Opening Problem Statement
Meet Sarah, a busy marketing manager at a growing SaaS company. Every week, Sarah spends hours manually importing new leads from her email automation platform (ConvertKit) into HubSpot CRM and enriching those leads with detailed company information. This tedious process wastes Sarah at least 6 hours a week and leads to occasional errors such as missing company data or duplicate contacts, which impacts her team’s ability to target leads effectively and cost the company potential sales.
Sarah needs an automated, reliable solution for lead enrichment and CRM updates that works seamlessly across her existing tools: ConvertKit for email marketing, Clearbit for data enrichment, and HubSpot for CRM management.
What This Automation Does
This comprehensive n8n workflow automates the entire process from new lead capture in ConvertKit to enriched and updated records in HubSpot CRM. Here’s what happens when it runs:
- Trigger: Captures new subscriber data from a specific ConvertKit form subscription event.
- Filters: Filters out personal email addresses (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo) to focus only on business leads.
- Email Enrichment: Uses Clearbit’s person enrichment API to gather detailed lead information from the subscriber’s email address.
- Company Enrichment: If a company is associated with the lead, Clearbit enriches the company data using the company’s domain.
- CRM Lookup & Upsert: Searches the HubSpot CRM for existing company records by domain. If none exists, it creates a new company record; otherwise, it updates the existing one.
- Contact & Lead Upsert: Upserts contact and lead information into HubSpot, associating contacts with their companies to maintain CRM data integrity.
By automating these steps, Sarah saves over 6 hours weekly, improves lead data accuracy, and ensures her CRM is always up to date with enriched information.
Prerequisites ⚙️
- n8n account: You need an n8n instance configured to run workflows.
- ConvertKit account 📧: Access to your ConvertKit API and form ID to trigger new subscriber events.
- Clearbit account 🔑: API credentials for both person and company enrichment features.
- HubSpot account 🔑: OAuth2 credentials for accessing and updating your HubSpot CRM contacts and companies.
- Optional: Ability to self-host n8n (e.g., using Hostinger for better control and reliability).
Step-by-Step Guide 🔌
Step 1: Connect the ConvertKit Trigger Node
Navigate in n8n to Add Node → search 'ConvertKit Trigger'. Configure it by selecting the event formSubscribe and entering your ConvertKit formId (e.g., 6242124). This sets up the webhook to start the workflow whenever a user subscribes to your chosen form.
You should see a webhook URL generated by this node, which ConvertKit will call on form subscribes.
Common mistake: Not selecting the correct formId or event type will prevent the workflow from triggering.
Step 2: Filter Out Personal Email Addresses
Add a Filter node named “Filter out personal emails1” after the ConvertKit Trigger. Configure it with several conditions to exclude common free email domains (gmail.com, yahoo.com, outlook.com, etc.) using separate “not contains” string operations on the subscriber’s email address field {{$json.subscriber.email_address}}. This ensures that only business or corporate emails proceed.
Expected Outcome: Personal emails like [email protected] are filtered out, so no data enrichment or CRM update happens for them.
Common mistake: Forgetting to add all relevant domains may result in unwanted personal emails entering the system.
Step 3: Enrich Lead Email with Clearbit
Add a Clearbit node named “Enrich email”. Set the resource to person and configure the email parameter to {{$json.subscriber.email_address}}. This enriches the lead with detailed personal data such as name and employment info.
Expected Outcome: JSON output includes enriched information about the lead.
Note: This node is configured with “On Error: Continue” to avoid workflow failure if Clearbit cannot find the person.
Step 4: Check if Lead Has a Company
Add an If node labeled “If person has company”, checking if {{$json.employment.domain}} is not null. If true, proceed with company enrichment; if false, skip to upserting the lead directly.
Expected Outcome: Leads without company domains are processed without company enrichment steps.
Step 5: Enrich Company Data with Clearbit
Add another Clearbit node named “Enrich company”. Set the domain field to {{$json.employment.domain}} from the previous node. This fetches enriched info about the company like size, social metrics, and country.
Expected Outcome: Company details are fetched and ready to map into HubSpot.
Step 6: Search for Existing Company in HubSpot
Insert a HubSpot node called “Search company” configured for the resource company and operation searchByDomain. Use the domain field {{$json.domain}} from the company enrichment output to find if the company record exists in your CRM.
If no matching company is found, the workflow proceeds to create a new company.
Step 7: Check if Company Exists in CRM
Add an If node named “if company does not exist on CRM”. Check if the search result for the existing company is empty by evaluating {{$input.item.json}}是否为空. Based on this, either create a new company or update the existing one.
