10 Ways to Automate WordPress with Zapier to Improve Your Business Operations, Fast

Automation is the key to the future. For your business, it's the key to your growth and success. Not only that but imagine just what you could do with all of that free time. AI is helping change the game and if you know how to use them together, WordPress and Zapier can become a powerhouse combo for your company. Most people know about WordPress since it's one of the most popular free options for website hosting and blog posting, but have you heard of Zapier yet?

Zapier is growing rapidly and becoming one of the best automation tools available today. It's a tool that is designed entirely to automate your other tools. It uses "Zaps", or automated workflows, to connect your apps for streamlined functions.

Among its more than 3,000 integrations, you'll find WordPress. For many small businesses, WordPress is the go-to choice for a website when setting up shop because it's so easy to use. Plus, you can turn a WordPress site into anything you want: a blog, an eCommerce shop, a full website, and more.

Combining the power of these two tools allows you to automatically create, share, and track your posts and pages, making it easy to put your WordPress site to work without adding hours of work to your schedule. What can you do with these two tools? The better question is probably what you can't.

When it comes to automating WordPress with Zapier, the rich API allows you to create all kinds of custom integrations. However, there are also some pre-built workflows that are sure to deliver everything that you need. In this guide, we'll cover 10 of the best WordPress automations you can turn into workflows to Zap your way to improved operations.

For other workflows that can improve operations, ask how the virtual receptionists at Smith.ai can help with 24/7 call answering and live chat services and more.

1. Share to Facebook        

Instead of having to use the buttons on WordPress (or worry about setting up the scheduled post details), you can use a Zap to automatically share all of your posts to Facebook. This workflow takes the hassle out of sharing and saves you from risking the site editor not posting like it should. You can even choose to share your posts as images or text or to create links, and more. That way, social media stays updated and you don’t have to do all the work.  

2. Share WordPress posts on Slack    

Slack is a great messaging and collaboration tool for teams. It's got plenty of instant messaging and file sharing features and even allows you to hold group meetings and more. If you want to keep your teams on the same page, you can share new WordPress posts in Slack. As a bonus, Zapier has integrations so that you can get notified on Slack when people comment or when new posts are made (such as when you've got someone else running the blog). That way, WordPress gets taken care of and your team is always kept informed.

3. Post your Mailchimp campaigns to WordPress      

Let's say you're using Mailchimp to create marketing campaigns for email. You can post the signup links right to your WordPress website or blog as soon as you create them in Mailchimp with this pre-built integration. For example, if you kick off a new marketing campaign for your product re-launch, you can have a WordPress post generated to let everyone know or even to promote a special limited-time offer that only your blog readers can access. Never worry about keeping up with everything on your own because you can automate it all in minutes with Zapier.

4. Tweet new posts from WordPress, complete with images      

With Zapier, you can set up a Zap that will allow you to Tweet all of your new posts directly from your WordPress blog, either when they're published or on another schedule of your choosing. You can even add images and hashtags to the Zap so that it's all done for you. There are several ways to share to social media with Zapier, but being able to include images and hashtags to share dynamic content is really taking things to the next level. Just make sure that you've got the image that you want in your original WP post and Zapier will take care of the rest.

5. Post your RSS feed to WordPress    

Let's say you find an interesting news article or tidbit that you want to share. You can use a Zap to post items directly from your RSS feed into the WordPress site, creating a blog post every time you put a new item in your feed. You can even customize this setting and get more detailed with the integration if you want, or you can keep it simple: when you add something new to your RSS feed, Zapier adds that as a new post on WordPress, and yet again, you don't have to do all the work.

6. Create WordPress posts out of Typeform entries      

If you're using forms to generate surveys or collect information, being able to share those forms right to the WordPress site is easy when you use Typeform and Zapier. Once you set up the Zap, every entry that you get in Typeform will generate the signal to create a new post, and your blog will basically manage itself. This is great if you use Typeform for gathering statistics and data and more. You'll never have to worry about transferring the data yourself or anything getting lost in translation.

7. Create WordPress pages or posts from rows on Google Sheets      

We didn't want to outshine the rest, so we didn't put it first on the list, but this is probably one of the most used and most useful integrations available. Let's say you've got a collaborative Google Sheet running for your team and it has blog post topics that need to be generated. You can have the content created, drop the various components into the sheet (yes, including the full blog post), and then have the Zap transfer everything from the Sheet to the right place on WordPress, creating a post based on the content that you provide. It's never been easier to streamline blogging. You can even set WordPress to notify you when it's been done.

