n8n Cold Outreach Email Workflow: OpenAI + Follow-Up SMTP

Send a personalized cold email + automated follow-up in n8n (with OpenAI and SMTP)

This n8n Cold Outreach Email Workflow generates a short personalized outreach email using OpenAI (GPT-4o-mini), sends it via SMTP, waits four days, and then sends a single follow-up—unless a replyReceived flag indicates the prospect replied.

What this workflow does

• Runs manually for one lead: Start the workflow to begin a cold outreach sequence for a single contact.
• Sets lead inputs: Populate leadName, leadEmail, leadCompany, source, personalNote, and sequence-step values in the Set Lead Data step.
• Generates the initial email with OpenAI: Uses OpenAI (GPT-4o-mini) to draft a short, personalized initial cold email from the lead details.
• Sends via Send Email (SMTP): Sends the initial email and records the sent timestamp.
• Waits 4 days: Uses a wait step, then checks whether replyReceived equals true.
• Stops if a reply is detected: If replyReceived is true, it marks the lead as replied and completes the sequence.
• Sends one follow-up if no reply: If not, OpenAI generates a brief follow-up, which is then sent and logged.

Use cases

• SaaS teams running lightweight cold outreach for individual prospects without a full CRM sequence.
• Automation engineers testing an OpenAI + SMTP email drafting and sending flow in n8n.
• Operators who want a simple “initial email + single follow-up” cadence with an explicit replyReceived stop condition.

Technical details

• n8n nodes: if, set, no op, wait, OpenAI, Send Email
• AI generation: OpenAI (GPT-4o-mini)
• Email delivery: Send Email via SMTP (configure SMTP credentials in your n8n instance as needed)
• Reply gating: workflow checks a replyReceived field before sending the follow-up