Managing leads is like trying to juggle while riding a unicycle—one small slip and everything comes crashing down. You've got prospects trickling in to Follow Up Boss from a dozen different places, each needing just the right touch at just the right time. And somewhere between your morning coffee and your evening spreadsheet updates, important follow-ups are falling through the cracks.

Enter automation. Think of it like having a clone of yourself (minus the existential crisis) handling all those repetitive tasks while you focus on what really matters: building relationships and closing deals. When your systems talk to each other seamlessly, those scattered leads transform into a streamlined pipeline that practically runs itself. Here's how.

Table of contents

• Automatically add leads to Follow Up Boss

• Create newsletter subscribers from Follow Up Boss

• Organize leads into spreadsheets and contact lists

• Send notifications and emails for new events

• Extend your reach with webhooks

Automatically add leads to Follow Up Boss

The whole appeal of Follow Up Boss is a dashboard for reviewing your entire system of leads. That's the key word: entire. If you aren't able to cull contacts and leads from your website into the same system as leads from your Facebook Ads, well, that's a problem. And it's how businesses like yours can get overwhelmed in a hurry.

Ideally, you could use Follow Up Boss to import all your leads. But this is the real world we're talking about. You're going to have your favorite lead sources—lead management apps, online forms, even email leads—since people can find your agency in many ways. 

Here are a few of the most common places you might want to capture leads to send to Follow Up Boss. Note that these Zaps allow you to add contacts to Follow Up Boss without triggering an email send, meaning you can add new leads to your system without accidentally spamming them with the wrong emails.

From lead management apps:

From forms:

From email:

Create newsletter subscribers from Follow Up Boss

One of the best ways to maintain leads is to keep offering people value. Maybe you'll send out new listings to interested leads or offer your thoughts on the current market. Whatever it is, a newsletter keeps leads warm. 

With one of these Zaps, you can easily add your Follow Up Boss contacts to your subscriber lists in your favorite newsletter tools:

Or you can do it the other way around: bring new email newsletter subscribers into Follow Up Boss as leads. Either way, you'll turn your newsletter into an extension of your FUB features.

Organize leads into spreadsheets and contact lists

Once you've got a new lead in Follow Up Boss, you can create backup files via Google Sheets or export to Google Contacts, just in case you ever lose access to your Follow Up Boss contacts. It can also make it easier to share lead info with other teams or tools that might not have access to FUB.

Set new Follow Up tags or contacts to trigger events in Google Sheets, Contacts, and more. You can even create specific customer segment backups by using the tag features in Follow Up Boss. Or switch it up and have your contacts lists populate your Follow Up Boss leads.

Send notifications and emails for new events

When there's a new event—say a new lead signing up or an alert to follow up with an old lead—you usually need your agency or a teammate to spring into action. Let's consider an example. Within Follow Up Boss, a lead moves through different stages. Maybe they move from a Lead (someone who's given you their email but little else) to a Hot Prospect (someone clearly expressing interest). 

The goal of Follow Up Boss is to immediately capitalize. So set Follow Up Boss to trigger your internal Slack messages and let a team member know there's a new Hot Prospect. By funneling everything to an entire team, you keep everyone responsive, fast, and on target. 

If it sounds like a lot of work, use Zaps to simplify your system within Follow Up Boss. For instance, you can set a specific tag to your FUB contacts to trigger outgoing emails—reminding the appropriate people that it's time to follow up.

Extend your reach with Webhooks by Zapier

Not seeing the direct, one-to-one connection between apps you were hoping for? We've built you a middleman. Use Webhooks by Zapier as a catch-all tool. If another app integrates with webhooks but doesn't have a Zapier integration yet, you can still set up an automation to update Follow Up Boss as though you had a direct connection. 

Or run it the other way around: set a new contact in Follow Up Boss to send out a "custom request" in Webhooks by Zapier and trigger downstream actions from other apps.

Turn Follow Up Boss into the ultimate lead tool

It's enough work to try to capture leads. Once you have those leads in place, it shouldn't be more work to manage them. Make sure your lead system connects with your other business-critical tools with automation.

Of course, this is just a sampling of what you can do when you match Follow Up Boss with Zapier. What will you automate first?

This article was originally published in September 2023. It was most recently updated in December 2024.

Building and managing customer relationships can feel like a never-ending task. Delivering targeted marketing campaigns across email, SMS, chat, and beyond is key—but that can quickly become overwhelming if you're not using the right tool. 

If you use Brevo (formerly known as Sendinblue) to achieve the above, then you'll know that it's a fantastic marketing automation tool that lets you execute everything from drip campaigns to bulk text alerts. 

But Brevo can become even more powerful when you connect it to your other business-critical apps through Zapier. With just a few Zaps—what we call automated workflows—you can collect, store, and update customer information—automatically. Here's how. 

Table of contents

• Add contacts from forms

• Add leads from your website and ads

• Connect Brevo to Google Sheets

• Add contacts from a mailing list or CRM

• Add subscribers from almost anywhere

Add contacts to Brevo from forms

Website forms are one of the most important ways businesses generate leads. Not only is it easy for customers to convert with a form, they've already demonstrated interest in hearing from you. You want to take advantage of that interest and reach out to them to continue building that relationship. But you need to get their info into your marketing platform first!

While it might not be too much work to do once, manually adding leads isn't scalable if you have a successful landing page or lead-generating form. Instead of exporting and importing all your form subscribers manually, use these Zaps to instantly send them to Brevo. Scale your processes while keeping customer data current—so no one slips through the cracks.

Add leads from your website and ads

Ads, lead gen forms, and subscriptions drummed up on social media platforms are all excellent places to connect with leads. They're especially valuable since they've already expressed interest in your product or service. 

But your chance of converting those leads into paying customers is much higher the faster you can reach out to them. Add their contacts straight to Brevo with these automated workflows so you can begin outreach immediately.

Connect Brevo to Google Sheets

While in an ideal world you'd have one app that's a single source of truth for all of your marketing and customer data, the reality is most companies use a variety of tools for different teams and purposes. 

If that's the case, then you might use a spreadsheet tool like Google Sheets as a hub for customer data, storing it there until you send the relevant info to other apps and tools. Or you might collect customer data in a spreadsheet for easier review and data analysis. 

But, siloing your customer data in a spreadsheet isn't helpful when you're ready to kickstart your marketing activities, like sending out email newsletters to interested customers. And copying and pasting data between tools often leads to errors or missed information.

With these workflows, you can automatically send customer data directly from Google Sheets to Brevo, keeping all of your tools updated with no manual effort.

Alternatively, you might want to back up your customer info stored in Brevo or share it with team members who don't have access to that app. Use this Zap to easily send contact info from Brevo to a sheet of your choice.

Add contacts from a mailing list or CRM

Do you use a variety of CRM or marketing apps to manage customer data and communication? If so, you know how messy things can get if you're manually trying to keep customer data in sync and up to date across all of your various platforms.

Streamline contact management and make sure every customer gets the right communications by automatically adding customers from apps like Mailchimp or ClickFunnels to Brevo.

Add subscribers from almost anywhere

You don't want to miss a single potential lead. Fortunately, you can set up automated workflows to pull info from every possible point of contact and add it to Brevo.

If someone on your team uses Google Contacts to keep track of outreach, you can get contacts from there. If you're making sales on Stripe, you can make sure you add them to your email list. Even event invitees can be added to Brevo automatically.

If none of the existing automations is exactly what you're looking for, you can also give webhooks a try. While Zapier has thousands of app integrations, there might be an app that's not on Zapier—yet. Webhooks make it easy to create automated workflows for almost any app you use.

Keep your focus on your customers by automating contact management

There's no need to be constantly importing contacts and checking your apps for new subscribers. Brevo is the best place for you to organize those contacts, so let automation collect them all there for you.

With that task out of the way, you can spend your time creating targeted, intriguing marketing materials to engage your customers.

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

This article was originally published in September 2023. It was most recently updated in December 2024 by Elena Alston.

Let's face it—juggling customer communications feels a bit like being a digital octopus these days. Even with Twilio helping you wrangle all those messaging channels into one place, you're still stuck manually pushing buttons and copying/pasting responses like it's 1999. Sure, your tentacles are more organized, but they're getting pretty tired.

Fortunately, automation can help. By connecting Twilio to your existing business tools with Zaps—Zapier's automated workflows—you can put those repetitive tasks on autopilot and build worry-free workflows that handle everything from lead follow-ups to appointment reminders. Think of it as giving your digital octopus a well-deserved break while your messages keep flowing smoothly in the background. Here's how.

Table of contents

• Send texts from a spreadsheet

• Use webhooks with Twilio

• Send texts to leads

• Send texts from emails

• Send event reminders and confirmations

• Send emails or chat messages from texts

• Track texts in a spreadsheet

Send texts from a spreadsheet

Spreadsheets are endlessly useful tools for data management, but most don't come with their own notification functionality. You may want to be notified when your Google Sheets spreadsheet gets a new addition, such as when you find a new lead or your team members add important information to a project. 

Opening your spreadsheet several times a day to check for updates wastes your time. Instead, use these Zaps to send yourself (or your team members) an SMS via Twilio anytime a record is added to your spreadsheet or database automatically. 

Use webhooks with Twilio

What if your automation idea involves an app that doesn't (yet!) integrate natively with Zapier? Never fear—you can use a webhook to create your own custom Zap.

Webhooks can initially feel overwhelming to new users, but they're extremely powerful. Simply set up a trigger in your initiating app, and whenever that action takes place, your webhook will send information to your designated software. For example, you might create a webhook that sends you a custom SMS message via Twilio whenever a lead fills out a custom form on your website. 

Ready to try it for yourself? Use this template to get started:

Send texts to leads

If you're like most brands, leads find you from several starting points. They may first express interest by clicking on a Facebook ad or filling out a form on your website. 

New interest from leads can evaporate quickly without a fast follow-up—but tracking all your different lead sources can be time-consuming, and you risk the occasional lead falling through the cracks. 

Instead, set up a Zap to send new leads or form responses directly to your (or a teammate's) phone via Twilio SMS. From there, you can reach out to each new lead from one consolidated place. 

But feel free to get creative with the auto-SMS possibilities. If you want to skip the middleman, you can also use the integration to follow up with the lead via a friendly SMS template to get the ball rolling. Or, if you use forms to collect survey responses or feature requests, you can use these Zaps to send quick and reliable confirmation messages to form-fillers.

Send texts from emails

It's easy to lose important emails in an overstuffed inbox. If you're worried about missing important notifications, messages from leads, or urgent reminders, set up a Zap to send specific inbound emails directly to your phone. These Zaps send Twilio SMS messages from new emails in Gmail or your own custom zapiermail.com email address.

Or, if you'd rather have a personal assistant read your emails to you—but for free—you can use this Zap to trigger a phone call via Twilio anytime you receive an email matching your specifications. It's an easy way to process your most important messages on the go without being glued to a screen.

And if you're ready for a more advanced integration, you can use Email Parser by Zapier to trigger SMS messages based on data in template emails. Email parsers let you choose which pieces of an email to extract and send as data to other apps—from names to purchase information and beyond. 

Send event reminders and confirmations

You can also use Twilio as your own personal notification center, sending custom texts for important event reminders. 

While apps like Google Calendar and Calendly have their own notification systems, they may not be as customizable as you need—or you may not like your phone blowing up with a million different app notifications. Instead, consolidate the most important event reminders in text form. 

You can also use these Zap templates to send automated SMS confirmations and reminders to invitees. Whenever a new event or appointment is created, these Zaps can send the details via Twilio SMS to any recipient you choose.

Send emails or chat messages from texts

One useful aspect of Twilio is that it gives you a local phone number and supports SMS messages in several countries. But managing multiple applications and phone numbers introduces its own logistical challenge. 

Instead of checking multiple apps daily for messages, use Zapier to send your Twilio SMS messages to your inbox of choice. Whether you'd prefer to read incoming texts in your email, over Slack, or on your personal phone, these Zaps can automate that data transfer. That way, you don't have to check Twilio to see if you have any new messages from customers or leads—and you can respond quickly.

Track texts in a spreadsheet

If you'd like an easy way to keep track of incoming messages for your business, use these Zaps to store incoming Twilio SMS messages and calls in a Google Sheets spreadsheet or Airtable database. Easily track your customer interactions from one central location.

How will you automate Twilio?

There are endless ways to use Twilio's omnichannel messaging in your business—but with every new messaging platform comes additional complexity.

Thankfully, a little creativity can save you hours of time spent checking various messaging apps. With the time you save, you can spend more effort where it matters most: building relationships with leads and customers.

This is just the start of what you can do with Twilio and Zapier. What will you automate?

This article was originally published in August 2023. It was most recently updated in December 2024.

While Discord started as a chat app for gamers, it's grown far beyond that initial use case. (That right there is the sign of a successful app.) 

Although gaming remains a strong part of its DNA, it's now popular with people organizing volunteer efforts, talking about hobbies, and collaborating for work.

Thanks to Discord's voice chat features, permission-based roles, and customization options, it's also a great fit for building and managing an online community. And it works even better when you pair it with automation. 

But while Discord moderators and admins often rely on third-party bots to automate tasks and run commands for them, there's a learning curve to setting them up. If you'd rather find streamlined ways to manage your Discord server with automation and integrate it with other apps, Zapier can help. 

From engaging with your followers to collaborating with teammates, here are a few ways Zaps—what we call automated workflows—can supercharge the way you manage Discord.

Table of contents

• Automatically greet new server members

• Automate Discord messages on a schedule

• Automatically assign roles

• Create images in Discord with DALL·E

• Auto-respond to frequently asked questions

• Send messages from spreadsheets or tasks

• Connect Discord with other social channels

Automatically greet new server members

By default, you can set your server to automatically announce when a new member joins your Discord server. But if you run a pretty large community, you'll likely want to direct new members to important places such as announcement channels or places where they can review community rules. 

First, make sure you have a welcome channel set up specifically for new members. Then, use a Zap to automatically greet new members with a custom message. 

Automate Discord messages on a schedule

Perhaps you run a weekly thread on a specific topic in your Discord, or you're the responsible moderator who reminds the team to prune the members list once a month. Instead of sending those messages manually, you can use a Zap to automatically send those messages on a specific schedule. 

Don't want to send the same message each time? You can use a search step on a spreadsheet or Formatter's Pick from list function so you can randomize the language.

You can also set up reminder messages with a Zap that connects to your calendar app. With this, you can push out reminders for upcoming events. 

Automatically assign roles

One way Discord differs from other team chat apps is how it uses roles. Rather than a traditional community role structure—admins manage the server, moderators manage the conversations, and members can only post—Discord's roles are infinitely customizable. And many admins and moderators use bots to allow members to self-select these roles.

You can create standardized roles in Discord, such as administrators, moderators, or verified users. You can also create roles that serve cosmetic or informational purposes.

For example, I co-moderate a crafting Discord community. (Welcome to my secret life.) Other than our two standard roles distinguishing mods and verified users, we also allow members to self-assign other roleslike "knitter," "sewist," or "macrame." If you're using Discord for work, you might set roles for different teams, and see things like "marketing," "sales," "human resources," and "product."

Other roles in my crafting server allow people to opt in to receiving automatic invites to join events like a group voice chat hangout or a craftalong. Going back to the work example, this could be used to get automatic alerts to all-company meetings or for important deadlines.

While most folks will use a bot to handle role-setting, you can also use Zapier to automatically assign member roles. 

If your server has a separate verification process for new members, you can also use Zapier to connect a form or spreadsheet app to Discord. 

Create images in Discord with DALL·E

Want to create an image generation playground for you and your friends or coworkers inside Discord? With this workflow, you can use OpenAI's DALL·E directly within your Discord conversations and channels. 

Whether you want to drop your prompts in a Discord channel to generate a specific image, or you want to see what other folks want to create with AI, you can bring the power of visual AI to your workspace. 

Auto-respond to frequently asked questions

Tired of answering the same question in chat constantly? You can create your own auto-responder bot in Discord using Zapier.

You can use a filter—available on our paid plans—to trigger an automated response when someone uses a specific phrase. 

Send messages from spreadsheets or tasks

If you use Discord primarily for work, it's highly probable you're collaborating with teammates in different channels. 

Whether you're working together on specific projects or in charge of assigning work-related tasks to people, you'll need to spend some time coordinating within your project management and workspace tools—which can be a drain when you have to keep hopping between them. 

Instead, you can set up Zaps that will automatically send messages in Discord about new projects that get added to tools like Notion or when rows are added to Google Sheets. That way, you can keep your team up-to-date on everybody's to-dos. 

Connect Discord with other social channels

Discord is popular with Twitch streamers and other content creators who want to build a deeper relationship with their followers. If you want to keep your community updated on what you're producing, you can use these Zaps to notify a Discord channel. 

Not publishing content?  You can also use Zapier to send information into Discord about transactions, new bugs, or even updates to your Spotify playlists.

Manage your Discord community with automation

Moderating your Discord server doesn't have to be a full-time job. With automation, you can streamline moderation tasks so you can spend more time participating in the fun.  

These workflows are just the start of all that you can do with Discord and Zapier. Zapier supports thousands of apps, so you automate almost any task. Start building your Zap now and see what you can create.

This article was originally published in July 2021. It was most recently updated in December 2024.

As a business owner, it's wise to have multiple customer acquisition channels—phone calls, website inquiries, social media platforms, referrals—the list goes on. But with customers coming in from different sources, you need a way to store, organize, and manage their contact information. With its ability to sync across devices, Google Contacts is a popular choice for seamless contact management.

But manually updating your address book every time you encounter a potential customer isn't sustainable when you're looking to scale your business. Plus, keeping that customer data in sync with other business-critical tools you use daily might be impossible when managing contacts manually. Instead of wasting time and allowing important customer information to slip through the cracks, consider using automation to streamline your contact management. 

With Zapier, you can create fully automated workflows (we call them Zaps) that connect Google Contacts to other tools in your tech stack to ensure customers' contact data is always where you need it. Here are a few popular ways to automate Google Contacts with Zapier. 

Table of contents 

• Save contacts from appointments

• Create Google Contacts from a spreadsheet

• Back up your contacts

• Turn form submissions into Google Contacts

• Add contacts from leads

• Use webhooks with Google Contacts

Save contacts from appointments

Automatically importing contacts from appointment bookings is a great way to organize your contact list and streamline customer relationship management. For instance, let's say you're providing appointment-based services or booking individual sales demos with Calendly or Acuity Scheduling. Whenever a new appointment is made, you can automatically save their details—like name, email, and phone number—in Google Contacts so the right team member can quickly follow up with a text or email.

Additionally, you can use automation to categorize invitees into specified groups in your Google Contacts based on the appointment type. This way, you can improve segmentation and ensure more targeted communication with contacts.

Create Google Contacts from a spreadsheet

If your business is like most, you probably use a master spreadsheet to store and organize customer information. But what happens when you need to transfer those customer details into a contact management app for outreach? 

Do you spend time copying and pasting each person's details into Google Contacts, wasting valuable time and exposing your data to errors? Why not automate the process instead? 

With these Zaps, you can automatically generate a new contact in Google Contacts whenever a specified Google Sheet or Airtable database is updated with new contact data. 

Back up your contacts

Even though Google Contacts is great for storing contact information, it's not the most flexible when it comes to accessing and organizing that data. Fortunately, you can work around this by backing up your contacts with a spreadsheet app like Airtable or Google Sheets. 

