Automate Lead Enrichment & HubSpot Addition with n8n, Hunter & Clearbit

Opening Problem Statement

Meet Sarah, a sales manager at a growing SaaS startup. Every day, her team struggles to manually process incoming leads submitted through their website contact form. The process is tedious: they must verify each email address, research company and contact information, and then manually enter all details into HubSpot CRM. This manual pipeline wastes hours daily, causes entry errors, and results in missed follow-ups due to outdated or incomplete information. Data quality suffers, causing lost revenue opportunities and frustrated sales reps.

This very scenario is exactly what this n8n workflow solves, taking the load off Sarah’s plate by automating lead verification, enrichment, and CRM entry, all triggered directly from the website contact form.

What This Automation Does

When a lead submits their email via the “Contact us” web form, this workflow springs into action to ensure only valid, enriched leads enter HubSpot. Specifically, it:

• Verifies the business email address using the Hunter node to check deliverability and validity.
• If the email is valid, it enriches the person’s details using the Clearbit Person Enrichment node.
• Further enriches the company details associated with that email domain using the Clearbit Company Enrichment node.
• Adds the enriched lead data to HubSpot CRM with detailed fields like job title, first/last name, company size, and company name.
• Skips non-valid emails gracefully with a No Operation node, avoiding mistaken data entries.
• Allows easy swapping of the form input method to other form providers like Typeform or Google Forms if desired.

This automation can save Sarah’s team multiple hours each day, reduce manual data entry errors, and ensure their sales CRM contains high-quality, actionable lead data for faster follow-up cycles.

Prerequisites ⚙️

• n8n account for building and running workflows
• Hunter API Key for email verification
• Clearbit API Key for both person and company enrichment
• HubSpot account with OAuth2 credentials to add leads via API
• The contact form user input (currently an n8n Form Trigger, can be swapped with Typeform, Google Forms, or others)

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Set up the Web Form Trigger to Capture Emails

Navigate to your n8n editor, then add the Form Trigger node. Under the node settings:

• Set the path to a unique URL path (e.g., contact-leads-form)
• Configure the form title to something user-friendly, like “Contact us”
• Add a single form field with label “What’s your business email?” to capture lead emails
• Add a brief form description like “We’ll get back to you soon”

You should see the node generate a webhook URL that can be used as the form’s submission endpoint.

Tip: You can test this by posting sample data to the webhook URL or by using the built-in form testing interface.

Common mistake: Forgetting to activate the workflow or copy the correct webhook URL to your actual form integration.

2. Verify the Email Using Hunter Node

Add the Hunter node right after the form trigger. Configure it as follows:

• Set operation to “emailVerifier”
• For the email field, use the expression to pull the submitted email: {{ $json["What's your business email?"] }}
• Select your Hunter API credentials

This node will check multiple aspects of the email’s validity, such as deliverability, SMTP checks, and known disposability.

Expected outcome: The output includes a status field that says “valid” if the email passes verification.

Common mistake: Using an incorrect email field or not providing valid Hunter credentials, causing errors.

3. Add an If Node to Filter Valid Emails

Next, insert an If node that routes workflow execution based on email validity:

• Condition: {{$json.status}} === 'valid'
• If true, continue to enrichment nodes
• If false, connect to a No Operation node to safely end that path

Visual cue: You’ll see two branches after this node.

Common mistake: Setting incorrect condition expressions, causing all emails to fail or pass incorrectly.

4. Enrich Person Details Using Clearbit Person API

On the validity true branch, add a Clearbit node set to “person” resource and map the email input field:

• Set resource to “person”
• Map email to {{ $json.email }} (note it comes from the Hunter node output)
• Use your Clearbit API credentials

This node will fetch detailed information about the person, like full name, job title, LinkedIn, and location.

Common mistake: Not using the output email field or missing Clearbit credentials.

5. Enrich Company Data Using Clearbit Company API

Chain another Clearbit node on the person enrichment output:

• Set resource to “company”
• Map domain to the employment domain from the person info: {{ $json.employment.domain }}
• Use Clearbit credentials again

This fetches company data such as size, industry, location, and logo.

Common mistake: Forgetting to map the domain dynamically from previous node output.

