Lead Management

Freelancer Lead Machine

A practical lead workflow for a solo freelancer. It turns a basic inquiry form into a simple lead pipeline with a record, acknowledgement email, follow-up task and a timed reminder.

6 stepsRequires Zapier Starter or higher10–15 minEasy

Google FormsGoogle SheetsGmailTodoist

What you get

Every inquiry gets recorded immediately.

Prospects receive a professional acknowledgement.

You get a follow-up task instead of relying on memory.

Workflow blueprint

When this happens

Google FormsNew Form Response

1GS

Google SheetsCreate Spreadsheet Row

2GM

GmailSend Email

3TO

TodoistCreate Task

4DE

Delay by ZapierDelay For

5GM

GmailSend Email

The full blueprint — every field mapping, example value and the written copy for each message — is included with purchase.

Getting it into Zapier

Build this one from the recipe. The blueprint gives you the exact trigger, action events and field mapping for all 6 steps, so it is a copy-and-paste job rather than a design job.

You need your own Zapier account. Zapier’s Free plan runs single-step Zaps only; multi-step Zaps need a paid plan, and Paths and Webhooks need Professional. How this works →

Not on Zapier?

n8n — import and go

An n8n workflow JSON ships with this template. Import it and all 6 steps arrive on the canvas wired in order, and 5 of the 6 nodes arrive with their fields already filled in — the subject lines, the message copy, the delays, the column names. Every step maps to a native n8n node, one of them by a different route — see below.

Google Forms has no n8n node at all, so that step arrives as a native Google Sheets node on the form’s linked responses sheet. It is named for what it is on the canvas rather than for the app it stands in for, and the sticky note under it opens by saying so — the field names are unchanged either way, but the account you connect is the $Google Sheets one.

What an import cannot carry is your credentials, and the IDs that only exist inside your own account — which spreadsheet, which channel, which board. Those stay in a sticky note under the node, listing what is already done so you do not retype it, and what is left so you can see it.

Make — build guide

A Make-specific guide ships with this template: every module in order, every field value, and the concept translations that catch people out — filters live on the links between modules, and the schedule lives on the scenario rather than in a trigger module.

Self-hosted n8n has no per-task fee, which is worth knowing if this workflow runs at volume. Platform coverage →