People like to connect with people

It’s something that makes us human. Meeting people for the first time we often try to find similarities; people we know, schools we attended and teams we support. We like to learn how we connect. That drive to connect extends into business relationships. Sellers need to reach buyers and people like to become loyal to brands. Data helps drive business and connections.

What is data enrichment?

Data enrichment is the science of curating data sources to create rounded digital profiles of people and businesses.

Digital footprints are scattered online as people and businesses wander around the internet, and real footprints are scattered as we wander in the real world too. Data enrichers draw paths to create databases that have valuable content that will help people make better connections.

A simple example of data enrichment in action is when lead generation companies cross-reference data from business profile websites to check the job titles of their targets are up to date.

Data brokers sell data; interrogating databases to pinpoint segments that are of interest to their clients. Data is a valuable fuel that helps businesses make better decisions and reach the right people with the right products and services.

Why is data enrichment valuable?

Way back when if you wanted to sell anything you went to the marketplace. And that’s where people went who wanted to buy anything. The people selling stood at their stall, and the people buying took a look around to find what they wanted. That’s also where people found out about new products. It was simple and it worked.

Now the marketplace is scattered so it’s harder to connect buyers with sellers. That’s where data enrichment is valuable. People look at data to find out how many people in an area would be likely to be interested in their products before they take out adverts, set up a shop, get a local digital presence and tell people about what they do - ‘roll up, roll up!’

Data enrichment services help businesses connect with other businesses too. By keeping data clean, answers to questions like; ‘How many pharmacies are there in Washington?’’ are accurate.

People like to stay connected and data enrichment helps keep connections fresh

How does email validation help data enrichment?

An email address is often the last part of the link in reaching someone and it’s vital that the last link doesn’t fail. That’s why email validation services are so important to data enrichers and lead generation companies.

It’s good to know whether an email will reach an inbox. It’s even better to delete ‘bad’ email addresses. Nobody wants to send emails that won’t be delivered, or waste time and effort emailing to people who aren’t going to read them.

Data enrichers are experts at adding value to data by taking one fact and using it to check another.

If email addresses played poker, they would provide a ‘tell’ that would give away valuable information. It’s not just about whether the email address is good or bad though. For business information it’s also good to know a bit more and uncover extra information from the data that an email address contains.

Here’s a simple example of how checking email addresses helps data enrichment. Consider the domain of a business email address. That’s the part after the @. In our email address, help@emailhippo.com the domain is emailhippo.com

Professional email validation will give details about the domain, including when it was registered. Imagine a printing company is looking to connect with business owners who have recently set their business up. Data enrichers can add in the domain age and hey presto - the printers will have a list of new businesses who have been using their domain for less than a year.

Data enrichment and data privacy legislation

Data privacy legislation helps people stay in control of data that’s stored about them and connections that they make. It also helps protect them from being defrauded and harassed.

Changes to data privacy laws are challenging for data brokers as processes need to change, but on the whole, data enrichment is made easier when data protection laws are clear. Data often moves around from country to country, and there are standards in place that enable this to happen legally.

In the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has overhauled the data privacy laws and now the data enrichment and lead generation industry has far more clarity about how they can work with data.

Personal contact information gets all the headlines - often for bad reasons as people see spam in their inboxes and junk mail on their doorsteps. Data enrichers don’t want bad data. They want to provide up to date, reliable data that is real and valuable.

As data privacy legislation gets tighter, especially about personal identifiable data, you might think there is no market for the sale of data. Not so. Data enrichment has a vital part to play in keeping business moving.

Data enrichment for lead generation companies

Reaching the right people is a key part of the work of lead generation companies - and it’s a big business. In the USA alone there are over 500 lead generation companies registered with the professional membership association ‘Leads Council.’ Data experts Dunn and Bradstreet maintain the largest commercial database in the world, holding 300 million commercial entities that are continually verified and updated.

Lead generation companies explore data and keep track of people in order to introduce people with the targeted interests, demographics, location and lifestyles.They put the grease in the wheels to help make business work.

Lead generation companies curate and enrich their own data, often making direct contact with individuals. Building a tailored list of real people to have real conversations with takes time, and the value of that list can be immense.

Leading data enrichment companies and data brokers deal in big data. Their work helps governments understand their citizens, it helps to power decisions about massive business projects and it helps shape the world we live in.

Using email address checking to add value to data

Email validation adds value to data and keeps the internet clean by reducing email bounces, inbox spam and attacking the digital loopholes for fraud. It makes it easier for companies to do better business and easier for people to connect with more confidence.