Data enrichment and B2B data
What is data enrichment? A plain guide for B2B teams
The short answer
Data enrichment adds missing information to a lead or account record (company size, industry, location, job title, verified email or phone) from external databases. Waterfall enrichment queries several providers in turn until a field is found, which raises coverage. Enriched data decays quickly, so it needs re-checking.
Key takeaways
- Enrichment fills missing company and contact fields from external databases.
- Waterfall enrichment raises coverage by querying several providers in turn.
- Data decays every year: enrich close to use, and verify emails before sending.
On this page 4 sections
What gets enriched
| Record | Typical fields |
|---|---|
| Company | Industry, headcount, revenue band, location, technologies used, funding |
| Contact | Job title, seniority, department, verified work email, phone, social profile |
| Signals | Job changes, hiring, funding rounds, new executives |
Single provider or waterfall
One database will have gaps, particularly for small companies and outside the US. A waterfall sends each record to provider A, then to provider B for anything A could not find, and so on, and verifies emails before saving them. Coverage goes up; so does complexity.
Accuracy and decay
People change jobs and companies move. B2B contact data goes stale every year, so enrich close to when you use it, verify emails before sending, and re-enrich key accounts periodically. Check a sample of any vendor's output by hand before trusting it across a whole list.
Verification is cheap insurance. Sending to addresses that bounce damages your sender reputation for every email you send afterwards, including to customers. A verification service checks each address before it goes into a sequence.
Privacy
Enriching business contacts with personal data is processing under GDPR in the EU and UK, and emailing them falls under electronic marketing rules. In the US, several state privacy laws apply to data brokers. Record your lawful basis, honour opt-outs, and keep only what you use. This is general information, not legal advice.
Looking for buyers or suppliers of physical goods? Trade data is a different source: see how to find importers and suppliers with trade data.
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How to find importers and suppliers with trade data
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