AlpacaRelay + Zapier: Quality-Scored Emails, Connected

Navigate to the AlpacaRelay signup page and create your account using your email address. No credit card is required. Once you confirm your email, you'll land in the AlpacaRelay dashboard. This account will serve as your hub for all integrations, including Zapier. Take note of your account email—you'll use it to authorize the Zapier connection in the next step.

From your AlpacaRelay dashboard, click Settings in the left sidebar, then select Integrations. Locate Zapier in the integration catalog and click Enable. AlpacaRelay will display your unique Zapier API key—copy this key and store it securely. This key allows Zapier to communicate with your AlpacaRelay account. You will not need to log in to Zapier's platform to authorize this connection; the API key grants Zapier read and write access to your contacts and campaigns.

Log into your Zapier account and create a new Zap. Select your trigger app (e.g., Shopify, Stripe, Google Forms, or any app in the Zapier ecosystem). Configure the trigger event—for example, 'New Order' in Shopify or 'New Response' in Google Forms. Then search for AlpacaRelay as your Action app. When prompted, paste your AlpacaRelay API key to connect the accounts. Select 'Add Contact' as your action, and Zapier will display available fields from your trigger app that you can map to AlpacaRelay contact properties (email, first name, last name, custom fields, etc.).

In the Zapier action step, map fields from your trigger app to corresponding AlpacaRelay contact fields. For example, if your trigger is Shopify, map the customer's email address to AlpacaRelay's 'Email' field, the customer's first name to 'First Name', and order ID to a custom field like 'Last Order ID'. Zapier will show you a live preview of how your data will appear in AlpacaRelay. Click 'Test & Review' to send a sample contact to your AlpacaRelay account. Once the test succeeds, your Zap is active and will begin syncing contacts in real-time whenever the trigger event occurs.

With contacts now flowing into AlpacaRelay from Zapier, return to your AlpacaRelay dashboard and create a new campaign. Select your contact list (populated by your Zapier Zap), choose an email template or build one from scratch, and compose your message. As you draft, AlpacaRelay runs every email through the 8-Dimension Email Quality Framework, scoring across deliverability, mobile rendering, CTA clarity, personalization depth, visual hierarchy, copy effectiveness, brand consistency, and structural compliance. Your email's Quality Score appears in real-time. Once your email scores 7/10 or higher, you can schedule or send immediately. Contacts added by Zapier will automatically receive the campaign, and you can set up triggered automations so future Zapier contacts receive a welcome, post-purchase, or nurture sequence automatically.