How much time do you think your team spends managing leads? If you spend more time sorting your prospects instead of working to make them paying customers, your lead management process may need a major overhaul.
You know it's important for your business, but if the thought of spring-cleaning your process feels overwhelming, Zapier has you covered. We're an automation tool that allows you to send information from one app to another, so you can reduce manual tasks such as importing leads from a form and spend more time closing the deal.
Whether you're struggling with managing your leads from social media or need an extra kick to your nurture process, we've collected a few Zaps—what we call Zapier's automated workflows—so you can whip your lead management into tip-top shape.
Many businesses use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool to track customer interactions and deals. A CRM won't solve all your problems, though. While it's a great source of truth for many business operations, it can be unwieldy to manage without some organization and automation.
You can improve your whole process—from collecting leads to distributing them and nurturing your prospects—by adding automation to your systems.
You'll need a Zapier account to use the workflows in this piece. If you don't have an account yet, it's free to get started.
Streamline your lead collecting efforts
There are so many ways to source leads that it's a little overwhelming. Do you use a website landing page or a form? Social media or events? What about ads?
Many businesses will use a combination of methods because potential customers are everywhere. When you're trying to acquire leads through multiple channels, it can be difficult to track, organize, and maintain systems long-term without automation.
Learn more about automatically tracking your leads.
Landing pages
Landing pages are great for putting the focus on a specific product or service. Visitors can fill out a form to learn more about your product—and you can validate what resonates with them.
These workflows will automatically add leads from your landing pages to your CRM, email list, or wherever else you need them.
Add or update HubSpot contacts for new submissions on Unbounce
Forms
Forms are a classic lead generation tool, hearkening back to paper sign-up sheets. They're a quick way to gather the information your sales team needs, while also gathering extra information to help you close the sale—for example, why they're interested in your service.
If you're struggling with managing incoming form submissions, you can try these workflows to route information where you need it.
Create Salesforce leads with new Gravity Forms submissions
Create or update HubSpot contacts from new Squarespace form submissions
Add new Unbounce form submissions to Zoho CRM as leads
Looking for more ways to add automation to the tools that help you run your business? Read our guide on how to do more with the software you use every day.
Events
While events are a labor-intensive and sometimes costly lead generation tool, they come with benefits other strategies can't offer. They're personal and a great way for potential customers to get a taste of what your business is all about, while also participating in something relevant to their interests.
Whether you're doing an in-person event or running a webinar, these Zaps will ensure your leads are automatically captured.
Add new Eventbrite attendees to Salesforce as leads
Add new Pardot prospects to Google Sheets, then register them for Zoom webinars
Multi-step Zaps—available on our paid plans—allow you to add multiple actions, filters, and even branching logic so you can do more automatically. Learn how to use multi-step Zaps.
Social media ads
While many businesses are alread on social media, placing an online ad can be an effective form of lead generation. For example, Google and LinkedIn allow users to enter information on a form without a redirect—perfect in this attention economy.
You can ramp up your lead strategy on social without the administrative labor with these Zaps:
Think about how your leads flow
It's important to think about your sales cycle. When is it time to create a deal for a prospect? How do you know if a lead is sales qualified, marketing qualified, or none of the above? Map out this process first. Then, start from the beginning. Once you have a qualified lead, who on your team needs to know?
If you're struggling to get visibility on your leads as they come in, these Zaps will automatically alert you when a new lead is added to your CRM.
Send channel messages in Microsoft Teams for new Pipedrive leads
Create and email a digest of new leads from Zendesk Sell
Post messages to a Slack channel when new HubSpot contacts are added to lists
You can use filter steps or paths—available on our paid plans—to automatically send leads where you want them to go. For example, maybe you want your marketing-qualified leads added to a newsletter subscription list, while you want your sales team to be notified in Slack for your sales-qualified prospects.
Prefer using a spreadsheet to analyze your leads? With an automated workflow, you can first automatically add leads to your spreadsheet or database.
Collect new Typeform responses as rows on Google Sheets
Add new Facebook Lead Ads leads to rows on Google Sheets
Add new Typeform entries as rows on an Excel spreadsheet
Add new Jotform submissions to Excel spreadsheet rows
Create Airtable records from new Google Forms responses
Then, stay updated on new leads when they come in by setting up automatic emails or team chat notifications for updates to that spreadsheet.
Spending too much time organizing your CRM? Learn how CRM automation can boost your team's productivity.
Lead nurturing
Now that you have leads to work with, the real work begins: turning them into paying customers. Think back to your sales cycle. Once you have a prospect, how do you encourage them through different deal stages? Do they need to go into a drip email campaign first? How do you know when it's time for a sales call?
Every business has its own strategy for converting leads, but timely follow-up is universal. There's a short window in which you have a prospect's interest—automation can help you capitalize on it.
Do your prospects need a little encouragement? Here are 8 ways automation can help.
Send a personal message to new leads
When someone expresses interest in your product, it's a nice gesture to let them know what to expect next from you. This could be a simple thank you email and a note that a sales rep will follow up soon, or even a text as a part of an SMS campaign.
Try these workflows to give your prospects a personalized touch.
Get notified via email when new contacts are added to HubSpot lists
Send a Twilio SMS when a Typeform form is filled out
Note: Delay steps—available on our paid plans—allow you to wait for a specific amount of time before your Zap completes the next step.
Enroll in a campaign
A lead may not be ready to have that sales conversation right away. That's where email drips and SMS campaigns come in handy because you can encourage prospects over time. You can use a Zap to automatically add new leads to an email newsletter, a drip email list, or an SMS list.
Create or update Mailchimp subscribers from new Google Forms submissions
Book demo calls
Depending on the service you're offering, you may want to book consultation or demo calls with prospects. You can get started quickly with these workflows, which will automatically send call invites to leads when they're in a specific deal stage. If you use a booking or scheduling app, include your calendar link in the email message.
Send emails in Gmail when new deals are added to a stage on Pipedrive
Let automation guide your leads
The sales cycle can be a long one, but that time doesn't need to be tied up on the administrative side of lead management or nurture. Automation can help you streamline the process, to focus more on making the best pitch to your prospects.
Zapier is the leader in workflow automation—integrating with thousands of 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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