Ditch the Popup How to Use an AI Chatbot + n8n to Grow Your Email List Automatically

In this post we walk you through how we replaced an old-school newsletter popup with a friendly chatbot using Flowise and n8n.

Popups work - but they’re annoying. They interrupt the user experience and often get dismissed before they’re even read.

We wanted a better way to invite users to subscribe to the Weekly Automator newsletter without being intrusive.

Instead of a popup we embedded a chatbot in the bottom-right corner of the page. When users engage with it they’re asked if they want to join the newsletter. If they say yes, they can drop in their email and the automation does the rest.

Here’s how it works behind the scenes:

Flow Overview

graph TD
    User -->|enters email| Chatbot
    Chatbot -->|extracts email| Flowise
    Flowise -->|POST to webhook| n8n
    n8n -->|add to list| ConvertKit

Step 1: Flowise Chatbot

We're using Flowise v3.0 which made setting this up really simple.

• The chatbot has a start node that captures input
• It then calls an agent node that extracts the email from the user response
• If valid it POSTs the email to an n8n webhook

graph LR
    StartNode["🟢 Start Node (Chat Input)"] --> ExtractNode["🔍 Extract Email"]
    ExtractNode --> PostNode["📤 HTTP Request to n8n Webhook"]

Step 2: n8n Workflow

Once Flowise sends the data n8n takes over.

• The webhook receives the email address
• n8n uses the Kit (ConvertKit) node (or HTTP Request if you're using the API directly)
• It adds the user to a specified list in your ConvertKit account

We don't cover it in the video fully but you should always secure your webhook endpoint.

Example node flow:

graph TD
    Webhook --> email["Extract email from body of request"]
    email["Extract email from body of request"] --> ConvertKitAPI

• No interruptions: Users engage when they want to.
• Feels human: The chatbot is conversational, not transactional.
• Flexible: You can enhance or extend the chatbot without touching the front end again.

You can build your own version using:

• Flowise
• n8n
• ConvertKit

Want help setting this up? Book a call with us—or just steal the idea 😉

These 2 automations are small, reusable, and orthogonal - the Tiny Automations way.