Automate Email Marketing Sync with Google Sheets & Mautic

Problem Statement: Keeping Email Lists Updated Made Easy

Meet Sarah, a busy marketing coordinator at a growing SaaS startup. She manages leads and customer data in a Google Sheet but needs this info updated in her Mautic email marketing platform with precision and speed. Manually transferring data takes her hours every week and is prone to mistakes—resulting in missed campaigns and lost sales opportunities.

Sarah needs a foolproof way to automatically sync her latest Google Sheets contacts to Mautic, ensuring her email campaigns always target the right people without wasting valuable time.

What This Automation Does

This n8n workflow automates syncing contact data from Google Sheets directly into Mautic every 5 minutes. Here’s what happens each time it runs:

• Triggers every 5 minutes via Cron node.
• Reads the contact list from a specified Google Sheets range.
• Extracts email, first name, and mobile number fields from each row.
• Creates or updates contacts in Mautic with these details automatically.
• Eliminates manual copy-pasting, reducing human error drastically.
• Keeps your email marketing database fresh and ready for campaigns.

By running this workflow, Sarah saves an estimated 3-4 hours weekly, while boosting her campaign accuracy and responsiveness.

Prerequisites ⚙️

• Google Sheets account with API access 📊
• Mautic account with API credentials 🔑
• n8n automation platform account, either cloud-hosted or self-hosted ⏱️
• Configured Google API credentials set up in n8n for Sheets
• Configured Mautic API credentials integrated in n8n

For self-hosting n8n, consider services like Hostinger for easy deployment.

Step-by-Step Guide to Build This Workflow

Step 1: Create a Cron Trigger for Scheduled Runs

In n8n, click + Add Node → search and select Cron node.

Set the trigger to run every 5 minutes: In Cron node’s triggerTimes, click Add, choose Every X Minutes, and set value to 5.

You should see the cron summary indicating a run every five minutes.

Common mistake: Forgetting to save credentials or activating the trigger later.

Step 2: Add Google Sheets Node to Read Your Contact Data

Add node → select Google Sheets.

Configure with your Google Sheets API credentials.

Set parameters:

• Sheet ID: 1jKYwPE9DMFOYf1AeDuTvQ3GSM2GqaEJhGYNoisxSLpM from your actual file link.
• Range: Data!A:P to read all rows and columns containing contact info.
• Options: Select Formatted Value for Value Render Mode.

After running, preview the data to confirm emails, names, and phones are fetched.

Common mistake: Using a wrong sheet ID or invalid sheet range can result in empty data.

Step 3: Add Mautic Node to Create or Update Contacts

Add node → search Mautic.

Use your Mautic API credentials configured in n8n.

Under parameters:

• Email: Use Expression {{$node["GS Read Data2"].json["email"]}} to pull each email from Sheets output.
• First Name: Expression {{$node["GS Read Data2"].json["firstname"]}}.
• Mobile: In Additional Fields, enter {{$node["GS Read Data2"].json["mobile"]}}.

Run the workflow manually to test if contacts sync properly. The Mautic node will create or update contact records based on emails.

Common mistake: Not setting expressions correctly results in empty or malformed contact fields.

Customizations ✏️

• Change Sync Frequency: In the Cron node, adjust every X minutes value to your preferred time interval.
• Add More Contact Fields: In Mautic node, include additional fields like last name, company, or tags by expanding the Additional Fields object with expressions from Sheets.
• Filter Contacts Before Sync: Insert a Code or IF node before Mautic to filter rows by certain conditions (e.g., only contacts with a mobile number).
• Switch Data Source Sheet: Change the Sheet ID or range in Google Sheets node to read from a different sheet or tab.

Troubleshooting 🔧

Problem: “No data returned from Google Sheets node.”
Cause: Invalid sheet ID, wrong range, or permission issue.
Solution: Verify the Sheet ID matches your file URL, check range formatting (e.g., Data!A:P), and ensure Google API credentials have read access.

Problem: “Mautic node fails to create/update contact.”
Cause: Incorrect API credentials or malformed field expressions.
Solution: Double-check Mautic API keys in n8n, confirm expression syntax for email and other fields, and test with sample data.

Pre-Production Checklist ✅

• Test Cron node triggers manually in n8n.
• Run Google Sheets node independently to verify it reads expected rows.
• Check Mautic node with sample contact data to confirm successful syncs.
• Review and save all credentials properly.
• Maintain a backup of your Google Sheets data before live runs.

Deployment Guide

Once tested, activate your Cron node by enabling the workflow in n8n. Monitor initial runs through n8n execution logs for errors.

This workflow requires minimal maintenance but keep your API credentials updated and watch quota limits on Google Sheets and Mautic APIs.

Conclusion

By creating this automation, Sarah eliminated hours of manual work syncing contact data between Google Sheets and Mautic. She now enjoys near real-time updates every 5 minutes, enabling highly accurate, timely email campaigns.

Next, consider automating email campaign triggers based on updated contact segments or pushing Mautic campaign results back to a Google Sheet for analytics.

This workflow is a great introduction to syncing data between cloud tools with n8n, offering a solid foundation for more complex marketing automations.