5 essential Zapier automation for Teachable instructors

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There is a limit to what third party tools Teachable can directly integrate with. In fact it doesn’t make a lot of sense for Teachable or for that matter any platform to create separate integrations for 100s of tools out there in the market (especially when new tools launch in the market every day).

Here is where Zapier comes into the picture. Zapier is an automation tool that lets you integrate different apps and make them talk to each other.

You can use Zapier to integrate Teachable with third party applications like MailChimp, ConvertKit, Aweber, Infusionsoft, Google Docs etc.

Even though there are so many types of automation that you can create for your school using Zapier, there are a few essential ones which every Teachable instructor should consider using.

Before I discuss these Zapier automation in detail, let’s understand how Zapier works.

How Does Zapier Work?

Here are a few points about how Zapier works:

  • ​Each automation rule in Zapier is referred to as a Zap and each Zap needs to have at least a trigger and an action.
  • A trigger in Zapier is the first event that triggers an action and this is the first thing you need to define, e.g. A signup on your Teachable school.
  • An action is basically the event that follows the trigger, e.g. Add the student to a particular tag in ConvertKit.
  • You can set conditional rules for a Zap trigger by adding a filter so that it runs only when certain conditions are met.
  • You can also create multi-step Zaps where you can perform multiple actions in the same Zap.

1. Segment your students based on what course they enroll in

If you are sell multiple courses on your Teachable site, you must segment your students based on what course they enroll in.

Otherwise all your students get pushed to the same list or are added the same tag which means that you can’t target your students based on their preference, past purchase etc.

As far as segmenting Teachable students in your email service provider using direct integration is concerned, only ConvertKit has that sort of integration with Teachable.

I highly recommend ConvertKit to online course creators and if you also wish to test it, you can get a free 1-month trial of ConvertKit by clicking here.

If you are using any other service provider, you have to use Zapier to segment your Teachable students.

In Zapier, you would need to setup a separate Zap for each Teachable course. So let me show you how you can use Zapier to achieve the same in Mailchimp.

1. Sign up for Zapier, or login using your existing account. Once logged in, click on ‘Make a Zap’ button at the top

2. Set up the Trigger App for your Zap

You will be asked to name your Zap and choose the Trigger App which is Teachable in this case.

Select ‘New Sale’  as your Teachable Trigger and click on the ‘Continue’ button.

On the next screen, you will be asked to connect your Teachable account if you haven’t connected one. Enter the credentials for your Teachable School login and your account will be connected

If you already have an account connected, just click on the continue button.

You can then test your trigger app on the next screen. If the test is successful, your trigger app is set successfully and you can click on the ‘Continue’ button.

3. Setup a Filter App

A filter app is required to identify the course in which the person has enrolled. Think of it as setting up a condition so that this Zap works only when the person enrolls in a particular course.

Select ‘Filter by Zapier’ as the Action App.

You will see ‘Only continue if’ on the next screen selected. Simply click on the continue button

Now you need to set the actual condition here. Select ‘Course ID’ as your condition, select ‘(Text) Contains’ and enter the course ID for the course for which you are creating this Zap. Now click the ‘Continue’ button.

You can find Course ID for this particular course from Teachable dashboard.

You can test your filter app on the next screen and if the test is successful, click on the ‘Finish’ button. Your filter app is ready now.

4. Setup an Action App

The Action App is what will add the student to the correct list in Mailchimp.

You can add an Action App either by clicking on ‘+’ icon at bottom left or clicking on the link on the main screen.

You will be then asked to select an Action App which will be Mailchimp in this case.

On the next screen, select ‘Add/Update’ Subscriber and click on the ‘Continue’ button

If you don’t already have your Mailchimp account connected, you will asked to connect it with Zapier. Enter your credentials and click on the ‘Continue’ button again.

Select the Mailchimp list you want to add the student to. You would want to pass ‘User – Email’ as the subscriber email and ‘User – Name’ as subscriber name. You will find a lot of other options from which you can select.

Now you can just see the overview of the Zap and click on ‘Create & Continue’ button.

Once you see the Test Successful message, you can click on the Finish button and your Zap is now ready to use.

Once you see the Test Successful message, you can click on the Finish button and you can turn your Zap on now!

Now every student who enrolls in this particular course will be added to a unique Mailchimp list.

This is 3-step Zap – a Trigger App, a Filter App & an Action App. You would need to create a similar Zap for each of your Teachablecourses.

