Varun M

As a freelance automation engineer, I’m always hunting for ways to help businesses save time using smart workflows. One of my recent gigs turned out to be a perfect blend of practicality and profit — I built a fully automated outreach and reply classification system using n8n + ChatGPT… and made $350 doing it.

Let me show you how I pulled this off 👇

The client was manually doing this every day:

They needed an automation system that could do everything — from outreach to intelligent response handling.

Using n8n, Google Sheets, and OpenAI, I built an end-to-end pipeline that:

📨 Automatically sends emails to 1,000+ leads

🧠 Uses ChatGPT to understand responses

📊 Updates Google Sheets with real-time data

🔁 Loops through every lead, no duplicates or misses

📥 Detects new replies daily, and classifies them as Interested or Not Interested

The client added leads to Google Sheets.

Sheet contained name, email, and company.

Used n8n + Gmail Node to send personalized emails.

Dynamic fields: {{First Name}}, {{Company}}, {{Offer}}

Batched using SplitInBatches node to avoid Gmail limits

Scheduled using CRON trigger for auto-sending every day

Connected to the client’s inbox using IMAP Email Node

Filtered only replies (excluding bounces/newsletters)

Parsed sender and message body using HTML Extract or text parser node

Prompted GPT like this: “Classify the following email as either ‘Interested’ or ‘Not Interested’. Reply with only one word.”

Received simple, clear response — no manual guesswork

Used Google Sheets Lookup node to find matching row

Set Reply Received = Yes

Set Client Classification = Interested / Not Interested

Used SplitInBatches and Loops to make sure each email & reply was processed one at a time.

n8n for automation

OpenAI GPT-4 for classification

Google Sheets for CRM-style tracking

Gmail/IMAP for sending & reading emails

📩 Sent 1000+ targeted outreach emails

⚡ Fully automated lead handling

✅ Updated replies in real-time

🤖 ChatGPT classified replies 24/7

💵 Got paid $350 for the complete automation

⏱️ Saved the client 20+ hours/week

I solved a real business problem

Used modular n8n nodes — easy to update/scale

Leveraged AI to eliminate manual decision-making

Didn’t require custom code — just smart logic

This project taught me a lot about combining AI with no-code tools to create real value for clients.

If you’re a freelancer or business owner, consider this your sign: Automate the boring stuff. You’ll thank yourself later.

💼 Want me to build something like this for your team? Let’s talk!

Varun Murugan AI Workflow Engineer | GPT Automation Expert Follow me for more AI + automation breakdowns.