How to build data enrichment recipes for HubSpot contacts in Workato

So you want to enrich your HubSpot contacts—automatically, not by hand, and definitely not by exporting spreadsheets every week. This guide’s for you if you use HubSpot as your CRM and are tired of stale or incomplete data. We’ll walk through how to build data enrichment automations (“recipes”) in Workato that actually work, flag common traps, and point out what’s worth your time (and what isn’t).

No buzzwords, no sales pitch—just a practical guide to getting more out of your contact data.

Why bother with data enrichment?

You probably already know why, but let’s be clear: good data makes everything in sales, marketing, and support easier. Enrichment means pulling in extra info—job titles, company details, social profiles, you name it—from external sources. It’s a pain to do manually and easy to mess up if you try to automate it without a plan.

HubSpot’s built-in enrichment is fine, but it’s limited and not always accurate. If you want something better, you need to plug in third-party data—think Clearbit, ZoomInfo, or your own sources—and keep it up to date. That’s exactly where Workato comes in.

What you need before you start

Don’t skip this part—half the pain in automation projects comes from missing prerequisites. Get these lined up:

HubSpot access: Admin or integration rights to your account.
Workato account: With permissions to create recipes and install connectors.
Data enrichment API/tools: You’ll need credentials for whatever service you’ll use (Clearbit, ZoomInfo, Apollo, your own database, etc.).
A few test contacts in HubSpot: So you don’t accidentally enrich your entire database on the first try.
A plan for which fields you want to enrich: Don’t just say “everything.” Pick what’s actually useful.

Pro tip: If you can, use a sandbox or test environment for HubSpot and Workato. Mistakes are a lot less stressful there.

Step 1: Map out your enrichment flow

Before you click anything, sketch out what you want to happen. A typical enrichment process looks like this:

Trigger: A contact is created or updated in HubSpot.
Get data: Send the contact’s email (or other identifier) to your enrichment provider.
Update contact: Write the new data back to HubSpot, but only for fields that are missing or out of date.
(Optional) Notify someone: Maybe alert sales if you get a big account, or log errors.

Don’t overcomplicate things at first. Start by enriching just one or two fields, like job title or company size. You can always add more later.

Step 2: Set up the HubSpot connector in Workato

Assuming you’ve already got your Workato account, here’s what you do:

Add HubSpot as a connection in Workato.
Go to “Connections,” search for HubSpot, and follow the prompts. Use an account with the right permissions.
Test the connection to make sure Workato can read and write contacts.

Heads up: If you’re using a sandbox HubSpot account, make sure it’s not locked down. Some “test” environments have weird API limits.

Step 3: Connect your enrichment provider

This step depends on your data source, but the basics are:

Find the connector: Workato has pre-built connectors for some services (like Clearbit). If yours isn’t listed, you’ll use the HTTP connector to call their API.
Set up authentication: Usually an API key. Store it securely in Workato.
Test a sample call: Make sure you can get data back for a test contact.

What if there’s no connector?

Don’t panic—most APIs work fine with Workato’s HTTP connector. You’ll just need to:

Read the enrichment provider’s API docs.
Set up the request (usually a GET or POST with the contact’s email).
Parse the response (typically JSON) to grab the fields you care about.

Pro tip: Try your API calls in Postman or cURL first. It’s much easier to debug outside of Workato.

Step 4: Build your first recipe

Now for the fun part. Here’s the simplest version:

Trigger: “New or updated contact in HubSpot.”
Filter to only run if the fields you want to enrich are blank or outdated.
Action: “Search person/company in enrichment provider.”
Pass the email (and any other useful identifiers).
Conditional logic: Check if you got a result.
If yes, move on. If not, maybe log it or skip.
Action: “Update contact in HubSpot.”
Only write back fields that aren’t already filled in. Don’t overwrite existing good data unless you have a reason.

Here’s what the logic might look like, simplified:

plaintext WHEN contact is created or updated in HubSpot IF job title is blank CALL enrichment API with contact email IF data found UPDATE HubSpot contact with job title from API

You can get fancier—batch processing, error handling, enriching multiple fields—but this is the core.

Step 5: Test, test, test

Don’t skip this. Here’s why:

Enrichment APIs rate-limit you. You don’t want to use up your credits or get blocked during testing.
Real data is messy. Some contacts won’t match, or you’ll get bad info back.
Recipe bugs are common. It’s easy to map the wrong field or accidentally overwrite good data.

How to test safely:

Use a few dummy contacts.
Run your recipe manually.
Check each step’s output in Workato’s job history.
Double-check that only the right fields are updated.

Pro tip: Add logging steps to your recipe, at least while testing. It’ll save you hours debugging later.

Step 6: Add error handling and notifications

Your integration will break at some point—bad API responses, network hiccups, or weird data. Plan for it.

Error steps: In Workato, add branches for error cases. Log failures somewhere (Google Sheet, Slack, email).
Notifications: Alert someone if things go off the rails, but don’t spam them for every minor hiccup.
Retries: Decide if you want to retry failed calls, and how many times.

Don’t get sucked into building a perfect error handling system from day one. Start basic, then add more checks as you see what actually goes wrong.

Step 7: Roll it out—slowly

Once you’re happy with your test runs:

Point your recipe at a small segment of real contacts.
Monitor the results—are fields enriching as expected? Any bad data slipping in?
Gradually expand. Don’t flip the switch on your whole database unless you’re very confident.

What to watch for:

Duplicate or overwritten data. Make sure your recipe isn’t erasing useful info.
API costs. Enrichment isn’t free; keep an eye on usage.
“Garbage in, garbage out.” If contact emails are old or invalid, enrichment won’t help.

What works, what doesn’t, and what to ignore

What works

Start simple: Enrich one or two fields first.
Use filters: Don’t enrich records that already have good data.
Keep a log: Even just a Google Sheet of what was updated.

What doesn’t

Enriching everything, all at once. You’ll burn through API credits and probably update things you shouldn’t.
Trusting enrichment data blindly. It’s not always accurate—especially for job titles and company attributes.
Overengineering recipes. Start minimal; you can always add steps later.

What to ignore

Fancy deduplication at first. Unless you already have lots of duplicate contacts, skip this for now.
Real-time notifications for every update. Sales doesn’t need a Slack ping for every minor enrichment.

Pro tips and gotchas

API limits sneak up fast. Most enrichment tools charge per call, so test with small batches.
Don’t overwrite hand-entered data. Sales reps will hate you if you clobber their notes with generic enrichment info.
Document your recipes. A quick description in Workato goes a long way when you revisit this in six months.
Iterate. What you think you need at first will change after a week or two.

Keep it simple and iterate

Data enrichment is one of those “easy to start, tough to master” tasks. The best advice: start small, automate what actually matters, and don’t get distracted by shiny features you don’t need. If your first recipe enriches two fields reliably, that’s a win. You can always build from there.

Keep it simple, check your results, and tweak as you go. You’ll avoid most of the pain—and you’ll actually get better data in HubSpot.