What is CRM automation?

CRM automation refers to the use of technology to streamline and automate repetitive tasks and processes within a Customer Relationship Management system, enhancing efficiency and accuracy. By automating tasks such as data entry, lead management, and customer communication, businesses can improve customer engagement and focus more on strategic activities.

What tasks can be automated in CRM?

Common tasks include data entry, lead scoring, email marketing, follow-ups, reporting, customer segmentation, and managing customer inquiries. With n8n, you can go beyond these basics and automate more intricate scenarios, such as combining data from various sources, coordinating workflows across different applications, and utilizing advanced conditional logic for tailored customer experiences.

Can I integrate my CRM with other tools?

Yes, many CRM systems offer integration capabilities with other tools such as email marketing platforms, social media, project management software, and customer support systems. If you face automation limitations within your CRM, opt for n8n, as it offers greater flexibility and customization, allowing you to integrate with a wider range of tools and services beyond your CRM's native capabilities.

How do I get started with CRM automation in n8n?

Getting started with CRM automation is straightforward with n8n. First, identify the CRM processes you want to automate and choose a compatible CRM system. Then, use n8n to set up and integrate your workflows. You have different options depending on how you intend to use it: n8n Cloud: hosted solution, no need to install anything. Self-host: recommended method for full-control or customized use cases.

Is CRM automation only for enterprise-level organizations?

No, CRM automation is not exclusive to enterprise-level organizations. While larger companies may have more complex needs and greater resources, small and medium-sized businesses can also benefit from CRM automation. It helps businesses of all sizes streamline processes, reduce manual tasks, and improve customer interactions. In case you’re looking for enterprise features, n8n also offers robust capabilities to meet the demands of larger organizations.

What are the performance limits of n8n?

The performance limits of n8n depend on your plan and the complexity of your workflows: Standard Plan**: A single instance can process up to 220 executions per second, depending on resources. Self-Hosted Plans**: Multi-instance setups can handle higher loads. Benchmarking Tools**: n8n provides tools to help you understand performance for your specific use case.

Is n8n secure for CRM automation cases? Where is my data stored?

For hosted plans, data is stored in the EU, specifically on servers in Frankfurt, Germany. For self-hosted plans, you have control over where your data is stored. n8n takes privacy and security seriously, and you can review their security practices and policies here.

CRM Workflow Automation Software & Tools

Transform your CRM into a powerhouse

Improved data accuracy

Minimize human errors by automating data entry and updates, ensuring your CRM data is always accurate and up-to-date.

Seamless integrations

Connect your CRM with various other tools and applications, enabling seamless data flow and eliminating the need for manual data transfers.

Personalized interactions

Automate personalized responses and follow-ups based on customer interactions, enhancing customer satisfaction and engagement.

Scalability

Easily scale your CRM processes as your business grows, without the need for additional resources or manual intervention.

Most popular CRM automation use cases

See the workflow

Custom data integration

Regular CRMs may have limited integrations or incur extra costs. n8n integrates with any API or database, allowing data pulls from legacy or niche systems unsupported by standard CRMs.

Automated data enrichment

Regular CRMs may not enrich records automatically, limiting data comprehensiveness. n8n connects to APIs and databases to fetch additional information, enriching CRM data as it becomes available.

Advanced lead scoring and routing

Standard CRMs offer basic lead scoring. n8n can integrate with machine learning models for advanced lead scoring and routing based on complex criteria and historical data.

Custom notifications and alerts

Built-in CRMs may have rigid notification systems. n8n allows custom notifications across various channels (email, SMS, Slack, etc.), triggered by defined criteria to inform team members in real time.

Automated personalization with AI

Personalized marketing often requires manual effort and analysis. n8n automates communication personalization using AI to segment customers based on behavior, ensuring targeted messaging for increased engagement.

More CRM & marketing automation workflow examples

Gmail AI Auto-Responder: Create Draft Replies to incoming emails

This workflow automatically generates draft replies in Gmail. It's designed for anyone who manages a high volume of emails or often face writer's block when crafting responses. Since it doesn't send the generated message directly, you're still in charge of editing and approving emails before they go out. How It Works: Email Trigger: activates when new emails reach the Gmail inbox Assessment: uses OpenAI gpt-4o and a JSON parser to determine if a response is necessary. Reply Generation: crafts a reply with OpenAI GPT-4 Turbo Draft Integration: after converting the text to html, it places the draft into the Gmail thread as a reply to the first message Set Up Overview (~10 minutes): OAuth Configuration (follow n8n instructions here): Setup Google OAuth in Google Cloud console. Make sure to add Gmail API with the modify scope. Add Google OAuth credentials in n8n. Make sure to add the n8n redirect URI to the Google Cloud Console consent screen settings. OpenAI Configuration: add OpenAI API Key in the credentials Tweaking the prompt: edit the system prompt in the "Generate email reply" node to suit your needs Detailed Walkthrough Check out this blog post where I go into more details on how I built this workflow. Reach out to me here if you need help building automations for your business.

