Help Guide for Make (formerly Integromat) and Visual Automation for Small Business

What Is Make?

Make (rebranded from Integromat in 2022) is a visual automation platform that connects your business applications and automates repetitive workflows. You build automations by connecting modules on a visual canvas—no coding required.

Make sits in a sweet spot: more powerful and flexible than Zapier, more polished and user-friendly than self-hosted alternatives like n8n, and significantly cheaper than enterprise automation platforms.

With over 1,500 app integrations and a visual builder that handles complex logic elegantly, Make has become a favourite for small businesses serious about automation.

Why Small Businesses Choose Make

Visual Builder That Shows Everything

Make's interface displays your entire automation as a visual flowchart. You see:

• Every step in the process
• How data flows between apps
• Where branches and conditions apply
• What happens when things go wrong

This visibility makes building, debugging, and explaining automations much easier than text-based alternatives.

Generous Pricing

Make's pricing is notably competitive:

Free tier: 1,000 operations/month, 2 active scenarios

Core: £8.30/month for 10,000 operations

Pro: £14.50/month for 10,000 operations + advanced features

An 'operation' is any action—reading data, sending an email, updating a record. 10,000 operations handles most small business automation needs.

Compared to Zapier:

• Zapier Starter (750 tasks): £15.50/month
• Zapier Professional (2,000 tasks): £39/month

Make typically costs 50-70% less for equivalent usage.

Powerful Logic Without Code

Make handles complex workflows that simpler tools struggle with:

• Routers: Send data down different paths based on conditions
• Iterators: Process lists of items one by one
• Aggregators: Combine multiple items back together
• Error handlers: Define what happens when things fail
• Variables: Store and reuse data throughout workflows

You can build genuinely sophisticated automations without writing a line of code.

1,500+ Integrations

Make connects to most business applications:

• Productivity: Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Notion, Airtable
• CRM: HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho
• E-commerce: Shopify, WooCommerce, Stripe, PayPal
• Marketing: Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Facebook Ads
• Communication: Slack, Teams, Discord, WhatsApp
• Development: GitHub, GitLab, Webhooks, HTTP/REST

If an app isn't directly supported, webhooks and HTTP modules connect to anything with an API.

Real Automation Examples

E-commerce Order Processing

The problem: New orders need invoice generation, inventory updates, shipping label creation, and customer notification.

The Make solution:

1. Shopify trigger: New order placed

2. Create invoice in Xero/QuickBooks

3. Update inventory spreadsheet

4. Generate shipping label via Royal Mail API

5. Send confirmation email with tracking

6. Add customer to post-purchase email sequence

7. Notify team in Slack if high-value order

Result: Orders processed in seconds instead of minutes, zero manual data entry.

Content Repurposing Pipeline

The problem: New blog posts should be adapted and shared across multiple platforms.

The Make solution:

1. RSS trigger: New blog post published

2. Extract content and images

3. Use OpenAI module to generate social summaries

4. Post to LinkedIn (professional tone)

5. Post to Twitter/X (concise version)

6. Create Pinterest pin (visual focus)

7. Add to email newsletter queue

8. Log all posts in Airtable

Result: One blog post automatically becomes five pieces of platform-optimised content.

Client Onboarding Automation

The problem: New clients need contracts, access provisioning, welcome materials, and team notifications.

The Make solution:

1. Form submission trigger (Typeform, Google Forms)

2. Create client record in CRM

3. Generate contract via PandaDoc/DocuSign

4. Wait for signature

5. Create project in Asana/Monday

6. Provision software access

7. Send welcome email with resources

8. Schedule kickoff meeting via Calendly

9. Notify assigned team members

Result: Professional onboarding experience, delivered consistently every time.

Financial Reporting

The problem: Weekly financial summaries require pulling data from multiple sources.

The Make solution:

1. Schedule trigger: Every Monday 8am

2. Query Stripe for weekly revenue

3. Query Xero for expenses and outstanding invoices

4. Query spreadsheet for manual entries

5. Calculate key metrics

6. Generate formatted report

7. Email to leadership team

8. Post summary to finance Slack channel

Result: Accurate financial overview delivered automatically, no manual compilation.