Spreadsheets allow you to bulk edit, sort, and filter contact information more efficiently. But, manually exporting contacts to a spreadsheet is inefficient. Instead, cut the administrative task by using a Zap to automatically import your contact list into a specified spreadsheet. That way, your contacts are always backed up and secure in case of accidental deletion or data loss. Plus, you can easily manipulate large volumes of customer information and migrate your data if you switch to a different contact management tool.

Turn form submissions into Google Contacts

Having potential customers fill out your online form isn't enough. You still need to save their contact information so you can have the most up-to-date information for follow-ups and personalized communication. Instead of manually exporting form submissions as they come in, automate the process so you can have more time to focus on important follow-ups. 

For instance, you can create an automated workflow that instantly converts new submissions from Google Forms or Typeform into new contacts in Google Contacts. If the contact already exists, the record can also be updated with new information from the form.

Add contacts from leads

When leads and customers come from multiple sources—like social ads, eCommerce platforms, and CRM systems—staying on top of them can be challenging. While each platform might give you ways to store and manage your contacts, maintaining a unified personal record ensures you have access to important customer details no matter where the lead originated. 

But, manually transferring those leads to your Google Contacts account gets tricky if they come in in dozens or hundreds. Plus, when you have too much on your hands, it's easy to overlook a lead or make mistakes. That's where automation comes in. 

With these Zaps, you can automatically create a record in Google Contacts when you get a new lead or customer in your lead generation or CRM platform. That way, you can keep accurate records of every contact and stay organized without relying on third-party platforms to find your customer data. Plus, you'll also have the flexibility of communicating with customers any way you want.

Use webhooks with Google Contacts

Zapier provides lots of ways to automate Google Contacts. But if you're looking for a specific use case that isn't covered by any of the available workflows, you can still create a Zap that connects almost any app to Google Contacts using webhooks. 

Use this Zap to get started:

Simplify contact management with Zapier

Google Contacts is a powerful tool for storing and organizing contact information. But when you connect it to your other business-critical apps with Zapier, you can streamline contact management, sync your data across systems, and make customer information more accessible to various teams. 

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

This article was originally published in July 2023, written by Daniel Kenitz. It was most recently updated in December 2024 by Juliet John.

When you're on the go or using a shared computer, one of the easiest ways to save files is to email them to yourself. When you're back in front of your own computer, you probably upload them to Google Drive. There are a few problems with this scenario. First, you have to actually remember to do it (we all get waylaid by our to-do lists). And second, scrolling through your emails is time-consuming—particularly if a few days or even weeks have gone by. 

But what if you could email those files to Google Drive instead while you're still in your inbox and automatically save them with the rest of your files? 

Automatically save new attachments in Google Drive

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 the button below, and you'll be taken to the Zapier 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 Email by Zapier trigger 

First, set up your trigger—the event that starts your Zap. If you're using the Zap template, this will be set up for you. Otherwise, search for and select Email by Zapier as the trigger app and New Inbound Email as the trigger event. Click Continue.

Next, customize the email address that Zapier has already set up for you. This is a series of random letters and numbers followed by @zapiermail.com. 

Before the pre-set characters, Zapier will ask you to add in a word. In this instance, we've used the word gdrive, but it can be any combination of letters and numbers you choose, as long as it's in lowercase. Copy the email address to your clipboard and add it to your address book. 

Once you've done this, click Continue.

Next, send a new email to that email address with an attached file so when you test the Zap, it can pull up the email as a record. 

Now, it's time to test your trigger step. Click Test trigger and Zapier will pull in the most recent emails you've sent to your customized email address to set up the rest of your Zap.

Choose one of the emails for this test, then click Continue with selected record.

Set up your Google Drive action

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, this will be set up for you. Otherwise, search for and select Google Drive as your action app and Upload File as your action event. Then, connect your Google Drive account to Zapier and click Continue.

Now it's time to customize where you want your files to go. 

Click on the dropdown under Drive and select My Google Drive. Click on the dropdown under Folder and select the Google Drive folder where you want your email attachments to live. If you don't want your files to be saved in a specific folder, you can leave that option blank, and Zapier will save the files to your main Google Drive. Next, in the File field, click the + button and select Attachment: (Exists but not shown) from the modal.

You also have the option to convert your attachments into an editable document. If you want to do this, select True in the Convert to Document field. (Otherwise, you can leave it blank.)

By default, Zapier uses the same name and extension as the original file attachment you're uploading. If you want to change this, click on the + button in the File Name field and select other data from your previous Email by Zapier step in the modal. You could, for example, change it to the contents of your email's subject line. 

The same rules apply for the File Extension field. Just note that you can only change the file extension if you add a file name. 

Once you've finished setting up your action, click Continue. 

Now it's time to test your action. When you click Test step, Zapier will send an email attachment to your Google Drive according to how you set up your action event. Here's how ours looked:

If your test was successful, you're now ready to use your Zap.

Send all your files to Google Drive automatically

The next time you need to save a file to Google Drive, open your email app, attach the file, and email it to your new Google Drive email address. When someone emails you with a file, you can forward that email and copy the attachment—and Zapier will save that to Google Drive, too.

It's the easiest way to send files to Google Drive.

This article was originally published in September 2018 by Matt Guay. It was most recently updated by Khamosh Pathak in December 2024.

Social media has been in upheaval for the last few years. Twitter is now X, AI is everywhere, Bluesky is a thing, and TikTok may be banned in the near future. Despite the chaos, social media is still one of the most powerful tools available to modern businesses. You can use it to find new clients, drive traffic to your site, and keep in touch with existing customers so that they stay engaged with your business. But with all the drama, the tools you use to keep on top of things are more important than ever.

With social media even more fractured than it was, if you aren't careful, you can waste huge amounts of valuable time trying to manage multiple inboxes across five different apps, post the same things on all the different platforms, and keep on top of everything else. It's next to impossible using regular consumer apps. To do it properly, you need a social media management app.

The best social media management tools allow you to control your full social media presence in a single app. You can automate, analyze, and manage social media accounts, so you can focus on creating the kind of content your audience loves. I put almost 70 social media management apps to the test, and based on my testing this year, here are the seven best.

The best social media management tools

• Buffer for straightforward social media scheduling

• Hootsuite for fully-featured social media management

• Vista Social for small teams

• Loomly for automating any social media service

• Iconosquare for visual content

• Typefully for text-based social networks

• Sendible for an affordable all-in-one social media management app

What makes the best social media management tool?

The problem with social media management software is that every app is limited by the same thing: the features the various social networks give it access to. This means that not only do most social media scheduling tools offer very similar features, but those features vary between the social networks they support. TikTok, for example, gives a totally different set of analytics data than Facebook, while Instagram is different to post to than YouTube. 

And that's before we even talk about X-formerly-Twitter. Until Elon Musk bought it, it had one of the most permissive APIs. A lot of social media management apps relied on it to offer features like competitor monitoring and social media listening. But those kinds of features now cost around thousands of dollars per month, so they're only available in some of the most fully-featured enterprise apps or on the most expensive plans.

All this means that when it comes to the best social media manager software, you shouldn't expect wild standout features related to particular social networks. There's no social media management platform that can post directly to a personal Instagram profile or reply to comments on someone else's Facebook Page posts.

Still, there are some key features that the top social media managers have that set them apart. They generally make managing your business's social media presence easy and efficient. In particular, they offer:

• Support for multiple social networks, ideally including Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok at the very least, though since things have become more chaotic, I've had to relax this criteria a touch. Similarly, support for Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, and the other Twitter replacements is increasingly relevant. The goal with any of these apps is to manage as many of your social networks as possible in one app—or at least to manage a more focused bunch of them really well.

• Powerful scheduling tools, so you could batch your social media posts at the start of the week or month, and then just let them run. (Access to your social media inboxes so you could reply to customers was a bonus, but not required for more affordable apps.)

• Detailed analytics on how your posts do. The more expensive the app, the more powerful the analytics I required—at least until they hit the limit of what the social media apps offer. For enterprise apps, for example, I required more powerful X features like social monitoring, where you can scan for posts about your business, or even your competitors. More basic apps can't afford the API access these otherwise require.

• Cost-effectiveness. With all social media software limited to offering the same kind of features, high prices need to be justified with additional features, stellar customer support, and team and collaboration tools. 

AI also looks like it's going to have a huge effect on how companies manage social media, but for now, I wasn't super impressed with many of the apps that made a big deal of it. Most apps that allow you to schedule your posts already employ some kind of AI to find the best times, and the apps that aimed to write social media posts for you were all very similar, and not significantly better than using ChatGPT. If AI is a priority for you, check out Zapier's list of the best AI-powered social media managers. While many of the apps on this list have added AI features, they're all still tools that enable you to post whatever you want to social media—whether you, an AI, or an intern wrote it.

Every tool that made the list has a free trial—and sometimes even a free plan—so don't be afraid to dive in and try them out. The best social media management app for you will be the one that best fits your needs and price point.

I've been covering tech for over a decade and updating this list for the past four years, so I've spent a lot of time exploring and testing social media marketing software. After putting them through their paces, comparing the features and user experience they offer against other similarly priced apps, and generally assessing how good (or bad) they are to use, these seven social media planning tools are the ones I think will be the best fit for the majority of businesses. 

The best social media management tools at a glance

Best social media management tool for straightforward social media scheduling

Buffer (Web, iOS, Android)

Buffer pros:

• Dead simple scheduling for all your social media accounts 

• Decent free tier and per-channel pricing keeps costs low for small businesses 

Buffer cons:

• Buffer has a history of changing up its pricing and features quite drastically

Buffer is one of the longest-running social media tools aimed primarily at scheduling posts, although it's gone through multiple updates, shifts, and iterations to keep up with the times. It now supports Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, Pinterest, and Google Business Profile. Free users can connect up to three social accounts, including Facebook Pages and groups, though you're limited to scheduling 10 posts for each channel.

While Buffer's free plan is good enough for small businesses to line up a week or so's worth of posts, if you want a more complete social media management solution or to control more than three social media accounts at once, you'll need to pay $6/month per social channel for the Essentials plan. This gives you access to detailed analytics and engagement features, which let you interact with your audience directly from Buffer—just don't expect to be able to reply to posts on X anymore. (Also, if you want to bring team members on board, Buffer goes up to $12/month per social channel.)

In addition to the core scheduling, analytics, and audience management features, Buffer also offers its own "link in bio" service called Start Page. It's not a new idea, but it's handy having it included as part of your social media management app. Similarly, the included Ideas Kanban board isn't revolutionary, but it makes sense to keep your in progress social media posts in your social media scheduling app.

Like many other social media apps, Buffer has added an AI Assistant. It can generate posts, rephrase your drafts, help you create ideas, and otherwise do all the other AI content generating you'd expect. You may find it nice to have, but Buffer has a lot more going for it.

With Zapier, it's easy to link any other service you use to Buffer. For example, you can automatically add new blog posts to your schedule, either directly from WordPress or through an RSS feed, or add new Instagram photos to Buffer. Learn how to automate Buffer with Zapier, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Buffer price: Free plan includes 1 user, 3 accounts, and 10 queued posts per profile; from $6/month per social channel for the Essentials plan that offers unlimited queued posts per profile; from $12/month per social channel for the Team plan that offers unlimited users.

Best fully-featured social media management tool

Hootsuite (Web, iOS, Android, Chrome)

Hootsuite pros:

• A complete social media management platform that includes scheduling messages, inbox monitoring, and managing posts 

• Best-in-class X integration

Hootsuite cons:

• Expensive

If you're looking for a complete solution to all of your social media management needs, Hootsuite will cover all your bases. It's an all-in-one social media app: you can use it to schedule messages, create and manage potential posts, monitor your various inboxes, run boosted post advertising campaigns, and pretty much anything else you would want a social media management app to do. 

Crucially, Hootsuite is one of the few apps that fully supports X—though, strangely, it often still refers to it as Twitter. If you're used to being able to reply to tweets, keep an eye on your mentions, or see what people are posting about your competitors through your social media management app, with Hootsuite, you can still do it. 

In addition to X, Hootsuite supports Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Threads, WhatsApp Business, and Pinterest—within the bounds that the given social media companies allow. It's easily one of the most expensive apps on this list, but it offers the features to back it up.

Analytics are a particular stand out. In addition to offering a full suite of analytics tools that can help you understand how your social media accounts are performing, Hootsuite also pulls in statistics from other businesses in similar industries, so you can see how you stack up to the competition. 

Like many social media management apps, Hootsuite is embracing AI. OwlyWriter AI can repurpose your top posts, offer up inspiration, write posts for you, turn your blog posts and other content into posts, give you tips on how to improve your current posts, or just generate whatever you need it to. It works well, and it's among the more polished AI offerings I tested.

Hootsuite is really aimed at businesses that can convert social engagement into revenue. It's already the most expensive app on this list—and it can get even pricier if you add any paid apps. Its standout features aren't so much what it does, but how well it does them. It's fast and easy to work with, and it's one of the most widely used social media management apps for good reason.

Hootsuite also integrates with Zapier, so you can do things like automatically create new messages directly from a spreadsheet or RSS feed. Here are a few more examples of how it works, but you can connect Hootsuite to thousands of other apps using Zapier.

Hootsuite price: From $99/month (billed annually) for the Professional plan that includes 1 user, 10 social profiles, and unlimited scheduling; team plans start at $249/month for three users (billed annually).

Best social media management tool for small teams to schedule posts

Vista Social (Web, iOS, Android, Chrome, Firefox)

Vista Social pros:

• Offers team features for a significantly better price than most competitors 

• Lots of other features, like scheduling, inbox monitoring, and task management 

Vista Social cons:

• Web app feels a bit basic

With many apps in this category, if you want to delegate social media management to someone else in your organization, you'll have to pay a serious premium for the privilege—Hootsuite, for example, charges $3,000 per year for a team of three and thousands of dollars more if you want to have some kind of post approval workflow. (You could always give other people your Hootsuite login credentials to save money, but that comes with a whole host of security concerns.)

With Vista Social, though, the Professional plan starts at $79/month and includes four other team members who can manage up to 15 social media accounts. That's thousands of dollars less than Hootsuite—though it does lack some polish.

Vista Social is a solid social media scheduler and also includes messaging, social listening, a link-in-bio service, and even basic task management so your team can keep track of who has to do what. It supports Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, Threads, Snapchat, Reddit, Bluesky, and even Tumblr. Really, all the features you need from a good social media management app are there, including the now obligatory AI assistant.

Vista Social also integrates with Zapier so you can automatically add content to your Vista Social schedule whenever something happens in the other apps you use most, or send data from Vista Social to those apps. Here are a few examples to get you started.

Vista Social price: From $39/month for the Standard plan; the Professional plan with 5 users and 15 accounts starts at $79/month.

Best social media management tool for custom sites

Loomly (Web, iOS, Android)  

Loomly pros:

• Custom social network feature allows you to post to any channel you can imagine using Zapier 

• Each social network can have its own separate scheduling calendar 

Loomly cons:

• Otherwise, it's not the most advanced or polished app on the list

Loomly is a decent social media tool with one ridiculous, standout feature: you can create a custom social network that allows you to post to almost any service as part of your social media management. It hits all the other bases around scheduling, having a multi-service inbox, and basic analytics, but it's this one feature that gets it on this list.

With Loomly, you can have multiple scheduling calendars for your different social media needs. And with each calendar, you can add a Facebook, X, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile, Snapchat, Threads, YouTube, and TikTok account—and, of course, a Custom Channel. 

The Custom Channel feature works using Zapier as the backend. This means you can use it to post to other services like Reddit, send an email to your boss, or near enough anything else you can imagine. I won't even pretend I'm clever enough to come up with all the ways this could be used. 

If you want to take it even further, here are some other things you can do when you connect Loomly to Zapier.

Obviously, there are other ways to automate posting to Reddit or sending emails to your boss. What's interesting about Loomly is how this can tie into your other social networks. It allows you to post the same content on X, Instagram, and your custom network at the same time without having to manage multiple apps.  

Loomly price: From $42/month for the Base plan with 2 users and 10 social accounts.

Best social media management tool for visual social networks

Iconosquare (Web, iOS, Android)  

Iconosquare pros:

• Some of the best Instagram features in any app at any price

• Competent across the board

Iconosquare cons:

• Features for other social media accounts are a bit lackluster

If you really prioritize super visual social networks like Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest, then Iconosquare might be the app for you. While it supports Facebook Pages, X accounts, and LinkedIn Company pages, it definitely puts more focus on visuals than it does text posts. (Support for YouTube Shorts is coming soon.)

That's clear in the kinds of things you can schedule. With an Instagram account, you can schedule single photo posts, carousels of multiple photos, Reels, and Stories—and you can cross-post them all to multiple Instagram accounts at the same time. If you want, you can also schedule the first comment. 

TikTok isn't quite as thoroughly supported, but you can still schedule videos and photos, and pull content from a shared media library. Of course, you can also share versions of all these things on Facebook or X, but it feels like a step back in terms of features. 

Similarly, Iconosquare has surprisingly good reports, analytics, and even social listening features—but Instagram is by far the most supported. You can track your competitors, monitor specific hashtags, see when you're tagged, and loads more. 

And like with almost every other app, you can use an AI to generate captions. It's more limited than some of the other offerings but useful if you want it.  

Iconosquare price: From $39/month for the Launch plan with 1 user and up to 10 social profiles.

Best social media management tool for text-based social networks

Typefully (Web, macOS)  

Typefully pros:

• The best way to manage content on Twitter replacements

• Very affordable

Typefully cons:

• Really limited to a small corner of the social media landscape

While Twitter hasn't exactly died, its transition to X has been fraught with drama, and millions of users have left. This has opened the door for a number of competitors: Threads, Mastodon, and Bluesky are all slightly different takes on shortform text-based social networks, and even LinkedIn posts are having a moment (though the majority of them are apparently written by AI).

A few years ago, the idea of a social media manager just for text-based social networks would have been a bit ridiculous—Twitter had the most permissive API, so every app made managing it easy. Now, Typefully provides a useful service for anyone trying to stay active across the increasingly fragmented microblogging/short-from-text/Twitter-replacements network. 

Typefully allows you to write and schedule posts across X, Threads, Mastodon, Bluesky, and LinkedIn from the one app. It can automatically split longer text posts into threads, and the built-in AI can help you tweak things and suggest new ideas. You can collaborate with a team and get feedback from clients. There are built-in analytics, and with X, you can respond to anyone who retweets or replies with an automatic DM. That way, you can run competitions or give away free resources to drive engagement. There's also a built-in site that can collect your threads, so you can share them as a resource. 

Typefully even integrates with Zapier, so you can log your posts in a database or post automatically when you publish a new blog post. Here are a few other ways you might connect Typefully with the rest of the apps in your tech stack.

Typefully price: Free plan with 5 drafts and 15 posts/month on X and Bluesky. From $12.50/month with annual billing for unlimited posts on all networks.

Best affordable all-in-one social media management tool

Sendible (Web, iOS, Android)  

Sendible pros:

• Nails the basics at an affordable price

• Easy to use

Sendible cons:

• Lacks a few features of more expensive apps

Sendible is one of the best affordable all-in-one social media management apps. It supports Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile, YouTube, WordPress, and X, and for the most part, offers a similar—if stripped down—experience to apps like Hootsuite that cost significantly more. 

