How Business Can Benefit From Airtable and Its Integration

Airtable is a popular low-code tool that allows businesses to create dynamic and flexible workflows and scale these workflows together with the growth of one’s team while using a database. 

Having a spreadsheet database hybrid is neat since you can create databases in the form of a spreadsheet. Users can set up column types, add information, share tables and other information between one another, and publish views to third-party websites.

The tool is commonly used among creative teams and agencies, project management agencies, marketing and communication teams, and individuals who find value in Airtable.

Airtable comes with four pricing plans, including a free option that offers the basic set of features. The basic set is usually enough to determine whether you want to upgrade and work with the tool or not.

As expected, the app is available on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. It does not take too long to sign up and get started to build a database. The drag-and-drop feature makes it easy to customize the data.

Collaboration tools are another significant Airtable advantage. Database creators can invite other people and give them permission to make changes to the data. Even if a team is working remotely, they will have an easier time collaborating thanks to Airtable’s features that encourage collaboration.

Lastly, the flexibility. Since Airtable is so flexible, it did not take too long for various software technology companies to think of even more creative ways to get more out of Airtable. Other than replacing Google Spreadsheets, Airtable has plenty of other uses that businesses can take advantage of to improve the overall work efficiency and have happier employees.  

Let’s take a look at some concrete examples of how software developers combined their technology with Airtable and created useful tools.

Softr

With the help of Softr, you can build powerful websites and web apps for your clients. And the best thing about this particular tool is that you only need minimal coding and designing skills. In fact, it is possible to develop a site even if you have no prior experience with web building.

Whether it is an educational platform to sell online courses, a website for a social media agency, or a personal blog, it should not take too long to get that site up and running. Softr offers more than 60 customizable and beautiful mobile-friend templates. After picking a template, you can customize it to your liking and organize the data in Airtable. 

Just like the company claims, assembling a website with Softr is as easy as assembling a lego set. Softr takes the lion’s share of the work and lets you focus more on the website’s content and your customers. Some of the elements that will be ready for your use while creating a website on Softr include:

• Simple lists and image grids
• Payment gateways to accept and manage payments with Stripe, PayPal, and Chargebee
• The feature to add custom HTML, Java, or CSS code to integrate third-party tools and make other, more powerful changes to the website
• A database of ready-to-use icons, fonts, and images that save money and time you would need to look for these on third-party sources
• A chat support tool that provides a channel to get in touch with customer support

Softr has plans to create additional features. For example, the booking and scheduling tool is coming pretty soon, with more additional functions expected to be revealed in the foreseeable future. 

In case you run into problems creating a website, you can get in touch with Softr’s customer support or check a user manual that is available on the website.

The basic tool version is free, and it has pretty much everything that a beginner website creator needs. And once you feel like your current repertoire on Softr is not enough, you can switch to a starter, professional, or business plan depending on your needs.

Zapier

Zapier is another example of a technology that works hand-in-hand with Airtable to get even more out of its already great arsenal of features. 

Information tracking

If you use Airtable to add information manually, the process can be quite boring. Besides, the odds of making a mistake are there as well, especially if you have been working without taking a break. Not to mention that if a person entering the data gets behind on their work, the idea of catching up again can be terrifying. However, Zapier simplifies the process by allowing Airtable users to create and keep track of relevant information.

For instance, there are Zaps (Zapier calls their workflows Zaps) to import new contacts from Google Contacts or add Airtable contacts to your Google Contacts. 

Zapier also lets users transfer emails, RRS items, and content from WordPress to Airtable to keep important information in a safe Airtable archive. 

Notifications

Airtable excels in its sleek design that enables teams to coordinate between their members and get the job done on time. On the other hand, new additions to a team can be pretty overwhelming, and it becomes bothersome to keep track of every entry someone makes in an Airtable sheet, particularly if it was the new member lacking knowledge who made the changes.

It is recommended to create a notification system that sends alerts whenever someone makes adjustments in Airtable data. If your team uses Slack, you can integrate one of the available Zaps that send notifications to a specific Slack channel so that everyone in it is aware of the modifications.

Other than Slack, there are also Zaps which inform teams about changes by sending notifications to Gmail, Microsoft Teams, or a smartphone in the form of an SMS.

Data backups

If your business is smart, it will put effort into making sure that important work files are safe and sound. In case there is a power outage, a system failure, a natural disaster, or a malware attack, do not expect that restoring data will be simple.