Nicolas Chourrout

Actioning Your Meeting Next Steps using Transcripts and AI

This n8n workflow demonstrates how you can summarise and automate post-meeting actions from video transcripts fed into an AI Agent. Save time between meetings by allowing AI handle the chores of organising follow-up meetings and invites. How it works This workflow scans for the calendar for client or team meetings which were held online. * Attempts will be made to fetch any recorded transcripts which are then sent to the AI agent. The AI agent summarises and identifies if any follow-on meetings are required. If found, the Agent will use its Calendar Tool to to create the event for the time, date and place for the next meeting as well as add known attendees. Requirements Google Calendar and the ability to fetch Meeting Transcripts (There is a special OAuth permission for this action!) OpenAI account for access to the LLM. Customising the workflow This example only books follow-on meetings but could be extended to generate reports or send emails.

Jimleuk

Gmail campaign sender: Bulk-send emails and follow up automatically if no reply

This workflow allows you to send multi-step email campaigns using n8n, Gmail and Google Sheets. You define a sequence of emails, and a list of email addresses to send them to. The first email is sent to everyone, but the later emails in the sequence are only sent if no-one has replied to the thread yet. This means you only need to worry about replying to people who respond to your email, not chasing people who don’t. Requirements A list of emails in a Google sheet. You can define extra info that will be available to your email templates (e.g. name, company, etc.) A sequence of emails to send, plus how long to wait to send each one, e.g. On day 0:** “Hi, {name} — nice to meet you at the conference. Was wondering whether {company} would be interested in a quick call about X?” On day 3:** “Hi, {name}, just wanted to check in on this. Let me know if there’s any interest!” On day 7:** “{name}, just wanted to give this one last try” A Gmail account (although you could also swap out that part for any other email service) How it works When sending the emails, n8n inserts a hidden attribute in each one that tags it as being part of the email campaign. It then regularly looks through the email threads with that tag and checks whether: No-one has replied yet It’s time to send the next message The workflow doesn’t send emails on weekends. Notes This workflow is not intended for spam! Please use responsibly You can use this workflow for multiple different campaigns by making copies of the workflow and changing the sequence / Google Sheet that it uses

David Roberts

Update HubSpot when a new invoice is registered in Stripe

This workflow automatically posts a message in Slack when a new invoice is uploaded in Stripe, and it updates the fields in the HubSpot CRM. Prerequisites A Slack account and credentials A HubSpot account and credentials A Stripe account and credentials Nodes Stripe Trigger node triggers the workflow when a new invoice is uploaded. IF nodes filter the invoices that don't have a PO number and if there is no deal for the PO. HubSpot nodes retrieve deals with the specific PO number and update the deal status to 'paid'. Slack nodes post messages about the deals in a Slack channel.

Jonathan

Create HubSpot contacts from LinkedIn post interactions

This workflow automatically does the following: Scrapes comments and likes from a LinkedIn post. Adds contact data (nominative and verified email address, gender, standardized first name and last name, all legal company information). Adds these contacts to Airtable. Sends an ultra-personalized cold email sequence. Sends a Linkedin invitation after the cold email sending. Pushes all contacts to HubSpot. Prerequisites A Phantombuster account and credentials A Lemlist account and credentials A Dropcontact account and credentials A HubSpot account and credentials How it works Cron node executes the workflow every hour. Phantombuster node (Launch agent) launches the "LinkedIn Post Likers" phantom and the "LinkedIn Post Commenters" phantom. Note that you have to create these phantoms before setting your workflow automation. Phantombuster node (Get Output agent)** gets results from the previous phantoms. Dropcontact node fetches the new contact information and returns the data of the person and the company associated with the email address, job function, and all legal information. Airtable node (List) lists all the records in the Contacts table. IF node routes the workflow based on whether a contact is in Airtable. Set node sets the required data for the following nodes. Airtable node (Update)** updates the record's name. Airtable node (Append)** creates a record if the account doesn't exist yet. Lemlist node adds a contact to an existing campaign. Phantombuster node (Launch agent)** launches the "LinkedIn Network Booster" phantom. Note that you have to create these phantoms before setting your automation. Hubspot node creates or updates the contacts in the HubSpot CRM.

Pauline

Capture leads in HubSpot from Typeform

This workflow is triggered when a typeform is submitted, then it saves the sender's information into HubSpot as a new contact. Typeform Trigger: triggers the workflow when a typeform is submitted. Set: sets the fields for the values from Typeform. HubSpot 1: creates a new contact with information from Typeform. IF: filters contacts who expressed their interest in business services. HubSpot 2: updates the contact's stage to opportunity. Gmail: sends an email to the opportunity contacts with informational material. NoOp: takes no action for contacts who are not interested.