8. Post new YouTube videos that match searches on WordPress      

Tired of spending hours curating YouTube on your own and making sure your videos get posted in all the right places? When you use this automation, you can set it up so that when specific searches are met, the resulting video automatically posts to WordPress as an entry all its own. It's simple and saves you time and hassle, and it's a great way to curate without doing the work. There are other ways you can use YouTube automation through Zapier, but we'll cover that in another post.

9. Share Posts to LinkedIn          

Instead of having to go to your LinkedIn page and post about your new blog, you can set up this automation to do it for you. When you do it this way, you can simply create a new blog in WordPress and then set the trigger to post it to your LinkedIn page accordingly. You can even customize the integration to set schedules for posting and more, making it easy to automate your updates and keep your audience in the loop.

10. Create Trello cards for WordPress posts      

Trello is a tool that is great for collaboration. If you use Trello to communicate with your teams, you can generate new Trello cards based on your WordPress posts (or vice versa) so that you can track everything and make sure that posts get the follow-up they deserve. When you're already creating a post on WordPress, you have to handle the editing, social media, email, images and media, and more. Why not make sure that you cover it all by creating a card for each post? It's simple and it will save you from forgetting any of the details. Maybe you've got someone else handling your social media—when the Trello card appears, they'll know it's time to share.

The benefits of automation

Everyone knows that automation is helping companies thrive, but there are still several people on the fence about whether It's right for their business. If you're not convinced after reading this micro-glimpse at the potential of Zapier or still wonder what you stand to gain, consider first that creating Zaps takes just seconds when you use pre-built integrations. Then, consider benefits like:

·      Saves Time (And Payroll): Even taking the time to set up tools like Zapier to do what you need is nothing compared to the time you spend actually handling the tasks yourself. When you automate routine tasks and regular business activity, you will find that you are spending less on payroll and have fewer employees logging overtime and extra hours because they're trying to get everything done.

·      Saves Money: When your team is more productive and efficient, it will save your business a lot of money. There's the obvious expense of payroll and human resources to consider here (because those costs will be slashed), and then there are other expenses that may be saved. Those savings turn into a huge return on investment for your new way of doing business.

·      Reduces Errors: Automating business processes will reduce the risk of human error. Too often, businesses experience critical issues or serious failures as a result of processes or information being incorrect. Computers and machine learning aren't perfect, but It's far more likely that your Zap scheduled for 2 PM every Tuesday won't get stuck in traffic coming back from lunch—it's just more efficient and less affected by the human element.

·      Standardizes Processes: In addition to all of the rest of the benefits, being able to standardize your business processes is a big pro to add to your list. What's better (and by "better" we mean more efficient) than having standardized processes in place? In today's competitive business world, upgrades like this are what set the successes apart. Even if you're not in an industry where standardization is required, it's still a great way to streamline and make sure everyone does things the same way.

·      Compliance Benefits: For several companies, compliance is a big issue. Whether It's organizational or legal, complying with the guidelines and laws is a must. By integrating automated tools like Zapier, you can set up everything to automatically be done the way it should be so that you are compliant at all times. Then, if something comes up, it's not about who did (or didn't do) something because the automation creates a trail that can be traced to find out where things went awry.

·      Paper Trail: When you automate business processes by using Zapier and other tools, you're essentially creating a trail of all of your business activities. Things that you used to have people doing are now done by machines, which means you have a detailed record of everything and can be prepared for an audit whenever the time comes. It also means that you'll be able to follow the trail if things don't go well so that you can figure out what went wrong and why.

More ways to improve operations when you partner with Smith.ai

We love automation and we love helping your business become better, smarter, and more efficient. When you hire our virtual receptionists to act as the face of your brand, you’ll trust that you’re getting the best for after-hours call answering, live website chat, and so much more. Plus, we’ll even help you create the perfect strategy to field all your needs, no matter how big or small they might be.

We love Zapier because it’s easy—anyone can create smart workflows to connect their business software programs and let AI do the tedious work. Plus, it’s thanks to the power of Zapier that Smith.ai is capable of integrating with over 3,000 apps to ensure every call, chat, and text is logged in the right place, from your CRM to your database, and more.

Check out our apps to explore how we connect to Zapier! Learn more about Smith.ai’s Answering Service app on Zapier, and explore Smith.ai’s Website Chat app on Zapier.

Schedule your Live Chat consultation to discuss the solutions available from Smith.ai, including after-hours answering, scheduling, new client intake, and much more. You can also reach out to us at hello@smith.ai or (650) 727-6484.