You probably spend 2-3 hours a day in your inbox. Some of that is real work: responding to clients, closing deals, handling problems. But a lot of it is sorting, forwarding, filing, and writing the same replies over and over.
Gmail has built-in features that most small business owners never set up. Combined with a few simple automations, you can cut your email time in half without missing anything important.
Here are five Gmail automations you can set up today. Most take less than 10 minutes.
1. Auto-Sort Incoming Email With Filters
This is the highest-impact change you can make in Gmail, and it requires zero external tools.
Gmail filters automatically label, archive, forward, or delete emails based on rules you set. The goal: when you open Gmail, the important stuff is front and center, and everything else is organized and out of the way.
Filters Every Small Business Needs
Client emails → "Clients" label, star automatically:
If you have 20-50 regular clients, create a filter for their email domains. Everything from @clientcompany.com gets labeled and starred. You'll never miss a client email buried under newsletters.
- Go to Gmail Settings → Filters → Create new filter
- In the "From" field, enter:
@client1.com OR @client2.com OR @client3.com - Apply label "Clients," star it, and mark as important
Invoices and receipts → "Accounting" label, skip inbox: Emails from QuickBooks, Stripe, your bank, and vendors don't need your immediate attention. Filter them to an "Accounting" label and skip the inbox. Review them weekly during bookkeeping.
- From:
@intuit.com OR @stripe.com OR @bankname.com - Apply label "Accounting," skip inbox
Newsletters and marketing → "Read Later" label, skip inbox: You subscribed to industry newsletters for a reason, but they don't need to compete with client emails for your attention.
- From: various newsletter addresses
- Apply label "Read Later," skip inbox
Spam that gets through → Delete immediately: That one recruiter who won't stop emailing, or the vendor you said no to three times. Filter and delete.
The result: your inbox only shows emails that actually need a response. Everything else is organized in labeled folders you can check on your schedule.
Pro Tip: Build Filters Gradually
Don't try to create 30 filters in one sitting. Instead, every time you process an email that shouldn't have been in your inbox, create a filter for it right then. After two weeks, your inbox will be dramatically cleaner.
2. Template Responses for Repetitive Emails
If you find yourself typing the same email more than twice a week, you need templates (Gmail calls them "Templates," and they used to be called "Canned Responses").
How to Enable and Use Templates
- Gmail Settings → Advanced → Templates → Enable
- Compose a new email with your template text
- Click the three dots (⋮) → Templates → Save draft as template
Now when you need to send that response, compose a new email, click ⋮ → Templates → pick your template. The text fills in. Edit any specifics, and send.
Templates Every Service Business Should Have
New inquiry response:
Thanks for reaching out! I'd love to learn more about your project. Here's how we typically work: [brief process overview]. Are you available for a 15-minute call this week? Here's my scheduling link: [Calendly link]
Project complete / feedback request:
The work on [project] is complete! [Brief summary of what was done]. If everything looks good, I'd really appreciate a quick Google review. It helps other business owners find us: [review link]
Quote follow-up (3 days after sending):
Just checking in on the quote I sent over on [date]. Happy to answer any questions or adjust the scope. What would be most helpful?
Payment confirmation and thank you:
Payment received, thank you! [Next steps or what to expect]. It's been great working with you.
Each template saves you 3-5 minutes per use. If you send 5 templated emails a day, that's 25 minutes saved daily, over 100 hours a year.
3. Auto-Forward Leads to Your Phone (or Team)
When a potential customer emails you, response time matters. A lot. Harvard Business Review found that companies responding to leads within an hour are 7 times more likely to have a meaningful conversation than those who wait even one hour more.
You can set up Gmail to instantly forward certain emails to your phone via SMS, or to a team member's inbox.
Option A: Forward to SMS via Zapier
- Trigger: New email in Gmail matching a search (e.g., from your website contact form, or with "quote" in the subject)
- Action: Send SMS via Twilio to your phone number
- Message: "New lead: [sender name], [subject line]. Check Gmail."
This takes about 5 minutes to set up in Zapier. Now you get a text the instant a lead comes in, even if you're on a job site and not checking email.
Option B: Forward to a Team Member
Gmail filter: emails from your website contact form → auto-forward to your office manager or sales person. They handle the initial response while you focus on the work.
