One of the things I love about working with technology is that you have to be aware of changes in platforms and always willing to learn new ways to do things you used to do differently.
So when a client asked me for an automated way to enrich their contact database, I immediately thought that there must be platforms that scrape public information and obtain complementary data from a contact (lead). I have experience with HubSpot , which automatically enriches contacts, but in this case, due to the volume of the database and because I only needed the enrichment, I didn't consider it as an alternative. So I started researching and found a whole world of solutions that have kept me well entertained.
Exploring technological alternatives for data enrichment
First of all, there are software that allow you to work with relational databases visually and integrate them through connectors to other platforms. For me, the best is Airtable , which is the most complete and has almost unlimited uses. There are also other solutions more focused on being an online spreadsheet, such as Rows and the always useful Google Sheets .
These software are really amazing for managing your data mobile numbers because of the huge number of applications you can achieve. You can even build your own CRM by generating connectors and automations without being a programmer.
Specialized software to enrich contacts
I also came across software in the market, and thinking about the client's requirements, that through scrapping and other technologies obtain complementary information from a contact, specifically commercial data that is used to work on the lead. In this category, the key software to work on, nurture and activate your leads is LinkedIn Sales Navigator , because LinkedIn is where the information you are looking for from a commercial contact is generally located. However, there are alternatives such as Apollo , Lusha and Waalaxy , among others.
Automated enrichment platforms
There are platforms whose sole purpose is to enrich databases in an automated way. In that category, Clay , DropContact and FullContact caught my attention . It is interesting to mention that Clearbit was acquired by HubSpot, which increases its integration.
The magic of AI in data enrichment
Depending on the workflow you create for this process, some software allows integration with OpenAI . For example, you can train an agent to obtain information from a contact and, based on a series of data, propose something specific for each of them, such as creating a different email subject for each user.
What was my experience?
As I always recommend when facing a challenge with different technologies, it is key to create an application stack and a work workflow . This is essential to determine the costs and results you can obtain. Also, in this case, since we are talking about data processing and connectors, it is important to know the volume of the database and the processing times.
In my case, I started testing only with the user's email, without knowing anything else, to see what data I could obtain in bulk. I quickly realized that the main source of business information for a contact is LinkedIn , because all the other software I connected to did not give me relevant information.
Database Separation and Optimization
667c6fe5e3e6ba2b534ed974_1-contact-information-updated-p-800With that as a starting point, the easiest way to get them is the business email. However, to do this you need at least the LinkedIn profile URL of each contact , so I separated the database into two groups: with business email and without business email.
People working in multinational companies.
People who work in companies with more than xx employees.
People in companies located in xx city.
People working in companies in sector xx .
Companies with more than 10 years of existence.
Companies with an annual turnover greater than xx .
And if you add to that the fact that you have the website, you can do scraping to further complement the data and use an AI agent to generate or analyze or create something in particular with the information you already have. The possibilities are many.
That's all for my experience with what we've done at nlace . I hope it's useful to more people, and if you need help with technology applied to marketing, we're always willing to evaluate a new project.