Take reports. While you won't get the same deep dives into your competitors, Sendible's quick reports give you a good overview of how your posts are performing—at least on the social networks it can support. Given the price point, there's no deep X analytics available, but one nice integration is Google Analytics, so you can see how social media is driving traffic to your site.

Similarly, you can schedule posts to go out at a specific time or get added to a queue to get posted automatically at the next appropriate slot, reply to comments on your Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn posts, add posts automatically from RSS feeds, or use the AI assistant to fine-tune captions. It's nothing that the other apps don't do, but it's well implemented and easy to use.

And really, that's what makes Sendible stand out: it does the basics really well, at a solid price. For many small businesses just looking to stay on top of social media, that's probably enough. 

Sendible Price: From $29/month for the Creator plan with 1 user and 6 social accounts.

Which social media management tool is best for you?

As with most things, there's no one best way to manage social media—just the most appropriate for your business needs. These apps are all limited by the access the various social media networks offer to third parties, so most social media manager tools are capable of doing pretty similar things in much the same ways. All the tools that made this list stood out from the crowd for some specific reasons, but almost every app I tested worked well enough to schedule a week or two of social posts. You might well prefer how they implement certain features you rely on or otherwise find them a better fit for your needs.

If none of the apps on this list are quite what you're looking for, here are a few of the other great social media management tools to consider:

• Agorapulse, Sprout Social, and Statusbrew are all excellent Hootsuite competitors. Plans with most features generally start at well over $1,000/year, so you may need to get the purchasing department to sign off. 

• SocialPilot, Nuelink, Publer, ContentStudio, Planable, MeetEdgar, and SocialBee all typically cost a little less, with entry level plans coming in at between $100 and $600/year. Features vary wildly and some apps are great at one thing (like automation or scheduling) and totally lacking in other areas. They can offer a solid bang for your buck, but you'll need a good idea of what features matter to you and your business.

Honestly, these apps can be difficult to compare as they all offer such a similar service. Whether any particular app is right for you depends on what features you need, how many team members you have, and what your budget is. If your customers notice or care what social media management app you are using, something weird is going on.

My main picks are a great place to start, and each one brings something special to the table. I suggest checking out their free trials and going from there.

Related reading:

• The best AI tools for social media management

• How to create a social media post with AI for free

• How AI can help you repurpose content for social media

• The best Twitter alternatives

• Social media marketing examples to inspire your next campaign

• The best campaign management software

This piece was originally published in September 2017 by Andrew Kunesh and has also had contributions from Tim Brookes. The most recent update was in December 2024.

Keeping up with Zoom meetings can feel like a full-time job in itself. From coordinating schedules, sending links to the right people, sharing recordings, and managing follow-ups, the manual work adds up fast. All those tasks take valuable time away from the priority work that matters most.

The good news? You can make Zoom work smarter for you. With Zapier, you can connect Zoom to your entire tech stack and create automated workflows—called Zaps—that take care of the repetitive stuff. From managing schedules to generating transcriptions and beyond, everything happens automatically, so you can stay focused on what's important.

Table of contents

• Add Zoom attendees to your CRM

• Track and share recordings

• Use AI to transcribe recordings

• Add meeting invites to calendar bookings

• Track meeting attendance

• Connect your event software

• Use webhooks with Zoom

Add Zoom attendees to your CRM

If webinars are part of your marketing strategy, you want to make sure that you capture registrations in your CRM or email marketing app. With Zapier, you can automatically add new attendees as contacts wherever you need them. 

Track and share recordings

I know this may come as a shock, but sometimes people will miss a meeting or that awesome webinar you hosted. Luckily, it's easy to record meetings on Zoom. Plus, recordings can display the meeting chat, transcripts, and timestamps to make it easier to catch up later. What's not as easy? Remembering to share the recording later. This may not be a big deal if it's a low-stakes internal meeting, but when it's a webinar or event you promoted, you may have some angry customers. 

You can prevent some angry messages with a Zap or two. The workflows below will automatically send new Zoom recordings to a cloud storage app or video service or even in a Slack message with a recording link. 

Of course, another way to make sure your registrants actually show up to a meeting or a webinar is by sending them customized emails before the event itself.

With Zapier, you can send personalized comms via Gmail, Outlook, or Active Campaign with details specific to the event they signed up for. That way, you can keep their interest alive until the big day. 

Use AI to transcribe Zoom recordings

 Do you use AI meeting recordings tools like tl;dv or Descript to manage meetings? While these tools are highly effective at generating transcripts and summaries, there may be times where you can't bring these bots to a Zoom call (like if another team member is a host). 

Whatever the case, you can use these Zaps as a workaround. Whenever a new recording is ready in Zoom, Zapier will send them straight to your AI tool, where it can effectively transcribe or summarize your recordings from there. 

Add meeting invites to calendar bookings

When I discovered scheduling apps, I felt like a genius. I used to work as a radio producer, so I constantly sent emails back and forth to book interviews. Had I known about scheduling apps, I would've saved a ton of time. 

If you use scheduling apps at work, you're already one step ahead of me. But there's one pitfall everyone encounters: forgetting to include the Zoom link. 

Our memories are faulty, so let Zapier take that burden for you. Try these Zaps, which will automatically create Zoom meetings from your booking apps. 

If you constantly forget to attach Zoom links to your calendar events, Zapier can take care of that too:

Track meeting attendance

You just hosted a webinar that attendees loved. You're feeling good. But you know the work isn't over yet. If webinar marketing is a part of your business, you know that you have to crunch the numbers to determine how many RSVPs actually attended.

You can access attendance reports from Zoom, but it's a manual process, and you have to do some digging to find what you need. Instead, you can use a Zap to create a real-time log of new Zoom registrations in a spreadsheet app. Give these workflows a try: 

Connect your event software

Putting on events is tough work, whether it's in-person or online. With all the hard work you're putting into the logistics, you don't want a simple mistake like forgetting to send the Zoom invite to derail your effort. 

Zapier lets you connect event management tools like Eventbrite to Zoom so you can have peace of mind. Try these workflows:

Use webhooks with Zoom

Zapier integrates with thousands of apps, but we know that there are millions of apps out there. If you happen to work with an app that doesn't have a Zapier integration, there's a workaround: Webhooks. 

Available on our paid plans, Webhooks by Zapier allows you to use a webhook in a Zap to connect with Zoom (or any other app). If your app has webhook functionality—or you need to do more things within a particular app—you can use a webhook. 

Get started now:

Let automation handle your Zoom logistics

Automation with Zapier can help you save time on those extra Zoom tasks, so you can focus on hosting virtual events or prepping for that next meeting. 

We've only scratched the surface of what you can do with Zoom and Zapier. Zapier supports thousands of apps so you can automate almost any task at work. Start building your Zap now and see what you can create. 

This article was originally published in July 2022, written by Krystina Martinez. It was most recently updated in December 2024 by Elena Alston.

Jira Software is a staple of the software development world—but it has such a deep feature list that its usage goes beyond Agile teams. It's a go-to project management tool for a wide variety of engineering and product teams, workflows, and methodologies.

If your team uses Jira, you care about efficiency—and you're also probably inundated with requests and issues that can be overwhelming to stay on top of. Automating Jira Software lets you connect your development process to the rest of your tech stack and tame the chaos. Do things like creating issues automatically from a variety of sources, sending notifications for time-sensitive updates, and tracking issues across tools. Here are some of the top ways to get started.

Note: All of the Zaps—what we call our automated workflows—in this article are for Jira Software's Cloud service. If you're still using Jira's Server offering, you can find popular Zaps for it here.

Skip ahead

• Create Jira issues automatically

• Notify team members about issues

• Keep track of issues in other tools

• Automate tasks within Jira

• Connect Jira with almost any other app

Create Jira issues automatically

Jira is a powerful tool for getting work done as a team, but the admin work that goes into it can slow you down if you're not careful. 

Creating issues over and over again is one of the more time-consuming tasks in Jira. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to automate issue creation so you can spend less time creating issues and more time solving them.

From forms

If you're manually creating Jira issues by copying and pasting form responses, you can automate that process completely with a Zap.

Using any of the Zaps below, you can integrate Jira with your form tool of choice to create issues automatically—eliminating the need to continually monitor for form responses or copying and pasting information from the form to your Jira issue.

From spreadsheets

Since it's likely not everyone across your company has access to your Jira account, you might track bugs that come in across your company through a spreadsheet first before you create new issues. Use automation to keep on top of bug tracking by creating new Jira issues each time you add a new row to a Google Sheet.

From team chat

If you're anything like our team at Zapier—or most places I've worked, for that matter—you probably have a chat channel called #bugs, #bugbounty, or #bugimprovements. Having a channel set up for your team to report bugs is a really helpful way for the whole team to contribute to finding and squashing issues.

With the Zaps below, you can turn those messages into Jira issues automatically. You can either have every message in the channel sent over to Jira or just the ones you add a specific reaction to.

From email

If you have a dedicated email set up for bugs or other software-related issues, the Zap below will become incredibly handy. With it, you can create new Jira issues from each new inbound message. That means no monitoring that inbox for problems and no more manually adding those tickets yourself.

Notify team members about issues

It's easy to miss notifications when they're coming at you from a million places. The best way to make sure your team doesn't miss anything is to bring those notifications to where the rest of your communication happens—typically on a chat platform like Slack.

With the Zaps below, you can automatically post a message in a channel so that your team is in the loop on new issues right away.

Keep track of issues in other tools

I already mentioned being able to create Jira issues from other tools, but how about the other way around? Sometimes, it's helpful to make your Jira issues visible across other platforms, and luckily, that's an easy thing to automate.

With the Zaps below, you can keep track of your Jira issues in any of your other project management tools without needing to copy and paste a thing.

Automate tasks within Jira

You can also use automation to cut down on administrative tasks inside Jira itself. Maybe when a new issue is created, someone needs to go in and assign it to a team member, set a priority level, or add specific labels. Or, when an issue is updated in a specific way—like resolving it—you might need to take a specific set of actions, like closing subtasks or moving related issues to a different column on the board. 

Instead of handling those time-consuming tasks manually, use one of these Zaps to create automated rules for new or updated issues in Jira. Save yourself time and keep your project boards tidy in one fell swoop.

Connect Jira to almost any other app

Zapier connects with a lot of apps—thousands, actually! But if you use an app that doesn't have a Zapier integration, there's another option: webhooks. If your app has webhook functionality, you can use Webhooks by Zapier to connect it to Jira and automate just about anything you can imagine.

Supercharge your Jira projects with automation

Jira is a powerful tool for getting software development work done. Pair Jira with Zapier, and you can free yourself up from the admin work that comes along with it so you can spend more time focusing on the work that matters.

And this is just the start of what you can do with Jira and Zapier. Start building your Zap now and see what you can create.

This article was originally published in November 2022, written by Will Harris. It was most recently updated in December 2024 by Nicole Replogle.

The happier the customer, the happier your bottom line. That goes without saying. But keeping customers from churning (and staying loyal to your brand) is often the hardest part of your customer support team's job. They have to work quickly and efficiently to resolve issues, provide real-time assistance, and ensure every interaction leaves a positive impression on the customer.

Things get a lot easier with Intercom, a customer support tool that lets customers and prospects chat with your team in real time, helping you scale and solve issues or requests as they happen. 

And when you pair Intercom with Zapier, you can streamline and scale your support processes even further.  Zapier's automated workflows—called Zaps—allow you to connect Intercom to the other business-critical apps you use every day. That way, you can route tickets to the right teams, analyze conversations, and more—automatically. Here's how.

Table of contents

• Route tickets to the right teams

• Connect Intercom to your CRM or email marketing app

• Connect Intercom with your form app

• Connect Intercom with Google Sheets

• Gather feedback and analyze conversations

• Use AI to enrich Intercom leads

• Use webhooks with Intercom

Route tickets to the right teams

The faster your team is notified about Intercom activity, the faster they can respond. From handling new tickets to following up with customers, speed-to-response is key to improving customer satisfaction and maintaining efficient support operations.

But you won't want to spend all your time checking Intercom for updates. Instead, you can use these Zaps to send new tickets and customer activity to apps like Slack or Zendesk. That way, you're reaching the right teams where they spend most of their time—automatically.

Connect Intercom to your CRM or email marketing app

While Intercom may be your first touch point with a customer, it shouldn't be your last. And depending on the size and complexity of your business, multiple people may interact with a customer at different points along their journey with your service or product. 

Keep your tools in sync by connecting Intercom with your email marketing apps and customer relationship management (CRM) tools. That way, you can ensure each customer gets the right follow-up and keep their information updated and in sync across platforms.

Connect Intercom with your form app

Maybe you like to keep it old school with a tried-and-true form. Form apps like Typeform or Webflow can be great lead generators, particularly for businesses with an impressive web presence. The trick is getting that customer information from a web form into a customer service app like Intercom in a timely fashion—especially when you have a high volume of leads.

There are simple Zaps for linking form submission apps with Intercom. Visitors on your website can quickly convert into Intercom leads, where they'll enter your internal Intercom customer funnel. Or you can use a new entry within Typeform to send a message to you via Intercom, connecting your backend with your customer-facing communications. 

To give your communications a little more modern-era digital oomph, you can also set Intercom to add or remove tags based on the data in form entries. That way, entries sort themselves into highly specific segments, making it easier to craft specific responses at scale.

Connect Intercom with Google Sheets

Big data benefits big decisions, but what do you do when you need to see all your raw customer data in one place? Maybe you want to view how many customers belong to a specific tag so you can start brainstorming new email campaigns. Or maybe you want a log of all your customer conversations that happen in Intercom so you can analyze them and create customer profiles.

The solution is connecting Intercom with Google Sheets using Zapier. Every time a new user is logged by Intercom, you can set Google Sheets to create a new spreadsheet row that automatically populates with all their relevant information. There's no copying and pasting with this method, no clicking "save," no saving to a USB. It all happens automatically, setting you up for a seamless experience.

Or, if you want to add a lot of customer data to Intercom quickly, you can also run the process in reverse. Export a customer list to Google Sheets, then set Zapier to add Intercom users from the information in those rows.

Gather feedback and analyze conversations

Once you've helped a customer out—whether that's by solving a product issue or by answering specific questions—you'll want to know how you did. Gathering feedback from your customers can give you valuable insights into the way your brand is perceived and help you pinpoint any areas for improvement. 

Automation can help you streamline this process. The moment you close out customer conversations in Intercom, these Zaps will automatically send them a customer feedback survey while the experience is still fresh in their minds. 

Want to skip the surveys altogether? You can also use AI to analyze customer conversations for sentiment, key topics, and overall satisfaction, without needing to directly ask any humans for feedback. 

These Zaps cover that whole process automatically—from sending customer conversations to ChatGPT and delivering the analysis in tools like Google Sheets or Slack. 

Use AI to enrich Intercom leads

Of course, you shouldn't just be using Intercom to handle support issues that pop up. You can also use it as a lead magnet for anyone who lands on your website and has questions about your product. Once a prospect has shown interest, you'll likely pass them over to a member of your sales team. Simple, right? Well, it probably helps to give sales as much context as possible about that prospect before they start reaching out. That way, they can personalize their approach and build a stronger connection right from the get-go. 

By using AI-powered tools (like Clay or ChatGPT), you can automatically enrich lead profiles with valuable details—like company information, recent interactions, or key insights—before handing them off to sales. This ensures your team is equipped with the information they need to engage effectively and close deals faster. Here are a few Zap templates to get you started: 

Use webhooks with Intercom

Zapier has thousands of apps ready for automation, but there may be an app you use that doesn't have an integration quite yet. When that happens, you can use webhooks to integrate other apps with Intercom. Think of webhooks as the duct tape of the digital world: they connect almost anything.

If you have a tool that connects to webhooks but not Intercom, you can let webhooks serve as the go-between. Here are a few workflows to get you started:

Personalized communications, faster responses, better customer service

If an app doesn't integrate into your business, it loses value. You need fast, responsive, and personalized automation built into your existing systems to make the most of your customer service platforms.

Use Intercom along with your favorite apps to segment your customers, absorb new leads, and keep your team in the loop every time a customer has an issue. Even as your business scales, your existing team can handle new levels of attention and interest without missing a beat.

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

This article was originally published in September 2020, written by Nick Moore, with previous updates by Daniel Kenitz. It was most recently updated in December 2024 by Elena Alston.

On the face of it, uninstalling a WordPress plugin is straightforward. Click a few buttons, and hey presto, the plugin vanishes. But, alas, that's not the whole picture. 

While everything might appear ok on the surface, you'll find a trail of leftover tables, files, and code snippets underneath. Most of the time, these leftovers don't cause a problem. But there's always a chance they might lead to trouble down the line.

So how do you get rid of these unwanted leftovers? Stay tuned as I show you how to uninstall a WordPress plugin completely.

Why uninstall a WordPress plugin

WordPress plugins are small software apps that add new features or extend the base functionality on your site. Thousands of free and premium WordPress plugins are available to download and install—but why would you want to uninstall one? Well, there are several reasons:

1. You've outgrown it

As your site grows, your needs change, so a plugin you required several months ago may now be redundant. When you no longer need it, you should uninstall it.

2. You don't like it

When you're looking to add some new functionality, you'll likely download a few similar plugins to test which one you like best. That's perfectly fine, but you need to uninstall the ones you don't like and aren't going to use.

3. It's causing problems

It might be that a plugin you installed is causing a problem on your site. While plugin developers try to follow agreed standards, sometimes problems occur, and you get conflicts between plugins or a plugin and a theme. When this happens, you'll need to uninstall the rogue plugin.

4. It's no longer supported

Developers have to regularly update plugins to keep them compliant with the latest version of WordPress. Sometimes plugins get abandoned by developers, and they become incompatible.

Pro tip: Check the WordPress repository for compatibility. For example, here you can see Yoast SEO was recently updated and works on WordPress version 6.5 or higher.

5. It contains malicious code

It's not unknown for hackers and unscrupulous developers to create plugins containing malware and viruses. It's unlikely you'll download such a plugin from the official repository, but you may inadvertently download one from a third-party site. If that happens, you definitely need to uninstall the plugin ASAP. And, if it's infected your site, you'll need to call in some malware removal experts.

Bottom line: whatever the reason, leaving an unwanted WordPress plugin on your site is never a good idea.

The difference between deactivating and deleting a WordPress plugin

When you no longer need a WordPress plugin, you have the option of deactivating or deleting it. So what's the difference?

• Deactivating a plugin is like switching a light off. You still have all the electrical wiring in place, but you've temporarily stopped the electricity flowing through to the light bulb. In the case of a plugin, that means all the files remain on your site, but WordPress prevents them from running until you activate the plugin again.

• Deleting a plugin removes the plugin from your plugin list and uninstalls all the files from your site.

Deactivating a plugin is helpful when troubleshooting a problem on your site: you can temporarily deactivate one plugin at a time to isolate potential conflicts. But if you find a rogue plugin, it's best to delete it completely.

How to uninstall a WordPress plugin

WordPress makes it super easy to uninstall unwanted plugins from your admin dashboard. But before you start, make sure you have a current backup that you can use to restore your site if anything goes awry.

