Sales teams constantly seek ways to acquire relevant audiences and engage them in their sales channels. One powerful solution that has emerged to support these efforts is data enrichment.
By enriching your existing data sets, you, as a sales or marketing professional, can unlock valuable insights, personalize your outreach, and build stronger relationships with prospects and customers.
While reading this article you will:
- Discover what data enrichment is;
- Learn data enrichment best practices;
- Find out more about different types of data enrichment services. We have selected the most popular ones for you to check;
- Get the list of the top 3 data enrichment companies that help you deliver on your data potential.
What is data enrichment?
Data enrichment involves enhancing existing data with additional information from various sources. This process fills in the data gaps, updates outdated records, and provides a more comprehensive view of the target audience.
Data enrichment best practices
Data enrichment plays a crucial role in enhancing the value and usefulness of existing data sets. For instance, the success of your ad campaigns heavily relies on the quality of data in your data sets.
Outdated information, missing details, and duplicate records can hinder your sales efforts from reaching the right audience. That's why it's super important to keep your database clean and up-to-date by regularly maintaining, cleaning, and enriching it.
To ensure an effective data enrichment process, it is important to follow certain best practices.
Below you can find a step-by-step plan for starting your data enrichment process:
1. Define your objectives
Identify what specific insights or attributes you want to augment. Having a clear understanding of your enrichment goals will help guide the entire enrichment process.
2. Start with high-quality data
Conduct data cleansing and validation processes to remove duplicates, correct errors, and standardize formats before initiating the enrichment process.
3. Identify relevant data sources
Consider both internal and external sources that can provide the additional data attributes you require. These sources may include industry databases, public records, social media platforms, or third-party data providers.
4. Verify and validate enriched data
Use data validation techniques, such as data matching and verification, to confirm the integrity of the enriched data. This step is crucial to maintain data quality and make informed decisions based on reliable information.
5. Integrate enriched data with existing systems
Ensure compatibility with your data management platforms, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, or analytics tools. This integration allows for a unified view of the data and enables its effective utilization across various business functions.
6. Data governance and documentation
Document the enrichment process, including the sources used, transformation methods applied, and validation techniques employed. This documentation helps maintain transparency, ensures compliance, and supports data auditing and traceability.
7. Monitor and evaluate enrichment outcomes
Assess the impact of the enriched data on decision-making, operational efficiency, and customer engagement. Identify areas for improvement and iterate on the enrichment process to maximize its effectiveness.
By following these best practices, you can enhance your data enrichment efforts, unlock valuable insights, and Improve the way you reach out to people by making it smarter and more effective.
Types of data enrichment tools
Data enrichment services are often provided by specialized data vendors or companies that offer data management and analytics solutions. The enriched data can be used for various purposes, including customer profiling, lead generation, targeted marketing, risk assessment, and decision-making in different industries like e-commerce, finance, healthcare, and more.
Popular types of data enrichment services are outlined below:
Data cleansing services
These services help identify and correct inaccurate, incomplete, or inconsistent data to ensure data quality.
Demographic and firmographic enrichment services
They add demographic and firmographic attributes to existing data. Demographic enrichment includes information about age, gender, income, education, etc., while firmographic enrichment provides details about companies such as industry, size, revenue, and location.
Social media and web data enrichment services
These tools involve extracting and integrating information from social media platforms, online reviews, news articles, blogs, and other web sources. Leveraging this data businesses gain insights into customer sentiment, brand reputation, and market trends.
Behavioral data enrichment services
These services involve integrating behavioral data, such as user interactions, browsing patterns, purchase history, and preferences, into existing customer profiles. It provides valuable insights for personalized marketing, product recommendations, and customer segmentation.
Email and contact enrichment services
Used to validate and enrich contact information, such as email addresses, phone numbers, and social media profiles. It ensures accurate and up-to-date contact details for effective communication and customer engagement.
Top 3 data enrichment tools to strengthen your CRM and sales
1. CatchID
What it does
CatchID is a people search engine that organizes public records, social network information and white pages reverse lookup into simple profiles to help you safely find and learn about people.
Integrations
CatchID provides API that enables users to incorporate its data into their own systems and applications. This allows for seamless integration with existing workflows and platforms.
Benefits
- Detailed insights
- Identity verification
- Streamlined integration
- Free search options (3 credits/m)
- Pricing transparency
- Limitations
The accuracy and completeness of the information may depend on the individual's online presence and publicly available data.
Free search option
CatchID offers a free search option that allows users to conduct searches and access available information about individuals.
Service usage cost
CatchID pricing is fixed and based on the volume of searches available per month. There are 3 paid plans available starting from $30 to $500 per month. You can also contact their sales team for specific pricing details based on your requirements.
2. Pipl
What it does
Pipl allows users to search for people and obtain detailed reports by aggregating data from various online sources. It offers information such as contact details, social media profiles, employment history, educational background, and more.
Integrations
Pipl provides APIs and integrations that enable users to incorporate its data into their own systems and applications. This allows for seamless integration with existing workflows and platforms.
Benefits
- Detailed insights
- Identity verification
- Streamlined integration
Limitations
Pipl's data coverage and availability may vary depending on the sources and jurisdictions. The accuracy and completeness of the information may also depend on the individual's online presence and publicly available data.
Free search option
Pipl offers a free search option that allows users to conduct basic searches and access limited information about individuals. However, more detailed and comprehensive reports typically require a paid subscription.
Service usage cost
Pipl's pricing structure varies depending on factors such as the volume of searches, the level of data access required, and the integration needs. It is recommended to visit Pipl's website or contact their sales team for specific pricing details based on your requirements.
What it does
A Reverse Contact is a specialized tool for conducting reverse email lookups, enhancing your data enrichment efforts. By simply inputting an email address, our tool swiftly identifies the corresponding LinkedIn profile and compiles a comprehensive list of employee and company-related details with minimal effort.
Integrations
According to the website information, “Zapier connects Reverse Contact to all the software you rely on”. You can check if Reverse Contact integrates with the required application in their Pricing section.
Benefits
- Comprehensive information
- Bulk uploads via CSV
- Fixed pricing
Limitations
Reverse Contact data coverage may vary depending on the availability of records and the individual's online presence.
Free search option
Free search is available only after registration for a free trial. The trial includes 20 credits and almost all of the features of the paid plans.
Service usage cost
Reverse Contact has 6 pricing editions, from $29 to $800. Pricing is fixed and based on the volume of searches available per month.
Summing up the above
Data enrichment is vital for improving data quality and gaining valuable insights. By utilizing effective tools and following best practices, you enhance decision-making and gain a competitive advantage. However, you must also be cautious about data privacy and security, ensuring compliance with regulations and protecting sensitive information. By embracing data enrichment while being mindful of these considerations, you can unlock the full potential of your data in the constantly evolving digital landscape.
