How Zapier helps authors reach their audience

Zapier is an automation tool that people use at home and in the office. Its fans tout Zapier as an easy-to-use time saving wizard. So, it seems safe to say that this is a great, general purpose tool. Now it’s time to dig a bit deeper.

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Is Zapier a marketing or customer acquisition tool for authors?

It is clear that there is one thing that Zapier cannot do. It can’t do your writing for you. However, it can help authors reach their target audience. 

Zapier also cannot write blogs or social media posts. It certainly can’t run your book signings or virtual meet and greets. However, it can automate some of the marketing tasks that are most time-consuming. This leaves you, the author, with more time to engage with readers. Take a look at the following examples of Zaps that will help you reach your audience.

Send a personalized message to new fans

Authors connect with potential readers from a variety of sources. Let’s say you use Facebook Lead Ads. You create a Facebook page for an upcoming book, and you use Lead Ads to collect information to build a subscriber list. Wouldn’t it be nice to automatically send a welcome message, maybe a special offer, to new subscribers? You can do that with a simple Zap.

First, choose Facebook Lead Ads and connect it to your chosen email tool. In this example, we’ve chosen Constant Contact. The trigger event will be a new lead. You will then be required to log in to Facebook Lead Ads. At this point, you connect Constant Contact and select to add a new contact as the action. If you have Constant Contact set up correctly, this will trigger the welcome email you have set up on that app for new subscribers.

Send a tweet when you publish a new blog post

You put a lot of effort into writing your blog content. You can automate promoting that content by creating a Zap to send out a Tweet the moment you hit publish. Zapier is connected with WordPress and other content management systems. To build your Zap, you just connect your WordPress with your Twitter account. Select publish a new post as your trigger event. 

Next, choose Twitter as your app, and ‘Create a new Tweet’ as your action. You will be prompted to log in to your account and connect your Twitter handle. After that, you can compose your Tweet. Now, Zapier will Tweet your new blog post each time you publish one.

Inform and enlighten

Not all of your marketing efforts should be about sales and promotion. Connect with your audience by sharing content that is relevant to them and informs or entertains them. Zapier has several app templates that allow you to share links with your followers. You can also create many of your own.

Here the challenge is not creating a Zap. Instead, it is handling those clunky URLs. Fortunately, you can use a built-in URL shortener to fix this issue. Imagine that your readers are students. You could curate relevant information to them, such as information on academic assistance such as writing samples or flashcards. Zapier can take a raw link to a https://subjecto.com/flashcards/ database and turn that into something short and easy to fit in a Tweet or Facebook post.

Automate your events

Authors have always used events to connect with their readers. Engaging book signings and readings can quickly translate into new social media followers and preorders for your next book. Thanks to Zapier, you can automate many of the tasks that make these events so successful.

One thing you can do is use the available integrations with Eventbrite to help ensure that your event is well-attended and quite successful. Even better, you can integrate your Eventbrite event with your favorite spreadsheet tool for data collection purposes. Later, use the information you have saved and sorted to reach out to your new readers. Here’s how that works.

First, make sure your Excel is enabled on One Drive. Then select Eventbrite with a new attendee registered as your trigger event. Excel will be your second app with the action of adding a row to a spreadsheet.

Reward your loyal fans with a giveaway

Everyone loves a freebie. You can reward new readers with a small gift as an incentive or offer your loyal audience members a present as a way of thanking them. Zapier can help you automate some of the processes behind this thoughtful act.

How about sending a digital gift card using Tango? You could hold a limited time giveaway offering a $5 Tango Card to anyone purchasing your book via PayPal. Here, your trigger will be a successful sale in PayPal. Your action will be sending a gift card using Tango.

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