"Diet" is a scary word. Most times, it's associated with depriving yourself, perhaps cutting out entire food groups, to lose weight. But if you think of the big picture definition of diet, you're looking at everything you eat. That's your diet.
Some of us keep it healthy. Some of us, for any number of reasons, can't or don't. Simple Green Smoothies founder Jen Hansard found herself in the latter group after the birth of her second child. "Our family meals got quicker and less healthy," she says. "It got to a place where I felt like all the energy had been sucked out of my body, yet I still had to get up in the morning, make meals, run errands, work, take care of the kids and survive the loooooong day."
Raise your hand if you can relate. (You can put your hand down now.)
Jen's fix? A simple, green smoothie shared by her friend, Jadah. Jen and Jadah shared recipes on Instagram starting in 2012, launching Simple Green Smoothies. Their popularity took off and Simple Green Smoothies released their first recipe book. They now have several different recipe books, including a 7-day and 21-day cleanse, an app with over 100 smoothie recipes that lets you add the ingredients to a shopping list, a blog, a free seven day experience, and a thriving community.
The folks behind Simple Green Smoothies help their community along with new recipes, products, and content precisely when their customers need it. Using email software Autopilot, Dan Mottayaw, Community Experience Manager at Simple Green Smoothies, crafted a high-level email marketing strategy that keeps customers engaged after a purchase, so they aren't one-and-done.
How do Dan and Simple Green Smoothies get customer information into Autopilot? It all starts with the power behind their online store, the WordPress-based eCommerce platform WooCommerce. With WooCommerce, Simple Green Smoothies gives their customers an easy, intuitive shopping experience and provides the information Dan needs to grow a thriving, healthy community.
"This gives the customer an experience that makes sense and continues to fuel their healthy eating journey," Dan explains.
But there was a problem that needed solving first: Dan had to connect their WooCommerce shop to their email system.
Bringing WooCommerce and Autopilot together—and Simple Green Smoothies with its customers—is app automation tool Zapier. Dan built a powerful Zap, a bridge between two or more apps, to pull customer information from new WooCommerce orders into Autopilot.
Add contacts to a list in Autopilot Journeys from new WooCommerce orders
"This Zap allows us to automate the delivery of digital goods, and also unique emails based on products purchased through WooCommerce," Dan says.
Building a relationship with their customers is essential work for Simple Green Smoothies. Pulling customer data from WooCommerce into Autopilot through Zapier means Dan connects with customers more efficiently and exactly when the customer needs an email. Maintaining a healthy community is as important to Jen, Dan, and the Simple Green Smoothies team as maintaining a healthy body.
Just like trying new recipes before offering them on their site, Dan and Simple Green Smoothies test and test to build better workflows. "I knew nothing about sending info from one database to another when I started. I didn't even know what "API" meant," Dan says. "But you can figure it out if you just start making Zaps. Test them. Stay calm if a Zap doesn't work. There's almost always a way to automate."
All images courtesy of Simple Green Smoothies.
What's your story? Tell us how you use Zapier to do more. You can also read even more customer stories and find new ways to improve your workflow and productivity.
