Save time and automate repetitive marketing tasks using Zapier, n8n or Make. Move data cleanly and reduce manual effort with small, safe automations that earn back hours.
Tools like Zapier, n8n and Make.com are incredibly powerful, but they can feel overwhelming when you’re just getting started. Since you can connect almost anything, it’s hard to know where to begin. I’ve seen this confusion in almost every team I’ve worked with.
This playbook is a practical starting point. You’ll learn how to use automation tools to reduce manual work, connect your marketing and sales stack, and move data smoothly between tools without waiting on developers.
We’ll focus on real B2B use cases like lead routing, follow-up emails, and campaign handoffs and show you how to build small, useful automations that actually make your day easier.
If you’ve ever copied data between tools, manually sent the same message twice, or felt stuck doing repetitive tasks, this playbook will show you how to automate those steps and get that time back.
Use what you already have. But if you're starting from scratch or want recommendations, these are the tools I use with clients and personally rely on. Consider this a bonus: helpful if you need it, completely optional if you don't.
No code automation that connects apps and moves data, great for quick wins and alerts that save time.
Open source automation with nodes and self hosting, ideal when you need flexibility and privacy with strong workflows.
Visual automation platform that connects tools and moves data with control and scheduling.
The books that shaped how I think about growth. Read summaries here, then buy what resonates. Learn from the best thinkers in B2B.
Tim Ferriss
A pragmatic look at delegation, automation and lifestyle design. Keep the useful parts, skip the hype, ship more value.
Key concepts and frameworks explained clearly. Quick reference when you need to understand a term, refresh your knowledge, or share with your team.
Topic
Playbook
Document your repeatable processes in clear, step-by-step instructions that ensure consistency, enable delegation, and capture institutional knowledge.
Most B2B marketers are either Random Ricks (trying everything) or Specialist Steves (obsessed with one channel). Generalists run tactics without strategy. Specialists hit channel ceilings. But there's a better way.
Tries everything at once. Posts on LinkedIn, runs ads, tweaks the website, chases referrals. Nothing compounds because nothing's consistent. Growth feels chaotic.
Obsessed with one tactic. 'We just need better ads' or 'SEO will fix everything.' Ignores the rest of the system. One strong engine can't carry a broken machine.
Finds the bottleneck. Fixes that first. Then moves to the next weakest link. Builds a system that's predictable, measurable and doesn't need 80-hour weeks.
Learn how she diagnoses bottlenecks, orchestrates the four engines, and drives predictable growth. Choose if you want to read or watch:
Get practical frameworks delivered daily. Seven short emails explain how Sarah diagnoses bottlenecks, orchestrates the four engines, and builds systems that compound.
Free 45-minute video module from the full course. Watch how to diagnose your growth bottleneck and see exactly what the course platform looks like.
Tactical playbooks for every stage of this engine. The playbooks are practical guides for tactical stuff. They complement the (paid) growth framework and help you with the tactics.
Take control of your week. Use habits and systems to focus on work that actually moves the needle. Add a quick daily review so important tasks get done without burnout.
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Help your team work better together. Set up shared rituals and tools to remove friction and move faster. Make async the default and know who decides and where work lives.
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Build dashboards that show what matters. Give your team clarity without noise or vanity metrics. Agree definitions and review insights on a simple schedule.
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Use AI for research, briefs and QA. Set prompts and review steps, train the team, and track time saved without risking quality. Focus on cases that strengthen the work.
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Save time and automate repetitive marketing tasks using Zapier, n8n or Make. Move data cleanly and reduce manual effort with small, safe automations that earn back hours.
See playbookRecord a course that people finish. Structure, script and film your expertise without wasting months on setup. Use light gear and a repeatable plan that fits your week.
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An automation platform connects two or more apps and moves data between them without manual work. You set a rule once—“When a lead fills this form, add them to the CRM and send a Slack alert”—and the platform runs it every time the trigger fires. The goal is to clear routine admin from your calendar so you can focus on growth tasks that need judgement.
Middleware is the layer that sits between your apps and handles the heavy lifting: authentication, error handling, retries, and data formatting. Instead of writing custom scripts for each integration, you plug both apps into the middleware and let it translate. Think of it as a switchboard that ensures every data packet reaches the right terminal, even if the endpoints change over time.
An API—application programming interface—is a set of rules an app exposes so other tools can read or write its data. Automation platforms use these rules to pull a new form submission from your website or push an updated contact to your CRM. No API, no reliable automation. Before choosing a platform, check that each must-have app offers a public API and that the platform supports it fully.
A trigger is the event that starts the automation: a new row in a spreadsheet, a ticket moving to “Done”, or a customer paying an invoice. The platform watches for the event and launches the workflow instantly. Triggers can fire in real time through webhooks or on a schedule—hourly, daily, or weekly—depending on how the app exposes its data.
Different platforms use different labels, but the concept is the same. A “zap” in Zapier or a “scenario” in Make is the entire workflow. An “action” is one step inside that flow—creating a record, updating a field, sending an e-mail. A single trigger can chain multiple actions: fetch data, format dates, enrich with a third-party API, then hand the payload to its final destination.
Clear definitions help you scope automation work. If an app lacks webhooks, your trigger will poll on a schedule, adding delay. If an action does not expose a specific field, you might need middleware scripting or a custom connector. Knowing the limitations before you start saves hours of debugging later and keeps the promise of automation—consistent tasks done at machine speed—firmly intact.
