If you’re tired of rewriting the same follow-up emails after every meeting, this guide is for you. Whether you’re a manager, freelancer, or just someone who’s had it with copy-pasting action items, automating follow-ups can save you hours every week. You don’t need to be a coder or buy expensive “AI” tools, either. We’ll walk through how to turn Notta meeting summaries into automatic emails—using tools you probably already have.
Let’s get straight to it.
Why Automate Follow-Up Emails Anyway?
- Time: Manually writing follow-ups is a grind. Automation means you spend less time on admin and more on actual work.
- Consistency: Automated follow-ups reduce the chance of missing action items or forgetting to send recaps.
- Professionalism: Prompt, clear follow-ups make you look organized—even if you’re juggling a dozen calls a day.
But let’s be real: automation isn’t magic. You’ll still need to review and tweak things. This guide will help you set up a workflow that handles the grunt work, so you can focus on the important stuff.
The Big Picture: How This Works
Here’s the general flow you’re aiming for:
- Record and transcribe your meeting with Notta.
- Get the summary (and action items) from Notta.
- Automatically send a follow-up email to relevant people, using the summary.
There are a few ways to connect the dots, depending on your tools. We’ll focus on the most reliable and “good enough” methods—no flaky browser extensions or sketchy copy-paste scripts.
What You’ll Need
- A Notta account (any paid plan, or free if it gives you enough exports)
- Access to your email provider (Gmail, Outlook, etc.)
- An automation tool like Zapier, Make (formerly Integromat), or Microsoft Power Automate
- (Optional) Google Docs or Microsoft Word for formatting, if you want more control
Step 1: Capture and Summarize Meetings with Notta
Notta’s main job is to record and transcribe meetings—Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, or even recordings you upload. Its summaries are pretty decent, especially if the audio is clear.
What Works
- Notta’s summaries are fast and usually accurate enough for follow-ups.
- You can grab action items and decisions quickly.
What Doesn’t
- Don’t expect a flawless write-up. Always scan the summary for errors, especially if you had cross-talk or bad connections.
- Notta’s auto-generated action items are hit-or-miss. You’ll want to double-check important tasks.
Pro tip: If your meetings are a mess, the summaries will be too. A little structure during your calls goes a long way.
Step 2: Get the Summary Where Automation Can Reach It
To automate, you need the summary in a place your automation tool can access. Here are the most practical methods:
A. Email the Summary to Yourself
Notta can email you the summary after each meeting. This is the simplest trigger for automation tools like Zapier or Power Automate, since they can watch your inbox for new messages from Notta.
Pros:
- No extra steps.
Cons:
- Not as flexible for formatting.
B. Save the Summary to Google Drive or OneDrive
If you want to prettify your follow-up emails, have Notta export the summary to Google Docs or OneDrive. Automation tools can watch specific folders for new files.
Pros:
- Easier to format and edit before sending.
Cons:
- Adds a step; more moving parts.
C. Use Notta’s API (If You’re Technical)
If you’re comfortable with APIs, you can pull summaries directly from Notta. But for most people, email or cloud storage is enough.
Bottom line: For 90% of folks, just have Notta email you the summary and set your automation to trigger from there.
Step 3: Set Up the Automation Workflow
Let’s break this down with Zapier, since it’s the most widely used and pretty straightforward.
3.1: Trigger – New Email from Notta
- In Zapier: Set up a trigger for a new Gmail (or Outlook) email from Notta’s address.
- Filter: Only continue if the subject or content matches “meeting summary” to avoid false positives.
3.2: Extract the Summary
- Use Zapier’s built-in email parser or Formatter step to pull out the actual meeting summary. If Notta puts everything in the email body, you can grab it directly.
Heads up: Some Notta emails have extra fluff—links, ads, etc.—so you may need to fine-tune which part of the email you use.
3.3: Compose the Follow-Up Email
-
Template: Create a reusable template in Zapier with placeholders like:
Hi team,
Here’s a quick recap of our meeting:
{{Meeting_Summary}}
Action Items: {{Action_Items}}
Let me know if I missed anything.
-
Insert: Drop the parsed summary and action items into your template.
3.4: Send the Email
- Recipients: You can hard-code email addresses or have Zapier pull them from your calendar invite, CRM, or a Google Sheet.
- Send: Use Zapier’s Gmail or Outlook integration to fire off the email automatically.
Pro tip: Always BCC yourself the first few times, so you can catch mistakes before they go out to everyone.
Step 4: (Optional) Approve Before Sending
If you don’t trust automation to get it right every time (and honestly, you shouldn’t), add an approval step:
- After the draft is created, have Zapier send you a preview via Slack, email, or even as a draft in your email account.
- You review, tweak if needed, and then send.
This adds a minute or two to your process but can save you from embarrassing mistakes.
Step 5: Keep It Tidy
- Regularly review your templates. If people keep asking for more detail (or less), adjust.
- Clean up triggers. If Notta changes its email format, your automation might break.
- Watch for false positives. If you use Notta for different teams or projects, make sure emails go to the right people.
What to Ignore (for Now)
- Over-complicated AI tools: Plenty of startups promise “fully automated follow-ups with emotional intelligence.” In reality, most of them just reword Notta’s output and sometimes get it wrong. Stick to simple templates until you outgrow them.
- Manual copy-paste “automation”: If you’re still pasting summaries into emails by hand, you’re missing the point.
- Browser extensions that “auto-email” from your inbox: These are often buggy or have privacy issues.
Troubleshooting Common Headaches
- Weird formatting in emails? Try sending the summary as plain text, or let Google Docs handle the formatting before sending.
- Missing action items? Notta’s AI is decent but not perfect. Consider adding a manual review step, or have a bullet for “Next Steps” where you fill in the gaps.
- Automation triggers too often? Add filters in your automation tool to only react to the right emails.
Real Talk: What Works, What Doesn’t
- Works: Automating the grunt work of sending follow-ups, especially for routine meetings.
- Doesn’t: Replacing your judgment. You still need to review summaries, especially for high-stakes stuff.
- Nice-to-have: Approval flows, better templates, and integration with your calendar or CRM.
If you want advanced workflows (like updating a project board, or sending personalized reminders), automation tools like Zapier or Make can handle it. But start simple and only add complexity when you hit a wall.
Wrap-Up: Start Simple, Iterate Fast
Automating follow-up emails from Notta meeting summaries isn’t rocket science, but it does take some initial setup. Don’t chase “perfect”; just get a basic workflow running and improve as you go. The whole point is to spend less time on busywork and more on real conversations.
Keep things simple, automate the boring stuff, and tweak your process as you learn what works for you.