The magic of Zapier

An introduction to Zapier, and using it to create custom Bonjoro integrations for auto assigning, tracking results and more.

Matt Barnett 🏄🏽 avatar
Written by Matt Barnett 🏄🏽
Updated over a week ago

If you cannot find a direct integration for your software, you've come to the right place. If you've never heard of, or used Zapier...then you're in for a treat.   Zapier is a free (to start) tool that lets you connect pretty much any online apps you use to each other to create your own custom integrations.  

For instance, you could set up a "Zap" so that when you receive a new email, that persons email address is stored in a Google drive sheet. Or when you receive a new payment from your checkout, you receive a notification in slack.  The possibilities are almost endless.

Zapier works on the concept of Triggers and actions.

Triggers & Actions - Create a Video message for every new CRM signup

Lets use a simple example to demonstrate how this works:

  • A user signs up to your website, landing page, app or blog

  • A message task is added to your tasklist, in your team account, enabling your team to personally welcome this new user on board.

1. Head to the Integrations tab in your account and select "Add a Zap"

2. Select "Lets do it" to start from scratch, or use one of our pre-built Zapier integrations from the list if the suit you

You'll be asked to create a Zapier account, or log into your existing one. Once you have signed in, create a new zap:

Starting with the basics first, Zaps have a 2 part structure (You can do more but that's for a different help doc). They are 

  1. When this happens.... think of this as the trigger.

  2. Do this... think of this as the action.

1 When this Happens (Trigger)

A trigger is an event that occurs in one of your apps, that we will use to drive an action in another app. In this case we are going to assume that you are using Intercom as your CRM, but this would work the same way with any other CRM.

An Example would be, when a new user signs up to your website or blog.  You are probably using a CRM tool like Salesforce, Base, Hubspot or Intercom.

Once you have completed this step Zapier will bring in a few test data points from the tool you chose for the - it makes the next step much easier to have some real data to work with.

2 Do This (Action)

The action is the event that then occurs in response to this trigger in another app.  In the case of using Bonjoro as an action, there is only one thing you can do, and that is to create a Bonjoro Task:

Select which team member will be assigned the tasks by created in Bonjoro by the zap by selecting their account in the choose account drop down. If they aren't on the list they can be added with the 'add new account' button in the drop down

Customise the task
There are some key configuration steps that can make a big difference for the personalisation of your messages on the 'Customize Task step'. Here you tell Zapier what information to use to create the Bonjoro task and send over about the contact.

  • Email address, First and Last name:  It's really important not to write anything into the Email address or name fields, use the drop down menus to select the correct variables is each case. Variables from the drop down will be populated dynamically for each contact brought into Bonjoro, if you write in any field the exact text will be applied to all contacts and tasks.

  • Campaign: Select a Bonjoro campaign to place your tasks into, use default if you haven't created one yet.

  • Reason: This is the description of the task that appears under the contacts name in the tasklist e.g. 'New user in Intercom'. It's fine to write in this field but you can also populate it with variables if you like.

  • Attributes: These are really great - and let you bring in custom variables from the trigger source (in this case Intercom) that will be displayed in Bonjoro so you can tailor your video to the recipient even more. It can be things like location, item purchased etc. See how here - scroll down to the Zapier section.

Here's an example setup: 

To learn more about using Zapier, watch our two videos on setting up Zapier integrations:

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