It is no secret that most companies use cloud storage or rely on external hard drives to keep their files secure. However, there is no shame in taking extra security measures, particularly if there are multiple databases.

Zapier offers Zaps to add or track new Airtable records in Google Sheets. For some, such a backup might seem redundant, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

Bannerbear

Bannerbear is next on the list. The tool is an API to generate images. The process is quite simple. You need to create a template or use one from the available Bannerbear library and send the data to generate different images by adding various texts, fonts, backgrounds, colors, and other customization elements. 

If you have a social media page that you want to build around visual content—images, in particular—some consistency could be quite handy. And what better way to get that consistency than by creating a recognizable template and modifying it to push new social media content regularly.

For example, if you wish to upload daily quotes from famous people, preparing an image’s background and font you want to use in advance would save a lot of time. You would only need to add the quote itself and save the changes to create a piece of content to upload on social media.

Once you have an idea of what template type you want, create one from scratch using designing software and upload it to the Bannerbear editor. Or, as an alternative, use the editor to create the template. 

When the template is ready, add your Airtable API to Bannerbear and connect it with the Airtable profile from which you can import the social media data and publish it on your page. 

On2Air

In 2020, Airtable introduced a new scripting block that reduces user time on monotonous tasks, and a little bit of JavaScript knowledge is pretty much all that one needs to take advantage of the new feature. 

Even though some people may be reluctant to use scripting blocks because they require coding knowledge, getting discouraged because of that should not be a thing. There are pre-made scripts that users can modify and take full advantage of. Some of the benefits of using the scripting block include:

• Streamlining repetitive tasks
• Validating and formatting data
• Pulling in external data
• Generating business metrics

Sounds quite nice, right? But what if there was a way to make an already pretty simple scripting block even more user-friendly? Cue On2Air, a series of flexible JavaScript scripts within Airtable’s scripting block.

The On2Air scripts stem from a singular codebase that simplifies script editing by reducing the development time. Users can edit scripts and sync scripts directly on On2Air’s dashboard. If you wish, you could also create multiple script categories and export them simultaneously. 

Those who already have a script code can update multiple bases and sync the changes across different bases. 

Lastly, if a user has to process vast amounts of data, they may struggle to keep track of it. However, with the help of On2Air, it is possible to combine multiple scripts into one and scale the information down to have an easier time with it.

The On2Air website has an introductory video that guides new users through the process of integrating scripts and simplifying Airtable’s scripting block. 

There is a free 14-day trial to try the tool and a few different plans with different sets of features and pricing models.

Xplenty

Mastering Facebook Ads is quite difficult. It is no surprise to see brands hiring professionals who can run ad campaigns, especially if a brand is set to establish itself on Facebook, arguably the most popular social media platform.

Since there are so many users on Facebook, businesses are eager to advertise themselves and attract new customers. Facebook Ads generate valuable data to adjust marketing strategies. The tool also lets users track ad performance and provides insights on both individual ads and whole campaigns. But what does Airtable have to do with this?

Well, Xplenty is a technology that integrates Facebook Ads with Airtable and makes it easier to run the campaign. 

For instance, a business may wish to bring Facebook Ads data to Amazon Redshift or Google BigQuery to get more information on the campaigns or individual ads. And it is possible to shift the data with the help of Xplenty.

It is also worth mentioning that Airtable is great for social media content creation since you can streamline the process and publish posts through Airtable’s pipelines. 

Another thing to note is that Facebook has recently introduced the feature to sell products directly on the platform. Ecommerce businesses do not have to bother with redirecting Facebook traffic to their site anymore. Instead, they can offer goods directly on Facebook.

Since Airtable allows product catalog creation, you can take advantage of that to come up with detailed product pages on Facebook. And when you add Xplenty to the mix to combine Facebook Ads campaign management via Airtable, you create a hub that lets an ecommerce business manage pretty much everything they would need to succeed on Facebook, which is content creation, Facebook Ads, and selling directly on the platform. 

Xplenty has a free 14-day trial with the option to cancel any time if a customer is unsatisfied with the product. 

Conclusion

To sum it all up, these five examples of software one can combine with Airtable is a further testament to how great this database management tool is. Add a user-friendly interface, superb collaboration support, fair price, high customization capabilities, and you have a great product.

And even if the tool is not optimized for every data set, it is still a wonderful application when it suits the needs of a company or an individual. At the very least, you should try the free plan to check if Airtable is worth the praises and whether it meets your expectations.