1. Log in and head to ​​Plugins > Installed plugins to see all the installed plugins on your site.

2. Scroll down to the plugin you want to remove. Click Deactivate.

   

3. Click Delete to uninstall the plugin.

   

Most of the time, all the plugin files get removed immediately. However, some bits of data can get left behind. So, you need to go behind the scenes and remove any "leftovers" manually to fully delete plugin data in WordPress.

Removing the "leftovers" after uninstalling a WordPress plugin

Deleting a WordPress plugin from your admin dashboard will usually uninstall any files and folders created in the /wp-content/plugins/ directory. But sometimes, a plugin creates files, tables, and shortcodes in other folders that may not get deleted. When this happens, you need to take manual action.

Once again, before you start, make sure you have a current backup that you can use to restore your site if anything goes awry.

How to remove leftover files and folders

You can remove any unwanted files via FTP or SFTP with a program like FileZilla or Cyberduck. Alternatively, some WordPress hosts, like WPX, include a file manager so you can bypass the FTP process. Either way, you gain access to the files and folders on your WordPress server.

When you install WordPress, it creates two subfolders in the "wp-content" folder:

• plugins

• themes

Over time, other subfolders get added, such as:

• cache

• upgrade

• uploads

And some plugins create their own folders, too. For example, W3 Total Cache creates a "w3tc-config" subfolder:

Even if I delete the W3 Total Cache plugin successfully:

The "w3tc-config" subfolder remains:

To delete the unwanted folder and files, right-click on the folder, and select Delete.

You'll see a confirmation message. Select Delete to confirm, and the "w3tc-config" folder gets removed.

How to remove leftover database tables

You can remove any unwanted database tables using phpMyAdmin. Most WordPress hosts provide it in your hosting admin dashboard.

When you install WordPress, it creates 12 database tables as standard:

1. wp_commentmeta

2. wp_comments

3. wp_links

4. wp_options

5. wp_postmeta

6. wp_posts

7. wp_termmeta

8. wp_terms

9. wp_term_relationships

10. wp_term_taxonomy

11. wp_usermeta

12. wp_users

Individual plugins create any other tables you see. For example, here you can see a total of 22 tables, including entries from Yoast SEO and Thrive Architect.

When you delete a plugin, some developers intentionally retain settings in case you reinstall it, but others simply don't tidy up. Either way, you can remove any leftovers.

For example, say you want to remove the leftover "wp_socialsnap_stats" table from the Social Snap plugin. Select the Drop option next to it.

You'll get a message confirming you want to delete the table. Press OK to confirm your choice, and the table gets deleted.

How to remove leftover shortcodes

Many plugins use shortcodes to add functionality to WordPress. For example, WPForms creates a shortcode that you can insert on your contact page.

So you have a contact form that looks like this.

But when you deactivate and delete a plugin that uses shortcodes, you can end up with the actual shortcode tag displaying.

When you know you only have the shortcode on one or two pages, it's easy to edit them and remove the code. But other plugins (especially visual page builders like Divi) create hundreds of shortcodes throughout your site. In this scenario, there's a quicker way to find and remove the leftover shortcodes.

First, you'll need to install a plugin called Shortcodes Finder. 

Then, head to Tools > Shortcodes Finder, and select Settings. Check the box next to Disable unused/orphan shortcodes to find and remove unwanted tags, and then save your settings.

Next, select the Find unused shortcodes tab and search the Posts and Pages to find the shortcodes. In this example, it finds and removes the unused shortcodes from my Contact Page and Sample Page.

Now, you can see the Contact Page no longer displays the shortcode.

Note: In this example, you'd still need to edit the text on your page, as it's meaningless without a form to display.

Remember to uninstall your WordPress plugins completely

WordPress lets you install and delete plugins quickly from your admin dashboard. But sometimes, when you delete a plugin, it doesn't uninstall all the files, folders, database tables, and shortcodes. If you want to remove all the leftovers, follow the steps above to uninstall any unwanted WordPress plugins completely.

Related reading:

• How to speed up your WordPress site

• How to choose a WordPress host for your business

• A complete guide to WordPress blocks

• Rank Math vs. Yoast: Which SEO plugin should you use?

• The best WordPress eCommerce plugins

If you're like most marketers, you'd give anything to make lead generation and management easier. And WPForms' versatile contact forms, you're well on your way. But creating a beautiful online form is only half the battle. After potential customers fill it out, you still need to review the submission, add the respondents' information into a database for tracking, follow up with them, and even update your team. 

That's where our automated workflows—called Zaps—come in. With Zapier, you can connect WPForms to other business-critical apps in your tech stack to streamline your lead management process and scale your lead gen efforts with ease. 

Table of contents

• Track form submissions in a spreadsheet

• Send messages from form submissions

• Add new contacts to an email list

• Keep your CRM up to date

• Create tasks and appointments from form entries

• Connect WPForms to any other app using webhooks

Track form submissions in a spreadsheet

Once you add a contact form to your website, you need a way to track incoming submissions, extract the contact information, and organize the data so it's easy to share with your team. 

While you can manually export each form submission into a spreadsheet or Airtable database, you risk mistakes like missed or duplicate entries. Plus, if you're generating a high volume of leads, it becomes virtually impossible to keep track of every new form submission manually. 

Instead, use one of these Zaps to send new WPForms entries to a designated Google spreadsheet, Excel sheet, or Airtable database—all automatically. If your form includes custom fields like file uploads, you can also use a Zap to save them in a cloud storage solution like Google Drive. This way, you can organize form submissions and keep your data where it needs to be—in a secure, centralized place—without manual intervention. 

Send messages from form submissions

Before I started using Zaps, I used to craft a new email every time a potential client booked a discovery call or submitted a request on my website. That process was not only too much work, but it also led to many delayed responses, which isn't a good look for first-time clients.

If you're at all like me, you can use automation to speed up that response time and take manual work out of the process. Just set up any of these Zaps and craft your response message so that every time someone hits send on your WPForms, Zapier will send an email from your Gmail or email by Zapier address. 

Alternatively, if you need to keep team members updated on new WPForms entries, these automated workflows can send every form submission straight to your favorite communication app. Eliminate manual updates and save your team the time they spend checking for the latest info so they can focus on doing the work that matters. 

Add new contacts to an email list

Using forms to collect emails is one of the most powerful ways to grow an email list. And you can expedite that growth when you bring automation into the mix. Instead of wasting time transferring contact details from WPform into your email marketing tool, use these Zaps to automatically add form respondents as subscribers to an email list.

Automating this process eliminates manual data entry and ensures that each lead is nurtured through consistent and timely communication. These Zaps can also update existing subscriber records with the latest information from the submission. That way, your email list stays organized and ready for future campaigns.

Keep your CRM up to date 

When a new submission comes from your website's contact form—built with WPForms—you want your team to act on those leads immediately. But if your current workflow involves exporting form submissions, opening a spreadsheet to review the entry, and then painstakingly adding each lead to a CRM, then your team is wasting valuable time on repetitive tasks. 

Manually updating your CRM slows down your entire sales process, reducing the chance of converting hot leads into customers. It also exposes your data to human error, such as missed or misplaced entries.

Instead, use automation to keep your CRM in sync after a lead submits a form. These Zaps will automatically create or update a new contact record in your CRM—complete with all the relevant details from the form—whenever there's a new submission. With these workflows, your CRM data stays clean and reliable and your sales team can take action quickly.

Create tasks and appointments from form entries

Form submissions often include tasks that need to be completed right away or scheduled for later. Whether sending a proposal, scheduling a demo, or even following up with a customer, automation ensures your team stays on top of important to-dos without losing momentum. 

With these Zaps, you can automatically create a new task in your task management app or add a new event to your calendar from WPForms entries. For example, you can set up an automation to create a new card in your Trello board when a new submission comes through your WPForms account. You can then assign the card to the right team member to ensure important action items don't slip through the cracks.

Connect WPForms to any other app using webhooks

If the automated workflow you need requires an app that doesn't integrate with Zapier (yet), you can use webhooks to create a custom automation. 

Webhooks let you send messages between apps when a specific triggered event occurs. For example, say you want to create a new contact in a bespoke customer database whenever a new WPForms entry is submitted, you can use this Zap to get started.

Simplify lead management with WPForms and Zapier 

Lead generation and management are only one part of your marketing  process—they shouldn't slow down your business. When you automate your workflow with WPForms and Zapier, you and your team can eliminate manual work, stay organized, and focus on what matters most—nurturing leads and converting them into customers.

This article was originally published in January 2021, written by Krystina Martinez. It was most recently updated in December 2024 by Juliet John.

If you work in marketing, you understand the power of Facebook Lead Ads. By including a form on your ads, you can easily collect customer information without sending customers to a new page—which can lead to churn. This kind of lead generation has proven to be highly effective.

But the work doesn't stop there. Once you've collected your leads, you need to move that information into the system you use to reach your customers—like Mailchimp. Instead of doing this manually, you should think about using automation to move that information—well, automatically. 

In this article, we'll show you how to connect Mailchimp to Facebook Lead Ads. First, by building a native integration with Facebook Lead Ads and Mailchimp. Secondly, by using Zapier's Facebook Lead Ads Mailchimp integration. With our Zaps—our word for Zapier's automated workflows—you can add new leads to your Mailchimp list, speeding up your follow-up and scaling your lead management automatically.

Table of contents

• How to set up a Facebook Lead Ads email integration

• Why you should use automation instead

• How to connect Facebook Lead Ads to email with Zapier

• Further reading

How to set up a Facebook Lead Ads email integration

If you want to set up a native Facebook Lead Ads email integration, you'll first need a Mailchimp account and a Facebook account (with a business page). 

Head over to your Mailchimp account to get started. Once inside your workspace, you'll need to:

• Navigate to the left sidebar and click Integrations. 

• Search for the Facebook app and click on it. 

• Click Get started, then click Connect. 

• Once you've been redirected to Facebook, log into your account and approve the permissions requests. 

• You'll be brought back to your integrations page in Mailchimp where you can select the Facebook business page (and audience) you want to use. 

• Once you've finished setting this up, click Save. 

You can now create a Facebook ad (with a Facebook lead ads form) directly within Mailchimp. Click Create in the left-hand panel, and select Ad, then Facebook/Instagram ad. Follow the instructions for set-up. 

Once you're finished, you can create workflows under the Automations tab in Mailchimp to start building customer journeys within Mailchimp. 

Why you should use automation instead

While the native integration lets you connect to Facebook via Mailchimp, there are a lot of configuration steps within each platform that aren't completely intuitive. That's a lot of back-and-forth work!

Zapier, on the other hand, provides a quick and easy way to add your Facebook leads to a Mailchimp list on one platform. As soon as someone clicks on your Facebook ad, Zapier will send that lead straight to Mailchimp in real-time. This speeds up the follow-up process, improving your chances of lead conversion. 

Plus, Zapier connects with thousands of apps, offering a comprehensive solution for diverse needs across multiple platforms, you can create customized, multi-step Zaps that align perfectly with your marketing objectives. Let's dig into creating your Facebook Lead Ads email integration with Zapier. 

How to connect Facebook Lead Ads to email with Zapier

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 below, and you'll be taken to the Zapier 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 Facebook Lead Ads trigger

First set up your trigger step—the event that starts your Zap. Search for and select Facebook Leads Ads for your trigger app and New Lead for your trigger event. If you're using the Zap template, these will be selected for you. 

Next, sign in with your Facebook Lead Ads account, if you haven’t already, and click Continue.

Next, customize your Zap trigger by selecting the Facebook page and form you want to use with this Zap. If you don't already have a form for your Facebook Lead Ad created, now's the time to make one. Follow Facebook's tutorial if you're not sure how.

Once you've selected a page and form, click Continue. 

Next, test your trigger step. Choose a lead for this test, then click Continue with selected record.

Set up your Mailchimp action to add new subscribers

Now it's time to set up your action step, which is what happens after your Zap is triggered. First, create or log in to your Mailchimp account and make sure you have an Audience set up.

Next, select your action app and event in your action step in the Zap editor. If you're using the Zap template, this will be selected for you. Otherwise, select Mailchimp as your action app and Add/Update Subscriber as your action event. Then, connect your Mailchimp account, if you haven't already, and click Continue.

Now it's time to set up your action step. Customize your new subscriber by selecting, at minimum, the Audience and Subscriber Email address. You can map data from your previous Facebook Lead Ads step by clicking in a field and selecting data from the dropdown menu.

Fill in the rest of the information that you need for your campaign, like the customer's name and email. 

If you would like this Zap to update the information for existing subscribers in your Mailchimp account, make sure to select Yes in the Update Existing field. 

Please note that any changed data that comes in for an existing subscriber—such as name, email, or address—will overwrite whatever information is already listed in the existing Mailchimp contact. If you select No in the Update Existing field, the Zap will stop and not add a duplicate subscriber if one already exists.

Once you're finished filling out this section, click Continue and test your Zap. After running your test, you should see a new contact on your Mailchimp Audience page in Mailchimp.

If the Zap worked correctly and added the contact to your audience how you'd like it to, you're now ready to use your Zap.

Congrats, you did it! From now on, every new Facebook Lead you get will be added to your selected Mailchimp Audience.

Further reading

What are Facebook Lead Ads?

Ever seen an ad on Facebook you liked, tapped on it—and a form popped up? If your contact details were pre-populated with your information you stored in Facebook, chances are you were looking at a lead ad. 

Facebook Lead Ads are an advertising format designed specifically to help businesses collect prospect information (think names, email addresses, phone numbers, etc) that your sales team can then use to reach out—and close a deal. 

Of course, Facebook Lead Ads can generate qualified leads for you. But you can also use the advertising tool to encourage downloads (like eBooks), collect subscriber information for your newsletter, and generate customer profiles. 

What is Mailchimp?

We know you know. After all, who hasn't heard of Mailchimp? It's one of the most popular email marketing platforms going, revered for its easy-to-use functionality, email templates, and features that move the needle towards business growth. (And let's not forget its freemium model.)

With Mailchimp, you can design, build, send, and analyze emails, yes. But you can also set up customer journeys to nurture your audience, build an online presence with a website, schedule social media posts, and manage your campaigns within one dashboard.  

This article was originally published in February 2023, written by Kaylee Moser, with previous updates by Elena Alston. It was most recently updated in December 2024 by Khamosh Pathak.

The first thing I do in the mornings before work is check my Google Calendar. It's my source of truth for whatever the day ahead holds, including team meetings, projects that need my attention, and even errands I need to fit in between. 

But even if you do use Google Calendar to organize your day, it can still be a real hustle to prioritize critical tasks when your schedule fills up fast. From last-minute requests to time-sensitive meetings, you may find yourself managing your calendar instead of growing your business.

That's where automation with Zapier comes in. By automating your Google Calendar, you can save time and focus on what matters most. With just a few Zaps—what we call our automated workflows—you can sync events across multiple calendars, set up notifications for new events, or create follow-up tasks, and more—automatically. 

Table of contents

• Cross-post between calendars

• Get meeting reminders

• Prepare for upcoming events

• Manage appointments and video calls

• Create events from tasks

• Set Slack statuses during calendar meetings

• Use webhooks with Google Calendar

Cross-post between calendars

Depending on your role, you may have to manage multiple calendars. Perhaps you have different calendars for each team you manage, or you're managing a client calendar on top of your own. 

These Zaps will cross-post new Google Calendar events to your calendar of choice, so you don't have to worry about juggling multiple schedules or posting to the wrong calendar.

If you're the kind of person who likes to see how you're spending your time across your days and weeks, you can also connect your time tracking tool to Google Calendar. That way, it will create a new Google Calendar event for every new time entry so you (or even your manager) can track your progress and prioritize tasks. 

Get meeting reminders

Between video calls, managing your inbox, and responding to chat, it's easy to forget that you have something on your calendar when you're focused on another task. The same is true for clients you need to meet with. 

These Zaps will automatically remind you, your team, or your clients about an upcoming meeting through email or a team chat app. That way, you'll never keep a client waiting—and you won't be left hanging either.

Want to receive a little more context in your notifications? If you're a busy person (aren't we all?), it might not be enough to just receive a ping with only the title and description of a Google Calendar event. Instead, you can add an AI step to add more context to the event like the purpose, any prep materials, and recommendations about event-related projects. 

Prepare for upcoming events

Of course, it's not enough to show up to the meetings on your calendar. You always need to be prepared—but it can be difficult to fit in prep time when you're wearing many hats. 

Whether you're gearing up for a client meeting, pitch presentation, or other event, these Zaps can help you make time to prepare. Whenever a new event is added to your Google Calendar, Zapier will automatically create a task in your favorite to-do app or project management tool. You can even enrich those tasks with more context by sending the Google Calendar event to ChatGPT first.

You can customize your trigger—the event that starts a Zap—so that only certain calendar events will generate tasks. You can also set it so the same tasks appear every time if you'd like.

Zapier can also automatically create agendas or other meeting documents from a template.

Manage appointments and video calls

It's hard enough remembering (and showing up) to the meetings with your colleagues. What about invitations from people outside of your workplace? It's one thing to forget about a meeting with a coworker, but forgetting about an appointment with an outside client is bad news. 

These Zaps will create Google Calendar events whenever someone invites you to a video call or schedules an appointment with you through a booking app like Calendly.

If you schedule appointments through a form app or spreadsheet (like Google Sheets), these workflows will ensure they're accounted for in Google Calendar. 

Create events from tasks

There are the events that happen on a regular schedule, like your standing team meeting every Thursday. Those are pretty easy to manage. The events that can be harder to plan for are the ones that occur when something specific happens, like when a deal reaches a certain stage in your sales cycle.

You can use a Zap to create a calendar event when specific tasks are added to your task manager of choice, like Notion or Trello. 

Set Slack statuses during calendar meetings

If you work a lot in Slack, you'll know that getting tagged in public channels or messaged directly by your coworkers can be distracting—especially when you're on a call. 

Instead, let everyone know that you're not available to respond (even if it's urgent) by automatically setting a Slack status every time you join a new meeting. 

Use webhooks with Google Calendar

Perhaps you use an app that doesn't have a Zapier integration, but you want to create a Google Calendar event when something specific happens in your app. 

If your app has webhook functionality, you can use Webhooks in a Zap. (Webhooks is a premium app, which requires a paid Zapier plan to use.)  

Supercharge your calendar with automation

By using Zapier, you can automate Google Calendar and have a schedule that manages itself so you can focus on running your business. If you need extra help managing your calendar, check out these Google Calendar tricks:

This article was originally published in March 2021 and was most recently updated in December 2024 by Elena Alston.

Like brick-and-mortar shops, your online store has a "front of house" that customers see—the website, supported by your eCommerce platform—and a "back of house" that keeps everything running smoothly, like inventory and accounting.  

Ragic makes it easy to centralize those back-of-house operations. Combining the power of a database with the simplicity of a spreadsheet, Ragic lets you create custom, relational databases to track your online orders, stock levels, and more. 

Your customers expect speed and accuracy with every purchase. Fortunately, you can create a simple Zap (our word for automated workflows) that automatically creates new records in a Ragic database whenever you have new order activity in WooCommerce. You can get inventory counts and transactions accurately tracked for you, so you can focus on delighting customers.

The problem: You need real-time, accurate data on the latest orders for accounting and managing inventory, and manual exports or plugins in your eCommerce platform aren't cutting it.

