24 Internet-Based Automation Tools for Podcasting – TAP297
Web services can automate parts of your podcasting workflow, even when you're not online! Here are my favorite web-based automation tools.
The premise of “automation” (versus automatic actions)
Many tools can do things automatically. But all of the following tools are focused on automation, that is, automatically doing many things for you and not only a single task.
Automation may have a learning curve, but the ultimate result will make up for it!
Zapier or IFTTT
No conversation about automation is complete without mentioning either Zapier or IFTTT (If This Then That). Both services will monitor a myriad of sources and trigger actions based on customizable criteria.
IFTTT is free, fairly simple, and limited to a single action.
Zapier is a paid service and offers more powerful automations and multiple actions.
Here are some examples of things you could automate with either tool:
- Automatically send a text message whenever someone buys something from your online store.
- Automatically crosspost content from one platform to another.
- Receive data from other services and automatically reformat and route it somewhere else.
- Automatically do almost anything you want with your latest podcast reviews (via a paid My Podcast Reviews account).
Email service providers
Building an email list for your podcast is helpful for many things: engagement, marketing, education, and much more (episode 198). These automations could be a series of emails or other processes based on subscriber activity.
For example:
- Write a series of emails to automatically send every week for a year. Then, every new subscriber starts at the beginning and never misses the same great content everyone else gets.
- Automatically send an email to a subscriber based on their activity on your site (or lack thereof). This can get them more engaged or connect them with other stuff they wanted.
- Automatically segment your subscribers based on almost any criteria. With that, you can ensure only the right people receive the right messages.
- Automatically deliver special offers or resources you give away.
Here are my favorite email service providers, and what I would recommend them for.
- ActiveCampaign: This is my new favorite email service provider! ActiveCampaign makes powerful automations easy. Plus, it has website activity-tracker unmatched by anyone else! I haven't found anything other platforms do that
