Webhooks: The Simple Way to Automate Your Business

You probably don't need to know what a webhook is. Unless you’re trying to automate your life or your business, in which case, it’s the simplest tool in the stack.

At its core, a webhook is just a web page designed for other systems to visit. Humans visit pages to read or upload data; systems do the same thing to trigger actions. Technically, it’s usually just a server-side handler with a script attached, but you don’t need to care about the plumbing.

Here’s how it actually works. Say you use Stripe to charge customers. When a new customer signs up, Stripe can send a request to your webhook. That request is basically a signal: “Hey, you got a new customer.”

Once your system receives that signal, it can do the heavy lifting. It can add the customer to your CRM, or it can trigger your mailing list to send a welcome email. No manual data entry. No waiting for a sync. It just happens.

If you want to learn more about building these kinds of automations, comment “automation” below. I’m putting together a curriculum on this, and that’s the easiest way to get in touch when it’s ready.