The solution: Connect WooCommerce and Ragic to build a real-time online order tracker. Whenever there's a new WooCommerce order, this Zap automatically creates a new record in a Ragic database. You can specify what order activity you'd like to track and the data you'd like to capture in your database, so you can run your storefront more effectively.

Ready to try it yourself? Get started with our pre-made workflows called Zap templates. Just click on the template below, and we'll guide you through the setup process. It takes only a few minutes.

Zap rating: Beginner

Pro tip: Don't use WooCommerce to power your online shop? No problem: Ragic connects with other eCommerce platforms through Zapier.

This is just the start of what you can do with Ragic and Zapier. Zapier supports thousands of apps, so you can automate almost any task at work. Start building your Zap now with Ragic and see what you can create.

As a kid, the feedback section of my report cards consistently said the same thing: "Jessica is a social butterfly," which was a euphemism for "Jessica is extremely chatty and asks more questions than I'm prepared to answer at 8 a.m. on a Monday morning." 

Thirty-odd years later, and absolutely nothing's changed. If we're in a Zoom meeting, I'm the person always raising my hand to ask a question—or to tell a story that's completely unrelated to the work at hand. 

This also means that I constantly find myself hitting Zoom's Raise Hand button. While this is a perfectly fine way to get someone's attention, Zoom's gesture recognition allows me to do the same thing—without clicking a button. 

Here, I'll show you how to enable Zoom hand gestures so you can raise your hand or give a thumbs up. 

Table of contents: 

• How to enable Zoom hand gestures

• How to use Zoom hand gestures

• What hand gestures does Zoom recognize?

• How to troubleshoot Zoom hand gestures

How to enable Zoom hand gestures 

By default, Zoom gesture recognition is disabled at the account and group level. Here's how to quickly enable it before you join your next meeting. 

1. Open the Zoom desktop client (i.e., the Zoom app—not your web account). 

2. Click the settings cog icon. 

   

3. By default, a Settings window will open with the General tab selected. If that's not the case for you, select General. 

4. Under Reactions, check the box next to Activate the following emojis based on hand gesture recognition: 👍✋

   

Alternatively, you can also enable this feature during a meeting. Here's how. 

1. During a Zoom meeting, select the up caret (^) next to React in the meeting control bar.

2. Click Recognize hand gestures 👍✋. A checkmark will appear beside this option to indicate that the feature is on. 

Once you enable Zoom hand gestures, it'll remain on for all your meetings. To turn off hand gestures on Zoom, deselect the feature in your Zoom settings or from the meeting control bar. 

How to use Zoom hand gestures

Now that we've got the boring stuff out of the way, let's move on to the fun! 

Let's say you want to give a Thumbs Up (👍) reaction during a Zoom meeting—or, in my case, a demonstration video with my unenthused dog. Simply give a thumbs up within the camera frame and hold it for a few seconds. While you do this, a thumbs-up emoji inside a hollow circle will pop up in your meeting window. The circle will gradually fill in, and once it does, a thumbs-up emoji will appear at the top of your video.

If you change your mind about giving a Thumbs Up reaction emoji while the circle is filling in, simply drop your hand, and the emoji will disappear. 

Once the reaction emoji appears in your video, you can put your hand down. Your thumbs-up emoji will automatically disappear after about 10 seconds. 

The process is the exact same to give a Raise Hand ✋ reaction, with one exception: the moment a raised hand emoji appears in your video, a ✋ Lower Hand button will also appear on your screen. You must click this button to make your raised hand emoji disappear (i.e., lower your hand). Otherwise, you'll have your hand raised for the entirety of the meeting.

What hand gestures does Zoom recognize? 

When I first wrote about this feature a year ago, I wished out loud (to no one in particular) that Zoom should expand this feature to include more gestures, like thinking face 🤔. Turns out, that's not how you get a wish granted.  

Zoom still recognizes only two hand gestures: a thumbs up and a raised hand. But if you're using a Mac computer, you can give more fun reactions—like fireworks, confetti, and hearts (if you're in a work setting, tread lightly on that last one). 

1. With a Zoom meeting running and your video on, click the Video icon in the menu bar. Note: This icon won't appear if your video is off. 

2. Click Reactions. 

Now you can use any of Apple's supported hand gestures—like two peace signs for confetti—during your Zoom call. 

How to troubleshoot Zoom hand gestures

For the most part, I think Zoom's gesture recognition feature is…handy. But when I first started using it, there were times when the frustration slash hilarity it caused far outweighed the convenience.

Here are the two most common issues you might run into—and how to solve them. 

1. Gesture recognition doesn't recognize your thumbs up. Be sure to have your thumb pointing straight up. If it's on an angle or sideways, Zoom won't recognize this gesture. 

2. Gesture recognition doesn't recognize your hands up. Zoom's a little particular about this one. For the Raise Hand emoji reaction, Zoom suggests using your left hand on the left side of your screen (and vice versa). Regardless of the hand you're using, be sure to have your palm flat and facing the camera. 

One more thing: If you're presenting, or if you communicate with your hands, I'd suggest turning off this feature. 

For example, I definitely wouldn't want the feature on for my American Sign Language (ASL) classes. Since ASL relies on hand gestures and facial expressions to communicate, it would be more distracting than helpful to have Zoom mistake some of my signs as me wanting to raise my hand or give a thumbs up. 

Automate Zoom 

Once you've updated your Zoom settings to enable reactions—the important stuff—you can take things a step further and use Zapier's Zoom integrations to automate your meeting-related workflows. For example, you can automatically upload recordings to wherever you want them, turn transcripts into documents, or build your own custom workflows between Zoom and the other apps you use most. Learn more about how to automate Zoom, or get started with one of these pre-made templates.

Related reading

• How to react to Zoom chat messages (and other Zoom chat tips)

• How to create and record breakout rooms in Zoom

• How to facilitate workshops on Zoom

• How to change your profile picture in Zoom

This article was originally published in February 2023. The most recent update was in December 2024.

Marketing automation tools like Pardot are designed to make lead generation, nurturing, and management easier. But you and your team don't work in a silo, and tasks like lead data transfers, tracking form submissions, and sending updates across sales and marketing still need to happen across various apps. 

Thankfully, you can use automation to streamline your Pardot workflows, scale your marketing automation efforts, and free up time for more strategic initiatives. Zapier's automated workflows—called Zaps—allow you to connect Pardot to the other business-critical apps you use every day. That way, you can build more powerful workflows and deliver smoother, smarter campaigns. Here's how.

Table of contents

• Keep track of leads from ads

• Add leads from contact forms to Pardot

• Connect Pardot with spreadsheets

• Send notifications from Pardot

• Use webhooks with Pardot

Keep track of leads from ads

When you're running ads on different platforms, it can be difficult to track where leads are coming from. Sure, you can block out time to track and export incoming leads from your ad accounts into Pardot to consolidate them in a central information hub. But constantly copying and pasting contact data from one app to another exposes you to errors like missed or inaccurate entries. And it's impossible to keep up with if you're managing a high volume of leads.

Save yourself the effort by using automation to log new leads generated from ads as prospects in Pardot. These Zaps will automatically update your Pardot prospects list whenever LinkedIn Ads or Facebook Leads Ads capture a new lead. This keeps your prospect list accurate, up to date, and ready for nurturing.

Add leads from contact forms to Pardot

One of the most important parts of lead management is timely follow-ups. Once leads come through your contact forms, you need to respond immediately—if not, the chance of converting them into customers declines. But if you're wasting time transferring lead data from forms into prospects lists manually, you risk delays, errors, and missed opportunities. 

Instead, use automation to channel new leads from your contact forms directly into Pardot as prospects. These Zaps integrate with website form tools like Unbounce, Gravity Forms, and Typeform, so anytime a new form submission occurs, the contact information is promptly added to Pardot as a prospect. You can instantly capture lead data, route it to the right sales rep, and trigger timely personalized follow-ups that keep prospects engaged and moving through your funnel. 

Connect Pardot with spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are great for storing, tracking, and analyzing data in a central, accessible place. If you're creating forms in Pardot, you may need to record the responses in a separate database. 

This Zap will automatically log each form submission in a dedicated spreadsheet your entire sales team can access. This ensures your team has a single source of truth and can access accurate customer information at all times. 

You might also have different teams managing leads in different places or not everyone may have access to Pardot. If that's the case, you can easily gather lead information in a spreadsheet and automatically update Pardot each time new data is added with this Zap:

Send notifications from Pardot

When you need to alert your team about new activities in Pardot, you have two options:

One is to log into Pardot, check for new form submissions, export the data, and send individual notifications to your communication app—time-consuming, nonscalable, and prone to error. 

Or, you can use automation to connect Pardot to your favorite communication app and instantly notify your team when there's a new lead or key form activity in Pardot. With this setup, new activities—such as form submissions—can trigger instant notifications to dedicated Slack channels. This way, you can rest assured your sales reps will get real-time updates, enabling them to act quickly, stay organized, and focus on engaging leads instead of chasing updates. 

Use webhooks with Pardot

If the source app you're using doesn't have a Zapier integration (yet), or if you're looking for a more niche use case that isn't covered by any of the available workflows, you can still create a Zap that connects almost any app to Pardot using webhooks. 

Use this Zap to get started:

Supercharge Pardot with automation

Whether it's integrating Pardot with spreadsheets, communication apps, or the rest of your tech stack, Zapier's automated workflows ensure no opportunities are missed, processes run smoothly, and your marketing and sales teams stay aligned.

And these are just a few ways you can automate Pardot with Zapier. What will you automate first?

This article was originally published in October 2022, written by Khamosh Pathak. It was most recently updated by Juliet John in December 2024.

Getting your ads in front of the right people is harder than it sounds. You don't just need reach—you need precision. If you're targeting the wrong audience, you're wasting money and missing out on potential customers.

That's where Facebook custom audiences comes in. This tool lets you target people who already know your brand—like past website visitors, existing customers, or engaged followers—or find new audiences with similar interests and behaviors.

By combining Facebook custom audiences with automation, you can keep your audience lists updated in real time, ensuring your ads are always targeting the right people with the right message. Here's how to make it happen.

Skip ahead

• Add email subscribers to your custom audience

• Add leads and customers to a custom audience

• Build custom audiences from product purchases

• Build custom audiences from a spreadsheet

• Add new CRM contacts to a custom audience

• Add users to a custom audience from a webhook

The 4 types of custom audiences in Facebook

Not all custom audiences are created equal. Depending on your offering and industry, you might choose to create different types of audiences—or even different audiences for different types of ads. There are four common ways to build these targeted lists.

1. Custom audiences from customer lists

If you collect email addresses, such as when someone subscribes to your newsletter or makes a purchase, you can upload that information to Facebook and target them with ads on the platform. When you upload your email list, Facebook uses "hashing" to match the email addresses with user profiles while keeping specific customer data private.

Keep in mind that you can only upload data from customers who have permitted you to market to them. For example, you can't use an email list you've purchased or data you've gathered from other websites. Also, if someone opts out of your email list, you need to remove them from your custom audience, too. 

Most countries have restrictions around how you collect, store, and share audience data, so you should double-check your region's regulations before you delve into email marketing and Facebook ads.

2. Custom audiences from your website

You can also target website viewers on Facebook if you install the Meta pixel (previously called the Facebook Pixel) on your website. The pixel is a small piece of code that measures customer actions so you can build custom audiences. Then Facebook can match your website visitors to their Facebook profiles. 

You can then use this information to create custom audiences that include all your website visitors or generate smaller groups targeting people who have visited a specific product page or product category. For example, you might target customers who have looked at your shoe category with ads of different types of shoes. 

3. Custom audiences from engagement

An engagement custom audience is a group of users who have interacted with your brand on other Meta platforms, such as Instagram or Facebook. For example, different engagement types include watching a video on your page, filling out a lead form, visiting your Facebook Page or Instagram business profile, or registering for an event. 

By targeting those users, Facebook allows you to nurture customers who are already aware of your brand and more likely to convert. 

4. Custom audiences from app activity

The fourth type of custom audience on Facebook is related to app activity. If you have an app for your business, you can pass data to Meta (aka Facebook) about those users.

For example, you might create an ad on Facebook to remind users who've downloaded your app to sign in, view a sale, or upload a review. Note, the targeting options for this type of custom audience can be limited based on your location and the age of your target audience. Children or audiences living in Europe may have limited reach based on new privacy rules. 

You can also target your existing customers with a custom audience. Learn how to use your customer list to create custom audiences on Facebook.

Why you should use automation to build your custom audiences in Facebook

It's no secret that marketing to existing customers and followers can produce much higher conversion rates than trying to reach people who have never bought from you or haven't even heard of your brand. 

It's also more cost-effective—it can cost five times more to attract a new customer than retain an existing one.

However, manually creating custom audiences from spreadsheets and forms can be a time-consuming chore. With a Zap—our word for Zapier's automated workflows—you can cut out the manual work and sync your data with Facebook custom audiences automatically. That way, your ads will always target your most recent subscribers and customers, and nobody falls through the cracks.

Add email subscribers to your custom audience

If you use email platforms like MailChimp or ActiveCampaign to keep in touch with customers, you can create a Zap to automatically add new subscribers to a custom audience.

You can also create a custom audience if a new customer is tagged in ConvertKit. For example, if you have two or more different subscriber lists, you can add newly tagged subscribers to a specific Facebook custom audience. 

Add leads and customers to a custom audience

No matter how you collect contacts—from form tools to ad platforms and beyond—you'll want an easy way to route their email addresses to a custom audience on Facebook. 

For example, if you asked customers to fill out a form providing feedback about a new product launch, you could later target those emails on Facebook when you launch. Or you could send targeted campaigns to leads who want to know more about your product, promoting any exclusive deals.

These Zap templates will help you add them directly to your audience list the moment anyone fills out a form in tools like Typeform or LinkedIn Ads. 

Alternatively, if you're launching new campaigns in tools like Google Ads, you can use this Zap to create custom audiences from scratch in Facebook. That way, you can automatically refine your targeting strategies and completely eliminate the need to manually transfer audience details between tools. 

Build custom audiences from product purchases

If you create a custom audience from a Shopify, Kajabi, or WooCommerce customer list, you can target past customers with Facebook ads. 

For example, you could create campaigns with special offers for repeat clients or let people know when you release a new version of a product they already own by adding new customers to a Facebook custom audience.

Build custom audiences from a spreadsheet

If you're using Google Sheets or Excel to collect audience data, such as with a Google Form, you can use Zapier to connect your spreadsheet to an audience in Facebook. 

Here are a few Zaps that will automatically add email addresses from your spreadsheet to a Facebook custom audience.

Add new CRM contacts to a custom audience

Do you use a CRM like Salesforce to keep track of leads and customers? With these Zaps, you can automatically add existing leads or contacts to your custom audience. 

Add users to a custom audience from a webhook

Zapier connects with thousands of apps. But if the specific app you want to use isn't on Zapier or you want to customize your Zap outside of an integration's available triggers and actions, you can use webhooks to pull in additional data to Facebook custom audiences. 

This Zap will add an email address straight to Facebook whenever a new webhook is received at a specified URL:

Drive Facebook ad conversions with targeted custom audiences 

Facebook custom audiences lets you create laser-focused remarketing ads for a wide variety of custom segments, from leads to customers and even website visitors. You can use these audiences to remind people about products they're interested in or recover abandoned shopping carts. 

Creating custom audiences in Facebook is a powerful way to boost your marketing efforts, but don't let the chore of creating audiences from scratch hold you back from giving it a try. Add Zapier to the mix, and you can streamline the process by automatically sending customer data from the other apps in your toolkit to Facebook so you can reach the people most important to you.

This article was originally published in January 2021, written by Jasmine Williams with previous updates by Nicole Antosz. It was most recently updated in December 2024 by Elena Alston.

I live by a simple rule: if it's not written down, it doesn't get done. (It also doesn't get remembered—I'm pretty sure they were thinking about me, specifically, when they coined the phrase "in one ear and out the other.") But that means without an organized note-taking system, my pile of notes can get chaotic fast. 

I used to use Evernote to manage everything from quick brainstorms to work-related notes, but since becoming a Notion obsessive, I knew I could recreate my Evernote system in the app I used for everything else. That's when my Notion notebook was born.

Notion is a little more of a blank canvas than dedicated note-taking apps like Evernote, but that means you can build a custom system that fits your needs and organization style. And this template lets me do everything I loved Evernote for: I can create new notes with a click, access all my notebooks from a sidebar menu, add notes from my browser, and even create tasks inside notes. Here, I'll share my Notion notes template—my personal Evernote alternative—so you can make it work for you.

Table of contents

• Notion note-taking template

• How to use the Notion note-taking template

• Use Notion AI to enhance your notes

• Create your own templates

• Automate your Notion notes

Notion note-taking template

If you're just here for the template, here it is. Click the button below, then click the Duplicate icon in the upper-right corner. The template will be added to your Notion workspace, where you can customize it to your preferences. 

How to use the Notion note-taking template

Notion is an incredible mix of freedom and organization, and I leaned into that mix when creating my Notion note-taking system. If I have a quick idea, I can jot it down on the scratchpad and organize it later. Or, if I decide a note belongs in another notebook, all I need to do is switch the labels. In the end, it helps me feel free to brain dump first and get organized later.

Open my Notion note-taking template, and follow along to see how it works. 

The central database

My Notion notes system is based on one main database (titled "notebook-database"). Within that database, each note is categorized into a notebook using the dropdown in the Notebook property.

That gives me a set of notebooks that I can access using the navigation panel (each one is just a filtered view of that main database).

For example, I created a notebook called "Personal," along with a corresponding label in the database's Notebook property. The notebook contains a filtered view of the database, showing only unarchived notes labeled "Personal." 

You can create as many notebooks as you want. Simply add a new label to the database property and create a corresponding page (more on that below).

I've made it so that each notebook can show notes in either Gallery or List view. I use Gallery because I like to add images to each of my notes, but if you're a more straightforward note-taker, you can stick with List view for easier skimming. (Or, if you want more of a sticky-note feel, change the gallery view settings so that each card preview is Page content.)

The dashboard

The Notebook Dashboard is the central hub of my template. It displays a navigation panel on the left, where you can quickly access notebooks and other favorite views. The home page also shows a gallery view of any notes you've edited in the past week—making it easy to jump back into relevant notes.

The star of the show, though, is the handy New note button that lets you start a new note with just a click. You can add a category while you're there (which will sort the note into the matching notebook), or leave it blank for now. Once you click out of the note, it'll appear in the Recent notes gallery (or if you don't come back to it within a week, it'll stay in the Uncategorized view) so you never lose it.

Shortcut to create a new notebook

To create a new notebook, right-click New notebook template in the navigation panel, and select Duplicate.

Once you click into your duplicated page, you'll see the same layout as the other notebooks: a navigation panel and a filtered view of the main notebook database. 

To customize your new notebook, change the title to whatever you'd like (for example, "Fitness" or "Lecture notes"). Then click the three dots in the upper-right corner of the linked database. Click Properties > Notebook, and then click the + icon to add a new Notebook label to match.

Next, click the filter dropdown that says Notebook: new category. Change the filter so that it only displays notes showing the category you just created.

Now, whenever you label a note with your new notebook's title, it'll appear here. You can create new notes from within this page, from the main dashboard, or you can reassign notes from other notebooks if needed.

