clear and compelling call-to-action buttons or links.

  • Images: Break up text and increase engagement with photos, illustrations, or icons relevant to your content. You may also want to add captions to images for context or attribution.

Templates streamline the newsletter creation process and ensure your emails always look polished. Once you find a template you love, you can iterate on it for each edition, simply swapping out the content, saving you tons of time. That's what I did with my Hanson newsletter.

How to use newsletter templates in Word or Google Docs

In order to use a downloaded document as a template, you'll first need to save it as a template file. Luckily, this is a pretty simple process in both Word and Google Docs.

Microsoft Word

  1. Create or open your base document: Begin by creating a new document or opening an existing one that has the structure and formatting you want.

  2. Customize: Add all the essential elements you want in your future newsletters, such as company logos, placeholder text and images, and specific fonts and styles. (Or use one of the templates below.)

  3. Save as a template:

    • Click File > Save As.

    • In the Save as type dropdown menu, select either Word Template (.dotx) or, to send your newsletter directly through email, Outlook Template (.oft).

    • Give your template a name, and click Save.

  4. To use your template in Word:

    • Click File > New from Template.

    • Select your template in the new window, and click Create.

  5. To use your template in Outlook:

    • Create a new email in Outlook.

    • Navigate to the Home Tab, and in the New group, click the New Items dropdown.

    • Select More Items > Choose Form.

    • Under the Look In: dropdown, select User Templates in File System.

    • Find and select your newly created template, and click Open.

Google Docs

Google Workspace subscribers can add custom templates by going to the Google Docs Template Gallery and selecting the Submit a template button.

If you have a personal Google account, there isn't a way to save a document as a reusable template, but there's an easy workaround:

  1. Create or open your base document: Start with a new document, or make a copy of an existing one containing your desired newsletter format.

  2. Customize: Design your document in Google Docs as you want your template to appear (or use one of the templates below).

  3. Name and organize: Give it a clear title like "[Newsletter name] - TEMPLATE." Consider creating a dedicated "Templates" folder in your Google Drive to keep things organized.

  4. When you need to use your template:

    • Locate the document in Google Drive.

    • Right-click on the file and choose Make a copy.

    • Rename the copy and start editing.

  5. To email from Google Docs:

    • Click the Insert menu, then hover over Building blocks, and select Email draft.

    • Alternatively, type @email directly into the document, and press Enter. This will generate an email draft structure.

12 newsletter templates for Word and Google Docs

The following newsletter templates for Word and Google Docs serve as a jumping-off point, featuring a basic layout with placeholders for content, images, and graphics. They're perfect for those who say, "I want to express myself, but not too much." Feel free to customize them to match your brand's style and the type of information you want to share, regardless of our suggested use case.

1. Corporate newsletter template

Best for: Internal communications or company leadership teams to share company updates, employee achievements, and industry news

Corporate newsletters serve as a central hub for employees and stakeholders to stay connected with a company's happenings. They typically cover a wide range of content, including things like new projects or initiatives, upcoming events, and the break room fridge clean-out schedule. This type of newsletter reinforces company values and objectives and builds a sense of community.

To use this template in Google Docs instead, make a copy of this Google Doc.

2. Education newsletter template

Best for: Educational institutions or corporate training programs to share educational content, course updates, and upcoming events

An education newsletter is perfect for schools, colleges, and other educational organizations. It helps celebrate achievements and keep everyone informed. This type of newsletter often includes important announcements, scholarship opportunities, and that one article about managing stress during exams.

To use this template in Google Docs instead, make a copy of this Google Doc.

3. Industry-specific newsletter template

Best for: Professional organizations, thought leaders, or specialized businesses to provide curated industry news, trends, and analysis for professionals looking to stay informed

Targeted and insightful, an industry-specific newsletter is the place to talk shop. It's like having a friend who only talks about work but in surprisingly riveting detail. Whether you're keeping accountants abreast of the latest tax loopholes or helping morticians stay on the cutting edge of embalming techniques, your content should match what your target audience expects and finds most useful or interesting.

To use this template in Google Docs instead, make a copy of this Google Doc.