- Create a filter for your contact form's notification address
- Check "Forward to" and enter your team member's email
- They respond, the lead gets a fast reply, everybody wins
Option C: Forward to a Shared Slack Channel
Using Zapier or n8n, forward lead emails to a Slack channel where your whole team can see them. First person available picks it up. (Not sure which tool to use? Read our Zapier vs n8n comparison.)
The key insight: it doesn't matter which method you pick. What matters is that leads get a response in minutes, not hours. Automation makes that happen consistently.
4. Sync Gmail to Your CRM Automatically
If you're using a CRM like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Pipedrive but manually logging email interactions, stop. This should be automatic.
HubSpot + Gmail Integration (Free)
HubSpot offers a free Gmail extension that:
- Logs every email you send to a contact in their CRM record
- Tracks email opens (you'll know if they read your quote)
- Lets you use HubSpot email templates directly from Gmail
- Syncs your contacts both ways
Setup takes about 10 minutes: install the HubSpot Chrome extension, connect your Gmail account, and configure which emails to log.
Going Further With Zapier/n8n
For deeper automation:
New email from unknown sender → Create CRM contact: When someone new emails you, automatically create a contact record in HubSpot with their name, email, and the email content as a note.
- Trigger: New email in Gmail (filtered to exclude newsletters, internal, etc.)
- Action 1: Look up contact in HubSpot
- Action 2 (IF not found): Create new contact in HubSpot
- Action 3: Log the email as a note on the contact
Email tagged "Proposal Sent" → Update deal stage: When you apply a Gmail label like "Proposal Sent," Zapier updates the deal stage in your CRM. Your pipeline stays current without manual data entry.
This is where the real time savings compound. Instead of spending 15 minutes after every client interaction updating your CRM, it happens in the background. Your CRM is always current, your reporting is accurate, and you didn't do anything extra.
5. AI-Powered Email Summaries and Drafts
This is the newest category, and it's a genuine time-saver, not hype.
Google Gemini in Gmail (Google Workspace)
If you're on Google Workspace (the business version of Gmail), Google's Gemini AI can:
- Summarize long email threads. Click "Summarize" on a 15-email chain and get the key points in 3 sentences. Invaluable when you're catching up after being out.
- Draft replies. Gemini suggests reply drafts based on the email content. You review, edit, and send. It's particularly good at professional, neutral responses.
- Help compose emails. Describe what you want to say and Gemini writes a first draft. Great for difficult emails (late fee notices, scope change communications, bad news).
This is included in Google Workspace Business plans starting at $14/user/month. If you're already on Workspace, you have this. Turn it on.
Daily Email Digest via n8n
For business owners who get overwhelmed by volume, build a daily digest workflow:
- Schedule Trigger: Runs at 7:00 AM
- Gmail node: Fetches all unread emails from the past 24 hours
- AI node (using OpenAI or Google's API): Summarizes each email into one sentence
- Gmail node: Sends you a single digest email: "You have 23 unread emails. Here's what they're about:" followed by one-line summaries
You read the digest in 2 minutes, identify the 4-5 that actually need responses, and ignore the rest until later. Instead of processing 23 emails one at a time, you triaged your inbox in under 5 minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will Gmail filters work with emails I've already received?
Filters only apply to new incoming emails by default. But when you create a filter, there's a checkbox that says "Also apply filter to matching conversations." Check that box and the filter will process your existing emails too. Fair warning: if you have thousands of emails, this might take a few minutes to process.
Is the HubSpot Gmail integration really free?
Yes. HubSpot's free CRM includes the Gmail integration at no cost. You get email logging, contact sync, and open tracking. There are paid HubSpot tiers that add features like sequences (automated email follow-ups from within HubSpot), but the core Gmail integration is genuinely free and surprisingly capable.
How do I make sure automated forwarding doesn't send sensitive info to the wrong person?
Be specific with your filters. Don't create a blanket "forward everything" rule. Filter by sender (your contact form's email address), subject line keywords, or labels. Test the filter by sending yourself a test email that matches the criteria and verify it forwards correctly before going live. Review forwarding rules quarterly to keep them current.
Can I use these automations with Outlook instead of Gmail?
Most of these concepts apply to any email platform. Outlook has its own rules system (similar to Gmail filters) and templates. Zapier and n8n both support Outlook/Microsoft 365 as triggers and actions. The HubSpot integration works with Outlook too. The specific setup steps will differ, but the strategies are the same. If you're on Outlook and want help adapting these workflows, that's something we do regularly.