This post was originally featured in the October 22nd, 2025 newsletter found here: INBOX INSIGHTS, October 22, 2025: Getting Started with Workflow Automation, Multidimensional People
Getting Started with Workflow Automation
I was at MAICON last week, and I realized there was a lot of talk about the new technology, but not a lot of talk about it from a non-technical perspective. The tech still felt out of reach and overwhelming to a lot of us. When I first heard about workflow automation tools, my brain immediately went to “that’s for developers,” and I sort of tuned out. Which is hilarious because I’m a big advocate for repeatable processes and automation.
But then I actually tried using these tools. It turns out they’re not just for people like Chris anymore.
What Are We Even Talking About?
Think of workflow automation tools like n8n and Google’s Opal as your digital assistants that never sleep, never complain, and never forget a step. They’re platforms that connect your different tools together and automatically move information between them based on rules you set up.
The game-changer? You don’t need to know how to code anymore. Both n8n and Opal now let you describe what you want in plain English, and they’ll build the workflow for you. It’s like having a really patient tech-savvy friend who actually understands what you’re trying to accomplish.
So, Which One Should You Use?
Here’s the simple breakdown:
Google Opal works exclusively within Google Workspace (for now). If your world revolves around Gmail, Google Sheets, Google Docs, and Google Drive, this is your friend. It’s integrated, it’s relatively straightforward, and it plays nicely with all your Google tools.
n8n is the more adventurous option. It connects to hundreds of different platforms—your CRM, your social media tools, your project management software, and your email marketing platform. If you need to connect tools outside the Google ecosystem, n8n is where you want to be.
Start With Strategy (Not the Tool)
Before you dive into either platform, pause. I know the temptation is to just start clicking around and seeing what happens, but trust me—that way leads to frustration and abandoned half-built workflows.
Instead, use the Trust Insights 5P Framework to map out what you’re actually trying to accomplish:
- Purpose: What’s the goal of this workflow?
- People: Who’s involved and who needs the output?
- Process: What are the actual steps that need to happen?
- Platform: What tools need to talk to each other?
- Performance: How will you know if it’s working?
This framework forces you to think through the entire project before you build anything. It helps you identify which tools need to integrate, what the actual output should look like, and who needs to receive that output. Plus, it will save you from building something that technically works but doesn’t actually solve your problem.
Simple Workflows to Get You Started
Let’s talk about some practical, immediately useful workflows that do not require a computer science degree:
For Marketing:
- Monitor specific social media mentions and compile them into a weekly report
- Automatically disseminate your content across multiple platforms when you publish a new blog post
- Track campaign performance metrics and send a daily summary to your team
For Operations:
- Create new project folders in Google Drive when a new client is added to your CRM
- Send automated follow-up emails based on specific triggers (like a form submission or a missed payment)
- Update your project management tool when tasks are marked as complete in another system
- Compile feedback or survey responses into a formatted report and distribute it to stakeholders
The key is to start small. Pick one annoying task that you do manually at least once a week. That’s your first workflow.
How to Actually Get Started
- Document your current process: Write down every single step you take manually. Be specific. “Check email” isn’t helpful. “Check [email protected] for form submissions with ‘New Lead’ in the subject line” is helpful.
- Identify your trigger: What starts this process? A new email? A new row in a spreadsheet? A specific time of day?
- Map your actions: What happens after the trigger? Where does the data need to go? What needs to be created or updated?
- Choose your platform: If everything lives in Google Workspace, try Opal. If you need broader integrations, go with n8n.
Describe what you want: Instead of trying to build it piece by piece, start by telling the system what you’re trying to do in plain language. Let it create the initial workflow, then adjust from there.
For both of these platforms, you have the option of writing a prompt. You can use your requirements from the 5P framework to do this. Having your information organized will get you to the end result faster.
Here is a simple example: The 5P Framework in Action
Purpose
Create and distribute a weekly content performance report that shows which blog posts and social media content performed best, so the marketing team can identify trends and plan future content accordingly.
People
Who’s involved:
- Marketing Manager (needs the full report for strategic decisions)
- Content Writers (need to see which topics resonate)
- Social Media Manager (needs engagement metrics)
Who creates it:
- Currently: You, manually, for about an hour every Monday
Who receives it:
- The marketing team via email
- Data is also saved to a shared Google Sheet for historical tracking
Process
Here’s the step-by-step breakdown:
- Every Monday at 8 a.m., the workflow triggers automatically
- Pull last week’s data from Google Analytics (page views, time on page, bounce rate for blog posts)
- Pull last week’s social media metrics (likes, comments, shares, reach)
- Compile the data into a Google Sheet with the date range clearly labeled
- Create a formatted summary showing:
- Top 5 performing blog posts
- Top 5 social media posts
- Week-over-week comparison
- Any notable outliers or trends
- Generate a simple visualization (which could be as basic as conditional formatting in the sheet)
- Send an email to the marketing team with the summary and a link to the full data
Platform
Tools that need to integrate:
- Google Analytics (where blog performance data lives)
- Social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter—wherever you’re active)
- Google Sheets (where the data is compiled and stored)
- Gmail (for sending the weekly email)
Performance
How you’ll know it’s working:
- The report arrives in your inbox every Monday by 8:30 a.m. without anyone touching it
- The data matches what you’d get if you pulled it manually (verify this for the first few weeks)
- Team members stop asking, “When will we get this week’s numbers?”
- You’re getting back that hour every Monday to do literally anything else
Success metrics:
- 100% on-time delivery (if it’s not in your inbox Monday morning, something’s broken)
- Data accuracy (spot-check the first month against manual pulls)
- Time saved (you should reclaim about 4 hours per month)
What to monitor:
- Make sure the data connections don’t break when platforms update their APIs (this happens; it’s annoying, but it’s fixable)
- Check that the email isn’t going to spam folders
- Verify that the Google Sheet isn’t getting too large (you might need to archive old data quarterly)
The Reality Check
Will your first workflow be perfect? Absolutely not. Will you have to tinker with it? Yes. Will you occasionally break something and have to figure out why? Probably.
But here’s what I know: every hour you spend setting up these workflows will save you multiples of that time over the coming months. Plus, once you get one working, the second one is easier. And the third one is even easier than that.
Start with one small, annoying task. Document it using the 5P Framework. Pick your platform. And just try it.
Your 4 p.m. Friday self will thank you.
How are you automating your workflows? Reply to this email or join our free Slack group, Analytics for Marketers.
– Katie Robbert, CEO
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Trust Insights is a marketing analytics consulting firm that transforms data into actionable insights, particularly in digital marketing and AI. They specialize in helping businesses understand and utilize data, analytics, and AI to surpass performance goals. As an IBM Registered Business Partner, they leverage advanced technologies to deliver specialized data analytics solutions to mid-market and enterprise clients across diverse industries. Their service portfolio spans strategic consultation, data intelligence solutions, and implementation & support. Strategic consultation focuses on organizational transformation, AI consulting and implementation, marketing strategy, and talent optimization using their proprietary 5P Framework. Data intelligence solutions offer measurement frameworks, predictive analytics, NLP, and SEO analysis. Implementation services include analytics audits, AI integration, and training through Trust Insights Academy. Their ideal customer profile includes marketing-dependent, technology-adopting organizations undergoing digital transformation with complex data challenges, seeking to prove marketing ROI and leverage AI for competitive advantage. Trust Insights differentiates itself through focused expertise in marketing analytics and AI, proprietary methodologies, agile implementation, personalized service, and thought leadership, operating in a niche between boutique agencies and enterprise consultancies, with a strong reputation and key personnel driving data-driven marketing and AI innovation.
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