How to Automate Lead Generation with n8n

Why Automate Lead Generation?

Manual outreach doesn't scale. You spend hours finding prospects, verifying emails, and sending messages — only to repeat it all tomorrow.

With n8n, you can build workflows that do this automatically, 24/7.

What You'll Build

1. Lead scraping — Pull prospects from LinkedIn, Apollo, or Google Maps
2. Email enrichment — Verify and find emails with Hunter.io
3. Automated sequences — Send personalized cold emails
4. CRM sync — Push everything to your CRM automatically

Step 1: Set Up n8n

Install n8n locally or use the cloud version:

npm install n8n -g
n8n start

Open http://localhost:5678 in your browser.

Step 2: Build the Scraping Node

Connect to your data source. Use the HTTP Request node to pull data from APIs:

{
  "method": "GET",
  "url": "https://api.apollo.io/v1/mixed_people/search",
  "headers": {
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
  }
}

Step 3: Enrich with Hunter.io

Add an HTTP Request node to verify emails:

https://api.hunter.io/v2/email-verifier?email={{$json.email}}&api_key=YOUR_KEY

Step 4: Send Outreach

Connect to your email provider (Gmail, SMTP, or a tool like Instantly) and set up your sequence.

The key to great automation is knowing when to keep humans in the loop. Always review your lists before sending.

Results

With this setup, you can generate 50+ qualified leads per day on autopilot while you focus on closing deals.