6. Add the Lead to HubSpot CRM

Finally, add a HubSpot node to insert the enriched contact as a lead:

• Set authentication to OAuth2 with your HubSpot credentials
• Map email from the valid email check node
• Map fields from enriched person and company data, such as firstName, lastName, jobTitle, companyName, and companySize

Expected outcome: The lead appears in your HubSpot CRM with detailed, enriched info boosting your sales outreach efforts.

Common mistake: Mismatched field names or missing OAuth token refresh could block lead creation.

7. Handle Invalid Emails Gracefully

Connect the false branch from the If node to a No Operation (NoOp) node to silently end workflows for invalid emails.

This avoids cluttering your CRM with bad or mistyped leads and prevents workflow errors.

8. (Optional) Customize Form Source

Replace the n8n Form Trigger node input with any other form provider’s webhook trigger node, such as Typeform or Google Forms, without changing downstream processing.

Customizations ✏️

• Change form fields: In the Form Trigger, add or modify fields to capture phone numbers or company names, then update expressions in Hunter and Clearbit nodes accordingly.
• Add lead qualification rules: Insert additional If nodes to filter leads by domain, industry, or company size before HubSpot insertion.
• Enhance data with social profiles: Configure the Clearbit person node to fetch social links and add them as custom properties in HubSpot.
• Swap form trigger: Replace the n8n Form Trigger with Typeform or Google Forms node without affecting downstream nodes.
• Notification on invalid emails: Use an email or Slack node on the false If branch to alert the sales team about bad email submissions.

Troubleshooting 🔧

Problem: Workflow Fails with “Invalid Credentials” on Hunter or Clearbit Nodes

Cause: The API keys set in the credentials are incorrect, expired, or have insufficient permissions.

Solution: Revisit n8n credentials settings, confirm keys are valid, and regenerate if needed. Test with simpler API calls in the respective platforms’ dashboards.

Problem: HubSpot Leads Not Appearing After Workflow Runs

Cause: OAuth2 token expired or field mapping errors in the HubSpot node.

Solution: Reauthenticate HubSpot credentials. Double-check all field mappings from enriched data. Run manual tests and check HubSpot API logs.

Problem: Email Validity Always Returns False

Cause: Email field expression mismatch or Hunter API errors.

Solution: Ensure the input email expression exactly matches the form field label, including case and punctuation. Verify Hunter API quota and status online.

Pre-Production Checklist ✅

• Verify Hunter, Clearbit, and HubSpot API credentials are correctly set and tested
• Test form submission with valid and invalid emails to confirm branching logic
• Check that enriched person and company fields populate correctly in debug previews
• Confirm HubSpot leads appear with all desired fields populated after workflow runs
• Back up workflow configurations and credential info securely

Deployment Guide

Activate your workflow in production with n8n’s toggle. Use the webhook URL from the Form Trigger to connect your live web form or embed it directly.

Monitor executed workflow runs via n8n’s execution logs to troubleshoot any issues and track performance.

FAQs

Can I use another form service instead of the n8n Form Trigger?

Yes, replace the Form Trigger node with any webhook-based form node (Typeform, Google Forms, etc.) with no changes needed downstream.

Does this consume many API credits from Hunter and Clearbit?

Each form submission triggers one email verification and two enrichment API calls. Ensure your API plans have sufficient quota to handle your lead volume.

Is my lead data safe?

All APIs are accessed via secure tokens. Ensure you keep your credentials private. Running n8n self-hosted enhances your control over data security.

How many leads can this process handle?

This workflow can scale depending on your n8n instance and API rate limits. Burst traffic may need throttling or batching strategies.

Conclusion

By implementing this n8n workflow, Sarah’s team transformed their lead intake process from manual drudgery into a seamless, automated pipeline. Their HubSpot CRM now only receives verified, enriched leads complete with contact and company info, saving hours each week and reducing errors.

You’ve learned how to capture form submissions, verify emails with Hunter, enrich with Clearbit’s powerful APIs, and automate ultimate lead delivery to HubSpot. With this setup, you’re equipped to boost your sales funnel efficiency reliably.

Next, consider extending this workflow by adding automatic email outreach for qualified leads or integrating Slack notifications for your sales team. Happy automating!