Tags 

Categories are great, but one more layer of organization ties it all together.

You can tag notes by whatever makes sense to you, like location, importance, or note type. For example, the "Important info" tag lets me quickly and easily find important notes across all of my notebooks. I could also create an "Urgent" tag (in red, naturally) to be sure I wasn't missing any deadlines.

Get creative with your tags. Maybe you have an "Ego boost" tag for anything that'll make you feel good about yourself looking back on it. Or an "Ideas" tag if you're ever looking for business inspiration across categories.

Tasks

No notebook system would be complete without a way to create to-do lists. 

Evernote has a great task management feature that lets you create tasks within notes without interrupting your flow, then view all of your upcoming to-dos in one place. I approximated this feature by creating a to-do list database (titled "notebook-action-items") that's linked to the notes database. That way, I can connect tasks to notes—or create and schedule tasks directly from within a new note (including setting reminders).

I should come clean: I don't actually use this exact feature. If you use Notion for task management more generally (as I do), you need to be sure all your tasks are in one database, as opposed to having notes-based tasks in their own database. Take a look at my Notion to-do list template as a starting point.

Pro tips for Notion note taking

Use Notion AI to enhance your notes

If you haven't experimented much with Notion AI, I'm here to tell you: it can really level up your productivity within Notion. The Q&A feature is a chatbot that can both answer questions about your docs and generate text. Do things like ask about the content of your notebooks and brainstorm a first draft of a note.

You can also add AI auto-fill properties to your notebook database. These properties can auto-generate a summary of a note, translate text, choose a keyword (either from a list of options you provide, or auto-generated by the AI), or perform a custom action.

I like the idea of using the AI keywords option to let Notion auto-categorize new notes into notebook categories for you (but if you choose this route, you'll need to update each view to filter by the AI keywords property instead of the Notebook property).

Create your own templates

If you find yourself using the same note layout repeatedly, it could be worthwhile to use note templates. To create a new template, click the carat next to New in any notes database view. Then click New template.

From there, customize the template's properties or body content. For example, my personal notebook has a template for new journal entries with the right notebook category and tag pre-filled, and a note body containing prompts like "How am I feeling today?" and "To-do today" with a checklist.

Automate your Notion notes

The best systems always give you space to focus on what matters. When you automate your note-taking process, you'll have more time to consume content and take action based on your notes.

For example, I use the Notion Web Clipper browser extension to add notes from my browser if I get an idea from a page I'm visiting. Just choose your notebook database from the dropdown, and it'll appear in the Recent notes view in your Notebook dashboard. You can categorize it or add context to it later, but it's way quicker than a copy/paste.

If you use Notion for note-taking but another app for task management, Zapier makes it easy to create new tasks based on your Notion notes. 

Or if you take notes during meetings, you can use Zapier to automatically create new notes for upcoming calendar events—you can even pre-populate them with event details and any other relevant information. Then all you need to do is open the note when the event starts. Learn more about how to automate Notion, or get started with one of these pre-made templates.

Customize your Notion notebook

The beauty of Notion is that it's endlessly customizable. This template is just a jumping-off point for you to get creative and customize a note-taking system that fits your style. The more closely the notebook hub matches how your brain works, the more likely you'll be to use it successfully and consistently.

For example, I like to sort each of my notebook pages by last edited time so that the most recently edited notes are at the top. But you might find it works better to sort by reminder date, tags, or even alphabetically.

Make it work for you.

Related reading:

• Notion vs. Evernote: Which is right for you?

• Notion vs. Roam: Which should you use?

• Build a second brain with Notion (with template)

• Stay on track with this Notion goals template

• How a Notion expert automates his workspace

• How to create a reading list in Notion (with template)

• How to automate recurring tasks in Notion

This article was originally published in September 2022. The most recent update was in December 2024.

Coming up with a quick social media post seems like an easy job. But it's hard to land on the best idea out of the dozens flying around inside your head. And then when you finally do, you tap New post, and another challenge begins: how am I going to wrap this idea in a compelling piece of content for my audience?

If you're stuck in this cycle, you can use AI to break it and move things forward. It'll help you put pen to paper—or finger to keyboard, if you will—shaping ideas from a rough first draft to an engaging update for your followers.

Here, I'll be using ChatGPT and a few other free tools to show you how to create a social media post for Facebook. The process is similar for other social media platforms, so consider this inspiration for whatever AI-generated social media post you're looking to create.

Table of contents: 

• How to brainstorm social media post ideas with AI

• How to generate captions for social media posts with AI

• How to generate social media images with AI

• How to repurpose your AI-generated social media content 

• Other ways to create a social media post with AI 

How to brainstorm social media post ideas with AI

If you're starting from scratch, you'll need some post ideas. ChatGPT is great for this because (a) it's free, and (b) it acts as a brute-force creativity tool: it can generate lots of possibilities, and it's up to you to choose which ones are the best.

To get the most useful answers, you need to give it as much context as possible. Here's a prompt template that you can use (you'll need to update it with your own information): 

Prompt template: I want you to act as a social media expert. Brainstorm 5 post inspiration ideas to post on Facebook for the following brand: [brand name], [insert main value proposition, insert details on products or services you offer, insert your target audience, insert your brand voice values].

For this post, I asked ChatGPT to generate an example business to work with. It created NimbleCraft, a sustainable furniture company. So here's how I filled in the above prompt with all the details:

I want you to act as a social media expert. Brainstorm 5 post inspiration ideas to post on Facebook for the following brand: 

NimbleCraft. 

It offers environmentally conscious individuals unique, handcrafted furniture made from sustainable materials, providing a way to express their creativity and authenticity while supporting sustainability in their homes. 

This brand stands for creativity, innovation, authenticity, empathy, and sustainability.

The brand voice values are conversational, energetic, inspiring, fun, and educational.

Here's a portion of the output I got:

I like these suggestions, so I'm going to move forward. But if you want to see more, you can type in "Continue" or "Generate 5 more." As you see post types that you like, save them to your favorite note-taking app so you can use them later.

How to generate captions for social media posts with AI

Now that we have a few post ideas, we're going to use ChatGPT to generate the actual caption for the post. Keep a document open on the side, so you can copy and paste what you like and edit as you go.

For this example, I'm going to create a sustainability tips post. Since you already have a conversation open with your brand details, you can use ChatGPT's memory to work on your post without entering all the information again. One thing you may want to restate in your prompt: which platform(s) you want ChatGPT to draft social media captions for.

Prompt template: Brainstorm 5 captions for a [category or topic] post to share on [platform]. Include [insert details on the type of ideas you want] ideas. Prioritize creativity. 

Here's the prompt I'll be using:

Brainstorm 5 captions for a sustainability tips post to share on Facebook. Include original, uncommon, and fresh ideas. Prioritize creativity.

And here are some of the captions ChatGPT came up with:

I like the "Small Steps, Big Impact" idea, but it lacks an attention-grabbing first sentence. Let's go overboard and ask for extreme results with this prompt:

Using the first idea, rewrite it 5 times according to the following instructions: the first sentence must be a strong opinion, big news, or unexpected view. Increase the shock value. Prioritize viral post style.

Brace yourself:

These are interesting caption openers—they would definitely perk up my attention. But if the question "so what?" is sounding inside your head, it is inside mine, too. We need to follow up our bold, scroll-stopping post with an insightful solution. For this example, I'll take one headline and ask ChatGPT to think it through for us.  

Prompt template: Starting with "[phrase:]", provide 5 endings. 

And here are the endings I got for the phrase "Your trash is killing the planet":

Upcycling furniture from suggestion number three sounds interesting. But I confess: I know very little about it. Hey, ChatGPT. What's upcycling? 

You'll grow to love ChatGPT because of this kind of thing. It'll help you explore areas of knowledge you didn't know were a thing. But we shouldn't trust it willy-nilly, especially since ChatGPT tends to make up information. You can ask ChatGPT to cite its sources (if it didn't already) so you can fact-check its responses. 

After doing my own research and getting a clearer idea on upcycling, we're ready to put all of this together into a prompt so ChatGPT can generate a social media post for us.

Write a short Facebook post using these instructions:

- It starts with the expression "Your trash is killing the planet."

- State how upcycling is a practical solution

Explain that we need to move from a take > make > waste cycle to keeping materials in use to eradicate waste and regenerate nature.

Before we lock in on this: do you feel like ChatGPT forgot what kind of brand voice NimbleCraft stands for? Let's check with this prompt:

Rewrite the post using the following voice guidelines: conversational, energetic, inspiring, fun, and educational.

Too fun for my taste, but we'll get to that in a second. I want to hear from NimbleCraft's followers and learn if and how they're implementing this mindset in their lives. And we don't even need to use our own creativity to get this call to action:

Write a last sentence for this post inviting readers to comment with suggestions on how to upcycle.

Ok, I've got all I need. Time to hit backspace on the fun and reach a final version:

Your trash is killing the planet. 🌍 

But here's the good news: we can take what's old, broken, or "useless" and upcycle it. Think: turning that worn-out table into a stunning centerpiece or transforming jars into gorgeous planters. It's practical, creative, and—bonus—it helps regenerate nature by keeping materials out of landfills. 

Got a brilliant upcycling idea? Drop it in the comments and inspire others to turn trash into treasure. 🌿✨👇

#UpcycleYourStyle #SustainableLiving #NimbleCraftTips

How to generate social media images with AI

I could leave the post as is and post it straight to NimbleCraft's Facebook page, but let's include an image. There are plenty of royalty-free image libraries (just remember to credit the authors in the post caption). But to keep this post as AI-powered as possible, let's stick with ChatGPT—it uses DALL·E 3 to generate AI images.

Note: Users on a free plan are limited to only two free images per day; users on a paid tier have unlimited access. But there are other AI image generators that offer more images for free. 

Here's what I asked ChatGPT for:

Create a photo of random materials, including plastic bottles, furniture, and clothing, waiting to be recycled in an industrial setting. Make it colorful and realistic. 

It's worth noting that AI art generators tend to require more attention to detail—and more attempts—to get what you want. Here are some AI art prompt tips to help you get what you're looking for faster.

Let's get this image ready for publishing using Canva. 

1. Create a Canva account if you haven't done so before. 

2. Click Create a design in the side panel next to the side menu.

3. From the Create a design popup that appears, click Facebook Post (Landscape) as your design template. 

4. Upload your AI-generated image. 

5. Add a bit of text connected to your caption. In my case, I'll add "Your trash is killing the planet." 

6. Finish by adding your logo or any other branding elements.

Here's my end result on Canva:

How to repurpose your AI-generated social media content

If you're running multiple channels, it'll be hard to create original content for every single one. Instead, you can take your best ideas and repurpose them into other content types—all using AI.

I created a Facebook post about how trash is killing our planet and how to alleviate this by upcycling. Starting from that idea, I could ask AI to help me:

• Rewrite the post to be a fit for Instagram and the app formerly known as Twitter.

• Write a blog post about upcycling and creative ways to upcycle some of the biggest household items sitting in landfills.

• Look up influencers on the sustainability topic, so I could set up an interview for a podcast episode on the circular mindset.

• Write a video script on the topic, create the video, and post it to YouTube.

Other ways to create a social media post with AI

The example I just walked through is only one of many ways to create a social media post with AI. There are all sorts of tools that can help, depending on your goals—and how much of a budget you have. For example:

• You could do the whole thing directly in Canva with Canva's suite of AI tools.

• You could use an AI social media management tool to help you develop and schedule your posts.

• You could do what I did above, but using any other combination of AI chatbot and AI art generator.

Automate your social media workflows 

While AI saves time as you create, automation can save you time as you execute. Use Zapier to connect the apps you use to run your social media strategy. This way, you can automatically do things like generate captions using ChatGPT and schedule those posts in your social media management app. Here are a few pre-made workflows to get you started.

Related reading:

• How to use ChatGPT for copywriting and content ideation

• How to use AI badly

• How to create a custom AI chatbot with Zapier Interfaces

• The best AI marketing tools

• The best free AI tools

This article was originally published in April 2023. The most recent update, with contributions from Jessica Lau, was in December 2024.

Changes happening across search algorithms and social media feeds make one thing crystal clear: it's never been more important for businesses to own the channels where they communicate with customers. Email is one such channel—and it's stood the test of time.

Today, email newsletters run the gamut from small-scale personal notes to massive automated campaigns—and so does newsletter software. No matter how complex (or simple) your email marketing operation is, the best email newsletter software makes it quick and easy to send professional-looking emails to hundreds or thousands of subscribers.

The thing is, there are so many email newsletter tools out there. In nearly a decade of working in marketing, I've used my fair share of them, and I know it can feel overwhelming to choose the right one for you. This year, I considered more than 70 different apps and tested more than 30 of them to help you find the best email newsletter platform.

The 8 best email newsletter platforms

• Benchmark for a full-featured email marketing app

• Mailchimp for managing your email, social, website, and SMS together

• Kit (formerly ConvertKit) for paid newsletters

• Omnisend for eCommerce newsletters and campaigns

• Campaign Monitor for agencies who handle email marketing for multiple clients

• beehiiv for monetizing your newsletter

• Curated for curated newsletters

• Flodesk for unlimited subscribers and sends at one flat rate

What is an email newsletter?

Email newsletters are bulk emails from brands, and email newsletter platforms are the tools that power them. They're a great way to share news, announce new promotions, show off new product features, promote your new blog posts, and curate content for your subscribers.

As email newsletters have grown in popularity, they've started to intersect with email marketing more broadly—and other areas of marketing, like marketing automation, web push and SMS campaigns, social media, and even web building. With all that overlap, many dynamite email newsletter tools have widened their feature sets to include broader email marketing and marketing automation capabilities. 

For this list, I focused on the best options for email newsletters: every app on the list, no matter how broad the feature set, delivers on making it quick and easy to build email newsletters, grow your list, and understand performance. But many of the tools below are also more than capable of handling (and scaling) your entire marketing operation, offering additional advanced features like transactional emails, drip marketing campaigns, marketing automation, and A/B testing.

What to look for in an email newsletter platform

The best software for newsletter sending always includes the following key features, which are what I focused on in my testing:

• Segmentation options. If you have a large mailing list, it's useful to be able to divide up how you email people according to their demographic details and their behaviors. All the apps included here have appropriate segmentation options for doing exactly that.

• Affordability. It's possible to spend a lot of money on newsletter email services. I've focused on apps and tools that are affordable, even for smaller businesses with tight budgets.

• Usability. Creating and sending an email newsletter should be a simple process, so I excluded any tools that were so complex that I spent more time searching Google than actually testing and using the tool. (I also only tested software with a full feature set, meaning you can both design and send newsletters in one tool.)

• Analytics and reporting. Whether you're planning to monetize your newsletter or not, it's important a tool can help you understand how your email campaigns perform.

Once I narrowed down my list based on those criteria, I dove into testing. I followed a similar testing protocol for each, so I could compare key features across the board and find uniquely valuable ones, too. Here's what my testing workflow looked like:

• First, I created an account and went through any onboarding provided by the app.

• I tested the core features first, creating a new campaign, choosing from the library of templates (where available), editing the design, and completing the scheduling flow.

• From there, I looked into more advanced features like segmentation and automation.

• After my scheduled newsletter went out, I viewed the email from the recipient side, then checked out any reports and analytics provided.

• Where applicable, I tested out features for creating a digital product or paid subscription to the newsletter—plus any other niche features like those designed for curated newsletters, eCommerce, or marketing agencies.

Throughout this workflow, I rigorously tested for ease of use—because your newsletter software shouldn't come with a steep learning curve or add frustration to your day. I've used email marketing apps extensively over the last decade, so if it was hard or time-consuming for me to figure out, it didn't make the cut.

This year, after spending about a week testing more than 30 email newsletter tools, I landed on the top eight you see below.

The best email newsletter platforms at a glance

Best full-featured email newsletter software

Benchmark Email (Web)

Benchmark pros:

• Over 200 beautiful templates

• Full email marketing features

Benchmark cons:

• More than some newsletter senders may need

If you're looking for a capable email marketing tool to power your newsletters and other campaigns, you can't go wrong with Benchmark. From powerful but easy-to-use automation and segmentation to the supremely intuitive editor, Benchmark was my favorite app of the bunch.

To start, you can choose to send a regular campaign or RSS, then select the standard drag-and-drop editor (which I tested), HTML code editor, or plain text editor. You choose your editor at the start of every new campaign, making it a great option if you have multiple team members building emails.

Choose from over 200 well-designed email templates, start from scratch with a blank layout, or pull in any of your past emails to edit. When you're ready to design and customize your email, the menu is off to the left, so your design takes center stage. You can also build landing pages to help grow your subscribers, and the landing page editor is nearly identical to the email drag-and-drop.

Head over to Automations in the left-hand menu to create or edit automated flows. To create a new flow, you can choose from nine pre-built flows for things like welcoming new subscribers, requesting feedback, and Facebook ad retargeting.

Segment your subscribers by a number of basic criteria, or add your own custom dimensions to get more in-depth. Benchmark segments are dynamic and update automatically. And after you send your first email newsletter, you'll see robust analytics that include the basics—like opens, clicks, bounces, and unsubscribes—then go a step deeper with a click map of your email content and subscriber-level activity data.

Connect Benchmark with Zapier to power automated tasks like adding new subscribers to your email list, validating email addresses, and more. Here are a couple of examples, but you can connect Benchmark to thousands of other apps.

Benchmark price: Free for up to 500 contacts, 3,500 emails/month, and basic features; Paid plans start at $13/month for up to 500 contacts, 7,500 emails/month, and more advanced versions of core features like automation, lead generation, and reporting.

Best email newsletter platform for managing email, social, website, and SMS together

Mailchimp (Web)

Mailchimp pros:

• All-in-one marketing automation platform

• Easy-to-use advanced features

• Reasonable costs as you scale

Mailchimp cons:

• Free plan is much more limited than it once was

Mailchimp prides itself on being an all-in-one marketing platform for small businesses. That can sound intimidating if you simply want a good way of formulating email newsletters. But because it started out as an email newsletter platform, it offers a lot of simple functionality for when you're starting out—along with the opportunity to upscale your campaigns as your business develops.

Its basic templates are more blank canvas than some other apps' polished choices, but that gives you a lot of flexibility; and the app's extensive library of polished themes is available with any paid plan. Plus, Mailchimp offers a generative AI design feature that works decently well. It also recently added the option to comment on email designs, making it a great option for collaborating on newsletters.

Beyond design, segmentation options are easy to manage, but expect to upgrade to a premium plan if you want in-depth statistical analysis and performance reports.

Overall, Mailchimp is intuitive and welcoming, and you'll appreciate how it grows alongside your business. When the time comes, you can manage your website, landing pages, social media, and SMS campaigns together with your email initiatives.

Plus, Mailchimp's Zapier integration allows you to extend its value even further, automatically adding your leads to Mailchimp and sharing contacts across contact databases. Learn more about how to automate Mailchimp, or look at these ideas to get you started.

Mailchimp price: Free for up to 500 contacts and 1,000 sends/month with limited features; from $13/month for an Essentials package that includes access to all email templates, custom branding, limited automation features, and A/B testing functionality.

