## Introduction
Marketing teams often rely on content calendars to plan, schedule, and track content production and publishing activities. Notion is popular for its versatile database and note-taking capabilities, while Trello excels at visual task management through its boards and cards. However, having two separate systems for a content calendar can lead to duplicated effort, missed updates, and communication gaps.
This article provides a detailed, step-by-step tutorial on how to build an automated, bi-directional sync between your Notion content calendar and Trello boards using the open-source automation tool n8n. This workflow ensures that any new or updated entries in Notion are reflected in Trello, and vice versa, helping marketing teams maintain a single source of truth and streamline collaboration.
## Use Case and Benefits
### Who Benefits
– Marketing managers and teams who use Notion for content planning and Trello for task execution.
– Operations specialists ensuring data consistency across platforms.
– Automation engineers tasked with integrating internal tools to save time and reduce manual errors.
### Problem Solved
Keeping content tasks up to date simultaneously in Notion and Trello requires manual copying or constant cross-referencing. The automation eliminates duplication, reduces human errors, maintains task status consistency, and saves time.
## Tools and Services Integrated
– **Notion:** Used as the primary content calendar database.
– **Trello:** Used as the task board for content-related work items.
– **n8n:** An open-source automation platform to implement the sync workflow.
## Technical Tutorial
### Prerequisites
– An active Notion workspace with a content calendar database set up. This database should include properties like Title, Status, Due Date, and any tags or categories.
– A Trello board configured with lists (e.g., To Do, In Progress, Done) mirroring Notion statuses.
– An n8n instance running (cloud or self-hosted).
– API credentials:
– Notion Integration with access to the database.
– Trello API key and token with access to the board.
### Workflow Overview
The automation will:
1. Trigger periodically (e.g., every 5 minutes).
2. Fetch updated or new entries from Notion.
3. Check if corresponding Trello cards exist.
4. Create or update Trello cards accordingly.
5. Similarly, fetch updates from Trello and sync back to Notion.
This bi-directional sync can be implemented using incremental update timestamps and a mapping mechanism between Notion page IDs and Trello card IDs.
### Step 1: Setting up the Trigger
In n8n:
– Create a new workflow.
– Add a **Cron** node configured to execute every 5 minutes (adjust as per your data freshness needs).
### Step 2: Fetch Updated Entries from Notion
– Add a **Notion** node configured with your integration credentials.
– Choose the ‘Database Query’ operation.
– Configure a filter to fetch pages modified since the last run. You can store the timestamp in n8n’s workflow metadata or in an external storage.
– Retrieve relevant fields: title, status, due date, and any custom properties.
### Step 3: Fetch Existing Cards from Trello
– Add a **Trello** node with your API key and token.
– Use the ‘Get All Cards’ operation on the target board.
– This fetch allows checking if a Notion page already has a corresponding Trello card.
### Step 4: Determine Changes and Map Records
– Add a **Function** node to:
– Compare Notion pages with Trello cards using stored mappings (e.g., a custom property on Notion or card description with Notion page ID).
– Identify new pages that need Trello cards created.
– Identify updated pages requiring Trello cards updates.
### Step 5: Create or Update Trello Cards
– For new Notion pages:
– Use a **Trello** node set to ‘Create Card’.
– Map Notion properties: Title → Card Name, Due Date → Due Date, Status → List ID (map status to Trello list ID).
– Store the Trello card ID back in Notion (e.g., as a page property or in an additional database).
– For updated Notion pages:
– Use a **Trello** node set to ‘Update Card’.
– Update card fields as required.
### Step 6: Fetch Updated Cards From Trello
– Add a **Trello** node configured to fetch cards updated since the last sync.
– Retrieve cards’ names, due dates, status (list), and stored Notion page IDs.
### Step 7: Update Notion Pages based on Trello Changes
– Use a **Function** node to:
– Identify Trello cards modified.
– Determine corresponding Notion page.
– Use a **Notion** node to update properties of the corresponding Notion page to reflect Trello changes.
### Step 8: Store Last Sync Timestamps
– Use n8n’s built-in **Workflow Data Storage** or an external data store like Google Sheets, Redis, or a database.
– Save timestamps after each sync to identify incremental changes in the next run.
### Additional Details
– **Mapping Between Notion Pages and Trello Cards:**
– Store Trello card IDs in Notion as a custom property.
– Store Notion page IDs in Trello card descriptions or custom fields.
– **Status Mapping:**
– Define consistent mapping between Notion statuses and Trello lists.
– **Error Handling:**
– Add error catching nodes to handle API failures or rate limiting.
– On failures, log errors and optionally notify the team via Slack or email.
### Common Errors and Tips
– **API Rate Limits:** Both Notion and Trello have API rate limits; adjust cron frequency or implement exponential backoff.
– **Data Mapping Mismatches:** Ensure your field mappings stay consistent; maintain a config node or JSON object with all mappings.
– **Conflict Resolution:** In case of simultaneous conflicting updates, prioritize one system or prompt manual review.
– **Authentication Token Expiry:** Monitor and refresh tokens when necessary to avoid sync failures.
### Scaling and Adapting
– **Scaling:** Increase sync frequency or optimize queries by only pulling changed records.
– **Multi-board or Multi-database:** Extend workflow to handle multiple Notion databases or Trello boards by parameterizing inputs.
– **Additional Integrations:** Integrate Slack or Microsoft Teams to notify marketing teams about content calendar changes.
– **UI Improvement:** Build a simple dashboard within Notion or Trello for status overview.
## Summary
Synchronizing your marketing content calendar between Notion and Trello using n8n ensures single-source accuracy, eliminates manual syncing, and improves team collaboration. This bi-directional workflow, when configured thoughtfully with timestamp-based incremental updates and proper error handling, saves significant time while maintaining consistent task visibility.
**Bonus Tip:** To make the automation even more robust, consider implementing a manual override flag in Notion or Trello for entries that should not be auto-synced. This allows teams to temporarily take control over specific tasks without breaking the sync logic.