How to Auto-create contacts from emails with Power Automate

My flows > New flow > Automated cloud flow

Create automated cloud flow

Navigate to make.powerautomate.com and sign in with your Microsoft account. Click 'My flows' from the left sidebar. Click 'New flow' then select 'Automated cloud flow'. Name your flow 'Gmail to HubSpot Contact Creation' and search for Gmail trigger.

1. 1Click 'My flows'
2. 2Click 'New flow'
3. 3Select 'Automated cloud flow'
4. 4Enter flow name
5. 5Search 'Gmail'

Flow designer > Gmail trigger configuration

Configure Gmail trigger

Select 'When a new email arrives (V3)' trigger. Choose 'INBOX' as the folder. Leave other fields empty to catch all incoming emails. Power Automate will prompt you to connect your Gmail account through OAuth.

1. 1Select 'When a new email arrives (V3)'
2. 2Set Folder to 'INBOX'
3. 3Click 'Sign in'
4. 4Authorize Gmail access

Flow designer > New step > HubSpot

Add HubSpot connection

Click 'New step' below the Gmail trigger. Search for 'HubSpot' and select it. Choose 'Get a contact' action first - we need to check if the contact already exists. You'll need to connect your HubSpot account using your HubSpot login credentials.

1. 1Click 'New step'
2. 2Search 'HubSpot'
3. 3Select HubSpot connector
4. 4Choose 'Get a contact'
5. 5Sign into HubSpot

HubSpot action > Get a contact configuration

Configure contact lookup

In the 'Get a contact' action, set the search property to 'email'. Click in the Contact email field and select 'From' from the dynamic content menu - this pulls the sender's email from the Gmail trigger. This step checks if the contact already exists in HubSpot.

1. 1Set Property to 'email'
2. 2Click Contact email field
3. 3Select 'From' from dynamic content

Flow designer > New step > Control > Condition

Add condition check

Click 'New step' and search for 'Condition' under Control. This creates an if-then branch. In the condition, check if the HubSpot lookup failed (meaning contact doesn't exist). Set left side to 'Status Code' from the HubSpot action, condition to 'is equal to', and right side to '404'.

1. 1Click 'New step'
2. 2Search 'Condition'
3. 3Select from Control category
4. 4Choose 'Status Code' on left
5. 5Set condition to 'is equal to'
6. 6Enter '404' on right

Condition > If yes > Add an action > HubSpot

Configure create contact action

In the 'If yes' branch (contact doesn't exist), click 'Add an action'. Search for HubSpot again and select 'Create a contact'. This action only runs when the email sender isn't already in your CRM.

1. 1Click 'Add an action' in 'If yes' branch
2. 2Search 'HubSpot'
3. 3Select 'Create a contact'

Create contact > Email field mapping

Map email field

In the 'Create a contact' action, click the Email field. Select 'From' from dynamic content - this maps the Gmail sender's email address to the HubSpot contact email field. This field is required and must be valid.

1. 1Click Email field
2. 2Select 'From' from dynamic content

Create contact > Name field mapping

Parse sender name

For the First name and Last name fields, you need to split the 'From (name)' field. Click First name field and select 'From (name)' from dynamic content. For better parsing, you'll want to add expressions to split on spaces. Leave empty for now and we'll use the full name.

1. 1Click 'First name' field
2. 2Select 'From (name)' from dynamic content

Create contact > Company field > Expression

Add company detection

For the Company field, you can extract the domain from the email address using an expression. Click the Company field, then click 'Expression' tab. Enter: split(triggerOutputs()?['body/from'], '@')[1]. This pulls everything after the @ symbol as a basic company identifier.

1. 1Click Company field
2. 2Click 'Expression' tab
3. 3Enter domain extraction formula
4. 4Click 'OK'

Condition > If no > Add an action > Data Operations

Configure 'If no' branch

In the 'If no' branch (contact exists), you can add actions like updating the last contact date or logging the email. For this basic setup, click 'Add an action' and select 'Compose' from Data Operations to log that the contact already exists.

1. 1Click 'Add an action' in 'If no' branch
2. 2Search 'Compose'
3. 3Select from Data Operations
4. 4Enter text like 'Contact already exists'

Flow toolbar > Save > Test

Test and save flow

Click 'Save' in the top toolbar to save your flow. Click 'Test' and choose 'Manually' to test with a real email. Send yourself a test email from an address not in HubSpot, then click 'Run flow' and monitor the execution.

1. 1Click 'Save'
2. 2Click 'Test'
3. 3Select 'Manually'
4. 4Send test email
5. 5Click 'Run flow'

Use Power Fx expressions to better parse names and companies from email data. Paste this in the First name field expression editor.

if(
  contains(triggerOutputs()?['body/fromName'], ' '),
  first(split(triggerOutputs()?['body/fromName'], ' ')),

if(
  contains(triggerOutputs()?['body/fromName'], ' '),
  first(split(triggerOutputs()?['body/fromName'], ' ')),
  triggerOutputs()?['body/fromName']
)