Need better insights into your leads and customers? With data enrichment, you can add new information to your existing dataset and boost lead generation.
In this guide, you’ll find some examples and best practices for getting high-quality enriched data. Plus, you'll discover some tools to help you make the most of your data.
TL;DR
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Data enrichment is about adding more information to your leads database by extracting relevant data from multiple data sources or using AI to enhance the data you already collected.
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A continuous data enrichment process helps you create more personalized outreach messages, more accurate lead scoring, and keeps your data up-to-date and compliant.
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You can enrich your data in three main ways: web scraping, manual research, and using third-party tools.
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Scrape data ethically and respect user rights. Use customer data platforms to merge data from different sources before enriching your CRM.
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PhantomBuster offers a complete data enrichment toolkit, including a powerful LinkedIn Profile Scraper and HubSpot integration. Plans start at $56/month, offering the best value for money.
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Captain Data, with a higher entry point, is good for large businesses looking to scale. Plans start at $999/month, providing extensive automation capabilities.
What is data enrichment?
Data enrichment is about adding more information to your leads database by extracting relevant data from multiple data sources or using AI to enhance the data you already collected.
For example, adding their social media profiles, website links, or phone numbers. It’s like filling in the missing puzzle pieces. Not only do you gain higher data accuracy, but you also get a better picture of your leads inside your CRM.
Benefits of data enrichment
Adding extra information to your data gives you a big advantage. Here's how data enrichment helps sales and marketing teams:
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Personalize outreach: Data enrichment gives you better insights into your customers. With this knowledge, you can craft messages that speak directly to them.
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Better lead scoring: Enriched data helps you rank your leads. When you know job titles, company sizes, and industries, it is easier to focus on the best prospects.
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Improved data quality: The customer journey can take months, and a lot can change during that time. Enriched data keeps contact details and behavior patterns up-to-date. You can make smarter, data-driven decisions.
Data enrichment methods
Now that you know what data enrichment is, here are three ways of implementing a data enrichment process:
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Web scraping: Think of web scraping as using a digital net to gather lots of data from websites and social media. No-code scraping tools like PhantomBuster let you collect third party public data from LinkedIn and other social media platforms, automatically and at scale.
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Manual research: Manually search for information on platforms like LinkedIn, Google, and company websites. This works for small datasets, but it’s hard to scale for very large lead lists.
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Data enrichment tools or services: Tools like Clearbit or ZoomInfo help you scrape, clean, and organize third-party data, then merge it with your sources. The downside is you're limited to their databases, unlike web scraping.
Data enrichment examples and use cases
Data enrichment transforms raw data into valuable insights, helping sales and marketing teams better understand and engage with their audience.
Here’s how data enrichment can set you apart from the crowd:
Segmentation and better-targeted lists
You wouldn’t serve the same dish to a gourmet chef and a fast-food lover. Prospecting is no different: you need to sort each lead into a specific category.
What better way to know your customers than by understanding where they're from, what they do, where they studied, and what they like?
All you have to do is choose whichever data points and sources you want and pull information from them. Then, you can segment your lead lists at a more granular level.
Take personalization to the next level
Personalized messages get more responses, even when they're automated LinkedIn messages. With enriched data and personalization tags, you make every interaction relevant.
Taking the time to include details that matter to your prospects shows you care about building a genuine connection.
Enhance data enrichment with AI
To go beyond basic tags like #firstname# or #linkedinjobtitle# you can use AI to make sense of the data you just collected. For example, when someone changes jobs, send them a message congratulating them and maybe offer some resources.
Here's how to do it:
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Customize your prompts using the AI profile enricher Phantom. It can be as simple as the example below. Make it clear and specific and it'll work.
2. Make a list of people who have changed jobs in the last 30 days and use it to automate messages.
And that is how you personalize outreach with data enrichment and AI!
Data enrichment process best practices
Now that you’ve seen some examples of data enrichment, here are some best practices to keep your workflow effective.
Make data enrichment an ongoing process
Like other parts of data management, enriching data is an ongoing process.
Even the most detailed customer information can quickly become obsolete. People change their names, move to new addresses, switch jobs, etc.
Because customer data changes constantly, data enrichment should be a continuous process.
Plus, data enrichment matters for compliance.
Laws like GDPR set strict limits on data storage and processing. Without proper management, you might discard valuable data to avoid penalties or store it longer than allowed and face fines. Continuous data enrichment and data cleaning keeps your database up-to-date and compliant.
Scrape data ethically
Scraping data ethically means being transparent about what you’re collecting, using only publicly available information, and following platform terms.
Respect user rights and avoid using personal data in ways that could harm people or perpetuate bias.
With ethical data scraping, you can gather valuable insights while adhering to privacy and regulations.
Use a data enrichment tool
Are you spending more time enriching data than using it? Automated data enrichment might be the key.
The benefit of using a data enrichment tool is clear: You gather as much information about your targeted leads as possible while effortlessly keeping your data up-to-date.
Data enrichment tools run continuously, matching and merging records to keep everything consistent. This automation ensures your data is always relevant, working around the clock to provide fresh insights.
That way, you can enhance customer engagement in real time, using accurate, data-driven knowledge to tailor your interactions.
Use a customer data platform to merge data from multiple data points
Managing customer data from multiple sources can feel like putting together a puzzle with pieces from different boxes.
This is where a customer data platform (CDP) like Segment can help. When you unify customer information with a CDP, you can collect data from various sources, such as social media, purchase history, and website interactions, and then merge it all before enriching your CRM.
This gives you a full picture of each customer, helping you understand their behaviors and preferences.
Best data enrichment tools
The right data enrichment tool can boost conversion rates by filling in missing details and providing deeper insights. Here are two leading data enrichment tools that can help.
PhantomBuster
PhantomBuster gives you a complete toolkit to enrich data. It integrates with HubSpot and lets you extract up to 75 data points with its LinkedIn Profile Scraper.
✅ It's easy to scrape data to enrich lead information, including details from LinkedIn.
✅ You can automatically fill your HubSpot contact list with LinkedIn URLs.
✅ It lets you detect and update contacts and company information as they change.
✅ It works with a free HubSpot plan and with any PhantomBuster account, too.
✅ Unlike HubSpot's own integration, you can visualize AND import your enriched data to your CRM.
Pricing: After a 14-day free trial, PhantomBuster offers three tiers starting at $56/month for the Starter plan, $128/month for the Pro plan, and $352/month for the Team plan
Captain Data
Captain Data is a comprehensive data enrichment solution designed for OPS teams. But while it is a powerful tool, it is rather expensive and doesn't offer the same outreach functionalities as PhantomBuster.
✅ It's easy to connect to platforms like Google, LinkedIn, and Hunter.io for complete data enrichment.
✅ You can use pre-built workflows or create custom ones to suit your specific data needs.
✅ It's ideal for large businesses looking to scale their data enrichment process efficiently.
Pricing: After a 7-day free trial (requires a credit card), Captain Data has a single paid plan costing $999 per month, plus a custom plan for larger teams.
Conclusion
That's it for this blog. Now you know the key principles and best practices of data enrichment.
With data enrichment and scraping, you'll be able to learn a lot more about your leads and target audience, and improve your outreach results.
Automate your data scraping and enrich lead data with PhantomBuster – Start your free trial now!