Lorena

Browse all marketing templates

Most popular integrations for CRM automation

Getting locked into a vendor with limited integrations is lame. n8n's 400+ pre-built integrations let you connect most popular apps with a few clicks. Or use the HTTP request node for custom API setups without coding.

Show all marketing integrations

Case study

How Dropsolid creates personalized marketing campaigns with n8n

Without n8n

The Dropsolid team faced two primary challenges: integrating data from various sources and managing integrations for the multiple apps and services they use. Without some level of automation, these tasks were labor-intensive, error-prone, and not scalable, leading to wasted time and money.

With n8n

n8n automations led to increased productivity by eliminating tedious tasks, enhanced collaboration by allowing anyone to build and adjust workflows, reduced costs due to n8n's affordability, and a clear conscience from using an open, fair-code tool alongside other open-source solutions.

"I really believe in a tool like n8n."

The technical people in our team are big fans of n8n, it makes their work easier and offers a lot of flexibility.

Leen Penders

CMO at Dropsolid

CRM & marketing automation guides

Marketing Automation
Guide

Getting started with CRM automation: Essential guide & templates included

Discover how to streamline your sales & marketing with our CRM automation guide. Access customizable templates to jumpstart your automation process!

Marketing Automation
Guide

Top 10 open-source marketing automation tools in 2024

Get the most out of today’s top 10 open source marketing automation tools! Connect them all with n8n, a free workflow automation tool.

Guide

A complete guide for eCommerce automation in 2024

Wondering what eCommerce automation is and how it works? Look no further! Read this blog to learn all there is to know about eCommerce automation and more.

51,996 Github users ❤️ n8n – here’s why

JodieM

@jodiem

Anything is possible with n8n

I think @n8n_io Cloud version is great, they are doing amazing stuff and I love that everything is available to look at on Github.

Igor Fediczko

@igordisco

Build complex workflows that other tools can’t do

I was a regular integromat user. I got to know the n8n and I say it properly: how it is better to do everything on the N8N! Congratulations on your work, you are a star!

Maxim P

@maximpoulsen

I’ve said it many times.

But I’ll say it again.
n8n is the GOAT.

We have workflows for: Real-time alerts, Custom integrations, CRM data cleanliness, Onboarding & follow-ups, Lead scoring (PQLs) & attribution.

Anything is possible with n8n.
You just need some technical knowledge + imagination.

Robin Tindall

@robm

Thank you to the n8n community

I did the beginners course and promptly took an automation WAY beyond my skill level.

How it works

Connect. Customize. Conquer.

You can choose how to use n8n. Either sign up for the hosted n8n Cloud or self-host with a one-line npm command or Docker installation.

Pull in data

Set up triggers for app events or specific times to fetch data across your app stack

Set up steps

Use 400+ app nodes to create, read, and update the valuable data across your apps

Save time - every day

From simple syncs to millions of executions, relax as your workflow does the heavy lifting

CRM workflows that anyone can work out

By leveraging the flexibility of n8n, businesses can extend the functionality of their CRM systems far beyond the limitations of standard offerings like HubSpot or Pipedrive, creating tailored solutions that address specific needs and enhance efficiency.

Connect to everything quickly

n8n integrates with over 400 apps, including popular CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho CRM, ensuring seamless data flow between your CRM and tools like marketing platforms and project management apps. With n8n’s HTTP request node and webhook, you can connect to custom APIs and trigger workflows in real-time based on events like new leads or customer interactions, allowing for timely automated responses.

Customize multi-step workflows efficiently

With n8n, you can create highly complex, multi-step workflows that are tailored to your specific business processes. This includes branching logic, conditional operations, and looping, which are often constrained in regular CRMs.

Transform and cleanse incoming data

n8n enables you to perform complex data processing tasks, such as data enrichment, transformation, and cleansing before it enters the CRM. This ensures that the data in your CRM is accurate and actionable.

Empower other users to create automations

n8n’s visual interface makes it easy to design, test, and deploy workflows without the need for extensive coding knowledge, empowering users across different departments to create and manage automations.

Leverage community expertise quickly

Tap into the expertise of an active 25K-strong builder community or dive into our extensive documentation to resolve your issues, fast. For more advanced support, customized SLAs are available, too.

n8n Execution Advantage

n8n offers a unique pricing model that sets our platform apart as one of the most affordable and scalable options in the market. Unlike other platforms that charge per operation, step, or task, n8n charges only for full workflow executions. This approach guarantees predictable costs and scalability, no matter the complexity or volume of your workflows.

FAQ about CRM automation

What is CRM automation?
What tasks can be automated in CRM?
Can I integrate my CRM with other tools?
How do I get started with CRM automation in n8n?
Is CRM automation only for enterprise-level organizations?
What are the performance limits of n8n?
Is n8n secure for CRM automation cases? Where is my data stored?