Start conversations and trigger follow-up messages automatically by connecting Skipio to your other systems with Zapier.
By connecting Skipio to your CRM, your website, your calendar, or even your Facebook ads, you save time, communicate more consistently, and engage more personally.
When you automate your workflows with Skipio and Zapier, you don't have to manually upload contacts or worry about doing manual outreach.
Common to use Zapier
Generating leads on Facebook or gathering contact info on your website
When you connect those to your Skipio account through Zapier, those leads can be automatically added to your Skipio account and automatically sent messages.
Have existing customers that book an appointment through your calendar system
You can send the appointment information into your Skipio account and trigger automated reminder texts. These texts then help increase the likelihood that people show up for appointments.
Storing a lot of information in Google Sheets because they can handle almost any type of data
Some of our most successful customers connect Skipio to Google Sheets to sync information and trigger messages. This is a great free alternative, especially when you’re just getting started, or when the CRM you do have is overly complicated.
Related: 14 ways to use Skipio and Zapier to save hours every week while talking to your customers more often
How to set up Skipio and Zapier
Follow these detailed steps to set up your own automations using Zapier. Keep in mind that the steps for setting up automations are the same for almost every platform (HubSpot, Calendly, ClubReady, etc.). The primary difference is the source your information is coming from.
Here is an overview of the steps in this process:
- Create a drip messaging campaign in Skipio
- Create Zapier-specific custom merge fields to use in your automations
- Set up automation rules in your drip campaign
- Connect your Skipio account to Zapier using the Skipio app on Zapier
- Build and test your Zap
Step 1: Create or choose a pre-existing drip messaging campaign
Drip messaging campaigns allow you to "drip" a series of related messages to selected contacts over time. This type of campaign is best utilized when you want to automatically engage an existing customer because of a change in status or automatically start a conversation with a new contact.
Before you set up a Zap to automate sending messages, you need to have a drip messaging campaign ready. This will be the series of messages that send when your other system triggers the Zap. For example, a series of follow-up messages can be sent after someone makes a purchase.
Once you have a drip campaign written and saved, then you can create the custom merge fields that go along with the automations.
Step 2: Create Zapier-specific custom merge fields to use in your automations
With Zapier-specific merge fields, you automate the process of adding contacts from other sources to Skipio drip messaging campaigns and groups based on the information associated with each contact.
There are actually three different types of merge fields you’ll find in the Custom Fields section of your Skipio account: Custom Contact Fields, Custom User Fields and Custom CRM fields.
For the automations you set up with Zapier, you'll just be using Custom CRM Fields.
To get to your Custom CRM Fields, click the circle in the bottom left-hand corner of your Skipio account and then click My Profile in the menu that appears.
You'll see 4 tabs at the top of your profile settings. Select "Custom Fields" and then locate Custom CRM Fields.
Custom CRM Fields can all be updated by systems other than Skipio. The information associated with each field will determine whether an automation should run or not.
Throughout the rest of the article, we'll be using the field labeled “Lead Source.” This label indicates what type of information to put into this field when you’re building your Zap in Zapier.
Make sure you choose the proper field type for any custom merge field you create. There are four data types:
- String: A string of characters; the most common type used
- True/False: A choice between two options; some systems see this as a yes/no
- Date: Can be used for check-ins or follow-up after appointment
- Numeric: Any number value, like a purchase amount
Create any merge fields here that you want to be associated with your Zaps.
Step 3: Set up automation rules in your drip campaign
Automation rules are conditions that must be met to trigger automatic actions in Skipio. Rules should be based on data (from your CRM or other systems) that's associated with the custom merge fields.
Automation rules live at the campaign level, so they must be created within specific drip messaging campaigns.
Click the megaphone in the left-hand navigation bar and then click the drip messaging campaign that you want to connect with Zapier.
There will be 4 tabs at the top of the campaign. Select "Rules" and CREATE NEW AUTOMATION.
Setting up each automation rule and trigger consists of the following:
- Naming the automation
- Determining when this automation should run, including how often it should run for each contact
- Setting the conditions of this automation: What data needs to exist or change to make the automation run?
- Setting the action once the conditions are met: Such as, should a contact be added to or removed from a campaign?
Name the automation
We recommend naming it something that describes what the automation is going to do.
For example, if you want the Zap to add a contact from your CRM to a drip campaign in Skipio, you could name it “Adding Leads to Welcome Campaign.”