Segmenting your students based on what course they enroll in will allow you to present targeted offers to them and will help you improve sales conversion.

2. Tag those students who sign up to your school but don’t make a purchase

Teachable’s checkout flow has been designed such that a student first needs to sign up to your school and then he can make the payment.

For my clients, I have seen that 25-30% of the students sign up to the school but don’t make a purchase. This can happen because: 1) you have a signup button on your navigation bar or 2) student signed up but dint complete the payment.

These students have probably seen your courses already and are potential customers. If you aren’t following up with these students, you are leaving some serious money on the table.

So I will show you how use Zapier to identify such students in your email service provider. I will be using ConvertKit for this example.

1. Setup a Trigger App

Create another Zap and name it what you want. Again select Teachable as your Trigger App.

On the next screen, select the Teachable Trigger which in this case would be ‘New User’ and click on ‘Save + Continue’ button.

If your Teachable account is already connected, you can simply continue or else you would be asked to add a Teachable account.

The Trigger App is ready now and you can test it. If the test is successful, just continue to creating an Action App.

2. Setup an Action App

Select ConvertKit as your Action App. Next you would need to select ‘Add a Subscriber to a Tag’  as your ConvertKit Action and click on the ‘Continue’ button.

On the next screen, you will be asked to connect your ConvertKit account if you haven’t connected one already.

Once you do that, click on the ‘Continue’ button.

Now you need to select the ConvertKit tag that you want to add the subscriber to (the tag needs to be already created in ConvertKit) and also select user information from Teachable that you want to pass to ConvertKit.

On the next screen, you will see a summary of the app and if it looks fine, you can continue.

The Zap is ready and you can test it now. If the test is successful, click on the Finish button.

You can turn your Zap on now. So everyone who signs up to your school will be added to a unique tag.

But wait, don’t we want to add only those who don’t enroll in a course?

Yes and here is how you will take care of that.

You would create an automation rule in ConvertKit which will remove this signup tag from anyone who makes a purchase.

You can do a similar thing with any email service provider including MailChimp.

Now you can easily identify those students who signed up on your school but dint go on to enroll in a course. It would be good to follow up with them and send them some educational emails and then present an offer to enroll in one of your courses.

Just make sure that you follow up with them at least an hour after they sign up. This will make sure that an email is not sent to those who have already made a purchase.

3. Tag those students who complete a course and present them special offers

One of the best times to sell other courses to a student who enrolled in one of your courses is when he/she completes the course.

You should congratulate them via email and also tell them about other courses. You can even offer special discount on other courses to such students.

So, I will show how you can tag a student who completes a particular course in ConvertKit.

1. Setup a Trigger App

Create another Zap and name it what you want. Again select Teachable as your Trigger App.

On the next screen, select the Teachable Trigger which in this case would be ‘Course Completed’ (you will find this under ‘show less common actions’).

If your Teachable account is already connected, you can simply continue or else you would be asked to add a Teachable account.

The Trigger App is ready now and you can test it. If the test is successful, just continue to creating an Action App.

2. Setup a Filter App

Select ‘Filter by Zapier’ App as the Action App.

You will see ‘Only continue if’ on the next screen selected. Simply click on the continue button

Now you need to set the actual condition here. Select ‘Course ID’ as your condition, select ‘(Text) Contains’ and enter the course ID for the course for which you are creating this Zap. Now click the ‘Continue’ button.

You can find the Course ID for this particular course from your Teachable dashboard.

You can test your filter app on the next screen and if the test is successful, click on the ‘Finish’ button. Your filter app is ready now.

3. Create an Action App (for ConvertKit Action)

You would need to add one more action app which will complete the process of sending user information to ConvertKit.

You can add an Action App either by clicking on ‘+’ icon at bottom left or clicking on the link on the main screen.

Select ConvertKit as your Action App. Next you would need to select ‘Add a Subscriber to a Tag’  as your ConvertKit Action and click on the ‘Continue’ button.

On the next screen, you will be asked to connect your ConvertKit account if you haven’t connected one already.

Again click on the ‘Continue’ button.

Now you need to select the ConvertKit tag that you want to add the subscriber to (the tag needs to be already created in ConvertKit) and also select user information from Teachable that you want to pass to ConvertKit.

On the next screen, you will see a summary of the app and if it looks fine, you can continue.

The Zap is ready and you can test it now. If the test is successful, click on the Finish button.

You can turn your Zap on now. So anyone who completes this particular course will be tagged appropriately in ConvertKit.

