Classify cold email replies and notify via Telegram with OpenAI and Instantly

Description

Classify Cold Email Replies and Notify via Telegram with OpenAI and Instantly

Automatically classifies incoming cold email replies as HOT, WARM, or COLD using AI and sends priority Telegram notifications with auto-acknowledgment for fast response times.

Who is this for?
Outbound sales teams using Instantly for cold email who want instant lead classification and speed-to-lead automation.

What problem does this solve?
Manually checking inboxes for replies is slow. Hot leads go cold while you sleep. This workflow classifies replies in seconds, notifies you on Telegram, and auto-acknowledges warm/hot leads so they know you're responsive.

How it works:
Instantly Reply Webhook - receives reply event from Instantly
Respond 200 OK - acknowledges webhook immediately
Validate Payload - checks required fields (email, reply body)
Extract Lead Fields - normalizes lead data (email, name, subject, campaign)
Classify Reply - OpenAI - GPT-4o-mini classifies as HOT/WARM/COLD with reasoning
Parse Classification - extracts classification + carries forward lead data
Is HOT? / Is WARM? - routes to the right notification branch
Telegram - HOT/WARM/COLD Lead - sends priority-formatted notification
Auto-Ack HOT/WARM Gmail - instantly sends acknowledgment email to engaged leads
Log Reply to Sheet - logs everything for tracking

Setup:
Add credentials: OpenAI, Gmail, Telegram Bot, Header Auth
Replace YOUR_TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID with your chat ID (message @userinfobot)
Create a Google Sheet with columns: timestamp, lead_email, lead_name, classification, campaign, subject, reply_snippet, reasoning, auto_ack_sent, manual_reply_sent, manual_reply_at
Replace YOUR_GOOGLE_SHEET_ID with your sheet ID
Configure Instantly webhook: Settings > Integrations > Webhooks > reply_received event > paste your n8n webhook URL

Customization:
Edit the OpenAI system prompt to adjust classification criteria
Modify auto-ack email copy in the Gmail nodes
Adjust Telegram message formatting per branch