In a highly competitive business environment, accurate business leads not only help companies improve sales performance but also optimize marketing strategies. However, manually collecting and organizing this information can be cumbersome and error-prone. To enhance efficiency, many enterprises have started to leverage automation tools.

n8n is a powerful open-source automation platform that allows users to easily integrate data between different applications. In this article, we will introduce how to use n8n and Scrapeless to obtain potential customer information from the internet, organize and clean the data, and finally export it to Google Sheets. By following this process, you will be able to manage business leads more efficiently.

What is Scrapeless？

Scrapeless is a powerful web scraping tool designed to help users quickly and easily extract valuable data from websites. In an n8n workflow, users simply need to provide the target website’s URL and the corresponding scraping rules, and Scrapeless will handle the data collection, eliminating the complexity and errors of manual operations. Whether you’re scraping social media information, product data, or market analysis, Scrapeless can efficiently complete the task.

Workflow Introduction:

1. Manually Trigger: Set the trigger condition.  
2. Scrapeless: Used for data scraping.  
3. Code: Used for data cleaning.  
4. Google Sheets: Import the scraped data into Google Sheets.  

Prerequisites  

1. You need to create an n8n account by clicking “Get Started” and receive a free 14-day trial.  
2. Have a Scrapeless account, which can be created by following these steps:  

   – Create an account and log in to the Scrapeless Dashboard.  

   – Generate your Scrapeless API key.  

Building the Workflow  

Step 1. Set Up the Manual Trigger  

Once you enter n8n, create a new workflow and name it, for example, “Business Lead Scraping with Scrapeless.” Search for and add the manual trigger node.

Step 2. Connect Scrapeless  

A. Search for the “Scrape” node in Scrapeless.

Copy the generated API key and paste it into n8n.

B. Set the target website and click “Execute Step”  

Assuming we want to scrape information about Amazon from LinkedIn, the data scraped by Scrapeless will be displayed on the right.

Step 3. Clean the Data  

The data scraped often contains all the content of the page. If we only want to extract specific information, we need to perform data cleaning. Search for the “Code” node in n8n and rename it to “Clean Data.”

Assuming we only need to extract the Title, Description, and URL, you can enter the following code:

const items = Sinput.all();

const cleanedData = items.map((item) => {
  return {
    title: item?.json?.metadata?.title,
    description: item?.json?.metadata?.description,
    url: item?.json?.metadata?.url,
  };
});

return cleanedData;

Step 4. Export to Google Sheets  

A. Create a New Spreadsheet in Google Sheets  

• In your local Google Sheets, create a new spreadsheet and name it “Scrapeless-business-lead-scraping.”
• Create a worksheet named “test” 
• Set up three columns: “Title,” “Description,” and “URL.”

B. Configure the Spreadsheet in n8n  

Return to the n8n workflow, search for and select “Google Sheets,” then choose “Append or update row in sheet.” Name this workflow “Export to Google Sheets.”  

• Select “Map Each Column Manually.”  
• Choose the document where the data will be stored and the specific Sheet.  
• Drag the title, description, and URL to their corresponding positions.

At this point, all workflow configurations are complete.

Step 5. Check the Data  

Return to the workflow and click “Execute Workflow.” The system will display a success message.

Return to Google Sheets to verify the data.

Summary: 

This workflow efficiently scrapes potential business information using the Scrapeless tool, supporting sales teams in outbound prospecting, marketers in building lead lists, and organizations in data aggregation tasks. By setting up triggers and extracting the required data, it simplifies the data collection and cleaning process, exporting it to Google Sheets for easier analysis and management.

This process helps enterprises more precisely identify market opportunities and achieve automated business lead management. Additionally, a tutorial on how to create AI pipelines in n8n that provide robust technical support for building knowledge bases, conducting market research, and developing AI assistants.

Log in to Scrapeless now to claim your free trial and try creating your own customized business workflows!