Automate Contact List Management with Automizy and n8n

Opening Problem Statement

Meet Sarah, a marketing coordinator at a small but growing business. Her daily routine involves manually creating contact lists, adding new subscribers to these lists, updating contact information regularly, and pulling reports on all contacts within each list. Each task takes time — sometimes several hours a week — and is prone to mistakes, such as duplicated entries or outdated tags, leading to lost marketing opportunities and miscommunication. This manual process not only drains Sarah’s productivity but also impacts the overall efficiency of the marketing team and campaign performance.

If you’ve ever been in Sarah’s shoes, you know how repetitive, error-prone, and tedious managing email marketing lists can be. Automating these steps with tools like Automizy and n8n can transform tedious tasks into seamless, error-free workflows.

What This Automation Does

This n8n workflow simplifies managing your contacts in Automizy by automating four key processes in sequence whenever you trigger it manually:

• Create a new email list: Automatically generates a fresh contact list for segmentation or campaign targeting.
• Add a new contact to the created list: Inserts a new subscriber to the list with a specified email and an active status.
• Update the contact’s details: Modifies the contact’s profile by adding custom tags such as “reviewer” for better segmentation and tracking.
• Retrieve all contacts from the list: Fetches every contact within that list to review or use downstream.

With this automation, expect to save hours weekly by eliminating manual data entry and updates, reduce human errors like duplicate entries or missed tags, and maintain up-to-date, segmented contact lists effortlessly.

Prerequisites ⚙️

• 🗝️ An Automizy account with API access (credentials setup inside n8n).
• ⚙️ An n8n account (cloud or self-hosted) to build and run this workflow.
• 🖥️ Basic familiarity with n8n interface to import and customize the workflow.
• Optional: Self-hosting option for n8n if you prefer running automation on your own infrastructure (you can explore options like Hostinger for affordable hosting).

Step-by-Step Guide to Build and Use This Workflow

1. Start with the Manual Trigger node to initiate the workflow: Open n8n, click + New Workflow, then drag the Manual Trigger node (called “On clicking ‘execute'”). This node is your starting point to run the process anytime you want.
2. Add the Automizy node for list creation: Click + Add Node → search for Automizy node. Configure it to create a new list by setting resource to “list” and give a name like “n8n-docs” in the parameters. Connect this node directly to the manual trigger node. This node will return the new list’s ID, which you’ll use downstream.
3. Insert another Automizy node to add a new contact to the created list: Add a second Automizy node. Set resource to “contact” (default assumed, or as per your version), set email to a sample or dynamic email (e.g., “[email protected]”), and map the listId field to the ID obtained from the previous list creation node using the expression {{$node["Automizy"].json["id"]}}. Set additional fields such as status: "ACTIVE" to ensure the contact is subscribed actively.
4. Add a third Automizy node to update this contact’s details: Add another Automizy node, configure it to perform an update operation on the contact resource by specifying the email address dynamically from the previous node and add tags. For example, add a tag called “reviewer”. This helps segment contacts efficiently.
5. Add a fourth Automizy node to retrieve all contacts from the created list: Insert another Automizy node set to getAll operation on the list resource. Map the listId with the ID from the first node like before. This node retrieves all contacts within that list.
6. Connect the nodes in sequence: Ensure the flow: Manual Trigger → Create List → Add Contact → Update Contact → Get All Contacts. This guarantees data flow integrity.
7. Set up credentials: For each Automizy node, configure and select the correct API credentials under the credentials tab. This enables authorized calls to Automizy’s API.
8. Test the workflow: Click “Execute Workflow” in the top right. After running, verify that the new list was created in Automizy, a contact was added and updated, and all contacts were retrieved. You can check node outputs and Automizy dashboard to confirm.
9. Handle errors and apply adjustments: If nodes fail, check your API key correctness or connection stability.

Customizations ✏️

• Change the email address dynamically: In the “Automizy1” node (adding contact), replace the static email “[email protected]” with an expression to intake emails from incoming data or another source. This adapts the workflow for bulk or real-time contact additions.
• Modify contact tags in the update node: In “Automizy2”, add or remove tags like “reviewer” to personalize segmentation further according to your campaign needs.
• Customize the list name: Edit the “Automizy” node’s parameters to create different lists by changing the “name” field dynamically or through input parameters.
• Limit contacts fetched in the last node: Configure the “Automizy3” node’s “returnAll” to false and set a limit to only retrieve a subset of contacts for performance optimization.

Troubleshooting 🔧

• Problem: “API request failed with status 401 Unauthorized.”
  Cause: Incorrect or expired Automizy API credentials.
  Solution: Go to each Automizy node → Credentials → Verify you have the correct and active API key set. Regenerate the API token in Automizy if needed.
• Problem: “Expression cannot read property ‘id’ of undefined.”
  Cause: The first node creating the list failed or returned no data.
  Solution: Check that the “Automizy” node successfully created a list and outputs the ID. Ensure connections between nodes are accurate. Retry the workflow after fixing errors.
• Problem: Contacts not updating correctly.
  Cause: Wrong field mappings or missing mandatory fields in the update node.
  Solution: Double-check the “update” operation in the “Automizy2” node, confirm email mapping and tag field correctness.

Pre-Production Checklist ✅

• Verify your Automizy API credentials have correct permissions.
• Test manual trigger execution multiple times to ensure nodes execute without errors.
• Confirm the new list appears in Automizy after workflow execution.
• Check that the contact is added and tagged properly inside the list.
• Review output of the getAll node to ensure it returns expected contacts.
• Backup your workflow JSON before making changes for easy rollback.

Deployment Guide

Activate your workflow in n8n by switching it from inactive to active. You can run it manually when needed or integrate it with other triggers such as webhooks or scheduled cron jobs for ongoing automation.

Monitor the workflow execution via n8n’s execution logs to track success or catch errors immediately. Adjust credentials or node parameters as your Automizy setup evolves.

FAQs

• Can I use a different email marketing platform instead of Automizy?
  Not directly with this workflow as it is built using the Automizy nodes. However, you can replicate similar logic using other supported email marketing nodes in n8n like Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign.
• Does this workflow consume a lot of API calls?
  This workflow makes four API calls per execution, one for each Automizy node, which is generally efficient but consider your Automizy API limits.
• Is my contact data secure in the workflow?
  Data security depends on Automizy’s API and your n8n hosting environment. Use secure connections and keep your API keys confidential.

Conclusion

By completing this tutorial, you’ve built an n8n workflow that automates creating contact lists, adding and updating contacts, and retrieving all contacts in Automizy seamlessly. This saves you hours of manual work each week and drastically reduces human errors.

With this foundation, you can extend the workflow to add bulk imports, integrate with CRM systems, or trigger automations based on subscriber activity. Automation unlocks more time to focus on crafting impactful marketing campaigns instead of managing contact data.

Feel confident that you’ve mastered a beginner-friendly yet powerful workflow that streamlines your email marketing contact management with Automizy and n8n!