Zapier integrates with LearnDash—and from there, to nearly every other app you want to use.

When most course creators start building content, it’s because they want to turn their expertise in a particular field into a profitable business model. However, what they don’t sign up for is all the administrative work that goes on behind the scenes to keep it all running. These tasks are often tedious and time consuming, and if a course creator can’t keep up with them all, it can lead to missed communications, lost sales, and poor customer reviews.

Fortunately, automation is here to save the day.

The fastest, simplest way to automate course tasks is through our Zapier add-on. Zapier is an app that allows users to set up “triggers” (such as a customer filling out a form or a learner completing a course), along with automated actions (such as adding a learner to a mailing list, or assigning them a membership rank).

There’s a lot to explore here, but if you want an idea for how these could be used in your course, here are eighteen apps that integrate with Zapier, and through Zapier to your course website via LearnDash and WordPress.

You can format your triggers and actions in numerous different ways, but we’ve listed a couple ideas with each integration to give you some inspiration.

E-Commerce & Payment Processing

First things first: you want to make money off your course, you have the be able to process payments, right? We offer a WooCommerce integration that, combined with your Zapier integration, makes it easier for users to connect payment and enrollment. However, you can also base payment on transactions with various payment processors, such as Stripe or PayPal.

• WooCommerce. Automatically enroll learners in your course after purchase or un-enroll them when they cancel their subscription.
• Stripe. Add new accounts to your contacts.
• PayPal. Add new sales to Google Sheets to track income.

Membership

Membership sites are a huge part of many online courses. If you’re using a membership plugin, you can add nuance to your email marketing automations by triggering them once a learner reaches an enrollment level. You can also automate the membership level itself.

• Wishlist Member. Assign members a level when they enroll. Send them a marketing prompt when they reach a new level.
• MemberPress. This integration is still in process, but if you have an account you can get early access to see what’s available.

Forms

Forms are an integral part of any site—and e-learning sites more than most. While Zapier offers several integrations for form plugins, two of the most popular options for WordPress sites are Gravity Forms and Ninja Forms. You can connect Zapier to both of these apps and choose automations based on which form fields a user filled out.

• Gravity Forms. Create leads in SalesForce with new form submissions. Add a form lead to an event.
• Ninja Forms. Add form responses to GoogleSheets. Update mailing lists in MailChimp based on form response.

Social

Social media automations can help your content marketing efforts while also making it easier for you to keep up with customer service. Use Zaps to share events, blog posts, and positive reviews from customers, all while keeping a closer eye on your engagement.

• Slack. Remind your team of upcoming webinar events by notifying your Slack channel. Share new Twitter mentions to Slack.
• Buffer. Add new blog posts to your queue. Share new webinar events to your Buffer queue.
• Hootsuite. Send an automated thank you message to new followers on Twitter with a link to your starter course.
• Facebook. Publish blog posts to your Facebook page. Send new posts on your Facebook page to Slack.
• Instagram. Create posts to your blog from content you share on Instagram.
• Twitter. Connect your Twitter account with your other social accounts to automatically share content. Save Twitter mentions to Google Sheets to keep track of customer satisfaction.
• LinkedIn. Share your latest webinar events to LinkedIn. Add new connections to SalesForce as contacts.

Events

Webinars are a popular event option for many learners, because it helps them feel like they’re being taught by a person rather than being led through an automated system. However, there are several steps in the process of automating event sign-ups that can make this task easier for you—from automatically enrolling attendees in courses to sending them reminder emails so that they don’t forget to turn up.

• EventBrite. Get Slack notifications when a new attendee signs up for your webinars. Add attendees to your mailing lists.
• GoToWebinar. Add Gravity Forms registrants to your webinar event. Add new registrants to a MailChip mailing list.

Email Marketing

Finally, while many email platforms include their own automations for scheduling emails, you can make these tools go even further if you link them to other automations—especially ones that have to do with learners in your course.

• MailChimp. Add contacts from a sign-up form to your MailChimp mailing list. Send a welcome email to new registrants. Dripfeed marketing emails to learners who complete a course.
• Active Campaign. Add EventBrite webinar attendees to your mailing list. Add ad leads to your contact list.

Don’t see an app listed here? Search for it on Zapier!

The apps we’ve listed here represent some of the most popular tools in the industry, but they’re not all that Zapier has to offer. Their site currently boasts over 2,000 app integrations, and that number is only growing. So if you have other apps that you prefer to use other than the ones mentioned here, there’s a good chance you can find an integration.

And, because Zapier integrates with WordPress, you can easily hook many of these apps up to your online course as well. With Zapier Premium, you can even set up multi-step Zaps that will trigger multiple apps for more complex automations. You can’t automate everything, but with careful planning, you can get pretty close.