Best email newsletter platform for paid newsletters

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) (Web)

Kit pros:

• Designed for creators and paid newsletters

• Intuitive email editor that works like a web builder

• Create digital products, sell to your list, and collect payments with one tool

Kit cons:

• Emphasis on minimal, text-forward newsletters can be limiting

Kit is built for creators. The app goes beyond email to include landing pages and digital products, but newsletters (called "broadcasts") are at the heart of it all.

The email editor in Kit functions a lot like a website builder. Instead of the drag-and-drop you'll find in most email newsletter tools, you click the + button on the left and choose the element you want to add.

The tool largely emphasizes a minimal, text-forward design for broadcasts, but it finally now offers 15 well-designed visual themes to choose from—they still keep things aesthetically simple, but they'll give your newsletter a little more polished look. Plus, you can create and save your own templates for reuse.

If you're sending a paid newsletter or other digital product, Kit makes it easy to sell to your list, collect payments, and segment paid subscribers. Payments are powered by Stripe, but you can set them up without leaving Kit's app. Once you're set up to collect payments, simply add a product, set the price, and you're in business.

You can start using Kit—and even selling digital products—for free. If you sign up for a paid plan, Kit includes free, done-for-you migration from your current email provider. Plus, Kit integrates with Zapier, so you can do things like add event attendees as new subscribers and tag survey respondents automatically. Start with one of the templates below, or learn more about how to automate Kit.

Kit price: Free for up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited sending, and limited features; the Creator package starts at $9/month for up to 300 subscribers and additional features like automation, whitelabeling, and free migration from other email tools.

Best email newsletter platform for eCommerce

Omnisend (Web)

Omnisend pros:

• All-in-one transactional emails, newsletters, and automated campaigns for eCommerce

• Robust integrations with eCommerce platforms

• Thoughtful pre-built audience segments

Omnisend cons:

• Limited free plan and pricey to scale subscribers

• Fewer template options

Omnisend is email marketing built for eCommerce, allowing you to build and manage everything from transactional emails to newsletters and automated email flows.

The app integrates with popular eCommerce platforms, including Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce, and Wix. Once you connect your store, Omnisend pulls in key data on your customers and their behavior to help power robust customer segmentation, email automation, and detailed reporting.

You can choose from 16 pre-built segments designed for eCommerce—like "high potential buyers," "clicked on promotional messages," and "frequent store visitors"—to make quick work of powerful segmentation.

Omnisend's email templates are designed to be versatile. The intuitive editor makes it easy to customize your newsletter with pre-built layout blocks for things like product listings, recommendations, and discounts. And if you use SMS campaigns or push notifications in addition to email, you can build and send these with Omnisend, too.

Plus, you can connect Omnisend with Zapier to open up a whole world of automation, from adding new contacts from your CRM or website form to syncing Google Ads events. Learn more about how to automate Omnisend with Zapier, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Omnisend price: Free for up to 250 contacts, 500 monthly sends, and access to most features; the Standard plan starts at $16/month for 500 contacts, 6,000 monthly emails, and upgraded support options.

Best email newsletter software for agencies who handle email marketing for multiple clients

Campaign Monitor (Web, iOS)

Campaign Monitor pros:

• Strong client management features

• Expansive reporting features

• Transactional email and SMS

Campaign Monitor cons:

• Less user-friendly interface

• Costs can jump quickly

If you manage email marketing for multiple clients, Campaign Monitor makes that process simple. You can add as many clients as you want; create custom templates, emails, and automations for each client; allow clients to access their campaigns through a white-label version of the tool; and lock specific sections of emails and templates so they can't be edited.

Then, either have clients pay for their usage themselves by reselling the product to them, or you can pay for all of your clients yourself as part of a single package. You can even pay individually for a specific campaign if you have a client who only wants to send emails occasionally to a large list of contacts. Such flexibility is great if you're on a tight budget and need to plan accordingly.

Campaign Monitor's email editor initially encourages you to create a branded template based on the color scheme of your website. The whole interface isn't quite as user-friendly as some options here, but it's still a fast way to customize your messages with drag-and-drop functionality included. On the Unlimited plan, you can even preview what your email will look like in 20 different inboxes, helping you ensure that your emails look great for everyone.

Campaign Monitor offers Zapier integrations, so you can automatically add new Campaign Monitor subscribers based on purchases, event registrations, and more. Learn more about how to automate Campaign Monitor with Zapier, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Campaign Monitor price: From $12/month for the Lite plan to send up to 2,500 emails/month to 500 contacts; from $29/month for the Essentials plan that includes 500 contacts, unlimited monthly sends, time zone delivery, and priority support.

Best email newsletter software for monetizing your newsletter

beehiiv (Web)

beehiiv pros:

• Built-in monetization features

• Scalable paid plans

• Useful content calendar view

beehiiv cons:

• No templates and limited visual customization

beehiiv is a great option for anyone looking to aggressively grow and monetize an email newsletter. 

The app itself is easy to use with familiar navigation and a clean editing interface. It also includes my favorite of the (admittedly uninspiring) AI features. The generative AI writer feature is built seamlessly into the post and email writing flow, and it also offers an AI image generator, which works just fine if your requirements aren't super specific. But it's important to note: beehiiv is unapologetically text-forward, with no templates available and limited options for customizing the visual design of your emails. Whether that's a benefit or a knock really depends on your newsletter style.

Monetization is the bread and butter of beehiiv. You can grow your email list by bidding to be featured in other beehiiv creators' emails (it works similarly to bidding on a Google Ad) or even setting up an entire referral program. Then, start earning by "boosting" other newsletters in your emails, offering paid newsletter subscriptions, or applying to join beehiiv's native ad network and one-click accepting inbound ads from the app's network of sponsors. You will have to buy a paid plan to access these features, though, as they're no longer offered in even a limited way with the free plan.

You can get a concise view of your performance from the dashboard—or, with a paid plan, head to Analyze in the left-hand navigation to dive into the in-depth subscribers and posts reports.

beehiiv also connects with Zapier, so you can automate adding new subscribers from any number of other tools in your stack. Learn more about how to automate beehiiv, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

beehiiv price: Free plan includes up to 2,500 subscribers, unlimited sending, and basic features; paid plans start at $34/month for up to 1,000 subscribers, monetization features, analytics, and premium support.

Best email newsletter software for curated newsletters

Curated (Web)

Curated pros:

• Super quick newsletter building

• Generous free plan

Curated cons:

• No templates

• No audience segmentation features

Curated is the fastest way to build out a newsletter full of your favorite content, curated from anywhere across the web. Collecting links to feature is a breeze. You can add them manually from the Collected Links tab, email links to a special email address, save from Slack messages, or—my personal favorite—add the Curated bookmarklet to your browser to save any page, with its headline, brief description, and a featured image, in as little as two clicks.

When you're ready to build out your next newsletter issue, all your collected links (that haven't been added to a previous newsletter) appear on the left-hand side. All it takes is one click to add them to the newsletter draft. It's just as easy to remove, rearrange, or edit items, and you can add custom text to introduce the newsletter or add any other context needed. Once you're up and running, the app includes comprehensive reports on click performance and subscriber growth.

All that speed and simplicity does come at the cost of visual customization, though. Curated doesn't include any email templates, and you can't edit the look of your emails beyond selecting the featured image for each curated link.

You can do more with Curated by using it together with Zapier to automate saving links, adding new subscribers, and verifying subscriber email addresses. Here are some examples to get you started.

Curated price: Free for up to 1,500 subscribers with unlimited sending and all features included; paid plans start at $39/month for up to 2,500 subscribers.

Best email newsletter software with flat-rate pricing

Flodesk (Web)

Flodesk pros:

• Simple, flat-rate pricing

• Minimalist, easy-to-use editor

• Option to add eCommerce features

Flodesk cons:

• High starting price with no free plan

• Manual segmentation

Flodesk is an all-around great email marketing tool, with an intuitive email-building flow, a number of modern templates to choose from, and extensive reporting features. The overall user experience is much cleaner and less busy than most email marketing software, which feels like a breath of fresh air.

But what gets Flodesk on this list is its unique flat-rate pricing structure. If you're just looking for email features, it's a flat $35/month—that's it. No matter how many subscribers you add, emails you send, or features you need, it's all the same price.

With the newly released Checkout features, Flodesk is a strong contender for both eCommerce newsletters and creators of digital products, too. You can accept payments, build unlimited sales pages, deliver digital products, and view detailed eCommerce analytics. Flodesk also offers simple but in-depth analytics on subscriber growth, email and form performance, and workflows.

The automation builder is another strength. Tab on over to Workflows in the top navigation, and choose from nine flexible workflow templates—including a welcome sequence, sales sequence, nurture sequence, and lead magnet delivery—or build from scratch. 

If Flodesk has one weakness, it's segmentation. You can create segments within the app—filter subscribers by acquisition source, activity, and other data fields, then select all and click Add to segment—but it's a manual process, and the resulting segments are static.

If you go with Flodesk, you can connect it to all the other tools in your tech stack using Zapier. Learn more about how to automate Flodesk, or start with one of these pre-made templates.

Flodesk price: Flat-rate Email plan is $35/month and includes unlimited subscribers, sends, and all email features; upgrade to Email & Checkout to add checkout features like sales pages, online payments, and checkout analytics.

Other options for email newsletter software

Email marketing is a broad and well-established category for software, which means there are a ton of platforms out there. If none of the options above seem like a perfect fit, here are a handful of other solid email newsletter apps you may want to consider—they almost made the cut but were ultimately edged out by one of the other apps above.

• Brevo for all-in-one marketing and sales automation. I didn't include Brevo above because it may be too much if all you're looking for is a simple newsletter tool. The platform includes an array of email marketing and CRM features, with a generous free plan, robust and easy-to-use segmentation, and an available add-on for whitelabeling. If you're looking for a broader sales and marketing tool, it's worth testing it out.

• Ghost if you want to turn your blog into a newsletter. Ghost offers a stripped-down, text-forward editor—it's similar to Substack, but with slightly more newsletter-centric features and a focus on paid subscriptions. It didn't make the list above because of limited segmentation options and higher costs than competitors like Kit and beehiiv, but the app is easy to use and makes it super quick to turn blog content into a newsletter.

• MailerLite for a generous free plan. MailerLite offers a usable interface with great pre-built content blocks—to make building emails super easy—and extensive reporting features front and center on your dashboard. And the free plan's allowance of 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 email sends per month offers a ton of runway before you have to get out that wallet.

• Mailjet if you do a lot of A/B testing. Mailjet's email building interface offers an overall good experience with pre-built content blocks and a simple toggle to switch between HTML and text editing. But the A/B testing feature—built seamlessly into the editing flow—is the real standout feature here.

• Zoho Campaigns for super affordable paid plans. Zoho Campaigns has previously made this list based on how affordable it is to upgrade (with paid plans starting as low as $3/month). The app isn't a standout by any means, but if you're looking for an adequate platform that's ridiculously affordable, it could be a contender.

What about AI newsletter software?

Artificial intelligence (AI) has absolutely made its way into email marketing software, and I made sure to test any advertised AI features I came across.

The first thing I noticed was that the AI features are mostly generative, meaning they'll help you write a bit of copy here and there or generate an image from a text prompt. You can get the same quality by copy/pasting from ChatGPT or Gemini. Having said that, Mailchimp and beehiiv offered the best of the lot. Their AI assistants are built seamlessly into the campaign-building flow, offer generative text and image design, and both offer some degree of customizability around language and tone of voice.

Mailchimp's AI—powered by the recently launched Intuit Assist—offers additional AI features, too (most of which are still in beta). If you connect an eCommerce store, for example, Mailchimp can automatically generate email campaigns and designs based on new product launches and generate email designs for select automation workflows. Mailchimp also lists some intriguing AI features as "coming soon," including natural language segment building and suggestions to optimize revenue. A lot of marketing automation tools, like ActiveCampaign, already include this kind of functionality, and in the coming months and years, I'm sure AI will make its way into more aspects of email marketing.

Expect to see more newsletter apps adding AI features, along with expanded functions like AI segmentation, end-to-end campaign building, and more.

How to choose the right email newsletter platform

If you send similar emails to groups of people regularly, you need an email newsletter platform. You might not need all the features of advanced email marketing platforms, with automated sending schedules and landing page builders and personalization tools. Not yet, anyhow. But as your lists and marketing ambitions grow, you might.

That's the great thing about the wide variety of online newsletter platforms available. Whether you want to send a curated set of articles weekly to build a following around a topic or need to send thousands of personalized messages for your multinational corporation daily, there are email apps to fit your needs.

You can start simple—even with a free email marketing app—then grow into the advanced email marketing features the top newsletter platforms offer.

Start with the email newsletter software that feels most like it fits your needs today. Don't worry: when you need more features, you can always upgrade your plan, switch to another app, or keep your original, email newsletter platform alongside a more advanced marketing automation tool.

Related reading:

• The best free email marketing services

• How to build an email marketing list

• Get more ROI out of your URL shorteners with these workflows

• 12 newsletter templates for Word

• The best campaign management software

This article was originally published in June 2018 by Jessica Greene and has also had contributions from Jennifer Allen. The most recent update was in December 2024.

I live by a simple rule: if it's not written down, it doesn't get done. (It also doesn't get remembered—I'm pretty sure they were thinking about me, specifically, when they coined the phrase "in one ear and out the other.") But that means without an organized note-taking system, my pile of notes can get chaotic fast. 

I used to use Evernote to manage everything from quick brainstorms to work-related notes, but since becoming a Notion obsessive, I knew I could recreate my Evernote system in the app I used for everything else. That's when my Notion notebook was born.

Notion is a little more of a blank canvas than dedicated note-taking apps like Evernote, but that means you can build a custom system that fits your needs and organization style. And this template lets me do everything I loved Evernote for: I can create new notes with a click, access all my notebooks from a sidebar menu, add notes from my browser, and even create tasks inside notes. Here, I'll share my Notion notes template—my personal Evernote alternative—so you can make it work for you.

Table of contents

• Notion note-taking template

• How to use the Notion note-taking template

• Use Notion AI to enhance your notes

• Create your own templates

• Automate your Notion notes

Notion note-taking template

If you're just here for the template, here it is. Click the button below, then click the Duplicate icon in the upper-right corner. The template will be added to your Notion workspace, where you can customize it to your preferences. 

How to use the Notion note-taking template

Notion is an incredible mix of freedom and organization, and I leaned into that mix when creating my Notion note-taking system. If I have a quick idea, I can jot it down on the scratchpad and organize it later. Or, if I decide a note belongs in another notebook, all I need to do is switch the labels. In the end, it helps me feel free to brain dump first and get organized later.

Open my Notion note-taking template, and follow along to see how it works. 

The central database

My Notion notes system is based on one main database (titled "notebook-database"). Within that database, each note is categorized into a notebook using the dropdown in the Notebook property.

That gives me a set of notebooks that I can access using the navigation panel (each one is just a filtered view of that main database).

For example, I created a notebook called "Personal," along with a corresponding label in the database's Notebook property. The notebook contains a filtered view of the database, showing only unarchived notes labeled "Personal." 

You can create as many notebooks as you want. Simply add a new label to the database property and create a corresponding page (more on that below).

I've made it so that each notebook can show notes in either Gallery or List view. I use Gallery because I like to add images to each of my notes, but if you're a more straightforward note-taker, you can stick with List view for easier skimming. (Or, if you want more of a sticky-note feel, change the gallery view settings so that each card preview is Page content.)

The dashboard

The Notebook Dashboard is the central hub of my template. It displays a navigation panel on the left, where you can quickly access notebooks and other favorite views. The home page also shows a gallery view of any notes you've edited in the past week—making it easy to jump back into relevant notes.

The star of the show, though, is the handy New note button that lets you start a new note with just a click. You can add a category while you're there (which will sort the note into the matching notebook), or leave it blank for now. Once you click out of the note, it'll appear in the Recent notes gallery (or if you don't come back to it within a week, it'll stay in the Uncategorized view) so you never lose it.

Shortcut to create a new notebook

To create a new notebook, right-click New notebook template in the navigation panel, and select Duplicate.

Once you click into your duplicated page, you'll see the same layout as the other notebooks: a navigation panel and a filtered view of the main notebook database. 

To customize your new notebook, change the title to whatever you'd like (for example, "Fitness" or "Lecture notes"). Then click the three dots in the upper-right corner of the linked database. Click Properties > Notebook, and then click the + icon to add a new Notebook label to match.

Next, click the filter dropdown that says Notebook: new category. Change the filter so that it only displays notes showing the category you just created.

Now, whenever you label a note with your new notebook's title, it'll appear here. You can create new notes from within this page, from the main dashboard, or you can reassign notes from other notebooks if needed.

Tags 

Categories are great, but one more layer of organization ties it all together.

You can tag notes by whatever makes sense to you, like location, importance, or note type. For example, the "Important info" tag lets me quickly and easily find important notes across all of my notebooks. I could also create an "Urgent" tag (in red, naturally) to be sure I wasn't missing any deadlines.

Get creative with your tags. Maybe you have an "Ego boost" tag for anything that'll make you feel good about yourself looking back on it. Or an "Ideas" tag if you're ever looking for business inspiration across categories.

Tasks

No notebook system would be complete without a way to create to-do lists. 

Evernote has a great task management feature that lets you create tasks within notes without interrupting your flow, then view all of your upcoming to-dos in one place. I approximated this feature by creating a to-do list database (titled "notebook-action-items") that's linked to the notes database. That way, I can connect tasks to notes—or create and schedule tasks directly from within a new note (including setting reminders).

I should come clean: I don't actually use this exact feature. If you use Notion for task management more generally (as I do), you need to be sure all your tasks are in one database, as opposed to having notes-based tasks in their own database. Take a look at my Notion to-do list template as a starting point.

Pro tips for Notion note taking

Use Notion AI to enhance your notes

If you haven't experimented much with Notion AI, I'm here to tell you: it can really level up your productivity within Notion. The Q&A feature is a chatbot that can both answer questions about your docs and generate text. Do things like ask about the content of your notebooks and brainstorm a first draft of a note.

You can also add AI auto-fill properties to your notebook database. These properties can auto-generate a summary of a note, translate text, choose a keyword (either from a list of options you provide, or auto-generated by the AI), or perform a custom action.

I like the idea of using the AI keywords option to let Notion auto-categorize new notes into notebook categories for you (but if you choose this route, you'll need to update each view to filter by the AI keywords property instead of the Notebook property).

Create your own templates

If you find yourself using the same note layout repeatedly, it could be worthwhile to use note templates. To create a new template, click the carat next to New in any notes database view. Then click New template.

From there, customize the template's properties or body content. For example, my personal notebook has a template for new journal entries with the right notebook category and tag pre-filled, and a note body containing prompts like "How am I feeling today?" and "To-do today" with a checklist.

Automate your Notion notes

The best systems always give you space to focus on what matters. When you automate your note-taking process, you'll have more time to consume content and take action based on your notes.

For example, I use the Notion Web Clipper browser extension to add notes from my browser if I get an idea from a page I'm visiting. Just choose your notebook database from the dropdown, and it'll appear in the Recent notes view in your Notebook dashboard. You can categorize it or add context to it later, but it's way quicker than a copy/paste.

If you use Notion for note-taking but another app for task management, Zapier makes it easy to create new tasks based on your Notion notes. 

Or if you take notes during meetings, you can use Zapier to automatically create new notes for upcoming calendar events—you can even pre-populate them with event details and any other relevant information. Then all you need to do is open the note when the event starts. Learn more about how to automate Notion, or get started with one of these pre-made templates.

