Automations
The automation tools available today are comprehensive and constantly expanding. Often, these are free to use for simpler automations which is a great way to try automations and surprisingly simple to achieve.
Automations typically consist of three components:
- Trigger
- Conditions
- Actions
Firstly, you’ll need to define a trigger for the automation. This is the event that starts the automation process and will be dictated by what you are trying to achieve.
There are three types of trigger:
- Manual trigger – Click a button to start the automation
This is useful when you want to dictate when the automation runs - Scheduled trigger – Set a schedule that the automation will run
Schedule your automation to run every night, or every week - Event trigger – Run the automation when something happens
This could be when an email is received, when a file is changed or one of many other events
Secondly, and optionally, you can define conditions that must be met before the automation proceeds. For example, if you trigger an automation when an email is received, you may want to add a condition that the automation only runs if the email came from a specific email address.
Lastly, you need to define the actions that the automation performs. Actions are the individual tasks that you want to automate.
A simple example of an action is saving information received in an enquiry email to spreadsheet.
A complete automation then could look like this:
- Trigger – An enquiry email is received to your mailbox
- Condition – The subject line matches “You have anew enquiry” – Only add enquiries from your website
- Action – Save the enquiry details to an enquiry spreadsheet
- Action – Send an email to the customer to thank them for the enquiry
If you need help implementing an automation, then get in touch and our team will be happy to help.
Integrations
Integrations are connections between two software platforms that share data between them. These integrations are usually set up on the platform that is sending the data. Data is sent to the receiving platform when specific events occur. It’s important to note that integrations are usually developed by the platform provider, so the list of supported integrations can be limited.
An integration could connect your online sales platform(e.g. Shopify) to your accounting platform (e.g. Xero). Then, when an online sale is completed, the transaction will be added to your accounts.
Another example would be to connect your website (e.g. Wix) to your email marketing solution (e.g. MailChimp) to opt-in visitors who have requested to your newsletter.
Often, integrations for your chosen platforms may not exist. In these cases, BC Technologies can build a custom connector to sync data between these platforms. Ask for more information.
