May 23, 2018

DIY Integrations: Using Zapier to Connect Contactually with Other Services

Contactually is all about helping you maximize the value of your relationships in an effective and efficient way. One way to achieve that goal is to connect other parts of your workflow to Contactually, to automate processes and to ensure that nothing gets dropped as you move between systems.

Contactually has integrations with many popular services like MailChimp, Zillow/Trulia, and more, but what about the ones we don’t cover? Enter Zapier!

If you haven’t heard of Zapier, read on to see how Zapier works to connect the technologies you use. Already know Zapier? Keep reading to see what you can do in Contactually with Zapier (including our brand new Bucket Contact Trigger!). And, for you advanced users, learn how you can get your enterprise using Zapier to boost your lead workflows.

If you are ready to learn more or see it in action, register for our webinar on June 7th at 1pm Eastern Time. (Can’t make it? Register anyway, and we’ll send you a link to watch the recording.)

What is Zapier?

Think of Zapier like a connector. Zapier helps build an integration between the services you use, but anyone can use it without ever writing a line of code.

Services publish “apps” to Zapier, allowing you to trigger an automated workflow based on a condition in one app, which then causes an action in another app. This saves you a lot of time and effort, because it happens consistently and automatically each time the situation occurs.

Here’s an example:

You use a Google Form at your Open House to capture visitors as leads. Normally, your Form simply writes these leads to a Google Sheet, so you have to manually import them into Contactually.

With Zapier, you can set up a “Zap” that triggers when you get a new response on your Google Form, and automatically creates that contact in Contactually. You can add another step to your Zap and put that contact in a Bucket. If that Bucket was linked to an automated Contactually Program, you could have a follow-up email waiting for your approval to send before you can even get back to your desk.

(Want to use this example? We’ve got a template for that!)

What does Contactually offer through Zapier? What’s new?

Contactually offers a couple of Triggers, which are ways to start a workflow based on a Contactually event, and several Actions, which are ways to write new info into Contactually. Here are some to keep an eye on (including a new Trigger!):

Triggers

• New Contact
• What is it: Kick off this workflow when a new contact is created.
• When to use it: Add a new contact to an email marketing list, like Emma or Constant Contact.
• Bucketed Contact (NEW!)
• What is it: Kick off this workflow when you put a contact in a designated Bucket.
• When to use it: This is an incredibly powerful trigger that really helps you stay informed and on top of things. For example, if you have Lead Capture turned on in Contactually (or an admin assigning you leads), get a text message when a lead lands in a certain Bucket.

Actions

• New Contact
• What is it: Create a new contact from a workflow.
• When to use it: Use a transcription service to create new contacts from business cards.
• Bucket Contact
• What is it: Bucket a contact based on a workflow; typically this would be a second action after creating a new contact.
• When to use it: Connect your lead form (like IDX Leads, Real Geeks, or Gravity Forms) to create a new Contact, and then take it a step further to Bucket that contact to ensure you follow up promptly.
• We also have Actions to create Tasks or log Interactions.

Get your enterprise using Zapier to improve your Contactually experience

In addition to new Triggers for Bucketed Contacts, we’ve also just released a new series of Actions aimed at Brokerage Administrators. Does your brokerage manage your Contactually licenses? Read on to learn how you could use these!

Until recently, brokerages were unable to complete Contactually activities on behalf of their agents; in large part, we built it this way for privacy and trust, to ensure that an agent’s data is completely their own. However, we’ve since discovered that there are great use cases for a brokerage to write new information (like contacts or interactions) to an agent’s account, even if they can’t read information that’s already there.

To this end, we’ve recently introduced Partner User actions in Zapier. Actions with this label are conducted by a user with an admin role on behalf of another user in their organization. Some of these actions include: creating a contact, bucketing that contact, and logging an interaction/note for that contact.

Creating new contacts for leads routed by the brokerage is a major use case supported by these Actions. Paired with the agent-level Bucketed Contact trigger, a brokerage drops a lead in an agent’s Bucket via one Zap, and the agent sets up a second Zap to receive text or phone notifications of the event.

Does this sound like something your brokerage needs? Have your Contactually admin reach out to your Customer Success Manager to learn more or if you want assistance getting set up.

   

Hopefully this article has sparked some ideas about how you can use Zapier with Contactually to enhance your own workflows; you can check us out on Zapier here. If you are ready to get started, or just want to learn more, join us for a webinar on June 7th at 1pm Eastern Time. (Can’t make it? Register anyway, and we’ll send you a link to watch the recording.)