This n8n workflow scrapes LinkedIn data for your leads, feeds it into a GPT-4 AI agent, and generates laser-targeted, personalized icebreakers you can drop into your cold email campaigns.
It automates the personalization process at scale — saving you hours of research while sounding human and thoughtful.
Step-by-Step Setup (Beginner Friendly)
Step 1: Prepare Your Leads (Input Sheet)
Get your lead list based on your industry and niche from Apollo (free)
Copy the entire link
Go to Apify and use this Apollo Scraper to scrape the leads.
Download the result as CSV and upload the CSV to Google Sheets
Add a column at the end of the Sheet. Name this column as "status". Mark the entire column (every row) as "un-enriched" (this is important)
Connect your Google Sheets account to n8n
The workflow will pull leads from this sheet where status = un-enriched
Step 2: Set Your Credentials
Google Sheets: Connect your account to n8n using OAuth2
OpenAI: Add your OpenAI API credentials
Apify: Visit Apify Console to get your Apify API key
Paste both Apify API Key and ActorID into the “Set Apify Tokens” node
Step 3: Customize the AI Agent
In the node “Generate Personalized Icebreaker”, adjust the system prompt.
Update it with your own niche, offer, tone, and insights
Keep the JSON output format exactly as shown. The rest of the workflow depends on it
Step 4: Run the Workflow
Click "Execute Workflow"
The system will:
-- Pull all unenriched leads
-- Filter out entries without email
-- Scrape LinkedIn profiles using Apify
-- Use GPT-4 to write a short, personalized icebreaker
-- Save the result to a separate “Enriched” sheet
-- Mark those leads as “enriched” in your original sheet
How It Works Behind the Scenes
Manual Trigger starts the workflow
Get Raw Leads from a Google Sheet (filter = un-enriched)
Filter for Valid Emails (hasEmail?)
Loop Over Leads
Set Apify API credentials
Call Apify’s LinkedIn Scraper using each lead's LinkedIn URL
Aggregate the scraped data
Simplify fields for AI prompt
Call OpenAI GPT-4.1 Mini with structured, data-rich prompt to generate icebreaker
Append results to Enriched Sheet
Update original list’s status to prevent reprocessing
Loop continues to the next lead
Best Practices for Successful Use
Clean your leads: Remove unnecessary columns from your Google Sheet raw lead list
Throttle large batches: The Apify actor and OpenAI calls may hit rate limits. Process in small batches.
Customize prompt deeply: The better your AI instructions, the more believable your icebreakers will sound.
Use shortened company names and local slang: The system prompt already does this — keep it.
Avoid fluff: Keep the tone Spartan, specific, and real.
Ideal Use Cases
Cold email campaigns for SMB SaaS, agency offers, B2B sales
Personalized intros for LinkedIn DMs
Data enrichment for lead gen automation
Integrating with tools like Instantly.ai, Smartlead, or Mailshake