Today on the Demand Gen Pod, Episode 8, Ryan introduces the podcast episode on webhooks, providing an overview and
examples of how they can be used in everyday work. Webhooks are described as a
data transfer tool that allows for real-time data exchange between different
automation tools and platforms. Ryan explains how webhooks can be utilized to
automate email marketing processes, update scheduling tables, integrate
multiple platforms, and enhance customer experiences. He emphasizes the
importance of implementing webhooks securely and monitoring their reliability.
The benefits of using webhooks include seamless integration, enhanced
customization and flexibility, time-saving automation, improved data insights,
and increased efficiency in business operations. Ryan encourages listeners to
explore the potential applications of webhooks in their own workflows and
highlights the impact they can have on marketing automation efforts.
Summary notes from Episode 8:
Webhooks are a data transfer tool used for real-time data transfer between
different automation tools and platforms. Webhooks are similar to APIs but are
simpler and still powerful. With webhooks, data from one place can be attached
to a URL and sent to another place. Zapier is a tool that can be used to look
for webhooks, catch the data, and put it somewhere else. Examples of using
webhooks include sending emails from a sales rep’s email account, updating a
scheduling table for a podcast, and integrating different platforms for
seamless data exchange. Webhooks provide real-time data updates and enable
immediate actions and tailored customer experiences. They can be used for
custom notifications, dynamic content, and adjusting user journeys.
Considerations for using webhooks include monitoring reliability, error
handling, and data privacy and security risks. Adapting to webhooks early can
enhance customer engagement and make operations more efficient. Webhooks allow
for seamless integration, customization, and improved data insights.
Full Transcript:
00:01
Hey everybody, welcome to the demand Gen pod. My name is Ryan. Today we’re talking about webhooks, and we’re going to be doing a pretty high level overview of Webhooks, but a couple of examples on how you can use them. And I’m hopeful that maybe that will just kind of trigger your imagination to think about how you can use them in your day to day work. So let’s get started. Alright, so webhooks are essentially a data transfer tool, and we can use them in all of our work. And they’re really important for being able to send data, real time data, especially between different automation tools and different platforms. They are akin to an API. They’re a slightly more simplified version, I would say, of an API, but they’re super powerful as well.
00:49
But on the surface, what it allows you to do is take data from one place, attach it effectively through queries, through the end of a URL, which is that webhook. A Webhook is effectively just a URL and it will send it to another place, and then you can use a tool like Zapier to look for that webhook. And when it comes in, catch it, grab the data from it and put it somewhere else. Two ways that I currently use webhooks. We use Activecampaign for our email marketing platform at Nurture Labs, and we will fire a webhook when someone opens an email and clicks through an email for the first time. And what we do is when that click through happens, we’ll wait for say 15 minutes or ten minutes, and then we will trigger a webhook to go to Zapier.
01:41
Zapier creates an email from a sales rep’s email account and sends it on their behalf in real time in accordance to when they click through the email themselves, which I think is really cool. Another way that we use it is we will use it on the demand Gen pod. So when a new episode gets published, our entire podcast is automated, and I’ll talk about that on another day. But when a new episode is published, we will update airtable to mark it as published in the original scheduling table that we use. So we have a scheduling table of every single episode that we’re going to do, when we’re going to do it.
02:23
It has show notes, it has titles, it has pre created audio links to our Amazon Web servers, there’s this massive data table, and in order to keep track of what’s published, when it published, where it published, links to everything, links to each blog article, links to the transcript, we have links over to the transcripts, all of those things, all of that gets automated, which is really cool. And we leverage webhooks to be able to trigger some of those things to actually fire off. One advantage here, obviously, is that real time data and immediate action, and Webhooks provide those instant data updates. Businesses can use these for immediate actions, like I said, sending personal messages exactly how we use it. And also it enables these timely and tailored customer experiences. So you can use webhooks to fire off text messages, not just emails.
03:21
So there are lots of different ways that you can use them, or you might simply just be trying to get them to go from one place to another. So that’s another thing to keep in mind, is that if you’re simply just trying to get data to two different CRM systems, that’s entirely possible. Maybe you’re part of a merger and one company uses even one instance of Salesforce and another company uses another. You can leverage webhooks to send the same data to two places at the same time instantly. So that’s another good example of how you could use it. But overall, another really good advantage is that seamless integration and the automation aspects. So the event webhooks, they’ll link different systems for this smooth data exchange.
