Key points
- Zapier is an automation tool that connects thousands of apps.
- Zaps are workflows that connect your apps, so they can work together.
- Zaps start with a trigger—an event in one of your apps that kicks off your workflow.
- Zaps automate tasks in the background, so you can focus on more important work.
Zapier is an automation tool that connects ChurnIQ with thousands of others apps, such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact, ActiveCampaign, ClickFunnels and more. You can connect two or more apps to automate repetitive tasks without coding or relying on developers to build the integration. It's easy enough that anyone can build their own app workflows with just a few clicks.
Important Zapier Concepts
Zap
A Zap is an automated workflow between your apps. For example, you may have a Zap that sends all of your new subscribers to a list on Mailchimp. Zaps consist of at least two parts: a trigger and one or more actions.
Trigger
A trigger is the event in an app that starts the Zap. Once you set up a Zap, Zapier will monitor the app for that event. Using ChurnIQ, this event will be the segment export schedule you create using Zapier Webhooks. One Zapier detects this event, it will take an action you define
Action
An action is the event that completes the Zap. For our example, the action is adding a new subscriber to Mailchimp.
Task
Each piece of data you run through your Zap counts as a task. That means if your Zap adds 100 subscribers to Mailchimp automatically, your Zap just performed 100 tasks.
Every task your Zap performs is another task that you don't have to do manually. It's important to keep in mind the number of tasks your Zaps run, because it helps determine which Zapier plan is best for you.
Using Zapier Webhooks
Because of the enormous flexibility they provide, ChurnIQ uses Zapier Webhooks to connect to other tools. While they may seem a little complex at first glance, the way in which Zapier webhooks handles your segments is quite simple.
The easiest way to think of webhooks is as notifications. They carry a payload of data, which in our case is a list of customers with their attributes. This data needs to go somewhere, to a special URL where Zapier is waiting to receive your segment list and do something with it.
When you create a new Zap with a webhook enabled trigger, Zapier generates a brand new URL for your use, sort of like this one:
https://hooks.zapier.com/hooks/catch/1234567/d3a12dsg/
Once you have the URL, you'll be able to provide it to ChurnIQ. After you do that, Zapier will start receiving segments whenever ChurnIQ sends them.
