Setting up a lead enrichment process in Make with Clearbit integration

If you’re drowning in spreadsheets or spending too much time Googling every new lead that hits your inbox, you’re not alone. This guide is for folks who want to automate lead enrichment—pulling in extra details like company info, social profiles, or funding—without buying yet another overhyped SaaS tool.

We’ll walk through setting up a lead enrichment workflow in Make (previously Integromat) using Clearbit. This isn’t magic, but it does save time, cut down on repetitive work, and give you cleaner lead data for your CRM or sales team.

Let’s get practical.

What is Lead Enrichment, and Why Automate It?

Lead enrichment means adding more info to a basic lead: think job title, company size, LinkedIn profile, tech stack, and more. You usually do this so sales and marketing don’t waste time chasing dead ends or writing generic emails.

Manual enrichment is slow, boring, and error-prone. Automation tools can pull in data right when a lead comes in—no more clicking around LinkedIn or scraping websites by hand.

What You Need

Here’s what you’ll need before you start:

  • A Make account: Free or paid, doesn’t matter for this basic workflow.
  • A Clearbit account: You’ll need an API key. The free tier has limits, but it’s fine for testing.
  • Somewhere to collect leads: Could be a Google Sheet, a CRM, or even just email. For this guide, we’ll use Google Sheets as a simple example.
  • (Optional) A CRM or email tool: If you want to push enriched leads somewhere else.

Pro tip: Test with fake or throwaway data first. You don’t want to burn through Clearbit credits messing around.

Step 1: Set Up Your Lead Capture

You need a trigger. This is where new leads land—maybe a form submission, a new row in a spreadsheet, or a new contact in your CRM.

For this walkthrough, let’s use Google Sheets:

  • Create a Google Sheet with columns like: First Name, Last Name, Email, Company, etc.
  • Every time a new row is added, that’s your signal to start the enrichment process.

Skip this if you’re already capturing leads somewhere else.

Step 2: Connect Make to Your Lead Source

  1. Create a new scenario in Make.
  2. Add your trigger module:
  3. For Google Sheets, pick the “Watch Rows” event.
  4. Connect your Google account and pick your sheet.

  5. Set it to watch for new rows.

  6. Test the trigger. Add a dummy lead to your sheet and make sure Make sees it.

Heads up: If your source is a CRM, email inbox, or web form, use the equivalent trigger in Make.

Step 3: Add the Clearbit Enrichment Module

Now it’s time to actually get more info on your leads.

  1. Add a new module after your trigger.
  2. Search for “HTTP” (Clearbit doesn’t have a native Make module as of writing, so you’ll use a generic HTTP request).
  3. Set up a GET request to Clearbit’s Enrichment API:
  4. URL: https://person.clearbit.com/v2/combined/find?email={{email}}
    • Replace {{email}} with the email from your trigger.

  5. Headers:

    • Authorization: Bearer YOUR_CLEARBIT_API_KEY
    • Content-Type: application/json

  6. Map the email field from your trigger into the URL.

  7. Run a test. If everything’s set up right, you’ll get a big blob of JSON with enriched data.

Don’t see much info? That happens. Clearbit’s coverage is good but not perfect, especially for non-business emails or smaller companies.

Step 4: Parse and Use the Enriched Data

You’ve got a JSON payload from Clearbit. Now what? You need to pull out the bits you care about and put them somewhere useful.

  1. Add a JSON parsing module (Make calls this “Parse JSON” or you can use built-in variable mapping).
  2. Pick out fields like:
  3. Job title (person.title)
  4. Company name (company.name)
  5. Company size (company.metrics.employees)
  6. LinkedIn URL (person.linkedin.handle)

  7. Tech stack, funding, etc.

  8. Map these fields to where you want them:

  9. Update your Google Sheet with new columns for enriched data.
  10. Or, add a module to send the info to your CRM, Slack, or email.

Pro tip: Don’t try to map every possible field. Pick 3-5 you’ll actually use. More data ≠ more value.

Step 5: Error Handling and Edge Cases

Automations break, and APIs fail (or rate-limit you). Here’s how not to get burned:

  • Handle missing data: Clearbit won’t always return results. Decide what happens if enrichment fails—do you flag the lead, skip it, or try again later?
  • Watch your API limits: Free Clearbit accounts run out fast. If you’re doing volume, expect to pay.
  • Log errors: Add a module to log failed enrichments somewhere (a sheet, email alert, etc.).
  • Privacy: Don’t enrich or store info you don’t need, especially if you’re in Europe or care about GDPR.

Step 6: Push Enriched Leads to Your Tools

This is optional, but usually, you want to get the enriched leads out of your sheet and into your real workflow.

  • To a CRM: Add a module for Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, etc. Map the enriched fields.
  • To email: Automatically send a summary to your sales team.
  • To Slack or Teams: Post a message when a hot lead comes in.

Keep it simple at first. The more steps you add, the more things can break.

The Honest Truth: What Works, What Doesn’t

Here’s what you should know before betting the farm on automated enrichment:

  • Coverage is good, not perfect. Clearbit does well with tech companies and business emails. Personal emails, small businesses, and non-US leads? Hit and miss.
  • API rate limits are real. The free tier is tiny. Budget accordingly.
  • Not every field is accurate. Always sanity-check enriched data before trusting it for big decisions.
  • Automation saves time, but needs maintenance. APIs change, sheets move, and weird data sneaks in. Check your workflows every so often.

Ignore the hype: lead enrichment is a helper, not a silver bullet.

Pro Tips

  • Start with a dry run: Test with a handful of leads before unleashing it on your whole list.
  • Don’t over-enrich: More fields = more confusion. Stick to 2-4 key data points that actually change how you follow up.
  • Document what you build: Write down how your Make scenario works. Six months from now, you’ll thank yourself.
  • Set alerts for errors or API limits: Don’t let the process silently fail.

Wrapping Up

Automating lead enrichment in Make with Clearbit isn’t complicated, but it’s easy to overthink. Build the simplest version that works, see if it actually helps, and add complexity only if you really need it. You’ll waste less time, get better data, and avoid the “automation for automation’s sake” trap.

Remember: small, reliable workflows beat big, fancy ones that break. Iterate as you go, and don’t be afraid to strip things back if they’re not adding value. Good luck!