Expected Outcome: Prevents duplicates and ensures company data is current.
Step 8: Create or Update Company in HubSpot
Configure two HubSpot nodes:
Create company: Sets company details like name, domain, Twitter bio, employee count, description, and funding info from the Clearbit enrichment output.Update company: Updates existing company fields with fresh data.
Expected Outcome: HubSpot CRM contains accurate and up-to-date company records.
Step 9: Upsert Lead and Contact in HubSpot
Add two HubSpot nodes:
Upsert lead: Inserts or updates the lead’s email, first and last names.Upsert contact: Associates the contact with the HubSpot company record using the company ID.
Expected Outcome: HubSpot CRM contains enriched, linked lead and contact profiles.
Customizations ✏️
- Customize Email Domain Filters: In the “Filter out personal emails1” node, add or remove email domains to refine which leads proceed to enrichment.
- Add More HubSpot Fields: In the “Create company” and “Update company” nodes, map additional Clearbit company data fields like industry or revenue for deeper insights.
- Switch Email Automation Integration: Replace the “ConvertKit Trigger” node with another platform’s trigger (like Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign) by configuring the corresponding webhook node.
- Error Handling Enhancement: Modify the “Enrich email” node’s On Error setting to send alerts or notifications if enrichment fails, instead of silently continuing.
- Lead Scoring Logic: Add a Function or Code node post-enrichment to score leads based on criteria like company size or funding, to prioritize follow-ups.
Troubleshooting 🔧
Problem: “Clearbit Enrichment returns no data or errors”
Cause: Email or domain is invalid or missing, or Clearbit API limits reached.
Solution: Verify that the email addresses passed to Clearbit are correct. Monitor your Clearbit API quota and consider upgrading if needed. In n8n, enable error logging for the Clearbit node to catch issues.
Problem: “HubSpot Search returns no company but company exists”
Cause: Domain mismatch or data formatting issues causing false negatives.
Solution: Ensure the domain passed to HubSpot’s search matches exactly the company domain from Clearbit. Inspect node outputs to debug discrepancies.
Problem: “Workflow does not trigger on ConvertKit subscription”
Cause: Incorrect webhook URL or form ID configured, or webhook not activated in ConvertKit.
Solution: Double-check webhook URL in ConvertKit dashboard matches n8n webhook URL. Verify form ID and event type. Test webhook with sample data.
Pre-Production Checklist ✅
- Validate ConvertKit webhook triggers correctly on form subscriptions.
- Confirm Filter node properly excludes personal emails.
- Test Clearbit enrichment nodes with known emails and domains.
- Check HubSpot company search outputs and ensure conditional branching works.
- Verify HubSpot create/update operations with test records.
- Test full workflow with a variety of lead scenarios including leads with and without company domains.
Deployment Guide
Activate the workflow in n8n by setting it to Active from the top right corner. Ensure your ConvertKit webhook URL is live and receiving data.
Monitor executions via n8n’s workflow run history for errors or performance issues.
Schedule periodic reviews of Clearbit API usage limits and HubSpot API quotas to maintain uninterrupted operation.
FAQs (Optional)
Q: Can I use Mailchimp instead of ConvertKit?
A: Yes. Replace the ConvertKit Trigger node with a Mailchimp webhook or trigger node configured to listen for new subscribers.
Q: Does Clearbit API usage incur costs?
A: Clearbit offers tiered pricing with free usage limits. Be mindful of API call volumes to avoid unexpected expenses.
Q: How secure is my data in this automation?
A: Data is transmitted between your tools via secure APIs. Always safeguard your API keys and consider additional encryption if needed.
Q: Can this workflow handle high lead volumes?
A: Yes, but monitor API rate limits and workflow execution times. You might need to batch or queue processing for very large lead tables.
Conclusion
By following this guide, you’ve automated a complex, multi-step lead enrichment and CRM update process integrating ConvertKit, Clearbit, and HubSpot with n8n. This saves valuable time, reduces manual errors, and enhances your sales and marketing teams’ effectiveness.
Your CRM now contains rich, up-to-date lead and company profiles, helping you target prospects more precisely and increase conversion rates. Sarah’s 6+ hours weekly reclaimed can now focus on strategy instead of data entry.
Next, consider automating lead scoring, enriching social data from LinkedIn, or integrating multi-channel engagement tools for a more holistic workflow experience.
Ready to make your lead management smarter? Let’s get started!