If you run a small business, you're likely tackling a huge amount of tasks with a lean team. Not only does it get overwhelming, but essential things like lead follow-up or meeting reminders may fall by the wayside.
Automation can streamline processes across all departments, making you more efficient and organized. That efficiency means you can scale your small business faster and boost your return on investment (ROI).
Here are three ways automation can help you scale your business.
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.
Manage leads and customers
The faster you generate leads, the more deals you can close. But when things move quickly, it's hard to reach out to leads while they're still hot—causing you to miss a valuable sale. To turn leads into customers, you need to send the right message at the right time. You can use automation to make sure leads get personalized outreach immediately. Plus, you can automatically add them to the right tool, so you can keep sending the right messages.
Make sure customers get fast replies
Whether it's a quick message after a form submission or a speedy thank you after a payment, it's critical that you send personalized, timely messages. With Zapier, you can send automated messages without adding more tasks to your to-do list.
Send emails in Gmail for new leads in Facebook Lead Ads
Send Gmail messages when new contacts are added to ClickFunnels
Send Microsoft Outlook emails for new Typeform entries
Want to learn more about how you can automate your email marketing? Read 4 ways to automate your email marketing for better communication.
Route new leads to the right place
Keep track of your leads by making sure they get added to your customer relationship manager (CRM) or email marketing tool—no copy or paste needed. With automation, you can also automatically tag prospects and make sure they're added to the right email campaigns. That way, every lead gets sent to the right place, right away.
Add or update ActiveCampaign contacts with new Facebook Lead Ads leads
Add or update ActiveCampaign contacts for new Calendly invitees
Create or update HubSpot contacts from new entries on Typeform
Create Mailchimp subscribers from new Typeform responses
Create Pipedrive deals from new Facebook Lead Ads leads
Simplify your client onboarding process
Hooray! You just secured a new client. But now you have to go through the administration process of onboarding them. From creating customer profiles to sending client intake forms, the work can be exhausting.
Let automation take on the laborious tasks. Instead of manually sending welcome packets, create a Zap that does it for you—saving you valuable time.
Send emails via Gmail for new, specified Typeform responses
Create or update Mailchimp subscribers from new Google Forms submissions
Send email via Gmail for new Google Forms submissions
Want more tips on how to streamline your client onboarding? Check out our 6-step client onboarding checklist (with template) that includes automation ideas.
Improve sales workflows and deal management
Everyone wants a smooth sales pipeline. It ensures a positive customer experience and increases sales. But when you're juggling multiple customer accounts and new leads, the administrative tasks (like contracts, outreach, and invoices) can pile up. That's where automation can lend a helping hand.
Get notified about signed contracts
When your customer signs a contract, it's critical to get back to them ASAP. But signed documents can get lost in emails, apps, and other messages. To help you stay on top of it all, send notifications about signed contracts to the place where you—or the right team member—will actually see them (in your to-do list, CRM, or communication app). That way, you can send prompt responses to your customers.
Update deals in HubSpot CRM when new envelopes are signed in DocuSign
Log Dropbox Sign signature requests in Google Sheets
Send SMS messages for new Dropbox Sign signature requests
Automate your invoicing tasks
So you've made the sale! But that doesn't mean the work is done. You still need to create, log, and send an invoice to your customer. Here are a few ways automation can take on those administrative tasks, so you can get back to closing more sales.
Generate receipts in QuickBooks Online for new Stripe payments
Add new QuickBooks Online invoices to Google Sheets spreadsheet rows
Want to explore more ways you can automate your accounting tasks? Discover 5 workflows to streamline your invoice and payment processes.
Instantly update your sales or account management team
To create a seamless customer experience, you need to ensure your team is looped in on sales and invoices. You can do that by integrating your bookkeeping software with your communication tool. That way, your team can send timely follow-ups and thank yous.
Get a digest of new Xero sales invoices sent to your Gmail on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule
Level up team collaboration
Being a successful business means making sure everyone is on the same page. But regularly updating everyone can become a full-time job. Automation lets you keep everyone on your team informed without having to spend hours typing messages and updating project management tools.
Improve your team communication
When there are a lot of moving pieces, it's easy to mix up who's supposed to do what. Streamline project management communication by automatically sending tasks to the right tool. That way, everyone can see what they need to do—in the right place.
Create Asana tasks from new Google Forms responses
Add new rows in Google Sheets as to-dos in Basecamp 3
Adding a path step to your Zap—available on Professional plans—will route specific tasks to specific people based on certain conditions.
A team chat channel can also be turned into a command center for project activity, ensuring everyone stays on the same page.
Post to Slack channels for new items created in monday.com
Send Microsoft Teams messages for new Airtable records
Pro tip: You can create daily, weekly, or monthly Zaps that share a list of tasks from your project or task management app to wherever your team (or you) will see it.
Send a weekly message to Slack about a Trello list
Send Slack channel messages with a digest of new Basecamp 3 to-dos on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule
Get a digest of completed Asana tasks sent to your email on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis
Learn more about how you can use automation to get what you need out of your notifications.
Send meeting reminders
You can also streamline team management by sending automatic meeting reminders. That way, everyone is on top of what's next on their calendar. Plus, automatic meeting reminders can increase the show-up rate for your client or lead calls—helping increase sales conversions.
Send Slack channel messages for new Google Calendar events
Get SMS alerts for new approaching Google Calendar events
Want to learn more ways you can automate your meetings? Discover 4 scheduling automation workflows to make meetings easy.
Take charge of your document management
When you share documents across your team, it's easy for things to get lost in the shuffle—especially when files get sent as attachments in emails. Instead of digging through your inbox, use automation to instantly send email attachments to your file management software.
Send Microsoft Outlook emails for new files in a Dropbox folder
Automation can also help you keep track of documents throughout a lead lifecycle. For example, you can make sure notes, contracts, and invoices are all accounted for—whether that's in your CRM or file storage tool.
Update deals in HubSpot CRM when new envelopes are signed in DocuSign
Save Quickbooks invoices to Google Drive as plain text files
Want to make it easier for your company to scale? Discover how to automate work across departments for better collaboration and faster growth.
Get more done with automation
The longer you run a small business, the more you discover that keeping it operating means maintaining the processes behind the products. Using automation, you can streamline your business processes for improved efficiency—without adding busywork to your to-do list.
New to Zapier? It's workflow automation software that lets you focus on what matters. Combine user interfaces, data tables, and logic with thousands of apps to build and automate anything you can imagine. Sign up for free.
This article was originally published in May 2020, written by Nick Moore. It was updated in March 2022 by Ellie Huizenga, and most recently updated in September 2022.