You can now send the student a congratulatory message, a special offer or even a certificate of completion (you will have to create the certificate manually and then send it via email).

4. Send a Certificate of Completion to anyone who completes a course (completely automated)

A lot of Teachable instructors need to provide Certificates of Completion to their students. If you are fine with tackling some part of it manually, you can use Zapier to tag students in ConvertKit and send them personalized certificates manually.

Other option is to use Webmerge with Teachable and Zapier to automate this entire process. Here is an article from Teachable which shows how to exactly do this.

With Accredible, you would first want to design & setup a certificate. You can find some tutorials in your dashboard which will guide you through the entire process.

Once you have setup Accredible, you can follow the instructions below to integrate it with Teachable via Zapier.

1. Setup a Trigger App

Create another Zap and name it what you want. Again select Teachable as your Trigger App.

On the next screen, select the Teachable Trigger which in this case would be ‘Course Completed’ (you will find this under ‘show less common actions’).

If your Teachable account is already connected, you can simply continue or else you would be asked to add a Teachable account.

The Trigger App is ready now and you can test it. If the test is successful, just continue to creating an Action App.

2. Setup an Action App (Accredible)

You need to add an Action App which will be Accredible in this case.

After that, you have to select an Accredible Action. In this case, you will select ‘Create Credential’ and click on the continue button.

You need to add your Accredible account now and then click on the continue button.

You will have to select the ‘Accredible Cohort Name’ which is basically the name of your certificate template in Accredible.

You will further need to pass User Name and User Email along with the course information to Accredible. Once done with that, click on the ‘Continue’ button.

Test the Accredible App and continue. If the test is successful, you can click on the Finish button and then turn your Zap on.

Congratulations! You have successfully automated the entire process of issuing certificates for your students. Now the moment somebody completes a particular course, he/she will be sent a personalized certificate from Accredible via email.

5. Follow up with students who cancel a subscription

Test the Accredible App and continue. If the test is successful, you can click on the Finish button and then your Zap on.

1. Setup a Trigger App

Create another Zap and name it what you want. Select Teachable as your Trigger App.

On the next screen, select the Teachable Trigger which in this case would be ‘Subscription Cancelled’ (you will find this under ‘show less common actions’).

If your Teachable account is already connected, you can simply continue or else you would be asked to add a Teachable account.

The Trigger App is ready now and you can test it. If the test is successful, just continue to creating an Action App.

2. Setup a Filter App

You need to create a ‘Filter by Zap’ App next.

You will see ‘Only continue if’ on the next screen selected. Simply click on the continue button

Now you need to set the actual condition here. Select ‘Course ID’ as your condition, select ‘(Text) Contains’ and enter the course ID for the course for which you are creating this Zap. Now click the ‘Continue’ button.

You can find the Course ID for your course from your Teachable dashboard.

You can test your filter app on the next screen and if the test is successful, click on the ‘Finish’ button. Your filter app is ready now.

3. Setup an Action App

You would need to add one more action app which will complete the process of sending user information to ConvertKit.

You can add an Action App either by clicking on ‘+’ icon at bottom left or clicking on the link on the main screen.

Select ConvertKit as your Action App. Next you would need to select ‘Add a Subscriber to a Tag’  as your ConvertKit Action and click on the ‘Continue’ button.

On the next screen, you will be asked to connect your ConvertKit account if you haven’t connected one already.

After that you need to select the ConvertKit tag that you want to add the subscriber to (the tag needs to be already created in ConvertKit) and also select user information from Teachable that you want to pass to ConvertKit.

On the next screen, you will see a summary of the app and if it looks fine, you can continue.

The Zap is ready and you can test it now. If the test is successful, click on the Finish button and turn your Zap on. You would need to set this Zap for every course for which you offer a subscription.

Now every subscription cancellation will be tagged and you can reach out to these guys – with a survey to know the reason for cancellation or a special offer to motivate them to resubscribe to the course.

What else can I do with Zapier?

There are so many other things that you can do with Zapier including using it for integrating Teachable with other platforms like Shopify, ClickFunnels etc.

Rather than me talking about what else you can do (as there is no end to it), it’s better that you start using and exploring Zapier and you will not just know what else you can do but you would also come up with new automation hacks for Teachable.

You should also know that Teachable is working to further improve its Zapier integration which will open further possibilities for teachable instructors.

So, which automation do you think are you going to use? Are you doing something cool with Zapier that you would like to share? I would love to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment below now.

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