04:01
And I think that it’s this crucial part where if there’s ever a point in your workflow where you’re thinking, man, I wish that I could automate this, depending obviously on what it is and what you’re trying to automate, webhooks might be a potential solution. Zapier is a really great tool to use. We have hundreds of zaps that we use across, not only for business but also for clients. And they prove so powerful. We save hundreds of hours every year, probably more just using Zapier and its tools. And webhooks are a pretty important part of that. Another thing that’s really helpful is that because we’re saving all that time, we can spend that time doing something else, and it also saves clients money.
04:46
So if we’re doing things that we otherwise might bill for, then inevitably we can bill for things that are maybe more meaningful to a client, which I think is a really great value add. You also get this degree of enhanced customization and flexibility, right? So webhooks allow businesses to customize these workflows and how they handle data, and you can use that to tailor these customer interactions and flexibility in responding to different types of events. So you can use them, like I mentioned, for the custom notifications. You could also leverage them for dynamic content. And you could also adjust even user journeys based on what people are doing. Maybe you could adjust user journeys inside of email marketing with what people are doing outside of email marketing, what they’re submitting, if they’re texting, if they’re asking questions.
05:33
You can leverage webhooks across multiple platforms, say like Facebook messenger, what sales is doing. So you can integrate all of those things together and have them all be seamlessly work together. A couple of considerations. You really need to make sure that you’re implementing webhooks securely and with authentication. And certainly Zapier lets you do that usually. And ideally, the tools that you’re already using to be sending those webhooks, like for example, you can send webhooks from different email marketing platforms. You can do it from Eliqua, for example, you can do it from a few of them. Those are all going to be secure, and they will also already contain some level of authentication and that security. But you also want to be able to make sure that you’re monitoring the reliability through error handling.
06:25
And that’s another really important part, is that what happens if one of these fails? Do you have a process in place to catch up? Do you have a process in place to be aware of it even happening in the first place? And are you reporting on how frequently they may fail? Because, I mean, data fails sometimes and kind of just a recap on the first one, but you be really careful about those potential data privacy and security risks. So if you work in healthcare, don’t be sending any sort of identifiable patient information through webhooks that really shouldn’t be happening. But you could certainly send non identifiable information. For one example, we leverage a webhook for reporting purposes with a client, and we send a unique identifier.
07:12
And where that data is actually going, they have the same unique identifier, so they can kind of tie that number, a random number back to a given person. And we don’t have to send any actual personal data between the two systems. We’re just sending behavioral data with a unique identifier which does not have any sort of meaning outside of its home base where it’s going to. I think that there’s a lot of opportunities here, and one way I think that you can stay on top of this is adapting it early.
07:47
I mean, webhooks have been around for a very long time, but if you haven’t adapted to it already, figure out some ways that you could possibly use them and think specifically about how you can be enhancing customer engagement, how you can make your operations, maybe business operations, maybe it’s not customer facing or client facing, but more efficient. How can you make your operations more efficient, make you do less work? That’s what we really want to focus on. And then always looking to improve your data insights. So what are you getting out of it, and what does it mean for you? And then what can you do with your time that you now have to improve elsewhere? I think those are really important. Quick recap as we close out this fine episode.
08:33
And before I forget, please, if you could subscribe, it would mean a lot to us. That would be really great. And let’s talk about some closing thoughts. So real time data, webhooks, amazing. For real time data, they allow for a seamless integration. Because again, depending on which platforms you’re using, most of these more advanced tools and even less advanced, I would argue that ActiveCampaign isn’t pretty advanced. Honestly, it’s a really great bang for your buck, but it’s not an eloque or it’s not a marketo, but it is capable of doing some of these things, which I think is really amazing. And it also allows for this additional level of customization.
09:18
And I think that honestly, it’s mind blowing when you start to realize all these different places that you can use them, which sometimes takes a little bit of effort to identify, but as you start to identify them, it’s just amazing. And then the last thing that I think is really important is that as you start to build these tools out and you’re leveraging webhooks, emphasize their impact on your marketing automation world and just how much they’re helping your data integrations. Maybe it’s that you generally only have a one way leverage of communication. You wish that you had two.
09:55
You can probably use webhooks in order to accomplish something like that based on different events and make sure that upper management understands just how powerful these things are and that it’s worth investing your time in upfront in order to be able to make a difference farther down the road. So that is it for this week. I hope that you’ve enjoyed it. If you need any help with webhooks and figuring out ways that you could possibly use them, or trying to understand if your problem could be solved by webhooks, feel free to reach out to us. You can do that at hello@demandgenpod.com and we will talk to you next week.