Zapier - Unlock a course for a member in your group

In the same way you can use Zapier to to send a group invite with custom course access, you can also use it to send preexisting members fresh access to your private courses. Just like in the former use case, an existing member will get an invite email listing out which courses will unlock by clicking join. The difference here is after clicking the button in the email, they'll choose to login to their account (or already be logged in) and see the fresh course unlocks.

We know many admins use a CRM platform to mange communities and courses, so for this guide I'll be using Hubspot (popular free CRM) as my "trigger" app and having Skool send an invite with more course access to any existing group member added to a particular contact list associated with specific course access. To start, I'm going to click to create a new Zap from my Zapier dashboard:

Important note: at least for the case of Hubspot setup, I needed the fields/categories of my contact list in Hubspot set up in advance for the option to populate those fields to show in the "set up trigger" section of Zapier. A Hubspot contact list typically defaults to name, email address, and a few other standard fields. Before moving to the next step, I adjusted the fields in my list to mirror the data I'd be sending to Skool.  You can add fields in Hubspot by clicking on "edit columns" on the contacts page, then "create a property," and once that new property is created, you'll need to go to "edit columns" again and select that new property to add to your contact list. More from Hubspot here:

Here is what my Hubspot contacts list looks like - note for this example, all I really care about is the email address as I'm keeping separate lists for members with different course access (to get access to a new course, their email simply needs to be added to that course's list):

Click continue and then "test trigger," and Zapier will look for a recent contact in your list to make sure it can grab the necessary trigger data from Hubspot to send to Skool in order to automate sending the email with custom course access. If it's struggling to find anything, try creating a brand new contact in your list then repeating this step. Again, I care most that it's grabbing the contact's email address:

Click continue and your trigger is all set! Next you'll be taken to your "Action" app, and here is where you'll want to search for and select Skool:

Click continue to set up the details of your action, in this case, which courses this person will get access to after accepting your email invite (note that the "invite" is redundant here for preexisting members, but this simplifies being able to both invite members with special course access or simply update existing members' course access). Remember - only private courses will show up as selectable as public courses are already available to all members upon joining.

Click in the box that says "email address (required)" and select the corresponding contact email address taken from your Hubspot list:

For this example, I'm going to give this member access to my newest private course "Career Goals vs. Child Milestones" so I select that in the dropdown menu. When I'm done, it looks like this:

Finally, before you test the action, you'll see the data Skool will use to complete the task - in this case, the user's email address the course ID they'll get access to:

My test email looks like this when the user receives it (as will all the invites once the Zap is published):

When the user clicks "join now" and logs into their Skool account (or is already logged in), they'll have this course unlocked when they visit your group's classroom. 

NOTE: for your group/content security purposes, only one active course access email will be valid at a time and the latest email access sent will override any previous unused access emails. What this means is if a member receives an access email to "private course #1" and never uses it, then later receives an access email to "private course #2," clicking the join button in either of these emails will only grant access to "private course #2." If your group has a use case that involves many one-off course access emails, it is best to instruct users to redeem these emails when they come in and/or opt for bundled access to multiple courses when possible. You can always re-send proper access via the manual invite emails in group settings, or simply granting that access in the members list.

Now all you need to do is publish your Zap and rename it in the upper righthand corner and you're ready to rock!

You also see your published zap is "on" but you can toggle it off at any time:

Now anytime a member is added to your Hubspot list for specific course access, they'll automatically get an email to unlock the course for them! Note that with a standard Zapier account, the action typically takes about 10-15 minutes so don't be alarmed if potential members don't get instant emails.

For troubleshooting any issues that come up during your Zap build, the most important info to confirm from the Skool side is that your API key and group URL are correct.  Typically other issues will stem from the Zapier or third party app side with biggest culprits being: 

- Required fields in Zapier not populated (or populated with an incorrect data format)

- Third party app account or list not initially set up to accept all incoming data fields

- General formatting (Skool data did not arrive in your third party app as expected) and requires a little tinkering within the "action" setup portion

Some great resources to help you get the most out of Zapier are Zapier University, the Zapier Help Center, and my personal favorite (duh) - the Zapier Community.