Getting Started with Make

Creating Your Account

1. Visit make.com

2. Sign up (free tier available)

3. Verify email

4. Choose your region (EU data centres available)

Understanding the Interface

Scenarios: What Make calls automations. Each scenario is a workflow.

Modules: Individual steps in your scenario. Each app action is a module.

Connections: Links between modules showing data flow.

Scheduling: How often scenarios run (from every 15 minutes to manually triggered).

Building Your First Scenario

Example: New form submission to Slack notification

1. Click 'Create a new scenario'

2. Click the '+' to add a module

3. Search for Google Forms (or your form tool)

4. Select 'Watch Responses'

5. Connect your Google account

6. Select your form

7. Click the '+' to add another module

8. Search for Slack

9. Select 'Send a Message'

10. Connect your Slack workspace

11. Choose channel and compose message

12. Map form fields into your message

13. Click 'Run once' to test

14. Toggle scheduling on

Congratulations—you've built your first automation.

Make Features That Matter

Routers for Conditional Logic

Routers split your workflow based on conditions:

• If order value > £100: send to VIP process
• If country = UK: use UK shipping; else: international shipping
• If product type = service: skip physical fulfilment

Each path can have its own sequence of modules.

Error Handling

Make lets you define what happens when things fail:

• Resume: Try the failed module again
• Ignore: Skip the error and continue
• Rollback: Undo previous operations in this run
• Commit: Save progress even if later steps fail
• Break: Stop the scenario but keep the item for retry

Proper error handling separates reliable automations from brittle ones.

Data Stores

Make includes built-in databases called Data Stores:

• Store information between scenario runs
• Look up records (e.g., customer preferences)
• Track processed items to avoid duplicates
• Build simple applications without external database

Execution History

Every scenario run is logged:

• See exactly what happened
• Inspect data at each step
• Identify where failures occurred
• Re-run failed executions

Invaluable for debugging and auditing.

Tips for Effective Use

Start with Templates

Make offers hundreds of pre-built templates:

• Browse by app or use case
• Clone and customise
• Learn from well-designed scenarios

Don't build from scratch what someone's already built well.

Use Filters Liberally

Filters between modules control when the next step runs:

• Only process orders over £50
• Only notify for urgent tickets
• Skip test/demo data

Filters prevent unnecessary operations and keep costs down.

Mind Your Operations

Operations are your currency in Make. Optimise:

• Use filters to prevent unnecessary processing
• Aggregate multiple items when possible
• Choose efficient trigger intervals (every hour vs every minute)
• Archive scenarios you're not using

Document with Notes

Add notes to your scenarios:

• Explain why certain logic exists
• Note any dependencies or assumptions
• Mark areas that might need updating

Future you will appreciate the documentation.

Make vs Alternatives

Choose Make if: You want powerful visual automation without self-hosting, at reasonable prices.

Choose Zapier if: You prioritise simplicity and have budget for the premium pricing.

Choose n8n if: You want to self-host and have technical comfort.

Common Use Cases by Business Type

Service Businesses

• Lead capture to CRM to follow-up sequence
• Appointment booking with confirmations and reminders
• Client reporting automation
• Invoice generation and payment tracking

E-commerce

• Order processing and fulfilment
• Inventory sync across platforms
• Review requests after delivery
• Abandoned cart recovery

Content Creators

• Multi-platform publishing
• Subscriber management
• Sponsor and affiliate tracking
• Analytics compilation

Agencies

• Client onboarding workflows
• Project setup automation
• Time tracking compilation
• Report generation and delivery

The Bottom Line

Make hits a sweet spot that's hard to match: powerful enough for complex business logic, visual enough to be accessible without coding, and priced fairly enough to make automation economical for small businesses.

If you've been curious about automation but found Zapier too expensive or self-hosted tools too technical, Make deserves serious consideration.

Start with the free tier. Build one automation that solves a real problem. See the time it saves. Then decide whether to expand.

Automation isn't just for enterprises with dedicated IT teams. With Make, it's for any business willing to invest a few hours learning a tool that pays back in saved time indefinitely.