In the age of AI, we’re all searching for ways to make the tedious aspects of our jobs easier and faster. According to a report from Formstack, 76% of businesses now use automation for standardizing daily workflows.

This holds true for WordPress sites as well, which are hubs for leads, content, and data. Automation is key to managing your site efficiently.

Workflow automation refers to tools and plugins that help you automate repetitive tasks and streamline processes. Automation allows you to increase efficiency, reduce manual efforts, and minimize errors.

Tasks like updates, security, performance monitoring, reporting, scaling, marketing automation, SEO, social media posts, and more are perfect examples of WordPress tasks that can easily be automated to make your day-to-day tasks easier.

Below, we’ll guide you through the process of choosing and using the best WordPress integrations for workflow automation—helping you streamline operations, save time, and improve your business’s overall efficiency.

The Core Concepts of WordPress Automations

WordPress workflow automations are tools that help you complete repetitive tasks in an automated manner within WordPress. Often, this is done through workflows or “if this, then that” methodology via triggers and actions. A trigger is an event on your site and an action is a task that is performed automatically in response.

Triggers can also be internal (automation going on within your WordPress site, connecting different plugins) or external (automation connecting your WordPress site to outside applications.

For example, if someone fills out a lead form on your website (trigger), then your sales team will receive a Slack notification (action) with the contact information so they know to reach out as soon as possible.

Automation technology continues to evolve. Modern automation tools are “no-code,” making them accessible to marketers and e-commerce site owners without the use of development tools.

Selecting a WordPress plugin for larger organizations, agencies, and high-volume websites can be an intricate process. With so many WordPress plugins available and no formal requirements around security measures, data protection, and compatibility, even one bad WordPress plugin can wreak havoc on your site. 

Keeping in mind the four considerations will help ensure you make an informed decision that’s best for your business. 

Know Your Website’s Specific Needs

Think through the problem or manual task you’re trying to fix. Is it lead generation, content publishing, customer management, or e-commerce fulfillment? Make sure you’re finding the right tool to help you solve multiple challenges in one fell swoop. 

Look at Key Features

When reviewing tool and plugin features, integration support is really important. You want a tool that connects with your existing plugins and external apps, such as Customer Resource Management (CRM), email marketing, or project management.

You also want to assess the tool for its user experience. Is the interface intuitive? Look for a drag-and-drop workflow builder.

Conditional logic is another important consideration. You want a tool that allows you to add conditions to your automations (“If this form is submitted and it’s a new customer, then do that.”)

Read Reviews and Check Support

Read reviews on the WordPress repository and on third-party websites. Look closely at the overall responsiveness of the support team and the quality of the documentation.

The Best WordPress Integrations for Workflow Automation

There are a variety of workflow automation WordPress integrations available. They can be organized into universal automation plugins, external automation plugins, and integrated marketing and CRM solutions. 

Universal Automation Plugins

• Uncanny Automator: This is the easiest and most powerful automation tool designed for WordPress. It still boasts the same no-code automation capabilities as some of the major players in the space, like Zapier and Make. It’s also well praised for its support team and ability to solve problems quickly. Users consistently comment that even complex use cases can be fixed by their support team and their developer-level expertise.
  • Trigger example: User submits a form with WPForms.
  • Action example: User is automatically enrolled in a LearnDash course and added to your MailChimp list. 

• AutomatorWP: This plugin offers extensive integrations and can easily connect multiple plugins.
• WP Webhooks: This plugin is very developer friendly and offers advanced developers a high degree of flexibility. Webhooks are essentially a format that lets you pass data between different applications using HTTP. For WooCommerce users, WP Webhooks offers custom integrations for WooCommerce Memberships, WooCommerce Subscriptions, Advanced Coupons, and more.

External Automation Platforms

• Zapier: This no-code automation leader works across 7,000+ apps. It is organized around zaps, which are automated workflows that connect two or more of your apps to repetitive tasks. Zapier is often praised for its ease of use, extensive integrations, and its free plan (noted there are limitations).
  • Trigger example: A new order is placed in WooCommerce.
  • Action example: A row is added to a Google Sheet and a Slack message is sent to the sales team.
• Make.com: This is a no-code development platform that is less restrictive than its competitors and a good fit for more advanced developers. It takes standard trigger-action functionality and takes it a step further by adding a scenario editor which takes your data, transforms it, and sends it through multiple apps, executing a series of actions based on the conditions your data meets (or doesn’t).
• IFTTT (If This Then That): This plugin is a simple, free alternative for basic automations where a trigger combined with an action creates an applet.

Integrated Marketing and CRM Solutions

• HubSpot: This is an all-in-one plugin that connects your site to its marketing, sales, and CRM tools, automating lead capture and nurturing.
• WP Fusion: This powerful tool syncs user data between your WordPress site and your CRM, enabling more personalized marketing and easier sales automation. WP Fusion helps users add tags to their CRM contact records based on the actions they complete on your website. With this type of data, automations and campaigns can quickly be triggered (think abandoned cart emails, etc).

The Benefits of WordPress Automation

Utilizing WordPress automations offers a variety of benefits that stretch far beyond saving time. You’ll start to see more of these benefits as you begin to expand your automation usage and gain experience with it.

• Save Time: The intricate details of managing a website takes time and bandwidth from your team. Automating tasks and relying on outside vendors for support will take a significant amount of burden off your team, freeing them up to do higher-value activities that drive growth.
• Increase Productivity: Being able to streamline processes, reduce errors, and ensure consistency across your team greatly increases its overall productivity.
• Deliver Better Customer Service: Automation allows you to provide instant, automated responses and seamless handoffs to the right person to address a customer need.
• Scalability: Automation positions your business to be able to handle a larger customer volume without needing to hire more staff.
• Improve Site Speed: There are multiple WordPress Plugins that can help you optimize your site, take on caching mechanisms, convert images, and more, which can then enhance your site’s speed.

Start Integrating WordPress Efficiencies Today

Taking a thoughtful approach to WordPress integrations that is led by addressing specific business needs can fundamentally change and improve your business workflows, and your business. Choosing the right automation tools is the first step toward building a more efficient, scalable, and profitable e-commerce business.

Get started by identifying your top three manual tasks and exploring integrations mentioned in this post that can help get you started on your automation journey today.

Pressable Delivers WordPress Automation Value

If your business is looking to automate for greater scalability and growth, choosing Pressable as your hosting provider is the best place to start. Pressable helps get more done with less busywork, offering a variety of automation features including automated WordPress updates, backups, failover. We also offer auto-scaling and free CDN to meet your website’s growing traffic needs.

Pressable—part of the Automattic family that also includes WordPress.com, WordPress VIP, and WooCommerce—is staffed by WordPress experts with the skills and knowledge to effectively manage your WordPress site. If you’re thinking about switching to managed WordPress hosting, schedule a demo to see how Pressable can support your continued optimization and growth.