A Meme a Day

A Meme a Day — automated daily meme delivery system built with Clay, Zapier, and Zoho Mail
Clay Zapier Zoho Mail AI Automation API Integration Email Automation
2025

Objective

Build an end-to-end automated meme delivery system using only free tools. The goal was practical: deepen working knowledge of Clay, Zapier, and API integrations in a low-stakes context, while building something that would keep running with zero ongoing maintenance.

How it works

Four components, fully automated with no manual steps after the initial build:

  1. Imgflip API: Fetches the 100 most popular meme templates, returning template IDs, names, and image URLs. Templates are publicly available and copyright-friendly
  2. Clay (AI caption generation): AI prompts generate humorous captions tailored to each template. Captions are dynamically paired with templates for variety, and prompts can be tuned for different humor styles or themes
  3. Zapier (orchestration): Daily trigger fires the workflow. Zapier handles the data flow between Imgflip, Clay, and Zoho, and compiles the caption and template into a single meme image
  4. Zoho Mail (delivery): Sends one meme to the inbox every morning at a fixed time, using the free plan
Flowchart showing the four-component A Meme a Day automation: Imgflip API, Clay AI caption generation, Zapier orchestration, and Zoho Mail delivery
Workflow diagram

Key outcomes

  • End-to-end automation with no manual steps, running indefinitely after initial setup
  • Practical experience with AI prompting and API calls in a no-code context
  • Hands-on integration across Clay, Zapier, Zoho Mail, and Imgflip API
  • Runs entirely on free tiers across every tool in the stack