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A free guide from the Ned Ships It video
Connect Claude to Your Sales and Marketing Tools
Your AI is a genius locked in a room. Connectors are the door.
Commented CONNECT? This box is yours.
From
Ned, @nedshipsit
To
You
In the box
4 free tools
Checked
October 7, 2026
Why your AI can't help with real work yet
In the video, Priya "uses ChatGPT": she copies, pastes, copies, pastes. Marco asked AI to follow up with his leads, and it said it can't see his leads. Kevin had the right diagnosis: "It's in a box."
That's the gap. A smart model with no access to your apps is a genius locked in a room. You end up as the delivery person, carrying information in and answers back out. Connectors fix that. They let Claude go into HubSpot, Gmail, Google Drive, Canva or Slack itself, so you ask for the outcome instead of doing the carrying.
Copying into AI and pasting back out isn't using AI. It's being AI's intern.
New to this? Start hereWhat you need before you connect anything
A paid Claude plan. HubSpot's connector needs Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise. Slack's needs Team or Enterprise.
Logins for the apps you'll connect. Claude signs in as you, so it only sees what your account can see.
On a Team or Enterprise plan, an Owner may need to add a connector before you can use it.
Where things go: every prompt below goes into a normal Claude conversation. No code, no terminal.
Claude can't see where your work lives. In Claude, open Customize, then Connectors, then Discover, and connect the apps your team uses. For a sales and marketing team that's usually:
HubSpot (made by HubSpot, Anthropic verified): search and update contacts, companies, deals and tickets, and log notes and tasks.
Gmail (made by Google): search your inbox and draft replies.
Google Drive: search, read and create files, including Google Sheets.
Canva (made by Canva): search, create, autofill and export designs.
Slack: send messages and search your workspace.
Try it
A read-only check, before Claude changes anything.
You, to Claude
Using my connectors, tell me:
1. My 5 most recent open deals in HubSpot, with stage and last activity date.
2. The last 3 emails I got from a customer in Gmail.
3. The newest file in my Marketing folder in Google Drive.
Only read. Don't create, change or send anything.
If you can't reach an app, tell me which one.
Heads up If an app doesn't show up in Discover, search the directory by name. More
Some tools, like ad platforms, are reachable through third-party connectors instead of a first-party one. Check who made a connector before you add it.
The fear that AI will email your customers on its own. Every connector has Tool permissions: open Customize, then Connectors, pick the app, and choose Always allow, Needs approval or Blocked for each group of tools or a single tool.
Deals that go quiet because nobody had time to follow up. First pick the model from the menu next to the send button. Use your strongest one for writing that should sound like you.
Find every open deal in HubSpot where I'm the owner and the last activity was more than 7 days ago.
For each deal:
1. Read my last email thread with that contact in Gmail.
2. Draft a short, friendly follow-up in Gmail that picks up where we left off. Max 4 sentences, one clear question, no pressure.
3. Don't send anything. Leave every email as a draft.
Then give me a table: deal, contact, why it went quiet, and the first line of each draft.
Try it
Run it on 3 deals ("only the 3 oldest deals") and read the drafts closely. When they sound like you, run it on all of them.
Heads up HubSpot's docs say bulk changes are limited to 10 records at a time, so big lists go in batches. More
Gmail connectors differ: Google's own Gmail connector lists a create-draft tool, but if yours turns out to be read-only, ask Claude to put the drafts in a Google Doc instead and copy them over.
Read this week's blog post in my Google Drive Marketing folder.
Turn it into 5 social posts in our brand voice: short, warm, a little funny, one emoji max each.
Then create a matching Instagram post design in Canva (1080 x 1080) with the blog's main line as the headline and our brand colors.
Don't publish or schedule anything. Give me the 5 posts and the Canva design link to review.
Try it
Give Claude 3 of your best past posts in the same chat first ("here's our voice"), so the new ones sound like you.
Heads up Canva designs land in your Canva account for you to edit and export. More
Keep posting itself a human step until you've reviewed a few weeks of output.
Priya got her whole Tuesday back. She spent it making more stuff. Marketing people are like that.
If it still breaks
"I can't access that app." Open Customize, then Connectors, and reconnect it. On Team or Enterprise, ask an Owner whether the connector is enabled for you.
Claude never asks before writing. Check that tool's permission. If it's on Always allow, set it to Needs approval.
Claude asks every single time. That's Needs approval working. When you trust a tool, choose Always allow for it, or change it in Tool permissions.
The drafts don't sound like you. Paste 3 of your real emails into the chat and say "write like these". Keep them in a project so you don't repeat it every time.
It found the wrong deals. Spell out the filter: owner, stage and how many days since last activity. Ask for the table first, then the drafts.
Questions people ask
What is a Claude connector?
A connector lets Claude open one of your apps, like HubSpot or Gmail, and read or act in it directly. Without connectors, Claude only sees what you paste in. You add them in Claude under Customize, then Connectors.
Can Claude send emails or change my CRM without asking?
Only if you allow it. Every connector has tool permissions: Always allow, Needs approval or Blocked, set per tool. Keep anything that writes, sends or deletes on Needs approval or Blocked, and Claude will ask you each time with Allow once or Always allow.
Which plan do I need?
HubSpot's docs say its Claude connector needs a paid Claude plan (Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise). Claude's docs say the Slack connector is for Team and Enterprise plans. Many other connectors work on any paid plan.
Is it safe to connect my company's tools?
Claude only gets what your own login can see, and you choose what each tool may do. On Team and Enterprise plans, an Owner can set permissions for the whole organization. Start with read-only access, check the results, then allow more.
Where Ned does his homework
The tools are free. Knowing what to ask them for is the real skill. Professor Glitch teaches it from zero, in order, inside the community: 8 courses and 200+ lessons. These two are where Ned started.
