Connect HeyGen to Your CRM with n8n

What You Need Before You Start

This is the n8n workflow that connects HeyGen to HubSpot. You need four things: a HeyGen API key (Settings, then API - requires a paid plan), an n8n instance (cloud or self-hosted), a HubSpot account with workflow permissions, and about 45 minutes.

One warning. Every step here works on the first test. The gap between “works once” and “works on contact 4,000” is Step 6. Do not skip it.

Step 1: Set Up the HeyGen API Credential in n8n

n8n has no native HeyGen node, so you will use the HTTP Request node with a stored credential. Do not paste your key into node parameters - it ends up in workflow exports and execution logs.

1. In n8n, create a new Header Auth credential.
2. Header name: X-Api-Key. Value: your HeyGen API key.
3. Name it HeyGen API so every HTTP Request node can reuse it.

The base URL for everything in this guide is https://api.heygen.com. You will hit three endpoints:

Step 2: Trigger on a HubSpot Deal Stage Change

Skip n8n’s HubSpot Trigger node here. Its deal property subscriptions fire on every deal update, so you spend a Filter node discarding noise. Instead, point a HubSpot Workflow at an n8n Webhook node:

1. In n8n, add a Webhook node. Method POST. Copy the production URL.
2. In HubSpot, create a Workflow with the enrollment trigger “Deal stage is any of: [your target stage]”.
3. Add a “Send a webhook” action pointed at your n8n URL. Include the deal ID and associated contact ID in the payload.

Step 3: Extract the Personalization Data

Add a HubSpot node (operation: Contact, Get) using the contact ID from the webhook, then a Set node that maps: first_name, company, and deal_context.

Now add an IF node that checks all three fields are non-empty. A missing first name does not fail the API call - it produces a video greeting your prospect as an empty string. Route empty-field contacts to a Slack notification instead of a render.

Step 4: Call the HeyGen Video Generation Endpoint

Add an HTTP Request node. Method POST, URL https://api.heygen.com/v2/video/generate, body type JSON. The payload includes video_inputs with your avatar_id, voice settings, and the personalization variables. Set test: true while building - test renders are watermarked but do not burn credits. The response contains a video_id inside data. Store it with a Set node.

Step 5: Handle the Async Render (Polling vs Webhook)

HeyGen renders asynchronously. A typical avatar video takes 1 to 5 minutes. Polling is simpler: Wait node (90 seconds), then GET /v1/video_status.get, then IF on data.status. If completed, continue. If processing, loop back. If failed, route to error branch. Cap at 10 iterations.

Webhooks are cleaner at volume. Register an endpoint via POST /v1/webhook/endpoint.add and HeyGen POSTs on avatar_video.success and avatar_video.fail events. Use polling under 20 videos a day; switch to webhooks past that.

Step 7: Deliver the Video Link

You have data.video_url. One caveat: HeyGen’s URL expires after 7 days. For same-day outreach the direct URL is fine; for anything else, download the file and re-host it. The simplest option: a HubSpot node updates a custom deal property like personalized_video_url, and a second HubSpot workflow sends the email using that property.

Where This Pattern Hits Its Ceiling

This guide gets you to about 50 videos a day. Past that, three things break: retry logic in n8n is per-node and stateless (cannot queue-manage across workers), polling loops multiply and strain your instance, and you lose visibility into aggregate failure rates. None of this means abandoning n8n - it means adding a queue layer, webhook-based completion, and monitoring in front of it.