Add Automation to Your Online Store: Bookmark X Zapier

The word automation means a lot to us at Bookmark. As a company that prides itself on our cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence Design Assistant (AiDA), we know how amazing and limitless the potential of automation is in the eCommerce industry, and the world alike.

Saving time and reducing stress are two of the biggest reasons that business owners implement automation into their website/online store. At Bookmark, automation is the root of our foundation as we help thousands of business owners build an online presence. Thankfully, we’re not the only company that’s introducing automation to business owners.

I’d like to introduce you to Zapier. Zapier is an automation service that business owners use to connect to thousands of apps across the world. It also allows you to automate different tasks, freeing up time for you and your team in order to focus on things that matter more, like growing your business.

Needless to say, Bookmark and Zapier have a lot in common. So, we thought it would be a great idea to give our users the ability to integrate Zapier’s services into their website.

Let’s get started.

What is automation?

Before we get into how Zapier can be integrated with Bookmark, let’s first break down the four major types of automation (info taken from ibm.com):

Basic automation

Basic automation is the process of automating simple and rudimentary tasks. This level of automation is all about using digital tools to help streamline and centralize routine tasks. Take website analytics, for example. If you want to learn about your customers and website visitors in order to grow your sales – it’s good to know about analytics like demographics, time spent on site, etc. Instead of manually checking each visitor, analytics technology (like the ones built within your Bookmark website), help streamline this process to save you time. This is an example of basic automation.

Process automation

Process automation manages business processes for complete uniformity and transparency. Usually, this is done using software and apps (like the ones offered with Zapier). Using process automation can increase productivity and efficiency within your business, and it can also deliver new insights into business challenges and suggest solutions. Workflow automation is a great example of process automation.

Integration automation

Integration automation focuses on teaching machine technology to mimic the tasks of humans. Unlike artificial intelligence, this technology does not “learn” and grow when completing the tasks. Instead, its rules are defined by humans, and it is programmed to repeat these tasks. A great example of this is an automated customer support live chat. The customer support representative will program the “bot” to respond when asked frequently answered questions.

Artificial intelligence (Ai) automation

Finally, the most complex level of automation is Artificial Intelligence (AI) automation. Ai-powered technologies can “learn” and make decisions based on past situations they have encountered and analyzed. For example, Bookmark! AiDA’s algorithms evolve with every new website built on Bookmark, making it a revolutionary and cutting-edge technology in the world of web design.

Another unique feature AiDA offers is AiDA Suggestions. After a website is published, AiDA also tracks the visitor interactions. This data is used to provide each website with a unique Visitor Experience Score (VXS). When a website has a high VXS, the more likely it is to convert regular visitors into happy customers. After AiDA establishes your website’s first VXS by tracking key data points and analytics (such as scroll depth, bounce rate, time on site, and more), each user is sent a bi-weekly AiDA Suggestion. The user has the choice to accept or decline the suggestion. When a suggestion is accepted, the change is automatically implemented on their website with no coding required.

What is Zapier?

“Imagine all the apps you use for work talking to each other.”

In essence, this is what Zapier offers. After certifying its name as one of the largest and most trusted workflow automation services in the world, Zapier now gives you access to connect to 4000+ apps so that your work flows automatically.

The process is simple. First, you select an app you want to connect to your Zapier account. Next, choose a trigger. Your trigger is what kicks off the automated process between your apps. In our example, the trigger is a lead coming in through Facebook. Once the trigger step comes the action, or what you want to happen automatically. In our example, the action is sending an email.

After these three steps, you’ve created a Zap! Zap’s are the magic behind Zapier, and they can benefit your business in more than a few ways. “A Zap can have up to 100 actions and automate an entire process—not just a single task. So a workflow can run while you focus on pitching a client and closing the deal. Zapier makes it easy for anyone to create new Zaps—or change existing ones—in our no-code automation platform.” via https://zapier.com/how-it-works

If you have any more questions about Zapier or need any more tips and advice, we are here for you. Don’t hesitate to reach out to our Live Chat at any time, and check out some more of our helpful guides!

How to Integrate your Bookmark website with Zapier:

The following section has been taken from Bookmark’s Help Center. There you can find all of the tips, advice, and guides you need to succeed with Bookmark.

Part One

To add Zapier integrations to your Bookmark website, first and foremost you need to connect your Zapier account within your website builder.

To get started, log into your website builder and click the ‘Features’ section in your sidebar Then click the Automations section, and click the big red ‘Connect with Zapier’ button.

From there you will be taken to a page where you can either login to an existing Zapier account, or create a new account if you don’t have one already.

Once you have a Zapier account you should be directed to a screen showing that you have been invited to use Bookmark on Zapier, and you will need to click the ‘Accept Invite & Build a Zap’ button at the bottom of the page.

Once you are in your account you will want to go to your dashboard and click the ‘Make a Zap’ button.

The first step in making your Zap is adding the trigger. You will want to search for Bookmark in the search field and select Bookmark (1.0.0) as your app.

The you can select one of the 5 available event options in the dropdown menu:

Contact Form, Subscription Form, Event Form, Appointment Form, or Reservation Form.

Click ‘Continue’, and then ‘Sign in to Bookmark’. This will prompt a popup to approve authorization for Zapier to access your Bookmark account.

Click ‘Authorize’ and then ‘Continue’ back on the Zapier page to choose your website that the trigger will pull from.

Once you’ve selected your website, click ‘Continue’ to and then ‘Test trigger’. You can confirm if the test was successful back in the Messages section of your website Dashboard. You should see a test message was submitted.

Part 2

You can search through the apps to pick which application you want to connect your trigger to, such as Gmail, Mailchimp, etc. For this example we will choose Gmail.

Once you select the app you can pick the event from the dropdown menu, in this case I will choose ‘Create Draft’. Once chosen click the ‘Continue’ button.

You will be prompted to sign into your Gmail account in a popup window to grant Zapier access. Then you can continue on to setting up the action. aDD the email that the draft will be sent to, who it is from, the name, subject, body of the message, and any signature or attachments you want to add.

Complete the fields and click the ‘Continue’ button.

After you’ve completed that step, you can test the function by sending a test message from the contact form test prompt, by clicking ‘Test & Continue’.

When the test is approved you can complete the process by clicking the ‘Turn on Zap’ button, and you’re done!

You can turn on multiple zaps with Bookmark now that your account is connected. If you ever want to remove the Zapier connection just go back into your Zapier account dashboard and toggle the zap to ‘off’.

 

Once again, we’re here if you have any questions or need any advice when you integrate your Bookmark website with Zapier.

Get started today so that you can automate your workflow to save time and stress so you can focus on what matters most: building and growing your business.