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Daily

Follow up with HubSpot contacts who haven't replied

Contacts who didn't answer your first email get a polite follow-up from Gmail a few days later, and HubSpot shows it was sent.

Runs
Daily
Apps
Gmail, HubSpot
AI
Not needed
Access
HubSpot contacts read+write; Gmail gmail.readonly, gmail.send

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every day, send a follow-up from my Gmail to HubSpot contacts I emailed 3 days ago who haven't replied, and log it in HubSpot.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Most replies to sales emails come after the second or third message, but follow-ups are the first thing to slip when a week gets busy. Salespeople keep mental notes of who to chase, and the notes don't survive a holiday.

This checks each day for contacts you emailed a few days ago, looks at the Gmail thread to see whether they replied, and sends a short follow-up only to those who didn't. HubSpot records each follow-up, so the history is complete.

What you get out of it

  • Follow-ups happen on time

    A contact emailed on Monday gets a nudge on Thursday, every time, without a reminder in your calendar.

  • People who replied are left alone

    The Gmail thread is checked first, so nobody gets a chaser after answering you.

  • The thread stays together

    The follow-up is sent in the same Gmail conversation, so the person sees your original message underneath.

  • HubSpot shows the whole sequence

    Each follow-up updates the contact with the date and step, so anyone can see where things stand.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Once a day, ClickRuntime finds HubSpot contacts you first emailed three days ago.

  2. For each one, it opens the Gmail conversation to see whether they have replied.

  3. People who haven't replied get a short follow-up in the same conversation from your Gmail.

  4. HubSpot is updated with the follow-up date and count, so nobody is chased twice for the same step.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Google through your own Google app (a one-time, 10-minute setup), so it works with your own Gmail
  • Connect HubSpot

What you get

RunsDaily
Follow up with HubSpot contacts who haven't repliedtoday, 9:00Succeeded
Gmail · SentRe: Quick hello, to Lena Fischer at Tailspin Toys Hi Lena, just bringing this back to the top of your inbox. Worth a chat?

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
  • Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Gmail and HubSpot steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
timed_follow_ups_to_hubspot_contacts.pyexample
import base64
from email.message import EmailMessage
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from datetime import date, timedelta
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http
def hs(method, path, **kw):
    r = http.request(method, f"https://api.hubapi.com{path}", headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.connection('hubspot', 'work')}"}, **kw)
    return r.raise_for_status() or (r.json() if r.content else {})
@on_trigger
def run(event):
    day = (date.today() - timedelta(days=3)).isoformat()
    found = hs("POST", "/crm/v3/objects/contacts/search", json={"filterGroups": [{"filters": [
        {"propertyName": "first_outreach_date", "operator": "EQ", "value": day},
        {"propertyName": "followup_count", "operator": "NOT_HAS_PROPERTY"}]}],
        "properties": ["email", "firstname", "outreach_thread_id"], "limit": 100})["results"]
    g = build("gmail", "v1", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False)
    sent = 0
    for c in found:
        p = c["properties"]
        thread = g.users().threads().get(userId="me", id=p["outreach_thread_id"], format="metadata").execute()
        if any(p["email"] in h["value"] for m in thread["messages"] for h in m["payload"]["headers"] if h["name"] == "From"):
            continue
        msg = EmailMessage(); msg["To"] = p["email"]; msg["Subject"] = "Re: Quick hello"
        msg.set_content(f"Hi {p.get('firstname') or 'there'}, just bringing this back to the top of your inbox. Worth a chat?")
        g.users().messages().send(userId="me", body={"raw": base64.urlsafe_b64encode(msg.as_bytes()).decode(),
                                                     "threadId": p["outreach_thread_id"]}).execute()
        hs("PATCH", f"/crm/v3/objects/contacts/{c['id']}", json={"properties": {"followup_count": "1", "last_followup_date": date.today().isoformat()}})
        sent += 1
    return {"followed_up": sent}

FAQ

Common questions

How does it know who to follow up?
It looks for contacts whose first outreach date was three days ago (or whatever gap you choose) and whose follow-up count is below your limit.
How many follow-ups will someone get?
You set the sequence, for example a nudge after three days and a last one after seven. After the final step, the contact is left alone.
Where does it find the original email?
The Gmail thread ID is stored on the contact in HubSpot when the first email is sent, so the follow-up goes into the same thread.
What permissions does it need?
HubSpot contacts read+write; Gmail gmail.readonly, gmail.send. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it runs (daily). Checks that find nothing to do and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Follow up with HubSpot contacts who haven't replied” from your assistant

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