Zapier is the easiest way to automate your work. It helps connect the online tools and software you use daily to increase your business productivity. Once you have created your workflow (also called a “Zap”), Zapier will check your trigger every five minutes or so for new data. When the zap is triggered, Zapier will automatically perform the action.
In this tutorial we’re going to explain how to create your first zap in Zapier. We’re going to start with a very simple zap, where we trigger the workflow with a google form and transfer those details into a Gmail email.
If you haven’t already got your Zapier account, then check out our recent article “How to Setup your Zapier Account” to learn how to create your Zapier account.
Start by opening your Google Drive and creating a Google form as shown in the screenshot below.
You can add whatever fields you prefer, but in the example we’re going to keep it simple and add Customer Name, Email, and Phone Number.
Now go back to Zapier and add under “Connect this app…” select Google Forms and under “with this one!” select Gmail and then click "Make a Zap!".
After clicking “Make a Zap!”, you will find yourself in the Zapier Workflow Editor. Here you will setup how you want your zap to function. The first thing to do in the editor is to select your app under Choose App. (In this case, you selected Google Forms the previous step, but you could change it here if you wanted).
Note: If it’s the first time you’ve used a certain software/app in Zapier, then you’ll need to setup the connection and grant permission for Zapier to access your account in the app.
Then choose your Trigger Event, and in this case we want to select "New Response in the Spreadsheet".
In the Workflow Editor, you then need to complete the Customize Response section, where you’ll select the specific Spreadsheet and Worksheet for this trigger.
Now it’s important to test the trigger and pull the data that you wish to use for the rest of the zap. For Google Forms we are given the option to “Find Response” which we must click and then we’ll get the details from our form.
Then you have data for the rest of the zap and you can click the Response row to look at the specific information that’s come through.
Now you can move down to the action step. With a normal Zapier account you can create unlimited actions to follow a trigger. However, in this example we’ve keep it simple and just setup one action step.
Under “Choose App” select Gmail and then under “Choose Action Event” select Send Email. In the next part when you “Choose Account” you will then need to grant Gmail access to Zapier in the same way you’ve done before for Google Forms.
Add the details for the Send Email action so the zap knows what to do. First under the “To” field you add the email address you want to send to, and then you can also add any CC or BCC in the following fields. You must also add the email subject you prefer under “Subject”.
Note: You must add details under each field where it says required. The other fields are optional but sometimes necessary depending on what you want to do.
In the “Body” field you can then add the dynamic content you want to pull from the trigger step into your email. It can be a combination of typed text and the dynamic content you select by clicking the little button on the top left corner of the field box.
Here we’ve added “Name:” then the dynamic content customername from the Google Forms trigger step. You can do the same for Name, Email and Phone Number, and add others as you wish. Play with it a little to experiment. (You can use dynamic content in almost any fields in the Workflow Editor.)
Click “Continue” and then click “Send Test” and Zapier will send you a real email to your Gmail account (or whatever email address you added in the previous steps).
Finally, now that the test worked and everything has been setup you can activate the zap so it will work every time there is a new submission on the Google Form (or whatever the trigger that you’ve set). Just click the Turn Zap On button (or the On/Off switch in the top right corner) and wait for it to confirm, and your zap is live! Congratulations! 🎉🍾
Now, don’t forget to name your zap by scrolling to the top of the Workflow Editor and clicking the name box. Keep it simple and just describe what your zap is doing. It’s easy later on to forget what different zaps are setup for so don’t be afraid to write a lot so it’s clear.
Then go back to your My Zaps page (zapier.com/app/zaps) and add a new “Private Folder” and click the little down arrow on the right side of your new zap to select Move to Folder… and select your new folder.
With that you’ve now completely setup your first zap. From here it only gets better and more exciting. The power of Zapier and automation is extraordinary. It will allow you and your business the ability to grow and scale more quickly, and save you and your team huge headaches and daily pain. It will make your clients happier and enable you to reach more people.
Well done for finishing this tutorial and setting up Zapier!
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