Introduction
Re-engagement flows are an essential part of customer relationship management, especially for startups and growing businesses. These flows aim to reconnect with inactive leads or contacts through targeted email campaigns to revive interest and improve conversion rates. HubSpot provides built-in tools for creating such automated re-engagement emails, but this can quickly become costly as your contact list grows. In this article, we’ll walk through building an effective re-engagement email automation using n8n, a powerful open-source workflow automation tool. This solution helps startups, automation engineers, and operations specialists reduce their dependency on expensive SaaS platforms while maintaining or even improving campaign flexibility.
Use Case and Problem Statement
The problem this automation solves is reactivating cold or inactive leads who have stopped engaging with marketing emails or sales outreach. Sales and marketing teams benefit from this by automatically identifying inactive leads, sending personalized re-engagement emails, and logging results — all without manual intervention or costly software fees.
Tools and Services Integrated:
– n8n for workflow orchestration
– Google Sheets to maintain and update the leads database (optional, can be replaced with any database or CRM export)
– Gmail SMTP or any transactional email service (e.g., SendGrid, Mailgun) for sending emails
– Optional: Slack to send alerts or notifications when leads are re-engaged
Workflow Overview
The automation triggers on a schedule (e.g., weekly) to scan through a list of leads to find those who have been inactive for a configurable period. For each inactive lead:
1. Check their last engagement date.
2. Send a personalized re-engagement email.
3. Update the lead status in the database/sheet.
4. Optionally, notify the sales team via Slack.
Technical Tutorial
Step 1: Setup Trigger – Schedule Trigger Node
– Add the Schedule Trigger node in n8n.
– Configure it to run weekly or daily based on your re-engagement frequency.
Step 2: Retrieve Lead Data – Google Sheets Node (or any data source)
– Connect to your Google Sheets where you maintain lead information.
– Pull all lead records or filter leads that are currently marked as inactive or have not engaged for a specified timeframe.
Use a Google Sheets ‘Lookup’ or ‘Read Range’ node and apply filters in the next steps.
Step 3: Filter Inactive Leads – Function Node
– Use a Function node to filter leads based on the last engagement date.
– For example, identify leads who have not opened or clicked any emails in the last 90 days.
– The function can iterate over the lead list and remove active leads.
Example JavaScript snippet inside Function node:
“`javascript
const INACTIVITY_THRESHOLD_DAYS = 90;
const now = new Date();
return items.filter(item => {
const lastEngagement = new Date(item.json.lastEngagementDate);
const diffDays = (now – lastEngagement) / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24);
return diffDays >= INACTIVITY_THRESHOLD_DAYS;
});
“`
Step 4: Send Re-engagement Email – SMTP or Email Node
– Add the SMTP Email node and configure it with your SMTP credentials or use an Email node connected to SendGrid/Mailgun.
– Map the lead’s email address and personalize the email content using variables.
Example:
– Subject: “We Miss You at [Your Company Name]!”
– Body: “Hi {{firstName}}, we noticed you haven’t been active lately. Here’s what’s new…”
Step 5: Update Lead Status – Google Sheets Update Node
– After sending the email, update the lead’s record in Google Sheets to mark that a re-engagement email was sent and record the date.
– This helps prevent resending emails too frequently.
Step 6 (Optional): Send Notification – Slack Node
– Notify your sales or marketing team whenever a lead is successfully re-engaged.
– Include information like lead name, email, and timestamp.
Error Handling and Robustness Tips
– Add a “No Operation” node in branches where no leads meet the inactivity criteria to gracefully handle empty executions.
– Configure error workflows in n8n to catch and log failed email sends or API errors.
– Rate-limit email sending to comply with SMTP provider quotas.
– Use environment variables in n8n to keep sensitive credentials secure.
– Validate email addresses before sending to reduce bounces.
Scaling the Workflow
– Move from Google Sheets to a lightweight database (PostgreSQL, MySQL) as lead volume grows.
– Use n8n’s workflow queues and concurrency controls to handle large batches.
– Integrate with CRM APIs directly (e.g., Salesforce, Pipedrive) instead of Google Sheets for real-time data.
– Expand email templates to multi-step nurture campaigns including conditional branching based on engagement.
Summary and Bonus Tip
By using n8n, you gain full control over your re-engagement flows without recurring SaaS fees tied to contact volume. The workflow crafted here is modular and extensible, allowing startups and automation teams to customize triggers, data sources, and outbound communication channels.
Bonus Tip: To increase deliverability and engagement, add an A/B testing node using conditional logic in n8n to alternate between different subject lines or email bodies and track performance. This can be done by setting a flag in your data source or using randomization inside the workflow.
This approach not only saves costs but empowers your team to iterate quickly and integrate re-engagement seamlessly into your sales and marketing stack.