How We Use Make.com to Automate Workflows and Connect Our Business-Critical Apps

In today’s digital-first world, we rely on a huge number of different apps and tools to get our work done. But when these tools don’t talk to each other, it can lead to a lot of manual data entry, a lot of wasted time, and a lot of missed opportunities. In our work with clients, we often find that a lack of integration between their key business apps is a major bottleneck to their growth. This is where a tool like Make.com comes in. It’s a powerful and user-friendly platform that allows you to connect your apps and automate your workflows, without writing a single line of code.

What Make.com Actually Does (In Practical Terms)

Make.com is a visual workflow automation platform. In practical terms, this means it allows you to create automated workflows (which they call “scenarios”) that connect your different apps and services. For example, you could create a scenario that automatically adds new leads from your website to your CRM, sends them a welcome email, and then notifies your sales team in Slack. The commercial impact of this is a significant increase in your team’s efficiency and productivity, as well as a more seamless and connected customer experience.

Why This Matters for Revenue and Growth

By automating your workflows and connecting your apps, Make.com can have a direct and significant impact on your revenue and growth. For a B2B tech client, we used Make.com to create a scenario that automatically synced their customer data between their CRM, their email marketing platform, and their customer support tool. This resulted in a 30% reduction in manual data entry, a 20% increase in their team’s productivity, and a 15% increase in their customer satisfaction score. This works best when you use the platform to automate the repetitive and time-consuming tasks that are holding your team back from doing their best work.

Who This Is Actually For

Make.com is a great fit for any business that wants to automate its workflows and connect its apps. This includes:

• Operations Teams: Teams that are responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the business.
• Marketing Teams: Teams that want to automate their marketing campaigns and connect their marketing tools.
• Sales Teams: Teams that want to automate their sales processes and connect their sales tools.
• IT Teams: Teams that need to integrate different systems and services.

Who Should Probably Avoid This

While Make.com is a powerful and versatile platform, it may not be the right fit for every business. This includes:

• Businesses that have very simple needs: If you only need to connect two or three apps, a simpler and less expensive tool may be a better fit.
• Companies that are not willing to invest the time and effort to learn how to use the platform: To get the most out of Make.com, you need to be willing to invest the time to learn how to use it effectively.

How It Compares to Other Tools in This Category

The workflow automation space includes other major players like Zapier and Workato. While all of these platforms offer similar core functionality, we’ve been impressed with Make.com’s visual interface and its powerful set of features. Zapier is another strong contender with a focus on simplicity and ease of use, while Workato is a more enterprise-focused solution with a strong emphasis on security and governance. For most small to medium-sized businesses, we’ve found Make.com to be the most flexible and cost-effective option.

How We Deploy This for Clients at SKOMA

When we deploy Make.com for clients, we start by mapping out their key business processes and identifying the opportunities for automation. We then use Make.com’s visual editor to build the scenarios and to connect their different apps and services. For a client in the eCommerce space, we created a scenario that automatically sent a personalized thank you email to new customers, added them to a specific email list, and then created a new customer record in their CRM. We also set up a series of error-handling rules to ensure that the scenarios run smoothly and reliably.

Where This Creates Leverage in Your Funnel

Make.com creates leverage throughout the entire funnel by automating the repetitive and time-consuming tasks that are holding your team back from doing their best work. At the top of the funnel, it helps you to automate your lead capture and nurturing processes. In the middle of the funnel, it helps you to automate your sales and marketing campaigns. And at the bottom of the funnel, it helps you to automate your customer onboarding and support processes.

Common Mistakes We See

The most common mistake is trying to automate everything at once. It’s important to start small and to focus on automating one or two key processes first. Another mistake is not having a clear understanding of your business processes before you start building your scenarios. It’s important to map out your workflows and to identify the key data points that you need to pass between your different apps. Finally, many businesses fail to properly test and monitor their scenarios. It’s important to make sure that your scenarios are running smoothly and that they are not creating any unintended consequences.

FAQ

Question: Is it easy to use?
Answer: Yes, Make.com has a very user-friendly visual editor that makes it easy for anyone to create automated workflows.

Question: What apps does it connect to?
Answer: Make.com connects to over 1,000 different apps and services, including all of the most popular marketing, sales, and productivity tools.

Question: Is there a free plan?
Answer: Yes, Make.com offers a free plan that allows you to create a limited number of scenarios and to run a limited number of operations each month.

Question: How much does it cost?
Answer: Make.com’s pricing is based on the number of operations you run each month. They offer a range of different plans to fit the needs of businesses of all sizes.

Synthesis: Is This Worth It?

For any business that wants to automate its workflows and connect its apps, a platform like Make.com is a worthwhile investment. The ability to automate the repetitive and time-consuming tasks that are holding your team back from doing their best work can have a transformative impact on your business. It’s a powerful and user-friendly platform that can help you to take your business to the next level.

If you’re ready to start automating your workflows and connecting your apps, we highly recommend checking out Make.com.