4. Networking event newsletter template

Best for: Organizers promoting networking events, workshops, and conferences

Primarily used to promote and increase attendance at networking functions, a networking event newsletter builds excitement by highlighting speakers, sharing success stories from previous events, and detailing pertinent information like program schedules and registration instructions. With any luck, your guests will be exchanging business cards and LinkedIn requests before the end of the pre-event cocktail party.

To use this template in Google Docs instead, make a copy of this Google Doc.

5. Client showcase newsletter template

Best for: Agencies and freelancers to highlight projects, testimonials, and case studies

A client showcase newsletter demonstrates expertise, credibility, and success to potential clients while keeping current clients informed of the company's work. Because nothing screams humility like dedicating an entire publication to singing your own praises.

To use this template in Google Docs instead, make a copy of this Google Doc.

6. Seasonal/holiday newsletter template

Best for: Marketing teams, customer relations, or anyone wanting to connect with their audience during specific times of the year

Whether it's decking the halls or carving pumpkins, a seasonal/holiday newsletter connects with audiences on a celebratory, personal level. This is a chance to showcase your brand's personality by celebrating seasonal events or holidays, sharing themed promotions, or giving company updates in a festive context. Leave the hard-selling for another time—no one likes thinly veiled sales emails disguised as holiday cheer.

To use this template in Google Docs instead, make a copy of this Google Doc.

7. Personal branding newsletter template

Best for: Individuals building their personal brand with recent work, achievements, or personal anecdotes

A personal branding newsletter helps freelancers, solopreneurs, and small business owners strategically establish their reputation and expertise in their chosen fields. These newsletters promote their thought leadership and connect them with potential collaborators or clients.

To use this template in Google Docs instead, make a copy of this Google Doc.

8. Health and wellness newsletter template

Best for: Health care providers, wellness coaches, or HR departments to share health tips, wellness challenges, and resources

A health and wellness newsletter aims to inspire and support personal well-being goals. Its content is usually carefully curated from various sources to deliver valuable, healthy lifestyle information and articles packed with revolutionary advice like "drink water" and "exercise."

To use this template in Google Docs instead, make a copy of this Google Doc.

9. Real estate newsletter template

Best for: Real estate professionals to share market trends, new listings, and homeowner advice with potential and current clients

A real estate newsletter caters to home buyers, sellers, and everyone else, honestly. (I mean, who doesn't love a little real estate voyeurism?) It aims to inform and guide readers through the complexities of the real estate market, providing insights into market dynamics, property management tips, and the reason why something called a "short sale" takes so dang long.

To use this template in Google Docs instead, make a copy of this Google Doc.

10. Nonprofit organization newsletter template

Best for: Nonprofits to update supporters about upcoming events, successes, and involvement opportunities

Designed to tug at heartstrings and loosen purse strings, a nonprofit newsletter focuses on an organization's activities, achievements, and needs. It cultivates a sense of community, demonstrates transparency, and expertly executes the subtle art of gentle guilt-tripping.

To use this template in Google Docs instead, make a copy of this Google Doc.

11. Financial newsletter template

Best for: Financial services firms, consultants, or personal finance bloggers to provide market analysis, investment tips, and financial planning advice

The key to a successful financial newsletter is to focus on delivering useful, data-driven insights that will directly benefit readers and help them improve their financial literacy. Keep the content balanced and avoid hype, as your audience relies on you as a trusted source of financial information.

To use this template in Google Docs instead, make a copy of this Google Doc.

12. Creative inspiration newsletter template

Best for: Design firms, art galleries, or creative agencies to share resources, trends, showcases, and artist spotlights

Inspire a creative mindset, encourage innovation, and flex your superior taste with a creative inspiration newsletter. This type of newsletter helps agencies, creatives, or those in an artistic field motivate readers to push beyond their usual thinking and discover new ideas.

To use this template in Google Docs instead, make a copy of this Google Doc.

Customizing your newsletter template

Customizing a newsletter template in Word is like dressing up a Maltese in your stepsister's old American Girl Doll clothes—utterly delightful and surprisingly straightforward once you know how. Here are a few quick tips to jazz up your chosen newsletter template:

  • Add links by highlighting the text or image you want to become a link. Press Ctrl + K and paste your link in the address field.

  • Replace an image by right-clicking on the image and choosing Change Picture in Word or Replace image in Google Docs.

