The Easy Guide to Notion and Zapier Integration

Notion is a powerful note-taking and knowledge-management tool. On its own, it can already serve as a knowledge repository or even a complete workspace. But it’s only after you add Zapier automation to it that it becomes really powerful. 

In this article, we’ll look at how to get started with a Zapier and Notion integration. We’ll dive into the setup, and go over the things you can do once you connect the two. 

What Is Notion Good For? 

At Clickleo, we use Notion to manage our automation and business SOPs. These include internal step-by-step guides or client documentation templates. We also use it to keep track of our integrations and tools. This helps us create transparency, and speed up our workflow and onboarding processes. 

However, there are hundreds of ways in which you could use Notion. These include:

• Creating a “General resource” center for your company
• Adding SOPs and codes of conduct
• Creating an easily accessible vision or culture docs for your team
• Creating an entire company Wiki
• Creating workspaces for different departments at your company
• Tracking your KPIs
• Creating an archive of standup agendas and notes
• Building a complete task manager

The list could go on and on. And, if you’re curious about the latter – here’s a video showing you what it looks like: 

The key takeaway here is that it doesn’t matter what you want to create. What matters is how you’re going to do that effectively. 

And that’s where Zapier and Notion automation comes into play. 

How to Integrate Zapier with Notion – A Step-By-Step Guide

Not that long ago, you had to jump through a few hoops to integrate Notion with Zapier. 

While it took the Notion team quite a while to develop the integration, today, its setup is super simple. 

To get started, you can either go to the “My Apps” tab or start setting up the Zap. If you choose the latter, once you pick Notion, Zapier will ask you to connect an account. 

Once you click “Sign In”, you’ll be informed about the permissions Zapier needs from you. Next, hit Select Pages:

You’ll be asked to choose which pages you want to give Zapier access to. To grant access to your entire account, check the box at the very top. Then, hit “Allow access”:

And that’s it! Congratulations, you’ve just connected your Notion account to Zapier! 

If you come across any unexpected issues, there’s also an official Notion integration guide published by Zapier. But, should everything work correctly – you’re all set!

Now, you can start using Notion either as a Trigger or as an action. Let’s look at what you can do with Notion in each case.

What Are the Available Notion Triggers in Zapier?

Notion’s integration with Zapier is still a young one. Hence, there’s only one trigger available – a new database item. It triggers the Zap whenever there’s a new item added to one of your databases:

Please note that Zapier will force you to pick a database in which you want to look for triggers. As a result, one Zap can only be triggered by a new item in one, pre-selected database:

This means that if you want to trigger automation for new items created in different Notion databases, you have to create multiple Zaps. 

What Are the Available Notion Actions in Zapier?

A Zap action step is every step but the one that triggers the Zap. In the case of notion, there are currently five different actions you can choose from.

The available actions in this step of the Zapier Notion integration include:

• Create Database Item

This event allows you to use the data collected in previous steps to create a new item in a database. 

To do that, you’ll be asked to pick a database, enter content, as well as pick content format. You can pick between Plain Text and Markdown:

• Create Page

This action lets you create a sub-page for a selected parent page. Again, you can use this step to add the data collected in the previous steps directly to the new page.

• Update Database Item

This event allows you to update a specific item with the data gathered in previous steps. Note that, in some cases, you may need to use the “find the database item” first, to find the item that you want to update. 

• Find Database Item

In this step, you can search for a database item using one or more of its properties. The configuration of this step will differ and will depend on how you set up the particular database. 

For example, in the below example, our Notion database items have only one “name”. That’s why you can only configure one property in Zapier. 

Please note that capitalization matters. This means that the data that you input has to be an exact match of the property of the item you’re looking for. Otherwise, your Notion Zapier integration won’t work.

• Find Page (By Title)

Lastly, the last available Notion action step can be used to find a specific page. It can be used to dynamically find parent pages which you then add new pages to in one of the other steps. 

Keep in mind that the exact configuration of the steps will depend a lot on the goal of your Zap and the apps that are a part of it. Speaking of which – let’s look at which apps you can connect using Zapier with Notion – and why you should integrate them. 

What Notion Zapier Workflows Can Benefit Your Business?

There’s a lot you could build with Zapier and Notion. Sample use cases can be split into two different categories:

Collecting Important Information in a Single Database

First, you could use Notion with Zapier to automatically add key data to a select database. These can include: 

• Saving all calendar events to a single database for future reference. 
• Saving important web addresses and key takeaways. This step is perfect for researching an important topic. 
• Saving down liked Tweets or social media posts. This allows you to create a collection of inspirational/educational quotes and insights.
• Collecting meeting notes or agendas from client or team meetings.
• Collecting employee or client feedback
• Logging key Slack messages to save critical notes and insights. This automation is useful especially if you’re using Slack’s free version. By saving key insights, you won’t lose them once you hit the 90-day limit. 
• Automatically adding client submission forms
• Adding specific emails to Notion. This Zap allows you to create a database of insightful emails that you can later get back to or reference.  

Automatically Sharing New Database Items

Of course, you can also use Notion as a Zap trigger. In this case, you can use it to:

• Let the team know whenever there’s a new database item via your favorite communication channel. This is an excellent way of sharing feedback, updates, or knowledge. 
• Send client updates whenever there’s a new database item.
• Use database updates as triggers for creating items in other tools. For example, you could use a new database item to create a task in ClickUp.

Naturally, the above are not the only things you can do with a Notion and Zapier integration. Often, Notion becomes a trigger or a part of much larger workflows. But, those will depend on your individual business needs. 

Getting Started with Zapier and Notion

Integrating Notion with Zapier is easy – but it’s just the first step. Often, Notion will become a part of more advanced marketing or sales workflows. Of course, if you want to get the most out of your Zapier and Notion automation setup, I’m here to help. 

As a Zapier automation consultant, I can help you set up new or optimize existing Notion Zapier workflows. To get started, hit this link to schedule a free 20-minute discovery session. Let’s talk about your Zapier automation needs!