Generating leads for a business is one of the primary tasks of any business owner. A business without clients cannot exist, and the more leads you have in your business, the more the number of clients will grow accordingly. There are several key ways to generate leads for your business – organic SEO, paid advertising on Google or Facebook, email marketing, and more. Another way that can help you with this task is using software tools that help you acquire cold leads. In this article, we will cover 5 recommended tools that help you acquire leads in the B2B space along with their contact information. But first, it’s important to understand what lead extraction software actually is.
What Is Data Extraction Software?
Data extraction software tools are systems containing data on individuals and companies, allowing you to retrieve this information for personal or commercial use. Tools of this type help you identify specific individuals or companies that may be a fit for your product or service. These tools typically feature massive databases gathered from various web sources (websites, social media, etc.) to accurately match potential clients with relevant businesses.
This data can be used for custom audiences in Google / Facebook / LinkedIn advertising, etc., or to enrich CRM information on incoming leads.
Recommended Software for Acquiring Relevant Leads
There are several software tools and systems from which you can extract data and emails of potential clients to help create more precise targeting for ad platforms. Let’s dive into the recommended software available on the market:
1. Clearbit
Clearbit is a high-quality solution for medium and large companies looking to increase the quantity and quality of their leads. Clearbit’s Prospector tool allows you to search for contacts and emails by company, department, seniority, and role. Today, Clearbit’s database contains more than 200 million contacts across 165 countries. One of the main advantages of the tool is that it allows you to see which companies are visiting your website (identifying this by IP) – making it a very useful tool if your website traffic volume is high.
Clearbit draws data from over 250 different data sources such as: social networks, company websites, public legal records, and more. The company claims that its data is refreshed every 30 days to maintain an accurate match level and high response rates compared to competitors. Pricing for Clearbit’s system varies based on company size and the tools within the platform you want to use; currently, pricing is not available before contacting them to receive a custom quote based on your needs. However, in the past they had public pricing, and the monthly cost was relatively high ($999 monthly for the core tools in the system).
2. Lusha
Lusha is a system for locating emails and mobile phone numbers designed primarily for sourcing and recruiting potential job candidates or leads for businesses and companies. Additionally, Lusha is also a useful system for marketers who want to refine campaign targeting. Lusha is very user-friendly, and extracting relevant information from it is very simple. Lusha’s main advantage over its competitors is the tool’s accuracy in retrieving lead contact information.
Lusha’s key benefits include retrieving a large volume of mobile numbers with the option to send SMS to the retrieved numbers. Additionally, Lusha has a free version allowing basic use of the system and the Lusha Chrome extension. For more advanced plans, you will need to pay for a monthly subscription, and you can integrate team members to work on the platform based on the number of credits purchased in the monthly plan.
3. Hunter.io
Hunter.io is a great tool that allows users to find business emails using advanced search filters. It is a data-driven email search tool considered one of the most advanced in the field because it provides quick access to data and performs thorough searches without requiring too much information.
The main advantage of Hunter is that the platform’s free monthly plan is very helpful for small and medium-sized businesses, allowing them to scale. In higher-tier plans, you can extract data linked to a specific domain by entering the domain into the tool. Hunter.io starts with a free plan that is recommended to begin with, and even in advanced plans for slightly larger businesses, the tool can be purchased at a relatively low cost compared to what it delivers.
4. ZoomInfo
ZoomInfo is a platform used to easily acquire cold leads. ZoomInfo has a massive database of 67 million email addresses and 42 million mobile numbers and is primarily designed for large companies and organizations. The main drawback of ZoomInfo is its limited ability to pull data outside the US and from small-scale companies – it will be great for you if you are looking for contacts from corporations, primarily in the United States.
ZoomInfo’s pricing varies based on business size and needs. There is no public pricing, and to receive a custom package quote, you need to submit your details (this is common practice for companies of this type, as seen with the other companies on the list). The costs for ZoomInfo after receiving a customized plan are generally high monthly fees, since ZoomInfo works primarily with large companies and enterprises.
5. Apollo.io
Apollo.io is a sales engagement platform that combines 2 excellent features for business owners and marketers – a contact database and the capability to fully run campaigns and newsletters. This is Apollo’s key point of differentiation compared to its competitors. Apollo’s database contains over 200 million contacts from 10 million companies, and this data can be accessed quickly at the click of a button. In the platform, you can build campaigns and newsletters based on data freshly pulled from the tool, which significantly increases conversion rates for users of the software.
You can get started on Apollo.io with a free monthly plan that allows you to use 50 credits for targeted retrieval of contacts via email. Only in higher-tier plans do you also purchase credits suitable for pulling mobile phone numbers.
In Conclusion
These software tools, which allow targeted access based on a specific industry, company, or job title, provide an excellent level of accuracy that can be used to generate highly relevant leads. The need for these types of tools varies by business type – and businesses operating in B2B have a strong need for quality tools to acquire cold leads. For those who want another way to acquire cold leads in the B2B space, it is recommended to read our post on LinkedIn Sales Navigator. In this article, we covered the top five tools in the field, with my recommendation being Apollo.io – it is highly focused and enables a smooth start for free before upgrading to advanced plans. Additionally, it offers a large and reliable amount of data compared to competitors.
About the Author
Dvir Naaman, 27 years old, graduate of the Digital Marketing course at HackerU College. Experienced in WordPress website development, paid advertising on Google, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. Specializes in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) at Fialkov Digital. Possesses extensive experience in E-commerce and Dropshipping, and is the owner of Merchant Center – a website aggregating information on e-commerce platforms and advanced marketing systems to increase business conversions with a focus on e-commerce store sales.
