Overview: What is Zapier and what is a Zap?

Zapier is an online tool that allows you to connect two or more third-party apps together without the need for to write any code. Zapier also makes it easy for you to search which third-party applications are available. The whole process is fairly straightforward.

Third-party applications such as Pinpointe create a series of API connectors in Zapier that correspond with certain events, such as adding a contact to a database. These events can be a "Trigger" that results in an "Action" in another third-party application, or be the "Action" in response to some "Trigger" in the other application. For example:

User X utilizes BigCommerce as their third-party shopping cart application for their online store.

User X also uses Pinpointe as their email service provider.

User X would like any visitor to their online store who signs up (provides their email address and possibly other information such as first and last name) to be automatically added to their Pinpointe contact database. In this scenario, the "Trigger" is the website visitor signing up in User X's online store (BigCommerce) and the "Action" is this information being sent to User X's Pinpointe account. 

We'll walk through this example below in more detail.

1. After you create your Zapier account, you can build a Zap (you should see a large orange "+ Create Zap" button, which will bring up the page show shown below in Fig 1). The first step is to select the third-party application that will contain the "Trigger" event. In this example, you will use BigCommerce as the triggering app.

Fig 1

2. You have entered BigCommerce in the left-hand field (the "Trigger" application) and will now select a trigger event from the available options. In this scenario, you will select "New Customer" as the trigger event. See Fig 2 below.

Fig 2

3.  You must now select and authorize the BigCommerce account you wish to use in the Zap. See Fig 3 below.  

Fig 3

4. If you have never used this store account in a Zap before, you will need to connect this account to Zapier.  Click "+ Connect a new account" (see Fig 4 below):

Fig 4

5. You will now fill out the authentication form to allow Zapier access. This is done more easily by first logging into your BigCommerce account so that you can access the required information. See Fig 5 below.

Fig 5

Once the information has been entered, click "Yes, Continue" button and follow the prompts. Zapier will inform you whether or not the authorization and connection has been successful. In the case of this example, however, BigCommerce Test Store 2 account was selected, which was previously authorized and connected during the creation of another Zap. You should now click the "Continue" button. See Fig 5b below.

Fig 5b

6.  Zapier will now request that you test the BigCommerce account connection by testing the trigger. We strongly suggest you perform the test. See Fig 6 below.

Fig 6

7. If this is a new BigCommerce account, Zapier may not find any customers with which to test. You can either skip the test or create a test customer in your BigCommerce account and test the trigger again. See Fig 7 below.

Fig 7

For this example, a new test customer was added (recommended) and the trigger event re-tested. The resulting response by Zapier shows the test was successful. After confirming the test data, click "Continue". See Fig 7b below.

Fig 7b

8. You will now see the page shown in Fig 8 below where you can select the third-party application that will contain the "Action" event. In this example, that will be Pinpointe. You may see "Beta" after the Pinpointe name. If so, you can still select this option.

Fig 8

9. As before with the trigger app, you will now select your event for the action. You will select "Add or Update a Subscriber" as the action event. See Fig 9 below.

Fig 9

Now click the "Continue" button. See Fig 9b below.

Fig 9b

10. You will now need to choose your Pinpointe account to connect to this Zap. Since many Enterprise customers have more than one account, please make sure you select the correct account. See Fig 10 below.

Fig 10

Again, if you have never connected your Pinpointe account to Zapier before, you will need to fill out the authorization page. In this example, a preexisting Pinpointe account will be used. Once selected, click the blue "Continue" button. See Fig 10b below.

Fib 10b

11. You will now need to fill in a couple of required fields and, if appropriate, you can also select some optional fields. 

First, you will need to select which database the subscriber will be added to.

Second, in the Email Address field, you will want to select 1. Email: <[email protected]>. In this example: This is simply telling the Zap that you want the email address information from BigCommerce to be used as the subscriber email address being added to the Pinpointe database. 

Third, you will see some other optional fields, such as do you want this subscriber added to any active drips, etc. If you have any questions about these optional input fields, we strongly suggest you contact Pinpointe Support. See Fib 11b below for the completed form for this example.

See Fig 11 below.

Fig 11

Fig 11b

12. After clicking "Continue", you will be given the option to test the "Action" portion of the Zap. We strongly recommend you do the test. See Fig 12 below.

Fig 12

13. After a few seconds, if the test was successful, you will receive this notification (see Fig 13 below).

Fig 13

14. You may now retest the action, publish the Zap (which will make it live), or close out the screen and publish it later by going to your main Zapier account page and viewing your Zaps.. You can pause / activate Zaps as necessary. 

And don't forget: give your Zap your a name.