We get a lot of questions of nature "I want to do this (long explanation follows), can you think of a way that I can accomplish that with Simplero?". At Simplero support we can give you the most simpler solution we can think of to accomplish your goals. If what you are trying to achieve is not supported in Simplero, it's your’s and your team's job to figure out how you might combine them to do something sort of like what you're looking to do. We give you the math, you solve the equations. Deal?
Below, we give you an overview of all of the ways that you can automate things in Simplero, in one location. We will only summarize the way each one works and you can then check the full manuals to learn more details about each one.
In this guide, we cover:
Triggers let you take certain actions when something happens. In other words, they are If-then rules that trigger actions based on specified events. They exist in many places inside Simplero and there are heaps of different actions they can execute. Have a look at our Triggers Overview manual to learn where they are and how to use them.
There are many different combinations of trigger + action that you can create. Some commonly used cases:
When a customer purchases a product —> Add them to a list
When a list has a new subscriber —> Add a tag to that contact
When a customer clicks a link on an email —> Add a tag
When a course lesson has been completed —> Send an email
When a worksheet response is submitted —> Notify the administrator
Triggers are designed to help you automate various tasks and streamline your online business operations saving you many hours of manual work!
GDPR notice for those doing business in the EU: Please keep in mind when using triggers based on actions of your customers that you are in compliance with GDPR, actions such as these may violate rules in regards to consent and profiling. This message does not constitute legal advice should you have a question about compliance please consult a lawyer.
Automations are simple straight-forward sequences of actions. The actions are essentially the same as for triggers. Each step in an automation is either an action or a Wait period. You can wait for pretty much any amount of time, from a minute, up to years, and you can further restrict it to be a specific day of the week, weekday, or weekend, or a specific time of day, in either your account time zone or the customer's time zone.
We don't do branches or anything like that yet. They're simply sequential. However, you can add conditions to each step so they only apply to some of your contacts.
Segments let you create groups of contacts. You can collect people based on lists, products, affiliate programs, emails received, opened, clicked, or not opened, and things like that. You can also exclude people using the same criteria. To see exactly what your options are, play around with the drop-downs. You can also add additional conditions to the segments.
Segments are very useful for identifying a specific group of customers in your contacts that are not on a single list or in a single product. For example, you may want to find out who is on a specific list but has not purchased your product. Or maybe you want to see the group of people in your newsletter who have shown interest by clicking on the sales link that you sent in a series of emails.
What can you do after creating the segment? You can do any action that you can do with triggers or automations. It's a one-time thing, like a broadcast. So you can say "start this automation now for everyone who's currently a member of this segment". You can't do triggers that say "Whenever someone new is a match to this segment, do this". Sorry.
The other thing you can do with them is send broadcasts. They become a recipient just like lists or products or tags.
Tags are pretty amazing. You can add them to contacts, and you can remove them. You can do this using actions on triggers, automations, or segments, or you can do it manually.
What can you do with tags? You can see them on the contact. You can create a segment based on them. You can send broadcasts to them. Tags are vital to using conditionals on triggers and autoresponders. Which run off the if/then statements. If this tag exists, or if this tag does not exist, then do this (trigger/automation).
Autoresponders are simple emails that are automatically sent based on a specific number of days after someone joins a list or purchases a product (Note: For products, they are sent to the product participant, not the billing contact). Each email can be sent x days after the original opt-in or purchase. Not a half day. Not 30 minutes. Just in increments of a whole day.
Learn More about Auto-Responders
As a business owner you probably already know that one of the biggest ways to strum up sales is to create a sense of urgency. In Simplero broadcasts you can create a sense of urgency in two ways:
Countdown timers
Expiring links (a certain period after the email is sent)
You can add them to your emails (broadcast, auto-responses, and library emails).
Learn More about Countdowns and Expiring Links
Do you use other apps that you would like to connect to Simplero? There are also ways to automate this!
Zapier is a service that connects the web apps you use to easily move your data and automate tedious tasks. They have 300+ popular apps on their roster; think Gmail, Salesforce, Basecamp, etc.
Zapier operates on an "if this happens, then do this" principle. Technically, we call them triggers and actions. This lets you automate things in Simplero in response to outside events, as well as cause things to happen in other systems in response to events in Simplero.
An API key is like a login/password that other software applications can use to interact with your Simplero account on your behalf using our API. Be careful who you give them to, as they're just like giving people admin rights to your account.
If you or your developer wants to access our API directly, please see our documentation on GitHub.
One of the actions that you can take in triggers, automations, and segments, is to post to a Webhook. This is a super nerdy option, but it can be super helpful if you have a nerd handy and need to do something in some other system in response to what's happening in Simplero.
Again, we have the triggers and automations and the payloads are what they are, but if they work for what you're trying to do, that's awesome!
Learn More about Webhook Triggers
Now go create something amazing using these tools! Most of all, have fun and play with it! You don't need to figure everything out from the get-go, and you don't need to get everything exactly the way you envision it. Baby steps and flexibility are the aim of the game.
If you need help with this, have a look at all the ways you can get help in Simplero.