Turning Anonymous Visitors into Named Opportunities

Project Overview

Client: BORNEMANN GEWINDETECHNIK (Industrial Manufacturing)
Role: n8n Developer / Automation Specialist
Timeline: 1 week
Key Results:

• Fully automated lead enrichment process (previously 100% manual)
• ~280 enriched leads per day (10 targeted contacts per company visit)
• Estimated savings: 4-5 hours daily operational time
• Zero manual data entry or switching between platforms

Core Expertise Applied:

• n8n Workflow Automation
• API Integration (Leadfeeder & Apollo.io)
• Data Enrichment & Processing
• Webhook Implementation

The Challenge

BORNEMANN was already using Leadfeeder, a platform that identifies which companies visit your website. Think of it like this: User A from Company X visits your site, and Leadfeeder tells you “hey, someone from BMW just checked out your product page.” Pretty powerful stuff.

But here’s the thing, knowing that a company visited is just the starting point. The real question is: who specifically should we reach out to?

They wanted to transform these anonymous company visits into actionable leads, complete with:

• Names and job titles of relevant decision-makers
• Email addresses for outreach
• Phone numbers for follow-up
• Targeting specific positions that match each company’s industry

The manual process? Time-consuming and inconsistent. Check Leadfeeder, note down companies, search each one in Apollo, filter by position, copy data, paste into spreadsheet. Rinse and repeat. For 280+ leads daily, that’s a full-time job just for data gathering.

Solution: n8n Automation Pipeline

After evaluating several enrichment platforms (Hunter, Apollo, Lusha), we chose Apollo.io for its comprehensive data coverage and robust API capabilities.

Development Approach

The project followed a focused, iterative approach with one core principle: read the documentation first, then build smart.

Day 1-2: Research & Architecture
Dove deep into Leadfeeder and Apollo API documentation. Mapped out the data flow, identified API limitations (pagination, rate limits), and designed the workflow architecture.

Day 3-4: Core Workflow Development
Built the main automation logic with 15 nodes, including:

• Leadfeeder data extraction with pagination handling
• Apollo company search and people enrichment
• Webhook implementation for phone number retrieval
• Error handling and monitoring

Day 5-6: Testing & Optimization
Ran multiple test cycles, handled edge cases, optimized for performance. Added monitoring nodes to track success rates and catch failures early.

Day 7: Deployment & Handover
Final deployment with comprehensive documentation and client training.

Technical Implementation

The Two-Workflow System

Workflow 1: Leadfeeder Collector
Runs daily to pull all companies that visited the website the previous day. This workflow handles:

• API authentication with Leadfeeder
• Pagination loop mechanism (since Leadfeeder returns data page by page)
• Data normalization and company list preparation
• Passing clean data to the enrichment workflow

Workflow 2: Apollo Enrichment Engine
Takes the company list and performs targeted lead generation:

1. Company Search - Searches each company in Apollo’s database
2. Position Targeting - Filters for specific roles relevant to industrial manufacturing (e.g., Procurement Managers, Engineering Directors, Operations Leads)
3. People Enrichment - Retrieves detailed contact information
4. Phone Number Webhook - Here’s where it gets interesting. Apollo’s standard person search doesn’t include phone numbers by default. So we implemented a secondary webhook call that specifically requests phone data for each contact.
5. Data Consolidation - All enriched data flows into their CRM/database, ready for the sales team

Technical Challenges & Solutions

Pagination Handling
Leadfeeder returns data in paginated chunks. Built a loop mechanism that automatically cycles through all pages until it captures every company visit. This ensures no potential lead slips through the cracks.

Two-Step Phone Enrichment
Apollo’s API quirk meant we needed creative problem-solving. Instead of settling for email-only data, implemented a webhook-based secondary request that grabs phone numbers separately. A bit more complex, but the sales team now has multiple contact channels.

GCP Account Issue
Mid-project, we hit a snag: the client didn’t have a Google Cloud Platform account set up yet, which was needed for certain webhook configurations. Rather than let this block progress, I provided temporary access to my GCP account to keep things moving. This kind of flexibility and problem-solving is what keeps projects on track.

Results & Impact

Operational Efficiency

From manual to fully automated. What used to require hours of daily manual work now runs automatically every morning. The team wakes up to a fresh list of 280+ enriched leads, ready for outreach.

Cost Savings

Let’s do the math:

• Manual process: ~5 hours daily (researching companies, searching contacts, data entry)
• At standard operational rates: ~$25-35/hour
• Monthly savings: $2,750 - $3,850
• Annual savings: $33,000 - $46,200

And that’s just direct time costs. The real value? The sales team can now focus on what they do best, selling, not data gathering.

Data Quality

Every lead comes with:

• Verified company information
• Targeted job positions
• Direct email addresses
• Phone numbers for multi-channel outreach
• Consistent, standardized formatting

Client Satisfaction

Moritz (the client contact) was incredibly collaborative throughout the process. Communication was smooth, feedback was constructive, and the working relationship was so positive that we’re already discussing the next automation project.

Key Learnings

GDPR & Data Regulations

This project made me think deeply about data handling regulations. Initially, GDPR felt like unnecessary complexity, all these consent requirements, data processing agreements, privacy policies.

But diving deeper changed my perspective entirely. GDPR isn’t just compliance red tape, it’s a framework for responsible data handling. It forces you to be intentional about:

• What data you collect and why
• How long you store it
• Who has access to it
• How you protect user privacy

For this project, we ensured:

• Only business contact data (not personal consumer data)
• Legitimate interest basis for B2B prospecting
• Clear data retention policies
• Secure API authentication and data transmission

Regulations like GDPR make digital solutions safer and more transparent. It’s not about making things harder, it’s about making things right.

Technical Takeaways

• Documentation is gold. Spending time upfront reading API docs saved hours of debugging later.
• Pagination is everywhere. Almost every API worth using has pagination, plan for it from the start.
• Webhook creativity. Sometimes the best solution isn’t the obvious one. The two-step phone enrichment approach solved a real limitation elegantly.
• Monitor everything. Built-in monitoring nodes catch issues before the client notices them.

Technologies Used

• n8n - Workflow automation platform
• Leadfeeder API - Website visitor identification
• Apollo.io API - B2B contact data enrichment
• Google Cloud Platform - Webhook infrastructure
• Webhooks - Secondary data retrieval

Need Lead Enrichment or Marketing Automation?

If you’re drowning in manual data entry, struggling to turn website visitors into actionable leads, or just want to automate repetitive business processes, let’s talk.

I specialize in:

• n8n workflow automation & integration
• Lead enrichment pipelines
• API integration (CRM, marketing tools, data platforms)
• Custom automation solutions for sales & marketing teams
• Data processing & transformation

Whether you’re using Leadfeeder, HubSpot, Salesforce, or any other platform, chances are we can automate it. Let’s turn your manual processes into smooth, automated workflows.

Ready to automate? → Contact Me