What is Data Enrichment? Use Cases, Methods & Examples

In the realm of B2B sales, data stands as the cornerstone of every successful strategy. High-quality business data serves as the guiding light, leading us to the most promising leads and shaping our sales outreach efforts. However, one significant hurdle is that company contact databases are often outdated and incomplete, rendering them practically unusable. Shockingly, reports show that 49% of marketers lack confidence in their company’s data quality. Consequently, sales teams find themselves spending more time researching leads than actually engaging with them.

Are you tired of losing precious time due to unusable contact data? The solution lies in data enrichment, a powerful technique designed to enhance lead quality and establish an actionable database. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into data enrichment, exploring its applications, methods for enriching B2B data, and providing real-world data enrichment examples.

What is Data Enrichment?

Data enrichment, also known as database enhancement, is the process of supplementing existing contact or company information with additional details. It involves filling in the gaps to create a more comprehensive and “enriched” profile.

Why is this process so valuable?

When you initially capture a lead, you typically obtain basic information like the name, email address, and company. However, this limited data often falls short in terms of lead qualification or planning personalized outreach campaigns.

Enriching lead data provides vital context to each opportunity. The more you know about a lead, the better your chances of successfully converting them into a customer.

Publicly available information can be used to enrich data through various techniques, including:

1. Automatically extracting web data: Utilizing web scraping tools such as Genesy to gather profile and company data, which is then imported into a CRM. This method is both straightforward and highly flexible.

2. Manual research: Conducting research on leads via search engines like Google or professional platforms like LinkedIn, then manually updating the database with the acquired information.

3. Using B2B data enrichment software: Leveraging specialized software equipped with a database of contact information, allowing for seamless data enrichment. This can also be seamlessly integrated with extraction and scraping tools such as Genesy.

The Benefits of Automated Data Enrichment for Sales Teams

One of the key challenges faced by sales teams is acquiring lead data efficiently without investing excessive time in research. Before reaching out to leads, sales representatives often spend hours researching prospects on platforms like Google and LinkedIn, manually adding findings to their CRM. This tedious process ultimately hampers productivity, with sales reps devoting only one-third of their time to actual selling.

Automated data enrichment, however, is a time-saving game-changer. It streamlines the data acquisition process, fetching necessary information on behalf of sales teams. A data automation platform like Genesy offers several advantages for sales teams:

• Scaling lead data collection: Enabling the collection of lead data at a larger scale.
• Establishing repeatable automated workflows: Ensuring a continuous flow of enriched data.
• Unlocking valuable data sources: Accessing data sources that provide genuine value to the business.
• Qualifying and segmenting leads: Categorizing leads based on shared characteristics.
• Gathering insights for potential sales: Identifying insights that may lead to new sales opportunities.
• Obtaining a comprehensive account overview: Including location, company size, and sector of activity, which is crucial for Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategies.
• Anticipating prospect needs: Enabling personalized messaging tailored to individual needs.
• Updating existing data: Ensuring that data remains accurate and preventing the pursuit of unsuitable opportunities.

9 Uses for Data Enrichment

1. Reduce Lead Generation Form Length: Shortening contact forms to improve conversion rates and then enriching leads with essential details later.
2. Identify and Remove Deterring Form Fields: Eliminating form fields that discourage prospects from providing information, subsequently increasing the number of leads.
3. Segment and Structure Data: Organizing messy, poorly formatted data into a coherent structure, emphasizing data quality.
4. Enhance Personalization: Leveraging enriched data for personalized email outreach, increasing open rates.
5. Create a Lead Scoring System: Assigning scores to leads based on behavior and company information, enhancing lead nurturing and qualification.
6. Monitor Business Signals: Identifying timely business signals from social profiles and media outlets, enabling better-timed and more personalized outreach.
7. Revive Lost Leads: Breathing new life into neglected leads by adding fresh data and insights.
8. Identify Ideal Target Customers: Focusing on the most relevant data points to identify and qualify your ideal customers.
9. Distribute Enriched Data Across Tools: Synchronizing enriched data across different tools to ensure up-to-date information throughout the organization.

How Does Data Enrichment Work? Three Methods You Can Use

To enrich B2B data, you can employ three primary methods:

1. Web Scraping: This involves automatically extracting extensive data from websites. It offers an affordable and scalable approach to enriching a B2B database. Platforms like Genesy provide a no-code scraping solution, simplifying the extraction of data from public sites such as LinkedIn.

2. Manual Research: Another option is manual research, which entails searching for leads on platforms like LinkedIn, Google, or company websites and manually updating spreadsheets or databases. While suitable for small amounts of data, this method is highly inefficient for enriching a large number of prospects.

3. Data Enrichment Tools: Data enrichment tools, such as Genesy, gather third-party data from the internet, organize and format it, and aggregate data from various sources. While these tools offer convenience, they may have limitations in terms of data availability compared to web scraping.

Data Enrichment Examples

Here are some examples of the types of data used to enrich a B2B database:

• Contact details from a company website or LinkedIn profile
• Search results
• Company social media profiles
• Employee profiles on LinkedIn, with email finder tools to obtain valid emails.
• Social media followers
• Customer reviews from platforms like Yelp or TripAdvisor.

Introducing Waterfall Enrichment

While many providers offer their own B2B data, Genesy has developed a “Waterfall Enrichment” system that consists of the following:

1. Extract a list of profiles and companies (from LinkedIn, for example).
2. Enrich the list with the cheapest B2B data enrichment tool.
3. Automatically push the unsuccessful results into the next cheapest provider.
4. Successively push the unsuccessful or remaining results into many providers until reaching the most expensive one.
5. Your % of success will be substantially higher than using a single provider, and you will optimize for credits spent.

Where to Find Data for Enriching Lead Lists

The internet is replete with company data from various sources, including Google, social networks, media outlets, review sites, directories, and more. The key is to identify the most relevant data sources aligned with your Ideal Customer Profile.

For example:

• Google is invaluable for targeting small service-based businesses.
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a treasure trove for B2B data.
• Google Maps is excellent for local businesses.

It’s crucial to focus on data sources that correspond to your target audience. Ensure the data is accurate and up-to-date, particularly when using sources like Yellow Pages and industry directories.

Get Started with Automated Data Enrichment

In conclusion, data enrichment not only enhances efficiency and data quality but also elevates sales performance. The use cases discussed in this article are just a glimpse of its potential. With this comprehensive understanding of data enrichment, you’re now prepared to explore it firsthand.

Ready to embark on your data enrichment journey? Request a free Demo with Genesy and supercharge your lead generation efforts today!