Choose when the automation runs
You have three choices:
- when the contact is created: runs when a new contact is created; great for new leads
- when the contact is updated: runs anytime a chosen field changes on a contact; great for watching changes on existing contacts
- daily: Skipio will check multiple times a day for changes on contacts; great for expired credit card reminders, days until a specific event, or billing notifications
In this same section, you will need to choose how often you want the automation to run for a specific contact. You can either run once per contact or run each time a contact matches these conditions.
Run once per contact will only run one time for a contact assuming they have not already been through this automation.
Run each time a contact matches the conditions will run every time a contact matches the conditions and can cause a contact to be put into the same drip messaging campaign multiple times.
Your use case will determine the option you use here, but for anything that happens only one time (like becoming a new lead, purchasing a specific product, getting a new referral), we recommend using “Run only once per contact.”
For something that could happen multiple times (scheduling an appointment, a card on file expiring, failed billing, etc.), we recommend using “Run each time a contact matches these conditions.”
Set the conditions of the automation
This is where you choose the custom merge fields that you want Skipio to watch for changes. Then, choose what information will need to be in that field within a contact to trigger the automation to run.
One of the easiest ways to think through this next step is using an if/then statement. For example...
If “Lead Source” is equal to “website,” then “Add this contact to the campaign.”
This rule would automatically put all of the leads that come from your website into this campaign.
If a contact is not a lead from the website but instead from Facebook, it would not be added to the campaign.
The "Value" is what you will be pulling into Skipio through the Zap. The information you put here must match perfectly with the data coming from the Zap, including capitalization.
Step 4: Connect your Skipio account to Zapier
To connect Skipio and Zapier, click the circle in the bottom left-hand corner to open the menu. Then select Integrations. Click on Zapier from the list of possible integrations.
From there you will be taken to a screen that goes over the installation instructions and other important information to help you set up connections between Skipio and Zapier.
Once ready to start connecting Skipio and Zapier, click on the link to that will take you to Skipio's page in the Zapier marketplace.
You can then search for pairing apps or select your desired app from the list that appears or look at different trigger and action options. There are templates to choose from!
After choosing the app to connect to Skipio with Zapier, you can start building and testing your Zap.
Step 4: Build and test your Zap
Building a Zap is very similar to building your automations in Skipio. Essentially, you are sharing data between systems so actions happen in Skipio when information changes in your CRM or calendar.
Before creating your Zap, make sure you know what the trigger is going to be. You could trigger your Zap on a new form submission on your website, a new spreadsheet row on a Google Sheet, a new lead from Facebook, a new appointment on your scheduling system, or a new purchase on your Shopify site.
To create your Zap, click Create a Zap and then choose your trigger. In the search bar you can choose or type out the name of your trigger app.
Next, choose a trigger event. This is the thing that needs to happen before Zapier can communicate to Skipio. In our example, it is happening in Google Sheets.
Next, connect that account to Zapier (if you haven’t already). This typically involves logging in to that system from the Zapier step. Once you’ve connected the account, you’ll be able to finish setting up your trigger.
Test the trigger and click Continue.
Next, set up the first Action. In the search bar, search for Skipio. Then, choose your action event. For this example, we're choosing Create or Update Contact.
Connect your Skipio account to your Zapier account. If you’re already logged into Skipio in a different tab, this will happen automatically. If not, you'll be taken to the Skipio login screen inside a Zapier window. You may be prompted to authorize this. If that pops up, click “Authorize.”
Next, you need to map the fields from the Google Sheet chosen in the trigger step to where you want that information to be stored in Skipio.
While the only required fields in Skipio are First Name and Phone Number, we recommend putting as much information about your contact as you can.
Also, make sure you’re putting the correct information in your CRM field to trigger the automation you created.
If you don't see all of your fields, click show all options and this will open all fields.
You'll see the remote source already filled in as “Zapier” (this is used to show where the info is coming from into Skipio). You can leave this field as it is.
What you’re looking at here are all of the fields that exist in your Skipio account that can be updated in this Zap. Again, you don’t need to use all of these, but you can use as many as you want.
Once you’ve mapped all the information you want to put on your Skipio contact, click Continue and test the action.
If the test was successful, you’ll be able to see that contact created successfully in your Skipio account.
If the CRM field data from your Zap correctly matches what we created in the automation rule, that contact will be added to the associated drip messaging campaign as well. Once everything looks great, select Turn On Zap!
Now, every time that trigger event happens, a contact will be created in Skipio and added to the campaign.