  • Change colors by selecting the text, then clicking on the Text color option in the formatting bar. Choose a new color from the palette or enter a specific hex code for perfect brand alignment.

  • Update fonts by highlighting the text you want to change and choosing a new font from the list that appears in the formatting bar. You'll typically find this next to the color picker.

  • Set default fonts and colors to ensure consistency throughout your entire document. In Word, this can be found in the Design tab. In Google Docs, go to Format > Paragraph styles.

Customizing a newsletter template is about making it your own while keeping it readable and engaging. Like accessorizing a seven-pound dog, a little can go a long way.

Newsletter best practices

Newsletters are a widely used email marketing tool that requires little work. But there are a few things to pay attention to when building out your newsletter to ensure your messages land perfectly.

Deliver value

There's no point in sending out a newsletter if no one reads it. Be sure to understand what kind of information your readers want and reflect that in your content. Value means different things to different audiences—case studies, product how-tos, behind-the-scenes stories, dog photos—but I can all but guarantee your target audience doesn't value aggressive sales-y messaging.

Include your logo

Your logo helps establish brand recognition and makes your newsletter instantly recognizable. Place it prominently, usually at the top of your newsletter, so subscribers immediately identify who the email is from. Ensure your logo is appropriately sized and links to your website for easy navigation.

Use high-contrast colors and readable fonts for accessibility

While you should use colors and fonts that match your brand, don't forget about readers with visual impairments. Opt for high-contrast color schemes (e.g., black text on a white background) and stay away from tiny or overly decorative fonts. Instead, use clear, sans-serif typefaces like Arial or Verdana for maximum legibility and a positive reading experience for all subscribers.

Carefully select images

To keep the email size manageable, use just a few high-quality, relevant, and compressed images. GIFs can be great for eye-catching elements, but overuse can overload inboxes and potentially flag emails as spammy. Turn off text wrapping when adding images in Word or Google Docs. Otherwise, your text may decide it's time to explore the page while your image sits there, smug and untouchable, in the middle of the chaos it created.

Use tables

The easiest way to create a newsletter layout in Word and Google Docs is by using tables. ​​They create visual separation, improve readability, and help organize different content areas. Use tables to arrange headlines, articles, images, and CTA buttons. Always make sure your tables are formatted with enough space for a visually clean appearance.

Write concisely

We live in a world where attention spans are shorter than that goldfish your mom flushed after you fed it a Cheerio, so get straight to the point. Highlight key information with bullets or bolded text and keep paragraphs short and scannable. As Kevin from "The Office" once said, "Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?"

Use white space

Unlike the aforementioned goldfish, your newsletter should be able to breathe. White space around text and images prevents your layout from feeling cramped, gives the reader's eye a chance to rest, and creates a clean, professional look.

Design with popular email clients in mind

Some email apps have limitations or render content differently. Keep your designs relatively simple and optimized for compatibility with popular email platforms such as Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail. Send previews to yourself in multiple email clients across desktop and mobile before hitting send to your full list.

Include an unsubscribe link

An unsubscribe option is like the emergency exit on an airplane—nobody wants to use it, but everyone needs to know where it is. Include a clear, no-questions-asked unsubscribe link in the footer of your newsletter. This isn't just about being a good email citizen (though it totally is)—it's also the law in many places. Plus, making it easy for people to bow out keeps your engagement rates healthy and your audience genuine.

Stay on schedule

At the risk of sounding like a Jamie Lee Curtis yogurt commercial, it's important to stay regular. Whether you send your newsletter daily, weekly, or monthly, decide on a frequency and stick to it. Consistency builds anticipation and creates a routine, making you a familiar presence in your audience's inbox.

Automate newsletter templates in Word and Google Docs

With newsletter automation, you can spend less time on the repetitive tasks involved in creating your newsletter and more time creating great content. Zapier has integrations with Google Docs, Gmail, Microsoft Office 365, and dozens of email marketing platforms, so you can automate all your newsletter tasks.

Learn how to automatically add new leads to your email list and more, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Zapier is the leader in workflow automation—integrating with 6,000+ apps from partners like Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Use interfaces, data tables, and logic to build secure, automated systems for your business-critical workflows across your organization's technology stack. Learn more.

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Allisa Boulette Mon, 11 Mar 2024 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/newsletter-templates-word