Customize your Notion notebook

The beauty of Notion is that it's endlessly customizable. This template is just a jumping-off point for you to get creative and customize a note-taking system that fits your style. The more closely the notebook hub matches how your brain works, the more likely you'll be to use it successfully and consistently.

For example, I like to sort each of my notebook pages by last edited time so that the most recently edited notes are at the top. But you might find it works better to sort by reminder date, tags, or even alphabetically.

Make it work for you.

Related reading:

• Notion vs. Evernote: Which is right for you?

• Notion vs. Roam: Which should you use?

• Build a second brain with Notion (with template)

• Stay on track with this Notion goals template

• How a Notion expert automates his workspace

• How to create a reading list in Notion (with template)

• How to automate recurring tasks in Notion

This article was originally published in September 2022. The most recent update was in December 2024.

Until recently, if I needed to insert an emoji somewhere on my Mac other than Slack, I would—I kid you not—Google the name of the emoji, then copy/paste it from the results. 

The good news: you're reading this, which means I'm not the only one who missed the emoji keyboard memo.

Here's how to get to the Mac emoji keyboard, so you can add ✨ way too many ✨ emoji to everything you write.

Table of contents: 

• How to open the Mac emoji keyboard with a single key

• How to open the character viewer with a Mac emoji keyboard shortcut

• How to manually change words into emoji on a Mac

• How to automatically change words into emoji on a Mac

How to open the Mac emoji keyboard with a single key

On newer Macs, there's a key dedicated to opening your emoji keyboard. 

1. Press the globe icon 🌐 (it shares a key with fn), and the emoji keyboard will pop up no matter what application you're using.

2. Then you can search for an emoji by name or browse by category.

   

If that key isn't working for you, go to System Settings > Keyboard, and then make sure the globe icon is set to Show Emoji & Symbols.

How to open the character viewer with a Mac emoji keyboard shortcut

In case you like doing finger gymnastics instead of tapping a single key, you can instead use the keyboard shortcut control + command + space. 

How to manually change a word into an emoji on Mac 

If you realize only after you type a word that it would have been much better expressed via emoji, here's what to do:

1. Hit 🌐 + E, and the corresponding emoji will pop up as an option.

2. Hit return to insert, and keep on typing. Or you can click that little down arrow next to the emoji to open the entire emoji keyboard.

Note: This won't work in every app. For example, it seems like web apps that have their own emoji-insertion system and keyboard shortcuts, like Google Docs, won't respond to this one, but it worked fine in other web apps, like Gmail.

How to automatically change words into emoji on a Mac

To really lean into the emoji game, you can set up a text replacement to automatically turn certain words into specific emoji system-wide.

1. Go to your System Settings > Keyboard.

2. Click Text Replacements.

   

3. Type the word you want to replace in the Replace field, and then use the emoji keyboard (press that 🌐 key to access it) to insert the emoji in the With field.

   

Same as above: this won't work in every app, but it should be pretty consistent across your Mac. (And if you're logged in with your Apple ID, it should transfer to your iPhone, too.)

👍 to using emoji on Mac (sparingly) 

Before you take my advice to add emoji everywhere literally, please don't. Too many emoji following a simple "Thanks" or "Sounds good" can be overkill. But if you're presented with a no-brainer opportunity to jazz something up, use that Mac emoji keyboard shortcut to sprinkle in a little fun 🤩.

Related reading:

• A brief history of emoji and how we use them at Zapier

• 17 custom Slack emoji we use every day

• How to (appropriately) use emoji at work

Whether you're engaging leads, following up on form submissions, or sending critical reminders, text messages cut through the noise of crowded email inboxes and provide an immediate, reliable way to reach your audience. But manually managing these messages isn't a smart plan if you want to scale your business. That's where automation comes in.  

By pairing SMS tools with Zapier, you can seamlessly integrate texting into your workflows so the right messages reach the right people at the right time. From sending automated reminders for calendar events to instantly following up with leads, automating SMS allows you to deliver critical updates while saving time and reducing manual work. 

Whether you're managing customer relationships, team coordination, or personal productivity, Zapier's automated workflows—called Zaps—will help you stay organized, responsive, and on top of what matters most. Let's dive into how SMS automation can transform your communication strategy and keep you one step ahead.

Skip ahead

• Send texts from forms

• Use SMS for calendar management

• Follow up on leads

• Send texts from emails

• Combine SMS with webhooks

• Send texts from spreadsheets

• Send texts on a schedule

Send texts from forms

Automating texts from form submissions is a great way to engage with your respondents and provide follow-up information. Imagine you're running an event and using Typeform, Jotform, or Google Forms for registrations. As soon as someone submits their details, you can automatically trigger an SMS confirmation to their phone using tools like SMS by Zapier, WhatsApp, or Twilio. This text can include important event details like the date, time, and location so registrants have everything they need. 

Similarly, if you're collecting customer inquiries via a form, you could send an automated text letting them know their message was received and that a team member will follow up soon.  

Additionally, you can use automated text messages to keep your internal team informed. For example, if you receive a new form submission for a high-priority issue or request, you can text to immediately alert a manager or on-call team member. This means timely responses—particularly for urgent matters—and reduces the risk of missed updates. 

Use SMS for calendar management

Automating text reminders for calendar events means you'll never miss an important meeting and significantly reduce no-shows. Unlike emails, which often get buried in crowded inboxes, text reminders are more immediate and far more likely to be seen, keeping you and your contacts organized and on track.

For example, if you manage appointments through Google Calendar, you can automatically send a text reminder just before an event starts. Your text can include essential event details, like the time, location, or a join link for virtual meetings. This is particularly effective for reducing no-shows in client consultations, business meetings, or even personal appointments like doctor visits.

If you use Calendly to schedule meetings, you can also automate a confirmation text the moment an invitee books an appointment. For instance, as soon as a meeting is scheduled, an SMS can be sent to confirm the booking, share next steps, or provide instructions on how to prepare. 

By automating SMS notifications for calendar management, you can reduce missed appointments and create a seamless experience for your attendees. With automated reminders, you'll stay one step ahead and increase the likelihood everyone shows up prepared and on time.

Follow up on leads

Timely follow-up is critical when converting leads into customers. SMS automations can make this process faster and more efficient. Instantly send personalized text messages to new leads as soon as they enter your system, helping you engage prospects right away and keep your business top of mind.

Imagine a lead submits their information to request more details about your product or service. An immediate text could thank them for their interest and share the next steps, such as scheduling a call, providing a discount code, or linking to relevant resources. This kind of real-time communication builds trust and keeps the lead engaged while their interest is still high.

If you're running lead funnels, SMS automation can also be used to follow up with prospects after specific activities, such as downloading a lead magnet or opting into a webinar. Sending a quick follow-up text to check in, answer questions, or offer additional support means your leads don't slip through the cracks and helps you move them closer to a conversion.

By automating lead follow-up through SMS, you can save time and create a better experience for your prospects, increasing the likelihood of turning initial interest into lasting customer relationships.

Send texts from emails

Given the volume of emails we receive daily, critical information can sometimes get buried in inboxes and go unnoticed. Instead, why not automate SMS notifications from incoming emails to alert you and your team to high-priority messages? This allows for faster response times and improved workflows.

For example, if you receive a Gmail message that matches a specific search—like emails containing keywords like "urgent" or "support ticket"—you can automatically trigger a text notification. This is particularly useful for teams managing customer support, sales inquiries, or time-sensitive opportunities. A manager, for instance, could receive an instant text when a key client sends an email, so they can act immediately without sifting through their inbox.

For more advanced use cases, tools like Email Parser by Zapier can extract relevant data from structured emails, such as order confirmations, contact requests, or support tickets. You can then automatically text that extracted information to a team member or client. You can also send customized messages to keep relevant stakeholders updated on critical email updates, such as new orders, registrations, or partnership requests.

By automating text notifications from emails, you create a more efficient system for staying informed. That way, nothing important gets missed and time-sensitive communications are addressed promptly. 

Combine SMS with webhooks

Webhooks offer a flexible way to integrate various tools and trigger automations based on custom events, even for apps that don't have native Zapier integrations. By pairing webhooks with SMS automation, you can send text notifications triggered by virtually any event so important updates or actions reach your team or customers immediately.

For example, if you're using a custom-built application or an uncommon tool, you can set up a webhook to "catch" specific events—like a new user registration, a form submission, or a payment confirmation. Once the webhook catches the data, you can send an automated text to notify the right people. 

Webhooks also work well for real-time updates. If an external tool triggers an event, such as a product running low on inventory or a critical system status update, you can instantly notify team members via SMS. For businesses with specialized workflows, such as custom eCommerce platforms or backend tools, webhooks can lead to instant communication without manually monitoring for updates.

Send texts from spreadsheets

If you're anything like me, spreadsheets are your go-to tool when starting any new project. This can mean that, over time, you may end up tracking critical information like new leads, orders, and project statuses in various spreadsheets. Monitoring all of those different sheets is time-consuming and can lead to important items falling through the cracks. By automating SMS notifications directly from your Google Sheets, you can streamline notifications so the right people receive timely updates.

For instance, if you're tracking new leads or orders in a Google Sheet, you can trigger a text message whenever a new row is added. Imagine a sales team receiving an instant text when a new lead appears or a logistics team being notified when an order is updated in a shared sheet. With automated texts, critical information is delivered quickly, keeping workflows moving and teams aligned.

You can also trigger SMS messages when rows in your spreadsheet are updated. For example, if a project management sheet tracks task progress, updating a row to Completed automatically sends a text to notify the team or client. Similarly, you can send reminders for payment updates, appointment changes, or any other time-sensitive information. 

SMS automation from spreadsheets bridges the gap between static data and real-time communication. Whether you're managing leads, tracking project updates, or handling inventory changes, automating SMS notifications ensures everyone stays informed and no update is missed.

Send texts on a schedule

Scheduled SMS messages are a powerful way to automate routine communications. Whether it's daily reminders, weekly updates, or recurring notifications, automating scheduled texts ensures consistent outreach while saving you time.

Using Schedule by Zapier, you can send daily text reminders to your team for key tasks, such as checking progress on a project or submitting time sheets. This can also work for personal use, like setting up a daily text reminder for appointments, medication, or personal goals. If you're managing clients or customers, scheduled texts can help share daily updates, workout reminders, or other consistent touchpoints to keep engagement high.

For weekly communication, you can deliver automated text updates for items such as newsletters, upcoming event reminders, or progress reports. For example, a real estate agent can set up a weekly text to clients with new listings, or a school can send a text reminder about upcoming deadlines or events every Monday morning. By setting these automations, you can communicate regularly without worrying about missing a date.

Automate your texts for better communication

By automating text messages for everything from lead follow-ups and form submissions to calendar reminders and scheduled updates, you can deliver timely, actionable information directly to your audience. SMS's immediacy and high engagement rates make it an invaluable tool for keeping customers, team members, and stakeholders informed and connected.

And this is just a few of the many ways you can streamline your text messages. What will you automate first?

This article was originally published in May 2021, written by Ellie Huizenga. It was most recently updated in December 2024 by Michael Toth.

One of Google Sheets' many hidden features is its timeline view. While it has disappointingly few (some might say none!) flux capacitors, lightning rods, or world-ending paradoxes, it does allow you to create a Gantt chart in Google Sheets, filling in a feature gap that Sheets has had for a few years now. And you don't even need to source any plutonium to power it.

Table of contents: 

• What is a Gantt chart in Google Sheets? 

• Gantt chart template for Google Sheets 

• How to make a Gantt chart in Google Sheets

• How to adjust the settings for your Google Sheets Gantt chart 

• Benefits of using a Google Sheets Gantt chart

• Limitations of using a Google Sheets Gantt chart

• Why use a Gantt chart in Google Sheets instead of another app?

What is a Gantt chart in Google Sheets?

A Gantt chart in Google Sheets is a project management view—specifically, the timeline view—that lets you visualize a project's timeline, tasks, and dependencies between tasks. In other words, the Gantt chart lets you view your spreadsheet data chronologically rather than in millions of tiny cells. It helps you make sense of the world in a way that might actually, you know, make sense.

Gantt chart template for Google Sheets 

I'm nothing if not full of Google Sheets templates, so here's a Gantt chart template to get you started. You'll need to customize the columns and tinker with the settings to get it exactly how you want it, but this should give you a head start.

How to make a Gantt chart in Google Sheets

Here's the short version of how to make a Gantt chart in Google Sheets (keep scrolling for detailed steps with screenshots).

1. Go to sheets.new to create a new spreadsheet. 

2. Enter your spreadsheet data. Be sure to include at least one date column. 

3. Click Insert > Timeline. 

4. Select the data range you want to include in your Gantt chart. 

5. Click OK. 

Now for the details. I'm using the template linked above, but the steps will work the same using your own spreadsheet. 

1. Go to sheets.new to create a new spreadsheet. 

2. Enter your spreadsheet data, making sure to include at least one date column.

   

3. Click Insert, and then select Timeline.

4. Select the data range you want to create the timeline from. I recommend including your entire data set so you have more to work with in the settings. Either way, remember to include at least the date columns.

   

5. Click OK.

Google Sheets will automatically add a new tab to your spreadsheet with your selected data transformed into a horizontal timeline. This is your Gantt chart. 

To me, the result looks as though you're cutting together your spreadsheet in Final Cut Pro at 3 a.m. for the third day in a row and the director has stopped returning your calls and you've just eaten an entire family-size bag of Swedish Fish and the last scene in this project that's due tomorrow just isn't coming together aaaaAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Sorry, just flashed back to film school for a second there.

The point is: now you're viewing the spreadsheet in relation to time rather than row number. Each item you see plotted along the timeline view is called a card, and they're organized from left to right based on the earliest date (from your date column) in your chosen data range.  

A Gantt chart in Google Sheets makes it easy to see at a glance if—as is the case in this example—you have a lot going on during one period and not a lot during another. But you can get even more granular.

How to adjust the settings for your Google Sheets Gantt chart

Google Sheets does a good job of transforming your data into a visually-pleasing Gantt chart. But if you want to change things up, you can. 

With your Google Sheets Gantt chart open, click Settings in the ribbon. From there, you can tweak your Gantt chart based on a few things.

• Duration. If your spreadsheet includes a start and end date (like in the template), Google Sheets should automatically detect that and stretch each card out accordingly. But if you want Google Sheets to stretch the cards based on a different column—for example, another date, a duration in days, or a time frame in hh:mm:ss format—you can do that.

• Card details. You can change the details that are immediately visible for each card along your timeline view. Click Card title to choose a different column's data as the card heading. Click Card color to change the color. And click Card detail to display additional information (one value only) next to your title. 

• Card group. Google Sheets automatically plots each row of data in your selected data range along the timeline. But you can group your Gantt chart based on specific columns. For example, if you want to see who's in charge of each initiative, group your cards by the Assigned to column.

  

• View. To change your view, click the View timeline by dropdown in the ribbon. Choose your view: Days, Weeks, Months, Quarters, Years, or Multiyear. You can also click Today to see only what's up for the day.

  

• Conditional formatting. Cards can be colored using conditional formatting from the original sheet (or, in the case of the template, the color of the dropdowns). This way, you can do things like turn a card red if it has unfinished related tasks or green if it's been finished successfully. Note: only the background color changes, while the font color stays black, so stick to lighter colors to retain legibility.

Benefits of using a Google Sheets Gantt chart 

The target market here seems to be project managers, and if you're a PM reading this right now, there's a good chance you already have strong opinions about this feature. But beyond project management, I do think there are a lot of interesting benefits of using a Google Sheets Gantt chart. 

• To-do lists. Non-controversial opinion: Deb at Zapier was right, and you should be using Google Sheets as a to-do list. Adding a timeline view can not only help you see what needs to get done now; it might give you a better look at what you've already done (and not enough to-do lists celebrate past success, IMO).

• Dashboards. If you're not a project manager, reading a spreadsheet filled with due dates probably isn't something you're used to (or enjoy). This quick solution provides a visual way to track where things have been, where they're at now, and where they're going next.

• Visualization of time. I'm enamored with spreadsheets made for purely personal use, like Maxwell Neely-Cohen's spreadsheet of songs stuck inside his head when he wakes up in the morning. This feature makes me imagine spreadsheets filled with small journal entries, Butterfly Effect-style, visualized on a cascading and shifting timeline as life goes on. 

Limitations of using a Google Sheets Gantt chart

A Google Sheets Gantt chart will do the trick if you want a timeline view of a simple project. But if you're using it to manage a more complex project, the timeline view will quickly begin to show its limits. Here are a few other limitations of using a Google Sheets Gantt chart. 

• Missing some standard Gantt chart elements. Timeline cards in Google Sheets don't offer all of the important elements you'd find in a traditional Gantt chart, such as dependencies and milestones. For that, you're better off using another app that pushes the Gantt chart as a primary feature—like ClickUp or Asana. 

• Scalability. If you're working on a complex project, managing a Gantt chart in Google Sheets is cumbersome. For example, if one task timeline changes, you'll need to manually update the timelines for dependent tasks. Dedicated project management tools, on the other hand, can typically dynamically update this information. 

• Inaccessible. Timeline cards aren't overly accessible or customizable, meaning that users who rely on screen readers or vertical organization may continue to prefer the default spreadsheet view.

Why use a Gantt chart in Google Sheets instead of another app?

The big draw here is that Google Sheets already integrates with everything—including Zapier—making it easy to pull in data from existing spreadsheets or other apps and jump straight into a usable timeline. If you don't have that data in Google Sheets yet, here are a few common workflows to get you started.

Of course, plenty of other apps integrate with Zapier, and a lot of them—especially project management apps—have built-in Gantt chart views.

So it's also important to remember that Google Sheets has something like 500 functions now, and the ability to create your own functions with Google Apps Scripts. That means that you can make all of the data going into the cards fully dynamic, such as using the NOW() function to stretch a card from its start date to the current time, or using DAYS() to see how close you are to a due date and change a card's priority accordingly. This tutorial just covered the basics, but there's a lot more you can do here.

Lastly, there's a good chance that you or your team is already using Google products. Even though it's "just a Gantt chart," it's a Gantt chart in a product you already have access to, which isn't nothing. If you've ever had to walk a teammate through a new app's features, or make sure that your boss remembers their password for something they haven't touched in months, the relief of knowing that everything is in one place is almost palpable.

We have to go back, Marty! Back … to the spreadsheet!

Will Gantt charts revolutionize the way you work? Maybe not. But they're a good reminder that a spreadsheet is often more than it appears to be on the surface. When done well—meaning with clear intention, rigorous testing, and descriptive values—they can be a vision of the past, present, or future that we want to build for ourselves and others.

Making a spreadsheet isn't just lumping numbers into a grid. It's a way to tell a story, whether that's about your business, your profits, your projects, or your dreams. And even if a Gantt chart in Google Sheets is just another canvas for telling that story, I'll take all the canvases I can get. 

Related reading:

• How to insert a Google Sheet into a Google Doc

• Google Sheets functions that do more than math

• How to make a Gantt chart in Excel [+ template]

• How to make a table in Google Sheets

• How to create a calendar in Google Sheets

This article was originally published in December 2022. The most recent update, with contributions from Deb Tennen and Jessica Lau, was in December 2024.